Nicole Edwards - Travis

“Because your father wants you to be happy,” she said, taking Kylie’s hand. “He’s not here to interrogate them. You need to remember, he loves you. Very much.”

“But…” Kylie wanted to ask Melissa if she thought it was normal that she was introducing two men to her father. Two. Not just one. She wanted to ask if they even realized exactly what was going on here. The way the woman was acting, Kylie was beginning to think maybe she hadn’t been clear about the situation.

Two. Both men. For her. Not just one.

Ok, she really was going to have to fix that air conditioner.

“See, look,” Melissa said, gripping Kylie’s shoulders and turning her to face the three men who… were now sitting on the sofas in the living room. Laughing.

Ok. What was going on?

Didn’t they know that this was not normal? That a girl didn’t bring two men home to meet her father? Or in this case, bring her father to her home to meet two men.

Two men that she loved.

She did love them. A lot.

“Take a deep breath, Kylie.” Melissa’s tone was steady as she wrapped a warm arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Ok, now look at me.”

Kylie tilted her head and glanced at Melissa, unsure exactly what she was supposed to do next. This was the most awkward situation she’d ever been in before. Even worse than the birds and bees talk that her father had insisted on having with her when she was sixteen. Considering she’d been in high school by then and had learned more in sex education class than she ever wanted to know, she’d told him he could spare them both the embarrassment.

He had thanked her for that.

“Do you love them?” Melissa asked, interrupting the random trail her thoughts were heading down.

“Of course I do. I love them very much,” Kylie mumbled as she stared at Gage and Travis who were sitting in the living room. Sitting. With her father. “Are you hot?” Kylie asked Melissa and then pulled away. She shook her head and tried to clear the fog from her brain.

“Actually, it’s quite comfortable. Now back to you,” she said with a sincere smile. “You love them. You said so. Which means you have nothing to worry about.”

 “What are you talking about?” They hadn’t even had dinner yet. How would her father interact with them? Was he going to be mean? Would he interrogate them? Would he talk about her when she was a kid? Did he know about the resort?

So hot she was beginning to sweat.

The timer on the oven chose that moment to go off. Kylie was tempted to reach out to see if she found her alarm clock’s snooze button beside her. Surely this wasn’t happening. She’d spent the better part of the morning panicking, cleaning, cooking and then panicking some more. And for what? So Melissa could tell her that…

Maybe if she stuck her head in the freezer…

A booming laugh erupted in the living room, and Kylie turned around. That was her father. He was laughing. There weren’t any disapproving looks, no fingers being pointed, no warnings being declared. He was laughing.

“See, I told you it’ll be perfectly fine,” Melissa reassured her. “Now where are the pot holders? We’ve got to get this out of the oven.”

Kylie retrieved a pot holder from the drawer beside the oven and handed it to Melissa blindly as she continued to stare into the living room. Travis and Gage were sitting side by side on one of the sofas, her father sitting on the other across from them. They were all reclining back, all three of them holding a beer in their hand as they talked.

“That’s it?” Kylie asked, turning to face Melissa. “I spent all week being sick to my stomach, and they aren’t even going to talk about me?”

Melissa turned to face her, placing the pan on the stovetop as she grinned. “Oh, honey, if that’s what you’re worried about, well, that happened a week ago. Trust me, your dad loves you, but he’s no dummy. He took care of that chat when Gage and Travis came to visit us in Dallas. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“They what?”

Travis said that her father wanted to come to her house and meet them. Was Melissa confused? Travis and Gage never mentioned going to see her father. Whoa! Ok, the room was starting to spin. Pretty fast too.

“Hey, boys. One of you might want to get in here. I think she’s going to pass out. I told you not to leave her in suspense like this, Joe.”

Melissa’s voice sounded strange, Kylie thought as she tried to hold on to the counter. Like she was one of the adults on the Snoopy cartoons.

The last thing Kylie remembered was Travis’ warm arms coming around her… at the same time the world went black.

“Hey, little girl,” her father’s voice woke her from sleep and Kylie smiled up at him.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Feeling better?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“Fine, why?” Kylie sat up, realizing she was in her bed, but she was fully dressed and…

Everything came flooding back to her in a flash, and she glared at her father. “Melissa said you already met Travis and Gage.”

“I did, honey,” Joe smiled, but he looked like he was trying to hide it. “Those men of yours are pretty protective of you, you know that?”

Yes, yes she did know that. How that translated into them meeting her father, she had no idea. Instead of asking more questions, Kylie waited for him to enlighten her. She wasn’t sure she had the energy to try and figure it out for herself.

Joe took her hand and held it between both of his while Kylie stared down where they were joined.

“Travis and Gage called to talk to me. Said that you were very important to them and before I started asking questions, they wanted to meet me face to face so they could answer any that I might have. Pretty smart guys you’ve got there.”

“So you talked to them?” Kylie peered up at her father’s face.

“I did. They took me to lunch, Travis told me how you and him met, informed me about the wedding and apologized for not coming to me back then. Then Gage filled in the blanks on the little reunion.” Joe frowned and paused.

“I’m sorry, Daddy. I know I should’ve told you the whole story. But I love them,” she said firmly. “I love them, and I didn’t want you to be upset with them or disappointed in me.”

Joe leaned in and kissed her softly on the forehead. “Little girl, I could never be disappointed with you. This is your life, and I’m proud of the decisions you’ve made. Doesn’t mean I always understand them.”

Kylie sat motionless on her bed, staring at her father. The man she adored, who loved her unconditionally. She wasn’t sure where along the way she’d altered her view of him. He’d always been her biggest supporter, yet she somehow forgot that. “So you don’t have any questions? No concerns?”

Joe tilted her chin up. “Trust me, I took care of all questions with Travis and Gage. I wanted to know their intentions. Like I said, they’re smart ones. They came prepared. Answered everything I threw at them. And like I said, they’re extremely protective of you.”

Kylie’s heart swelled. Her worst fear had been overcome. Her father was accepting the men she loved. “Well, I’m happy, Daddy. I promise you. They make me extremely happy.”

Joe’s smile widened, mischievously. “That’s good. Considering how hard headed and stubborn you are, I always wondered whether one man would be able to handle you.”

Kylie shouldered him playfully, and Joe laughed as he stood to his feet. “Seriously, Kylie, the only thing that matters to me is that you’re happy.”

“I am, Daddy.” Kylie pushed to her feet to stand beside her father. “And the only thing that matters to me… is paying those two back for putting me through this.”

Her father laughed, and she felt the vibration through her shoulders. “That’s my girl.”

♂♀♂

Four months later…

“Don’t move,” Kylie said as she disappeared out of the room.

“What do you mean don’t move?” Travis hollered after her. “You tied me to the fucking bed! I don’t have much of a choice.”

Gage laughed as he moved up on the bed beside Travis. “Did you enjoy it?”

Travis turned his head to look at the man he’d spent the last few months making love to and sleeping in the same bed with and he grinned. “You’re damn right I did, but I’m not gonna tell her that.”

“I heard that!” Kylie yelled from inside the enormous master closet.

Travis didn’t wipe the smirk off of his face. He couldn’t, even if he tried.

When Gage began untying him from the bed posts, Travis relaxed into the mattress, rubbing his wrists where the restraints had bit into his arms. He looked around the room and smiled. Even months later, he still couldn’t believe the remarkable transformation Kylie had made to the house.

Not only had she revived almost every piece of building material, somehow she’d found square footage and Travis and Gage still had no idea where she got it from. He was pretty sure the master bathroom was triple its original size, and the small shower they’d crammed into originally was now big enough for ten people. It also happened to be one of the places they spent a lot of time in. A lot of time.

But Kylie hadn’t stopped with the bedrooms and bathrooms. The downstairs was bigger too. The entry was no longer separated into small rooms. The space was open, flowing right up the stairs as well as into the living room. What had originally been awkwardly laid out – not to mention paneled in that hideous wood – now looked... Well, it looked like a farmhouse built in the 1800s, if they’d, in fact, been around when it was built.