Always Series Box Set

by Becs, Lindsay

  The ceremony, although brief, was beautiful. Anyone around can see how much Penny and Jesse love each other. I have no doubts that they will be happy together, no matter how young they are.

  Tilly catches my arm before I get to my truck in the parking lot. “Can I ride with you?”

  I give her a lopsided grin. How does she know that I need her right now? “I’d love nothing more.”

  We climb in, and our fingers instantly lace together. Looking over at her, I take her in truly for the first time today. She looks so pretty. I’m a lucky man.

  With my other hand, I sink my fingers into her soft curls and press a kiss to her lips. “You look beautiful today,” I say against her lips.

  “You clean up pretty well yourself. From a dirty mechanic to a silver fox in a suit and tie. I could get used to this.”

  “Hey! I’m not that grey-haired yet!”

  “Oh, honey, but you’re getting there.”

  “I tell you, you look beautiful and you tell me I’m turning grey. I see how this day is going,” I tease.

  “I believe I said silver fox. That was hardly me saying I didn’t like it. In fact, I find you quite sexy, Mr. Gellar.”

  I pop another quick kiss to her lips and leave the parking lot to drive us to Sugar Stacked, where the reception is being held. Tilly did an amazing job transforming the place for Penny and Jesse. We even brought in a dance floor and everything.

  Tilly and I manage to get a few more kisses in before everyone else begins to arrive and we have to behave ourselves.

  It doesn’t take long before the champagne and music are flowing and everyone is having a good time. I sit back and look around at my family, all laughing and happy.

  Besides the lovesick bride and groom, I see Ollie and Bex together. Bex in his lap as she feeds him cake. Teasing him every now and then and laughing freely. Tatum and Benton are swaying in a corner away from everyone else, tangled up in one another. The four kids, who are growing by the second, are playing hide-and-seek between dancing and snagging bites of their own cake.

  They all fuel me and give me so much joy. I know that Josie is looking down and smiling with pride at all of them, too. We all did it. We all made it and made our own lives. There were times I wasn’t sure if that was possible, but we did.

  I stand then, heading for my daughter, who owes me a dance. I ask politely to cut in and pull my little girl in my arms, swaying her like I have so many times before. She surprises me when she brings up not just her mom, but Tilly and if I think I can be happy with her. There’s no more hiding my feelings, so I nod, and when Penny tells me I should be dancing with my cookie instead of her, I can’t disagree.

  “I’m sorry, may I cut in?” I ask Jesse and Tilly.

  “Look, man, I don’t know who you think you are, but get your own girl,” Jesse teases.

  “I’m pretty sure this one is mine,” I answer him and see him smile.

  “’Bout damn time,” he says, patting my shoulder before returning to Penny.

  Watching him walk over to her, I smile seeing them once more. I can’t seem to get enough of their young love.

  When I turn back to Tilly, I see the huge smile on her face and know I did and said the right thing. “May I have this dance?”

  She takes my hand and we begin to sway. “So, I’m your girl, huh?”

  I chuckle a little and look at her, taking in all her beauty. “You’re the one I want. The one I love. The one I plan to spend the rest of forever with. You’re the one I plan to marry. So, yeah, I think you’re my girl.”

  Her lips part slightly, and I can feel her heart pounding in her chest against mine. “Was that… Are you?...”

  “Will you marry me, Cookie?”

  She smiles that big, bright smile again. “Yes!”

  “I don’t have a ring yet. I wasn’t actually planning on asking you here today,” I admit, rubbing the back of my neck. “But I do, Til. I want to marry you if you’ll have me.”

  “I already said yes. Is all that grey hair already making you lose your memory?” she sasses.

  I kiss her lips, and within seconds I hear Ollie catcalling and everyone joining in around us.

  “That’s my dad!” Ollie yells, making me laugh into our kiss. I flip him off behind her back and don’t even care how juvenile it is in the moment.

  “Oh no… that makes me his stepmom, doesn’t it?” Tilly asks with a face full of mock horror.

  “Yep!”

  TILLY

  Minutes After Travis Purposed

  “Ok, I might have to rethink this. I forgot about Ollie being part of the package,” I tease Travis.

  “We’ll fix that shit right now,” he says, pulling me by the hand toward Ollie and Bexley. Ollie is still laughing when we reach them. “Can you shut up for five seconds? Seriously, how are you a doctor?!” Travis says sounding frustrated, and it’s so adorable.

  “I ask myself that every day,” Bex says with a sigh next to her husband.

  Travis looks back at me and shakes his head. I just smile up at him, wrapping my arms around him.

  “This amazing woman just agreed to marry me on one condition,” Travis starts, and both Ollie and Bex instantly quiet and smile at us. “That you stop with the dad shit. She doesn’t want to be your mother, Ollie. Time to find a new joke.”

  “Dude. That’s like the end of an era. It’s gonna be hard to turn that off,” Ollie says stone-cold serious.

  “Figure it out. I’m not going to lose her because you can’t grow up,” Travis grumbles, and it makes me laugh.

  “I think if she’s put up with your moody ass for this long, she’ll stick around regardless of me,” Ollie tells him. And he’s not wrong.

  “How long have you two been together not telling any of us?” Bex asks sweetly through her dig.

  Travis turns to look at me and smiles. “Since the day she moved in and brought us cookies.”

  Oh, how I love this man. It might have taken us close to two decades to figure ourselves out and navigate a relationship together, but now that we’re here, I wouldn’t change a thing.

  TRAVIS

  “LP, you sure you don’t need anything else?” I ask her before she and Jesse head to the airport.

  “I’m sure, Daddy. And if not, you can mail it,” she says, kissing me on the cheek.

  “That’s true, but I don’t want to spend a fortune at the post office when I can avoid it.”

  She rolls her eyes at me, picking up her backpack and heading outside to join Jesse and Tilly, who is a mess of tears saying goodbye to Jesse. I think she’s more emotional today than she was when he left for basic training.

  “Someone help me before she drowns me in her tears!” Jesse yells.

  “I promise I’ll take good care of him, Tilly,” Penny tells her.

  “You can take good care of me on the plane, Nugget,” Jesse tells her, wagging his brows up and down.

  “That’s enough of that,” I say, walking down from the porch where I’d been standing. “Take care of my LP,” I tell him firmly so he knows I’m not in the mood for his jokes.

  “I promise I will. Thank you for trusting me with her,” Jesse says.

  “No one else was good enough,” I tell him.

  I hear Tilly sniff and see a new batch of tears flowing down her cheeks. I pull her into my arms and hug her. “I’ll still be here, you know.”

  “I know. But I’m going to miss the two of them. And Bear.”

  “Please. You hardly acknowledged him when he lived with us,” Jesse tells her. It is true. Tilly was never a big animal person and tolerated Bear but didn’t love him.

  I kiss her temple. “Call us when you land,” I tell the two of them.

  “We will,” Penny says and gives me another hug goodbye. “I love you, Daddy,” she whispers in my ear. “Thank you for everything. Now, go love Tilly and for once live life for you and your own happiness.”

  I kiss her cheek and nod in agreement. For a young woman, she sure i
s perceptive and wise. And what can I say? She knows her old man.

  Tilly and I watch them leave with our arms around each other. It feels strangely normal to be doing this with her.

  “Now what?” she asks me when we can’t see them anymore.

  “Now, you move in with me.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Travis

  Twenty Years After Josie

  “Why are we so old?” Tilly asks with a scrunched-up nose.

  It’s a Sunday and we’re both on the couch, her facing me with her feet tucked under my leg reading a cookbook—yes, I said reading a cookbook—while I’m watching the IMR race Benton is in.

  “Well, you are,” I tell her pointedly since she’s older than me by four years. I tilt my head to the side for a second. “Huh.”

  “What are you ‘Huh-ing’ over there?”

  “I never thought about it until now. I guess I have a type.” I turn to look at her and wag my brows up and down. “Older women.”

  “Figured that out all on your own, did ya?” she deadpans.

  “Only took me twenty-some years, too.”

  “Aww… sweetie. It’s a good thing you’re pretty.”

  Shrugging, I turn back to watch the race. After all these years as a sponsor of Royal King Motorcycles at the IMR (International Motorcycle Races), it’s still surreal to see Pretty Girl’s logo on their bikes, on Benton’s gear and on TV in general. I’m so damn proud to have the world see my girl’s nickname everywhere.

  This race is the last of the season before they break. Benton has had a good year, but Zander Macallan, his teammate, has met him race for race this season. It all boils down to today and who wins. Whoever beats the other will win the whole IMR, becoming this year’s champion.

  Benton has been leading the pack so far this race, but Zander is right on his tail. As they begin the last ten laps, things always heat up.

  At lap four Zander takes Benton on turn six when he goes wide and gives him an advantage. I’m sure Benton is cursing himself for the rookie move. Benton speeds up and is on him, just waiting for an opening to take Zander again.

  I watch in awe every time Benton races around the crazy turns of the tracks he rides each year. He’s nearly forty now and seems like he’s still in his twenties. My back aches just watching him hunched over his bike like that. Absently, I reach behind me and rub my back where it aches after being bent over a car all day.

  “You hurting vicariously through him?” Tilly laughs, making fun of me more.

  “You are going to get it later. Remember this when you have your birthday next month. You know, when you turn half a century,” I exaggerate.

  She hits me with her cookbook.

  It’s deserved.

  I turn back to the race when I hear the announcers going wild that Benton took Zander at the last turn before the finish. Aaaaaand… he did it! Benton won the IMR! I yell in happiness for him. The announcers then state that he now holds the title for the oldest rider to win a championship.

  I feel old all over again.

  * * *

  I wake up hearing my phone ringing. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I see it’s Tatum and my heart is already thundering in my chest.

  Most of my family live full time in Las Vegas; Tatum and her family and Penny and Jesse are all there. I’m trying to stay calm as I answer the phone and wait to hear who is hurt and pray it isn’t anything too serious.

  “Trav,” she says, sounding exhausted when I answer. “I’m sorry to wake you, but I didn’t want to wait to call. I want you to hear it from me before you talk to Penny,” she starts, and I freeze in the hallway where I stepped out to not disturb Tilly.

  “What’s wrong, Tate. Who’s hurt? Is everyone alright?”

  “It’s Poppy,” she says, and my breath hitches. “She was in a motorcycle accident. Travis, we didn’t even know she was riding. Zander has been teaching her behind our backs for two years. Penny fucking knew this whole time and never said a word to any of us.”

  “Tatum.” I stop her from her obvious tangent of anger. “Is Poppy OK?”

  “Yeah,” she sighs. “She broke her arm and they said she might have a slight fracture on her hip, but she’s going to be fine.”

  “That’s good. I’m glad it wasn’t more serious.”

  “I’m so mad at Penny right now,” she seethes into the phone.

  “Sounds like it’s warranted anger, Tate, but she’s your sister and you two need to work through this. You both need each other.”

  “She’s lied to me for two years. Two fucking years, Travis! My baby could have been killed.”

  “But she wasn’t.”

  I hear her let out a breath. “I know. I don’t know what I would have done if…”

  “Why wasn’t Benton teaching her?” I ask, because it’s odd to me that Zander was teaching her when her own dad just won the IMR championship.

  “She’d asked a couple of years ago, and we decided she was too reckless and needed to grow up first. He told her no.”

  “I see,” I reply but really have no idea what else to say from here. As parents, we make the best decisions we can to protect our kids. The worst feeling in the world is when one of those decisions backfires and hurts them instead. I know that right now Tatum and Benton are feeling just that.

  “I just can’t believe this. Any of it. I can’t believe Pops went behind our backs. I can’t believe Zander agreed. I can’t believe Penny and Jesse knew and didn’t say anything. I can’t believe we’ve been so blind for two years to what she was doing. I feel so foolish, Travis. Have I completely failed her as her mom?”

  “You can’t think like that. But you can’t hold this over her either. Sometimes we have to let them fly a little on their own, and the hardest thing is to watch them crash instead of soar. You’re a good mom, Tate. Don’t forget that.”

  I hear her sniff, a sound you don’t hear from her often. “Thank you. Sorry I woke you. I needed to talk to my dad tonight.”

  I smile at her calling me her dad. This powerful woman, who was once as crazy as her daughter, is like my own. “Don’t apologize. You know you can call anytime. Just like you can come home anytime, too.”

  “Well, after this, I think we all need to get out of here for a little bit. Good thing we have a party to come home for soon.”

  “Poppy will be able to travel?”

  “Yeah, I already asked.”

  “If you need anything, even just to talk, I’m here.”

  “I know. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Love you.”

  “Love you too, Tates.”

  * * *

  I have sweat running down what feels like every crevice of my body right now. I’ve been running nonstop since Tilly took off for work. Everyone from Vegas flew in last night and has been staying at the house Tatum and Benton still have here in Graves as a rental.

  Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to make everything perfect for Tilly’s surprise party. Her fiftieth birthday was actually last week, but I have to keep the old lady on her toes.

  Since she and I recently started watching The Walking Dead on Netflix—I know we’re way behind the times—I thought we could make it into an awesome birthday theme. Ollie and Bex offered to get real blood and guts from the hospital because they’re sick, but I nixed that. Instead, they mixed up fake blood and even made gelatin organs out of molds. Benton and Jesse went to work making an entire scene from the show out in our yard using a car I got from the junkyard. Penny and Tatum have been in the kitchen making all the food we could possibly want to eat, while the kids designed costumes for all of us. It’s going to be awesome.

  “I can’t get your make-up right with you sweating like that,” Tatum complains.

  I wipe my face with a towel and take a deep breath, trying to relax while she goes to work to zombify me.

  “Don’t you dare have a heart attack on me,” she tells me when she sticks on fake wounds.

  “I don’t plan on it, Tates, bu
t I am getting older, you know.”

  “Shush. You’re living forever.”

  I chuckle at her. “You doing alright since Poppy’s accident?” I didn’t miss the unspoken hostility between her and Penny today in the kitchen.

  “Yeah, Pops is doing well. Even if she won’t talk to Penny or me yet.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “We told her no more riding. At least not for a while.”

  “You sure that’s the best way to handle that?” I hesitantly ask.

  “First,” she starts with a raised brow and makes me sorry I asked. “She doesn’t even have a driver’s license. Second, she needs to be punished for lying to us and being sneaky. Seemed the best way to make it hurt.”

  “Fair enough. And you and Penny? You two alright?”

  She lets out another sigh. “I’m still mad. I’m not ready to fully forgive her yet. I understand her reasoning, as well as Zander’s, but… I’m still not happy. Benton was so pissed at Zander, he fired him from the team. That’s another reason why both Poppy and Penny are mad at us.”

  “Benton fired him?” I can’t believe that. I’ve never seen Benton be anything but easy-going through the years.

  “Oh yeah. I didn’t even know he did until it was done. Told Zander to find a different team to race with next season.”

  “Shit…”

  “It kinda pissed me off, but for selfish reasons. Benny is getting older, and I was hoping he’d start to slow down with racing. Retire soon and do more behind the scenes. Now, he’ll be expected to keep racing and winning. It’s too late for them to find a teammate for this next season, so, more pressure on him. More stress on him too.”

  “Damn. Sorry, Tate.”

  “That man.” She rolls her eyes with a smile threatening to pull at her lips. “I wanted to kiss him and kill him all at once for it.”