Never With You (The Never Series Book 6)

by Anie Michaels

  It was a few minutes before we pulled into the parking lot of a decently-sized restaurant. The building had a neon sign that said Tilly’s and big wooden doors with small logs as door handles. Briggs parked his truck in the far corner of the lot where all the spots were empty. His truck was big and I imagined parking it was a pain. As soon as he cut the engine I pushed my door open and looked down at the ground.

  “How’s a girl supposed to get outta here?” I laughed. I was ridiculously high off the ground. I heard Briggs’s door close and then watched him jog around the front of the truck. He came to my door and offered his hand.

  “Just put one foot on the rail there and hang on to the oh shit handle.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The handle there, by your head,” he said, laughing.

  I looked up and sure enough there was a strap hanging from the roof.

  “I never knew that’s what they were called.” I followed his instructions and found myself ungracefully clomping my way out of his truck. I had too much momentum, though, and crashed into him on my way down. He still had my hand clasped in his, but now my chest was pressed against his front, and his other arm was wrapped around my waist, his hand settled on the small of my back, holding me steady.

  “You all right?” His mouth was so close to mine, the breath of his words feathered over me.

  “I’m not usually clumsy,” I said, my voice a whisper. Bringing my other hand to his chest, I pushed myself off him, hovering somewhere between embarrassed to be touching him at all and not wanting to stop touching him in the slightest. “I’m sorry.” His hands fell away as soon as I was stable, and I missed them instantly.

  “It’s no problem. The truck is a little tall.” He said the words so nonchalantly, like it hadn’t affected him at all, my body pressed up against his, and that was good. Great, even. The last thing I needed was for both of us to be getting stupid. I’d touched him accidentally, and just because my heart rate went all crazy and my palms were sweaty afterward did in no way mean things had to get complicated.

  He motioned toward the front of the building and as we started walking I heard someone yell from the other side of the parking lot.

  “Briggs, get your fine ass over here.”

  I looked up and saw a very pretty brunette standing in front of the restaurant, hand on her hip, which was jutted to the side. She was wearing a wide smile, and as she pushed her sunglasses into her dark hair, I could see her eyes were full of mischief. Patrick was standing behind her, smiling widely as well, so I figured I was looking at Megan.

  “Megan,” Briggs called out. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” As they approached each other she laughed harder and then threw herself into his arms. Briggs hugged her tightly, lifting her off the ground a little, then put her down and took a step back. “You look great, kid.”

  She rolled her eyes at his nickname for her and then turned to me. “Don’t mind him. He’s called me that since we met. He got a kick out of how short I was.”

  “How short you are,” he corrected. Briggs was right. She was pretty short, at least compared to him and Patrick. “Megs, this is Talia, she’s staying in the house next door for the week and helped me paint today, so she’s letting me buy her lunch.”

  “Nice to meet you, Talia.” Megan held her hand out to me and her handshake was firm and friendly. “I’m actually kind of glad you’re here. These guys will almost definitely fall into some sort of man-lish and talk sports and I would have been bored to tears.”

  “Man-lish?” I asked, confused.

  “You know, man talk. Sports. Trucks. Sports with trucks. Tires. Yada yada.”

  “Oh,” I said, laughing. “How rude of them.”

  “Right? Come on. I’ll introduce you to Tilly.”

  I looked back at Briggs and he winked at me, making every part of me tingle.

  “We’ll get a table. Go ahead.”

  I followed behind Megan, who walked into the restaurant like she owned the place, and I couldn’t help but be jealous of the obvious self-confidence she had. She walked right past the hostess station, waving at the girl working there, and then headed for the bar.

  “Oh, Megan, you get over here and give me a hug.” I watched as Megan practically ran behind the bar and wrapped her arms around the woman I assumed was Tilly. She looked to be in her mid-sixties with salt and pepper hair. The color of her hair, however, was the only thing that aged her. She looked amazing and vibrant. They hugged for a long moment, rocking back and forth, until they finally pulled apart, but Tilly didn’t let go of Megan fully. “How are you, sweetheart? Everything going well in Portland?”

  “Everything’s great. Store’s great. Patrick’s great. We’re all just fabulous.”

  “That’s real good,” Tilly said, rubbing her hands up and down Megan’s arms. Megan’s eyes stole over to me and Tilly followed her gaze.

  “Tilly, this is Talia. She’s a friend of Briggs’s.”

  At the mention of Briggs, Tilly’s eyes widened, but her smile remained. “Well, any friend of Briggs’s is a friend of mine.” Tilly moved toward me and before I knew it I was pulled into one of the best hugs I’d ever received. Her arms were strong and wrapped around me tightly and she smelled of baby powder and Chanel Number Five—a strange combination, but surprisingly wonderful on Tilly.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” I said as she pulled away.

  “You must be visiting. I haven’t seen you around here before.”

  “I’m here on vacation. Staying in the house next to Briggs’s.”

  “Briggs is a nice man,” she said as she patted my arm.

  “So, you’re Porter’s mom, right?” I asked hesitantly, trying to get the relation right.

  “Yes, Porter is my son. When he married Ella, he gave me the best family in the whole world.” She said the words with warmth and wrapped her arm around Megan, giving her another squeeze. “You girls go ahead and sit down and I’ll be around to check on you.”

  I followed Megan through the restaurant and took a seat next to Briggs in the booth he and Patrick had secured.

  “You get your Tilly fix?” Patrick asked as he draped an arm over Megan’s shoulders.

  “Yes, I did. Nothing in the world is better than a hug from Tilly. Right, Talia?”

  “I can’t argue with you. It was a pretty incredible embrace.”

  Everyone laughed and a waitress appeared, taking our drink orders and handing us menus. Megan and Patrick didn’t even open theirs, so that left just Briggs and me to peruse them.

  “So, how long are you in town for, Talia?” Megan asked.

  “Just until Sunday.”

  “She’s here with her whole family,” Briggs supplied, not looking up from his menu.

  “Don’t they miss you?” she asked.

  Shrugging, I answered, “Not really. My brother and his wife have twin babies, so they are all pretty occupied by them.”

  “Ah, yes. Babies will do that,” she mused with a hint of understanding.

  “Do you guys have kids?” I asked.

  “No, not yet.” Megan’s response was laced with something, and I couldn’t pinpoint it exactly. Sadness, maybe? Regret? My suspicion was only solidified when Patrick’s arm pulled her in closer at her words. Something was going on there, but I didn’t want to pry. It wasn’t my place to pick apart their personal lives.

  “You should try taking them to the aquarium,” she said with a new wave of friendliness. “They have a giant tank you can walk under. Lots of colorful fish to look at.”

  “I’ll let my sister-in-law know.”

  “How’s the house coming?” Patrick asked Briggs.

  “It’s a disaster at the moment. But organized chaos. Just trying to get things ready for Porter tomorrow.”

  “What all is he doing?” Megan asked.

  The waitress returned and put our drinks in front of us, letting us know she’d be back in a few minutes. I took the opportunity to sip my water, letting my eyes s
tay on Briggs, watching his mouth move with his words.

  “New kitchen island, cabinets, countertops, new floors throughout the downstairs, the electrical needs an update, expanding the deck.”

  “Any work on the upstairs?” Patrick asked.

  “No, Cess and I did a remodel up there a few years ago.”

  “Well, that’s good, at least,” Megan supplied, her tone sour.

  “I sort of just want it over with so I can sell and move on.”

  The irritation and hurt in his voice was evident and I fought the urge to reach out to him, to place my hand on his thigh or cover his hand with mine. I instinctively wanted to comfort him, but knew it wasn’t really my place. Instead, I tried to steer the conversation to the positive.

  “Where do you think you’ll go once it’s sold? Back to Portland?” I’d asked the question as sort of a distraction, but found myself interested in the answer. For some reason I really wanted to know where he was headed.

  “I won’t be going back to Portland. I know that for sure. I want something different. Something new.”

  “That’s understandable. And you could go practically anywhere with your job, like you mentioned earlier.”

  “Maybe somewhere on the east coast. Boston, maybe.”

  I nodded, trying to look agreeable. The idea of Briggs being on the other side of the country affected me in a physical way, which was ridiculous. The idea that my stomach dropped at his words, that my first instinct was to gasp, it was embarrassing really. I wanted to grab him, hold on to him, keep him near, and I hardly knew him.

  “You know you can’t go that far away. Your mom would kill you,” Patrick joked, making Briggs chuckle.

  “That’s probably true.”

  “You have a big family?” I found myself asking. My question prompted him to turn his big brown eyes on me.

  “Not too big. Mom, Dad, and my little brother, Landon.”

  “They’d miss you,” I offered, not letting my gaze drift from his, resisting the urge to let my eyes fall away, the intensity of his stare overwhelming.

  “Perhaps,” he replied softly.

  “Getting any surfing in? I heard there were good waves yesterday,” Patrick mentioned.

  “Yeah, I was out. Waves were good. Cold, but good.”

  “I always thought Oregon wasn’t great for surfing,” I said just before taking a sip of my water.

  “It’s not really. There are better places.” Briggs shrugged. “But sometimes you’ve got to work with what you’ve got. I’d rather surf small waves than none at all.” He caught me in his gaze again, but that time it didn’t fall away as quickly.

  “Do you all know what you’d like?” The waitress’s question brought me out of my haze and I flipped my menu open again, trying to make a split-second decision.

  “Bacon cheeseburger,” Patrick said.

  “Turkey club,” Briggs added, handing his menu over.

  “I’ll have the cobb salad, please,” Megan said with a smile.

  “That sounds good,” I said as I looked up at the waitress. “I’ll have the same.”

  The waitress scribbled on her notepad and then took our remaining menus. “I’ll be back with that in just a bit.”

  “So, are you coming to Porter and Ella’s tomorrow night?” Patrick asked Briggs as he swirled his straw around in his soda.

  “I was planning on it.”

  “Oh, Talia, you should totally come,” Megan exclaimed. “It’s just a game night, nothing fancy, but it’s always better to have even people. Say you’ll come.”

  She was looking at me with wide and expectant eyes.

  “Oh, um, I don’t know…” I’d already intruded on their lunch, I didn’t want to crash a game night too. Megan seemed really nice, but I didn’t want to be the loser trailing along behind them. “My family probably has something planned.”

  Megan pouted. “Okay, well, you’re totally welcome to come. If it turns out you can sneak away, promise you’ll come with Briggs.”

  “Promise,” I vowed with absolutely no intention of keeping that promise.

  For the next hour I listened to Patrick and Briggs update each other on the events of their lives, listened to Megan talk about her job at a boutique in Portland and her plans to open another sometime in the future. They were all very friendly and tried to include me in their conversation, asking typical get-to-know-you questions.

  The waitress came to clear away our plates and Tilly was right behind her.

  “Everything taste okay?” she asked, resting a hand on Briggs’s shoulder.

  “Delicious, as always,” he responded, giving her a warm smile.

  “Glad to hear it.” Her eyes moved to Patrick and Megan’s side of the table. “I want to see you both in here again before you leave town, all right? One visit isn’t enough. And stop by the house sometime. I can’t sit and chat with you while I’m here.”

  Megan laughed. “Tilly, you’re always here. You’re never at your house long enough for us to stop by.”

  “I guess that’s true enough. Just promise you’ll swing by to see me before you go back to the city.”

  “Sure thing,” Patrick said sincerely.

  It was surprising to see people who weren’t related by blood show each other so much affection, to openly care for one another so much. Tilly was treating Megan and Patrick like they were her own children, when clearly they were only related, and distantly at that, by marriage. Even though I’d been with Chris for so long, I’d never felt close to his family. And certainly his mother had never been interested in my brother or his well-being. I couldn’t help but wonder what it must be like to quite literally join two families together by marriage. Tilly even treated Briggs like family and he had no connection whatsoever, yet she still loved him.

  Either Tilly loved everybody, or Briggs was easy to love.

  Or quite possibly both.

  “Well, we better get going,” Megan said with a sigh, then she turned to me. “We promised Ella and Porter we’d watch the babies so they could go out to a movie and dinner.”

  “That’s so funny. I promised my sister-in-law the very same thing.”

  “We sound like awesome sisters,” she joked.

  “Do you have time for a game of pool before I take you back?” Briggs asked, catching me completely off guard. As soon as Megan and Patrick started to leave, I assumed we’d be following.

  “Um, yeah, I guess.” I pulled my phone out and checked the time. “I have about an hour before I should get back.”

  We all scooched out of our booths and I watched as Megan and Patrick said goodbye to Tilly, then Megan turned to me, pulling me into a hug as well.

  “Hopefully you’ll come tomorrow night,” she said softly, then pulled away. “We’d really like to see you there. Ella and Kalli would really like you.”

  “I will definitely see what my plans are.”

  “Great. It was so nice meeting you.” She gave a little wave and then stepped past me toward the door.

  “See you later, Talia. Keep my buddy Briggs here out of trouble, okay?” With his words, Patrick’s hand landed on my shoulder and he gave it a squeeze.

  I laughed. “Will do.”

  We watched them leave for a moment, then Tilly broke the silence.

  “I’ve got to get back to work. Don’t leave without saying goodbye, honey.” That was directed at Briggs, and the affection in her voice was apparent.

  “I won’t,” he replied as she retreated behind the bar. “Are you any good at pool?”

  “Nope,” I replied honestly, earning me a deep laugh. I suddenly wished I were funnier so I could hear it more before we parted ways.

  “Good, me neither.”

  Even though he claimed to be no good, he seemed to know what he was doing. He racked the balls efficiently enough, then picked out a cue for me, letting me have the first shot.

  “I really suck at pool, especially breaking,” I warned him, taking the appropriate stance, but feeli
ng like an idiot. I pulled my cue back, then tried my hardest to get a good shot in. Luckily, and surprisingly, a striped ball went into a corner pocket. Walking around the table, I looked for my next best shot, but knew I’d never be able to sink any of the remaining stripes on the table as it was. I lined up my best shot but wasn’t surprised when the stripe ricocheted, ending its journey in the middle of the table, nowhere near a pocket.

  “You sank one, which is more than I might have.” He smiled and took his position, aiming the cue at a solid ball. The cue ball knocked against its target with a clack, but the solid ball just missed the pocket. “See? Terrible.”

  “If you knew you were terrible, why’d you want to stay and play?”

  He propped his cue on the floor, chalk end up, and wrapped both his fists around it, leaning on it for support, and met my gaze.

  “I guess I wasn’t ready to take you home just yet.” He smiled, but it wasn’t a full smile, almost sad. “Even if it was only for a few hours, it was nice to be around someone who hadn’t seen me fall apart, hadn’t been around to witness the last year of my life.” He shrugged. “Something about you makes me feel hopeful.”

  It was a more truthful answer than I was expecting, but if there was one thing I could appreciate, it was honesty.

  “Well, truly, going back to my family doesn’t sound so appealing. This is much better.”

  He smiled again. That time it was bigger and it made me feel a little bit better. I didn’t want Briggs to be sad. We played pool until I finally won, and normally I would think he’d let me win, but we both sucked, so I was pretty sure he’d lost fair and square.

  When we went to pay our bill, Tilly kindly informed us it was on the house. We both thanked her and gave her the hugs she demanded in a way that didn’t seem demanding at all. The food had been delicious, Megan and Patrick were great, and playing pool had been entertaining. But being with Briggs was what made the afternoon memorable.

  Just walking beside him to his truck had me smiling.

  He opened my door and held out a hand for me, likely anticipating the fact that I would need assistance. Once we were both settled and driving back, it occurred to me that not only had it been a great afternoon, it had been the best day I’d had in a while.