Page 71 of Second Chance Baby
Penn laughed heartily. “You’re about as little as they come here. She means kids. Many babies in the Cove.”
“Oh.” Rita wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, I haven’t given those much thought.”
“You’ll be thinking about them now.” With a wink, I patted her arm. “I’d love having you close. I’m kind of in the market for some girlfriends.”
She exchanged a look with Penn that I couldn’t quite read. “Funny, me too.”
“Well, seems like our timing is good here all around then.” Travis slung his arm around my shoulders. “We have Halloween decorations to fuss with before our kid gets back, so we’ll just leave you to…whatever.”
“Whatever works for me.” Penn’s smirk made me laugh before we waved and headed back up the hill toward home.
The minute we were a few feet away, I whispered, “Pretty sure we will be friends. Don’t you think?”
“Yes. I do. Rita had some sadness in her eyes at the shoot, so if I’m on the right track, she could use one.” Travis squeezed my hand. “She could use you.”
“Aww, yeah? You really think so?”
“I really do. You don’t know how much untapped awesome you have inside of you, but I have no trouble reminding you hourly if needed.”
I gave into a sniffle. But I was still smiling. I might never stop smiling again. Maybe coming back home had turned me into a sap. I wasn’t going to make any apologies for it. In fact, I was sadly overdue.
“I can’t believe you announced we wanted more kids.” He rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. “Whatever has gotten into you, I love it.”
“Well, you’re the only one who’s gotten into me, so maybe it’s due to you?”
He turned me toward him on the path, brushing my hair out of my face as he tilted my chin upward. “You’re so gorgeous in moonlight.” He looked up at the crescent moon in the spooky dark blue sky scattered with wispy clouds. “Harvest moon,” he said softly. “Halloween will be here soon.”
“Yeah. Halloween as a family.” I shut my eyes for a moment. “I’m so grateful for all I’ve been given. I never expected to get so lucky. I know how badly I fucked up…”
“Shh. My mom is big on couples’ therapy now as I mentioned before, and when and if we want to go deeper, we can try that. But I don’t want you to beat yourself up anymore than you already have. Learning and growing is more than half the battle. So, let’s just enjoy that, okay? And maybe watch a movie while Carrington is out.” He waggled his eyebrows, and I pretended not to understand.
“Another Halloween one?” I asked in my most innocent voice.
“No. A French one. We’ll get our fill of Halloween with finishing setting up the decorations.”
“If you insist.” I leaned up to nip his chin, stroking his growing in beard with my fingertips. “I like this on you. You don’t have to shave.”
“Oh, I don’t, do I?”
“No. Feel free to get as woolly as you want to. Since it will be winter soon, might as well grow hair for warmth.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzled my neck. “I’d rather you keep me warm.”
“That can be arranged too. But I’m enjoying the little bits of silver here and there.” I gave into my urge to pat his cheek, laughing a little as he growled playfully.
“I’m not a silver fox yet.”
“But soon maybe?” I looked up at him hopefully. “Hey, does your dad have silver hair now?”
He laughed openly at me. “He actually went salt and pepper on his way to pure white, where he is right now. Sadly, you missed the silver days.”
“Eh, not thinking about your dad so much, more you. But I’ll definitely get to see your silver rainbow on the way to white-haired-old-man-yet-still-sexy Travis.”
“If you say so. Daphne already warned me I’d probably find more work if I aimed for the silver fox market, since I’m heading into my upper thirties. Instead, I planned on doing construction with a friend.”
“School friend?”
He shook his head. “John Gideon—he’s married to the coffee queen of the Cove. I like the thought of sticking closer to home. Then I ended up doing a shoot with the most gorgeous fucking model in the world, which I guess sent my stock soaring a bit.” He grabbed my hand as we started walking up the trail again, swinging our linked hands between us like the old days.