Emma folded her hands in front of her, pressed her lips together and pleaded with her eyes.
"Fine." Arden flipped out her cell phone and called Travis.
"Yeah?" Travis answered in a semi-frantic voice. The baby was crying in the background. Very loudly.
"Sorry, Travis. Emma was just wondering if you'd had a chance to talk to Dustin."
"Well, let's see. After you left I fed the baby and then for no good reason she started screaming at me. Then Dustin got up and went straight to the bathroom and has been throwing up for the past twenty minutes. All of which time I spent walking up and down the hall bouncing this little girl. Who was finally starting to doze off when the phone rang. So...no. I haven't had a chance to talk to him."
"Jeez, Travis. Just let it go voicemail next time."
"Sorry. I love you. You're amazing. Don't call me anymore tonight."
She laughed. "Okay. If Emma doesn't need me, I'll come back over later and help out."
"I'll be your love-slave for life if you do that."
She laughed again, blushing. "Okay. Goodnight, Travis."
"'Night."
Arden tossed the phone back into her purse. She shook her head apologetically at Emma. Emma's shoulders slumped. "If you need to go back over there, I'll be fine," Emma said.
"Nonsense. Get your jammies on. We're going to locate something bad to eat and watch Julia Roberts movies all night."
Emma smiled and hugged her friend.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Arden fully enjoyed her Christmas Eve. It was much better than Travis's first meeting with her family. She'd relaxed and enjoyed watching him interact with all of them. Her other aunt and uncle came. They were closer to her parent's age and had three children, 12, 14 and 17. The seventeen-year-old was a girl, Becca, and up until today, Arden had always liked her. She wasn't that much younger than Arden and had always looked up to her older cousin.
Today, with Travis in the room, she barely even acknowledged Arden's presence. Instead she continuously put herself in a position to be noticed by him. The only positive side-effect was that Travis clung a little more tightly to Arden, showing even more affection than normal. Arden figured he was trying to convey to Becca that he was taken. He was generally quite a flirt, but Becca was being aggressive and Arden was thankful he had the good sense not to encourage her.
It didn't help that the girl was tall, leggy and had a great figure. "Yeah," Becca said. "I have a hard time finding guys to date, being 5'10" and all. I'd rather not date someone shorter than me." She said this to Travis as they were all gathered in the family room. The kids were playing video games at the TV. Travis and Arden sat on the love seat. Becca sat in the chair next to Travis's side of the love seat and was leaning on her fist gazing at him. Arden's aunts and her mother sat on the sofa across from them. They generally behaved like normal people except when Travis spoke at which point they hung on his every word.
"You could probably knock off a couple inches if your wore flats instead of those things," Travis said, nodding toward the spike heels Becca was wearing. Once again, Travis was wearing jeans with tears in the knees, not because they were stylish and made that way, but because he was a slob. He had on an old Splitlog Wolverines t-shirt and his favorite Dale Earnhardt cap on backwards. Basically he looked like a teenage boy. Except much bigger and tougher and sexier. He hadn't shaved in two days. The baby had been keeping him up a lot. Arden tried not to gaze up at him. She didn't want to look ridiculous like the rest of the women in her family.
"But the heels make my calves look so good, see?" Becca said, hiking up her skirt and pointing her toes so her calf muscles flexed beneath her perfect, seventeen-year-old skin.
"Those are some lovely calves," Travis said. But he only glanced and then tilted his face into Arden's hair and took a deep inhale. Then he kissed the top of her head and draped his arm over her shoulders.
"Anyway, why should I try to make myself shorter for them. They should just grow taller." Becca seemed unperturbed.
"They'll get taller. That last year of high school makes a big difference." Travis injected just a bit of boredom into his tone. Arden was thoroughly impressed. She knew he could flirt. She just didn't know he could not-flirt.
"More coffee, Travis?" Laura asked. She was poised on the edge of the couch.
"Yes, please," he said, handing his cup to her. But Aunt Jenny grabbed it before Laura could get to it.
"I'll get it for you, Travis," she said sweetly. "I was going that way anyway."
Travis just grinned at them while they tripped all over themselves to serve him.