“ARE WE GOING TO TALK about this?” a familiar male voice asked five hours later.
A tingle went down Holly’s spine. She kept right on painting the last little bit of detail of the piazza mural on the wall of the Italian restaurant. “I don’t see why we should.”
Travis strolled nearer, looking incredibly masterful in his work clothes and yellow hard hat. “Because if we don’t, that kiss will always be the elephant in the room. And I for one don’t like living in a zoo,” he drawled.
His lame attempt at a joke eased the tension between them somewhat, as he had to have known it would. Holly sighed and put down her paintbrush. She flashed him a sassy smile she couldn’t really begin to feel, considering the mess they were in. “You really want to know what I think?” she asked softly.
Looking as if he had all the time in the world, Travis perched on one of the sawhorses. “I really do,” he replied, an emotion she could not clearly define in his dark brown eyes.
“Okay.” She wiped her hands on the rag tucked into the belt of her jeans, feeling her cheeks flush at the distinctly male satisfaction in his smile. “My defenses were down because I was clearly out of my mind this morning with worry.”
He paused, clearly caught off guard by her revelation.
Holly pushed on, determined to be honest. “I don’t blame you for kissing me—given the way I was acting. Like I wanted you to ride to the rescue.”
Another loaded silence fell between them.
Holly paused to lick her suddenly dry lips. She didn’t know how he could look so cool, calm and collected, when she felt so frazzled.
She stepped closer so they were toe to toe, then forced herself to go on with the speech she had been mentally preparing all afternoon. “I can see why you would have thought…”
She watched as he rubbed a hand across his closely shaved jaw.
“Hell, for a moment, I thought…may be…” She pushed away the memory of that mind-numbing kiss. Ignoring his slow, sexy smile, she swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat and continued sternly, “But you know as well as I do that it would be wrong for us to go down that path. Especially this time of year.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What do the holidays have to do with this?”
Holly pivoted and moved back to the sawhorse opposite him. “You know how a lot of people get all excited and go out and buy puppies at Christmas to give as gifts?”
He nodded, skeptically.
“They think they want a puppy and are prepared for one—and at first it really is great having one around. But before you know it, the puppy gets a little older and…”
“Poops on the floor?” He wryly guessed at where she was going with this.
Holly rolled her eyes, aware he had just broken her train of thought, which was perhaps his purpose. “All silliness aside, you know what I mean,” she persisted, determined to make her point. “What seems like a great idea when you’re all caught up in the spirit of the holidays often loses its luster after December 25.”
“I would buy that theory.” He gave her a long, steady look. “Except for one thing.”
Determined to hold her ground, she folded her arms in front of her. “And what’s that?”
Triumph radiated in his smile. “You weren’t enthralled with the Christmas spirit at the time we kissed.”
We kissed. A thrill went through her at just the memory…She lifted her chin and put a practical spin on their disturbing lapse in judgment. “My being worried that my ex is going to ruin the holidays with his machinations is more or less the same thing. Whatever Cliff is trying to do put me in a highly emotional state! I turned to you without thinking about the impact this could have on our lives.”
He lifted a discerning brow. “And now that you are thinking about consequences?” he challenged.
She let her glance drop to his broad shoulders and sinewy arms. “I don’t want to lose our friendship or complicate our lives unnecessarily, because you know as well as I do that sex changes everything.”
“So you want me to forget kissing you again.”
Was that disappointment in his low tone? And in her heart? Could she afford to fall victim to these feelings? Especially when she knew romance was based on the illusion of perfection, and that the illusion could never last, when confronted with the wear and tear of everyday living and familiarity.
Once again, Holly let her common sense take over. “Yes, I do,” she reiterated. “For both our sakes.”
Travis was quiet a long time. His expression remained maddeningly inscrutable. Finally, he stood and said. “The last thing I want is to upset you or give you any more trouble than you have at this moment. So whatever you want, whatever you need—” he paused and looked into her eyes “—let me know. And I will be there for you. No questions asked. No holds barred.”
Chapter Three
Once a week, the principal players in One Trinity River Place met for lunch. The meeting always started with business matters that needed to be handled, and ended with more personal conversation among the five longtime friends.
“I see why you’re concerned,” Grady McCabe told Travis over lunch the next day.
“We all are,” Dan Kingsland agreed, cutting into a steak.
“None of us want to see Holly hurt,” Jack Gaines said, with typical overprotectiveness where women were concerned.
“And it certainly sounds like that’s what her ex has up his sleeve,” Nate Hutchinson agreed.
Travis forked up some salmon. He trusted the guys to be objective, in a way he couldn’t be in this particular situation. “So none of you think I’m overreacting here?” Letting my emotions get in the way of sound judgment and common sense?
“It’s not that Holly needs protecting, per se,” Grady—the first of the four single dads in the group to marry again—murmured.
Dan, who had also recently found the love of his life, nodded in agreement. “Ninety-nine percent of the time Holly can handle herself just fine.”
“It’s the one percent we worry about,” Jack said.
“And I have to wonder,” Nate continued, with the cynicism of the only bachelor in the group, “what has happened to make Cliff Baxter suddenly change his mind about seeing the kids.”
Grady frowned. “What exactly do you know about the dude?” Grady asked, getting down to brass tacks.
“Not a lot.” Travis looked around the cozy woodpaneled dining room, which was decorated in exclusivemen’s-club style. “Holly never wanted to talk about him.”
“And now?” Jack prodded.
He thought back to the way Holly had cried yesterday—as if her heart would break. How she had nestled against him as he’d held her. And the way she had kissed him back…as if nothing mattered at that moment, except the passion they’d found with one another.
Grady tilted his head. “Has something changed between the two of you?”
Travis worked to keep a poker face. It wasn’t easy. Part of him wanted to shout to the world how mindblowing that steamy embrace had been. The more private part of him knew this was no one’s business but his and Holly’s. His desire to protect her in every way intensified. “What do you mean?” he asked casually.
The guys exchanged looks. Eventually, Nate said, “We always figured…you and Holly are so