his intense, black eyes.
“To my knowledge, the Council has never retracted a promise,” she told him softly. “And they did make you a promise today. They said they wanted you and the boys to become a family. To the Kolheek, a person’s word means everything—honor, pride, honesty, integrity. A person’s character is only as good as his or her word. I cannot believe…”
Her voice faltered and then trailed away as she tucked her bottom lip between her teeth. As much as she wanted to assure him, she refused to tell him anything other than the full and honest truth.
After expelling a resigned sigh, she said, “But I cannot mislead you. This situation is far different than any I’ve ever experienced. The Council is concerned about the boys. About their living away from their culture. About your being single.” She sighed. “Until the adoption papers are signed by each Council member and the documents are in your hands, then…I would suppose that anything is possible.”
“Great.” His utterance was soft, more to himself than to anyone else.
Again, compassion squeezed her in its tight grip. “The Council did say they wanted you to have the boys.”
“Only two of the members actually spoke,” he reminded her.
“They were the Council representatives. They spoke the thoughts of everyone. If even one member had disagreed, you can be sure he or she would have spoken up.”
Gratitude tinged his tone as he murmured his appreciation. She smiled at him, her stomach suddenly feeling all giddy and…and strange.
Just then a plastic drinking straw from one of the boys’ sodas came flying over Travis’s head, landing on the blue carpeted aisle separating Travis’s and Diana’s seats. Automatically she reached down to pick it up. After quietly warning the boys to settle down, Travis turned back to her and took the straw from her.
The pads of his fingers were warm as they gently brushed the backs of hers. A chill shimmied up her arm, churning up gooseflesh, and she shivered. She darted a glance at his strong hand, and then again at his handsome profile. Luckily Travis was in motion, swinging back around to speak to the twins, and he didn’t seem to notice her astonishing response to his touch.
She curled her fingers into a fist and stuffed her hand into her lap. Reacting to Travis was the very last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t want to be affected by him. Men were the cause of too much pain. Too much humiliation. Her only goal on this trip was to spend time with Jared and Josh, to acquaint them with their heritage. If she could help assuage Travis’s doubts and fears about the adoption, she would. If she could help the boys feel more comfortable with their new father, she’d do that, too. But she didn’t want any involvement with Travis other than what was necessary for the boys’ sake.
Okay, so she found him handsome. Any woman would. His onyx eyes were appealingly intelligent, his long, neat hair glossy and inviting, his sexy mouth sent sensuous ideas flitting through her mind—
She cut the thought to the quick. Her body was only reacting to his good looks. This was mere physiology. She was smart enough to know that.
The steward ambled by, instructing passengers to return seats to the full, upright position and gathering used napkins and empty soda cans in preparation for landing. But Diana barely heard, so involved was she in her thoughts.
The fact that she’d identified her attraction to Travis early was a good thing. She gave a mental nod. A very good thing. What she was experiencing was a completely natural response. Purely physical in nature…hence, totally controllable if she remained vigilantly cognizant of it.
Diana glanced over at Travis, but saw only the back of his sleek, dark head, his broad shoulders and the full length of his back as he snapped young Jared’s seat belt securely into place.
Controllable, she firmly thought. What I’m feeling is totally controllable.
The boys were so excited. They had explored every inch of the house and yard as soon as they’d arrived home. Travis had been lucky several years ago in finding an old stone manor house on a large piece of property thick with trees. A perfect setting in which to raise children, although he hadn’t had that in mind when he’d purchased it. The last thing Travis had thought he’d ever have was a family of his own. He was a dyed-in-the-wool bachelor. And quite naturally, as a man without a wife, he’d never contemplated having children.
Until six months ago.
During one of his visits with the twins—a visit planned only to check on their medical condition, take them out for a meal and buy them some clothes and a few toys—Travis had heard murmuring among the staff at the state home. Phrases like “getting beyond adoptable age” and “special needs children” and “undesirable” kept popping up.
The orphanage administrator had told Travis they were even thinking of splitting the boys up in order to find them homes. That thought had disturbed Travis, and it had got him thinking…about becoming the boys’ daddy himself, about taking them into his own home.
His friends and partners, Greg and Sloan, had thought he was crazy when he’d first voiced his idea of becoming an adoptive dad to the Native American twins. But Travis had prevailed. Something about the rambunctious boys, something about what seemed to be turning into a dire situation for them, kept calling to Travis. Wouldn’t leave him alone. He had been meant to raise these boys. He could feel it in the very pit of his gut. He might not have been able to find the right words to make anyone fully understand his feelings, but he knew it in his heart. Thank the good Lord above, he’d been able to clarify his feelings to the Kolheek Council well enough that they had allowed him to bring the boys home with him to Philadelphia.
And as he listened to the thumps and bumps coming from the upstairs bedroom, he smiled to himself and knew he hadn’t made a mistake. Jared and Josh belonged here with him. And having them here was worth every ounce of worry and apprehension he’d suffered to get them here.
And the anxiety you continue to suffer, he thought, remembering the Kolheek Elder’s odd parting words about seeing what fate had in store. Had he fallen in love with these children only to have them taken away from him in a mere two months? The idea was too disturbing for him to even contemplate, so he closed the lid on it, shut it out of his mind.
He climbed the stairs, and when he knocked softly on the closed door of their bedroom, the bumps and scuffling stopped. Travis turned the knob and stepped into the room.
His eyebrows raised when he saw that the blankets and quilted spreads of both twin beds were mangled and twisted. Jared stood on one mattress, towering over his brother Josh, the pillow in his grasp drawn back for a playful blow.
One look at Travis’s face had Jared’s grip on the pillowcase loosening. The pillow dropped to the mattress, bouncing once before coming to rest on top of the swirl of sheets and blankets. Jared slowly lowered himself until he was sitting next to his wide-eyed brother.
“Sorry,” Jared muttered. “We was only playin’.”
Scolding the boys hadn’t even crossed his mind, but the fear he read on little Josh’s face made Travis wonder what kind of trouble their roughhouse games had gotten them into at the orphanage.
“I used to have pillow fights with my brother when we were kids.” Travis went to Jared’s empty bed and began to straighten the blankets.
“You did?” Realizing that Travis wasn’t
