“You…” She put the bowl down and wiped her hands on the towel. “…you don’t have to do a thing.”
Smiling, he leaned back, feeling quite smug that he was going to get rewarded for such good behavior. Travis yawned and shook his head. Damn, he was tired.
Kacey bit her lip and began kissing across his stomach.
He yawned again and closed his eyes.
Her tongue made tiny circles on his skin, blazing a hot trail all the way up to his chest. He tried to lean down, to catch her tongue in his mouth, to pleasure her the way she was pleasuring him.
She pulled back and shook her head, her nails digging into his back as she pulled him closer, careful not to get any of the paste on her.
Her hands skimmed up his neck and dug into his hair. She tugged at his lower lip and whispered, “I’ve always wanted to have you to myself.”
“To torture me?” he said hoarsely.
“Absolutely. After all, you tortured me when I was little, so it’s only fair to have a little retaliation.” She licked his ear. He nearly fell off the couch. He was having a damn hard time keeping his hands from moving to any part of her body. He felt like he was going to explode. The only good thing was that he knew no numbing cream had gotten on the lower region of his body.
That, he knew with absolute certainty.
Though, if she kept kissing him like that, he was going to be begging for something to keep him from embarrassing himself.
“Kace.” His mouth found hers. He parted her lips and twirled his tongue in her mouth, tasting every part of her, taking his time and feeling the hot sensation of her mouth on his.
Feeling more at ease, he leaned back, allowing her to straddle him. He kept his arms firmly at his sides.
Her kisses relaxed him somehow, made him feel comfortable and…
“Crap.”
“Pardon?” Kacey’s head popped up giving him a glorious view down her shirt.
“The Benadryl.” Oh God, was he slurring? No, no, this was not happening, not when things were going so great.
“What about it?” Kacey went back to work, kissing down his stomach.
“Itsh making me shleepy.” Travis began to see double. Kacey suddenly grew two heads, and his arms felt so heavy he was sure they had detached from his body.
“Kacshy?” Maybe if he just closed his eyes for a minute, no longer, he would get rejuvenated and…
****
“Travis?” Kacey shook him, and he moaned and let out a snore.
Too much Benadryl.
“And this is what happens when people don’t build up a tolerance!” she said to herself. She shrugged and picked up the bowl and towel. As she walked into the kitchen she heard another snore and couldn’t help but giggle. Poor guy.
Returning to the living room, she placed a cup of coffee on the table and sat next to him on the couch. He looked so peaceful.
He looked perfect.
Kacey sighed.
Was it too good to be true? Why did the fact that there seemed to be no roadblocks in the way scare her more than when he seemed unreachable?
At least when they’d hated each other she hadn’t needed to worry about her heart. But now it seemed that he had won her over without even trying. It was the way he cheered her up and spent time with her. Even going as far as rescuing her from the reunion . In fact, she bit her lip, Travis had always been there. In the background.
She sighed and looked at the blank TV, her eyes narrowed as she took in the DVDs on the side.
Family Memories 2002.
Quietly, she tiptoed over to the DVD player and threw in the disc. She didn’t have anything else to do, so she might as well travel down memory lane. It figured that Bets would have all of the memories on DVD now. Those poor boys didn’t stand a chance.
She carefully sat back down and pressed Play.
N-Sync began playing in the background, and then Jake and Travis appeared on screen. And they were dancing.
Not just any dance. No, because that wouldn’t be even close to as funny as what she was currently watching.
Travis had on a curly blonde wig. And he was playing lead singer.
Jake was in the background shaking his butt.
But the best part? They were both old enough to know better and still deathly serious about their little music video.
As the song came to a close, Grandma Nadine made an appearance in a leopard leotard and began playing air guitar.
Kacey snorted and covered her mouth with the back of her hand.
The only thing she could think of was how she was going to get a copy of this and sneak it to the press. Jake would kill her.
And it would be totally worth it.
The movie skipped to Christmas 2007.
She remembered that Christmas. It was two years before her parents’ deaths. She shifted on the couch, tucking her feet underneath her and watched the perfect little Christmas take place.
She and Jake were sitting under the tree. Her braces were glowing in the candlelight of the room, and Jake, such a lady-killer even at the ripe old age of sixteen with his curly brown hair and megawatt smile. She giggled at the memory, transfixed by what she saw.
Travis was in the background, sulking, or what looked like sulking. His eyes were downcast, and he was playing with a brightly wrapped package in his hands. The video zoomed in. He was shaking and mumbling something to himself.
“Just give it to her,” Grandma Nadine urged from the side.
Kacey watched in horror as she read the red tag. To Kacey.
Swallowing a knot of emotion, she watched as Travis wiped his hands on his pants and slowly got up and walked toward her.
She wanted to go back in time and scream at herself, “Look at him! Look!”
Instead, sixteen-year-old Kacey flashed him a look of annoyance and then got up and made some excuse about needing more spiced cider.
Travis froze.
Jake sneered. “What? Did you actually think she’d accept a gift from you? After everything you’ve done?”
Travis shook his head and licked his lips, the package slowly dropped out of his hands onto the floor. He shoved his hands into his jeans and walked off.
Jake rolled his eyes as Grandma Nadine went after Travis.
And then Jake did the most asinine thing she’d ever seen in her life. He ripped the tag off of the package, and when Kacey walked back into the room he held it out to her as if he had gotten her a present.
“For me?” Kacey squealed with excitement. “Oh, Jakey!”
Oh gag me, she thought but couldn’t tear her eyes away.
Slowly, she watched as her sixteen-year-old self unwrapped the package and gasped with excitement, throwing her arms around Jake’s neck.
“It’s so perfect!”
And in that moment Kacey knew exactly what the present had been.
Tears flowed freely down her face as the movie played.
It was a framed picture of her and her parents on a family vacation, and underneath it was the word Love.
She clicked off the TV and began to sob into her hands.
It was the very same picture that still sat next to her bed at night. The same picture she’d wept into when her parents died, the same picture she’d talked to when she’d had a bad day. And it had never been from Jake.
But Travis.
She looked over at him now. His eyes were completely open, but she was unable to decipher if he was upset or just cautious as to how to proceed.
“You…” She swallowed down the tears. “You gave me the best present I’ve ever had. When my parents died…” She couldn’t even finish, her body racked with sobs.
Travis cursed and immediately pulled her down to him, spooning her and kissing her hair. “Shh, baby, it’s okay. It’s going to be fine.”
It had always been Travis. Always. She flipped around to face him as he brushed the tears away from her eyes.
Then his mouth was hot on hers, possessive, fierce. It melted every part of her, and made her knees weak even though she was lying down. He kissed her tears away, his kisses burning a trail down her cheek until he found her mouth again, searching and pulling.
****
Embarrassment had washed over Travis when he’d opened his eyes. It was as if he was reliving the moment all over again. Reliving the pain of being rejected and then made fun of left a bitter taste in his mouth.
All he had wanted back then was to say he was sorry, to give Kacey something she could treasure before she left for college.
Jake had ruined everything, but in the end Travis hadn’t cared that Jake took credit. It had sucked, and he’d been pissed, but when he’d seen the look on Kacey’s face, he’d known it was worth it. Regardless of who’d given her the picture, at least she had it, and for that he’d been thankful.
He’d just wanted her to be happy.
His only desire had been to see her smile.
Mission accomplished. He left it alone, walked away, and hadn’t spoken to her since that fateful day.
“Travis.” Kacey kissed him roughly across his lips. He should have cared that he had gross numbing cream on his arms, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was now in his arms, exactly where she belonged.
“Travis,” she said again, this time pulling away.
“What?”
“I can’t feel my lips.”
“Huh?” He looked down. Sure enough, some of the cream had gotten onto her lips, and they were swelling at an alarming rate. “Um, Kace, maybe you should take some Benadryl.”
“Why?” her eyes widened.
“Um, just take my word for it, ‘kay?”
He lightly pushed her away, reached for the pill bottle, and tossed her a pink pill. The very same one that had sent him into dreamland for at least a half-hour.
She took the pill and grimaced as the water touched her lips.
“Shower.” He looked at his arms then at her lips.
She blushed.
“What? Suddenly turning into a prude on me?”
“No.” Kacey bit her lip and forced a piece of hair behind her ear. “It’s just that, well, the stuff I used, it has clove and some other things in it, and water just makes it worse. You have to use oil to get it off of your skin.
“Oil.” He repeated, mouth slightly ajar. “What type of oil?”
“Coconut oil.”
“Right.” He gulped and turned away, lifting his arm above his head to scratch his neck. “So we have to rub down with oil.”
She nodded.
“But I can’t actually…” He nodded in her direction, and she gave him a blank stare. He looked up at the ceiling. “I can’t actually touch you because then the oil and the numbing cream will get on you.”
She bit her lip and winked.
“So I can look but I can’t touch?” Why did he need to keep torturing himself? No matter how many ways he said it. No still meant no. He would have to watch her lather herself with oil while he stood there like an idiot, keeping his hands to himself.
“Maybe it would be best if we did this separately. You know… you go into one room and I go into the other.” His body jerked in opposition.
“Travis.” Kacey put her hands on her hips. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I lost it along with my manhood the minute I fell asleep and began drooling.”