“I didn’t say he was, but it’s putting me in a prime position to follow in his footsteps.”
“Travis wouldn’t do that to you. I think you underestimate just how much you mean to him. If you’d just tell him—,”
“No. We didn’t leave everything behind to have everyone here look at me the way they did in Wichita. Let’s focus on the problem at hand. Shep is waiting for you.”
“I don’t want to talk about Shep,” she said, slowing to a stop at the light.
“He’s miserable, Mare. He loves you.”
Her eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip quivered. “I don’t care.”
“Yes you do.”
“I know,” she whimpered, leaning against my shoulder.
She cried until the light changed, and then I kissed her head. “Green light.”
She sat up, wiping her nose. “I was pretty mean to him earlier. I don’t think he’ll talk to me now.”
“He’ll talk to you. He knew you were mad.”
America wiped her face, and then made a slow u-turn. I was worried it would take a lot of coaxing on my part to get her to come in with me, but Shepley ran down the stairs before she turned off the ignition.
He yanked open her car door, pulling her to her feet. “I’m so sorry, Baby. I should have minded my own business, I…please don’t leave. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
America took his face in her hands and smiled. “You’re an arrogant ass, but I still love you.”
Shepley kissed her over and over like he hadn’t seen her in months, and I smiled at a job well done. Travis stood in the doorway, grinning as I made my way into the apartment.
“And they lived happily ever after,” Travis said, shutting the door behind me.
I collapsed on the couch, and he sat next to me, pulling my legs onto his lap.
“What do you wanna do today, Pidge?”
“Sleep. Or rest…or sleep.”
“Can I give you your present, first?”
I pushed his shoulder. “Shut up. You got me a present?”
His mouth curved into a nervous smile. “It’s not a diamond bracelet, but I thought you’d like it.”
“I’ll love it, sight unseen.”
He lifted my legs off of his lap, and then disappeared into Shepley’s bedroom. I raised an eyebrow when I heard him murmuring, and then he emerged with a box. He sat it on the floor at my feet, crouching behind it.
“Hurry, I want you to be surprised,” he smiled.
“Hurry?” I asked, lifting the lid.
My mouth fell open when a pair of big, dark eyes looked up at me.
“A puppy?” I shrieked, reaching into the box. I lifted the dark, wiry-haired baby to my face, and it covered my mouth in warm, wet kisses.
Travis beamed, triumphant. “You like him?”
“Him? I love him! You got me a puppy!”
“It’s a Cairn Terrier. I had to drive three hours to pick him up Thursday after class.”
“So when you said you were going with Shepley to take his car to the shop….”
“We went to get your present,” he nodded.
“He’s wiggly!” I laughed.
“Every girl from Kansas needs a Toto,” Travis said, helping me hang on to the tiny fuzz ball in my lap.
“He does look like Toto! That’s what I’m going to call him,” I said, wrinkling my nose at the squirmy pup.
“You can keep him here. I’ll take care of him for you when you’re back at Morgan,” his mouth pulled up into a half-smile, “and it’s my security that you’ll visit when your month is up.”
I pressed my lips together. “I would have come back, anyway, Trav.”
“I’d do anything for that smile that’s on your face right now.”
“I think you need a nap, Toto. Yes, you do,” I cooed to the puppy.
Travis nodded, pulled me onto his lap, and then stood up. “Come on, then.”
He carried me into his bedroom, pulled back the covers, and then lowered me to the mattress. Crawling over me, he reached over to pull the curtains closed, and then fell onto his pillow.
“Thanks for staying with me last night,” I said, stroking Toto’s soft fur. “You didn’t have to sleep on the bathroom floor.”