Sweet Tea at Sunrise (24 page)

He couldn’t seem to make himself shut up. “But what about the kids?”

“They adore him, but they’re too little to understand any of what’s going on between Travis and me. It’s not as if he’s hanging around the house all the time. If things don’t work out, they’ll be just fine. You’re the one they love, Walter. You’ll always be their dad.”

He should have been reassured, but he wasn’t. Not
entirely. He feared this was just one more time when Sarah’s naiveté was going to cause her heartache. Unfortunately, he recognized that he’d long since lost any right to try to prevent it.

“You look happy,” Annie told Sarah as they sat in the bleachers watching the boys play T-ball. She glanced toward the field. “I assume Travis put that glow on your face.”

“He did,” Sarah said. “He’s amazing.”

Unfortunately, she didn’t miss the little frown that Annie tried to hide. “What? I thought you’d long since stopped worrying about his reputation. You have to admit he’s been perfectly straight with me. He hasn’t looked at another woman in town. I would certainly have heard about it, if he had. He hasn’t been sneaking off to someplace else so he can cheat on me behind my back, either. He hasn’t had time.”

“That’s great,” Annie said.

“But? I sense there’s a
but
in there.”

“I can’t help wondering if leopards ever change their spots,” she said, her tone oddly despondent.

Of all the people in the world who might have said that to Sarah, she was stunned that it would be Annie. “Excuse me. What about Ty?”

Annie flinched at the direct question. “That’s fair. I know Ty and I are solid, okay? I know it with everything in me. It’s just that when I saw him the other night, we were out with some of the other players.”

“And?” Sarah questioned, knowing there was something more to have put that doubt in Annie’s voice.

“One of his teammates, a guy whose wife I’ve
actually gotten to know, was all over this other woman. He wasn’t just flirting. It was clear the two of them had something going on, even though he’s been married for something like ten years. According to his wife, they’d hit a rough patch early on, but she thinks he’s been on the straight and narrow for years now. Now he’s with this other woman, not even trying to hide it. I wanted to scream at him. I asked Ty about what was going on, and he didn’t even try to deny it. He just said to look the other way, that it was none of our business.”

Sarah frowned at the story. “So the moral is that men like that never change?”

“Not never. I truly believe that Ty has.”

“And I think Travis has,” Sarah countered. But the truth was, she couldn’t be sure. And unlike Annie and Ty, she didn’t have years of history as a foundation on which to place her trust. She’d only been getting to know Travis for a few months now. Was that long enough to be sure he was the honorable man she thought he was? If refrigerators and cars came with guarantees, why the heck couldn’t men? she wondered in frustration.

“Look, I really don’t want to fuel your doubts,” Annie said. “But seeing that guy the other night, it made me realize how lucky I am that I can trust Ty now. Even though I have total faith in him, it’s still hard. I just want you to be prepared for how hard it can be. You need to understand that before you take the next step with Travis.”

Sarah regarded her seriously. “I don’t think I have any choice, Annie. I’m in love with him. I don’t think I could walk away now if I wanted to.”

Less than an hour after her distressing conversation with Annie, Sarah and the kids were with Travis at Rosalina’s when Trina turned up there. She was alone and her face was streaked with tears.

“I’ve been looking for you all over,” she told Travis, pulling up a chair from a nearby table and sitting down.

Travis regarded her with the dismay of a man who knew he was about to deal with a messy and potentially embarrassing situation. “What’s wrong?”

“I needed somebody to talk to about your father.”

Travis stiffened. “I may not be the best person, Trina. I spent most of my life caught between him and my mom. I don’t want to get in the middle of your drama with him now.”

“But you have to,” Trina said, her voice catching on a sob. “I don’t know where else to turn. I think he’s going to leave me, Travis, and it’s all because of you and the stuff you said to him.”

“Maybe we should go to the restroom,” Sarah suggested, noticing that some of the parents were starting to stare. It would be natural for some of them to assume the issue was between Trina and Travis, rather than with his father. “You can splash some water on your face. You’ll feel better.”

“Good idea,” Travis said at once. “Meantime, I’ll try to hurry things along here.”

Trina stood and allowed herself to be led to the ladies’ room. She took one look in the mirror and did a little yelp of shock. “I look awful. No wonder you wanted to get me out of there. I was just so upset, I got in the car
and started driving. I think I cried most of the way. Do you have any makeup with you?”

“No, sorry.”

“Well, maybe I can manage to improve things a little,” Trina said, suddenly totally focused on her appearance. At least she wasn’t sobbing anymore.

When the cool water had lessened the redness in her eyes and reduced at least some of the puffiness, she performed a few magic tricks with her comb and a lipstick. It was an impressive transformation, but there was no mistaking the sadness that lingered in her eyes.

“Do you want to talk to me about what upset you so badly?” Sarah asked hesitantly. “What makes you think Greg is going to leave you, and that Travis had anything to do with it?”

“Look, you’re sweet to offer to listen, but only Travis can fix this.”

“How?”

“By talking to his father and making things right. He needs to tell him that he was wrong, that Greg and I belong together.”

“What makes you think Travis influenced Greg to leave you? I thought everything was on track for you and Greg to get married.”

“It was, but now it’s all fallen apart. Greg talked to Travis the other day. I don’t know what Travis said to him exactly, but after that things between us started changing.”

Sarah didn’t know Trina well enough to judge whether she was creating a drama where none existed or if this was real. “I’m sure you’re mistaken. Greg really loves you.”

Trina regarded her with blatant skepticism. “Oh, really? Then why did I catch him cheating on me with another woman? Less than two weeks before our wedding, he was sleeping with somebody else. He would only do that if he planned to leave me.”

Sarah sank down onto one of the chairs that had been tucked into a corner of the ladies’ room. She felt almost as if Greg’s betrayal was personal.

What kind of man would cheat on the woman who was carrying his child even before the wedding? Was it really a precursor to Greg leaving Trina, a last fling, or had he simply done it because he’d believed Trina would stay with him no matter what?

Sarah wanted to believe Travis was nothing like his father, but could she really count on that? Greg had been his role model for a lot of years, and for a very long time Travis had seemed to be on a similar path. Would he slip at the first sign of trouble in their relationship? And what if they did eventually marry? Would he turn to another woman to satisfy his ego, especially if Sarah once again gained weight or didn’t satisfy him in some way? Would he count on her forgiving him again and again?

Added to everything Annie had said earlier, suddenly it was all too much for Sarah. She needed to get out of here. She needed to think. And she couldn’t do that where, with one seductive glance, Travis could make her forget everything that common sense was all but shouting at her.

T
ravis could feel Sarah withdrawing. After weeks of getting closer, weeks of feeling as if he’d found not just the perfect town, but also the perfect woman and business partner, he knew he was losing her. What he didn’t understand was why.

When he tried to analyze it, he thought he could trace it to the day Trina had appeared at Rosalina’s with the tale of Greg’s cheating. By now he understood how Sarah’s mind worked well enough to guess that she’d translated his father’s behavior into a foreshadowing of how he would treat her, which was utterly absurd, to say nothing of infuriating. He didn’t deserve to be judged for something his father had done.

For days he’d been trying to pin Sarah down so they could talk, but she managed to slip away every time, usually with the excuse that she had to get home to the kids.

When she deliberately locked the studio door one morning in an attempt to keep him out, he came close to losing it. He had his own key, but given his anger, he
decided it was best not to use it. He was, however, waiting for her when she emerged.

“We need to talk,” he said tightly.

“Sorry. I have an appointment,” she said, trying to brush past him.

“Station business?”

She flushed, then shook her head.

“Then it can wait. Let’s go.”

Alarm filled her eyes. “Where?”

“Someplace where we can talk without the prying eyes of an entire community on us.”

“I don’t have time…” she began, but her voice trailed off when he regarded her with an unyielding expression.

She remained silent in the car. She didn’t say another word, in fact, until they reached a waterfront restaurant far enough away from Serenity that they weren’t likely to be recognized.

“This was a long way to come just so you can yell at me,” she said.

“I’m not going to yell,” he said, exasperated. The temptation to yell, however, was so powerful, it was a wonder he didn’t give in to it despite his promise.

“You seem angry.”

He stared at her incredulously. “You think?” He snatched up the menu, glanced at it and zeroed in on a shrimp platter. “I’m having the shrimp. How about you?”

“I’m not hungry.”

He stared at her until she eventually sighed. “Fine. I’ll have the shrimp, too.”

Travis placed their orders, then waited until their iced tea arrived before finally meeting her gaze.

“Okay, start talking.”

“About?”

He scowled at her. “Don’t do this. Don’t play games. This is too important. If I’ve upset you, I want to know how. I can’t fix things if you just shut me out.”

“You didn’t break anything,” she admitted, surprising him.

“Then who the hell did? Somebody must have.”

“No, I just woke up from the fantasy,” she said, her expression bleak.

“What fantasy? You’re not making any sense.”

“No, Travis, what didn’t make sense was us.”

“How can you say that? We’re perfect together.”

“Now, maybe, but not forever.”

“That’s crazy.” He looked deep into her eyes. “Does this have something to do with my father and what he did to Trina?” he asked point-blank.

She looked startled that he’d nailed it. Then her chin set stubbornly. “Does it really matter how I came to this epiphany?”

“I think it does. Dammit, Sarah, you can’t blame me for my father’s flaws. He has a ton of them, no question about it. So do I, but they’re not the same ones, at least not when it comes to the way I treat women. I have always, always, played fair with every woman I ever dated, you included. When I told you the other day that I love you, I meant it, along with all that implies about commitment.”

He could see in her eyes how desperately she wanted to believe him, but she shook her head anyway. “Words are too easy, Travis.”

More frustrated than he’d ever been, he tried again to get through to her. “I know life doesn’t come with
guarantees, not the kind you obviously want, but if we both know what we want, we can make it happen.”

She obviously remained unconvinced. “I don’t think so.”

“You don’t want it enough?” he asked, scrambling to make sense of her determination to throw away their future.

“I do,” she said.

“Well, you can’t be talking about me, because you’re all I want.”

“Now,” she said again.

“We’re right back to my father again, aren’t we? You’re convinced I’ll cheat on you.”

She nodded, looking miserable. “It’s bound to happen.”

Travis opened his mouth to argue, but how could he? The future might come with well-meant promises, but guarantees? Life just didn’t work that way.

“See,” she said triumphantly. “You see it, too. You can’t deny it.”

“Because that’s not how relationships work. I can tell you I’m one hundred percent committed to you, but only you can decide whether to believe that or not.” Filled with frustration, he met her gaze. “Are you really willing to give up on us because neither of us knows what tomorrow will bring?”

“I have to,” she said. “I survived what Walter did to me, but I don’t think I could survive losing you.”

“Yet you’re the one walking away,” he said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

She shrugged. “It does to me.” She shoved aside her untouched plate of food. “I’d like to go home now.”

“Come on, Sarah, let’s talk this out.”

“There’s nothing left to say.”

Travis might have tried to make her see reason, but it was evident that right this second she believed every defeated word she was uttering. He wanted to call his father and rail at him for setting this into motion, but the truth was Sarah’s insecurities had always been there, buried just under the surface. It wasn’t only him she’d lost faith in. It was herself and her ability to keep his interest. And that was a battle he had no idea how to fight.

Sarah managed to hold back her tears until she was inside the house. She headed directly for her room, hoping to escape Raylene’s probing questions. Unfortunately, the two friends came close to colliding in the hallway. Raylene took one look at her and steered her into the bedroom and urged her to sit on the bed.

“What happened?” she demanded. “You look like death warmed over.”

“It’s official. I broke up with Travis,” Sarah admitted, then let the tears flow.

Raylene, bless her, didn’t say a word. She just kept handing her tissues until the waterworks ended.

“Okay, then,” Raylene said as Sarah wiped away what she hoped was the last of the tears. “What did the bastard do?”

Sarah frowned at her. “Don’t call him that,” she said fiercely.

“You’re very quick to jump to the defense of a man you’ve just dumped. Whatever he did can’t have been too awful.”

“He didn’t
do
anything,” Sarah admitted. “Splitting up with him had to be done, that’s all.”

“So, you broke up for no specific reason?” Raylene asked, looking justifiably bewildered.

“Not really. I just looked into the future and saw the inevitable.”

Raylene feigned amazement. “Oh, my gosh! You’re psychic!”

Sarah frowned at her. “Don’t be sarcastic. You know perfectly well it’s possible to know when things just aren’t going to work.”

“Sorry, actually I don’t know that. If it were that easy, more people would skip the walk down the aisle.”

“More people probably should,” Sarah said bitterly. “Look, can we not discuss this? It’s too depressing.”

“Yes, I imagine walking away from the perfect guy for no good reason would be depressing,” Raylene said.

“Travis is hardly perfect.”

“He’s perfect for you. And until very recently, you thought so, too.”

“It’s complicated.”

“I’m a bright woman. Try me.”

Sarah described Trina’s visit, Greg’s cheating right before their wedding, the whole tawdry mess.

Raylene didn’t look impressed with the argument. “So, you’re kicking this amazing man to the curb because his father’s a jerk. Do I have that right?”

“Like father, like son,” Sarah insisted. “Travis says himself that lots of people believe that about the two of them.”

“Oh, sweet heaven, will you listen to yourself? Are you sure this isn’t a lesson you learned from bitter experience with Walter? He was certainly a chip off the old block, right?”

Sarah couldn’t deny anything she was saying. “The genetics certainly held true in that family,” she agreed.

“And you’ve seen no changes in Walter since he got away from their influence?”

“Sure, but…”

“But what? You don’t trust those changes either?”

Sarah was beginning to lose steam. As Raylene went on, Sarah was beginning to see just how irrational she’d been. “Something like that,” she muttered halfheartedly.

Raylene regarded her with apparent pity. “You know for months now I’ve thought I was the one in this house with a problem moving on with my life, but, sweetie, you have me beat by a mile. We might just as well lock the door here and throw away the key, because the way I see it, we’re both destined to waste the rest of our lives living in the past.”

“I’m not doing that,” Sarah said defensively.

“Really? Then prove it.”

“How?”

“Go after the man you want and do everything you can to hold on to him. If I were in your situation, I couldn’t get out of this house fast enough. I’d grab onto Travis and start making wedding plans. Sweetie, surely you know that life doesn’t come with guarantees. If you look for problems, you can always find them. Why not opt for hope?”

When Sarah didn’t move, Raylene just shook her head, her expression filled with exasperation. “I don’t want to hear another word about Greg McDonald or Travis and their flaws, Sarah Price. This is all on you. You’re throwing away your future, and if you ask me, it’s a crying shame.”

She walked out before Sarah could think of a single way to defend herself. Most worrisome was the nagging sensation that there was no defense.

Mary Vaughn and Sonny stared at the image of the sonogram in wonder.

“That’s our baby,” she whispered, clinging to Sonny’s hand. “Just look at that.”

“Can you tell if it’s a boy or a girl?” Sonny asked the technician.

She nodded. “Do you both want to know?”

Mary Vaughn met Sonny’s gaze. “Do we? Or do we want to be surprised?”

“I think maybe the fact that we’re having a baby at all is enough of a surprise,” Sonny replied. “Let’s find out so we can plan for it. You know you’re not going to be happy until you’ve decorated the nursery and bought about a thousand little outfits.”

“You do know me well,” she said, turning back to the technician. “Tell us.”

“Congratulations, Mom and Dad! It’s a boy.”

Mary Vaughn saw the delight in Sonny’s eyes and nearly cried. “You’ll have your son. I know how much you wanted this. And your dad…” She shook her head. “He’s going to be over the moon when we tell him.”

“Rory Sue told me she wouldn’t mind having a baby brother, too.”

“She just doesn’t want to share the spotlight as daddy’s little darling,” Mary Vaughn said.

“Let’s go celebrate,” Sonny suggested. “What do you say? I’ll get some sparkling cider and pick up some food from Sullivan’s.”

“I wish we could actually go there,” Mary Vaughn said wistfully just as the obstetrician returned.

“If you promise me you’ll only stay an hour, I don’t see why you can’t. Your blood pressure’s been better the last few weeks,” she said. Her expression turned stern. “But this is not a license for you to start working and running around all over town, you hear me? Bed rest is still necessary, but I don’t think one brief meal out will hurt.”

Mary Vaughn could have hugged her. “I’ll be very careful, I promise.” She turned to Sonny. “Call Rory Sue and your dad and have them meet us there. We can celebrate the good news with them.”

A half hour later they were seated at Sullivan’s when Sonny made the announcement about the baby being a boy.

“I knew it,” Howard gloated. “I’ve been telling those old geezers at Wharton’s I was finally going to have a grandson.”

“My money was on a boy, too,” Rory Sue said. “Here, I’ll prove it.” She pulled a large envelope from her oversized purse and handed it to Mary Vaughn. It was filled with pictures of nurseries, all of them decorated for little boys. She had fabric swatches as well, all in blue patterns with the occasional hint of yellow or green. There wasn’t a shade of pink anywhere.

“You pick what you like, Mom, and I’ll take care of the rest. Decorating the nursery is going to be my gift to you.”

Mary Vaughn simply stared at her. Rory Sue actually sounded excited about the prospect. “You sure about that?”

“I have the money from my share of the commission on the Simpson house, and I really want to do this for you and Dad. Besides, if I do it, you get to supervise to your heart’s content.”

Mary Vaughn regarded her with delight. “Now, there’s an offer I can’t resist.”

“Looks as if we’re finally destined to be one big happy family,” Sonny said enthusiastically.

Mary Vaughn met his gaze. “It’s about time, don’t you think?”

“Past time, if you ask me,” Howard grumbled.

Sonny scowled at him. “The timing’s just the way it’s supposed to be.”

That’s what Mary Vaughn loved most about her husband. For Sonny, the glass was always half full. And she’d finally figured out just how much that kind of optimism really mattered.

Travis spent a couple of miserable weeks nursing the wounds Sarah had inflicted with her unyielding attitude. The tension at the station was so thick it could be cut with a knife, but they were both too stubborn to break the unnatural silence. He hadn’t set foot in the studio with her, leaving her to answer the callers who were filled with questions about his absence.

Worse, he had to watch as Walter started hovering around her every darn day. It looked to Travis as if the man had had second thoughts about letting Sarah get away. She didn’t seem to be ignoring him the way she once had, either. If those two found their way back to each other, Travis was going to start breaking things, beginning with every piece of expensive equipment in the radio station.

“If you want her back, you’re going to have to fight for her,” Bill said mildly, when he caught Travis scowling at his two employees laughing in the main office.