plastic cups I’d found in the bathroom. He sniffed, sipped, and laughed, a throaty sound that sent pleasurable tendrils up my spine.
“It’s non-alcoholic,” I replied. Anti-depressants and alcohol didn’t mix well, or even depression and alcohol, for that matter.
“In other words, it’s grape juice. Good grape juice, but grape juice.”
“You might call it that.”
We studied each other from across the room, sipping juice better than the finest wine, for the company alone. So much to say, but if I opened my mouth, would my crude attempt at conversation help or hurt our chances of winding up in one bed?
Outside our window children shrieked and splashed in the hotel pool, until a whistle blew.
“Sounds like they’re shutting the pool for the night,” Travis commented.
“Sounds like.” An idea was born, so bizarre, something neither of us in a million years would do. And yet… “Let’s go for a swim.”
“You heard me, the pool’s closed.”
I gave him a leering half-smile. “So it is.”
He met my smile and raised me a smirk. “Since when do you break the rules?”
“First time for everything.” For Travis? I’d break a whole lot more than a hotel’s pool curfew.
He seemed to consider my words, then pursed his lips. “I didn’t pack trunks.”
I gave him a wolfish grin and waggled my brows. “Neither did I. I plan to wear my boxers.” If one intends to break rules, break them with style, but I wasn’t quite willing to risk an indecent exposure citation by swimming in the nude. Not here, anyway.
He stayed perfectly still for a moment, then replied, “Well, I did promise you a night. But if we get caught, it’s all your fault.”
Travis undressed in the bathroom while I disrobed by the bed. We slipped out the side door, towels around our waists, giggling like two school kids as we scaled the fence and tumbled over the other side.
We stopped, and I strained to hear sounds of approaching security, though I didn’t spot any video cameras. “C’mon,” I urged, folding my towel around the room key and placing it on a lounge chair. “We might as well get in a swim before they make us leave.” My spectacular cannonball splashed water as far as the chairs huddled around the shallow end.
Travis’s thin boxers left little to the imagination. With a bit of struggle I managed to focus on his face and not let my eyes wander over his body. He’d picked up a few pounds but hadn’t yet reached his ideal weight. Still, he appeared much healthier than during our last encounter. He eased into the pool a little at a time. “The water’s cold!”
“Not if you just take the plunge.” I dogpaddled closer.
“You stay right there!” He backed up a step.
“Not going anywhere.” His pale skin glowed under the illumination of the adjacent parking lot lights. The ripples from my paddling shimmered around me. Travis took another step forward, and another. I longed to grab him and pull him in, but trust had been broken.
Time to start the healing. “I never cheated on you.”
“What?” Travis stopped, mid-motion.
“I didn’t cheat on you. I neglected you, left you alone, poured myself into my job a bit too much, but I never cheated on you.”
The air grew much colder. Oh shit. I’d said the wrong thing. Time stood still, Travis and I hovering over a precipice. “I know that—now,” he said. “But two years ago, every time your phone rang and you took off cut a little more of my heart out.”
Seeing his face, the pure misery there, nicked a few notches out of my heart too. “And whenever you tried to talk to me, I was unavailable.”
“Yeah. Elise told me you called her.”
“Yes.” I wouldn’t apologize for calling his sister. Without my intervention, Travis wouldn’t be here today. However, I would apologize for things that were my fault. “I didn’t know what you were going through. If I had…”
“It really hurt that you didn’t care enough to come running after me.”
“Like you’d hoped I would.” I shook my head at my own selfishness. “You have to understand. When I found you gone, I accepted that that’s what you wanted. Who was I to—?”
He held up his hand, cutting off my words, completing the thought for me. “You left me alone because if the roles had been reversed and you’d left me, that’s what you would’ve wanted me to do. But I’m not you, Ian. And you can’t apply your rules to my wants and needs.”