The Journey Collection (18 page)

~*~*~*~

Once they were finished eating, Travis stood up and held his hand out to Penelope. “May I have this dance?”

“Yes,” she murmured.

Wrapping her fingers around his, she allowed him to pull her to her feet. Travis slid his arm around her waist, nestling her against his chest. Their bodies found the slow, sensual rhythm of the music, letting it direct their movements. He could feel Penelope trembling against him, and if it weren’t for the peacefulness in her eyes, he would have thought she was upset. Bringing his hand up to her cheek, he kissed her.

After a moment, he pulled his lips away and knelt in front of her.

Penelope gasped. “Travis?”

“I’ve been in love with you since I was fourteen — maybe even before then. When we were standing here all those years ago, I admitted to myself that I needed you to be my girl. You’ve always owned my heart and soul, Penelope. Be mine forever and marry me?”

She whimpered when Travis fished the small, black, velvet box from his pocket and opened it. With trembling fingers, she reached out and brushed a tear from his cheek and whispered a single word: “Yes.”

“Yes?” Travis exclaimed, scrambling to his feet and grabbing her. He spun her around, making her laugh. “Oh, baby, thank you!”

“No, thank you.” She giggled through her tears. “I love you, Travis.”

With care, he slipped the ring out of the box and slid it onto the fourth finger of her left hand. “I love you, Penelope.”

***

Chapter Two

Ghosts of the Past

When Travis woke up the next morning, he could feel the silly grin still plastered on his face. The moment Penelope had agreed to marry him, everything in his life came together like the stars aligning. Rolling onto his side, he expected to see her asleep next to him, but instead he found the bed empty. Disappointment filled him, but he knew she had never been one to sleep in.

He climbed out of bed and went in search of his fiancée. Penelope was sitting in the living room with Max, watching what looked like an old home movie. It wasn’t until the camera zoomed in on the young, scrawny quarterback that Travis realized it was a video of him playing with his football. He couldn’t have been more than nine years old at the time. He was wearing his white, padded football pants but had taken off his shoulder pads and jersey, leaving just a gray tee. The younger, smaller Travis was running around the field and laughing. He came to an abrupt stop, looked directly at the camera, and smirked.

“Momma, when I’m a big, bad football player, are you gonna record all of my games?” the boy he’d once been asked.

From behind the camera, Loralie McCoy laughed. “Of course I am, honey. I’ll be on the fifty-yard line, cheering as loud as I can.”

Bringing his hand up to his mouth, Travis tried to stifle the cry that slipped out, but he failed. His knees buckled. Penelope was at his side in a heartbeat, holding him in her tight embrace.

“Where’d you get that?” he managed to stammer.

“Your father left the videos here last night,” she whispered. “We should have waited for you to get up, but Max was so excited.”

Nodding, Travis ran his hand over his face and through his hair. “She took that just before she got sick. It was my first year of pee-wee, and we hadn’t won a single game. Last game of the year, we were set to play Memphis. The game hadn’t even started, and they were already talking trash about how they were going to beat us.” Travis paused and smiled through his tears. “We ended up beating them by forty points, and she never missed a moment of it. Looking back, there were signs that something was wrong. She had lost weight and would get tired easily, but she tried to hide it. Always tried to be too damn strong.”

“She tried to be brave for you.” Penelope sighed and brought her hand up to his face. “Travis, Russ left a note.”

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. “What’d it say?”

“I didn’t read it,” she replied. When Travis looked up at her, she added, “It was for you.”

“Will — will you sit with me while I read it?” He felt ridiculous for being so emotional over a video of his mother, but it had only just hit him that she wouldn’t be there to watch him marry Penelope. She’d never get to meet Max and see him become a man and have a family of his own. Travis missed Loralie more each and every day.

“Of course,” Penelope said, before turning to Max. “Will you bring your dad’s note here, please?”

Max stood up and, moving with slow steps, he picked up the white sheet of paper and brought it over. When Travis took it, he turned to leave, but Travis grabbed his hand and pulled his son into his lap.

“I want you here, too,” he murmured.

Opening the letter, he began to read it aloud. “Travis, when you were four years old, you begged me to take you out on the tractor with me. I didn’t want to because I was already behind on my harvest and I thought that you’d slow me down. I put you to bed, promising to take you the next day, but to be honest, I didn’t plan on keeping my word. That night, when your momma and I were getting ready for bed, she placed her hand on my arm and said, ‘He’s gonna be gone before you know it. Don’t blink, or you might miss him.’ Her words haunted me all night. When my alarm went off, I got out of bed and got ready to go work.

“I can’t explain why, but when I walked out of my room, I felt the sudden urge to check on you. So, I crept down to your room and opened your door. You were sound asleep, but clenched in your hand was a picture of the two of us. I’ll be honest here, boy; it damn well brought me to my knees. That day, I took you out into the field with me. You sat on my lap, laughing and talking my ear off.

“Travis, I never tell you this enough, but I’ve always been proud of you. And I know that your mother is looking down on you from Heaven with a smile on her face and a tear in her eye. I love you, son. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life. Love always, Dad.”

Travis let the note fall from his fingers and float to the floor as he leaned his forehead against Max’s shoulder. Over the last few months, he and Russ had been working on ridding themselves of years of hurt and anger. They’d lashed out at each other after Loralie’s death, rather than letting her passing bring them closer together. He had already forgiven Russ for abandoning him, but now, with his father’s kind words laid out before him, he was able to accept Russ’s love at last.

“Honey,” Penelope whispered, causing him to look over at her. “Would you like to watch the tapes with us?”

Travis nodded. “Please.”

The three of them stood up and walked over to the couch, where they snuggled together. Penelope picked up the remote and started the DVD. A smile slipped over Travis’s lips when he heard his mother’s voice again. She was laughing, telling him to show her his muscles. On the screen, nine-year-old Travis brought his arms up by his head and proceeded to flex.

“Oh, my God, Dad, you look like such a goof!” Max exclaimed, laughing.

“I know,” Travis admitted. “Though now that you mention it, you look a lot like me.”

Max sat up and frowned. “Are you saying that I look like a goof?”

Penelope was on Travis’s other side, shaking with her stifled laughter.

Travis smirked. “No, I just pointed out that you look like I did at your age. You were the one who called yourself a goof.”

After opening and closing his mouth half a dozen times, Max huffed and leaned back against him. “Whatever.”

Travis, Penelope, and Max spent all day watching the videos that Russ had left for them. More than once, Travis found himself becoming emotional at the sight of his mother or the sound of her voice. Loralie had always had a fire inside of her — the same spirit that Travis now saw in Max.

~*~*~*~

By the end of the week, Travis had watched all ten videos that Russ had delivered. Most of the time, Penelope or Max was with him, but sometimes when he found himself unable to sleep, he’d gone into the living room and watched them alone. Travis knew that Loralie had done everything she could to hold on, but the cancer had put too much strain on her body. He grieved for all the moments that he hadn’t been able to share with his mother.

“What are you doing up?” Penelope mumbled.

He glanced over his shoulder to find her leaning against the doorframe, looking exhausted.

“It’s after four in the morning.”

Travis shrugged his shoulders and reached his arm over the back of the couch toward her. “I couldn’t sleep.”

She took his hand and let him bring her onto his lap. “That’s three nights in a row. Should I be worried?”

“No.” He smiled, knowing that she’d worry regardless of whether he gave her permission. Leaning his head on her shoulder, he said, “Max will never know her.”

“He will,” she insisted. “We’ll make sure he does.”

“No, he won’t really know her.” Travis sighed. “He’ll never get to taste her peanut butter cookies or hear her sing. She had a beautiful voice.”

“She did,” Penelope agreed. “And I wish Max could have those memories of Loralie, too, but at least he has Russ now. And Nadine. That woman loves him.”

“Yeah, Nadine does love Max.”

“No, baby, Nadine loves Russ,” Penelope giggled.

Travis looked up at her. “She’s good for him. He’s lighter with her around.”

“He is.” Penelope brought her hand up to his hair, combing through his wavy locks. “Russ was alone for a long time. He deserves to be happy. Nadine’s a good woman; she’ll make sure he’s happy.”

“That’s gross,” Travis mumbled.

She laughed. “I didn’t mean like that, pervert.”

“I didn’t think you did, baby. Now who’s the pervert?” Travis rolled them so that she was lying under him on the couch. There was nothing separating them but their thin pajamas. He felt her shiver beneath him, which he knew had nothing to with her being cold. “All of a sudden, I very much want to go back to bed.”

“Are you getting sleepy?” Penelope purred.

He shook his head. “I think I need a workout.”

“At four in the morning?” she giggled.

“Yep. You know they say you should jump-start every morning.”

“Oh, well, in that case,” Penelope leaned up to him, “what are we waiting for?”

Growling, Travis scrambled to his feet, slung her over his shoulder, and hurried into their bedroom. With a quick swift movement of his foot, he kicked the door shut.

~*~*~*~

Travis wasn’t surprised when he woke up alone the next morning. For the first time in a week, he’d slept hard. Of course, there was a good chance that it had more to do with his late night — or early morning, rather — workout with Penelope. With every touch of their bodies, he felt himself falling deeper in love with her.

Climbing out of bed, Travis pulled on his clothes from the night before, minus his shirt, which appeared to be missing; he had a strong suspicion that when he located Penelope, he’d find it. When he turned to the dresser to pull out a new one, he saw her nightgown lying on top. He hadn’t remembered her tossing it in that direction. A quick glance at the clock told him that Max was already at school and had been for almost three hours. With Max not here and him asleep, Travis knew where Penelope would have gone. Just as he’d expected, he found her in front of her computer, bent forward and pecking away at the keys.

“You’re going to hurt your back sitting like that,” he said, leaning against the doorway to her office. It wasn’t more than a small cupboard off the dining room, but it had always been her favorite hiding place. When they were little, the two of them had spent many hours locked away in there playing games, reading, and just enjoying the other’s company.

“Yeah, well, that position that we tried this morning could have hurt my back, too, but I didn’t hear you complaining then,” she responded. Looking up when Travis groaned, she smiled. “I didn’t think you were that limber anymore.”

“I didn’t know that you had such a potty mouth,” Travis snickered, squatting down behind her. “Kind of surprised that Max didn’t hear us.”

“Um, I’m not sure he didn’t,” Penelope said, sighing. “He, um, was very quiet this morning and kept glancing over at me while I drove him to school. There was a look in his eyes that told me that he knew what we had been doing.”

“Oh, God,” Travis whined and let his forehead drop down onto her shoulder. “That’s, well, embarrassing.”

“No shit,” Penelope scoffed just as the doorbell rang. “Who the hell could that be?”

“I don’t know,” he said, standing up. He walked through living room, stepped on one of Max’s toys, and cursed under his breath. “Damn it.”

Gripping the door handle, he pulled the door open and gulped. In front of him stood Penelope’s parents — and they didn’t look happy.

***

Chapter Three

Time to Face the Music

Sherman and Wanda Stone had hated Travis ever since the sixth grade, when he’d gotten Penelope in trouble for cheating on a math test. He’d peeked at her exam while she wasn’t looking, yet Mr. Hall hadn’t believed Travis when he swore that she hadn’t known. They both got zeros on their tests and lunch detention for two weeks.

When she had come to school the next morning, Travis knew she’d been crying. At first, she wouldn’t tell him what was wrong, but he’d managed to coax the truth out of her. Her parents had told her that she couldn’t be friends with him anymore.

He could admit that it hurt at first. Since their first day of kindergarten, Travis and Penelope had been joined at the hip, and now, he wasn’t worthy to be her friend. However, he was stubborn and refused let to her parents dictate the terms of their friendship. That afternoon, Travis had walked Penelope home and sat on the front porch with her until Sherman and Wanda returned from work. They’d glared at him, but Travis had smiled and said hello, waving as they made their way inside the house.

Every day after that, he’d do the same thing. After a while, they just seemed to give up and let him stay, but their attitude toward him hadn’t changed. When he and Penelope had started dating, things had just become more intense.

“Baby, who is it?” Penelope asked, slipping her arms around Travis.

“Um.” He paused and cleared his throat. “Your parents.”

“Mom? Dad?” she blurted out, moving so that she could see around him.

“Hello, Penelope,” Wanda chimed. “Are you going to make us stand outside all day? It’s a bit chilly.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Laughing, Penelope grabbed Travis’s arm and pulled him out of the doorway.

Sherman motioned for Wanda to enter first, which she did. Travis was at once very aware of the fact that he was standing in front of them in his pajamas and that Penelope was only wearing his shirt.

Clearing his throat, he muttered, “I’ll, um, be right . . .”

Travis rushed out of the room, knowing that he both looked and sounded like an idiot. He closed the door behind him and sat on the edge of the bed. Bracing himself on his knees, he released a deep breath.

“Are you gonna puke?” Penelope asked when she entered the room.

He snorted and looked up at her. “Thinking about it.”

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” she sat next to him. “They’re not gonna bite. Hard, at least.”

“No, I know,” Travis said. “I just wasn’t expecting them to be standing right there. I’m in my damn pajamas, you’re wearing my shirt.” Pausing, he shook his head. “They must hate me.”

“Why would they hate you?” she inquired.

He scoffed. “You can’t be serious, right?” When she didn’t reply, he continued. “I left you, baby. You and Max — you were all alone because I’d hurt you too much and you couldn’t tell me about my son. I let you down.”

“Baby,” Penelope murmured with a sigh. “My parents do
not
hate you. Were they mad when I got pregnant with Max? Yes, but that was because I was eighteen and supposed to be worrying about college instead of diapers and breastfeeding. They told me to tell you, to give you the choice to be here with us, but it was my decision not to listen to them. And I can’t change that.”

“No, I know; it’s just . . .” Turning to her, Travis slid his hands over hers. “I don’t know. I guess I just never thought about having to face them again. When they didn’t come for Christmas, I kind of figured they’d taken their stance.”

“You figured they wouldn’t come to, oh, I don’t know — our wedding?”

He opened his mouth just to close it a moment later. “I — I don’t know. I hadn’t thought that far in advance.”

“Honey, I love you to the moon and beyond, but my parents will be at our wedding. My father will walk me down the aisle, and my mother will most likely cry,” she said. “And they don’t hate you. They may not love you yet, but they do not hate you.”

“How can you be so sure?” he asked.

“Because you gave us Max,” she laughed. “And that boy has them wrapped around his finger.”

“He has
everybody
wrapped around his finger,” Travis teased.

“True.” Standing up, she pulled on his hand. “Come back out there with me? Please?”

“Let me change first.” Before she could argue with him, he added, “I cannot stand in front of your father in my pajamas, Penelope.”

“Fine, okay.” She smiled. “I’ll make us some lunch, since you slept the morning away.”

“I didn’t just sleep,” Travis muttered.

“No, you didn’t.” Penelope tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled his head back. Leaning down, she brushed her lips across his in a slow, passionate kiss. “Hurry up, scaredy-cat.”

She spun on her heel and walked away, giving her hips an extra sway. Her jeans were a perfect fit, encasing her curves. He fell back on the bed, pulled a pillow over his face, and groaned. The woman would be the death of him, yet he knew she was worth dying for a million times over.

~*~*~*~

Once Travis had managed to calm himself down, he took a shower and got dressed in a pair of jeans and a Sharks T-shirt. Penelope, Wanda, and Sherman were in the kitchen. When he walked in, they all stopped laughing, which did nothing to help his nerves.

Penelope glared at her parents before turning to him. “I heated up some of my homemade chicken noodle soup and made grilled cheese.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled, walking over to her. Hesitating for a moment, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. He picked up the bowl and plate off the counter, sat down on the other side of the small breakfast table, and began eating.

“Say something!”

Looking up, Travis saw Penelope glaring at her parents. He turned his attention to them and found them both with their hands over their mouths, shaking with suppressed laughter.

“Mom!”

“Sorry,” Wanda snickered, brushing her auburn hair out of her face. “But the look on his face is amusing. He looks like a frightened little puppy.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Penelope groused, laying her hand on Travis’s back. “You’re scaring him.”

“Why would he be scared of us?” her father asked, keeping his dark, brown eyes fixed on Travis. Sherman’s once snow-blond hair had turned an elegant silver that not many people would be able to pull off. “It’s not like he broke your heart. Or left you here to raise his boy all on your own, right?”

“Daddy!” she exclaimed, throwing her other hand up. “You just —”

“Mr. Stone, I did wrong by Penelope,” Travis stated, interrupting her. “I know that, and I wish I could go back and change the way things happened between us, but I can’t. You don’t have to forgive me. To be honest, I don’t care if you do. Penelope has. Max has. They are the only two people whose opinion matters.”

“Oh, Travis,” Penelope murmured.

Sherman nodded and leaned up, placing his elbow on the table and resting his chin on the palm of his hand. “So this Malcolm Rollins kid, is he any good?”

“Huh?” Travis choked.

Sherman laughed. “I asked you if Malcolm Rollins is any good. You know, the kid who took your spot with the Sharks? I know they just won the championship and everything, but do you think he has it in him to take control of that team the way you did?”

Flabbergasted, Travis looked from him, to Wanda, and over to Penelope. “Um, well, I think if he can get better control of the flow of the game, he’ll be fine. The team will follow his lead. They trust him.”

“Trust is an important part of the game,” Sherman said. “Without it, you’ll never succeed. They trusted you, Travis — all of them.”

“Yes, sir, they did,” he agreed. “But it’s a two-way street. They have to trust me to get the ball where it needs to be, and I have to believe that when my back is turned, they’ll be there to protect me. Otherwise, I’m pushed into the ground with a mouthful of grass.”

Sherman smiled. “Also a good point. Is that what happened back in August? Did you lose trust in your team?”

“No,” Travis told him. “I turned one way when I was supposed to go the other, and let my team down in the process.”

“You didn’t,” Penelope murmured, reaching under the table and grabbing his hand. “Washington had been playing dirty all night.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “In the end, it came down to a simple decision: I turned right, when the play called for me to go left.”

“But it brought you home,” she whispered, biting on her bottom lip.

“A simple decision that changed my life,” he agreed. Shifting his eyes back to Sherman and Wanda, he cleared his throat. “I can’t change the man I was ten years ago. But today, I’m not that dumb kid any more. I love Penelope and Max; they’re my life. I’m sorry if you don’t accept it, but we’re a family now.”

“We know,” Wanda chirped.

“You do?” Travis asked.

She rolled her sage-green eyes. “It’s not our forgiveness that you needed. If Penelope and Max can welcome you into their lives, then that’s all that matters. Based on the beautiful smile on my daughter’s face, I would say that she has. I’ve waited a long time to see her happy again, Travis. I just ask that you don’t hurt her again; she might not survive this time.”

“Mom,” Penelope sighed.

“Mrs. Stone, hurting Penelope would be hurting myself, and I’m much too selfish to do that,” Travis replied.

“Oh, God, enough!” Penelope stood up and placed her hands on her hips. “Momma, Daddy, why didn’t you tell me y’all were coming?”

“We did,” Wanda laughed. “We called last week and talked to Russ. He was here with Max. Didn’t they tell you?”

“No,” Penelope gritted out.

Travis worried about Russ’s safety the next time Penelope saw him.

“He told us he’d let you know that we were coming through. We’re on our way down to San Antonio and thought we’d stop in and see how y’all were doing,” Wanda explained.

“One would think, based on your reaction, sweetheart, that you aren’t happy to see us,” Sherman teased.

“It’s not that I’m not happy, Daddy; I just wasn’t expecting you.” She sat back down. “How long are you staying?”

“Till morning, if that’s okay,” Wanda said, shifting her eyes over to Travis before looking back at her. “We can get a room over at the Best Western.”

“No, it’s fine,” she assured them. “The roll-away bed is always yours. You know that.”

Wanda smiled and turned to Travis. “Are you okay with us staying, Travis? This is your house, too.”

“I appreciate the concern,” he stated, resting his arm on the back of Penelope’s chair, “but like she said, our house is yours.”

“Okay, well, if you’re sure,” Wanda mumbled, looking down at her watch. “What time does Max get out of school?”

“Three-thirty,” Penelope replied. “You can come with me to pick him up, if you want. He’s gonna be so excited to see you two.”

“We’d love to.” Wanda stood up. “I think I am going to lie down for a few minutes, though.”

Penelope reached out and grabbed her mother’s hand. “Momma, are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine, sweetheart. It was just a long drive. Daddy and I got up at three to hit the road. We’re not young anymore.” She patted the top of Penelope’s hand. “Besides, that boy will be bouncing off the walls, and I want to be able to keep up with him.”

“In that case, I’d better join you.” Sherman laughed as he scrambled to his feet.

Penelope waited for her parents to leave the kitchen before she turned to Travis. “Do you still think they hate you?”

“A little,” he admitted. Bringing his hands up to her face, he leaned in and kissed her. “But they can hate me all they want. I love you and Max. I meant what I said: I’m here for good.”

“In that case,” she purred, “perhaps we should lie down, too. You know, get some rest.”

Travis growled. “You’re a naughty girl, Penelope Stone.”

“Soon to be Penelope McCoy,” she cooed.

“Not soon enough.”

Finding her lips ready for his once again, he wrapped his arms around her and led her to their bedroom.

***