Chapter 20
Harlow
I smell the coffee right before my eyes flutter open and I see the sun coming into the room. I stretch my hands over my head and groan out, my muscles tight from all the exercise I did last night, and then again this morning. There is sex and then there is sex with Travis, and no matter how much I try to deny it, everything with him is better. And I mean everything. I look over toward the clock and see that it’s just a little past ten. I turn to my side and reach out to find the spot next to me warm but empty. I get up on my elbow. "Travis?" I say his name and hear movement coming from the kitchen.
I lay my head back down on the pillow and cuddle into the bed, closing my eyes again. "Morning," I hear him say and open my eyes again, seeing him standing by my bed wearing his white boxers and holding two cups of coffee in his hands.
"Good morning." I smile and get up, holding the sheet to my naked chest. He hands me a cup of coffee and I grab it with my empty hand. He puts his knee onto the bed and then leans in to kiss my lips.
"Did I wake you?" he asks, getting into the bed beside me.
"The smell of coffee did," I say, taking a sip of the hot coffee. Sitting with my back to the headboard I look over at him. "How did you sleep?"
He sits with his back toward the headboard also and takes his own sip of his coffee. "Great." He smirks. "Especially when I fall asleep and then wake up with my dick in your mouth."
I chuckle and shrug. "You were poking me in the ass with it. What was I supposed to do?" I look over at him and lean over to kiss his shoulder. "Besides, I didn’t hear you complain."
"If my cock is going to be in your mouth." He stares at me with a smirk. "You will never hear me complain." I laugh and try to push down the feeling that is creeping up in my chest. I know exactly what it is; it’s fucking happiness. It’s something I haven’t felt fully for four years. It’s something I never thought I would feel again. It’s something that I’m almost afraid of feeling. "So what do you usually do on the weekend?" he asks me.
"Work." I put my hot cup of coffee down on the side table and get up.
"Where are you going?" he asks, sitting up.
"To the bathroom," I say, walking across the room and feeling his eyes on me. I don’t bother closing the door behind me because he’s seen everything already. "Holy shit," I say, walking over the wet towels on the floor and then seeing the bathtub still full. I lean over and drain the tub. "I didn’t think it was this much water." I laugh when I remember riding him so hard that I heard the water splashing but didn’t pay attention to it at the time. He was also the first one out of the tub, so he cleaned most of it up. "I’m going to make a note not to fill it up so much the next time."
"That would help," he says from the bedroom and then I hear the sheet rustle and his feet walking toward the bathroom. "Want me to put the towels in the wash?" he asks, leaning against the doorjamb. His boxers show the outline of his cock and my body tingles.
"Stop talking dirty to me." I wink at him, walking to the sink and looking into the full-length mirror. "What in the hell?” I say, walking even closer when I see the red spots all over me. It’s a mixture of hickeys and also beard burn. "I look like I got attacked by a swarm of bees."
He just laughs. "You also have a couple on your ass." He points at me and I turn around to see that I have one on each ass cheek. I look over my shoulder on each side and then glare at him. "You said I could do it anywhere but your neck."
"You took that really literally.” I laugh. Walking to him and standing in front of him, I get on my tippy-toes and kiss him under his chin. One of his hands goes to my hip as he pulls me to him. "We need to eat," I mumble, not moving out of his grasp as I rub my nose across his jawline. "Are you hungry?"
"I’m famished." He picks me up and before I know it his mouth is between my legs.
"Where are you going?" I lift my head after he gets out of bed an hour later.
"I’m going to cook us breakfast," he says, putting his boxers back on. "You get dressed." I smirk at him. "You being naked got us sidetracked again."
"Does my nakedness offend you?" I poke out my tits.
He groans and walks away and I can see him adjusting himself. "Just cover your lady parts," he says over his shoulder and I can’t help but laugh. I get out of bed, putting on shorts and a tank top but no bra or panties. Fixing the bed, I walk into the kitchen and see that he’s already got bacon in the pan and is scrambling eggs.
"It smells good in here," I say when I get beside him and I kiss his back. "Let me make you coffee." Side by side, we get ready to eat. He takes out two plates, filling them with eggs, bacon, and sliced toast.
"I could get used to this," I admit, sitting next to him at the small kitchen table I have. I smirk at him and eat my eggs. I sit and try not to think that he’s going to leave eventually and then what? I look at my plate and try to avoid his eyes.
"What do you want to do tonight?" he asks and I shrug. My fingers start to tap the tabletop as I think about what I was supposed to do tonight.
"I’m supposed to meet up with my cousins at the bar tonight," I say, looking over at him. "But we don’t have to."
"Might as well get it over with," he says, getting up with his empty plate. He puts his plate in the dishwasher. "I have to go and get my things at the hotel."
I shake my head. "You really rented a room?" I ask, semi-shocked. “I thought you were pretending.”
"Yeah," he says, laughing. "I didn’t know what your reaction would be when I got here and I didn’t want to assume I would be spending the night so…"
I shake my head. "Why don’t we get dressed and go pick up your things, have sex, and then come back here?" He looks at me. "It’s a hotel room; it’s like sacriligious that you don’t have sex in the bed."
He just shakes his head. "Whatever you want." He kisses my shoulder and we get dressed. We go to his hotel room, where we do in fact have sex on the bed.
"Are you nervous?" I look over at him from my side of his car and he just shrugs. My stomach feels like I’ve been on a roller coaster going around and around.
"I mean, the good news is that if I get shot, you can help take the bullet out. The bad news is they might shoot me in the dick," he says, taking my hand in his and bringing it to his lips.
"Well, if it’s any consolation." I turn in the seat when he puts the car in park. "They promised to be on their best behavior."
"Oh, goodie," he says sarcastically when he turns off the car and gets out. He opens my door for me and holds out his hand for me to grab. "You look good." He smirks, pull ing me close to him. I spent way too long picking out this outfit of white jeans and a baby-blue silk tank top with spaghetti straps that criss-cross in the back. I even put on blue heels, which I never do because I always go for comfort, but something about going out with him tonight made me want to dress up. He slips his hand into mine as we make our way over to the bar. The sound of music fills the parking lot, and the closer we get, the more my stomach aches. "Here we go," he says when we get to the door and I pull him to me before he has a chance to grab the door handle.
"If you want to leave, all you have to do is say the word," I say so he knows that I’m on his side.
"If you could show up at my wedding." He smirks. "I’m pretty sure I’ll be okay with your brothers and cousins." He kisses me and pulls open the door.
"Yeah, but I didn’t dump you," I say right before he steps inside and stops.
"This is bigger," he says, looking around, and I nod my head at him. Ever since Amelia took this place over from my aunt Savannah, she’s expanded it four times. It is the it place to be on a Saturday night.
I walk with Travis's hand in mine as we make our way over to the bar in the back. It’s the bar my family sits at when we are here, and I know right away that they spotted us when I see my brothers, Reed and Quinn, share a look. "Hey," I say when I get close enough. My sister-in-law, Willow, turns her head first to say hi, and her eyes widen when she sees Travis behind me. She leans over to whisper something in Quinn’s ear and if I know her right, she probably told him to calm down.
"Well, well," Hazel says when she sees me. "Look what the cat dragged in."
I throw my head back and laugh and I see Hazel’s hand go to Reed’s knee to keep him in his place. "Guys," I say, taking a deep breath. "You remember Travis," I introduce, as if they could fucking forget him.
He nods at them. "Nice to see you guys again," he says diplomatically.
"Where’s your wife?" Reed asks, without skipping a beat, looking straight at Travis.
"Right next to me," Travis says, without thinking twice, making everyone stop talking. "I mean eventually, that is."
Willow laughs. "Shit, you should have seen the look on your face." She points at Quinn, who just glares at her.
"Listen," I say and they all look at me. "We might as well get this over with. I don’t want to hear anyone’s bullshit. It’s two friends that have…" I think of the word.
"Rekindled," Hazel says for me.
"Yes." I point at her.
"Two friends that rekindled their friendship." I look up at Travis, who stares at me.
"So, friends that do benefits," Willow says. "I never had that." Quinn turns to look at her and shakes his head.
"Never going to have that either," he mumbles, and Amelia comes to me with a glass for me and beer for Travis.
"Nice to see you," she says, handing him his beer as he nods at her. "If you fuck up, I’m going to let them shoot you."
"Good to know," he says, taking a pull of his beer, and I can’t imagine what it must be like for him. I mean, I went to his wedding, but I wasn’t the one who dumped him. I don’t even think I would have had the balls to go if the roles were reversed.
"Okay, are we done?" I ask, taking a sip of spiked sweet tea, then looking up at Travis and smiling. He lets go of my hand and puts it around my shoulders, pulling me to him and kissing my head.
"All good, baby," he says softly, and I’m about to say something when I hear: "What the fuck is this?" my cousin, Chelsea, says from behind me, and I turn to see her standing there with her hand on her hip.
"Okay, maybe I should have warned them that you were here," I mumble, and he just shrugs, not caring.
"Didn’t you go to his wedding last week?" she asks, shocked, as she looks from me to Travis.
"There was no wedding," Travis reports.
"Oh my God," Mayson, her husband, says from behind her. "I told you going to that wedding was bad luck."
I put up my hand. "Okay, one." Closing my hand and putting up a finger. "I didn’t have anything to do with the wedding not taking place." I look at all of them. "And two, I’m not bad luck."
"You aren’t bad luck." Travis bends to tell me in my ear. "You are the best luck."
"I just threw up a little," Quinn says, putting a hand in front of my mouth. "Good to know you're still a lovesick puppy."
"Eww,” Reed says. "Remember when he sent her flowers every single day of winter break with poems?"
"It wasn’t poems," Travis says, defending himself. "It was lines from her favorite romance books."
"That makes it even worse,” Quinn says, and Willow shakes her head.
"What? Like, you wouldn’t send me flowers?" she asks Quinn, who side-eyes her, bringing his beer to his mouth.
"He wouldn’t bring you flowers," I say. "He would plant you a whole fucking field full of them."
"Gross,” Reed says and that has all of us rolling our lips.
"Didn’t you leave a rose in her car for two years when you got back together?" Quinn points at him. "And you kept doing those stupid Facebook posts about love and her. I’m surprised they didn’t block you with all the times I had you reported." We all laugh and Travis walks over to sit on a stool and motions with his head to come to him.
I walk to him while Mayson sits next to him on the stool. "So, besides not getting married, what else have you been up to?" he says, and we all laugh as Travis opens his legs for me to step between. His hand goes to my hip and it feels like old times; the guys joking with each other while the girls just gab.
Travis bends and kisses my shoulder and I look at him from the side. "You okay?" I ask, putting my hand on his cheek.
"Never better," he says with a smile and I lean to him and kiss him. "Never better." I smile at him but the reality of it is that eventually he’s going to leave and we are going to be back to square one. I take a sip of sweet tea while my head yells at me that it’ll be fine, yet my heart stops feeling the fullness that it felt all day.