He laughs and comes to me, pushing me into the bathroom. "Time to take a shower."
I don’t even argue with him, and when I finally get out of the shower, the water is ice cold and my hands are pruned up. "I don’t have anything for dinner," I inform him, wrapping a towel around myself. He steps out of the shower after me, grabbing his own towel. "I’m sure I can whip something up." I grab a shirt and ignore the way he tries not to laugh. "I cooked last time and it was fine."
"That was not you who cooked it, and you know it." He smirks at me and kisses my shoulder.
"You’re lucky I like you." I glare at him, walking out of the bathroom and going to the kitchen. I open the freezer and cheer when I see that I have a couple of frozen meals that my grandmother made for me. I slip them into the oven and hear him walking out of the room wearing his boxers.
"I found two meals. I don’t know what they are but my grandmother made them, so they should be good," I explain, and he wraps his arms around my waist.
"Then I think we are safe.” He laughs loud, letting me go and then going to sit down on the chair.
"There is the family barbecue." I look over at him. "Tomorrow for lunch."
I watch his face and see the nerves settle in. "Well, better now than on our wedding day." He laughs nervously and my heart speeds up. In this whole thing I never even thought about what happens next. "Hey," he says and I look up at him. "Later," he tells me. "Tell me who will be there?"
"Pretty much my whole family," I share and he groans and puts his head back.
"Good, so everyone who wants to shoot me in the ass," he says and I can’t help but laugh.
"Not everyone." I look over at him. "My grandmother might still like you."
"Good to know." He shakes his head and we spend the night, just us, together.
When I pull up to the house the next day, the number of cars is staggering. "Jesus, it looks like it’s doubled since I was here last."
"Lots of kids grew up," I reply, getting out and walking in front of the car to meet him. He’s wearing blue jeans and a white shirt and he looks just as handsome as he did when I first saw him. He slips his hand over mine as we walk toward the back of the house.
"Oh, look, it’s the Bobbsey twins,” Reed says when we see him. "Did you guys really have to dress the same to get that united-front look?”
Travis laughs and leans down to kiss my head. "I want to make sure everyone knows she’s mine."
All Reed does is fake vomit and then yells across the lawn, "Harlow is here and she brought a boy!” All eyes turn to us and he squeezes my hand a little tighter than he should. He slaps Travis on the shoulder. "Welcome back." He snickers and then takes off to find Hazel.
"It’s going to be fine," I mumble under my breath. "The first thing we have to do is say hello to my grandparents and then work our way down the family."
"That sounds like a plan," he mumbles back. "I mean, he’s older now, so chances are if he shot me, he would miss."
I can’t help but laugh as we walk toward my grandparents who are sitting together. "Well, well, well," my grandmother says with her head tilted to the side. "Look at what the cat dragged in."
"Oh, dear," I say, suddenly thinking that maybe this wasn’t the brightest idea I’ve ever had. Perhaps I should have eased into it instead of just jumping into the deepest part of the river.
"Hello," Travis greets from beside me. "Mr. and Mrs. Barnes, good to see you again."
"Is it?" my grandfather inquires, leaning back in his chair. He wears his jeans and button-down checkered shirt with his white cowboy hat that he never goes without. He looks at me, and even though he’s got the tough exterior, I can see the lightness in his eyes. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his family, even accepting Travis after he hurt me. "Heard you got married." He glares at Travis.
Chapter 27
Travis
"Hello," I say nervously from beside Harlow. "Mr. and Mrs. Barnes, good to see you again." I nod politely and ignore the need to vomit. My eyes go from her grandmother to her grandfather.
"Is it?" her grandfather, Billy, says. He is the stamp of what a cowboy is. Every single time I’ve met him he’s wore his white cowboy hat and jeans. He also has always scared the shit out of me. "Heard you got married." He glares at me.
"You must have heard wrong," I say, the pit of my stomach sinking.
"I’m a lot of things," he replies, sitting up in his chair. "But hard of hearing isn’t one of them." His eyes go even smaller, and the glare would have anyone quaking in their boots.
"Oh, please." I hear laughter from beside him and turn to see Charlotte just shaking her head. "It took me six times to call you for breakfast this morning."
"Dammit, woman," he says, chuckling. "I’m trying to be serious." He leans and kisses her lips. "He was scared." He points at me, and I can’t disagree with him.
"Oh, please," Charlotte says, then turns to me. "Welcome back." She smiles big. "I saved you this time. I won’t the next."
I nod at them both and pick up my hand that is in Harlow’s and kiss her fingers. "There won’t be a next time."
"Well, I think there are other people here that are waiting to say hello to us," Harlow reminds me. "Or at least ask him if he’s married." She hits me with her hip and tries to hide the smile while I groan.
"We’ll see you later," Charlotte says, leaning back in her chair and looking out.
When we get far enough away, I look over my shoulder to see Billy still staring at me. "See, that wasn’t so bad," Harlow says as we walk deeper into the yard.
"Easy for you to say, he didn’t glare at you," I mumble and then bump into a girl who is running. Her pigtails are lopsided, and she smiles when she sees Harlow.
"Auntie Harlow." She jumps into her arms. "Gabriel is chasing me and telling me that he’s going to take my nose." She covers her nose right away, believing he can take her nose.
"Elodie." She says her name, and my eyes widen; when I saw her last she was just a little thing just learning to walk. "I’ll protect you." She looks just like Willow.
She looks at me. "Who are you?"
"This is Travis," Harlow says. As soon as Gabriel comes behind her, he looks over at me and stands there with his chest puffing out. He’s a teenager now, and he’s definitely gotten bigger.
"My dad called you a ding dong," Elodie says, and Harlow tries not to laugh.
"That’s not true," Gabriel says from behind her. "He called him a dipshit."
"Gabriel McIntyre," Harlow says his full name. "Watch that mouth of yours."
"Sorry, Aunt Harlow." He shrugs. "Just passing along the message."
"Well, do it kindly." Harlow kisses Elodie on the cheek and puts her down.
"How kindly do you call someone a dipshit?" Gabriel folds his arms over his chest, and if he was tatted, he would look exactly like his father, Ethan.
"I think it’s ding dong," I joke with him, or at least I try to, and he laughs even though I know he really doesn’t want to laugh.
"There you are,” Quinn says when he gets close to us. "Mom has been looking for you," he says to Elodie, who leans toward him and he takes her in his arms.
"Dad," she says, and he looks down at her. "Is ding dong nicer than dipshit?" His eyes go right away to Gabriel.
"Oh, my," Gabriel says, trying not to laugh while he grabs his neck. "In my defense, I was just repeating what you said about Travis."
"Okay," Harlow interjects. "This is enough." She points at Gabriel. "You need to make sure everyone knows that he’s not a dipshit and that he was never married."
She then turns to Quinn. "You need to watch your mouth in front of people before I tell Mom that you are swearing in front of the kids.” Quinn just glares at her. "And you." She turns to me. "I’m sorry that this isn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I’m sure the next time will be better."
"One can hope,” Quinn says and then Harlow glares at him. "Fine, I’ll be nice." She folds her hands over her chest. "Nicer than I am."