by Lindsay Becs
“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 is 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 21
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 surpri
se 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, but 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.”
“He’s a good man.”
“He is,” she says and finally lets a smile find its way out.
Everyone put on their game faces—or zombie faces—when Tilly got home, and I’m the first to attack her to turn her into a zombie with the rest of us. Her squeals and laughter were all I needed to know I did good by my woman.
We’ve played games and eaten, sang “Happy Birthday” and dug into a bucket of guts for dessert. I hand Tilly the envelope containing my gift inside.
She gives me a shy smile when she opens it and pulls out the contents. Inside are the plans to remodel our houses to join them together into one big house. A place our family can come for the holidays or summers or birthdays like today. And when it’s just us, it’s a home all our own. A new beginning for us together.
Her eyes find mine, and I see they are filled with tears. Throwing her arms around me, she hugs me tightly and presses her lips to mine.
“Does this mean you like it?” I ask with a laugh when she pulls back.
“It’s perfect, Travis. So perfect.”
“We have a meeting next week, and you can change anything you want. These were my ideas, but I want it to be ours and exactly how we both want it to be.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Me too.” I kiss her again, happy that everything is going how I hoped it would. Happy that I make her happy because she makes me the happiest damn man on the earth.
“I have one other gift for you,” I tell her and sink down on one knee. She covers her mouth with her hand then. “It’s been almost two years since I asked you to marry me on the dancefloor of our kids’ wedding. It’s time we make it official and finally get this show on the road, don’t you think, Cookie?” She nods and tears fall down her cheeks. “Alright then, Tilly Lane, will you marry me? For real this time?”
“Yes,” she laughs, pulling me up to stand with her. I slide the simple diamond ring on her finger and kiss her.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she says, and they’re still the sweetest words I’ll ever hear.
TILLY
Minutes After Travis Proposes (Again)
The day Travis told me he loved me I thought was the best day of my life. Then he proposed at the kids’ wedding, and I couldn’t believe he wanted to spend forever with me. Now, looking at the ring on my finger—after his second proposal—I can’t help but know that life with this man is going to just keep getting better and better.
“I just got plans to build a custom home and a promise of forever with the man I love. I don’t think it gets much better than that,” I tell him, kissing him again.
“Something tells me things will keep getting sweeter and sweeter with you around, Cookie.”
“Can we get married tomorrow?” I ask without thinking, and I see the surprise in Travis’s face but he quickly starts to laugh.
“If that’s what you want.”
“Everyone is already here. I’m so ready, Travis. Let’s do it. Let’s get married.”
“Why wait until tomorrow?”
“What?” I ask confused.
“Ollie got ordained online last year to married colleagues at the hospital on their lunch break or something. He could marry us right now. We’ll take care of the license tomorrow. What do you say?”
I bite my lip to hold back my excitement as a smile splits my face in happiness.
“Ollie!” he yells, never taking his eyes off of me.
“What’s up, lovebirds?”
“You still ordained?” Travis asks him, eyes still locked on mine.
“Hell yeah, I am!” Ollie says, jumping up and down.
“Tell everyone to get back here,” Travis tells him.
Ollie takes off to gather everyone back over to where we are standing, which happens to be over a bucket of red-dyed water with floating sausages for bobbing for fingers. I start to laugh, and Travis looks down and joins in my laughter. When he asks if I want to change, I tell him no because he did all of this for me. Zombies and fake blood and body parts and all, I want to marry this man right here, right now.
Fifteen minutes later, Ollie declares us husband and wife and Travis kisses me in the best way. We dance to the “Monster Mash,” we feed each other zombie cake, and we never take our eyes off of each other for the rest of the night.
I love this man with every fiber of my body.
I can’t wait to start our forever and make our eternity.
Epilogue
Travis
One Year into Forever With Tilly
Tilly and I are standing with our arms around each other as we stare at the house in front of us. There were so many times throughout this past year that I didn’t think this would ever be finished. There were times I didn’t know if Tilly was going to still love me by the end for getting us into such a big project. There were times we fought about things we didn’t agree on. There were times we fucked like bunnies on sawdust-covered tarps. There were times all we could do was laugh when what we really wanted to do was cry.
But we made it. The house is finished. And it’s mo
re than either of us could have hoped for.
“There were a few days I thought I might murder you in your sleep.” Tilly says in a sweet voice that makes me laugh.
“Those were shared feelings, Cookie.” She laughs with me as we join hands and walk into our newly finished house.
We turned the side of the house that was mine into a guest wing. The kitchen was downsized into a kitchenette and another bedroom was added, while the loft turned into a game room. In the main area of the house, the side that was Tilly’s, we turned the loft into joint office spaces for us and redid the entire downstairs. We added a four-season room where the houses joined together as well.
Once we’re inside, we take everything in. It’s ours. A place that isn’t hers or mine. It isn’t a fresh start. It’s just a beginning. Our beginning together.
“What do you think?” I ask Tilly, kissing her head.
“Travis, it’s perfect. It’s everything we wanted. I can’t believe it’s all ours.” Her voice is full of wonderment as her eyes scan the space. I hired a decorator to finish it for us while Tilly and I stayed at Tatum and Benton’s place for the past few months.
We walk through the house, both of us excited by different details that catch our attention.
“Ready to start christening every room?” I growl into her ear and don’t miss the shudder that rolls through her.
“Thank you,” she tells me. “Thank you for wanting me. For wanting to make a life with me. For loving me so passionately. I love you, Travis. I’m so thankful that you love me back.”
I press my lips to hers. Showing her with actions how grateful I am for her, too.
And before long, we’ve christened three rooms in the house. Pretty damn good start for an aging man with his beautiful bride.
Two Years into Forever With Tilly
