My Lovelies, followers, and readers: Thank you for joining me on this ride! Don’t ever think I don’t appreciate you because I wouldn’t be doing any of this without you!
YOU: Yes, you! Thank you for reading Promise Me Always! I hope you loved Tatum and Benton as much as I did! Don’t tell the others, but they’re my favorite. Please consider leaving an honest review for Promise Me Always. That is the greatest gift you could ever give.
Copyright ©2019 Lindsay Becs
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior written consent of the author except for the use of brief quotation in a book review.
The characters and events depicted in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Cover Design: Amanda Shepard: Shepard Originals
Formatting: AB Formatting
Editing: Tricia Harden
Proofreading: Jennifer Jaks
To the best friends who know us better than we know ourselves. The ones who seep into our hearts and into our souls. The ones who become more than just friends; they become our soulmates, our partners in life. They become our home.
Playlist
Stuck Like Glue- Sugarland
Our Song- Taylor Swift
Young Dumb and Broke- Khalid
Boondocks- Little Big Town
Everything Has Changed- Taylor Swift ft. Ed Sheeran
Undo It- Carrie Underwood
Fly Away- Lenny Kravitz
Ho Hey- The Lumineers
If Only- Hanson
The One That Got Away- Katy Perry
Coming Home- Diddy, Dirty Money ft. Skylar Grey
Homesick- Kane Brown
We Owned The Night- Lady Antebellum
Coming Home- Keith Urban ft. Julia Michaels
Sweet Escape- Gwen Stefani ft. Akon
Feels Like Home- Chantel Kreviazuk
Important Note
Always You is the fourth book in the Always Series and a standalone in itself. Always You follows Promise Me Always, which is also a standalone.
Although you don’t have to have read Always (Always Series: Book One), I highly recommend that you stop and read it first before you continue on with Always You. There are spoilers in this book and I’d hate to ruin a book for you before you’ve read it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this series.
<3 Lindsay
Prologue
Penny
Jesse Jones moved to Graves and in with his aunt Tilly when he was ten. He’d never met her before arriving in town. His parents were killed in a car accident, and his aunt was the only living family he had. Tilly Lane had been estranged from her sister, Jesse’s mom, but as soon as she got word about Jesse, she opened her home and heart to him without question.
When Jesse moved into his aunt’s house—and next door to mine—I was completely intrigued by the new boy in town. He was trouble with a capital ‘T’ with a chip on his shoulder. Oh, how I loved it! I would sit and watch him as he pulled pranks around town that first summer. I’d giggle when he’d curse, laugh when I heard his aunt yell at him, and I’d bring him lemonade when he’d mow lawns as punishment for his pranks.
The first time he actually spoke to me was at the end of that first summer. I’d brought him countless cups of lemonade, but he’d never spoken to me until the week before school started…
“Why do you bring me lemonade?” he asks.
“Because I want to,” I sass back with my hand on my little seven-year-old hip.
He smiles at me as he finishes the cup. But when I turn to go home, he yells after me, asking me what my name is.
“Penny.”
“You definitely look like a Penny,” he laughs.
“Well, that’s my name, so I guess it’s a good thing it fits.”
“Do you have a nickname?”
“Not really, that kind of is my nickname. My big name is Penelope. My dad calls me LP for his lucky Penny sometimes.”
“I’m sure you bring all the luck,” he scoffs at me, throwing his empty cup onto the lawn.
“Shut up! You don’t know anything!” I yell, picking up his cup as tears start to fall down my cheeks.
“Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he says in a voice that is soft and sweet. It’s unlike anything I’ve heard from him until now.
“My dad always says I’m his LP because my mom gave me to him.”
“Where is your mom? I’ve never seen her.”
“She left me. She lives in heaven now.” I sniff.
“Oh. Mine too.”
“We go talk to her sometimes at the pond. And she wrote us all letters before her cancer made her fly away.”
“At least you have that.”
“Yeah, I guess. I wish I remembered her, though. Everyone talks about how great she was, but I don’t remember anything.”
“Maybe it’s better not remembering. This way, you can see her how you want to in your mind.”
“I don’t know.” I shrug.
“Look, we can stick together, you and me. We both had our mommas leave and I think your daddy is right; you are good luck. You’ve brought me lemonade all summer and I’m lucky you did so I didn’t die of thirst,” he smirks nudging my shoulder.
“I guess,” I answer, kicking dirt with my toe.
“I’ll take care of you now. When we get to school on Monday, I’ll make sure everyone knows not to mess with you since it’s the first day of school.” My face lights up at the thought of Jesse Jones taking care of me. “You’re my little nugget of gold and sun and luck. We’re a team now, OK? You take care of me and I’ll take care of you. Deal?”
“Deal!”
Jesse kept his word to me after that. We became inseparable. He called me Penny or Pen like everyone else when we were with other people. But when it was just Jesse and me, I was his Nugget and he was my best friend as much as I was his.
JESSE
When I’d moved to a place I didn’t understand, to live with a woman I’d never met, after I’d lost everything I’d ever known, I felt lost.
I missed my parents. My mom was soft and caring and kind, and she taught me how to be that way with others. My dad taught me everything else. They made me their whole world, and they were mine. We were a trio. We’d camp, hike, play ball, have movie nights, and always laughed.
After the accident, I started having nightmares. I was angry that the other two parts of my trio were taken from me. Aunt Tilly was and still is loving and caring, but at the time I didn’t know how to accept her love or help, so I turned to the only other person I trusted. My Nugget…
I’m lying in bed wide awake. Again.
Sweat covering my body. Again.
My heart pounding in my chest and my breathing heavy. Again.
Scared to close my eyes. Again.
I hate sleep because when I sleep I see them and when I see them, things never end pretty. Nightmares find me, haunting me, every time I close my eyes, even if only for a quick nap. But I was exhausted and I knew I needed to sleep more. I just didn’t know how.
I throw off the sheet covering me and walk to the kitchen for a glass of water. When I walk back into my room, my eyes catch on the soft glow of a little light in the room across from mine in the house next door. My Nugget’s room.
We’ve become ‘friends’, for lack of a better way to describe it. But I know I’m bad for her. I’m angry and don’t care about much and I would get her into trouble, too. Yet, I’m drawn to her and I can’t keep away. She is the sunshine.
I slide open my window, walk across the damp grass and quietly tap on her window until she wakes up and walks over to where I’m standing outside. She’s half asleep, wearing a big T-shirt and rubbing her eyes. I motion for her to open the wind
ow, and when she does, I climb in.
It feels like I’m climbing into more than just her window, though. It feels like she’s letting me climb into her life. Into her sunny warmth. She doesn’t ask why I’m there or what I want in the middle of the night. I don’t move, afraid of what to do next. Not knowing what to do next.
But Penny does. She walks back to her bed, climbs in, and pulls the covers back. “Hurry up. I’m cold,” she says sleepily, laying her head back down on her pillow.
I’ve never moved so fast in my life before then. I quickly climb in and lie behind her, wrapping my arms around her. Spooning? Is that what people call it?
Whatever it was, I like it. She’s already back asleep, but I can feel her warmth all around me. She really is my sun. I smile into her red hair, bright like fire, bright like the sun.
I put my lips to the edge of her ear and whisper, “Thank you,” before I kiss her cheek. I thank her for everything in that moment. I might not be a grown up, but I know a good thing when I find it. She is everything good and pure, light and warm. I’m never going to let her go. I need her too much.
Sleep soon finds me, too, and it is full of beautiful dreams filled with my Nugget of hope, my personal sun, and me.
That soon became a regular occurrence, me climbing in her window and into her bed, wrapping her in my arms. We slept together more than apart for years.
Now, thousands of miles separate us, and I’d give anything to crawl through her window again.
Chapter One
Penny
“Hello?” I groggily answer my phone even though I don’t recognize the number and it’s the middle of the night.
“It’s me.”
“Jesse?” I ask, sitting up in bed.
“Yeah, Nugget. Man, I needed to hear your voice today,” he says into my ear. Tears spring to my sleepy eyes as his warm voice falls over me.
“I miss you, you idiot,” I chuckle into the phone, wiping my wet cheeks. “How are you? Are you alright?”
His timbered laugh hits me at my core before he answers. “I’m fine. It’s been crazy here lately, but I’m alright. I miss the shit out of you.”
“Does this mean you forgive me?” I ask. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t be left with my head filled with every scenario imaginable any longer.
“I’m not mad at you. I never was.”
“Why haven’t you call me? I’ve heard nothing from you in months. I’ve been worried sick about you, you know.”
“I was mad at myself. Not you. Never you, Nugget.”
“OK… But you’re really alright?”
“I’m still kickin’.”
“You better be. I need to kick your butt when you get back.”
“I’d like to see you try.” I can hear his smile through the phone.
“How much longer?”
“Not too long. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”
“Jesse?”
“Yeah?”
“Am I still your home?”
“I have to go. I’ll call you soon.”
“Oh, OK. I’m glad you called,” I say, trying not to let him hear the disappointment in my voice.
“Me too. It’s good to hear from home,” he says before hanging up.
Home. It’s not home without him here. I never thought it’d hurt this bad when he left without a goodbye. I suppose I’m to blame for that, though. He said he wasn’t mad at me, but mad at himself. How is that possible? I ruined everything.
I toss and turn in bed the rest of the night. Even Bear, my—our—dog, is getting mad at my restlessness. He left my bed for the floor after I kicked him awake so many times.
Finally, around five in the morning, I get out of bed, and head out the door. I roll into Pretty Girl Garage, the repair shop my dad owns. I’ve been turning wrenches with my dad since before I could walk. He’s taught me all he knows and then some, turning me into a pretty good mechanic if I do say so myself.
I work here with him most of the time, but last year, my sister, Tatum, asked me to join her husband’s race team as one of their head mechanics.
Benton, Tatum’s husband, is part owner of Royal King Motorcycles. They are one of the top racing teams in the IMR (International Motorcycle Races). They travel throughout the world racing on some crazy tracks. Benton is their best racer, and Tatum is the face of the company. They are a powerhouse couple in that world.
I agreed to join them after my dad turned them down on more than one occasion. It turned out to be one of the hardest and most confusing years of my life. I was fresh out of high school, eighteen, so naïve and hurt.
After that race season ended, I told them it wasn’t for me. I came home to stay. My place, my home, is in Graves and right here at Pretty Girl with my dad.
“LP, is that you?” Speak of the man himself.
“Yeah, Dad.”
“You’re here early.”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not really. At least not right now.”
“Fair enough,” he says before leaving me alone. He’s learned through the years that sometimes I am more like him than he thinks, and sometimes I need to be alone to stew in my thoughts.
Lying back on the creeper, I roll under the car I’m working on. There, in the shadows of the underside of a car, I let my tears fall. I need to fix this. And I’m not just talking about the car.
* * *
One Year Earlier
“Jesse! Jesse! Jesse!”
“What? What? What?” he mocks me as I run into Pretty Girl Garage.
“I just got off the phone with Tatum and guess what?”
He stops what he’s doing, turning to look at me. “What?”
“She and Benton want me to join the Royal King crew and be one of their mechanics. Isn’t that amazing?!”
I see confusion, surprise, and happiness roll over his face all at once. “That is amazing. You going to do it then?” he asks, turning back to the car he’s working on.
Jesse has worked here at Pretty Girl since he was twelve. As a way to help keep him out of trouble, my dad offered him a job. It started small and was more like learning how to do simple things first and what tools were what. Eventually, we all discovered that mechanics wasn’t his strong suit. He could do them just fine, but he enjoyed the bodywork side of things more. The sanding, buffing, and painting were more his speed. Now, he does all the bodywork at the shop and has quite the reputation for it.
“How could I not? Traveling the world, the races, the engines. Oh my gosh, Jess, it’s going to be so exciting!” I squeal in excitement.
“That’s really great, Pen.”
“Why don’t you seem happy for me?” I ask, confused by how he’s acting.
“I’m just thrilled for you,” he says sarcastically.
“What is wrong with you? I thought you’d be excited with me.”
He lets out a sigh. “Nothing is wrong. I am happy for you.” He stands to meets my eyes, filled with hurt. “I’ll just miss you.”
“I bet you could come, too! Want me to ask?”
“No, I can’t go.”
“Why not? Dad would be fine. He’s got the rest of the guys.”
“It’s not that. I can’t go because I already told them no.”
I’m confused. They asked him, too? Why didn’t he tell me? I shake it off. “Then tell them you changed your mind. Tatum will understand. She changes her clothes ten times more than you change your mind,” I laugh.
“That wouldn’t be right. I gave them my answer.” He bends to pound out a dent.
“It’s not a big deal, Jess. Not like they don’t know you. Just ask.”
“Penelope! I said no.”
I’m taken aback from his tone, and he never uses my full name. What is wrong with him? Why doesn’t he want to go with me?
“Fine.” I turn to leave before I start to cry, but he grabs my arm, stopping me.
“I really am happy for you.
” But it doesn’t seem like it with the look on his face. “Come by later and we’ll celebrate.”
I agree and leave feeling so confused. I was so excited to share my news with him, but his reaction was anything but what I expected. Sure, I’m going to miss my best friend and my dad, but this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Even if I did get it because of my sister, I can’t turn it down.
Next weekend I get to go down to Las Vegas to the headquarters of RK, where Tatum is, to check things out. Then, after graduation, I’ll join them for the season. That was one of the stipulations that my dad and Tatum both gave me. I have to walk in the ceremony of graduation before I can go full-time.
I finished all my class requirements months ago. The only thing missing now is the diploma. I really couldn’t care less about walking across a stage, but it’s important to my family, so I’ll do it for them.
Chapter Two
Jesse
She said yes. She’s going to be gone for almost a year. Traveling, surrounded by cocky assholes, and I won’t be there.
I’m sitting on my porch nursing a beer when she pulls up to my house. Bear jumps out behind her and makes his way to me. This ball of fluff gets to my soft spot every time. Scratching behind his ears, I smile at him.
“What are you feeding me?” Penny asks from the bottom of the three steps up to my wooden porch.
“I said we’d celebrate. I never said anything about food.”
“After you acted like a turd, it’s the least you can do.” I grin at her as I rock back in the chair I’m sitting in.
“Will you have a seat and settle down? You’re starting to act like a girl I wronged and I don’t mean by not sharing in her excitement over a job. If you know what I mean.”
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