Sweet Tea at Sunrise (16 page)

Mary Vaughn just stared at him. She couldn’t imagine being confined to bed for a day, much less six months. Worse, though, was the thought of not carrying this precious baby to term.

“Let’s get your husband back in here and talk about what needs to happen next,” he said.

Sonny listened intently to everything the doctor said, then nodded. “Not a problem.”

“Six months,” she said, overwhelmed by the thought. “How will I manage?”

“We don’t know for sure if it will need to be that long,” the doctor reminded her. “Let’s take this one day at a time and see where we are in a few days.”

Sonny gave her an encouraging smile. “And if it turns out to be longer than a few days, Rory Sue will stay home with you. I’ve already called her. She’s on her way.”

“We can’t ask her to sit around the house all day taking care of me,” Mary Vaughn protested.

“Yes, we can,” Sonny said flatly. “And she’ll help you out with your real estate business, just the way you planned, so you won’t be fretting about that.”

“But she needs training,” Mary Vaughn objected. “She’s not qualified to work on her own.”

“Which is why she’ll do the legwork and you’ll close the deals from home,” he said. “We’ll make this work, sweetheart. Nothing is going to happen to you or our baby. That’s a promise.”

He sounded so confident that she finally let herself relax. If Sonny made a promise, she could count on it. Resting her hand protectively on her stomach, she finally fell asleep knowing she and her baby were in good hands.

After the unexpected commotion at Liz’s dinner on Sunday and the rush to the hospital, Travis and Sarah had driven home in silence. Only when they were a few miles from her house did he turn to her.

“That was something, wasn’t it?” he said, still shaken. “Do you think the baby will be all right?”

“Sonny says the doctor is very hopeful,” Sarah responded. “I didn’t even realize Mary Vaughn was pregnant.”

“She’d mentioned it to me when I started house-hunting. She’s so excited about it. I’d hate to see something happen.”

“Bed rest, especially if it turns out to be for the duration of her pregnancy, is going to make her crazy,” Sarah said. “I can’t even imagine such a thing, and I’m not half as hyper as Mary Vaughn. You were very good to jump in like that and offer to drive. Sonny, for all of his determination to stay calm for her sake, looked like he was about two seconds from coming unglued.”

Travis nodded. “I know. No way could I take a chance he’d wrap the car around a tree trying to race her to the hospital. If it had been up to me, though, I’d have called an ambulance.”

“With a volunteer squad, it can take too long. Unless it’s an accident or somebody’s critical, we have a tendency to just head for the hospital on our own.”

“But at least the EMTs would know what to do.”

“Stop fretting over it,” Sarah told him. “Everything went just fine, thanks to you and Sonny.”

“I think we need to campaign on the air for a full-time rescue squad,” Travis persisted. “I don’t ever want to be in a position like this again.”

“Go for it,” she encouraged. “But you might want to discuss the budget realities with Tom so you don’t wind up pitting yourself against your cousin.”

He nodded. “Good point.” He turned and met her
gaze. “I’m going to stop by Liz’s and fill her in. Want to come, or should I drop you off?”

She glanced at her watch. “I should get home,” she said.

He pulled to a stop in front of her house a few minutes later. “I’m glad you were there today, for all of it. Thanks.”

She smiled. “It was definitely an interesting afternoon. I hope everything works out the way you want it to for the house.”

Travis nodded. He should have let her go then, but instead he found himself reaching out and putting a hand on her arm.

“Sarah?”

Startled, she met his gaze. Before she could do or say something that would stop him, he leaned across the console and kissed her, just a quick brush of his lips over hers.

“Thanks again,” he murmured, resisting the idea of kissing her again, resisting the need that was humming through him.

“Sure,” she said, obviously disconcerted.

She left the car slowly, so slowly that he wondered if she wanted him to ask her to stay. As she walked toward the house, he saw her lift her hand and touch her fingers to her lips. It was a fleeting gesture, so brief he easily might have missed it, but it told him everything he needed to know. Her feelings for him were growing, just as his were for her.

And one of these days they were going to have to do something about them…if they dared.

For the better part of a month after Mary Vaughn’s trip to the hospital and Travis’s tender kiss, Sarah was
more skittish than ever around the station. She knew with a hundred percent certainty that she was in serious danger of falling for a man who was all wrong for her.

If she’d only been dealing with her own emotions, she might have been able to keep things in check, but Travis seemed to have sensed some kind of shift as well. He’d been asking her out just about daily. Regular as clockwork, he’d linger around the studio while she was on the air, then suggest lunch or a walk to get ice cream or a cool drink at Sullivan’s. Not even the fact that she’d turned him down every single time seemed to daunt him.

When she brought Tommy out for T-ball at the urging of Jeanette and discovered that Travis was coaching the team, she almost turned right around and walked away from the field. Travis caught her before she could reach her car.

His eyes locked with hers, he asked, “Running away, as usual, sugar?”

Sarah bristled. “Of course not.”

“Then why’d you leave without signing Tommy up to play?”

Tommy regarded Travis with curiosity. “Play ball?”

Travis nodded. “Yep, that’s what we’re going to do. Every Saturday.”

Tommy turned his precious little face up to look at her. “Can I, Mommy? Please?”

Just as Travis had clearly anticipated, there was no way she could say no now. “Of course you can play,” she told her son, saving her scowl for Travis. He returned it with a perfectly innocent expression.

“Oh, don’t give me that look,” she said sourly. “You knew exactly what you were doing.”

“Giving your son a chance to spend some time outdoors with kids his own age learning to play a game?”

“Manipulating me to spend more time around you,” she corrected, then conceded grudgingly, “And that other stuff, too, I suppose.”

As they strolled back toward the field, Tommy spotted another boy from their block. “Mommy, can I go? I wanna play with Jimmy.”

Since they were only a few feet away, she let him go, even though it left her alone with Travis.

When she would have walked off and left him, he caught her hand. “Hold on a sec. Mind telling me why I make you so nervous? I could have sworn we were making progress.”

“Progress toward what?”

“Building some kind of a relationship,” he said.

Her gaze narrowed. “We can’t have a relationship.”

“Because?”

She scrambled for a believable excuse. “Because we work together. You’re my boss. I don’t think we should muddy the waters by having any kind of personal relationship. Didn’t we establish all this months ago when I first came to work for you?”

“That’s all very politically correct,” Travis agreed with a twinkle in his eyes. “Helen must have coached you. Only problem is, you’re fibbing. I scared you to death long before I hired you. Why? Be honest with me.”

Sarah took a deep breath and blurted out the truth. “Because you’re just playing a game with me. You’re no more interested in me than Brad Pitt is.”

Travis lifted a brow. “You know Brad Pitt?”

“Stop it. You know what I mean. I won’t let you make a fool of me.”

“You mean the way your ex-husband did?” he asked quietly. “That’s what this is really about. You still believe no man could possibly find you attractive or want to be with you. I think we both know that I am attracted and that I do want to be with you, so please don’t compare me to him.”

“You’re nothing like Walter,” she admitted. For one thing, Travis only said nice things about her. Even when there was something she didn’t know, he didn’t demean her because of it. Still, she knew her own limitations. Walter had drilled them into her head, and not even his recent apology had taken away the sting of those hurtful words.

“Do you trust me?” Travis asked, his gaze intense.

She hesitated, then conceded, “Yes.”

“Then why can’t you believe that when I ask you out it’s because I really want to spend time with you?”

He sounded so sincere. She wanted desperately to believe what he was saying, but she couldn’t shake the memory of all the times Walter had made her feel self-conscious or inept or fat. Why would this man who could have any woman, a man who’d dated supermodels, for goodness’ sakes, be interested in
her?

When she didn’t answer immediately, Travis regarded her with regret. “Walter really did a number on you, didn’t he? Even though you defend him now and claim he’s been on good behavior since he moved here, you can’t forget the past.”

She could hardly deny it. “I’ve been working really
hard to get my act together,” she began, only to have Travis cut her off.

“There’s nothing wrong with your act, dammit! Get it through your head that the guy is a jerk. Or, if you insist, he
was
a jerk!”

“That doesn’t mean he wasn’t right about a lot of things.”

“Such as?”

“I’m overweight. I’m disorganized. I struggle every single day to do the right things with my kids.”

As she spoke, Travis’s expression grew increasingly incredulous. “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? You’re beautiful. You may not be model-thin, but what man really wants that? I want someone with curves in my arms. And I know for a fact how organized you are. Your shows are scheduled well ahead of time. Your desk is neat as a pin. You even keep me on track at the station with those little Post-it reminders about calls I’m supposed to make. To be honest, I don’t think the place could run without you. As for your kids, they seem perfectly healthy, happy and normal to me.”

She wanted to tell him that looks were deceiving, but a part of her wanted to soak in all that praise like a sponge that had been left too long without water. “Is that really how you see me?”

“It’s not just how I see you,” he declared. “It’s the truth. Surely your friends have told you all that.”

“Sure, but I figured they were biased. Maybe you are, too.”

He laughed. “I’m not biased. I’m infatuated, and one of these days, if you’ll actually go out on a date with me, I’ll prove it to you.” He stroked a callused finger
along her cheek. “But right this second I have a whole bunch of impatient kids over there with the attention span of gnats. I need to get to work.”

Resisting the urge to put her hand over the spot he’d touched on her cheek, she nodded. “Go.”

“We’ll finish this conversation later,” he promised. “In private.”

In private.
Somehow those two simple words carried a whole lot of meaning. Just thinking about being alone with Travis McDonald made Sarah tremble with anticipation in a way she hadn’t for a very long time. Maybe he was right about one thing. Maybe it was time she took a giant leap of faith—not in him, but in herself.

T
ravis had been playing things Sarah’s way from the beginning. Other than a few stolen kisses, he’d pretty much kept his distance. Though he’d risked repeated rejections and uttered a string of invitations for the kind of things he thought she might be willing to accept—coffee, a drink, ice cream—he decided it was time to start asking for what he really wanted: a chance to prove how well-suited they were.

Of course, he’d accumulated a lot of evidence that the direct approach didn’t work. She turned him down with such regularity that
no
was usually on her lips before he could fully form his request.

That left him with trying a more subtle, sneaky approach. Prevailing on Tommy’s love of playing ball had seemed to be the most likely tactic. Though the groups he’d put together were informal and mostly too young to play in any kind of skillful fashion, Tommy clearly loved every second he played. That meant Sarah was at the field Saturday mornings like clockwork. It was evident there was nothing she would deny her son. And since Walter had moved to town and spent part of
most weekdays with Tommy, he mostly left the weekends to Sarah. Travis figured that could work to his advantage.

A week after the first practice, he had two groups of kids on the field, with a couple of the dads helping out. It was mostly barely organized chaos, but the boys were having a blast, and so was Travis. He loved seeing kids so excited just to be playing what they thought of as a big-boy game. The skills and rigid rules could come later.

Batting was, quite literally, a hit-or-miss thing. Running the bases was a challenge, since some of the boys tended to be distracted by the sight of mom or dad on the sidelines. Even so, at the end of the hour, Travis was enthusiastic with his praise.

“Okay, kids, how about pizza, just like we do after the older boys play?” he asked.

A chorus of cheers greeted the question. Many of these same kids had tagged along with Mom or Dad after their older brothers played ball and already loved the tradition.

“Moms and dads, any of you who want to come along, I’ll see you in ten minutes at Rosalina’s. The pizza’s on me.” He turned to Sarah, who was hunkered down in front of Tommy, having a conversation that obviously wasn’t going the way she wanted. Tommy’s expression was mutinous.

“Is there a problem?” Travis inquired, joining them.

“I was trying to explain that we need to get home,” Sarah said. “Libby’s there with Raylene, and I don’t like to leave them alone for more than an hour.”

Travis had figured out that Raylene had some issues,
but everyone was careful to dance around them. He hadn’t pried. “How about letting Tommy come with me? You can go home and pick up Libby and join us.”

“Yes, please, Mommy,” Tommy said, seizing on the offer. “I’ll go with Travis.”

Just then Annie appeared with Trevor, who’d turned out for this week’s practice. Travis had a hunch she was there mostly to keep an eye on Sarah, or more specifically
him
and Sarah. She’d made her distrust of him evident more than once.

“Or Tommy can go with us,” she said, her expression all innocence as she offered an alternative Sarah was bound to seize. “We’re going for pizza, too.”

As Travis could have predicted, Sarah immediately looked relieved. “Are you sure, Annie?”

“It’s not a problem,” Annie insisted, turning a triumphant look on Travis as if she’d figured out exactly what he was up to.

“Okay, then,” Travis said, giving in gracefully. “I’ll see you there.”

Once he reached the family-owned Italian restaurant, though, he made sure the table at which Annie was seated with the two boys was too full to accommodate Sarah when she arrived with Libby. Travis gestured for them to join him in the two seats he’d managed to save.

After casting a resigned look toward her friend, Sarah slipped into the chair he was holding for her. He leaned down to whisper, “You had to know I was going to win round two.”

Her startled gaze met his. “Round two?”

“Annie took the first round,” he said.

“I had no idea there was a game,” Sarah said.

“It’s been going on since the day we met,” he told her, enjoying the blush that spread across her cheeks. “Now tell me what kind of pizza you like.”

“Pepperoni for me,” she said. “Plain for Libby.”

“Perfect. I already have you covered. See how well I know you?”

“Lucky guess,” she said. “Don’t most people like either plain or pepperoni?”

He grinned. “Some of us like a little more spice. I’ve added a few jalapenos to mine.”

Though the table was too noisy to pursue a private conversation, Travis managed to find any number of excuses to brush his fingers along Sarah’s arm, touch her shoulder or look into her eyes. By the end of the meal, she was obviously disconcerted, but she didn’t hop right up at the first opportunity and flee. He figured that was progress.

Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that Libby had crawled right into his arms and settled there. She was now fast asleep, snuggled against his chest.

Sarah looked at the two of them and shook her head. “I’m going to have to talk to her about falling for the bad boys.”

“Maybe you should take lessons from her, instead,” he suggested. “She obviously feels safe with me.”

“I know better. Do you realize there are at least three single moms in this room right now who’d like to rip out my heart because I’m sitting here with you and they aren’t? Why not go for the easy score?”

“Because easy doesn’t interest me. You do.”

She regarded him with confusion. “Why?”

“I’m starting to feel a little like I have to keep proving
myself, to say nothing of needing to justify the way I feel about you. How do I love thee and all that. Do you really need me to count the ways?”

“It might be helpful.”

“I thought I did a good job just last week of countering all those negatives that obviously play on some reel in your head. Didn’t you believe even one word of that?”

To his shock, her eyes filled with tears before she looked away. “Sarah,” he said quietly, tucking a finger under her chin and forcing her to look at him. “What’s wrong? What did I say?”

“That’s just it,” she whispered. “You say all the right things, everything I want to hear. It scares me.”

“Why?”

“Come on, Travis. Everyone knows what a player you are. You flirt with any female who still has breath in her. How can I possibly believe that you truly mean what you say to me, when the only other man in my life, the man who married me and fathered my kids and probably knew me better than anyone, always said the exact opposite whenever he got the chance? Even now, when he’s apologized and swears he’s reformed, he can’t resist taking a potshot from time to time. He didn’t even think I could cope with being a waitress at Wharton’s, for goodness’ sakes.”

“I thought we’d established that Walter is an idiot.”

She almost smiled at that. “But he’s an idiot who knows me pretty well.”

“No,” Travis said fiercely. His voice must have startled Libby, because she stirred in his arms. He rubbed her back until she sighed and fell back asleep.

Travis lowered his voice. “Maybe Walter knew who you were when he was belittling you every second of the day, though I have my doubts about that. But for sure he doesn’t know the woman you’ve become. You’re building a new life for yourself. You’re strong, and God knows you’re independent.”

She did smile then. “You make that sound like a bad thing.”

“Not bad, just exasperating,” he said, grinning at her. “You’re very hard on my ego.”

“Really?”

More than anything else he’d said,
that
was what pleased her. Go figure, Travis thought. “Yes, Sarah,” he said solemnly. “If any other woman on earth had told me no as often as you have, I’d have given up and moved on.”

“Why haven’t you done that, then?”

He sighed. “I honestly don’t know.”

“It’s probably just the challenge,” she said.

He skimmed the back of a finger down her cheek. “I don’t think so, but I do think I’ll go a little crazy if I don’t get to figure this out.”

Her gaze narrowed. “How?”

“Go out with me on an honest-to-goodness date. We can get dressed up, drive over to Charleston or stay here and go to Sullivan’s, whatever you want. Just you and me, spending a quiet evening together. Despite the amount of time we spend together, we don’t really know each other. Don’t you think we owe it to ourselves to at least do that much?”

“We probably won’t have anything to talk about,” she said, looking flustered.

He chuckled. “I’m not worried. I talk for a living. So do you.”

“If I say yes, you’ll probably lose interest.”

The excuses just tripped off her lips, but he was ready for them.

“I would think me losing interest would make you happy,” he said. “Assuming you’re telling the truth and have no interest in me, it’ll be sort of a put-up-or-shut-up evening.”

She frowned. “I’m not putting out for you.”

He chuckled at her misinterpretation of his meaning. It definitely told him the direction of her thoughts. “Did I say anything that remotely implied sex was part of the evening?” he asked.

“With men like you, dating always leads to sex eventually.”

“Dating usually leads to sex with anybody,” he countered. “Assuming it works out well.” He held her gaze. “And it’s going to work out very, very well with us. I can tell.”

She blushed. “One date, and you promise you’ll stop pestering me?”

“One
bad
date and I’ll stop pestering you,” he agreed. “If this goes the way I’m anticipating, there will be more pestering and more dating. So, how about it? It’s time to stop listening to Walter’s voice in your head and test the wings of the new you, don’t you think?”

Before she could answer, Annie once again appeared, her timing sucking as usual.

“What are you two talking about?” she asked cheerfully, jamming a chair in between them as Trevor and
Tommy climbed up on adjoining chairs and reached for the remaining slices of pizza on the table.

“No more,” Annie told them, drawing scowls, though neither boy retreated. Clearly they planned to wait for her attention to be diverted before grabbing the leftover pizza.

Annie turned back to Sarah. “What’s up?”

“Sarah was just agreeing to go out with me,” Travis told her, all but daring Sarah to contradict him.

Annie scowled. “Really?” She cast a meaningful look in Sarah’s direction. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

Normally that look might have intimidated Sarah, but apparently she’d had enough of being bullied because she immediately turned to Travis. “When?”

Trying not to look as triumphant as Annie had at her earlier victory, he said, “Tomorrow night?”

Sarah nodded. “Seven o’clock?”

“That works for me.” He stood up, eager to leave before she changed her mind.

“Um, Travis,” she said, regarding him with an amused expression. “Are you planning to give me back my daughter?”

He’d gotten so used to holding Libby, he’d almost forgotten he had her. “Sure,” he said, transferring her back into her mother’s arms. He felt oddly bereft when she was gone. That was a new feeling, he thought.

He would have walked away then to ponder the unexpected reaction, but he paused long enough to lean down and whisper in Annie’s ear. “Don’t you dare try to change her mind. She needs this.”

He heard Annie’s indignant gasp, but he left before
she could challenge him. He hoped if she took even a couple of minutes to think about his words, she’d see that he was right. Ever since her divorce, Sarah had been petrified to try again. It was time she tested herself at dating and it might as well be with a man who genuinely cared about her. Whatever happened between the two of them down the road, at least she would have taken the first step toward moving on with her life. This time it would be toward a full life, rather than the sheltered existence she seemed willing to settle for.

That afternoon when Travis went for a run with Tom, he told his cousin about his success in getting Sarah to agree to a date. “Now I just have to pray that Annie Townsend doesn’t talk her out of it,” he concluded.

Tom glanced over, his expression serious. “Travis, swear to me this isn’t a game with you.”

Travis tried to rein in his indignation. Surely his own cousin should know him better than that. “I told you it’s not,” he said testily. “Sarah’s great. We click on a lot of levels, if only she’d admit it.”

Tom still looked concerned. “You’re honestly ready to think about settling down?”

Travis regarded him with impatience. “I bought a radio station here and I’m working my butt off to make it successful. I’m in the process of buying a house. What other evidence do you want that I’m here to stay?”

“I’m not questioning your commitment to Serenity, just to sticking with one woman. It’s one thing to play the field in a place like Boston, but around here, it’s not a good idea.”

Travis stopped in his tracks, which brought Tom to
a halt a couple of feet ahead of him. His cousin turned back. “What?”

“Here’s the deal. I like Sarah. I’m attracted to her. She’s not a thing in the world like all those women you were talking about in Boston. They knew the score. Despite having been married, Sarah’s still naive. She’s vulnerable in a way that gets to me. I want to protect her. I want to show her just how amazing she is. And if everybody would stop interfering—” he gave Tom a pointed look “—or busting my chops, I think I could be good for her.”

A slow smile spread across his cousin’s face. “Okay, then. Point taken.” He slapped Travis on the back. “Good luck.”

Travis’s gaze narrowed. “You mean that?”

“Of course, I do. Nothing would make me happier than to have you right here in Serenity, married and settled with a family. As the only males in our generation of McDonalds, we’re more like brothers than cousins.”

Travis swallowed hard. “Married and settled with a family,” he echoed, suddenly unnerved. “I never said I was ready for that. I mean, I’ve thought about it, but come on, Tom, we haven’t even been on a real date yet.”