Happily Ever Laughter: older man, quirky younger woman romance (HEA Book 3)

by Haley Travis

  I rush over, throwing my arms around her to lift her up so that her feet are flying as I swing her in a circle.

  Scattering kisses all over her cheeks and nose, I murmur, “I missed you.”

  She giggles as I set her down. “It’s only been a day, you nutbar.” Then she looks up at me through her lashes as my thumb caresses her cheek and her face turns serious. “I missed you, too.”

  I remove her backpack, swinging it over my shoulder. Taking her hand, I lead her down the street, noticing that she looks around rather warily. All of the buildings right around the bus stop are abandoned warehouses. Farther down the street is a strip mall with a bakery and coffee shop, and after that, more warehouses in various states of repair.

  “This is an...interesting...neighborhood,” she says carefully.

  I laugh, squeezing her fingers in mine. “Yes. I’ll never let you walk anywhere alone, even though it’s completely safe here. It’s worth the odd neighborhood to find a true loft that’s big enough, where we can make as much noise as we want.”

  Turning a corner, she observes the large, brightly lit gym. “My roommate Dan runs that place,” I explain. “His dad owns the building. So I helped him build out the gym, and then we took the third floor for our apartment.”

  I smile as she looks up at the building, counting the floors. “Why did you choose the third?” she asks.

  “Because the hardwood floors were in nearly perfect condition, and the crown moldings are gorgeous. Floors two, four, and five are a bit of a mess, so we use those for storage.”

  We walk up the stairs and into the loft, and Tanis instantly beams, her eyes sparkling. “This is incredible. And huge! I can see why you don’t mind having roommates.”

  “Exactly.” I point out the various corners. “We almost never hear from Oliver. Sometimes we notice that the coffee level is lower, so we know he’s alive. But sometimes he disappears into his writing nook for days at a time.”

  My finger switches directions. “That’s Dan’s room. You’ll likely run into him quite a bit. Don’t be shy – he’s a great guy.”

  We walk toward the northwest corner of the loft. “This is my bedroom and studio.” I turn to her and raise an eyebrow. “You know, where all the magic happens.”

  Leaning down to kiss her forehead softly, I add, “And by that I really do mean the music, because I’ve never invited a woman here before.”

  I was rewarded with a look of astonishment in those bright eyes. “When did you move in here?”

  “Just over five years ago.”

  I set her backpack on a chair as she looks around my room. The bed and nightstand are in a corner, leaving room for a large desk in front of the giant windows, then several tables and shelves full of music gear.

  Tanis steps toward the microphone and pop screen set up on a stand in the corner. “You even record vocals here?”

  “Usually it’s just scratch vocals – like a placeholder for the real singer to follow along at a proper studio later. But because we’re going for speed, and it’s just a few words and phrases for our project, we’re recording here.”

  She turns to me. “You mean you are recording. I’m just observing.”

  “Nope. There are a couple of places where I need a female voice.”

  She steps back with her hands raised defensively. “Oh no. No way. I’m not singing.”

  “Shh,” I murmur, pulling her into my arms. “No singing. Just speaking a few words. And I’ll be putting so many effects on it, you’ll barely recognize it’s you.”

  Her shoulders soften slightly as I stroke her back. “Plus,” I add, “we can do a bunch of takes. You can play with it. We’re just making up stuff here and having some fun.”

  Her chin tilts up as she looks at me. “Sure, just playing around, but didn’t you say we have to get this done tonight?”

  “We have almost all the pieces. It’s just assembly now. Like tacos. Trust me.”

  She makes a quick decision. “Well, okay then. How do I help?”

  I already know that I’m falling wildly in love with her, but her positive attitude would have pushed me over the edge if I wasn’t.

  “Fuel.” I lead her back to the kitchen to point out the coffee, tea, juice, and snacks. Rinsing the coffee pot, I prepare a fresh batch.

  “The water is fine for hand-washing and showering, but use the bottled water for drinking and coffee,” I explain, pointing out the big office style water cooler and chilling stand. “Also, they’re updating the water mains a few blocks west of here. Once in a while the water cuts out completely for a few hours. So use as much from that bottle as you need to.”

  Tanis laughs, looking around the enormous kitchen and rustic but polished picnic table. “It’s almost like camping out here.”

  I point to the fireplace and murmur in her ear. “We really do roast marshmallows in the winter.”

  After brewing a pot of my very finest coffee, we go back to my room and get to work. It’s impressive that Tanis whips out a large notebook and immediately begins taking notes.

  I call up a video she had made of a glass of water being poured. At first it’s tranquil, but her fine white line animations layered on top have a tiny surfer gliding in circles.

  The music underneath was old school surf rock, with my slightly disguised voice doing a super cheesy surfer impression. “The thing about alcohol is that it makes me the best dancer in the world. Like, every single time. But what’s if I’m at a place where there’s no dancing? How are other people going to figure out that the drunk version of me is vastly superior?”

  Tanis falls forward laughing, having to clutch my chair. “We’ve all thought the same thing!” she squeaks.

  I show her another clip of her finger flipping through pages of a book, with a classic voice that says, “If only these trees understood how crucial their sacrifice was to our weekend leisure time.”

  She giggles again, as I slip an arm around her so that she can shake against my side.

  “They say that we need seven interstitials, plus the intro. But I know that these things always go down to the wire in editing, and everything I can do to make their lives easier, the better. So let’s give them two extra, one a bit short, and one a bit long, so it’s easy for them to slot in whatever fits.”

  “Good idea,” she nods. “I’ve already shot something for the intro.”

  My wide grin seems to amuse her. “Yeah, I loved that sneak peek you sent, gorgeous. Let’s see the whole thing.”

  She pulls her laptop out of her knapsack and opens it to show me an odd, almost jungle landscape texture. Blinking hard, I realize it’s just houseplants.

  “Don’t laugh, but they’re almost like my pets,” Tanis whispers.

  “They’re wonderful,” I say, leaning closer to examine the movement. “You used a fan?”

  “Two of them, actually. A steady fan from the left, and light bursts of another one from the front, so that the movement was a little more random.”

  As I chuckle, nodding excitedly, she seems confused. “You’re a natural at this,” I say, kissing the top of her head. “Creative, innovative, and willing to do anything to get the job done on time.” Sweeping hair to the side, I plant a dramatic kiss on the side of her throat. “You’re made for this, sweetheart. I’m going to see to it that you get a lot more work.”

  Her cheeks stain a faint pink. “Thank you.”

  “Let’s get down to the nitty gritty,” I say, stretching out my hands to crack my knuckles. “Matching nine video clips to nine sound clips, while making them hilarious, weird, and artsy. Or at least two out of three.”

  Tanis rips a sheet of paper from her notebook and sets it on the desk with a flourish. “Here you go. Fifteen of my best, funniest clips, labeled by style and content so that we can refer to them easily.”

  The words, ‘I love you,’ hover on the tip of my tongue. Every single aspect of her existence thrills me to the core, and her work ethic is pushing me straight to the edge
. But this is not the right time. I couldn’t possibly take a chance of freaking her out by admitting my feelings far too soon.

  “I love how prepared you are.” It’s a poor substitute but it will have to do for now.

  Pulling a chair and laptop up beside her, I call up the sound clips, as we make a game of putting video and music together.

  We work so easily together that it illustrates the point we’re a match made in heaven.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ~ Tanis ~

  A few hours later, Felix already has all of the clips synced to the music except two.

  Watching him work is absolutely awe inspiring, and he’s actually teaching me quite a bit about the analytical side of the creative process.

  Whenever I was craving anything artistic, it was purely for my own visual pleasure, or to make a statement about something.

  Felix is clearly creating music that he enjoys, but he’s doing it specifically for a client’s project. He has to filter what he wants to create through what he knows the client is looking for.

  It’s got to be a tricky balance at some points, being creative to order, and it’s absolutely fascinating for me to watch him fall in and out of his wordless creative head space.

  He completely zones out for a minute, mixing and editing the sound file. I swear he wouldn’t hear me if I were to yell, ‘Fire!’

  Then he takes a slow breath and turns back to me with a huge smile as if he hadn’t been in a completely different headspace for the past five minutes.

  In some strange way, I really like that he’s already comfortable enough with me to be himself. He isn’t trying to impress me. Of course, his work is so inspirational that he is impressing me anyway.

  “All right, gorgeous. All we need you to do now is stand in front of the mic and say your lines.”

  Looking down, I can see that my fingers are already twitching.

  As I stand up, Felix jumps up to hug me. “Relax. Seriously – we can do as many takes as you want. This is not a big deal.”

  He stands me in the corner, adjusting the microphone to my height, and making sure my lips are the proper distance from the pop screen.

  “You don’t have to be yourself here,” he says reassuringly, tapping some keys on his laptop. “Say it completely seriously, then wait for a few seconds, then say it in a completely different way. Whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t even matter.”

  I love his energy. His enthusiasm for the smallest things. And how he automatically has complete confidence that I’m going to give him exactly what he needs.

  It strikes me yet again that I want to do that for him, in every possible way.

  I blow out all of my air in an attempt to release some tension. “All right. I’m ready.”

  Felix clicks a button on the laptop, and I see a tiny red light appear on his screen. He points to me and gives a thumbs up.

  Desperately trying to remember what tiny tips I can recall from a poetry reading workshop I did years ago, I plant my feet and lift my chin, trying to take up a bit more space with my lungs.

  “Coffee and tea are precisely the same thing,” I deadpan. Then after counting to three, I state, “The ripples in the orange juice will always smell of Florida.”

  I glance at Felix who has his hand over his mouth, shaking silently as he tries not to let his laughter make a sound. With his free hand, he motions for me to continue and do it again. I repeat the lines in a light airy bimbo voice, then again in a slightly halting cadence as if I were completely unsure about what words even were.

  Felix stops the recording, laughing out loud. “These voiceovers are completely ridiculous and you looked so earnest. That was perfect. Just give me a minute.”

  I sit back in my chair, leaning in close as he drops the words into the specifically timed parts of the music. Then he calls up the video and plays the entire thing together.

  It’s wonderful.

  My mouth falls open. “Play it again.”

  It’s absurd and precious and lovely. So out of place that it really is laugh out loud funny.

  “We are an amazing team,” he says, leaning in to kiss my cheek. He sets the last two files to process, while loading the rest of them onto the network’s servers.

  I take a moment to tidy up the Chinese take out containers and bags of snacks. To think that I’ve never had pretzel sticks with mustard and barbecue sauce until tonight. My world is expanding all over the place.

  Throwing the garbage away in the kitchen, I cautiously sneak a look around for Felix’s roommates, but the rest of the apartment is silent.

  I can’t be completely certain, but I’m pretty sure there had been another mug’s worth of coffee in the pot. But now it’s gone, and the machine is turned off. Which means that the quiet author guy is around somewhere. I hurry back into Felix’s room and close the door.

  The last two files are already processed, so he loads them, and sends Gretchen an email.

  “Well, that’s it,” he says, turning to me with a wickedly handsome grin. “Your first artistic project for broadcast in the can. How do you feel, sweetheart?”

  “I don’t even know,” I say honestly. “I think my head is still spinning.”

  Felix looks at me with such a seductive smile that my mind begins to reel for a different reason. I’ve always been a very visual person. Right now, I’m visualizing his lips wrapping around my nipple, his fingertips skating across my skin, his eyes afire as I moan his name.

  The picture in my mind is so clear that a shudder runs through me.

  There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t repeat that amazing experience from the van yesterday, but from the comfort of his bed this time.

  Felix stands, walking closer to tower over me. “Thank you so much for helping me with everything, gorgeous,” he says softly. He sits far enough away that he can turn to face me.

  “If you like, I can see if the van is here and drive you home.”

  “Do you have any plans first thing in the morning?” I ask.

  “Just thinking about you.”

  I can feel different parts of my body start to announce my desires, since I can’t find the words. As his palm slips along my shoulder and down my back, my nipples tighten into pebbles, as my bra suddenly feels too tight. My thighs tighten, as a strange feeling of emptiness comes over me.

  “Of course,” Felix says smoothly, “it is very late. Would you like to sleep here with me?”

  My chin nods before I even tell it to move. My mind is slowly checking out as my lust takes center stage, kicking all logic and propriety to the curb.

  He shifts closer, leading down to slowly drag his lips along the column of my throat. “I’m not going to make any assumptions, Tanis. But even just holding you all night would be incredible.”

  My hand darts out, slipping underneath his t-shirt to glide up the firm ladder of his abs. He responds by yanking the shirt off completely and tossing it over a chair.

  Suddenly I completely forget how to blink. His body is a work of art — all sinewy muscle and sculpted contours. His lips meet mine slowly, as we lean into each other, slowly falling down until I’m underneath him across the bed.

  Felix cups my cheek with his palm, breaking our kiss to stare into my eyes. “I’ve heard of guys talking about their dream girl, and figured it was some silly fantasy. But here you are. In my life. In my home. Letting me care for you.”

  I’ve never felt the back of my shoulder blades tremble before. Felix unzips my skirt, helping me maneuver out of it. Then he pulls my shirt and bra off together, making me giggle.

  Lying across his bed in nothing but a tiny scrap of dark blue silk, I’m fascinated by the intensity of his gaze. I’ve never felt so wanted. As if he’s been dreaming of me his whole life. Craving me.

  The feeling of being so desired is absolutely intoxicating.

  Felix lifts me from under my arms, setting me in the very center of the bed. My hand moves up to grab the back of his shoulder, pulling his l
ips to mine. His hot breath flutters across my mouth before he digs in, kissing me hungrily as I melt into the bed.

  His hand slips along my waist, my hip, then begins to tug down the side of my panties. “I need to lick you until you come. I’ve been craving the taste of you all day. May I?”

  His use of the word ‘need’ makes my mind spiral. “Yes.”

  I sigh as he pulls the fabric down my legs. He shifts, lying over me as he kisses me again, then his mouth wanders down to pull my nipple between his teeth. That tiny scrape makes me quiver, as I clutch his warm skin desperately.

  I love the way he teases me. The way he reads my body language, and already seems to know what I like.