Texas Heat (Stubborn Texas Siblings Book 2) (4 page)

Chapter 5

It was getting late and Laurie was exhausted before she
finally gave in and called her house to ask Travis to come
and get her. When he got to the garage, she’d climbed into
the passenger seat of her own truck and closed her eyes,
sighing in relief. It was nice to have someone else who
could do the driving without having to lean on one of her
brothers. There was definitely something to be said for
having someone around at times like this.

“Thanks for coming to get me,” she said, yawning widely.
“I couldn’t have kept my eyes open for another ten minutes
to save my own life,” she told him, reaching for her seat
belt and rolling her head to the side. “I just want to crawl
into my bed and sleep for twelve hours straight.”

“Was it that bad?” he asked, pulling the truck back out onto
the road. “My car’s that much of a mess?”

“The transmission needs a complete rebuild, you have
an
exhaust leak, one of the lifters in the engine isn’t lifting,
and there are at least four vacuum hoses I’ve found so far
that are either cracked or just flat out busted. It’s a miracle
the car got you more than five feet before it broke down.”
“Ouch,” he murmured under his breath. “Do I even want to
know how long that’s going to take to fix? I’m not going to
be stuck here for months, am I?”

“I don’t mean to brag,” she answered, yawning widely
again. “But I’m damn good at what I do. I’ll have you back
up and running in no time. I just have to wait until a few of
the parts I need for the transmission get here before I can
put it back together. It should be ready in a few days. By
the end of next week at the very latest, and that is definitely
the worst possible case scenario. I honestly don’t think it’ll
take anywhere near that long. Your car is my number one
priority,” she assured him. “I won’t stop until it’s fixed or
until I’m ready to fall down each day.”

It was a promise Travis could tell she intended to keep and
his respect for her grew ten-fold.

“I appreciate your making it the most important thing on
your to do list,” he told her quietly. “My Ma would thank
you too, if she knew what was going on. I’d tell her, but I
don’t want to freak her out. She’s got more than her fair
share of problems without having to worry about my car.”

“Didn’t you say she was expecting you, though? Wouldn’t
it be best for you to let her know you’ve been delayed?”
she asked, glancing over at him out of her half-lidded eyes.
She was nearing sleep and she knew it.

“She is expecting me… but I told her it might take me a
few days longer before I could start out than it actually did.
Plus, she most likely thinks I’m stopping at night along the
road. It’s a mighty long drive from Kentucky to Wyoming.
So far, I’ve just taken catnaps in my car, only stopping for
food or gas. I’ve made crazy good time... or at least I had
been until my car crapped out on me.”

Laurie was silent the rest of the way to her house and when
Travis parked the truck; he looked over at her to find her
sound asleep. Grinning widely, he got out of the truck and
went to go open the front door. After it was standing wide
open, he went back to the truck and picked her up. His long
legs ate up the distance between the truck and the house as
his body reacted to the hot body in his arms.

When he lowered her into her bed, he couldn’t help but kiss
her. She was too beautiful and his body was primed and
ready for action. A simple kiss was necessary; it wasn’t too
much to ask for. Not when she was sleeping and would
never remember anyways. All would be well with the
world.

She groaned when his lips brushed across hers and her arms
snaked up and around his neck. Her grip was strong and she
tugged him down onto the bed with her, her lips, teeth and
tongue desperately clung to his mouth. She was like a
sexually charged nymphomaniac as she wrapped her legs
around his waist, forcing him to settle his body between
them. If it wasn’t for their clothes, they would have been
going at it hot and heavy already and Travis wasn’t even
sure how it had happened; nor did he quite frankly care. He
was too hot for her to do anything more than take whatever
she was willing to offer him.

His hand shook as he moved it to the buttons on her shirt.
He needed to touch her, skin to skin. The way she was
making him burn by rubbing up against him, he was lucky
he hadn’t caught fire altogether.

The phone rang over on her dresser as he popped the fourth
and final button open on her shirt. A deep groan escaped
from him as her eyes popped open in shock and she sat
upright, knocking him to the floor. “What?” she asked,
looking around her in confusion. She saw the way he was
half dressed and her eyes snapped down to her own open
shirt.

Shaking the sleep from her mind while trying to come to
grips with the fact that her dream was actually reality, she
got up, tugging the edges of her shirt together as she headed
for the phone. “We’ll talk about what was going on here
when I get off the phone,” she told him in a shaky voice.

Travis hung his head between his legs to try to force the
blood back into it. It had all rushed south to the body part
that was most anxious to see where Laurie had meant to
take them. He was sure, if that phone wouldn’t have rang,
he would have been buried deep within her body, bringing
them both extreme pleasure by now.

Laurie smiled so widely, all Travis could think about was
dragging her back into the bed and taking those hotter than
Hell kisses to their natural conclusion. This woman was
entirely too gorgeous for her own good. He tried
concentrating on her side of the conversation, but he was
too far gone to pull it off. All her words sounded like the
adults voices in the Charlie Brown movies to him.
When she hung the phone up and turned around to face
him, he almost stumbled and fell at the sight of her brilliant
smile. “That was my supplier,” she said excitedly. “They
got the parts I needed for your car and guaranteed me
delivery in two days’ time. At this rate, you’ll be able to get
back on the road towards your Mom’s house before the
week’s end.”

“That’s amazing,” he said, rubbing his hand over his head,
wondering what to do about the fact that he had completely
forgotten about his mother and what she was going
through, thanks to his intense desire for his host.

“I aim to please,” she told him proudly.

“In that case, you could come back to bed…” the words
were said huskily with a pleading tone that told Laurie in
no uncertain terms just how hard stopping in the middle of
things had been on him.

She sighed and settled on the edge of the bed just out of his
reach. “You must know that I thought I was dreaming…
I’m trying really hard to keep the promise I made to my
brothers about not getting involved with any more men
who have no intention of sticking around… We know
going in that as soon as I fix your car, you’re as good as out
of here.”

“Come with me,” he found himself saying. As he said the
words, he began to warm to them. “I sort of fed my Ma a
line of garbage about being married in order to make her
happy and keep her from worrying about me. She expects
me to bring my wife with me, and I don’t have the heart to
tell her the truth. You and I have a lot of natural chemistry,
Laurie. We could pull it off easily. It would do you good to
get away from your brothers interference for a few
weeks… What do you say? Will you be my pretend bride?”

Laurie’s eyes were wide and she clung to the edges of her
shirt which was still hanging open. “Are you serious?” she
asked in disbelief.

“I am,” Travis said, nodding his head in confirmation.

“Okay…” she had no idea if it was the right decision to
make or not, but after the heated scene in her bed, she knew
she had to take the chance. She’d never met a man who
could leave her that desperate so quickly.

“Really?” he asked, feeling floored that she had actually
agreed.

“Sure. But for now, I need to get some sleep. Now that I
know the parts will be here soon, I need to get the rest of
the car ready for me to put them in. That means an early
start for me tomorrow. I’ll just leave you here for the day…
If you need to go anywhere while I’m at work, you can
borrow my bicycle. It’s in the garage, hanging from a hook
on the wall by its tire. You can’t miss it. This… what
almost happened here… can’t happen again, Travis. At
least not for the next few days.”

Travis was sad, but he understood. They’d jumped more
than a few steps, coming so close to having sex. He could
have patience with her for a few days. The craziest thing
about this whole mess was that he respected her even more
for putting her work and her sense of duty to her brothers
ahead of her own longing. Even if it meant he had to climb
onto her couch bed for the second night in a row with a
hard-on the size of the great State he was currently in, with
no hope of any relief any time soon.

Knowing he had to do as she asked, Travis left her room
and headed towards the bathroom. If he had any hope of
getting a few hours of sleep that night, he needed a nice
long cold shower. As he climbed into the shower stall, he
reassured himself. It was only a matter of time before
Laurie gave in to the desire he knew she felt for him. When
that happened, he would be able to breathe again; and with
any luck, he’d be able to sleep without spending hours in a
cold shower with his old friend Rosy Palm.

Chapter 6

The next couple of days went much the same, with Travis
hanging out at Laurie’s house while she worked on his car.
When she came home at night, they ate a quiet supper
together and then they made out for a while before she
retired to her room and he spent an hour in her shower
cooling off before falling onto her sofa bed for the night.

It was late Friday evening when Laurie finally got the car
put back together and she climbed behind the wheel,
turning it over. It had been a long hard week full of work,
but the payoff was well worth it. The beautiful sound that
only a muscle car could make, rumbled beneath her and she
knew she just had to take it for a nice long test drive.
Thinking about how long it had been since she’d stopped
by her oldest brother’s house to check on his very pregnant
wife, she decided that Eric’s house would be the perfect
place to take Travis’s car.

As she pulled into her brother’s driveway, she saw both of
them look up. Surprise filled both of their faces when they
saw her climb out of Travis’s car. She walked over to them
like a woman with a purpose. When she stood beside Jeff,
she held her hands out to Eric’s son, Brian and the toddler
anxiously went to her.
Laurie looked at her big brother. “Sorry I came out without
any notice. I just finished rebuilding the car and had to take
it out for a test drive. Figured I hadn’t seen either of my
brothers for a while. Thought it was time. I also thought
perhaps I should check on my sister-inlaw.”

Eric grinned at the mention of his wife. “She’s working,
Laurie.”

“I can’t believe you allowed her out of your sight … or
anywhere near a car for that matter. As far along as she
is…”

“My wife has a mind of her own, Laurie.”

Jeff laughed and crossed his arms, leaning against a fence
post. “What he means is that he has no control over
Madeline.”

“Why would I want to control her? She’s a smart woman…
Besides, there is no safer place on the planet for her to be
than the hospital where she works. She’s two floors from
the maternity ward and she’s surrounded by doctors. As to
driving, I took her to work myself and when her shift
comes to an end, I have every intention of going to pick her
up if she can’t get a ride with a friend.”

“Quite frankly, I’m amazed you let her out of your sight at
all,” Laurie said, juggling the excitable toddler on her hip.
She looked up where Lillie Rose was giggling as the pony
she was riding sped up. “Nor can I believe you actually
allowed your daughter to climb on a horse without you.”
“What can I say?” Eric asked, shrugging his shoulders.
“Maddie has taught me how to let go of my need to control
everything. I have to trust my wife and her ability to take
care of herself, and I have to show my daughter that I trust
her… She has to have confidence in herself and she’s not
going to get that if I’m hovering over her, acting like she’s
going to fail at every little thing.”

“When’s the last time you went to Victoria’s grave? Or do
you even bother now that you’ve got this new family?”
Laurie asked, searching Eric’s eyes for the truth.

“I took the whole family to go see her just last weekend.
I’m not ignoring my past, sis… I just came to the
realization that I can’t let it consume me or control how I
live my life in the present.”

“Madeline has been really good for him, sis,” Jeff said,
resting his hand on Eric’s shoulder. She turned her head to
look at her little brother and arched a single eyebrow at
him.

“I’m glad about that… but I have to ask. If you are so
supportive of our big brother moving on with his life, when
are you going to follow his example? When are you going
to give up your adolescent way of life and grow up
already?”

“I don’t have to allow a woman to trap me into a marriage
in order to grow up, Laurie.”

She rolled her eyes and Eric laughed. “As much as I agree
with you Laurie, you’re hardly one to talk. Last I checked,
you’re so busy fixing people’s cars, no man has ever come
onto your radar.”

Before Laurie could answer, Eric’s phone rang and his lips
curved in a wide smile. “That would be my wife… if you’ll
excuse me…” he walked away, lifting the cell phone to his
ear. He stilled in his steps and froze. Both of his siblings
rushed to his side, putting a hand on each shoulder in
support.

He was shaking when he hung up and he swallowed hard.
“I need a ride to the hospital… now. I’m not sure I can
drive right now…”

“What is it?” Jeff asked at the same time as Laurie asked
“What happened?”
“Maddie…” was all he uttered, his knees going weak.

Laurie rushed to the truck where the car seats were, placing
Brian in one of them while Jeff called out to the ranch hand
to keep an eye on Lillie Rose. Eric got in the passenger seat
and stared out the side window as Laurie drove.

She hadn’t even brought the truck to a full stop before Eric
jumped out and ran inside. He was long gone by the time
Jeff and Laurie made their way inside with Brian. There
was a group of women sitting in the waiting room and Jeff
recognized them as Madeline’s friends. He went over to
them and asked what was going on.

“All I know is that she was working and she wen
t into
labor… I got the call telling me that she’d passed out in the
middle of the contraction that had sent her to her feet.
Maddie had listed me as her next of kin before she met and
married Eric … I guess the woman who went into her file
to see who to contact was new or something. She had to
have pulled an old contact sheet. I was at the restaurant
with everyone else when I got the call. I swear, that’s all I
know.”

Laurie sat with Jeff for what felt like forever before they
heard confirmation that Madeline had given birth to a
healthy baby girl. Rocking the fussy little boy in her arms,
she turned to her little brother with a smile. “I need to get
the car back to its owner… would you mind coming back
to Eric’s with me so I can take the car back to the shop and
then bring his truck and Brian back here?”

Jeff nodded his head in agreement and happily went with
her, waving goodbye to her as she climbed back behind the
wheel of the muscle car. Before he could take off again,
Laurie cleared her throat. “Jeff… I need to ask you a
favor… You can consider it payback for keeping your
confidence about your excursion to get your bull and any
further secrets you want to keep from Eric.”

“Okay… now you’ve got my full attention,” he said
laughing.

“I’m taking off for a much needed vacation. I’ll be gone for
a few weeks. I need you and Eric to leave me alone and not
pester me every five minutes. I really need this time to
myself, little brother.”

“There’s a man involved… isn’t there
?” he asked
suspiciously.
“Yes,” she admitted quietly. “But he’s a really good man,
Jeff. He’s not a biker and he’s gainfully employed. You
need to trust me with my own life sometime, little brother
… Please?”

“Fine… but I swear to you, sis; if this yahoo so much as
touches one hair on your head and then dumps you,
breaking your heart, I’ll kill him with my bare hands; got
it?”

Laurie sighed heavily. “Yeah, yeah… and I also know
you’ll have to get in line behind Eric. It’s no wonder I’m
still single. With the two of you threatening any man who
so much as looks at me sideways, I’ll never get married.”

“I thought you weren’t worried about things like settling
into the staid life of a married woman,” Jeff teased her.

“No… that would be you,” Laurie said, laughing. “I’m just
working hard at what I do best to keep myself busy since
my overprotective brothers refuse to let me have a normal
romance like every other single woman on the planet.”

Jeff laughed and crossed his arms. “The only reason Eric
and I are so protective, is because you insist on sleeping
with the lowest of the low… the ones who have no
intention whatsoever of making an honest woman of you.”

“And what would you do if I scared off every woman
YOU
are interested in sleeping with because I know that you
have no intention of marrying them, Jeff?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” he said, squinting at her in a
threatening manner.
“I assure you, I would,” she said, nodding her head. “If you
refuse to back down and let me make my own choices for
myself. You can’t have it both ways, Jeff. You want me to
be quiet and stay out of your nonexistent love life, that’s
fine … but you need to do the same for me.”

“You drive a hard bargain,” Jeff said, rubbing his hand over
his chin.

“Take it or leave it, little brother; but know this. If you
mess this up for me, I’ll never forgive you. Not for as long
as I live.”

Jeff nodded his head and climbed back into Eric’s truck.
“I’ll keep quiet and tell our big brother that you’re out of
town for a few weeks, and that I have no idea where you
went or why. Just remember this later on down the road,
sis; because after this, you’re seriously going to owe me.
You know how Eric can get when he’s worried about one
of us.”

Laurie nodded her head and waved to him as he pulled out
of the driveway and left her alone. With a smile, she
climbed back into Travis’s car and turned it back towards
the garage. Before she could go home, she had to lock
things up at the shop.

She could hardly wait to see the look on Travis’s face when
she told him the car was ready.