He was having a hard enough time keeping his attention from straying places it shouldn’t in the first damn place. If his reaction to her after seeing her for less than five minutes was any indication, Travis knew that showing up on her doorstep would only make things worse for him.

And her.

“What time?” he asked Kaleb, doing his best to piss him off even more because he didn’t have anything better to do.

“Not doing it today, Trav. You can take your pissy attitude somewhere else. I’ve got work to do.” Kaleb didn’t bother looking up from his computer, and Travis knew he wouldn’t get anything more out of his brother.

Mission accomplished.

Truthfully, he was so fucking frustrated with the entire situation that irritating the shit out of his brothers, and anyone else who stepped in his way, had become his sole focus. He’d much rather turn his aggravation on Gage, but again, the man was MIA.

Travis still wasn’t entirely sure what prompted Gage to react the way he did. Hell, they had shared a couple of kisses. Granted, they would’ve shared much, much more had they ever had the opportunity in the form of just a little more privacy. And since the timing was never right, Gage couldn’t pretend to be the scorned lover.

Standing, he decided he would go check to see what other sort of trouble he could get mixed up with. He hadn’t been by the resort yet today, so maybe he’d start there. They’d come a long way in recent months. Much farther than Travis expected anyway. He figured his contractors were well aware of his temper and considering he was riding their ass day in and day out, he had expected some serious progress. Just not this much.

They would be thrilled to see him.

Grabbing his hard hat off of the small table in the miniscule kitchen area, Travis took off out the door. He could’ve sworn he heard Kaleb sigh in relief as he stepped out into the oppressive, Texas heat. The thought made him smile.

Travis rounded the front of his truck and was just about to climb in when he noticed an unfamiliar truck pulling down the dirt driveway that led to the construction office. Glancing down at his watch, he checked the time and tried to remember if he was expecting anyone. He didn’t think he had any meetings, so he waited for the stranger to park.

The windows were tinted and the bright, morning sun was reflecting off of the glass so he couldn’t see who was in the four door red Chevy pickup. He knew it wasn’t one of his contractors because one, their trucks didn’t look that clean and shiny – or new – and two, they wouldn’t bring that fancy shit on the property. Hell, Sawyer was even keeping his prized possessions locked up these days thanks to all of the construction going on around them.

The driver’s door finally opened, and Travis watched as a woman got out. Long, golden brown hair was all he could see because she was facing away from him, but he knew at once who the silky hair belonged to. His body had a strange reaction to the sight of her, and he was tempted to jump in his truck like he never even noticed her. He realized it was too late for that when Kylie turned and faced him, their eyes connecting over the hood of her shiny red truck.

So maybe there was a tiny amount of hope that swelled up from one of the dark, dusty corners in his chest, but when Kylie didn’t greet him with either a smile or words, he forced himself to think rationally. Why in the world would she have come to see him? Whatever it was, he knew it wouldn’t be good. As she approached, Travis tried to find words but came up bone fucking dry. He didn’t even know how to greet her.

Tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans, his attempt at appearing cool and collected, Travis watched intently as she opened the passenger door and leaned in to grab something. Without contemplating the results of his actions, Travis let his eyes linger on her stunning ass encased in a pair of tight denim shorts as she leaned into the truck, her toned thigh muscles stretching beautifully.

Ok, shit. Now something else was stretching. Fuck.

He must’ve been admiring the view for a little too long because when he looked up, Kylie was glancing back at him over her shoulder and she didn’t look happy about being visually molested.

But hell, it made him feel better.

“Hey,” he said, finally finding his voice.

“Hey.” Kylie shut the door with a little more force than was necessary and then closed some of the distance between them.

Just like the first day he laid eyes on her almost eleven years ago, the woman stole his breath right out of his lungs without a please or thank you. Not only was she stunningly gorgeous, remarkably little had changed about her appearance over the last decade. Her eyes were still a sparkling baby blue, her hair still long and silky, her lithe body still just as curvy and sexy as hell in those faded blue jean shorts and… boots.

Awww, fucking hell.

 She was country from head to toe and, truthfully, it wouldn’t matter what she was wearing, she still managed to give him a damned hard on just by breathing.

“I brought you these,” Kylie said, interrupting his perusal of her sinfully tempting body. Her sweet voice and sexy country drawl brought back an influx of memories, and all of them a reminder of exactly how stupid he was.

How the hell had he ever walked away from her all those years ago? Looks aside, Kylie had been sweet and innocent, and so damned good to him, his heart still hurt with the memories that flooded his brain.

Travis glanced down at her hands, noticing for the first time the manila envelope she was holding out to him.

“What’s this?” He couldn’t imagine what she could possibly have for him.

There was a brief pause as she glanced down and then back up while he reached out to take the proffered envelope. “Divorce papers,” she said sternly and Travis’ eyes flew up to meet hers.

He didn’t move to open the envelope, but he managed to keep his fingers clasped on the edge, fighting the urge to squeeze.

“This should be relatively simple,” she explained without an ounce of emotion. “I found a lawyer, and he’s reasonable when it comes to uncontested divorces. The only thing you need to do is sign. After you read them, of course. If you have objections to anything, let me know. It’s cut and dried. No property, no children...”

Travis watched her mouth move, his heart pounding unusually hard in his chest, but he barely heard a word she was saying.

He’d never considered this day actually coming, and he didn’t know why. Not that he expected them to be married forever, but in reality, Travis had never envisioned himself divorced. Then again, he never pictured he’d have the balls to walk away from this woman either. He’d been a coward, pure and simple, and he’d regretted his decision for so many years. But as each day passed and the pain eased marginally, he knew it was too late.

Nodding his understanding, he looked back into her eyes, noticing the sweet innocence he had once seen was no longer there. In its place, there was a void of some sort. As though she had steeled herself for heartache and didn’t expect anything else.

“My phone number is on the last page, so if you want to call me when you’ve signed them, I’ll come back and pick them up.”

Travis couldn’t speak. There was a lump in his throat the size of a fucking beach ball and he could barely swallow around it, much less talk.

“Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you,” Kylie said quickly and turned to head back to her truck.

Before she could get too far, Travis reached out and grabbed her arm as gently as he possibly could, his body working on instinct. When she turned to look at him, staring up at him with wide eyes, he couldn’t do anything more than peer into a sea of brilliant blue. He was searching for something, but he wasn’t sure what. Something to tell him that, for the last ten years, she had thought about him as much as he thought about her.

Nothing. Travis saw absolutely no emotion in her eyes. It was almost like she was a passerby and was shocked that he had stopped her in the first place.

Another nod and he let her go, his fingers gripping the envelope tighter, barely refraining from crushing it in his hand. He watched as Kylie rushed back to her gleaming fire engine red truck, never blinking until she disappeared inside and then he watched until the tail lights faded down the dirt road.

Divorce papers.

Of all the places Travis thought he would be in life, this certainly wasn’t one of them. Now the question was what he was supposed to do next.

♀♂

Kylie could hardly see the road through the blur of tears clouding her vision. She’d been lucky to contain them until she got inside of the truck and away from Travis’ discerning gaze.

No matter how tempted she was to pull off to the side of the road and vent her frustration to the universe, she thought better of it. She just needed to get out of this town and she’d be fine. Back to life as she knew it. It wasn’t like she hadn’t made it through the last ten years without the man she just walked away from.

So why did it feel like this was the final goodbye when that happened a lifetime ago?

Hadn’t she been through enough already?

Watching Gage as he walked out of her life – even if it had been her choice – was hard enough to deal with. It was almost as though she were being tested. As though watching Travis walk out of her life all those years ago wasn’t the most difficult thing she would ever have to do. And now this. Handing Travis divorce papers was harder than even those two instances combined.