Nicole Edwards - Travis

Climbing out of the truck, she moved around to the pump. With hurried movements, she slid her credit card through the reader and managed to hit all of the appropriate buttons before turning to shove the nozzle into the gas tank. Going through the motions, she filled her tank, took her receipt and climbed back in.

With her hand on the key sticking out of the ignition, Kylie glanced out the window. Her breath caught. At first she thought she was hallucinating, but there was no way she’d be able to conjure up a man that devastatingly handsome in her mind.

Travis.

He was walking into the store, his gaze locked with hers as though he could sense she was looking at him. Which she was. He wasn’t coming to talk to her, which was good. Really good. There was no way she could face him right now. Flipping the key over, Kylie listened to the engine roar to life, and a few deep breaths later, with the radio blaring her favorite song by Miranda Lambert, Kylie did her best to clear her mind of Travis Walker.

And Gage Matthews.

Damn it was going to be a long drive.

▪▫▪▫▪▫

A little less than an hour later, Kylie was pulling into her driveway, glancing up at her modest little house – her pride and joy – and for the first time, she realized how empty and lonely her house actually felt. Since the very first day she walked through it with her Realtor, she’d fallen in love and then spent months restoring it with her own two hands, pouring all of her heart and soul into it. But for some reason as she parked in the shallow driveway, she felt like something was missing.

Shaking off the feeling, Kylie made her way inside, dropping her purse on the table just inside the kitchen. Maybe she should get a cat. At least then she’d have someone to greet her when she came home. Never had she even considered that she was just lonely. Not until recently. Not until Gage walked out of her house. And not until today.

As it turned out, severing the final ties with Travis was harder than she thought. Another explanation as to why she’d put it off for so long.

Inhaling the fresh scent of lemon oil and wood, Kylie was ready to get on with her day. Before she made it two steps, a loud knock on the front door nearly sent her into hysterics. Turning abruptly, her hand covering her heart to keep the jolted organ from jumping clean out of her chest, she stared through the glass pane in the front door.

And then her heartbeat ceased.

“Kylie, open the door.”

It was as though her body wasn’t hers and she couldn’t understand what she was supposed to do, other than stare at the huge cowboy that stood just a few feet away on her front porch.

“Come on, open the door,” he told her and she managed to move one step closer.

When she could reach the handle, Kylie took a deep breath and removed the only protective barrier between her and the man she didn’t think she’d ever see again. At least not this soon anyway.

“Can we go somewhere and talk?” Travis asked without preamble.

Kylie couldn’t even find the words to respond. Seeing him on her front porch, his cowboy hat tipped down over his eyes, throwing his handsome face in shadow, mixed with his impressive size had her on the verge of drooling if she even attempted to open her mouth.

What was wrong with her?

Shaking her head back and forth to clear the fog that had filled all of the space between her ears, she balled her hands into fists, willing the shaking to stop.

“Then maybe we can talk out here?”

He must’ve assumed she was telling him no, but Kylie was more comfortable with the latter anyway. At least they’d be on her turf.

“Ok,” she squeaked, irritated with the sound of her voice. Clearing her throat, she nodded and opened the screen door as he took a step back.

“You still drive like a bat out of hell, you know that?” he said as he leaned against the post, crossing one ankle over the other, his arms across his chest.

The pose was meant to be casual. Instead, it was just disturbingly sexy.

The man was intimidating. Being this close to him, Kylie felt every ounce of his presence right down to the core of her. Travis stood at six-foot-five-inches, which was almost a foot taller than her, and intimidating in its own right, but it was the breadth of his chest and the power she could see in his muscled thighs that gave her pause. Confident, arrogant, whole-heartedly sure of himself… Travis Walker was dangerous. To her sanity.

Crap. Her body was still reacting to him as though she were nineteen and stupid.

“Did you follow me?” she asked, hoping she sounded more unaffected by his presence at her house than she really was.

“Tried.” Travis shrugged.

Fidgeting, Kylie wondered whether she should sit down. She moved closer to the porch swing, but then opted to forgo sitting there. She didn’t need that much Travis looming over her. Instead, she moved over to the railing and lifted herself to sit on the edge, glancing over at him briefly. Rounding her back, her legs crossed at the ankle and her hands gripping the rail, Kylie was going for nonchalant.

She probably looked more like petrified.

“Did you sign the papers?”

“No.”

His immediate response caught her off guard. She figured the only reason he would drive the distance he had would be to give her the papers and be done with her.

“Any reason why not?”

“Haven’t looked at them yet,” he explained as though that made perfect sense.

“You should,” she muttered.

“Why?”

Kylie stared into stormy blue-gray eyes and a flood of memories assaulted her. Like it was yesterday and not ten years ago that she’d last seen him standing in the living room of her apartment. The same apartment she was supposed to be living in with him since they’d been married just three short weeks before. Rather than staying, Travis had turned her world upside down and walked away.

Over the years, she had tried to convince herself that he wasn’t impacted by what he did, but she’d seen it in the expression on his face that fateful day. He didn’t want to go, which only pissed her off even more. It didn’t stop him in the end.

“Why are you here?” she asked, ignoring his last question. She wasn’t going to get into her reasons for filing for divorce. The only thing he needed to know was that she was ten years later than she should’ve been in getting it taken care of.

“To talk.”

The man didn’t know how to speak in sentences. Since the day she met him, he’d rarely gone into detail when he spoke. He was a man of few words, but he always managed to cut to the chase. He also had an uncanny ability to keep his emotions locked down. At least she’d been right about one thing… he hadn’t changed over the years.

At least not in ways she’d hoped he would.

♂♀

As his common sense returned in slow measures, Travis was beginning to question what the fuck he was doing. As soon as Kylie’s truck disappeared from sight, the only thing he could think about was not letting her walk away so easily. The small voice in his head kept telling him not to fuck this up again. There’d be no turning back if he let her go this time.

She wanted a divorce.

Of course she wanted a divorce.

He was a fucking idiot and walked out on her ten years ago because he never thought she’d accept him for who he truly was. Not that he thought she was any different now. Nor had he ever even given her a chance to decide for herself. And the truth was he sure as hell hadn’t changed. So why he was standing in front of her, half tempted to convince her otherwise was beyond him.

She looked just as innocent as ever, although he witnessed that strange detachment in her eyes earlier. He didn’t want to think he’d been the one to put that look on her face. It was rather presumptuous for him to believe he’d had any impact on her life at all. After the short time they were together, it was true that Kylie had forever changed him, but he was a stupid fuck for thinking the same might’ve been true for her.