Dinner would normally have been at seven, but Jamie and Beth had not yet shown. John Dutton was about to call everyone to the table anyway when they heard the front door slam shut and the sound of Jamie and Beth arguing.
Before Travis could stop her, Coralee ran to the front hall to see what was going on. Beth had taken hold of Jamie's ear and was twisting it, screaming at him like a fishwife. It was obvious to anyone who would look that Jamie was restraining himself but all the old resentment she felt towards Beth started to boil over and she grabbed a handful of her blond hair and yanked it—hard—to pull her away from Jamie.
"What the hell is going on here?" Rip didn't need to raise his voice, he chose tone and words instead. Beth had reached out an arm and was going to scratch Coralee's face, but he grabbed her, while Travis grabbed Coralee and pulled her out of Beth's reach.
She realized she had embarrassed Jamie and she told him, "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have done that," but she wasn't sorry for pulling Beth's hair, she even had a few strands sticking to her hand.
Jamie patted her cheek and smiled. He knew how long the bad blood had existed between her and Beth and he understood. "Just don't do it again, okay? I can fight my own battles."
"Upstairs," Travis told her, "Now!" He pushed her up the stairs and into their bedroom, then turned and locked the door.
"What were you thinking? How old are you, five? You know better than to get into fights, don't you?"
"It was Beth's fault, it's always Beth's fault," she countered, "Beth was hurting him, she always goes too far. He's too much of a gentleman to fight back but I'm not."
"You could have hurt her, or you could have gotten hurt. You're too old for this, Coralee. Now get yourself straightened up so we can go downstairs for dinner."
She wondered if Beth had gotten a dressing down from Rip. He didn't put up with Beth's nonsense and he was one of the two people that Beth respected, the other being her father. She certainly didn't look like she had as she sat down at the dining room table, but she avoided looking at Coralee. So, Rip had said something.
After dinner the men gathered in the sitting room next to the fire, drinking generous portions of whisky. Part of her wanted to join them, but she hadn't liked the way Travis had spoken to her. She didn't need a lecture about Beth, she had had to deal with Beth for most of her life. Beth had always been the older cousin, treating her and her sister like they were meaningless nonentities. It was only when she'd gotten older, taller, stronger, and smarter that she'd lost her fear of her.
She went upstairs and took a shower. There was an old robe of hers still in the closet and put it on before drying her hair. She hoped that Travis wasn't feeling amorous because she certainly wasn't. She didn't like being talked to like she was a child, there had been bad blood between Beth and her since they were young, and what had happened before dinner was just an extension of that.
She looked up to see Travis standing in the doorway, swaying gently on his feet. She had seen him drink before, but she'd never seen him drink that much. He came in and locked the door behind him, not saying anything but staring at her.
"You disappointed me, Coralee," his voice sounded a little thick but not bad. "I can't believe you did that, what were you thinking?" He took a step towards her and she was hoping that he would stumble but no such luck.
"Get away from me," she said, "You've had too much to drink. I don't know what you have on your mind but forget it."
"No, I've had just enough to drink, I used the whisky to help me decide what to do." He reached out his hand took hold of her robe, and jerked it off her. "I've decided that if you're going to behave like a child, I'm going to treat you like one."
She tried to get away, but he was too fast for her. She could have called for help but the thought of being seen like this embarrassed her. "Don't," she said, it was half a plea, but she already knew it was going to do no good.
He sat on the bed and threw her over his knee. He took her hands in one of his and the free one began to swat her on her bottom and thighs. It wasn't playful like it had been with Bill, Travis meant business and he meant it to hurt.
After he stopped, he threw her on the bed and it took her only a moment to know what he wanted. He divested himself of his pants and boots and soon he pushed himself inside her.
She expected her body to object but soon she realized she was aroused, why she did not know, but she went from victim to participant. When they finished, she did not fight him but allowed her to take her in his arms and hold her.
"I know I should apologize for what I did, but I'm not because I'm not sorry like I'm not sorry that I love and desire my wife. And I'm not sorry that I want to get you pregnant, either. I want to see you pregnant with our kid—it's going to be a boy, you know."
"I love you too, Travis, but that's something I can't give you now, and I'm not sorry about that, either."
The next morning Gator had prepared a farewell feast with Gemma Dutton's help. Bacon, sausage, ham, accompanied pancakes, waffles, eggs and fried potatoes. They had a long drive ahead of them and Gator wanted to make certain that no one went hungry on his account.
Coralee went to the bunkhouse to say her goodbyes and was surprised to see that Katie had spent the night with Ryan, despite their mother's presence.
"Don't get all fussy on me, little sister," Katie told her, "There wasn't much room in the lodge and I wasn't going to share a room with Mom. You spent your first night with Travis despite Uncle John, now didn't you?"
Coralee sighed, "Yeah, I did, but you can blame Travis for that, and it wasn't all night. Are you going to marry that wrangler, girl? You've spent a lot of time with him."
"I'm helping him get over a broken heart," Katie replied archly.
"Is it helping?" Coralee retorted.
"Yeah, we're not talking about feelings or the future, but we have as much in common as you and Travis and he's not that much older than me. He loves being a cowboy and I love cowboys as much as you do.""
"Hey, are you going to tell us goodbye, too?" Teeter and Laramie came over and enveloped her in a bear hug, "We're going to miss you so be sure and come back as soon as you can.
Jamie had stayed behind to say goodbye, Beth had left. The rest of the family came to give their hugs and kisses; Rip had smacked her playfully on the bottom to see how she'd react and to let her know he knew what had happened last night.
Gemma hugged Travis, to his surprise, "You take care of my baby girl, you hear, Travis? You mistreat her you'll have me to deal with and my husband will tell you he makes a point of never dealing with me."
"I take good care of her, Gemma, she's the light of my life," he replied, "The best thing I ever did was to marry her, even if we rushed it. I work at making her happy because she makes me happy." He surprised her and kissed her on the cheek.
Coralee and Travis were the last ones in his truck. They fastened their seat belts and Coralee took a pillow and lay it against the window, closing her eyes.
"You're not going to sleep on me already?" Travis asked, indignant, "We haven't even left the ranch.
"Well, it's funny how I didn't get much sleep last night. Something kept waking me and wouldn't let me sleep. You wouldn't know about that, would you?"
"Not a thing," he answered, "You woke up early this morning, too."
"Leave me alone, Travis," she said as the boys in the back seat sniggered.
Travis only grinned.
It was eighteen hours to Scottsdale and she was stuck with Travis and his friends. Fortunately, she was used to teasing from the ranch hands and had learned to give as good as she got. She preferred not to give anything and would answer the taunts and ribbing with a smile whenever possible.
Travis's team liked her. They liked her attitude and the way she tried to be "one of the guys". She did her share of the work and didn't play on being the boss's wife. She was open and friendly and always had a smile on her face, no matter what it cost her. For Travis's sake, she even put up with hearing herself called "Travis's little wife".
Her eyes were closed but she was not asleep, and she could hear Travis bantering with the boys. He reached over and grabbed her shoulder, saying, "Hey sleepyhead, wake up!"
She opened her eyes and straightened up. "I'm not asleep."
"Sure you weren't you were just resting your eyes."
"Well, since we left Wyoming, the scenery has gotten boring, what there is of it. I can't wait till we hit southern Utah so maybe things will improve. At least Scottsdale isn't boring like Salt Lake."
"You're insulting someone's home, you know." He looked at her briefly then went back to driving.
Scottsdale was a welcome change from Utah. It was a popular tourist spot and sported several nice hotels, the best being the Scottsdale Princess. She wasn't supposed to know it, but he'd booked one night for them. She knew it was more than he would want to spend and he probably had grumbled about it. It was the little silly things that he did for her that made her love him.
She helped unload the horses then Travis "surprised" her by checking them into the Scottsdale Princess. It was just for one night, but they enjoyed the oversized bed with the down pillows, and the bathroom with the sunken jacuzzi tub.
She flipped bubbles at him with her toe, "We should put one of these into the master bathroom," she said, "I know your back gets sore, this would be good for it."
"Maybe we'll do a bathroom remodel to celebrate the birth of our first child. We don't need a jacuzzi but enjoy this one, we check out in the morning."
"Hmm, promises, promises. Which horse am I riding tomorrow?"
"You can ride Coronado, maybe I'll put you on one of the Yellowstone horses, you should be riding for your uncle, you're a Dutton after all."
"Yeah, I get it, a Dutton riding for a Dutton, but that's not what I want. I want to do this on my own, I don't want people to think I get where I am because of my uncle."
After they checked out in the morning, they went first to breakfast and then to the arena to check on the horses. Someone had groomed Coronado and his coat long mane, and tail shone. This was something she preferred to do and was puzzled but decided it was not important. At that moment, someone walked past her, someone she didn't recognize, and wondered if Travis had hired someone new to help out at the show. She'd ask him later; he was busy right now and she didn't want to bother him. Later on, she would wish that she had.