“Oh, how nice.” Bets winked at Travis and returned to digging out scrapbooks. “I’m sure I have some pictures we can use for the wedding.”
Kacey, still trying to gain control of her panic, swallowed before asking, “Why do we need pictures?”
“You know.” Bets waved her hand in the air. “For the video montage! You have to have a video montage! They’re all the rage. You know, baby pictures, prom pictures, that sort of thing. Guests love it!”
“But what about Vegas?” Kacey asked in a hopeful voice.
“Posh.” Bets shook her head vigorously. “We’ll pay for the entire thing. And you’ll get married here, at Titus Abbey.”
“Swell,” Kacey mumbled then glared in Travis’s direction. He was gone. She leaned across the sofa and noticed him in the kitchen opening a beer. Oh, nectar of the gods! Just when she needed something strong the most, and Jake’s family thought she was pregnant.
Oh God. She was going to have to be a closet drinker. She would have to sneak down to the kitchen just to snag some tequila to numb the guilt and pain. His parents were going to kill her, and they would hate her forever. Which meant she actually had to marry him and then turn a blind eye to his inability to keep his pecker in his pants. And then she’d start hoarding and buying cats in order to fill the void in her life.
The drinking would get worse. Jake would hate her, and in a final desperate attempt to regain her youth, she’d die on the table trying to get plastic surgery.
This. Could. Not. Happen!
“I, uh, I’m going to see what Travis is up to!” Kacey bolted from her chair and ran into the kitchen.
Chapter Ten
Travis watched in amusement as Kacey continued to schmooze over the family as if she’d never left.
His own father, traitor that he was, just smiled and patted her hand continuously, like she was some sort of puppy.
Mother was even worse. At one point, he was convinced she was going to throw an actual party in honor of Kacey’s return. In a fit of pure joy, his mother had gone to the scrapbooks and pulled out every single picture of their childhood together and laid them all across the table.
Of course Jake was in every picture.
And naturally, Travis was in the background sulking.
Damn his brother. Always taking the limelight. Kacey had been his and never Travis’s. With a growl that was unfortunately out loud, Travis walked into the kitchen and grabbed an ice cold beer from the fridge. His parents, anticipating their arrival, had stocked the house with snacks — and enough alcohol to get wasted for a year.
Which actually sounded like quite the idea after all. He was stuck at this God-forsaken house until the whole escapade was over. And with the way things looked, Jake wasn’t going to be hanging out much, not with all that was going on at work.
Travis, being the responsible one that he was, had given the ranch hand a bonus to hire some extra high schoolers over the course of the summer, giving him more time with his parents and his grandmother — who, at this very minute, looked the peak of health.
“Grandma? Should you be out of bed?” Travis squinted at his tiny grandmother. Color had returned to her face, and she looked ready to go golfing. According to the doctor she was supposed to be taking it easy. After all, a mini-stroke was still a stroke.
“Where is she? Where is my sweet girl?” Grandma Nadine clapped her hands in front of her and sighed. Bright red lipstick stained her lips and an ungodly amount of eye shadow was beautifully brushed across her eyelids. Grandma had always been a knock-out, and at eighty-five she was still breaking hearts.
The latest conquest just so happened to be their next door neighbor, Mr. Casbon. The poor man walked his dog by their property at least three times a day. Travis used to worry the m
an would get overheated and have a stroke in the driveway, but he was relentless and never stopped his pilgrimage to wave at Grandma.
“Travis! I’m going to kill you! Give me that!” Kacey stormed into the kitchen and grabbed the beer out of his hand, throwing back the entire can before slamming it down onto the counter and accidently letting out a loud burp. She slapped her hands over her mouth, and her face turned red.
In that moment, Travis fell a little more in love with her, if that was even possible.
Grandma Nadine let out a hearty laugh. “Oh my, honey girl, still chugging beer in the kitchen away from the watchful eyes of this one’s parents, huh?” Grandma reached for Kacey and pulled her into a tight hug. “Mum’s the word. I think a margarita is just what this one needs here, Travis. Now why don’t you two run along and have some drinks out on the porch. I’ll take care of things in here. You just leave those two to me.” Grandma straightened her tight-fitting jacket and strutted into the living room.
Kacey gaped after her. “I swear she could have been the first female president.”
Travis didn’t think it was the most appropriate time to let Kacey in on the family secret that Grandma had, in fact, enjoyed an affair with one of the presidents.
Instead, he grunted and grabbed the tequila from the pantry. “Get some cups with ice and I’ll grab the mix. This should be enough to get you good and drunk before Mom starts planning your wedding.” Travis winked and ignored the pain in his chest when he thought of Kacey in a wedding dress, standing opposite his brother.
The bastard didn’t deserve her. He dated strippers, for crying out loud! Real strippers! He paid for sex. He lived the life of a true bachelor. He didn’t even know how to do laundry! He would be the death of Kacey. Travis knew his brother was just sneaky enough to manipulate his way into Kacey’s life. Most likely, he’d deliver the line of doing it for Grandma, and say they could divorce when she kicked the bucket.