She nodded. “Of course. Where else would I be?”
His grin turn mischievous. “In the arms of whoever sent those flowers?”
“Mind your own business, Shane. And while you’re at it, have a nice evening,”
she said, closing the door behind him.
She’d only made it halfway across the living room before a short knock had her turning back. “What part of ‘it’s none of your concern’ don’t you understand?”
she asked as she jerked the door open.
“I take it that I’m not who you were expecting to see.”
Fin’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of Travis. He and Shane couldn’t have missed each other by more than a matter of seconds.
“I’m sorry, Travis,” she apologized, standing back for him to enter her apartment. “Shane felt it was his duty to give me the third degree about missing work.”
He nodded as he removed his hat and coat, then tossing them onto one of the armchairs, he reached out to pull her into his arms. “Yeah, when Jess and I had lunch this afternoon, she said that you’d put Cade in charge for the day and
wondered if you’d said anything about not feeling well at supper last night.”
It was completely insane, considering the circumstances, but his strong arms surrounding her made her feel secure and more at peace than she could ever remember. “What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
Fearing Jessie’s reaction, Fin’s voice trembled. “Y-you told her I’m pregnant?”
“No.” Stepping back, he kept his arm around her shoulders as he led her over to sit on the couch. “Jess asked if you’d mentioned it over supper, which you didn’t. I made it a point not to say anything about knowing that the sickness thing didn’t show up until this morning.”
Fin breathed a sigh of relief. “I know how close you and Jessie are, but would you mind me telling her about the baby?”
“To be perfectly honest, I’d really like it if you did.” He gave her a sheepish grin and hugged her close. “When Jessie was a teenager, one of my biggest fears as a father was that one day she’d tell me some pimple-faced kid had gotten her in trouble.”
“Didn’t you trust her?” Was Travis more like Patrick than she’d thought?
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve always had all the faith in the world in my daughter. It was the teenage boys with more hormones than good sense trying to talk the prettiest girl in the county into climbing in the back of their daddy’s pickup truck that gave me nightmares.”
Fin couldn’t help but smile. “You’re a wonderful father, Travis.”
He shrugged one broad shoulder. “As hard as it is to believe, I was a teenage boy once.” He chuckled. “Hell, at the age of seventeen, I think I was hard about seventy-five percent of the time. And if the truth is known, I probably caused more than a few dads some sleepless nights myself.”
If he was even half as good-looking in his youth as he was now, she could imagine that he had worried several girls’ fathers. “I suppose it is rather ironic that the very thing you feared for Jessie has happened to you now.”
He put some space between them in order to face her. “I know this was the last thing we expected to have happen and you have every right to blame me for not protecting you that night in the barn, but I’ve spent the day thinking about it.” He ran his hand through his thick hair. “Hell, I haven’t been able to think of anything else.”
“Me, either,” she said, reaching up to cup his face in her palm. “But I don’t want you to think that I’m assigning blame or that I regret what’s happened.”
“You don’t?”
“Not at all.” Placing her hand on her still flat stomach, she smiled. “This is a second chance for me. I missed out on so much when I was forced to put Jessie up for adoption. I never got to see her take her first step or hear her say her first word.”
“Horsey.”
“Excuse me?”
His grin widened. “‘Horsey’ was the first thing she said.”
Fin laughed. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? She’s always talking about her horse, Oscar.”
“He loves her just as much as she loves him.” Laughing, Travis shook his head.
“I’ve never seen a horse mope around like he’s on his last leg for weeks at a time, then perk up like a new colt the minute she comes home for a visit.”
Uncharacteristic tears filled Fin’s eyes and she cursed her hormones for making her so darned emotional. “Thank you for giving her such a wonderful childhood, Travis.”