Read The Journey Collection Online
Authors: Lisa Bilbrey
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #Anthologies, #Contemporary, #Collections & Anthologies
The Journey Collection (10 page)
The
Journey
of
Champions
***
Table of Contents
***
Chapter One
Saying Goodbye — For Now
Travis McCoy stood in front of the large window that overlooked the front yard. With one hand pressed against the cool glass and the other nestled in his curly, chocolate-brown hair, he sighed. Today, he would be leaving Clarendon, Texas, and heading back to Miami, Florida, and he wasn’t sure he’d be strong enough to go. When he had made the decision to return to his hometown after receiving an invitation to celebrate homecoming, he hadn’t realized that in the process, he’d find himself again. The journey home hadn’t been an easy one, but it had been the best decision he had ever made. Coming home had given him the family he had been missing, a second chance to heal his broken heart, and the opportunity to reconnect with the person who had taught him what it meant to be a man: his father.
A smile slipped over Travis’s lips. When his father picked him up from the airport, he had anticipated spending the majority of his time in Clarendon dodging questions about where his life was headed or if he was ever going to grow up. Instead, Travis had lowered the walls he’d built around himself ever since the death of his mother, Loralie, and had allowed himself to get to know the real Russ McCoy. Where he had always seen a cold-hearted man who had put himself before his family, in reality Russ was a broken soul who’d struggled with losing the love of his life.
“He’s gonna be late if you don’t hurry,” came the softest, sweetest voice Travis had ever heard.
Laughing to himself, he looked over his shoulder, finding Penelope Stone standing in the doorway to their bedroom. She had her arms folded in front of her and a sparkle in her dark, sensual, mocha-brown eyes. Her long, silky, blond hair framed her face, and the pure, natural beauty that emanated from her took Travis’s breath away. She was exquisite.
“Are you okay?” Penelope asked when he didn’t speak.
“I’m fine,” Travis groused, trying to convince himself as much as her. Today, he wouldn’t just be leaving Texas for Florida; he’d be leaving his new family, too. He kept telling himself that it was just for a week, maybe two — just long enough to pack up his stuff and make the final move back to her and Max. But with each passing breath, he found the thought of missing even one moment with them excruciating. He’d just gotten a second chance at a life with them, and now he had to say goodbye.
“I don’t believe you.” Penelope smiled and crossed the room, slipping her arms around his waist. “We don’t want you to leave, either, but you can’t put this off any longer. It’s time to go back, Travis, so that you can really be here when you return.”
“Yeah, I know, but I don’t want to,” he grumbled, well aware that he sounded like a two-year-old who had been told it was time to go to bed. “I’m gonna miss you, baby.”
“And I’ll miss you,” she whispered. “You’re coming home to us, Travis. And when you do, we can be a real family.”
“We already are one,” he murmured, bringing his hand up to her face. Lowering his lips down onto hers, he kissed her. They took their time, neither of them wanting to rush the moment. It was all they would have to get them through the challenge ahead.
“Ugh, I know you two are in love or whatever, but I don’t need to see you sucking face all the time.”
At the sound of their son’s voice, Travis and Penelope pulled away from each other and laughed. Ten-year-old Max stood in the doorway to their bedroom with his backpack slung on his shoulder. His blond hair stuck up in several directions, and he had an irritated look on his face, though his brown eyes were full of amusement.
“I’m gonna be late, and when that happens, I’m gonna make sure that Mr. Nickels knows that it’s because you two can’t stop kissing all the time,” Max added.
“Okay, we’re coming.” Penelope laughed again and pulled herself out of Travis’s embrace. She shifted her eyes up to him and asked the one question he knew he’d have to answer with a lie. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” he muttered.
Travis grabbed his suitcase off the bed, and then followed Penelope down the hall and out to the car. He tossed his bag in the trunk before the three of them climbed inside and made the drive to the school in complete silence. Travis knew that the next few days would be just as hard on Max and Penelope as they would be on him, but at least they’d have each other. He had just gotten the chance to be with his son, and he wasn’t ready to let him go so soon.
Finding out that he and Penelope had a child together had been a huge shock to Travis, but from the moment he had met Max in the high school gymnasium, he’d been drawn to the boy. Of course, it wasn’t until Penelope had come busting in and tried to distract Max that Travis had put two and two together. He should have known, the moment he looked into Max’s eyes and saw his mother, Loralie, reflected back at him, that the boy was his child. It turned out that leaving Penelope to follow his dream of becoming a professional football player had cost him more than just the love of his life; it had cost him his son, too.
Travis and Penelope had been high school sweethearts, but when the time had come for Travis to leave for college, he’d put everything and everyone from the small Texas town of Clarendon behind him. He’d had just one focus: to become a star player. After four years at the University of Texas, Travis had been drafted by the Miami Sharks, and all of his dreams had come true — at least they had, until a series of shoulder injuries ended his six-year career. One hit was all it had taken, and Travis had found himself searching for some kind of new direction for his life.
At the time, Travis had thought that he’d hit rock bottom. His career had died, and he had no idea what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Then he’d received an invitation from Jack Garrison, the principal at Clarendon High School, asking if Travis would come home for the big homecoming celebration. The Broncos had been having their best season in a decade, and for some reason, the team credited Travis with being their inspiration. He’d been reluctant, but in the end, he had decided that if he was going to find his future, he needed to deal with his past. Never once had Travis imagined that in reality his future and his past were so closely linked.
Still, the journey home hadn’t been an easy one for him. Travis and Russ had struggled to understand each other, and a part of Travis still blamed his father for not telling him that he had a son. Also, a portion of him was still hurt that Penelope had taken away his right to be a part of the first ten years of Max’s life. He understood her reasoning that he would have picked football over them anyway, and he couldn’t even deny that there was a smidgen of truth in her words. Even so, the fact that he’d missed Max’s first steps and the chance to teach Max how to catch a baseball, and that he had never gotten to hear Max call him “Dad” cut Travis deep.
He was shaken out of his thoughts when Penelope pulled up in front of the elementary school. Sighing, he climbed out and opened the back door for Max. The boy had the same solemn expression on his face that Travis knew he had on his. This was the part he had been dreading the most: saying goodbye to his son. Travis placed his hand on Max’s shoulder, causing the boy to tilt his head back and look him in the eye. The pure anguish pouring out of his son’s eyes made Travis’s knees buckle.
“Max, remember what I told you: it’s just for a few days.” He had hoped to keep his voice calm and even, but he could hear the tremor of fear lacing his words. Would Max hate him for leaving again?
“Yeah, I know,” Max muttered. “And then you’ll be here for good, right?”
“Forever — and that’s a promise,” Travis said. “I love you, kid.”
“I love you, too,” Max whispered. He gave Travis a quick hug before turning and running into the building.
“Bye, Max, thanks for acknowledging me,” Penelope grumbled.
Travis laughed and looked over the top of the car at her.
She had a smile on her face, but her eyes were full of worry. “He’ll be okay.”
“I hope so, because I don’t know if I can handle knowing that he’s pissed at me for leaving him again,” Travis mumbled, trying to stop himself from weeping. He’d never been an emotional man, but seeing the pain on his son’s face and knowing that he couldn’t make it better had tears swimming in his eyes. Travis now understood why men changed so much when they had a child; the fear of damaging them was horrifying.
“Travis, he’s scared. Hell, so am I, but we’re not the same dumb, eighteen-year-old kids that we used to be. We’ve grown up, and I will not allow you to miss out on any more of our son’s life. I made that mistake once, and I won’t make it again.”
“Me either, baby, me either.”
~*~*~*~
An hour later, Penelope parked in front of Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport. The trip had been filled with awkward conversations mixed with deafening silence. She had prattled on about what she and Max had planned for the coming week. While Travis knew it was just her way of trying to distract him, it hadn’t worked. All he could think about was how he’d miss one more of Max’s football games, how he wouldn’t be able to hear about Mr. Nickels giving too much homework or to read with him before bedtime. These were all things that he had gotten used to doing, and now he wouldn’t be able to — not until he came back, anyway.
They climbed out of the car without speaking, Travis grabbed his bags from the trunk, and they walked into the airport. Penelope stayed next to the sliding doors while he checked in for his flight and picked up his tickets. Turning back to her, he swallowed against the lump in his throat. Saying goodbye to Max had been hard, but the thought of leaving Penelope had Travis trembling.
“Well, I guess this is it,” Penelope said with a wistful sigh. She placed her hand on his chest and sniffed back her tears. “I thought I could do this without crying.”
“If you cry, I won’t be able to go,” Travis murmured.
She smiled. “Then maybe I should start sobbing.” She shifted her attention up to him. “Promise me that you’ll come home.”
“I promise,” Travis replied. “I promise to come back to you and Max. Just remember that I love you, Penelope.”
“I love you, too,” she whimpered before leaning up and brushing her lips across his. “Hurry back to me, love.”
“As fast as I can,” he whispered.
Somehow — and he wasn’t sure how — Travis managed to pull himself away from her. He fought the urge to claw at the ache in the middle of his chest. Just the few seconds that he’d already spent away from her had him rattled. How was he supposed to go a week or longer without holding her in his arms or feeling her gentle kiss?
In a daze, Travis managed to get through the security check-point and down to his gate. Settling down on one of the hard, plastic seats, he placed his elbows on his knees and rested his forehead against the palms of his hands. His stomach was in knots, and more than a few times he swallowed against the bile that had been creeping its way up his throat.
Just when he was about to hightail it to the nearest restroom, someone sat down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Travis looked up, gasping when he saw Russ there.
“Didn’t think I was gonna make it before they called for our flight,” Russ chuckled before he could utter a sound.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Travis asked.
Russ smiled and shook his head. “I’m coming with you, boy. I once made the mistake of letting you go. I’ll be damned if I let it happen again. Besides, Miami is a huge part of your life, Travis. It’s time for me to see it, don’t you think?”
“But I thought you hated to fly.” Travis lifted an eyebrow in his father’s direction.
“I do,” Russ admitted. “But for you, I’m willing to give it a go. Just don’t laugh at me if I get a little scared. If people were meant to fly, God would have given us wings.”
Travis laughed. “You have my word, Dad.”
“Good,” Russ muttered, stretching his feet out in front of him.
“Dad, thank you for coming with me,” Travis said, his voice sincere. “It means a lot.”
“You’re welcome, Travis. Today is a new start for both of us — a new journey.”
Travis nodded. “The journey to forever.”
***
Chapter Two
A Meeting of the Minds
Early the following morning, Travis dragged himself out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen. He was desperate for a hot, steaming cup of coffee. However, when he walked in, he found Russ standing in the middle of the large room with his arms folded in front of him and casting a hard glare in the direction of the coffee maker. If Travis hadn’t been exhausted, he would have laughed at the sight before him, but a long day in various airports had made him cranky and sore.
“It’s not gonna bite,” Travis said, walking past Russ and grabbing the glass pot. “Hard, at least.”
Two minutes later, he had a pot of morning blend brewing. Turning back to his father, he bit the inside of his cheek and stifled the urge to laugh. He was used to seeing Russ in a pair of worn-out Wranglers and a long-sleeved, button-up shirt. This morning, however, Russ was wearing a pair of black cotton shorts and a simple, gray T-shirt. Because Russ spent ninety percent of his day outside, he had acquired quite the farmer’s tan. The pasty whiteness of his legs and upper arms contrasted against the brown, leathery look of his face, neck, and lower arms.
“Did you sleep okay?” Travis asked. “I know my guest room isn’t much, but I don’t often have people staying with me.”
“It was fine,” Russ chuckled, “though it was a little loud. How do you sleep with cars driving by all night? I had to put my pillow on my head!”
Travis smiled. “You get used it. When I went to UT, I had to sleep with earplugs in for the first month. Cal gave me a lot of shit about it.”
“How is Cal?” Russ wondered while Travis grabbed them each a coffee mug from the cabinet.
“Oh, he’s good, I guess,” Travis replied, filling both cups. Turning, he offered Russ one. “He’s been seeing a girl named Anna for about a year. I think they’re pretty serious.”
Russ lifted an eyebrow. “A girl?”
“A woman, though she is quite a bit younger than he is.”
“How much younger?” Russ probed.
“She, um, just turned nineteen a couple of months ago,” Travis mumbled. Just as he’d expected his father to do, Russ clamped his lips together and shook his head. “I know what you’re thinking, but she’s nice and a lot more mature than you’d think.”
“I’m sure she is,” Russ said, leaning against the counter. “But Cal’s a good decade older than her. That’s a lot of different life experience.”
Travis nodded. “True, but Anna had to grow up fast. Her parents were killed in a car accident just after she turned seventeen, and it left her and her brother all alone. He was just ten at the time. She graduated from high school a year early and has been balancing school, two jobs and raising Ben all on her own. Cal’s good for her, and if I’m being honest here, she’s good for him.”
“That poor child,” Russ murmured.
“Yeah, it hasn’t been an easy road for her, but Anna’s tough.” Travis shrugged his shoulders. “She kind of reminds me of Mom.”
“In that case, good luck to Cal,” Russ snickered.
Travis laughed, too, and then motioned for Russ to follow him into the living room. They settled on the sofa, and Travis turned on the television. A groan rumbled out of his chest when he saw a picture of himself in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
“Though it hasn’t been confirmed yet, sources tell us that Travis McCoy is leaving the Sharks after turning down a job offer to be the new special teams coach,” Tamara Roberts, a young, perky blond, reported. A smarmy grin slipped over her lips when she added, “With Malcolm Rollins guiding the Sharks to victory against Denver last week, it seems like he is ready to step up and lead the team.”
Sighing, Travis changed the channel, settling on a report on the weather. He tossed the remote on the cushion next to him, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes. Although he liked Malcolm Rollins well enough — the kid was fresh out of Duke University and had a lot of potential — Travis had to admit that he’d wanted the chance to take his team to the championships. There was a magical feeling in the knowledge that you were the best of the best and that, in that moment, nobody could compare to you.
“So,” Russ murmured, breaking the silence.
Travis was so used to being alone in his apartment that the sound of his father’s voice startled him, causing him to spill his coffee on his leg.
“Shit, that’s hot!” Travis yelled, scrambling into the kitchen to grab a wet paper towel.
“Damn it, boy, I’m sorry,” Russ groused, following him in.
“It’s fine,” Travis said, soothing the burning ache. “I was just lost inside my own head, I guess.”
“Thinking about the game, huh?”
Travis shifted his eyes up to his father. “That obvious?”
“Only because I know you.” Russ grinned, the corners of his crystal-blue eyes crinkling. “When you were little, maybe seven or eight years old, I’d walk into your bedroom, and you’d be lying on your bed with your football in your hands and this look in your eyes. I knew you were running some kind of play in your head.” Russ laughed. “I guess football has always been a part of who you are.”
“It has,” Travis admitted. “But now, Penelope and Max are my priority. That’s why I am gonna talk with Stewart today about finalizing the termination of my contract. I need to be with my family.”
Russ smiled. “Glad to hear it. You’re a great quarterback, Travis, but you’ll be an amazing father.”
“You think so?” Travis asked.
“Of course I do,” he scoffed. “I wasn’t the father you needed; I can admit that now. I was too lost in my own grief to see how much you needed me. You won’t make my mistakes. When you get back to Max, you’ll make up for missing his first ten years.”
Shaking his head, Travis said, “I will never be able to make up for not being in Max’s life for that long, but I’ll be damned if I miss out on any more than I have to. He and Penelope are everything to me, Dad.”
“I know, boy. I know.”
~*~*~*~
An hour later, Travis had managed to shower and get dressed, choosing a pair of khaki dress pants and a royal-blue polo shirt. Russ had tried to insist that he’d wait for him in the apartment, but Travis wouldn’t hear of it. He wanted to be able to show his father the stadium that had been such a vital part of his life for the past six years.
Once Russ was ready, the two of them headed down to the parking garage and climbed into Travis’s black 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe. Travis gave an inward snort; he’d just had the car for six months, but once he went back to Texas, he wouldn’t need it. The sensible thing would be to sell it. He loved the sports car, but he had a family now and would need something that they could all fit inside.
A family
, he thought wistfully,
that I’d give up everything for
.
While they drove through Miami toward the stadium, Travis pointed out a few of his favorite haunts. There was the small, family-owned Mexican restaurant that had the hottest tamales that he’d ever tasted. Ernesto and Cecelia Garcia had opened their doors back in the early seventies, and now five out of their seven children were running the place, along with three other locations throughout Miami. Most people tended to overlook their restaurant because it stayed authentic to Mexican cuisine and hadn’t allowed American influences to change the food they offered. Even so, they’d built a loyal following of patrons, who appreciated the quality of the dishes on the menu, and the family was able to make a good life for themselves and their children. He’d found the small establishment a few months after he came to Miami, and it had become one of his favorite places to go when he needed to be alone.
A few blocks from Garcia’s was the Laundromat that Travis used. There were only about half a dozen washers and dryers, but they were open twenty-four hours a day, so he could go in the middle of the night and not have to worry about dealing with fans seeing his dirty laundry. He found the buzzing from the machines comforting, in particular after a long road trip or a hard loss.
The look on Russ’s face when Travis turned into the parking lot that surrounded the Sharks’ Stadium amused him.
“Pretty incredible, isn’t it?” Travis asked.
Russ nodded. “You actually played inside there?”
“Um, yeah,” Travis scoffed. “Where’d do you think we played?”
“I don’t know. At one of the local high schools?” Russ looked over at Travis while shaking his head. “Weren’t you scared that you’d get lost?”
“At first,” Travis admitted. “The stadium at UT was big, but coming into Miami was terrifying. But you know what helped me through it?”
“What?” Russ wondered.
Travis smiled. “You.”
“Me?”
“Yep,” Travis said. “Remember when you took me to see the Broncos play in the state championship game?”
Russ nodded.
“I’d never seen a building taller than a couple of stories, and there we were, surrounded by skyscrapers. You knelt down in front of me, put your hands on my shoulders, looked me straight right in the eye, and said, ‘Up is the only direction to go.’ Every time I found myself afraid to try or doubting if I could make it, I thought about that moment and what you said. Right now, my ‘up’ is back in Texas.”
Russ smiled. “I didn’t think anything I said to you ever mattered.”
“Everything you said mattered, Dad; I just didn’t always listen.”
“Well, as your Momma would have said: we are men, we never listen.” Russ laughed. “That woman used to get so pissy with me for not doing things her way. She’d tell me that I always did things the hard way just because I knew it would make her mad.”
“Did you?” Travis asked, driving into the parking garage and finding his usual spot.
Russ smirked and grabbed the door handle. “Yep. I couldn’t help it, though. She’d get this fiery look in her eyes that amused me.”
“Yeah, Penelope used to get that look, too,” Travis snickered.
“I bet she still does. You’ll just have to wait until you move down there to find out for sure.”
Travis grinned. “I can’t wait.”
The business office was located next to the press box. Travis had been up there just a few times over the last six years. As they made their way down the corridor, he pointed out the various pictures of himself and his teammates, their trophies for winning the last three division championships, and several magazine covers that had featured him and other members of the Sharks. Stewart Thornton, the owner of the Sharks, had once told Travis that he wanted every person who passed through his halls to know how hard the team worked for what they had. While Stewart was a businessman, Travis knew that in his heart he loved the game and wanted to keep it pure.
Travis paused outside the business offices and took a much-needed deep breath before he opened the heavy, oak door.
Margaret Keller, Stewart’s assistant, looked up from her work and smiled. “Travis!”
Standing up, she walked around her desk to hug him. Margaret was just shy of five feet tall and had short, black hair and wide, expressive, hazel eyes. She’d been working for Stewart since he’d taken over the Sharks almost fifteen years earlier. She often complained that Travis needed a woman in his life and had tried to fix him up on several blind dates, none of which he had agreed to go on. He just couldn’t get her to understand that he wasn’t interested in dating. Of course, he’d never told her about Penelope or how she still owned his heart, either.
Margaret stepped back but kept her hands on his arms and gave him a disapproving look. “You have a lot of explaining to do, young man,” she scolded him, even though she was just ten years older than him. “You turned down a good job.”
“Yes, ma’am, I did, but I had a good reason,” Travis chuckled. “Two, in fact. But first, let me introduce you to my father.” He turned and gestured to Russ, who was standing behind him, looking a bit bewildered. “Margaret, this is my father, Russ McCoy. Dad, this is Margaret Keller, and she’s very bossy, in case you can’t tell.”
“So I see,” Russ teased, and Travis had to swallow a laugh. His father was flirting with her. “It’s nice to meet you, darlin.”
“Oh, you too, Russ,” Margaret cooed. She turned back to Travis, “Now, what is more important than a chance to coach?”
“Okay, what I’m about to tell you isn’t for the office gossips, got it? This is private, and I’d like to keep it that way — at least for now.”
“Of course!” Margaret agreed, her expression eager.
Travis smiled. “The reasons are the love of my life and our son.”
Margaret gasped. “You’re in love? Wait, you have a son? You were gone for two weeks! The last time I checked, it takes a lot longer than a couple of weeks to create a kid. Though, to be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve had any practice making a baby, if you know what I mean.”
“Margaret!” Travis laughed. “You’re rambling.”
“Oh, sorry.” Margaret exhaled. “You met someone?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured. “It’s a long story, but Penelope and I were high school sweethearts, and because I was an idiot, I lost a lot of time with her. When I went home, she and I were able to reconnect, and I found out that we have a son together. Anyway, she and Max are more important than anything else to me.”
“Aw,” Margaret sighed. “That’s so sweet.”