He wants her. He’s not pushing her away. He wanted her to win the auction. He’ll spend the whole night with her.
Ally turned and dropped her paddle to the floor, unable to watch Travis and the other woman any longer. At that moment, all she wanted to do was escape.
She pushed past the back of the crowd, looking desperately for a place to escape. Her face burned with humiliation and her heart clenched with hurt.
Could I have been so wrong about Travis?
Bolting through the outside door of the resort, she wandered blindly, ending up at the enormous hot springs pool that was now closed. There wasn’t another soul around, so she sat in one of the wooden chairs beside the pool, the smell of minerals bringing back images of her and Travis making love in the pool at the guesthouse. She’d thought they’d been so connected, like there was no other person in the world for either one of them.
She tried to make sense of what had just happened, how Travis had turned away from her so easily, but she couldn’t. And who the hell was the woman? Was she someone from his past? Ally had never seen her before, and what would a woman from his past be doing in Colorado?
He comes here a lot. Maybe he met her on a previous trip.
Whatever the case may be, Ally knew things would never be the same for her and Travis, and she was devastated. He’d picked another woman over her, and that pain was so intense that she wanted to curl up in a fetal position from the sheer agony. Tears poured down her face, and she let out a strangled sob just as she heard the distinctive ring of her phone.
She almost ignored it, but she pulled it out of her purse, noticing in the dim light that it was a call from home, the police department. She clicked the Talk button with trepidation.
The conversation that followed turned Ally’s whole word upside down, leaving her feeling raw and completely destroyed by the time she clicked the phone back off. Her entire body shuddered and she froze in the chair, so shocked that she couldn’t move.
“Ally?” Tate Colter took a seat beside her, but Ally barely noticed him. “You okay?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was, “No. I don’t think so.”
Tate leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, waiting patiently. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
She wanted to tell someone, but she could barely comprehend the whole thing herself. “My house is gone. Apparently there was a sinkhole that opened underneath the house. They said it wasn’t very big, but it was enough to crack the foundation and cause a leak in some of the pipes and lines. The gas leaked and the house exploded. It’s entirely…gone.” Saying the words made it seem more real. “I think Travis—”
“Saved your life?” Tate finished for her casually. “I’m sure he knew. He’s been insistent on bringing you here for a while now.”
“You know?” Ally looked at Tate in surprise.
“I’ve known for a while now. He saved my life, too. Back when I was on active duty, Travis warned me not to volunteer for any missions that I wasn’t actually assigned to be on. I thought he was crazy. He knew very little about what I was doing. Nobody did, and they still don’t. It’s not something I can really talk about. All I can really say is that his warning made me hesitate when another pilot got sick and someone needed to take his place. I hesitated because of what Travis told me, because I wasn’t assigned to it. And because I took a fraction of a second to think about what Travis said, somebody else spoke up before me and took the sick guy’s place.” He hesitated for a moment before adding solemnly, “Everyone on that mission died, Ally. When he told me about his dream about Asha, I took him seriously, and was more than happy to stay close to her. I didn’t doubt that she was in some kind of danger if Travis had dreamed about it.” Tate took her trembling hand in his. “I’m sorry about your house, Ally. But I’m glad you’re here.” He stroked her fingers lightly. “Travis is looking for you. He’s worried.”
“He has another date,” Ally said painfully, her whole world still rocking from shock.
“The woman who bought him was my sister, Chloe, who happens to be engaged. She wanted to donate anyway, so she said she’d try to get here in time to bid on Travis since she wouldn’t have to spend the evening with him. She won’t stay long since she hates these kinds of functions. She hasn’t seen him in a while and he cares about her like a sister. She didn’t know about you, Ally. I didn’t mention you. I just told her that Travis was helping out a friend and wasn’t thrilled about taking his place. She said if she got here in time she’d do it. I never got a chance to tell her that you’d probably be bidding on him, too. It’s not his fault. And he’d never do that to you. I’ve known Travis since college, and he’s never cared about a woman the way he cares about you. He’s frantic right now because he can’t find you.”
Tears of relief rolled down Ally’s cheeks, and she started openly sobbing. Tate reached for her and put his arms around her shoulders, comforting her as she wept.
“You’ll get another house, Ally. Everything will be okay,” he crooned softly to her. “I know this is all a lot to take in, and you’ve lost everything, but it can all be replaced. You’re still alive, and that’s all that matters.”
“It’s just a house, and I didn’t lose everything I care about. I still have Travis.” She sniffled against his shoulder. The house was a shock, as was the fact that she could have very well been dead right now. What were the chances of a sinkhole opening underneath her house? She would have been home, probably already in bed. It was a pretty eerie feeling. But knowing Travis hadn’t betrayed her was all she cared about right now. Her tears were now tears of relief rather than sorrow.
“I don’t think you could lose Travis even if you tried,” Tate said with a chuckle. “He’s tearing the ballroom apart, looking for you.”
Ally pulled back and gave Tate a weak smile. “Go tell him you found me. I’ll be in. I just need a few minutes. I’m kind of a mess.”
Tate got up and grinned at her wickedly. “I’ll tell him we just finished a rendezvous in the dark.”
“I wouldn’t,” Ally warned Tate.
“I would. I’ve never seen Travis like this before. It’s highly entertaining,” Tate retorted mischievously, whistling softly as he walked away.