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  I blinked, more tears dropping down my face.

  What the hell?!

  Taylor was walking away from Travis and they were both grinning like idiots on the television.

  Taylor stopped and turned around. “Hey Travis,” she called back to him.

  Okay, this was the moment they all laugh and say ‘just kidding!’ and she goes running back into his arms. It must be some sick inside joke of theirs.

  “Let your brothers know I’m single!” she yelled, before she turned around and ran up the steps to the house. Travis let out a deep, full laugh, wiping his eyes on his shirt as Tessa approached.

  “Well Travis. I can say this is not how anyone envisioned the show ending. Want to tell us what’s going on?” she asked curiously. Apparently no one but Travis and Taylor had known what was going to happen.

  “Like I said, I fell in love on this show, with the most amazing, caring, adventurous… stubborn girl I’ve ever met. Little did I know it was going to be with the girl I’ve known since I was ten. The girl I’ve spent more time with than anyone else in this world. The girl I am hoping is still waiting for me when I get home. I fell in love with my best friend, Tessa, and now I have to go get her back.” The screen went black, before the credits and a TV promo aired.

  I was pretty sure I was bawling now, unable to look away from the TV.

  What the hell is going on?

  Slowly I took in the rest of the room; everyone was staring at me, watching my reaction. I turned to Travis and just stared. I was going to ask him what the hell was going on and how he could have broken my heart like he did. And that’s when I saw it. Taylor had been sitting next to Chase the whole night, and he had his arm draped around her, holding her close. She smiled reassuringly at me and leaned back into Chase.

  “What the hell?!” I screamed before standing and running out the nearest door I could see, which happened to take me into the backyard.

  I ran to the end of the yard where a few canopy swings sat circling a fire pit. I fell down on one of the swings, breathing heavily with tears still streaming down my face.

  Did Travis just choose me?

  I was so confused. Why the hell would he break my heart only days before the finale, only to walk away with no one at the end, intent on ‘getting me back’? This made absolutely no sense and if he thought he was just going to say a few sweet words on national TV and I was going to fall into his arms, he was out of his freaking mind. I heard feet slowly crunch through the grass towards me, until they stopped right in front of me. My eyes were down, so I was able to see Travis’ shoes before he spoke.

  “Riles, please let me explain.” His voice was strong and rehearsed, which just pissed me off even more.

  “You want to explain? You’re really going to have the right words to tell me why on Earth you would break my heart, not talk to me for two months and then tell the entire nation you are in love with me? You are really going to explain that?” I screamed at him, standing to face him. I was not going to back down on this. I had been living with a completely broken heart for two months when it wasn’t even necessary. I had been bored out of my mind, not being able to work because they thought it would be awkward for me to be around Travis. He had cut me off from everyone I ever cared about all because of what? TV show ratings?

  OMG, was that what this was about? Ratings?!

  “Shit Travis. Please don’t tell me this was to get ratings. Please don’t tell me Jim put you up to this, so everyone would talk about the end of this season and they’d have a lock for season two.” I begged him as I grabbed his shirt shaking him slightly.

  “Riles, calm down,” he said gently, lightly touching my hands where they gripped his shirt, and pulling them off. He led me over to the swing I had vacated when he came out and sat down, still holding my hand. I fell into place next to him, tucking my legs under me.

  “Travis, tell me it wasn’t for the ratings.” I begged him once more. I could never get over my broken heart if that was why he did it.

  “Of course it wasn’t about the ratings. Do you think I care about them?” he said while shaking his head.

  “Then… what the hell Trav?” I couldn’t help it, I needed to know why he did all this. Travis didn’t say anything for a while as he stared at my hands in his.

  “You’re still wearing them,” Travis said, trailing his hand down the bracelets on my wrist smiling. I winced as he touched them, feeling silly I had kept them on.

  “I like the way they look,” I said weakly. It even sounded like a lame excuse to me. The truth was, I’d tried to take them off countless times, but each time I started pulling them from my wrist my hand froze and my heart thumped loudly. It was silly, but they felt like the only connection I had left to Travis. And yes, I did like the way they looked, it was like they were made for me.

  “Can I explain now? Everything?” Travis asked, resting my hand on his lap. He turned so he was looking directly at me. I nodded my head, knowing if I opened my mouth, I would probably talk him out of saying anything. And I really wanted to know what he was thinking.

  He took a deep breath and began, “I never meant for things to turn out how they did. If you told me I was going to fall in love with my best friend, I would have said you were crazy. I’ve known you forever, Doll. I can’t say I’ve never thought of us together before, but it wasn’t on my radar when I signed on for the show.” He was telling me things I already knew, and I was about to call him on it when he continued.

  “I know you didn’t want to be there. I know you did it all for me. You dealt with the girls like a champ and got all up in my face when I wouldn’t listen to you.” He chuckled, recalling the memories. “I definitely know you did not sign up to actually be in the running. We had a deal and I broke it. I fell for you and I wasn’t ready to let you go.” He paused and took a deep breath.

  “I can’t tell you exactly when I knew I wanted you to stay on as more than my best friend. But being surrounded by all those girls vying for my attention, you were the one who stood out. You knew me, you didn’t put up a front around me, you were always yourself. When we had our first argument over a bunch of petty girls and you didn’t show up at my place when I asked you to—that’s when I knew. That is when I knew I couldn’t live without you, and the past fifteen years of pent up emotions hit me hard.” He paused, gripping my hand tightly. “I knew your birthday would be the best time to show you what you mean to me, so I went all out. Bought you a dress I knew you’d never choose, rented out Al’s so we wouldn’t be interrupted, ordered Chinese for dinner and had the best bakery in the city make you a cake. I wanted it to be a day you’d remember forever—the day we stepped into our future together.” Tears started rolling down my cheeks again as I listened on.

  “When you kissed me back, my heart felt ready to explode. I never thought I would feel the way I did. I was so effing happy you were willing to go there with me. That night, when you were acting all weird at my place, I thought I had pushed you too far and I was losing you. But that wasn’t the case, was it?” He grinned slyly at me. “Anyway, you know the rest. I had never been happier. It sucked that I still had this television show I needed to finish, but I knew I could act my way through it. What I didn’t take into consideration was how you’d feel about it. I never knew you to be jealous, so it floored me when I saw it coming from you. I tried to reassure you over and over again that you had nothing to worry about, but you wouldn’t believe me. And watching back through those episodes, I can see why. I’m apparently a better actor than I thought.” He laughed, staring off into the distance.

  “You were acting? What about the kiss with Nicki? That didn’t look like acting!” I screamed at him, pulling my hands from his grasp. Just remembering that was breaking my heart all over again.

  Travis leaned close to me and lifted my chin with his finger so I was looking him in the eye. “What you saw and what actually happened are two different things.” He never broke eye contact with me, but I couldn�
�t help rolling my eyes.

  “Trav, I know what I saw. It never looked like you pulled back or tried to stop it.”

  “But you never heard what I told her. When she kissed me the first time, I was shocked and I did step out of it. To be honest, I was pretty pissed she had even done that. Just before she attacked, we were talking about you and how I felt towards you.” He tugged my hands back into his.

  Well…that’s a surprise.

  “I saw her wicked grin and I knew she was going to do it again, so I grabbed her face to stop her. I told her it would never happen again. She may have surprised me once, but I wouldn’t let her take any more from me. Then I reiterated that I loved you. And even though the show was still going on, there was no other choice. It was always going to be you, Riles.”

  “But, there was another kiss.” I pointed out.

  Travis sighed and continued. “Yes. I made the mistake of loosening my hold on her face and she launched. She was bound and determined to make me forget about you—and now I know she also planned the whole thing because she knew you could see us. I’m pretty sure you must not have seen the whole thing because as soon as she kissed me, I gripped her arms and pulled her off me. It took everything in me to not shake her for what she was doing. I told her she could keep trying that all night, but I would never change my mind. I would never choose her. She just threw her head back with a laugh and said she would take me up on that. I just let go of her and walked to the other side of the blanket making sure there was distance between us for the rest of the date. I’m pretty sure Jim knew I was almost at my breaking point with her, because he made sure to position some cameras directly between us so she couldn’t try it again.”

  All I could do was stare into his eyes, my mind wandering back to that day and what I had seen. His explanation did make sense. I obviously couldn’t have heard anything he had said and my mind had reacted to only what I saw.

  Crap, I overreacted about the whole thing and never let him explain.

  “Well…I feel like an idiot now,” I mumbled looking back at our hands tangled together.

  “But you’re not one. Anyone would come to the same conclusion you did…they just probably would have let me explain then, instead of two months down the road. Or they would have watched the show and saw it all play out on there. Obviously you never watched a single episode.” Travis smiled at me, clearly knowing the answer.

  I shook my head. “The only episode I watched was the one tonight.”

  “Figured as much.”

  “Okay, that explains one thing. But why eliminate me from the show?” That was the one question I needed the answer to most.

  “Riles, I felt us breaking. I felt this show tearing us apart and I couldn’t let that happen. So when you reminded me that you never signed up for the show and were tired of dealing with the drama of the game, I decided I needed to do something rash. You said you were done playing the game. I was so afraid that meant you were done with us, but you said you wanted me, that was all. So I made a decision the best decision for you—I let you go.” He stared at me as I swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “The best decision for me? You broke my heart, Trav!” I wailed, unable to keep my emotions in check. Travis pulled me into a hug and I went willingly. He held me close, rubbing his hand up and down my back.

  “Do you have any idea how much it broke me?” he asked softly. I remembered back to when I left the show, seeing Travis crumble on the stoop with the look of agony on his face. I hadn’t let him explain any of this before I left. I never considered he’d have a broken heart too.

  I wiped at my face with my sleeve and cleared my throat, “Why let me go though? You could have kicked Nicki out and none of this would have happened.”

  “I thought of that. I did. But I didn’t want our relationship to start off that way—me picking you off some dating show. I wanted to do it away from all the cameras and prying eyes. I figured since you hated the show, that’s how you would want it too,” he said as I choked on a sob. “I kept telling you it was always you. When are you going to learn to trust me?” He chuckled, pulling me back into another hug. I gripped his shoulders, holding him close to me, hoping to make up for lost time.

  “I’m a girl. I have weird emotions.” I sniffed into his shoulder and his body rumbled with laughter. Another question was still nagging in the back of my head. “So, why didn’t you talk to me for the last two months?” I asked into his sleeve.

  Travis sighed into my hair. “We knew there were going to be reporters swarming. We obviously couldn’t give away the ending of the show, since it hadn’t aired yet, but reporters were getting rumors of who the final two were. Jim decided it was best for Taylor to be seen around town and with me to try to give it away that she was the one I chose. Since the ending of the show was something no one would expect, Jim decided using Taylor as a decoy was for the best. And since we were all still under contract with the show, we had no choice.”

  “And Taylor was okay with this?” I asked, unable to believe she would just do this out of the goodness of her heart.

  “Taylor jumped at the chance. Apparently you mentioned I had brothers.” Travis laughed into my hair.

  “Seriously? Taylor really came for your brothers?!” That was so unexpected I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Well, during our last date we had a night…alone. Typically it would be the time the couples, uh, get to know each other.” Travis blushed. “But clearly that was not happening. So Taylor and I just talked and she ended up badgering me about my brothers. Taylor acts all shy and quiet, but she can be very demanding! So long story short, by the end of the night she had Chase’s number and they were already texting like high schoolers.”

  “But what about what she said at the end of the show tonight? ‘Let your brothers know I’m single.’ What was that about?” I wasn’t sure if my brain could take anymore puzzles.

  “She was just throwing it out for effect. I’m pretty sure her and Chase had stayed up all night talking, so he clearly knew just how single she was.”

  “Why did you never text me more than a few generic words?” There had to be a better reason why we had almost no communication at all.

  “Do you know how hard it was for me to stay away from you? To not run over to your house, scoop you up in my arms, kiss you like crazy and never let you go? I wanted to call you about twenty times a day and always had the urge to text you every other minute. But I had to stay away. Completely. Otherwise this ending would have been ruined,” Travis said, pulling me tighter against his chest.

  “Travis Grayson, you are the strangest, most confusing man I’ve ever met.”

  “You said you’d wait for me. Is that still the truth?” He pulled back, staring deeply into my eyes, his twinkling with joy.

  “Trav, you put Nicki in her place on national TV, you hooked my best girl friend up with your brother, and you created this crazy plan because you thought that’s what I wanted.” I shook my head at him. “You did this all for me?”

  Travis gave me his sexy grin and nodded. “What can I say? You’re the girl for me, Doll.”

  “You suck, you know that right?” I said, slapping at his arm.

  He laughed his beautiful full belly laugh and pulled me into his arms. “So Riles, it’s now or never? What do you choose?”

  “I choose us,” I said, trailing my hand across his cheek bone, before reaching my mouth up to his and capturing his lips in mine.

  I stood at the top of the hill with Travis, looking over the scores of the other riders.

  “You don’t even have to do this run Trav, you’ll still win the gold,” I said, hoping he’d play it safe and not throw any big tricks that could land him in the hospital…again.

  “Riles, I still have to do my run,” he complained, having said it numerous times in the past.

  “A victory run?” That meant the most basic tricks and him just pumping his fist in the air.

  “Yes Riles, a victory run.�
�� He rolled his eyes at me as catcalls started coming from behind him.

  “Someone is whipped!” One of the riders called to him, making a whipping sound.

  “Someone grew up and has another person to look out for.” Travis turned to them and held up my hand, flashing the diamond ring on my finger. I pulled my hand out of his grip and smacked his shoulder as the other rider shrugged and walked away.

  “Would you stop showing the ring off to everyone?” He had done it every day for the last month since he asked me to marry him.

  “What can I say? I’m freaking happier than hell you agreed to spend the rest of your life with me.” He smirked at me and laughed as I swatted at him again.

  “Well, what else was I going to do with my life? I’m still your assistant. I’d still have to be with you every single day. Might as well make it more beneficial for me.” I winked at him and ran my hands up and down his chest.

  “Riley Logan, are you trying to seduce me?”

  “Is it working?” I asked wickedly. Maybe if I kept it up, he’d just throw his final round and I wouldn’t have to worry about him like usual.

  “Not a chance. I know your ways.” He laughed and stepped away from me.

  “You guys are more nauseating than usual,” Chase said coming up behind Travis with Taylor at his side.

  “Oh hush, they are the cutest couple I know!” Taylor said and slapped Chase in the chest.

  “What the hell does that make us?” He tried to sound wounded.

  “Beauty and the Beast?” Travis shot out with a laugh. Chase broke free from Taylor and launched himself on his brother. They proceeded to fall on the ground and started rolling around in the dirt.

  “I don’t know why we put up with them.” Taylor laughed as she walked over to me.

  “Probably because we took pity on them when no other girl would.” I bumped her shoulder with mine as we watched the boys wrestle for a few minutes.

  “You boys are going to be the death of me,” Kathy said from behind them. “Get up, both of you. Act like I raised you to act.”