The Choice - Nicholas Sparks [50]
Once the boat was unloaded, the couples departed one by one, until only Gabby, Stephanie, and Travis remained. Travis was on the dock with Moby; he’d already spread the parachute on the dock so it could dry and was currently rinsing off the boat with a garden hose.
Stephanie stretched her arms overhead. “I guess I should be on my way, too. Dinner with the folks tonight. They get hurt feelings if I come down here and don’t spend enough time with them. You know how it goes. Let me say good-bye to Travis.”
Gabby nodded, watching lethargically as Stephanie leaned over the deck railing.
“Hey, Trav!” Stephanie shouted. “I’m outta here. Thanks for today!”
“Glad you could come,” he shouted with a wave.
“You might want to toss something on the grill. Gabby just said she’s starving!”
Gabby’s lethargy vanished immediately, but before she could say anything, she saw Travis give a thumbs-up.
“I’ll be up in a minute to start the grill!” he shouted. “Just let me finish up here.”
Stephanie sauntered by Gabby, obviously pleased with her social engineering.
“Why’d you say that?” Gabby hissed.
“Because I’m going to be with my parents. I don’t want my poor brother to have to spend the rest of the evening alone. He likes to have people around.”
“Well, what if I wanted to go home?”
“Then tell him when he gets up here that you’ve changed your mind. He won’t care. All I did was buy you a couple of minutes to think about it, since I guarantee that he would have asked you anyway, and then—if you’d said no—would have asked a second time.” She slung her bag over her shoulder. “Hey, it was great getting to know you. I’m glad we had the chance to meet. Do you ever get up to the Raleigh area?”
“Sometimes,” Gabby said, still thrown by what had just happened and unsure whether to be pleased or angry with Stephanie.
“Good. We can do lunch. I’d say we could do brunch tomorrow, but I really have to get back.” She removed her sunglasses and wiped them with her shirt. “See you again?”
“Sure,” Gabby said.
Stephanie went to the patio door, slid it open, then vanished inside, cutting through the house on the way to the door. By that point, Travis was already strolling up the dock, Moby trotting happily by his side. For the first time today, he’d put on a short-sleeved shirt, though he left it unbuttoned.
“Just give me a second to get the coals going. Shrimp kabobs okay?”
She debated only an instant before realizing that it was either this or head home to a microwave dinner and some awful show on television, and she couldn’t help but remember the feeling she’d had when watching Travis frolic in the surf with the toddlers.
“Just give me a few minutes to change?”
While Travis got the coals going, Gabby checked on Molly, finding her sleeping soundly along with the puppies.
She took a quick shower before changing into a light cotton skirt and blouse. After drying her hair, she debated whether to put on makeup, then decided on just a bit of mascara. The sun had given her face some color, and when she stepped back from the mirror, it occurred to her that it had been years since she’d last had dinner with a man other than Kevin.
A case could be made that it was simply a continuation of the day, or that she’d been tricked into dinner by Stephanie, but she knew that neither was completely true.
Still, was her decision to have dinner with Travis something she should feel guilty about, perhaps even conceal from Kevin? Her first impulse was to insist that she’d have no reason not to tell Kevin. The day had been harmless—technically, she’d spent more time with Stephanie than she had with Travis. So what was the big deal?
You’re dining alone tonight, of course, a little voice whispered.
But was that really a problem?