Book 4: His Fourth Date (Ivory Peaks Romance)

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Travis Thatcher walked into the house where Chris Hammond lived, the scent of bacon and basil meeting his nose. “Just me,” he said.

The older gentleman came out of the kitchen, which sat off to the left of the front door, near the back of the house. Chris smiled, his bright eyes showing Travis that even brown eyes could shine like stars. “There you are,” he said, hobbling slightly toward him. He wore a black apron tied around his waist, with a blue golf shirt and a pair of shorts. 

Travis couldn’t help smiling at the man. “You look like one of your mutual funds had a very good night.”

Chris laughed as Travis took off his cowboy hat and hung it on the rack beside the door. The blessed air conditioning reminded him that some people worked without sweating all day. He honestly didn’t mind the weather he had to put up with here in Colorado, because anything was better than living in the city.

“Come see,” Chris said, turning to go back into the kitchen. Travis followed him, noting the man’s desk in the living room still overflowed with papers. Gray, his son, had told Travis that his father had run their family company for decades, and even after he’d retired, he couldn’t get rid of some things. 

He loved investing, any talk of stocks, bonds, holdings, accounts. He took risks because he was almost eighty-seven years old, and why shouldn’t he? He’d been a billionaire since birth, and Travis loved the old man as if he were his own father.

“It’s HMC,” Chris said, indicating the laptop on the kitchen table. “Didn’t I tell you to buy up our stock? I knew they were going to split it. I just knew it.”

Travis glanced at Chris and then the laptop. He’d made the text bigger, so Travis didn’t even have to get that close to see it. “So now I own twice as much as I used to.”

Chris laughed again. “I almost have the sandwiches ready.” He bustled back into the kitchen, where the sizzling sound of something frying met Travis’s ears. He sat at the table while Chris talked. “Hunter didn’t tell me. I know you’re thinking that.”

“It’s a valid thought,” Travis said, peering closer at the screen. “It’s already going up.” Investing in HMC had been a good thing, and while Travis was good with numbers, he couldn’t math that fast. 

“Boone and Matt are coming,” Chris said. “Can you put that on the desk? I don’t have room otherwise.”

“Sure.” Travis watched the decimals tick up, then down, then fly up for another few seconds. “So what next?” He stood and closed the laptop. After picking it up, he started toward the desk. “Are you going to sell?”

“Not yet,” he said, flipping over a grilled cheese sandwich. This wouldn’t be just any grilled cheese though. Chris always doctored them up with things Travis had never thought to pair together. “I think the stock will go higher as soon as Hunter announces the new shrink foam.” Chris grinned like it was the money he cared about.

Travis knew it wasn’t. The man hadn’t had to live a day of his life without what he wanted and needed. Chris’s joy came from experiencing his children and grandchildren achieving great things, and it touched Travis’s heart in a way that reminded him of his own single status.

No children, and no girlfriend since moving to Colorado. From there, his thoughts immediately moved to Poppy Harris, the woman who lived on and ran the farm next door. She had an eleven-year-old son named Steele, and Travis had done his darnedest to help her over the past several months. She didn’t seem to want his help, and he could admit he hadn’t told her much about himself or why it was so dang easy to help her.

The only people who truly knew that he also had over a billion dollars in the bank was Chris and Gray Hammond. Elise too, of course, and Travis wanted to keep that number as small as possible. 

The front door opened as Chris said, “These are apple-bacon grilled cheese sandwiches.” He put one on a plate and picked up a big chef’s knife to cut it into triangles. “With basil dipping aioli.” 

“…I’m just saying, it would be fun,” Boone said, his voice always full of laughter and joy. Travis liked the man a whole lot, because while he worked hard and did amazing things with their therapy horses, he was always the life of the party too.

In many ways, Travis wished he could be more like Boone. The man said whatever was on his mind, to anyone. He didn’t hold back in showing his happiness—or his heartache. He felt things, and he felt them deeply.

“A motorcycle is a death trap,” Cosette, his fiancé of only eight days, said. “Not fun.”

The darker version of Boone came inside and closed the door too. Matt Whettstein, his brother, chuckled and said, “I kind of agree with Cosette.”

“Traitor,” Boone boomed. He grinned at Travis and clapped him on the shoulder. “Howdy, Trav.”

“Hey, Boone.” Travis smiled, because no one could look at Boone while he was smiling and not feel the pure radiance from him. Travis was a bit surprised he’d gotten the formal, polished, precise Cosette Brian to even go out with him, and he wondered—not for the first time—if he should ask Boone for some tips when it came to Poppy.

“If you get a motorcycle,” Matt said, also arriving at the island in the kitchen where everyone else stood. “Then Keith will want to ride it. And Britt. Then I’m going to be the bad guy who won’t let her.”

“It’s such a great deal,” Boone said.

Cosette looked up from her phone, and as usual, she wore a pretty flowery dress, perfect makeup, and this time, a smile. “Too bad,” she said in a voice that didn’t indicate she thought anything was bad. “Raven said the bike sold already.” She smacked her lips and shook her head in mock disappointment.

Matt and Chris chuckled while Boone blinked at his fiancé. “You think this is so funny,” he said, teasing her. He swooped his arms around her, the two of them laughing, and Travis couldn’t help basking in their love.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been in love with a woman. Maybe he never had been, though he’d been married briefly and then had  dated Jenni for a long, long time. She’d been so focused on her career, and truth be told, so had he. The relationship was so they didn’t have to eat alone at night, and he could watch her cat while she traveled for work. 

“Where’s Gloria?” Travis asked Matt, who nodded a silent hello while Boone and Cosette settled down.

“The sandwiches are done,” Chris said. “Someone take this one and eat it.”

“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Boone said, claiming the already-cut sandwich before anyone else could even reach for it.

Chris turned back to the stove to get more out of the pan, and Matt said, “She’s tired today, so I made her go home to take a nap.”

“When is she due again?” Travis asked, picking up a plate and handing it to Matt. He stood around the island, closer to the stove, and he got the next sandwich. 

“Uh, let’s see,” Matt said. “August twenty-fourth.” He smiled at Travis, who took the next sandwich and handed the plate to Cosette. The two of them joined Boone at the kitchen table, and Travis waited for Chris to dish up the last two sandwiches. Then they joined everyone at the table too.

“Molly should be having her baby next week,” Chris said, his voice once again filled with pride and joy.

“I can’t believe they didn’t find out what they’re having,” Cosette said.

“It’s a baby, baby,” Boone said with a grin. “I know it won’t be a chicken.” He laughed, and Travis couldn’t help joining him. Cosette just rolled her eyes, though she did smile.

“Did you find out with Gerty?” Cosette said. Travis dipped the corner of his sandwich in the basil sauce and took a bite. Salty bacon, sweet apple, and gooey cheese. With the basil, this sandwich was perfection.

“Yes,” Boone said. “Nikki wanted to decorate the nursery. We had so much pink stuff, it was unbelievable.” He spoke easily of his deceased wife, his smile only growing fonder and wider.

Sitting there with the four of them, and thinking of Molly and Hunter Hammond starting their family in just a few short days, Travis determined he needed to do something more than try to discover himself. He’d left his big-wig finance job in the city and come west, where he’d found this farm and this job to be a safe haven for him.

He’d learned who he was beneath the shadows of the huge Rocky Mountains, and he knew his place with the Lord. 

Now, he needed to find someone to share his life with. Someone who could tease him the way Cosette did Boone, and someone who could help him continue to try to improve every single day the way Molly did for Hunter.

“So,” he said in a lull in the conversation. “Has anyone ever gone to the Lazy Summer Days in town?” He put the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth and looked up. Boone and Cosette shook their heads, but Matt and Chris had sort of frozen.

“What?” Travis asked.

Matt cleared his throat. “You know what the Lazy Summer Days is, right?”

“Clearly not,” Travis said, already reaching for his phone. “I saw a poster in the window at the grocery store a couple of days ago. It said there were activities and movies in the park.”

“Yeah,” Matt said. “For couples. It’s a dating event.”

Travis looked up from his phone, his search forgotten. “Dating event?”

Matt shifted and cleared his throat again. “It’s for like, you know, a summer girlfriend. You sign up, and the first event is speed-dating. Hopefully, you find someone, and then you…spend the summer with them, doing all these ‘activities’ and going to movies in the park.” He exchanged a glance with his brother.

Travis wasn’t sure how that was bad. “Don’t people keep going out after summer ends?”

“Sure,” Matt said easily. “I just—well, usually the people who do it are in their twenties. I went the first summer I got hired on here with Gray, while he went up to Coral Canyon. I was one of the older men there.”

“You went to that?” Boone asked, chortling.

Travis knew then that should he choose to go, he would not be telling Boone. Cosette whacked him in the chest and said, “Stop it.” She looked at Travis, her deep, green eyes partly worried and partly compassionate. She’d always been kind to him, if professional, and Travis did like her.

“That was a long time ago, Matt,” she said, dropping her eyes to her phone. “It says here that there are age ranges. Twenty-one to twenty-nine. Thirty to thirty-four. Thirty-five to thirty-nine.” She paused and looked at Travis.

“Keep goin’,” he said, his voice almost a growl.

“Forty to forty-four, forty-five to fifty.” She read out ages all the way to sixty-five, and then said, “And sixty-six-plus.” She looked at Matt and Boone and Chris. “So even Chris could sign up should he want to see about finding someone special again.”

Chris looked horrified at the thought, and everyone at the table chuckled. Cosette said, “So it’s for everyone.” She cut a look at Travis again. “Love can be found at any age, anywhere.” 

Travis gave her a nod and stood up. He picked up his plate and then gathered everyone else’s, taking them all into the kitchen. “Well,” he said. “I best be gettin’ back to work.”

“The sign-up date ends tomorrow,” Cosette said. “The speed-dating event is this weekend.” She had to be talking to him, and Travis’s face heated. 

“All right,” he said, neither committing to signing up nor saying he wasn’t going to. 

* * *

The following evening, Travis sighed as he sat in front of his computer. The sign-up form for the Lazy Summer Days already open. It had been open since he’d returned home last night, and he’d been stewing about signing up for over twenty-four hours now. 

He looked at the screen, his fingers acting almost of their own accord. His name got entered, then his phone number, and email. Before he knew it, his mouse hovered over the submit button, and then he clicked on it.

A breath of air whooshed out of his lungs, and Travis jumped to his feet. He backed up a couple of steps, staring at the computer screen like he’d just committed a heinous crime. He turned away and took a breath. 

“No,” he said. “It’s time, Trav. Time to take the next step in your life.” He felt like he’d been on quite the journey in the past few years, and finding a girlfriend who could become a wife was simply the next, natural thing for him.

So it was that Travis showed up at the high school gymnasium the following evening. He’d arrived early, but he wasn’t the first person there. After he’d watched the fifth or sixth man walk through the doors, he gathered his courage close and unbuckled his seat belt. No one had been much younger than him, because he’d signed up for the forty-to-forty-four age group of men. 

He’d been emailed a time for his speed-dating event, and he still had ten minutes to spare. He walked the short distance to the steps, up them, and through the door without panicking or turning back. 

Inside, lines of men waited to be checked-in, but everything ran smoothly. Voices filled the air, but Travis didn’t talk to anyone. Nerves ran through him, and he wasn’t the only one. It felt like someone had electrified the oxygen in the high school, and then Travis gave a younger man his name.

His got checked off, and he took a number from the guy. “That’s your table number,” he explained. “In the gym, you’ll find a matching one. The ladies are moving tonight.” He smiled like this speed-dating event was something Travis should be thrilled to attend.

He managed to smile back, looked at his twenty-eight, and tucked it into his front jeans pocket. Yes, he’d worn jeans, but he’d paired those with a really great blue and yellow shirt. Well, really great according to Vivian, his sister. He’d called her about tonight’s activity, and with the help of the camera on his phone, she’d gone through his closet with him an hour ago.

He found his table easily and sat down. Glancing left and right, he saw men his own age stretching in both directions. He barely had time to wonder how there could be so many singles his age in this area before a man stepped over to the microphone up on the stage and started speaking.

“All right, gentlemen,” he said. “Our ladies are getting debriefed right now, and then we’ll open the doors and let them in.” He beamed out his happiness at all of them, and Travis couldn’t help searching for a wedding ring on his hand. Sure enough, this guy was already married.

Travis cleared his throat as someone put a bottle of water on his table. He practically lunged for it while the guy on the stage went over the rules. Six-minute rounds. Bells ringing. Women moving.

Travis was the one who suddenly needed to move, and move now. Before he could get up and admit he’d made a terrible mistake, the first bell rang, and the doors in front of him opened.