“I used to,” Travis said. “I worked in L.A. as a stuntman for a couple of years.”
Colin was looking him up and down. “Still keep in shape?”
“I try to. What do you have in mind?”
“Sometimes tourists get stuck in situations in the preserve and we have to get them out. I’m the closest, so I usually get there first. Sometimes I need help.”
Travis smiled as he remembered the way Kim had gushed about this man and her brother being super-heroes in rescuing people. There was no way Travis was going to turn down the opportunity to help out—and maybe to impress Kim. “Do you have your cell phone with you? I’ll put my number in it.”
Colin handed him his cell, Travis called himself, then put his name by the number. He returned the phone. “Any time, night or day, I’d be glad to help. I’ve had some experience with ropes and climbing, but I’ve never rescued anybody. Not for real anyway.”
Colin smiled. “Welcome to Edilean.” He looked at Kim. “Glad to see you got a useful one this time,” he murmured, then started toward his office.
“Say hi to Gemma for me,” Kim called after him before looking back at Travis.
“I have three weeks’ vacation.” He still seemed to be waiting for an answer.
“My son wants to say thank you,” the mother said, and Travis knelt to the little boy.
“Thank you,” the child said, and hugged Travis. The little girl, not to be left out, hugged him too.
The mother smiled at Travis, her eyes lingering on him a bit too long. “Maybe we could have you over for dinner some night.”
Travis’s dark eyes went to that smoldering look again. “That would be—”
“He’s busy,” Kim said and her look told the woman to go away.
Still smiling, she took her children and left.
“Can you arrange a meeting?” he asked.
“Travis,” Kim said, “what you just did was very scary. You could have been seriously hurt. You could have—”
Bending, he kissed her cheek. “I find that having someone worry about me feels good.”
“Does that mean you’re going to pull more stunts like that one? It doesn’t make sense to risk your life for a balloon.”
“At no time was my life in jeopardy and I couldn’t care less about the balloon. It was the look in the eyes of that little boy that made it all worth it.”
Kim had no reply to that, as he was right.
“So what about a meeting with the man my mother wants to marry?”
“This is Edilean. You don’t need an appointment. Mr. Layton’s probably at his store right now, so we can just go over there and you can talk to him.”
“What excuse will we give him for showing up?”
“To say hello,” Kim said, frustrated and somewhat annoyed at his formality—and the way he had flirted with the pretty young mother. “I’ll ask how Jecca is or something. Uh-oh.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Here comes my brother. I bet Colin called him. The snitch! Now you’ll be grilled within an inch of your life. This won’t be easy.”
Travis couldn’t help smiling at her words. In courtrooms all across the U.S. and in a couple of foreign countries he’d been interrogated by some of the most brilliant lawyers in the world. He had no doubt he could hold his own against Kim’s physician brother.
But when Travis saw the man walking toward them, he turned pale. He’d seen Reede Aldredge before, and not under the best of circumstances.
Travis and his mechanic had been in a car race in Morocco. As they came around a corner outside a remote village, they saw a man leading a heavily laden donkey right across their path.