Always Series Box Set

by Becs, Lindsay

  The next day when I took her, don’t you know she passed her test and drove impeccably. When Jesse and I sat there slack-jawed and watched her, it was Tilly next to us who started laughing. Turns out, she and Penny had a bet going that Penny could make us believe she couldn’t drive while Tilly had actually taught her right.

  “I did it!” Penny yells, running to us with her new driver’s license. “Thanks for helping, Tilly, and for helping fool these two,” she says with a thumb pointing at Jesse and me.

  “It was fun watching that unfold. I almost lost it when your dad told me you drove up on a sidewalk the other day,” Tilly tells Penny as they both stand there laughing.

  “Evil!” Jesse yells to both of them.

  We head home to celebrate with pizza and a cake that Tilly made for her.

  Jesse says goodbye, going home for the night, and Penny heads to bed, leaving Tilly and me alone for a minute before she needs to leave.

  We’ve been doing the secret thing since the night Penny stayed with Jesse. We haven’t gone as far as that night since, with Penny and/or Jesse around, but we manage quick kisses and short make-out sessions here and there.

  It makes me feel like a child all over again, sneaking around. It also helps with not feeling the need to rush things either. Even with waiting so long to get here, I’m glad there isn’t more pressure.

  I also can’t deny my growing feelings for Tilly, and it continues to scare the shit out of me.

  I have eight letters from Josie yet to be opened and read, and I’m not sure I’m ready to read any of them yet. I’ve been ignoring my box for a while. Maybe it’s a good thing.

  Or maybe it means something I’m not ready to admit yet.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Travis

  Fourteen Years After Josie

  Happy 40th Birthday, old man!!!

  You are over the freaking hill!! Welcome to my side, baby. How’s it feel? Sucks, right? Hahaha!!

  Are you turning into a silver fox yet? Oh crap, or are you losing your hair completely? Although, I’ve seen you bald before and you still rocked it looking hot as sin. I’m convinced you are still as gorgeous as ever. Manly and masculine and so deliciously yummy. You are, aren’t you? Not fair, Trav.

  I hope you have the best birthday! Celebrate big! Get drunk and wake up wondering why the hangover at forty is so much worse than at twenty or thirty. Go see some ta-tas dance or drive on a racetrack or smoke some weed for old time’s sake. Just have fun. Knowing you, you’re probably going to have a fire out back and eat your weight in s’mores, which is as dangerous as you’ll get. Regardless of how you decide to celebrate, know I love you so damn much.

  Always,

  Josie

  I let out a loud laugh when I read Josie’s “Over the Hill” letter.

  Damn, I miss her sense of humor. I miss her impulsive need to do something crazy every now and then. I miss the way her eyes would drink me in when I’d walk inside from work and strip from my grease-stained clothes. I miss her laugh. I miss holding her by the fire pit. I miss her.

  Leaning my head back, I take a minute to miss her fully, all the way through my soul and straight to my heart. I don’t let myself go there wholly like this often, but sometimes I still need that little Josie fix to keep moving forward.

  I’m thinking about Josie’s fortieth birthday. About how Ollie put forty pink flamingos in our front yard with a big sign announcing her birthday to the neighborhood. How Tatum and Penny helped me pick out forty different types of floral bouquets that were delivered to the house throughout the day. How I painted a 4-0 on my ass and did a special dance for her in our room once all our friends and family left after a party in her honor. I made sure to give her the right number of birthday spankings and then kissed each one away.

  I’m lost in my memories of Josie and don’t hear anyone enter the room until I feel a hand on my shoulder, making me jump.

  “Sorry,” Tilly says, looking embarrassed when she takes in the scene. I’m on the floor of my bedroom with letters surrounding me written by my late wife. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” she says softly. “Tate’s family just got here.”

  “You didn’t interrupt me.” I smile at her to try to ease her, but her eyes scan over the handwritten letters that I never told her about.

  “Travis…” she starts when I lace our fingers and pull her down to sit with me.

  “Come here,” I tug until she’s next to me, our fingers still entwined. It feels right and good, which surprises me with Josie all around me right now. Leaning over, I kiss her lips in another attempt to take away her unease.

  I open my eyes and look right into hers. “This is Josie.” I smile, then look down at the letter still in my lap. “She left a box of letters for each of us when she died.” I hear Tilly’s breath catch at that and give her hand a squeeze. “Josie was… incredible. She knew exactly what each of us would need to hear for every occasion. I’ve read almost every letter in this box at least five times. For a long time, I lived each day to find another one she’d hidden somewhere instead of placed in this box or read another one just to read it. To feel her, to hear her, anything.” I pause and look back up to Tilly. “I only have six left now that are unread, and it scares me the closer I get to the last one.”

  “Oh, Travis,” she says, putting her hand on my face.

  “It scares me, but I think when I read that last one, I’ll be ready for it. Just sitting here and having you see this is big. I don’t feel like you’re intruding or that I’m cheating on her in some way like I thought I would.” I look up at her again with a small grin. “I’m glad it’s you.”

  I kiss her again, and she kisses me back. With Josie all around us in this room, in this moment, I kiss Tilly and I mean it. Josie’s words crinkling under our shifting bodies as we deepen our kiss. A kiss that has me thinking of nothing but Tilly and how much I know I’m falling for her.

  She slows our kiss before I want to, but I listen to her cues. “Your whole family is downstairs waiting for you to celebrate your birthday. We should go down to join them.” She smiles against my mouth, which won’t leave hers completely yet.

  “OK,” I say, kissing her again. “You go. I need to put all this away.”

  “Thank you for sharing this with me,” she says, standing.

  I smack her ass as she walks away, getting a yelp from her when she turns to shoot me a look. I give her a wink before she disappears to go downstairs.

  Dropping my chin to my chest, I smile big to myself. I’m happy. Tilly makes me happy.

  When I walk downstairs after putting my letters away, I’m greeted with everyone wearing fake grey mustaches and glasses, holding canes.

  “Ha-ha. Very nice, guys,” I tell them, shaking my head as they all laugh.

  As the night goes on, the drinks are poured more and more freely. Jesse hooked the kids all up in Tilly’s house to play video games and watch movies in sleeping bags as the rest of us keep celebrating with too much booze.

  “Let’s play Truth or Dare!” Bex shouts as we all settle into chairs around the fire out back.

  “Sweetness, he’s forty, not a thirteen-year-old little girl,” Ollie tells her, patting her on the head. She brushes his hand away and flips him off.

  “Don’t be an ass, Ollie. We can still have fun playing it. I remember a certain dare you—” Tatum starts but is cut off by Ollie.

  “We pinky swore we wouldn’t talk about that ever again,” he says, standing and pointing at her, making her smirk. “Fine. But I swear, Tate, if you even think about a repeat, I will tell Benton about what happened at your graduation party.”

  Her eyes go wide. “You wouldn’t!”

  “Wait. You didn’t have a graduation party,” I say, confused, and the panic on her face tells me all I need to know. Big brother had to bail her out of something. Interesting…

  I clap my hands to cut them off before they keep going. “Let’s do it! Tilly!” I spin to her, and her eyes widen t
his time. “Truth or dare?”

  She shifts uncomfortably in her chair before answering. “Truth.”

  “Bor-ring!” Ollie teases, and I flip him off for her.

  “Truth, huh?” I ask, and she nods with a smile playing on the corner of her lips. “Do you ever bake naked?”

  “Travis!” she yells, and even in the dark, I can tell she’s blushing.

  “So, that’s a yes,” I say, taking another sip of my drink to smother my laugh and shift to adjust my hardening dick, picturing her in her kitchen naked, bending over to check the oven.

  Her hands are covering her face as everyone laughs. Finally, she sits up and smooths her embarrassed face. “Penny, truth or dare?” Penny answers truth too, making Ollie groan about how lame the game is.

  “How many nights a week do you sleep at Jesse’s?” Tilly asks Penny, and my head snaps to Penny, waiting for her answer. I thought those days ended when Jesse moved.

  Penny looks from me to Jesse and back before she answers. “Three or four. Sometimes more. Ollie! Truth or dare?” she says all in a rush, trying to skip over the fact that she’s sneaking out most nights.

  “Dare! Fucking finally!” Ollie says standing, ready for whatever his baby sister is going to throw at him.

  “First, you owe a dollar,” she tells him, and he plops a ready bill in her palm as she goes on. “I dare you to lick Bear’s butthole.”

  Everyone breaks out in different forms of gross, sick, disgusting, followed by Ollie’s no way.

  LP shrugs her shoulder. “Who’s lame now?” she taunts him.

  He keeps his eyes on her as he walks to where Bear is sleeping between her chair and Jesse’s. “I will get you back for this, Pen.” She smiles and shrugs again. Ollie kneels behind an unsuspecting Bear and holds his tail up shaking his head.

  Tatum looks like she’s going to barf. Benton is trying not to wake the dog, covering his mouth to hold in his laugh. Tilly is surprisingly on the edge of her seat, waiting. And Bex looks bored as she sips her drink, watching her husband, not at all surprised.

  “I’m sorry, buddy,” Ollie says before bending down.

  “Oh, he tipped it!” Jesse yells with a laugh as Bear stands and walks away, not knowing what just happened.

  Ollie gulps down the rest of his drink, squeezing his eyes closed. “Bex, kiss me so I don’t remember the feel of a dog’s asshole,” he begs, walking toward her.

  “You aren’t kissing these lips anytime soon, nasty,” she tells him. “Now, my other lips—” she pauses and smiles at him— “you can kiss later.”

  “Atta girl!” Benton yells to her raising his cup and getting a smack from Tatum while the rest of us calm our laughter.

  “OK, game time is over,” I announce.

  “No way! I didn’t just do that to have it end so soon!” Ollie screeches.

  I can’t stay serious too long before I start to laugh again, earning me the middle finger I expected from Ollie.

  “So, that’s how it is, Dad?” Ollie asks. “Travis, truth or dare?”

  “Dare, motherfucker!” I yell, standing to accept whatever crazy thing he’s going to throw at me. I hear Penny behind me, yelling at me for cursing so badly, but I don’t care right now. The alcohol is running through me too much.

  “I dare you to give Tilly a lap dance. And it has to include some stripping, enough to scare Penny for life,” he adds, tilting his cup to her like it mattered.

  “Oh, yeah, because I’m not already scarred enough after you molested my dog,” she deadpans.

  “You did that!” Ollie yells at her.

  While they go back and forth, I turn to Tilly next to me. “You ready for a show, Cookie?” I whisper. Biting her lip, she nods.

  Bex gets too excited about this and turns on some music for me while Tatum and Penny hug each other to cover their faces, but I see them peeking.

  Slowly I peel my shirt off and toss it at Ollie, turning my head to face Tilly with my finger in my mouth, giving her my best doe-eyed innocent look. I shake my ass in front of her and then turn, putting a foot on the arm of her chair and thrusting my cock at her as I look in her eyes and wink. She covers her red face with her hands when I turn back around and do my best twerk.

  Not able to keep from embarrassing her more, I face her again. I pop the button of my jeans and tease my zipper up and down a few times and then let my shorts drop to my ankles, earning me a catcall from Bex and Ollie. I grab Tilly’s hand from her face and slide it to my ass, making her grab on while I grip my semi-hard dick in my other hand and thrust my hips in her face a few more times before I stop, kissing her cheek and pulling my pants back up, taking my seat again.

  Everyone claps, well, except for Penny who’s still covering her eyes, and yells in approval of my show, and I salute them in thanks.

  We play until almost three in the morning before everyone slowly shuffles inside one house or the other to sleep for the rest of the night.

  I grab Tilly’s hand and pull her around the side of the house before she can get to her back door though. I kiss her, stifling her scream of surprise, and she immediately relaxes into me, tasting like fruit from the sangria the girls have been drinking all night.

  “I needed another birthday kiss from you,” I tell her.

  “Thanks for my show. I’ll be waiting for a repeat another time when I can act the way I wanted to and stuff your ass with ones.” I laugh into her hair that smells like fire, pulling her into a hug. “Happy birthday, Travis.” She kisses my cheek and walks to her house.

  I turn the corner to head inside to bed and see Ollie smiling big at me, and I know we were just caught.

  “Shut up,” I say, walking past him and his huge-ass grin as he pats my back.

  “Happy birthday, indeed, my man. Happy birthday, indeed.”

  “Thanks,” I mumble, trying to contain my smile, walking inside.

  I hit my bed and pull out my phone to text Tilly.

  Me: Ollie saw us making out like teenagers in the shadows.

  Cookie: You started that!

  Me: Damn straight.

  Me: Wish I could have finished it too.

  Cookie: Get some sleep, big guy.

  Me: I know you like my big dick, Cookie. But what about me? It’s my birthday too.

  Cookie:

  Cookie: Sleep well, Travis.

  Me: Sweet dreams

  Cookie: I’ll be dreaming about my dance. Felt like MY birthday for a minute.

  Me: I knew you liked it.

  Cookie: I wasn’t kidding about tucking money in your ass next time.

  Me: Next time I’ll be the one receiving the dance and stuffing something other than money inside you.

  Cookie: Aaaaaand you’re drunk.

  Me: Yep!

  Me: Doesn’t mean I’m not hard thinking about you like that

  Cookie: GOODNIGHT, TRAVIS!!

  Laughing, I turn off my phone and curl into my pillow to sleep, hoping my last birthday wish comes true and I have a dirty dream about Tilly.

  TILLY

  Minutes After Texting Travis

  He’s hard thinking about me?! That doesn’t help the ocean between my legs.

  Travis and I have fooled around on and off for the past almost two years, but something always keeps us from going all in. That first night that we crossed the line into this new territory was the furthest we’ve ever gone. We kiss as much as we can, we touch and feel each other, but it’s always with our clothes still on. Mostly.

  A few times, we’ve both been topless.

  And a month ago, he finger-fucked me in the kitchen of Sugar Stacked.

  But that’s really it!

  We keep flirting around what we both know is inevitable. I think it’s because we both know that once we cross that line, not only is there no going back, but we won’t be able to stop.

  More than wanting to be physically close and intimate with Travis, I love spending time with him. We talk about pretty much everything. With t
he exception of Josie.

  Today was the most he’s ever talked about her with me. I don’t push. I know he’ll talk to me about her when he’s ready and wants to. I’d never push him when it comes to her.

  I can feel us getting closer. I know without a doubt that I’m falling for him so hard.

  I’m falling in love with Travis in the purest of ways.

  And I know he’s already holding my heart in his hands.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Travis

  Fifteen Years After Josie

  I’m sitting in my office at Pretty Girl when Jesse knocks on the door, looking more serious than I’ve ever seen him.

  “Can I talk to you a minute?” he asks, fidgeting at the door. Part of me is wondering if this is it. If this is the moment he tells me he loves Penny and wants to marry her, have her move in after graduation.

  Swallowing down my unease, I motion for him to come inside. He walks in and closes the door behind him, looking at his feet the whole time. His nerves are making me nervous. This isn’t the Jesse I know.

  “Spit it out, Jess. You’re making me think the worst right now,” I tell him as I lean back in my chair and run my hands through my hair.

  “I talked to a recruiter yesterday,” he starts, and it has me leaning forward. “I’m thinking about… I want to,” he blows out a puff of air and finally looks up at me. “I’m going to enlist. I’m taking the test tomorrow. As long as everything goes alright, I’m enlisting in the US Air Force and I’ll be gone right after Penny graduates.”