Yet another reason Nora was going to get a reprieve, even if she didn’t exactly act grateful for it.
Everyone would of course be spending the anniversary of that day together. Cassandra and Dennis drove up on Friday so all of Saturday could be entirely devoted to celebrating Kevin and Colleen’s memory.
It was still hard for Beth to come to grips with the fact that it had been a year since their deaths, a year without them. The loss was unbearable.
The day also marked what would’ve been Kevin and Colleen’s twentieth wedding anniversary. For whatever reason, those were the images Beth’s brain had decided to replay: Colleen walking down the aisle arm-in-arm with their father, her white dress simple yet stunning, a smile on her face as she only had eyes for Kevin, the two of them dancing their first dance as man and wife.
The day was going to be difficult, no doubt about it. But it was a pretty big comfort to know that Tripp was going to be right there by her side for it, from beginning to end.
He’d stayed the night with Beth, even with Cassandra and Dennis taking up residence in the den-turned-guest room. Beth hadn’t been even remotely surprised that he’d proceeded to win both Cassandra and Dennis over in no time at all. And neither of them had made a comment about him staying, though Cassandra had given an approving nod. Beth thought it wasn’t so much that she approved of Tripp staying as she approved of Tripp himself.
Besides, Beth wasn’t going to hide how they were currently living, not from anyone. Hiding it would imply that she was embarrassed or ashamed, and she wasn’t either of those things. Not even close.
And when Beth woke up on Saturday morning, she appreciated him being next to her. Appreciated it beyond words. She had no idea how long she’d stared up at the ceiling trying to fortify herself for the day. Nor did she know when she’d started crying.
“Hey, babe. Come here,” Tripp whispered, his voice rough and gravelly in her ear, as he pulled her into his arms. She pressed her face to his chest as she let herself go over to the sadness. Full, body-racking sobs took over as he whispered, “I’ve got you, Beth. I’ve got you,” over and over again.
She was so used to being the rock for the kids, and sometimes even for her father. So to not have to be the strongest person in the room was…freeing, in a way. She let herself be comforted by Tripp’s strength, and at the same time, by his gentle touch. His kisses and caresses. His words.
He loved her.
It had been a week since they’d said those words to each other, and they’d told each other again and again every day since. So she let those words wash over her as he said them to her now, his lips at her temple, his hands moving up and down her back as he tried to sooth her.
He loved her.
He loved her.
* * *
Tripp knew the week without the kids would be a difficult one for Beth. Hell, she’d almost cried when Penny had asked if she could pack Herbert the hippopotamus. There’d also been the moment when Grant had gotten nervous about sleeping in a room without a nightlight, so Beth had packed a little plug-in one for him. But what had upset her the most was that Nora hadn’t said good-bye when they left. Yeah, that one had hurt her a lot.
And it was more that just those incidents. It was the distance, too.
Since Colleen and Kevin’s deaths, Beth hadn’t been away from the kids for more than forty-eight hours, and even then they’d at least been in the same town as she was. The handful of times they’d left Mirabelle in the last year, she’d always been with them.
The thing was, Tripp found himself missing them, too. He missed Penny and her constant chatter, how’d she’d create a story from just about anything she saw. Whether it was a pasture of cows they drove by, or what Duke was dreaming about, or what the animals in her coloring book were doing when no one was looking.
He missed hanging out with Grant in the evenings, whether they were working on Koko or playing catch. He missed the easy conversation he had with the kid. How Grant had started to confide in him about things. He’d even started talking about the death of his parents. With anyone else it wasn’t something he talked about unless prompted. But not with Tripp. He talked about it with Tripp.
And Grant wasn’t the only one having some breakthroughs. Before the belly button-piercing incident, Nora had asked Tripp if he’d go driving with her. That one had been a pretty big moment, as she hadn’t gotten behind the wheel of a car since her parents had died. Beth had told him that regardless of the grounding, Nora could drive with him whenever. That wasn’t something she was going to stand in the way of. Not a development that big.
At the end of the day, Nora was a good kid, and she was actually pretty pleasant to be around when she wasn’t being a royal pain in the ass. Tripp missed sitting down with her in the evenings and helping her with her math and science homework.
He also missed all of the kids helping him cook in the kitchen. It had become a thing now, where they all lined up waiting to be assigned a job.
It was a pretty big change for him, going from being alone a majority of the time to being in the midst of the day-to-day chaos that accompanied Beth and the kids. But he liked the domesticity, liked it way more than he would’ve ever imagined. He was more than a little surprised at how easy a transition it had been for him, but it was something he’d just slipped into, like the situation had been meant for him.
He missed the kids. They’d become part of his every day, something he’d gotten used to after just two months.
However, there was another side to the week: having Beth entirely to himself. It was the first time since the start of their relationship that he’d gotten her, alone, for more than twenty-four hours. And he had every intention of taking advantage of every last minute of it.
He’d be a fool not to. Besides, he firmly believed distraction was the best policy, so him focusing her mind on other things was only helpful. And he did a pretty good job of it on Monday.
The second she walked through his door after work, he had her in his arms, pulling her against his body as the door slammed shut behind them. It took absolutely no time at all for the kiss to turn frantic, both of them trying to consume the other. He thrust his tongue past her lips and she welcomed him, just as eager.
He walked her backward until she was up against the wall, his fingers hooking in the sides of the waistband of her scrubs, pulling them along with her panties down her legs. She worked on the front of his pants—belt unbuckled, zipper unzipped. When his erection was freed, he lifted her up and her legs wrapped around his waist. Nails digging into his shoulders for purchase, she cried out as he plunged inside of her.
God, he loved that part. Loved how she reacted to him every damn time. His movements were wild, making her writhe against him. His mouth was at her neck, teeth nipping her skin.
“Tripp,” she gasped. “Oh, Tripp!”
Her orgasm slammed into her, and she was screaming his name as she pulsed around his cock. He didn’t stop moving, riding her as every once of pleasure ran through her body. And then he was letting go, coming inside of her.
He held her against the wall for a moment, letting the pleasure course through his body as well. Then he was pulling back to look into her face. Her beautiful, beautiful face.
“So, how was your day at work?” he asked.
She burst out laughing, her head falling back against the wall. He took advantage of her neck again, smiling against her skin as he kissed her.
* * *
Beth had never had more sex in her life. She was pretty sure that Tripp was hell bent on christening every room in his house…and hers. Well, except the kid’s rooms—they did have some decency. Not a lot, but some.
On Tuesday morning he spread her out across his kitchen table, sitting in the chair in front of her and pulling her legs over his shoulders. After dinner that night there was a repeat at her kitchen table.
They went for a run together on Wednesday morning and afterward he pulled her into the shower with h
im. He had her pressed up against the wall before the water had even gotten warm.
That night, he worked late due to a couple of calls. The first had been a grease fire at Mrs. Sanderson’s house. Then he’d been called to the beach because some drunken college students had jumped off the pier. Once in the water, two of them couldn’t remember how to swim and had clung to the massive barnacle-ridden posts, screaming for help.
So Beth hung out with Duke, who followed her around the house. Since the kids were out of town, she figured she should take advantage and do a down and dirty clean of their rooms. And that down and dirty clean produced a lot of laundry.
When Tripp came home around nine he found her in the laundry room. Which led to the first time either of them had ever had sex on top of a running washing machine.
* * *
There’d only been a handful of nights Tripp and Beth had spent together when he’d had to respond to calls in the middle of the night. But as he always put his phone on vibrate under his pillow, she never woke up for those, and usually only realized he’d left when she woke up in the morning.
But when “Toxic” filled the silent room around two in the morning on Thursday, it woke both of them up. Beth scrambled for the phone on her nightstand, heart in her throat and fingers fumbling as she tried to get to it quickly.
A phone call in the middle of the night was never a good thing. She’d learned that from firsthand experience. And when she saw Nora’s name on the screen she was pretty sure her heart would beat out of her chest.
She sat up, her legs coming over the side of the bed and her feet landing on the floor. She slid her finger across the screen before pulling it to her ear, hands shaking. “Nora? What’s going on?” There was a frantic edge to her voice that she couldn’t hide.
Tripp was immediately awake behind her, his hand going to her lower back.
A loud sniffle sounded through the speaker of the phone before Nora said, “I had a dream you…you…you died and we had to move and go live with Gran and Grandpa. When I woke up and wasn’t home…I—I just needed to hear your voice to make sure it wasn’t real.”
Beth’s shoulders slumped in relief. It was a bad dream, just a bad dream. Something she could totally deal with. “Nora, honey, it’s okay.” She made a move to get up from the bed so that Tripp could go back to sleep, but his hand slid to her hip, fractionally tightening his grip.
“Stay here,” he said softly into the darkness, his hand going to her back again. And while Beth soothed Nora, Tripp soothed her, his palm moving up and down her spine.
It took five minutes or so before Nora was ready to get off the phone, with her sleepy “I love you” filling Beth’s ear.
“I love you, too, and I’ll see you soon. Have fun.”
“I will.”
Phone back on the nightstand, Beth settled under the covers and against Tripp’s body. “What was the dream?” he asked as his arms came around her, one of his hands sliding underneath the oversize T-shirt she wore to touch her bare back.
Beth pressed her face to his chest, felt his warm skin against her cheek. She hesitated for just a moment before she answered. “That I died.”
He inhaled a sharp breath through his nose and his entire body tensed, his hands tightening their grip on her. It took him a second to relax again, his mouth going to her temple. “I would’ve woken up freaking out, too.”
She pulled back from his chest and looked up at him. His face was shadowed in the dark, but she knew his eyes were on her. “But I have quick ways to reassure myself that you’re here. That you’re okay.”
“Yeah?” she asked before his lips landed on hers. It was a soft, sweet kiss, one that had her melting against him.
“Yeah.”
He held her close as they both fell asleep again. And when she woke up in the morning, she was still wrapped in his arms.
* * *
As if things were meant to be, Tripp’s days off that week just so happened to coincide with the weekend. So Beth would have him to herself for a solid forty-eight hours, and she wasn’t going to share him.
But as it was bound to be whenever she was desperate to get home, the day dragged on. Her lunch break was rather interesting, though. She and Denise drove the ten minutes over to Café Lula to get a bite to eat together.
Grace had just delivered their food to them and turned around to go back to the register when Denise leaned over the table and said, “I need your advice.”
“About what?” Beth asked as she took a sip of sweet tea.
“Sex.”
Beth inhaled half of the liquid down her windpipe and started coughing. It took her a minute before she got hold of herself and was actually able to breathe right again. “I’m sorry. What?” She reached for a napkin and wiped at her watering eyes.
“This isn’t funny.” Denise frowned.
“I wasn’t laughing. You just caught me off guard. That isn’t exactly a topic of conversation the two of us have delved into before.”
“I know. But I don’t know who else to ask. Paige obviously isn’t an option.”
“I would imagine that your daughter would not be an option.” Beth shook her head as she grabbed her bag of chips and opened them, dumping half of them onto her plate. “So…things with Beau are progressing, I’m assuming.”
Beau had asked Denise out that day in the hospital when Mrs. Wharton had gone on and on about Denise having the legs of a thirty-year-old. Apparently Beau had noticed this as well. That had been well over a month ago, and the two had been seeing each other regularly since then.
“Yes…they are progressing.” Denise nodded, color flushing her cheeks. “And I don’t know what to do about the continuing progression. Trevor was the only man I was ever with.”
“And things were good with him in that department?”
“Things were very good with him. But…what if sex”—her voice dropped when she said the word—“has changed?”
Beth grabbed one of her chips from the plate and nibbled it. “Well, from my experience, it’s going to be different. But different isn’t necessarily disappointing.” None of the men she’d been with had been anywhere close to similar. “Are you worried about disappointing Beau? Or about being disappointed.”
“I think, a little of both. And what if I’m thinking about Trevor the entire time?”
“I…” Beth trailed off, not sure how to answer that one at all. “You might…or you might not.” She grabbed another chip. “Denise, would you feel like you were somehow betraying him if you weren’t thinking about him?”
“No, it’s not that.” She shook her head. “Before he died, he told me he didn’t want me to be alone for the rest of my life. He hoped I’d get to a point where I could let myself love like that again.”
“Do you think you could with Beau?”
“I think there’s the possibility for it. He’s a very good man, and I enjoy my time with him. A lot.”
“Do you want things to progress further?”
More color infused Denise’s cheeks before she nodded. “I do.”
“You know, I was told by some very wise women, one of them being your daughter, to do what felt right, to not overthink it and just do. Maybe that’s what you need to do. Otherwise, you’re never going to know. And Denise, in the end, I don’t think either of you are going to be disappointed.”
Beth sure as hell knew she hadn’t been.
* * *
When Beth got home from work that day, she walked into the house to find Tripp sitting on the sofa, watching a baseball game on TV. But the second he saw her, he turned it off and stood.
“Pack a bag. We’re going away for the weekend.”
“Oh, are we?” She dropped her purse onto a side table.
“Yup.” He nodded, moving across the living room to her. “Just you and me.”
“Where’s Duke?”
“Finn is watching him for me.” Tripp’s hands landed on her waist before they slid around to her back
and he pulled her right up against his firm, solid body.
“So it really is just you and me.”
“It is.” He kissed her, one of his hands sliding down until he cupped her bottom. He squeezed lightly before he spun her around in the direction of her bedroom. “And no need to pack pajamas.” He leaned in close to her ear. “Because you won’t be needing them.” He gave her a gentle nudge to get moving.
Beth headed to her bedroom, a grin on her face.
* * *
Tripp didn’t tell Beth where they were going and she didn’t ask. He really liked that she was perfectly okay with letting herself be surprised, that she didn’t need to know the plan and trusted him. She just climbed into the passenger seat of his truck and settled in.
It was a two-hour drive to their destination, a small town that was just over the Georgia state line. She looked over at him as they passed the city sign, her eyes narrowing in speculation. But she didn’t say a word about it; instead she just continued the story she’d been telling him.
But when they pulled up in front of a rather swanky bed and breakfast and he put his truck in Park, she turned to him and asked, “Seriously?”
The Adeline House was almost one hundred and thirty years old. It was a three-story white Victorian with a black roof and shutters and a red front door. The porch wrapped around the entirety of it, empty rocking chairs waiting for guests to sit.
“What do you say? Want to stay here for the weekend with me?”
“You bet I do.” She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned across the armrest and kissed him. “Thank you.”
“Beth, we haven’t even gotten started.”
He got out of the truck then rounded to her side and helped her slide out. Her hand firmly held in his, he led her to the front door. Jenson Peters, the man Tripp had talked to that afternoon to book the room, greeted them when they walked in the door. He had thick white hair and a pretty impressive mustache.
Uncontrollable Page 25