“Do you live here?” she asked as she gave him a longer, more thorough look. “Is that how you can tell?”
“No, I don’t have a home base.” After feeling trapped in his childhood home, he chose not to have a permanent address these days. In the past few months he had lived everywhere from a hut in Belize to a pickup truck along Route 66. He made good money along the way. Once he picked up a skill, he turned around and taught them to tourists. He could do anything from teaching people how to surf to guiding them through the jungle. “I don’t really see the need for one.”
“I don’t think I follow,” Christine said as her eyes widened. “You just pick up and leave whenever you feel like it?”
He nodded as he watched Christine’s eyes cloud over. She obviously couldn’t comprehend that kind of freedom, but he couldn’t tell if she was envious or horrified. “I don’t mind roughing it,” he added. “Comfort and excitement don’t go hand in hand.”
She dipped her head and her long hair fell over her face like a veil. “You’re right, they don’t.”
Christine’s voice had been so quiet he almost didn’t hear her above the ringing bells and shouts of laughter in the casino. Yet he caught the regret in her tone.
She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Once you have a comfort zone, it doesn’t grow wider,” Christine said as she tucked her hair behind her ear. “It gets smaller and smaller until you realize you’ve put yourself in a cage.”
“Exactly,” Travis slowly agreed. It was why he didn’t stay in one place for more than a month. There were moments when he longed to call a place his own, but he’d grit his teeth and keep moving until the feeling passed. “Sometimes you need to shake things up. The way you’re doing now.”
“You can tell that just by looking at me?” She glanced at her dress and automatically pulled at the short hem that revealed her long, slender legs. “What else can you tell?”
Travis paused. He was usually good at figuring out people; the skill helped him survive whenever he found himself in sticky situations. But he got the feeling that Christine was trying to be someone different during her Vegas trip. He saw that a lot in the more touristy areas he’d visited. It was like role-playing, trying on a more exciting or an entirely different persona.
“This is your first time in Vegas,” he guessed.
Christine jerked her head back in surprise. “That’s true,” she reluctantly admitted. She glanced around the casino as if she wondered how he’d come to that conclusion.
“First trip anywhere?” he asked.
“Not at all,” she scoffed. She rubbed her fingers over her bare collarbone. Her hand stilled as if she realized something was missing. “I travel around the world all the time.”
Travis silently nodded his head. It may not be the first time she’d been out of her hometown, but it was definitely the farthest she’d been away from home. Only she didn’t want him to know that. Christine wanted to look more sophisticated and experienced than she really was. How far was she willing to go to live out this role? Travis was willing to play along.
“I’m taking advantage of a long weekend,” she said with a defiant thrust of her chin, “and I decided to try something closer to home.”
He didn’t buy that excuse. Christine was definitely the kind of person who would make incremental goals. Once she found success, she would build up to a bigger goal. He couldn’t imagine living like that.
“What do you do?” he asked. It was probably a desk job that dealt with numbers. She would want something that was climate-controlled and dealt with absolutes. But what would her alter ego say? Would she pick something creative or something dangerous? What she decided would give him a little more insight into her dream life.
Christine pursed her lips. “What do you think I do?”
Travis arched an eyebrow. It was time to rattle her cage. He reached out and grabbed her hand.
“Are you going to tell me my fortune?” Christine asked with a nervous laugh.
“No, but I can tell a lot about a person by their hands.” Hers were soft and delicate. The nails were short and unvarnished. There was no wedding ring and no indication that there had been one.
“I can’t tell what you do for a living,” he said as he trailed a fingertip down her palm before resting it against her wrist. Her pulse skipped under his touch. “You are searching for a challenge. You’ve done it all. Seen it all.”
Her hand jerked but she didn’t pull away. “Go on.”