Stranger in the Moonlight (Edilean 7)

“Sorry,” he said, and he did look contrite. “I’m not used to telling anyone where I’m going or when I’ll return.” He hesitated. “Or anyone caring. Can you go out with me now? Please?”

His dark eyes were pleading, enticing even. She gave in. She went to Carla and asked if she’d look after the store for a while.

Carla bent down behind a counter and motioned for Kim to come down too. “Who is he? Where did you find him? Is he the emergency you had Sunday? Does Dave know about him?”

Kim stood up.

“Does he know about Dave?” Carla asked from her squatting position.

Kim rolled her eyes, got her purse out of the back, and left the store with Travis.

Before them was the entire town of Edilean, which meant there were two squares, one with a giant oak tree in the center of it.

“Shall we go sit over there?” Travis asked as he nodded toward the benches under the tree. He’d dropped his flirtatious demeanor and was again the Travis she knew.

There wasn’t much traffic in the little town as they crossed the road. Politely, he let her sit down before he sat beside her.

“Your shop is nice. Maybe someday when there are no customers, you’ll show me around it.”

“But would you enjoy it without customers?”

“I promise, no more flirting with them. Although they did buy some nice pieces. I like your things better than what I’ve seen in jewelry stores in New York.”

She knew he was flattering her, but he looked so worried that she wouldn’t forgive him, that she did. She smiled at him. “So what did you want to talk to me about?” When he didn’t answer right away, she said, “Last night, how bad was it with your mother?”

For a moment he looked ahead and didn’t answer, and she got the idea that something was bothering him. “Remember that I said she could go either way, happy or angry?”

“I know that you said women are unpredictable.”

“And you promised me Star Wars disks.”

“Star Trek, and no they’re not the same. Which way did your mom go?”

“Angry.”

Kim looked at him in sympathy, and she could tell that there was more to what had been said than just for Travis to stay out of it. “Was it very bad?”

He was quiet for a moment. “My father bawls me out all the time. He has a vile temper and he uses it to scare people.”

“Are you afraid of him?”

“Not in the least.” Travis gave a little half smile. “In fact, I like to do things to set him off.”

“But if he fired you . . . ?”

Travis laughed. “Think I don’t want him to? Which he knows. Anyway, Dad says things to me that should be demoralizing and I laugh at him. But my sweet little mother . . .” He waved his hand.

“I understand,” Kim said. “My mother screams at me until her face is red, but I pay no attention to her. But one time when I was in the fourth grade my father said, ‘Kim, I’m disappointed in you.’ I got so upset my mother made him apologize to me.”

Looking at her, Travis shook his head. “Your family sounds so normal. I can’t imagine my mother ‘making’ my dad do anything. She crumbles in front of him.”

Kim had some ideas about

how his mother should have stood up to her husband when Travis was a boy, but she didn’t think now was the time to say so. “If your mother thinks this is none of your business, why did she call and tell you she wanted a divorce?”

“That’s exactly what I asked her. Unfortunately, it was after I had made some rather unfortunate remarks about the man she wants to marry.”

“You didn’t!”