“I’m afraid I did. Between seeing all the equipment he’d bought for that new shop, and the sheer size of him, I jumped to some conclusions. And maybe I told her too much of what I thought.”
“I told you Joe Layton was a good guy.”
Travis picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “So you did. I wish I’d listened to you.”
Kim was looking at him with wide eyes. He was holding her hand, massaging it actually, as he stared ahead. He didn’t seem to be aware of what he was doing. “What exactly did she say?”
“She told me to stay out of it. She said she’d get herself a lawyer and that she’d fight Dad on her own.” He took a breath. “And she said I was free to stop working for him because she no longer needed my protection.”
“Oh,” Kim said as she looked at his profile. He was frowning. “Is that what you’re going to do?”
“Certainly not!” he said as he put her hand back on her lap.
In front of them was a mother with two young toddlers, a boy and a girl, probably twins. Kim didn’t know the family. The children had balloons on long strings that they were looking at in fascination.
When Travis said nothing more, she looked at him. “What’s your plan?”
“I haven’t made one yet.”
A howl made Kim look at the children. The little boy’s balloon had escaped his hold and was floating up into the tree.
Seconds later, Travis stood up and looked up into the tree, as though surveying it. To Kim’s astonishment, he grabbed a branch and swung up. Standing on a limb, he looked down at her. “I talked to Mom this morning and told her I wanted to meet this guy, so she’s given me a week before she—” He walked out on the branch, then swung up on a higher one. “Before she tells him that I’m here,” he said down to her.
By now the little boy had stopped yelling as he watched the man in the tree, and a couple of teenagers were also looking up at him.
Kim was pretty much speechless. She stood up.
“You think you could help me arrange a meeting with Mr. . . .” He glanced at the people near her. He didn’t want to say the man’s name in public. “With him?” He was now quite high up, on his stomach, and easing out onto a branch that didn’t look large enough to hold his weight.
Kim held her breath as she nodded yes to his question.
“And I have to decide about the . . .” He was inching his way out on a very fragile-looking branch, his left arm extended toward the yellow balloon.
Kim put her hand up, her knuckles in her mouth.
“Who the hell is that?” came a voice in her ear.
Turning, she looked at the wide, solid chest of her cousin Colin, Edilean’s sheriff.
Kim looked back up at Travis in the tree. She couldn’t get any words out.
Colin stood by her and watched as Travis moved forward until he reached the balloon string and grabbed it.
“Vacation.” Travis looked back down at Kim. “Good morning, sheriff,” he said just before the branch broke.
A girl screamed, and everyone drew in their breaths.
On his way down, Travis grabbed a branch with his right hand while holding onto the balloon with his left. He twisted the string around his fingers, then threw his legs over the branch. He pulled himself up, straddled the limb, stood up, and walked his way back to the core of the tree and went down.
He landed on two feet, walked a few steps to give the balloon back to the little boy, and dusted himself off as he went back to Kim. “What do you think?”
She just stared at him.
Colin said, “He’s asking what you think he should do on his vacation in Edilean.” He seemed highly amused by what he’d just seen.
“Travis!” Kim said at last.
Colin snorted. “You’re in for it.” When Kim started to speak again, he interrupted her. “You do that kind of thing often?”