Divine by Cait Jarrod Page A

restaurant door. “You want the usual?”
    “Yeah.” Just like they’d done numerous times,
Travis ordered while he gathered napkins, straws, and condiments
from a nearby counter and found a clean booth.
    “You don’t want to talk about what happened,”
Travis said a little while later and placed the tray of food in the
center of the table. Groaning, he unwrapped his burger and bit into
it, waiting for the next question he didn’t want to answer.
    “Will you tell me about Katrina Lovett?”
    “There’s nothing to talk about.” He shoved a
fry into his mouth and swallowed some soda to wash it down. “We
were friends, now we’re…not.”
    “Why?”
    Trina wasn’t up for discussion, not with his
brother or anyone. “Want to share about your women?”
    “I’ve got nothing to tell.”
    “You sure?” He prodded. Instead of inquiring
about the near miss Travis had on the last search and rescue, he
teased about women. A safer subject that wouldn’t open wounds. He
knew too well, a person talked when they were ready. “Maybe the
problem is you don’t know where to start. Too many women want a
part of the great Travis Carson, rescue pilot.”
    Travis didn’t appear impressed by his comment
and bit his burger more eagerly than a dog eating a steak.
    “You’re as warped as me,” he said around a
mouthful of food. “We’re too screwed for anyone to get close.”
    Travis lifted a shoulder and balled the
hamburger wrapper. “Listen, I rented a cabin in Montana. Want to
go?”
    Montana, his parents’ dream destination.
After an anniversary trip, they had fallen in love with the
mountains. “You’re doing the same thing as me. Living their
dream.”
    Travis picked at his napkin. “While I’m out
there, I’m looking to buy some land.”
    He straightened in his seat. “Really?”
    “I’m ready for a change. What if I use our
inheritance to buy land out there? Would you consider moving?”
    The idea sounded great, but he didn’t know
what he would do the next minute much less plan for the future.
“I’ll think about it.”
    “At least head out with me for a couple of
days.”
    As much as coming home bothered him, his
mental wounds needed a chance to heal. “Nah, I need to stay here.
At home.” Before Travis changed his mind and decided he shouldn’t
be by himself, he added, “Alone.”
    Releasing a sigh, Travis stretched out his
legs. “I need some recon time myself.”
    His mission to find a four-year-old girl lost
in the Blue Ridge Mountains nearly ended when his plane’s engine
cut out. He’d almost bit the bullet, or mountain in this case, but
his exceptional piloting skills had saved him.
    “Dad would have been bragging about you,
too.” He diverted his attention to his knee, rubbed it right above
the prosthesis to ward off the moan he wanted to release for
missing his parents.
    Travis coughed. “Does um…” He coughed again.
“Does your leg hurt?”
    “I have phantom twinges once in a while,
nothing more.”
    “And you don’t need help?”
    He liked this type of conversation better. No
feelings to force him to weep like a kid. “Jeez, Grandma, I
don’t.”
    Travis considered him and nodded.
“Ready?”
    All the emotional talk coiled him in knots.
“I need fresh air. I’m gonna take a walk.” He patted his right
thigh “Exercise is good for my leg.”
    “All right.”
    He rose, tossed their trash in the bin, and
followed his big brother to the parking lot. “See you later.”
    “I’m not heading out for a couple of days.”
Travis bumped knuckles with him. “Keep your phone close.”
    “Got it, Grandma.”
    Travis chuckled, slid into his truck, and
drove away, throwing up a hand to him on the way by.
    He walked toward his parents’ home, the one
he and Travis refused to leave after their premature deaths, not
intending to go there. No, a certain spot along the river, the
place where he’d found home, beckoned him.
     

Chapter
Six
     
    “Stupid to think Trina would