Travis's Gift (Riley's Pride #3)- Sandra R Neeley Page 0,84

at herself again. Her terrified eyes looked back. “It’s too soon,” she whispered. “He’s going to shut me out again.”

Libby walked over to the trash can and shoved the pregnancy test to the very bottom, careful to hide it between wads of toilet paper again, before shoving everything else down on top of it. Then she composed herself, washed her hands beneath the still running shower before turning it off, and left the bathroom.

Once Libby was dressed, she went to the kitchen where Scotty was already eating and Travis was piling pancakes on a plate. “How many you want?” he asked when she took a seat at the table.

“You know what? Maybe I’ll just have coffee,” she said. Then she thought about the fact they’d made Maia give up eighty percent of her caffeine intake when she carried Sebastian. “Only a small cup though.”

“Gotta eat something,” Travis said, bringing her a cup of coffee with lots of milk and sugar. “Here,” he said, taking her plate and putting two pancakes on it before placing it in front of her.

Libby shook her head. “No. Just one. Maybe half of one,” she said, a sour look on her face.

“Okay,” Travis said, his voice full of concern as he put one of the pancakes back on the stack on the plate he’d placed them all on. “You feeling okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Just not really hungry,” Libby said.

“Okay. After we eat I’ll put what’s left in a zip lock in the fridge. Come grab one later if you want it,” Travis said.

Libby nodded. She really didn’t want to be here at the moment. What she needed to do was to find some alone time today. That wasn’t happening with this being the last week before Christmas Eve.

Libby sipped her coffee and picked at her pancake enough to make Travis stop watching her eat. Then she got up and took her plate to the kitchen and threw away what she couldn’t eat before he had time to join her. When she returned to the table, she was sipping orange juice. “Felt like I needed juice today,” she said, sitting down again.

“How much do we have left to do for our own Christmas?” Scotty asked.

“Not much. I think we’re done. All our gifts for each other are under the tree, along with our gifts for Riley and the Pride. The last one I had to get was Darcie’s, and I got that last week,” Libby said.

“I’m done, too,” Scotty said.

“Hope you didn’t go too overboard,” Travis said to Scotty.

“No, I didn’t. Libs made me promise to get just little thoughtful things for the two of you when I insisted I wanted to get you something,” he explained. “She said ya’ll were getting for everybody else from the three of us.”

“Good,” Travis said, helping himself to another stack of pancakes. “I’ve got most of mine finished, too. I have to pick up a couple of things that weren’t ready yet. I’ll get one of them Christmas Eve morning. The other should be delivered today.”

“What do you have planned?” Scotty asked suspiciously, grinning at Travis.

“None of your damn business,” Travis said with a grin. “Stop snooping or you won’t get nothing.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” Scotty said.

Chapter 26

A couple of hours later Scotty was running a tree through the netter when he caught the flash of amber lights pulling into the yard in front of the house. He finished what he was doing, carried it out for the customer and tied the tree securely to the top of the man’s car, then headed over to the house.

“Hey! Hold up,” Travis called, hurrying from the front of the Christmas Village toward Scotty.

“I thought I saw a wrecker pull in. Going to tell him he has the wrong house,” Scotty said.

“Naw, Libby already headed over,” Travis said.

“Who’s watching the crafts and trees?” Scotty asked, looking back over to where customers milled about enjoying the holiday vibe they had going on.

“Constance and Darcie are serving the refreshments, and taking the money,” Travis said. “They can spare us for a minute.”

Scotty’s brows pressed together just above the bridge of his nose as Travis seemed to not mind leaving the Christmas Village without him for a minute, when he’d been obsessed about being there every minute it was opened up ‘til now.

“Come on. Let’s go see what he wants,” Travis said, draping an arm over Scotty’s shoulders as they walked toward the right front of the property where the house sat separate from