Alibi (Brantley Walker Off the Books #5) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,68
evenings, which meant later than usual nights. As he’d expected, there weren’t any dry eyes when the letter was being read. Travis had shed plenty through the week, rereading it over and over. A couple of times he’d caught Gage doing the same, sitting in Travis’s office—the one place they could usually find privacy—his eyes glued to the paper.
Most people probably wouldn’t see the letter as much, but for them it was a bit of closure. Though difficult to process, it was a part of Kylie they had when they thought they would get no more.
“Are they all gonna be at Pop’s house?” Kade asked.
“Nope. One at Pop’s, one at Grandpa Joe’s, and one here. We’ll do ours later.”
“Where’s Daddy?” Avery asked when Travis climbed into the driver’s seat.
“He’s at Pop’s house already. With the tree.”
Kade inhaled sharply, another dramatic effect of his. “What if he plants the tree without us?”
“He won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
Travis laughed, briefly glancing back at them in the rearview mirror before turning his attention to the road.
“I wanna plant a huge tree,” Kade said, demonstrating his idea of huge by spreading his arms wide.
“We’ll have to see what Dad’s picked out,” he told them.
“I hope it’s giganormous,” Avery said softly.
“That’s not a word,” Kade told his sister.
“Uh-huh.”
“Nuh-uh.”
Travis managed to tune them out for the few minutes it took to get to his parents’.
When he pulled down the dirt drive, the first thing he noticed was all the vehicles parked near the house. It was Saturday, so he knew this wasn’t a family dinner, yet he saw all the familiar ones: Kaleb’s Ford Expedition, Sawyer’s Chevy, Zane’s F250, Jessie’s Hyundai, Beau’s Escalade, Cheyenne’s Lexus. And a few more Travis would’ve been surprised to see on any given day.
“Everybody’s here!” Kade exclaimed. “Yay!”
If he had to guess, his son had already forgotten about planting the tree.
Travis didn’t bother reminding him as he got them out of the SUV, herding them toward the house, where his old man was sitting on the front porch, Kate in the rocking chair beside him.
“What’s all this?”
“It’s a party,” his daughter said easily.
“A party?”
She nodded curtly. “A tree-plantin’ party.”
“Is that right?” Travis looked at his father.
Curtis’s gray eyebrows popped once. “I’m just here for the food.”
Travis laughed, then passed Haden off to his dad and went into the house. Sure enough, his brothers were all there, significant others, too, plus all the kids. Amongst them, he noticed Brantley and Reese, Kaden, Keegan, and Bristol, Mack and Jeff, as well as Joe and Melissa.
“Before you yell at us,” Zane said, his face sober, “we’re here for support. And because we wanted to be a part of it. We loved her, too. Thought it might be a nice celebration if we were all here for the tree plantin’.”
Travis’s throat tightened as he nodded. “Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Thanks for that.”
“Plus, you know how we all love a good party.” Zane smacked him on the back, probably a little harder than need be, but that was his kid brother for you.
Travis peered past Zane to his cousin Brantley, who was standing in the kitchen chatting with Kaden and Keegan. As though he felt eyes on him, Brantley looked up, met his gaze across the room. His first instinct was to pelt Brantley with questions, find out where they were in the investigation, why so much time had passed and nothing was being done. It would’ve been easy to unleash on the man. Too easy.
But he wouldn’t. Not today of all days.
Which was why Travis offered a nod of his chin in greeting, received one in return before he turned and sought his husband in the room full of people. He found Gage sitting on the couch, Maddox on the floor at his feet. When he saw Travis, his eyes widened.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said, his voice a bit dramatic. “I got the tree, brought it here, and—” He waved at the chaos as though that said it all.
And maybe it did.
After all, this was what the Walkers did. They rallied for support, took care of one another. It was something Travis had relied on all his life, one of the things he knew his wife had loved about their life. They had this … so many people who cared.
“We’ve got food,” Kaleb announced. “Question is, do you want to eat before or after?”