“Beats me,” Travis said. “But anyway, I never liked sitting around in a trailer doing nothing. What’s this job you need done?”
“Manager,” Joe said. “I need someone to look after the place so I have time to spend with my girls.”
“Girls?” Travis asked and his smile disappeared.
“Maybe we could—” Kim began.
“My daughter and my intended,” Joe said. “You think you could handle the job? You need to know a lot about tools.”
&
nbsp; “Travis knows about . . .” Kim began but hesitated. “Balloons,” she said at last.
Both men looked at her.
“You the guy that got that kid’s balloon out of the tree?”
“Yes,” Travis said, “but I didn’t think it would be known all over town so fast.”
“The sheriff stopped by.” Joe nodded toward the doorway to the other side of the building. “You want to see Jecca’s studio?”
“Yes, we would,” Kim said, and they followed Joe.
“What do you think?” Kim asked Travis. They were in a booth in a little restaurant off the road into Williamsburg, eating dinner.
“About what?” he asked as he toyed with his fork.
“Opening a sporting goods store?”
Travis took his time answering. “I liked him.”
“Mr. Layton? Of course. He’s a nice man. And he was certainly taken with you. I couldn’t believe he was asking your opinion about his finances.”
“Me neither. You don’t think he knows . . .”
“That you’re Lucy’s son? How could he?”
“I’ve been told that I look like my mother, so maybe he recognized me.”
“Since I’ve never seen your mother, at least not clearly anyway, I wouldn’t know.” Kim looked at him, at his dark brows like gull wings over his eyes, at his jawline with its dark whiskers just under the skin. She couldn’t imagine that anyone as masculine-looking as he was could resemble any female.
What Travis saw in her eyes made him want to reach across the table and drag her to him. She had a pretty mouth that he’d very much like to kiss. When his mother’s words rang in his head, he looked away. He didn’t know where his life was going and it wasn’t fair of him to pull Kim in with him.
Kim had seen the glow in his eyes, had felt the spark between them—but then he’d turned away. For some reason she didn’t understand, he wasn’t allowing the attraction between them. The normal, sexual pull that men and women felt for each other was being stomped down by him.
So be it, she thought. Friends is what he’d said and friends is what they were going to be. But she couldn’t help the anger that rose in her. Was there someone else in his life? Had he decided that a small town girl wasn’t good enough for him? Or was it that he just couldn’t see her as anything but a child?
Whatever it was, she didn’t like it one little bit.
“You mind if I make a phone call?” she asked in the sweetest voice she could muster. It looked like in her case, the old adage about a woman scorned was true.
“No, go ahead. You want some privacy?”
“No, it’ll just take a moment. I’m sure he’s working.”
“He?”
“Dave, my boyfriend.”