Tripp's Trivial Tie Read online

  Tripp’s Trivial Tie

  Seven Sons Ranch in Three Rivers Romance, Book 2

  Liz Isaacson

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Sneak Peek! Liam’s Invented I-Do Chapter One

  Sneak Peek! Liam’s Invented I-Do Chapter Two

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  Chapter One

  Tripp Walker rolled his shoulder, the ache there bothering him and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. He needed to get up from this computer, take a walk, and breathe in some of the summer air, even if it did have the consistency of soup.

  Right after he finished this last animated sequence. Then he’d be done with this project for at least a week while the on-site animators in Seattle went through his work and pieced it together. They’d send him notes, and he’d fix whatever they wanted him to fix.

  But not today.

  Right now, he wanted to spend a few minutes with Penny, Rhett’s dog, and then he wanted lunch.

  His chair scraped the wood floor as he stood, and he exhaled heavily as he stretched.

  “Done?” Liam asked from his desk.

  “Yes,” Tripp said. “I’m heading outside for a few minutes. Then we should get lunch.”

  “I’m in,” Liam said. “I have maybe twenty minutes of work left before I can go.”

  “Take your time,” Tripp said, but his stomach wasn’t happy with the words. “I’m going to go teach Penny how to roll over.”

  His twin laughed, and Tripp knew enough to laugh at himself too. Penny was a great dog, but she did not want to roll over, especially in the dirt. Tripp wasn’t going to give up on her though. He was simply going to take advantage of Penny living at Seven Sons for the next few weeks while Rhett and Evelyn were on their honeymoon.

  He missed his older brother, though Rhett had been living in the house he’d bought on Quail Creek Road for a few months now.

  After stopping at the fridge for a piece of cheese, Tripp stepped onto the back deck and let the summer sunshine beat down on his shoulders. He whistled, hoping Penny would hear him and come running. He heard a bark, and he whistled again.

  The dog came running, and when she reached him, he laughed at her and bent down to give her a healthy scratch. “You ready to roll over?”

  Penny barked as if saying, No thank you, Tripp. Where’s the treats?

  He took the cheese out of his pocket, and Penny sat down, her front paws twitching as she kept her eyes right on that treat in his hand. “Good sit,” he said, smiling at the dog. “Shake.” He put his hand out for Penny, and she put her paw in his fingers.

  He gave her a bit of cheese. “Lay down.”

  She did. Treat. He worked through all of the things she could do really well, and then he said, “Roll over.”

  Penny went onto her side, but she would not roll all the way over. She whined, and Tripp tilted his head at her. “Just roll over, girl,” he said. “You’ve done it before. Go on. Roll over.” With a little more coaxing, Penny did what he wanted.

  He cheered and gave her the rest of the cheese, scrubbed her ears and said, “Good girl. Rhett is going to be so proud of you.”

  He straightened, realizing what his life had become. The best part of his day was getting a cattle dog to roll over. Standing in the brutal June sun was enjoyable.

  Tripp really needed to get out more. And not to lunch with his twin. But with a woman.

  A specific woman who hadn’t answered his last text. “Ivory Osburn,” he whispered. He’d been out with her a dozen times over the last nine months, but she was hot and cold with him. She’d go out with him three or four times and then say she needed some space.

  He’d given it to her when he really wanted to keep seeing her. Meet her son. Ivory hadn’t allowed him to meet Oliver, and Tripp didn’t want to push her on that. A mother should get to decide when to bring people into her child’s life.

  The thought to text her and ask her to dinner crossed his mind, but he crossed it off his list just as quickly. She’d just ignore him again, driving the pin further into his heart.

  He wished he could let her go, but for some reason, he couldn’t. Hadn’t, at least. Maybe with some effort, he could.

  “Ready?” Liam asked, and Tripp spun toward him. His mind cleared, and he’d made it a personal rule not to eat out twice in one day. Besides, Jeremiah would make dinner, and Tripp loved his brother’s food.

  “Yes,” he said, following Liam back into the house. “I’ll drive.”

  “You and that fancy truck.” Liam chuckled, but Tripp just took his keys off the hook in the kitchen and went into the garage.

  He’d bought a new truck a couple of months ago, true. It was dark blue and full of all the bells and whistles. The truck made the twenty-minute drive to the town of Three Rivers almost fun, and Tripp adjusted the radio and the air conditioning when he got behind the wheel.

  “Okay, where are we going?” he asked once they got off the lane where the ranch sat, the truck’s wheels rolling well over the asphalt.

  “I’m feeling like Chinese,” he said.

  “The one by the post office?” Tripp asked. “That’s the one I like.”

  “China Isle,” Liam confirmed. “That’s the one. I’m feeling like the chicken noodle bowl.”

  “You and your love of noodles.” Tripp shook his head as he smiled.

  A mile or two passed before Liam asked, “Do you think we should’ve invited Wyatt?”

  “Oh,” Tripp said, surprise moving through him. “I mean, maybe. He wasn’t in the house, though.” He glanced at Liam. “And we didn’t invite Jeremiah.”

  “I’m just saying I forget about Wyatt sometimes,” Liam said. “He’s so quiet.”

  Tripp laughed then, and that definitely wasn’t quiet. His mother had always told him he had the best laugh out of any of the boys, and Tripp liked his laugh.

  “Yeah, well, compared to us, anyone would be quiet.” Tripp caught sight of the outskirts of town, and his stomach grumbled as if he needed a reminder that he was hungry. “Wyatt seems happy enough, though.”

  “Yeah, he has a way with the horses,” Liam said. “And he doesn’t want to train them for the rodeo, which I don’t get.”

  “Well, he’s working at Bowman Breeds, and that’s what they do. Maybe he feels like this town is too small for two rodeo training operations.”

  The truth was, Tripp didn’t really know how Wyatt felt. His brother had said he needed some time to figure ou
t his life without the rodeo in it, and everyone had left him alone to do that.

  “It’s fun having him here,” Tripp said as he turned to go down the right street.

  “Yeah, totally,” Liam said. “I just don’t want him to feel like we’ve left him out.”

  “Fair point,” Tripp said. “We should be more careful of that.” Sometimes the two of them got in their twin space and didn’t realize that the other brothers might feel like they weren’t welcome.

  He turned into the parking lot and started looking for a spot. “Wow, this place is popular during lunchtime.” He swiveled his head left and right, searching. “Anything over there?”

  “No, and I had no idea this many people liked Chinese—watch out!”

  Tripp slammed on the brake pedal, having just saw the woman bent over in the middle of the parking lot. She’d dropped a bunch of packages, and a very keen sense of déjà vu hit him right in the chest.

  So hard that he unbuckled his seatbelt and slid from the truck. “Ivory?” he asked. The first time they’d met, she’d dropped an armful of packages right in front of him at the post office.

  She sniffled and snatched the last package before he could help her. His pulse sang and skipped through his veins. At the same time, he realized that there was something wrong with Ivory.

  “Are you okay?” He actually glanced at the front bumper of his truck just to make sure he hadn’t touched her.

  “Tripp.” She balanced the packages in one arm and used her free hand to swipe that dirty blonde hair out of her face. “I’m fine.”

  But she wasn’t fine. She’d been crying, and while Tripp wasn’t well-versed with crying women, he sensed an opportunity here.

  “Let me help you,” he said, taking some of the packages before she could protest. With three or four in his hands, she only had a couple left to carry. “You’re taking these to the post office?”

  “Yes,” she said, walking now. He met his brother’s eyes through the windshield, and even without their freaky twin communications, Liam would’ve gotten the message to slide over and get the truck parked.

  This is Ivory Osburn, Tripp thought, suddenly so glad he’d waited for Liam to finish his work before coming to lunch.

  “Why’d you park over here?” he asked.

  Ivory just glared at him, then she picked her way across the decorative rocks that separated the restaurant parking lot from the post office one. “No reason.”

  “Ivory, wait,” he said, frustrated she was already pushing him away again. “There’s something wrong. A blind man could see it. Let me help you.”

  “You want to help me?”

  “Yes,” he said, though her voice bordered on dangerous.

  She stepped onto the sidewalk and faced him, her face filled with irritation and anger. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “I don’t need help. They’re just necklaces.” She started taking the packages from him and ended up bobbling all of them, dropping them to the ground again.

  A frustrated moan came from her mouth, and she bent to collect the packages again.

  “Ivory,” he said, feeling helpless with a hint of humiliation.

  “I’m fine, Tripp,” she said. “I mean, if you can get more people to buy my jewelry, I might be better. Or if you could get my addled mind to remember where to turn to park at this blasted post office, that might be good too. Or you know what?” She straightened, all of the packages securely in her arms again.

  “Maybe you could get my ex to drop the custody challenge he started. Can you do that?” She cocked her eyebrows at him, and Tripp had no idea what to say.

  “I didn’t think so.” She turned and marched away from him. “Don’t offer to help if you can’t actually do it,” she said over her shoulder.

  Tripp turned to look behind him, sure some help would be standing there. No one stood there, and Tripp watched Ivory walk into the post office and right out of his life.

  Again.

  Chapter Two

  Ivory leaned against the counter, her breaths coming in huge gulps. She was seconds away from having a panic attack in the Three Rivers post office, where everyone would see her.

  She could not believe Daniel was suing her for full custody. And the worst part? His claims were true. She had no money. She could barely afford to feed herself and Oliver. The cable had been turned off. Their Internet. Anything Ivory didn’t have to have to survive, she’d gotten rid of. They needed air conditioning and heat. Electricity. And her phone, which she used for Internet service too.

  But she was months behind on the mortgage, and it was only a matter of time before she didn’t have a house either.

  And that meant Oliver wouldn’t have a place to sleep.

  So Daniel’s claims that she couldn’t adequately provide for their son were one-hundred percent right.

  “I can’t lose him,” she murmured to herself only a moment before a fresh flood of tears arrived.

  And running into Tripp in the wrong parking lot was just icing on a really ugly cake. The man called to her very soul, and it had been very hard for her to push him away. Every time he got a little too close, she’d put the brakes on their relationship. She didn’t need another man walking out on her. Another man proving to her how unlovable she was. Another man trying to tell her how to live her life, what to wear, how to be.

  She opened the pre-stamped mail chute and put her pathetic packages in. Only six this week, and that meant she’d only earned a hundred and twenty dollars. She couldn’t afford much with that, because half went to buying the supplies she needed to make the necklaces.

  “Look,” a man said, and she turned to find Tripp Walker standing there. He was dark, stormy, and beautiful. She wanted to run to him and let him hold her upright. Whisper in her ear that everything would be all right. Kiss those lips she’d kissed before.

  “I don’t know how to do any of that stuff you just said,” he said, taking step closer, those sexy cowboy boots making a clunking sound on the hard floor. “But I’m not going to just let you walk away when you’re so upset.”

  “I’m fine,” she said, though she was anything but fine. In fact, fine and Ivory weren’t even on the same continent at the moment.

  “Let me take you to lunch,” he said.

  “Liam was in the truck.”

  “Liam knows how to order his own food.”

  Ivory’s stomach cramped with hunger. She wanted—no, needed—to eat. And if she were being completely honest with herself, she wanted to be with Tripp.

  “I don’t think so,” she said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want you getting the wrong idea,” she said, going for snappy truths again. “I’m fine. I just needed to mail my packages.” And now she needed to go home, make a pancake out of the giant, ten-pound bag of mix she had, and figure out how to get more people buying jewelry from her online store. What new pieces could she make with the supplies she already owned?

  What do people want? she begged. She’d been asking God the same question for months, but so far, He hadn’t struck her with any inspiration.

  “Let’s go to lunch with Liam, then,” Tripp said. “I can’t get the wrong idea then, right?”

  Ivory considered him, thinking of the gossip mill in town. The Walker brothers were a little removed from it, but Ivory wasn’t. She’d heard plenty of talk at the salon, while she got her nails done, and at the boutiques where she liked to shop. Well, when she had money to do all of those things.

  Nails, hair, and shopping had all been cut from her life, the same way the cable had been.

  “Come on, Ivory,” he said, clearly exasperated. “I stood over there and watched you have an anxiety attack. One meal. I won’t text you afterward.”

  Ivory wished she could tell him why she’d gotten so scared and cut him out of her life a few times. But she hadn’t dared then, and she didn’t dare now either.

  “Fine,” she said. “One meal. With Liam.”

  “I’m texti
ng him now,” Tripp said. He looked up a moment later. “Ready when you are.”

  Ivory gestured for him to go first, and instead of walking out, Tripp reached over and took her hand.

  “Tripp,” she said, but he didn’t let go. Outside, the sun had heated the air beyond tolerable, and Ivory felt the sweat start to slide down her back with the first step.

  He released her hand when he was obviously satisfied that she wasn’t going to run away. They walked over those decorative rocks again, and the silence between them made Ivory’s nerves strain.

  “How have you been?” she asked.

  “Not fair,” he said, not even glancing at her.

  “What’s not fair?”

  “You asking me how I’ve been,” he said. “That’s not fair.”

  “You asked me to lunch.”

  “You don’t seem fit to drive right now,” he said. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”

  “I told you I was fine.”

  “And I’ve heard you say that before, when you weren’t fine.” He looked at her then, and Ivory’s steps slowed. “I don’t know why you’ve pushed me away on three separate occasions. I really don’t. When we’ve been together, I’ve had a great time. I like you.” He drew in a deep breath, his frustration like a third person between them.

  He looked at her, clearly expecting her to say something. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I just…needed a break.”