Travis glowered. Slade went right on smiling.
"Oh, hell," Travis said, after a few seconds, and he grinned and threw his arms around his brother. "Can't get away with a thing when you're around." He stepped back and looked Slade over. "Still ugly as ever, I see."
Slade eyed him back, taking in the dark gray trousers, white-on-white shirt complete with maroon silk tie dangling from the open neck and grinned.
"Yup. It must run in the family."
Travis laughed, reached into the plane and began unloading his things. "Gage hasn't changed his mind again, has he? He's still coming, right?"
"Yeah, he'll be here. Jeez, man, what'd you do? Bring along your whole office?"
"Some of us know what it means to put in a day's work, kid," Travis said as he handed over his jacket, briefcase and computer. "I came to this oven straight from a meeting."
"Now he's gonna name-drop," Slade said, rolling his eyes skyward. "Go on, drop those Hollywood names all over the place. See if it means anything to me that you're up to your kneecaps in blond bimbettes just achin' to demonstrate their talents in your bed."
"I am not up to anything in blondes," Travis said sharply.
Slade's eyebrows rose. "Okay. Whatever you say."
"And why'd you make that crack, anyway?"
"Hey, man, it was just a—"
"Not all blondes are bimbettes. And not every woman who comes onto a man is—is..." His voice faded away. "Holy hell," he muttered.
"Uh, Trav? Did I put my foot into a cow pie just now, or something?"
"Or something," Travis said, after a second. He laughed, or tried to. "It's the heat. This darned Texas heat. I'm just not used to it anymore."
"Uh-huh."
"It's like an oven."
"You already said that."
"Well, I'm saying it again. Dammit, Slade—"
"Dammit, Travis; why are you so busy tryin' to change the subject?"
"What subject?"
"The subject of why you almost took my head off just now?"
The brothers had reached the Jeep Slade had left parked on the grass. They paused on opposite sides of the vehicle and looked at each other across its roof.
It would be so easy to tell him, Travis thought. To just say, "You remember that auction? And the blonde I told you about? Well, I spent the day in bed with her. And yeah„ I'm too old to think babes like that are worth a man's time but the thing is, see, I keep thinking about her, and remembering little things that don't add up. Like the way she turned cold and threw me out, though she'd cried, that last time she came in my arms..."
"Trav?"
Travis blinked. Slade was staring at him with a worried look on his face. What was he going to do? Make the look permanent by telling him stuff not even he, himself, could understand? No way, he thought, and forced a smile to his lips.
"You know what I need, kid?"
"No. And, apparently, neither do you."
Travis grinned and tossed his things into the Jeep. "I need a shower. A change of clothes. A bottle of beer and a maybe a swim down at the old creek."
Slade grinned back at him. "I thought you Hollywood types were into vintage vino?"
"You know what they say, my man. When in Rome..."
"...drink Texas Red. Make that two bottles, icy-cold, and you're on."
Travis smiled and offered his hand. Slade clasped it in the intricate, secret Los Lobos handshake of their childhood.
"We're lean," Travis said.
Slade smiled. "We're mean."
"We're part of the team," they said in unison.
Laughing, they climbed into the Jeep and sped toward the house.
The shower and the change of clothes helped. So did the first beer.
An hour after that, seated on the deck and watching a pair of tiny hummingbirds fight a duel over bragging rights to a patch of honeysuckle, Travis had just about decided this weekend in the country might do him some good, after all.
Slade had gone back into the house to collect another couple of cold beers. All was almost right with the world. Now, if only Catie would show up...
"Travis!"
He looked up, grinned and got to his feet in time to catch his stepsister in his arms and whirl her around.
"Hey, darlin'," he said, kissing her soundly on each cheek, "I was starting to wonder if you'd decided to ditch this whole party thing."
Caitlin wrinkled her nose. "Fat chance, considering that it was my idea."
"With a little prompting from Jonas, huh?"
She smiled. "Well, maybe just a little. When did you get in?"
"An hour ago." He pulled a long face. "I was pretty disappointed that you weren't part of the welcoming committee."