"God, Travis, I couldn't sleep last night I wanted you so badly," she gasped.
He was past the point of being able to speak coherently. He buried his face in her breasts and gritted his teeth, trying to hold back the overwhelming tide of his desire for just a few more minutes.
Suddenly she was pressing down on him harder, grinding against him and clawing desperately at his shoulders, breathing and gasping. He lost it, then, pushing himself up inside of her as hard as he could, blinded by that ultimate release. By the time he came down off the high, he realized that she must have come at the same time as him, because now she lay sedately trembling in his arms.
He leaned back on the couch and held her for awhile. When she leaned back, she smiled down at him. "Feel better?"
He pushed her hair back behind her ear. "I'm still pretty pissed about my car."
She rolled her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder. They held each other this way until it was time to get ready for church.
Arden pulled into her driveway after church. She and Travis had stayed chatting with friends so that her parents beat them home by a good half hour. Travis sat next to her in worn out jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt with the number 3 on the back. She kept forgetting to ask what the number meant. Travis had made her take him home to change. He apparently couldn't stand being in church clothes all day. As a result, she was stuck presenting her parents with a slovenly macho man instead of a clean-cut, responsible pillar of the community.
She kept the engine running after she put it in park. Travis proceeded to open the door but she reached out and grabbed his arm. "I don't want you to be nervous," she said.
He grinned at her, all charming and boyish so that she just wanted to drag him to the nearest bed and crawl all over him. "I'm not nervous," he said.
"You're not?"
He shrugged. "No. I'm sure your aunt and uncle are nice folks. And I've already met your parents."
"You met them briefly Friday night."
"Well, yeah, but I talked to your old man for a while."
"You mean when he yelled at you to leave? Because I don't think that counts."
"No," Travis said. "When I was about to leave he invited me to the den for cigars and we talked for a while."
Arden figured she shouldn't be surprised. Of course her father would want to protect her. She only hoped he hadn't made any ridiculous threats or ultimatums. "You could have told me about this."
Travis laughed. "What's to tell. Can we go in, now?"
She looked him up and down. "Why did you have to change?"
"I want to be comfortable. Don't act like you don't think I'm sexy right now."
She turned away and grinned. "Okay. Just...be on your best behavior and don't...don't..."
"Don't embarrass you? You're kind of starting to piss me off, Princess." He gave her a stern look and then got out of the car and strode toward the front door.
Arden exhaled heavily and then shut off the car and followed him in.
Her mother had two sisters who were both younger and married with kids. Aunt Jenny lived so far away that she and her husband came in the week before Christmas and stayed all week. They had two children ages 10 and 8, a girl and boy respectively. Todd and Jenny were actually only ten years older than Arden, which put them around Travis's age.
Everyone was gathered in the family room. The kids were playing Sorry on the coffee table. The adults rose as Arden came in and introduced Travis to everyone. When they took their seats on the large wrap-around couch, Travis leaned back, propped his ankle up on his knee and dropped his arm around Arden's shoulders. Just like they were at some movie theater or something, and not in her parent's living room where everyone was wearing church clothes and sipping coffee out of her mother's second best tea service.
"So what do you do, Travis?" Todd asked.
"He owns his own business," Arden jumped in, hoping Travis would let her do the talking.
"I'm a mechanic," he said, glancing a menacing look Arden's way.
She slumped back. Defeated.
"Wow," Aunt Jenny said. Her eyes were wide and her hands were folded tightly in her lap as though she were anticipating some great event. "A mechanic. So you spend your day working on cars and getting all greasy and sweaty and stuff?"
Travis grinned. "Yes, ma'am."
"Wow," she exclaimed again, breathily.
Todd rolled his eyes. "I'm sitting right here, honey," he said.
She blushed and suppressed a grin.
"Don't worry about it, Todd," Travis said. "Few women can resist my charms. It's a gift I have."
Everyone laughed as though he'd said the wittiest thing and he gave Arden a nudge and a smile. She glared at him, mentally willing him to shut up and fade into the background.
Laura stepped in and refilled Travis's coffee cup. Which was when Arden noticed that she was nearly as enamored of Travis as Jenny was. "Can I get you anything else to drink, Travis?" Laura asked, hovering a few steps away.
"No, thank you, Miss Laura. This is just the best coffee I've ever tasted."
Laura blushed and took a seat next to Jenny. "I've got wine for dinner, but I bought some sparkling cider, just for you, Travis," Laura said.
Travis beamed at her. "Well that's very thoughtful of you. Thank you."
"Travis is an alcoholic!" Arden blurted out. She wasn't sure why she said it. Everyone froze and looked at her.
Travis removed his arm from her shoulders and angled toward her. His expression was half amused and half confused. "What the hell is your problem?" he asked, laughing a little.
She looked at him wide-eyed and shrugged.
"How long have you been sober, Travis?" Todd asked.
"Four years, eleven months, and fifteen days," Travis said.
Todd nodded. "Good for you. I have a cousin over in Bixy. She's been fighting alcoholism. I think it's been about three weeks since she's had a drink. She's got three kids, you know. Very tough situation."
"Does she go to the meetings over there?" Travis sat back, relaxing again after Arden's outburst.
"Not yet," Todd said. "I've been telling her she needs to, but I don't have any contacts."
"Sheldon Leonard runs AA over there. I'd be happy to meet your cousin and go with her to her first meeting. You really can't fight this alone."
Todd nodded. "I may take you up on that."
Travis leaned forward and pulled his wallet out and dug out a card. "Here's Sheldon's business card. There's a lot of really nice folks over there. I think she'll be glad she went."
"Thank you, Travis. Do you still go to meetings?"
Travis nodded. "Once a month. I'm sponsoring two guys and they're both doing really well."
Arden hadn't known about that. She supposed she needed to get more involved in her new boyfriend's life. But then again, they'd only known each other less than a month.
Laura sighed and pressed her hands to her heart. "I think it's wonderful you helping others out after all you've overcome."
"Well, that's how the world gets better, isn't it?" Travis said.
Laura and Jenny sighed in unison and nodded.
Travis gave Arden's shoulder a squeeze. She looked at him, still stunned by the reactions of her family to this clearly uncouth man who was way out and beyond incompatible with the rest of them.
Soon, Laura announced lunch and they all moved to the dining room, except the two children who would get to eat in the family room in front of an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.
Dinner was roasted chicken and root vegetables. There were rolls and salad to go with. And cheesecake for dessert. Travis complimented Laura profusely and she blushed and tripped all over herself to thank him.
Her father, of all people, spoke of Travis to his brother-in-law as though he'd raised Travis himself. Did Todd know that Travis owned a '69 Cyclone Cale Yarborough Special? Did Todd know that Travis played running back his junior and senior years in high school? Did Todd know that Travis was god of the entire universe?
Arden couldn't even swallow her food. What was wrong with these people. "Travis's father murdered two people and got sent to prison for life!" she blurted out.
Again, everyone froze and stared at her.
Travis's brows shot up in surprise. He looked at her and shook his head. "Do you have Tourette's or something?"
"That must have been horrifying for you," Jenny said. Everyone nodded in agreement.
Travis shrugged. "It was a few years back. Plus he says he didn't murder them. Of course, they were stealing from him, so he probably did."
"You know," Todd said, stabbing a piece of chicken with his fork, "we all have those undesirable elements in our family. I've got a cousin who blew up his house using his basement as a meth lab. I mean, we've all tried helping the guy, but he just seems determined to self-destruct."
Travis nodded. "That's just the way it goes." He shoveled some food in his mouth and complimented Laura again, who, again, blushed ridiculously.
Arden sat up taller. "Travis's ex-wife moved in with him, had a baby, and then stole his car and abandoned the baby. Just this morning."
At this point Travis was beyond being surprised. He just stopped, his fork in midair, and sat it back down on his plate.
"Oh my God," Mark said. "She left the baby with you?"
Travis sat back. "Yeah. Dustin and Emma are watching her for the moment."
"Yeah," said Arden, "and he..."
Travis calmly reached around her and put his hand over her mouth. "Shhh, honey. That's enough about me."
"Are you going to keep the baby?" Jenny asked.
"You know," Travis said, "I really don't know what I'm going to do. I've got a couple of ideas where Tonya might be. If I can find her, maybe I can get her to take the baby back. If not, I guess I need to get a lawyer and find out what my legal rights are."
"You could give her to the state," Jenny said.
Travis shook his head. "I'd rather find someone who wants to adopt her myself and see if we can go through a Christian organization or something. I'll raise her myself before I give her to the state. My brother, Duane, was in the system for a couple of years. No kid deserves what he went through. It's not that baby's fault she was born to a woman who doesn't love her."
Once again, Laura and Jenny nodded, their heads tilted in sympathy. After that, Travis abruptly changed the direction of the conversation by asking Todd what he did for a living. Arden sat staring at her food and not eating. Just as soon as it was clear that dinner was over, she jumped up, gathered plates and escaped to the kitchen. She started scrubbing dishes. She scrubbed so hard her arms hurt. Then she realized she'd been scrubbing the same plate for five minutes and was about to scratch the floral pattern off the rim.
Arden took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She set the clean plate in the drying rack and calmly took up another one.
Laura and Jenny came in whispering to each other. Jenny took up the drying while Laura put the food away.
"Arden, you've really landed yourself a good one," Jenny said.
Arden tried not to glare at her, but when Jenny's smile dropped, she realized she'd failed. She sighed and turned back to the dishwashing. "Yeah. He's great."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know. I just thought...I thought no one would like him. I mean, he's a hick mechanic with a deadbeat dad and a deadbeat brother and a whole train wreck of a life. I'm just surprised that he's getting along with everyone so easily."
Jenny furrowed her brow. "Aren't you happy about that? He seems to be fitting in nicely. I would think that would be a relief."
Arden shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it was just too soon to bring him here. Maybe I'm just not ready for this."
"Well, you did only break up with Nick last week."
Arden shook her head. "This is nothing to do with him. I was over him years ago. I only stayed with him because it seemed the sensible thing to do."
"And being with Travis isn't sensible?"
Arden smiled, then, her hands pausing their work. "No. Not sensible at all."
"Why be with him, then?"
Arden stared into the space in front of her. "He's a good man. He makes me laugh. We could just talk and talk forever. He's amazing in bed." Arden stopped and cringed. "Sorry, mom," she said over her shoulder.
"That's okay, dear. I didn't hear anything."
Arden knew that she had, but that was okay.
"I think all of those things sound very sensible, Arden," Jenny said. "It sounds like you're in love with him."
Arden shook her head. "It's too soon to talk about that."
"Arden?"
She turned to see Travis standing in the entryway between the kitchen and dining room. "Yes?" she asked.
"Could I have a moment of your time?"
"Sure." She dried her hands and then walked in the opposite direction out into the hallway and then into the den. She turned, knowing Travis would be there.
He stared into her eyes for a moment, frowning.
She laughed. "Why so serious?"
He swallowed like he was nervous. "Arden...is this...is this the end for us? Already?"
"What? No!" she grabbed him and pulled him into an embrace.
He clutched her to him tightly and she felt every nerve ending in her body awaken. "You don't want to break up with me?" he asked.
"No! God, no, Travis! Why would you think that?"
He laughed and pushed her away, holding her at arms length. "Because back there you pretty much seemed to hate me."
She shook her head. "I don't hate you. I just don't understand why my family seems to love you so much."
He dropped his hands and looked away, shaking his head. "You're unbelievable," he said.
She stood straighter. "What? How have I offended you this time."
He laughed and shoved his hand through his hair. "You're just in this for the sex, aren't you? I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just, I thought we had a lot more potential than that."
"I am not just in this for the sex. You don't know me at all. Besides, the sex isn't that great," she lied.