The Lullaby Sky (13 page)

“Hey, if you’ve got a few more minutes, I could use a woman’s ideas when it comes to my own loft design. I’m seeing a wide-open space, but Travis thinks I need walls in the bedroom area.”

“From here it doesn’t even look like it’s been floored. It just looks like rafters to me.”

“It hasn’t, but this is how it will be once it’s got a floor and stairs leading up to it.” Travis rolled out a length of paper on a worktable and laid scissors on either end. “Once this plane is out of here, I won’t need all the space from here to the ceiling to make Cal’s working room. So we can put up eight-foot walls and the top can be his new apartment. Look at this and imagine a wide-open space up there.”

Hannah stared at the rough drawing Travis had made, but her mind went back to the early days when Marty’s parents had hired a professional team of carpenters out of Dallas to build the hangar. She’d been excited about the whole thing. Marty wouldn’t have that hour-long drive to his office just south of Dallas, along with the frustrations of the traffic. He would simply fly down to the Ellises’ private airport, one of the company drivers would pick him up and take him to the offices, and then in the evening the process would be reversed.

It worked that way for a few months, and then Sophie was born and everything went downhill from there. He’d been so disappointed that he didn’t have a son that Hannah promised him one the next year. God must’ve seen the future much better than Hannah, because there were no more children. Possibly because Marty started staying away so much that it would have been hit or miss with ovulation.

“So what do you think?” Cal asked.

Hannah sneezed three times in quick succession. Travis quickly pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. “It’s dusty in here, but when we get finished it’ll be a fine place for Cal to design, develop his creations, and live in.”

She blew her nose and then didn’t know what to do with the hanky. It seemed gross to hand it back to him. Should she take it with her, wash it, and then return it?

“If you’re done with that, I feel one coming on, too,” Travis said.

She’d barely got it in his hand before he rattled the walls with a big, manly sneeze. “Ragweed must be getting ready to hit all of us with allergies,” he said as he shoved the hanky back into his hip pocket.

Now that’s a true friend,
Hannah thought.
Marty would have never shared one of his high-dollar hankies with me. Lord, he would have thrown a fit if I sneezed in the same room with him. But why am I letting him into my head this morning?

“So what do you think, darlin’?” Cal asked.

“Truth is I can’t tell heads or tails from this paper, but I’m going to agree with Travis about walls for your bedroom. The rest could be open space, though there will probably come a time when you want privacy.” She jumped to one side and shivered when something gray and furry brushed against her leg. “You’ve got a rat in here.”

“Not a rat, a stray kitten. It’s gray, and I’ve been putting food out for it. You just spooked her,” Cal said. “Here, kitty, kitty. Come here, pretty girl. Hannah wouldn’t hurt a fly, I promise.”

Two dark-blue eyes peered out around a stud and blinked several times before the kitten inched her way toward Cal’s outstretched hand.

“Oh!” Hannah clasped her hands together.

“We’ve about got her tamed enough that we can give her to Sophie. That way she won’t be so sad about Elaine leaving. She’ll have a kitten to take her mind off the disappointment,” Travis said.

Cal picked the kitten up and held it close to his chest. “I guess we should ask you if it’s okay to let her have a pet.”

“She’s wanted a kitten for a long time, but y’all know that Marty was . . . is . . . Lord, I keep talking about him like he’s dead. He
is
allergic to cats and dogs.” Hannah reached out to touch the little gray kitten.

Travis threw an arm around her shoulders. “You can hold it, Hannah, and it’s okay to put Marty in the past. It means you are finding a little bit of closure.”

Cal put the gray fur ball in Hannah’s hands, and it didn’t miss a single second of purring. She held it close to her chest and stroked its soft fur, all the time letting Travis’s words sink in. It might take a while, but closure was happening. Marty had been such a huge part of her life and fears for so long that she couldn’t expect him to disappear all at once. But right at that moment, she forgot all about him as she kissed the kitten on the top of its head.

Travis removed his arm from her shoulders and started back down the ladder. “Bring the kitten with you. We’ll keep her in the office tonight and give her to Sophie tomorrow right before Elaine leaves.”

“Her?” Hannah asked.

“Yep.” Cal started down the ladder behind Travis. “You’ll need to get her fixed in a few months or else she’ll have kittens. I bagged up some more fabric scraps for you, by the way. You need to have a quilting party when everyone arrives.”

“Good point. But think about Sophie with a bunch of sweet kittens to play with. And you should know, Elaine has already left.” Hannah eased down the ladder using one hand. When she reached the bottom, both guys were smiling like a couple of possums eating grapes through a barbed-wire fence.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Cal chuckled.

“Nothing doesn’t put grins like that on your faces.”

“We like seeing you happy like you were when we were kids, back before you met Marty,” Travis said. “And sometimes all it takes is something simple, like a kitten or—”

“Or having a whole support group of good friends,” she interjected with a smile.

C
HAPTER
T
WELVE

T
ravis heard a crash somewhere in the kitchen that startled him in the middle of writing an intense scene for his new book. For a split second, he wondered if he’d imagined it, but then a second crash followed. Leaving his characters in the middle of a crisis, he took the stairs two at a time as he hurried down them.

With visions of either Hannah or Sophie lying on the floor with a broken arm or worse yet, a broken neck, he rounded the kitchen table so fast that it made him slightly dizzy. His eyes darted around the room. Where were they? Had Marty come back and kidnapped Sophie?

A sob near the sink caught his attention, and that’s when he saw Hannah sitting on the floor, her knees drawn up and her face in her hands. She held the handle of a broken cup in her hand, and sobs racked her body.

“Are you okay?” Travis asked breathlessly.

The floor was covered with glass. “I dropped a coffee cup, and when I reached for it, I knocked two more off the cabinet,” Hannah said through tears. “I know Marty isn’t here. I know he isn’t coming back, but my brain went into instant fear.”

Travis scooped her up like a new bride and carried her to the living room, where he sat down on the sofa with her in his lap.

“A broken cup means getting told how stupid and clumsy I am, but if he’s really angry, it can mean slaps or even fists,” Hannah said. “Am I ever going to be normal, Travis?”

“Yes, you are,” he said. “Things like this will happen, but don’t let it affect you like this. Tell yourself that he’s gone and it’s over every day. Hell, every hour if you need to.”

One step forward, two back,
he thought.
But I’m willing to give it time.

Liz knocked on the back door but didn’t wait for an invitation. She carried a whole platter of decorated cupcakes into the room and set them on the cabinet. “What’s going on in here? Did someone die?”

“Broken cups,” Hannah said.

“I understand.” Liz smiled weakly. “But don’t let it ruin your day or jack your blood pressure up too high. I brought cupcakes to go with our ice cream. Aunt Birdie and Miss Rosie are on their way across the street, each of them carrying a casserole dish.”

Hannah jumped up from Travis’s lap and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Go on to the bathroom and wash your face,” Liz said. “I’ll clean up the broken glass.”

“And I’ll help,” Travis said.

“Hey, hey, we’re here,” Miss Rosie yelled as they came through the kitchen door. “We brought baked beans and potato salad to go with the burgers and hot dogs and Sophie said there is a movie in the living room after we eat. Mercy, did someone get mad and start throwing things in here?”

“No, Hannah knocked a few mugs off the cabinet,” Travis said.

“Did she get cut?”

“Not a bit. Don’t step right there just yet, Miss Rosie.” Liz quickly swept all the broken shards into a dustpan. “Now it’s all gone. Whatever you’ve got in that dish sure smells good.”

“Yes, it does,” Hannah said as she reentered the room. “Y’all didn’t have to go to all this much trouble.”

“Thank you,” she mouthed to Travis and Liz.

Travis barely nodded as he took the dishes from both the women and set them on the cabinet. “I can’t believe that Cal insisted on grilling the hot dogs and hamburgers outside in the rain.”

“He says it’s not raining under the porch roof, and besides, he has an umbrella,” Hannah said.

Sophie arrived in a blur of blue, wearing last year’s Halloween costume that was only slightly too short.

“Looks like you are Elsa tonight,” Aunt Birdie said.

“Yes, I am.” Sophie twirled around. “And Elsa likes hot dogs and sweet baked beans and, oh, cupcakes!” she squealed.

“You are far more beautiful than Elsa,” Travis said. “Can you spin one more time just for me?”

Sophie giggled and did a double twirl, then swiped her finger across the icing on one of the cupcakes and licked it off. “Good! My favorite! That can be my cupcake.” Her words came out in snatches as she licked her fingers again.

“What if I want that cupcake?” Travis asked. “It’ll be the sweetest one, since it’s had your finger on it.”

“Uncle Travis.” She giggled. “I’m not that sweet.”

“Depends on who you are asking. I think you are sweeter than sugar and honey mixed up together,” he teased.

“Oh, Uncle Travis, I love you!” She threw her arms around his waist.

“Not as much as I love you.” Travis’s drawl was even deeper than usual.

Birdie removed the lid from the container of baked beans. “Okay, ladies, let’s get all this put on the table so we can fill up our plates and go to the living room to watch the movie.”

Miss Rosie opened the refrigerator and took out the container holding ice cubes. “I’ll make the sweet tea while y’all get the rest of the stuff on the table.”

“Right on time!” The rich aroma of grilled food filled the house as Cal carried a platter of hot dogs and hamburger patties into the house. “See, I told you I could grill on the back porch even if it is raining.”

“I smelled charcoal cookin’ a block away.” Darcy threw the back door open and entered the kitchen. “I’m starving. I didn’t even get a lunch break today, and that one little package of peanut butter crackers that I ate on the run is failing me.” She sniffed and headed toward the table. “Oh. My. God. Sophie, you are adorable in that outfit.”

Sophie did a lovely curtsy and bowed. “If that’s as good as pretty, then thank you, Aunt Darcy.”

Conversation swirled around him. He heard Darcy tell Cal that she’d had no idea he knew his way around a grill. Sophie was explaining who Elsa was to Miss Rosie. But the aftershock of holding Hannah in his lap and listening to her heart beat in unison with his almost let a full pitcher of sweet tea drop from Travis’s hands. He had to get a grip on more than the glass pitcher.

Hannah helped Sophie fix her hot dogs and carried them to the living room for her. Miss Rosie and Aunt Birdie were already on the sofa, their plates on the coffee table. Darcy had spread Sophie’s old quilt out on the floor, and she and Cal were sitting off to one side of it.

“It’s a real picnic,” Sophie said. “With a quilt and everything. Uncle Travis, you can sit right here and Mama can sit by you and I get to sit in the middle of all y’all.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Travis said as he sat in the spot he’d been assigned. “I will save your place, Hannah.”

Hannah liked her hamburger the same way every time—mustard, pickles, tomatoes, and lettuce. But she forgot all about the burger when she sat down beside Travis and sparks danced around them on the quilt.

“Good, huh?” Travis asked.

She nodded, really looking at Travis as a man rather than a friend. It had to be that episode with the broken cups and him responding with kindness that triggered the sparks. He was Travis, for mercy’s sake—her friend for their whole lives. Besides, she’d been divorced less than a month.

“The best part is that I didn’t have to cook them or worry about getting them perfect,” Liz declared.

“I think you should be moved out by the time Wyatt comes home. You can have a bedroom upstairs,” Hannah said as the music for the movie started.

Liz smiled. “Thanks, but your aunt Birdie says I can have one of her spare bedrooms, so I’ll be staying with her through the summer until I can find a place of my own.”

“Yes, I did, and I’ll be glad to have her staying with me,” Aunt Birdie piped up from the sofa.

“I wanted her to stay with me,” Miss Rosie said.

“But I’ve got more room. She will have to share the upstairs bathroom with Calvin since he’s living there, too.”

“No problem with that,” Calvin said. “I lived with sisters, and we had to share a bathroom.”

“I hope it all goes smooth,” Hannah said. “Need any help?”

“Yes, I do. He’s gone for a couple of days this week. Could you come over and help me pack my things? I can do it, but I’d sure like your support,” Liz answered.

“Just tell me when and I’ll be there.” Hannah smiled.

“Shhhh. The movie is about to begin and I’ve spent far too much time in the land of adults,” Cal said. “I haven’t even seen this wonderful show.”

“Oh, Uncle Cal.” Sophie giggled. “Since you live so close to me now, you can watch my shows any old time.”

Cal hugged her so tight that her dark curls bounced. “Thank you, baby girl.”

Sophie wiggled out of his embrace and huffed, “I’m not a baby.”

“No, you are not,” Cal said. “But you’ll always be my baby girl.”

“Even when I grow up? How can I be a baby girl when I’m a big girl like Mama?”

“Baby girl just means that you are special,” Travis said.

Sophie giggled and scooted over to sit beside Liz. “Then I’ll be all y’all’s baby girl.”

Travis laid a hand on Hannah’s leg and squeezed. “She is adorable. You’ve done such a good job with her, Hannah.”

Hannah placed her hand over Travis’s, and a tingle shot through her heart. What in the devil was going on in her body? She’d vowed to never trust a man again. But this was Travis. Good, dependable, trustworthy Travis.