The Cowboy's Summer Love (16 page)

Not surprisingly, Travis somehow managed to ride beside Tess as they headed off toward one of the pastures. She ignored him and listened to the joking and teasing between Brice and Danny, one of the ranch hands.

Tess was greatly enjoying being out riding on a beautiful June summer day. It had been too long since she’d saddled up Lila, her horse, and given her the exercise she deserved.

“Want to race, honeybee?” Travis said, leaning toward her with a teasing grin on his face. He knew she loved to race and would try hard to win.

“No,” she said, although the thought of riding hard with the warm wind in her face was more than a little appealing.

“Aw, come on. Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud,” Travis said, goading her like he had so many times during their childhood. He loved to watch her ride, especially in a full gallop. She always looked so graceful on Lila and today was no exception. The only thing he’d change about the way she looked was instead of her hair twisted into a French braid, he would see it loose, floating across her shoulders and down her back. He could picture the curls bouncing temptingly with each forward step of the horse.

While Travis was lost in his daydreams, Tess took off on Lila, leaving him in the dust. He and Dodger, his horse, spurred into action and were soon gaining on Tess.

Danny started to join in the fun, but Brice held him back. “You don’t want to get involved in that,” Brice assured him as they continued riding at a more sedate pace toward the pasture.

Tess rode around a hill and raced down to the creek where the Thompson boys’ fort still stood in a grove of trees. Stopping outside the snug little building, Tess jumped off Lila as Travis reined in Dodger.

“It’s cheating when you just take off like that, you know,” Travis said, stepping out of the saddle and walking Dodger and Lila to cool them off before tying them to the hitching post his Dad installed outside the fort. The Thompson gang had often ridden their horses out to play and until both the boys and horses understood how ground tying worked, they used the hitching post.

Opening the door to the fort, Travis escorted Tess inside. He ducked his head to go in the door, but the well-built playroom looked much as it had when they were kids. It was clear the family maintained even this little building. The old kitchen table they’d sat around eating cookies and drinking pop or juice dominated one end of the room. A few chairs were still placed around the table. Posters from the past lined the walls and Tess laughed at movie posters she remembered helping hang like
Batman Returns, XMen, Remember the Titans,
and
The Matrix
. Staring at a poster from
The Lord of the Rings
, Tess recalled the huge crush she had on Viggo Mortensen at the time.

“Bring back some fun memories?” Travis asked standing beside her, looking at the posters and smiling. Since the closest movie theater was in The Dalles, they used to haunt the video counter of the local market, begging for the movie posters when the store was finished using them to advertise new movie rentals.

“Yeah, they do,” Tess said, wondering how Travis could smell so good while out riding and working cows. His unique, spicy scent was ingrained into her olfactory system and teased her at the most inopportune moments. Sometimes she woke up in the middle of the night convinced Travis was in the room, because his scent lingered so vividly in dreams.

She looked at the spot on the doorframe where Trey carved all their names. Tess remembered how excited she was to see her name there the day he did it, convinced after the botched initiation ceremony they wouldn’t let her back in the fort. That day was the first time Travis kissed her. He called her Tessie and made her mad, so she did what any riled little girl would do by socking him and running back to the house.

“Remember the black eye you gave Brice when you two decided to reenact a sword fight from
The Mask of Zorro
? How old were you then?” Tess asked as they walked around the room.

“I was eleven and it wasn’t my fault he jumped off the fence and failed to execute the tuck and roll maneuver like Zorro,” Travis said, recalling their antics. “We sure had some fun out here, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, we did. Although you boys never wanted to play my games very often,” Tess said opening a cupboard and seeing the remains of her plastic tea set there. She would beg, plead, pout and cry until the boys would join her for a tea party. On average, she got them to sit down and participate once or twice a year.

“Our games were much more fun,” Travis said, leaning against the small counter set into one wall.

“That depends on who you ask. I got tired of having to be an Indian, alien or bad guy all the time,” Tess said, leaning over and opening a bottom cupboard. She screamed and danced a little jig as a mouse ran out and made a mad dash toward the door.

Travis bent over laughing while Tess breathed hard, trying to regain her composure.

“See you still don’t like mice,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes.

Tess smacked at him while a shudder raced through her. It was all Brice and Travis’ fault she hated mice. When she was seven, she had a little baby buggy that she loved to play with. She would carefully tuck in her babies for naps and pushed that thing all over the place. One sunny summer day, they thought it would be fun to fill her buggy full of mice. When Tess pulled back the blanket she assumed was covering one of her precious baby dolls, mice swarmed out everywhere.

Screaming loud enough hands raced from every corner of the ranch to see who had been killed, she refused to ever touch the buggy or blankets inside again. Thank goodness the boys had removed the doll or it would have been lost as well.

“You boys were so mean to me,” she said, smacking him again for good measure.

He grabbed her hand and tugged her to him. Tess felt an army of butterflies explode into action in her stomach when Travis held her hands captive against his strong chest, and drew her close, his arms wrapped securely around her. She looked into his eyes and watched them ignite into hot blue flames.

Shifting his weight, his spurs jangled and Tess felt Travis’ muscles bunch beneath her hands. She had an overwhelming desire to explore those muscles without the fabric of his shirt obstructing her touch or view.

“I’m sorry we were ornery to you, honeybee,” he whispered, kissing her ear. “But you were so fun to tease.”

Travis was about to lose his thinly stretched self-control. When Tess gazed up at him, all soft and dewy-eyed, he knew he was a goner. He thrilled at the feel of her soft body against his.

Where his was solid angles and planes, hers was sweet comfort and lush curves. Tipping her chin up, he watched her eyes slowly close and lips part as she anticipated his kiss.

Before he could deliver on the unspoken promise, he heard Brice and Danny outside.

“Hey, you two in there? We’ve got a problem,” Brice hollered, banging on the open door as he ducked inside. Looking around he smiled at the well-preserved remnants of childhood that decorated the one-room building. He smiled even bigger as he watched Tess and Travis jump away from each other. Brice had figured out a few weeks ago the problem eating at Tess was her growing attraction for Travis. Getting the idea the feeling was mutual, he’d been doing his best to throw the two of them together every chance he could. He wouldn’t have interrupted them now, but there was a mad bull on the loose and help was needed in getting him corralled.

“So what’s the problem, BB?” Tess asked, walking toward the door and stepping outside. She hoped the fresh air would help her regain her senses and calm down.

“You know Trent’s new prize bull?” Brice asked, as they remounted the horses.

“Leroy?” Travis asked.

“Yeah, he got a bee in his bonnet, smashed down some fence and is on the lam. We need some help getting him back where he’s supposed to be and then fixing fence.”

“Let’s go,” Travis said, letting Brice and Danny lead the charge. He wondered what would have happened if Brice hadn’t interrupted them. Looking over at Tess’ flushed face he could only guess that she was as rattled as he felt right now.

Travis was going to have to speak to Trent about the bad behavior of his stupid bull.

Chapter Ten

Love is a battle, love is a war;

love is a growing up.

James A. Baldwin

Travis knocked on his mother’s door early Friday evening and stepped inside. He listened but didn’t hear anything. Both Tess’ and his mom’s car were parked outside, so he assumed they were home.

“Hello? Anyone here?” he called, walking into the kitchen. He heard soft voices and then his mother appeared in the hallway.

“Hey, baby. What brings you into town tonight? Got a hot date?” Denni asked giving him a warm hug.

“Yep, with my best girl if she’ll go out to dinner with me,” Travis said, giving his mom a charming smile.

“Are you pulling my leg Travis Aaron Thompson?” Denni asked, hands fisted at her sides.

“No, Mama. I thought you might like to go try that new restaurant for yourself. What do you say?” Travis said, enjoying the smile that bloomed on his mother’s face.

“I say give me five minutes to change and I’ll be ready to go.” Denni hurried out of the room.

Travis wandered into the front room and waited for his mom. Sitting down on the couch, he thumbed through a magazine, glad he decided to surprise his mom. The joy on her face when he asked her to dinner was worth the extra effort to finish his work early and get into town at a decent hour.

“Oh, hey, Trav,” Tess said, stepping into the room dressed in the red and black dress Jenny helped her pick out with the sky-high black heels. Smiling, she gathered up her purse and keys. “That’s great you are taking your mom out for dinner. She is so excited.”

Stealing his breath away when she walked in the room, Travis was unable to respond. He sat on his hands to keep from going to her and running his fingers up and down the tantalizing curves highlighted by the black stripe down each side of her red dress. Her hair hung in shiny curls down her back and her big brown eyes sparkled, while her scent teased his nose. Then there were those sexy heels that highlighted the shape of her legs. Tess was all curves, warmth, and soft enticing woman.

Travis thought he might hyperventilate.

Finally, he let out a long, low whistle.

“Honeybee, you look amazing.” Travis was pretty sure his temperature had spiked at least ten degrees in the last two minutes and fought the urge to wipe his chin to make sure he wasn’t slobbering all over himself.

“Thank you,” Tess said, blushing under his intense scrutiny. If she didn’t know better, Travis looked like he was on the verge of devouring her, and that thought made a shiver race up her spine.

“Where are you heading?” Travis finally asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Rick’s taking me out to dinner and a movie,” Tess said, glancing at her watch.

Travis hoped lover boy was running late. Maybe he had a flat tire. If he was lucky, he wouldn’t show up at all.

Travis knew keen disappointment when the doorbell rang a few moments later. Tess opened the door and greeted the good doctor with a kiss to his cheek.

“Wow, Tess, you look great. I remember this dress from the night I saw you in Portland,” Rick said, putting his hands around her waist and drawing her close to his side.

Travis jumped to his feet and fought back the urge to bust the doctor’s nose. It was a perfect nose, set in a pretty-boy face with a chiseled jaw, green eyes and wavy blond hair. That was so typical of a woman, to go for the all-American guy. From what his mom said, Rick was really nice on top of everything else.

“Hi, I’m Travis. Just an old friend of Tess,” Travis said, sticking his hand out to Rick.

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Rick Martin,” Rick said sizing up the tall, muscular man in front of him, not happy with what he saw. It took him less than a minute to surmise the good-looking cowboy was in love with Tess. That could be a problem. “Are you Mrs. Thompson’s son Travis?” Rick asked, making the connection.

“The one and only,” Travis said with an easy grin he was far from feeling. His neck muscles were so tense he thought his shoulders might become permanently attached to his ears.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you,” Rick said, putting a possessive arm around Tess’ shoulder. “We better hurry, Tess, if we want to make our reservation. I would have been here sooner, but traffic out of Portland was a real bear.”

“No worries,” Tess said, walking out the door. She turned and waved at Travis before Rick shut it behind her.

Sinking down on the couch, Travis put his face in his hands and struggled to breathe.

He heard his mother banging around in the kitchen then felt her hand on his shoulder.