Chapter 9

~Sunday, July 20th~

Brady and I had our usual morning run with Lauren. She looked as sexy as ever in her sports bra and yoga pants. We both had the entire day off, and were going to spend it together. I brought Lauren her pink robe back, and she teased me about it looking better on me. Lauren gave me a quick kiss after her run before heading home to shower and change.

Twenty minutes later, she was knocking on my front door. Lauren was wearing a gray v-neck top and a pair of jean shorts. She was carrying three bouquets of flowers. I was dressed in my usual, a pair of shorts and an Abbott Trails t-shirt. We had them in various colors, and today’s was blue.

“You should get me one of those shirts,” Lauren commented while walking inside and squatting to greet Brady.

“Sure, no problem,” I nodded. “You’d look good in one of my shirts.”

“You know what they say; a man’s shirt on a nude female is like a flag on a conquered fortress,” she giggled, standing up again.

“I’d love to conquer your fortress” I husked.

“Mm, I bet you would,” she purred, placing a hand on my chest.

“Fuck, you’re amazing,” I whispered, shaking my head in disbelief.

“Don’t you forget it!” Lauren smirked, pecking my lips.

Lauren had put me in a great mood, but I found my spirits darkening as we drove in my truck. This trip was my idea, and I believed that it was important, but it still wasn’t easy. I felt Lauren take my hand, lacing our fingers before squeezing my hand for support.

My heart was racing when we pulled into the cemetery. I drove the familiar route through the large burial ground to the small section owned by the Abbott family. Parking the truck, I felt tears in my eyes as I shut off the engine. Lauren gave me a reassuring smile before we both got out of the car.

We were an old family, and our section had a small fence around it. Holding Lauren’s hand, I led her inside. The two of us passed the older Abbott family members, including my ancestor who started Abbott Trails. There was plenty of empty space for the future, and we stopped at the latest occupied plots.

“Hi Mom, hi Dad,” I whispered softly. “This is Lauren, my girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you, Mister and Missus Abbott,” Lauren said, inclining her head. “You have an amazing son.”

“They really do,” I happily agreed before leading Lauren to the next plot. “And this is their daughter, Sophia. She’s almost as amazing as their son.”

“Hello, Sophia!” Lauren chirped. “I’m sorry your brother’s a twatwaffle.”

“Pardon her language, Sophia,” I sniffled, smiling slightly despite my sadness. “She doesn’t have a filter.”

Lauren leaned over and kissed my cheek affectionately while squeezing my hand. I gathered my strength and led her to the final plot we had come to see. Lacey Abbott. My late wife. Tears ran down my cheeks as I mourned my parents, my sister, my wife, and my unborn child.

“Hi, Lacey. It’s nice to meet you,” she whispered, releasing my hand as she approached the headstone, flowers in her other hand. “Tim’s a great guy, you were lucky to have his love. I promise, I’ll take good care of him.”

The beautiful blonde squatted in front of the headstone and placed the first bouquet on Lacey’s grave. She then placed a second bouquet on Sophia’s grave. The third and final bouquet was for my parents. Lauren then approached me and used a tissue to dab at the tears on my face.

“Thank you,” I whispered, looking into her beautiful blue eyes.

“Of course,” Lauren nodded. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

“I figured they would want to meet you. And there’s one more thing,” I stated before walking by a confused Lauren and approaching Lacey’s grave. “Thank you, Lacey. You were my first crush, my first kiss, my first love. You were my best friend. I felt so guilty even thinking about another woman. I know you would want me to live my life. I hope you approve of Lauren. No. I know you would approve of her. Because of that, I’m ready. I’ll always love you, but I’m ready to live my life again.”

Raising my left hand, I slowly eased my wedding band off of my finger. Lauren gasped as I held it in my hands, slowly spinning it around. The beautiful ring Lacey gave me, the band with her name engraved on the inside. Then I sighed before slipping the ring into my pocket. Gathering my strength, I turned and faced Lauren.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she told me.

“Yes, I did,” I confirmed. “I need to live again. You showed me that. I’ll put the ring back in the box and leave it in my safe.”

“I assume Lacey’s ring is...” Lauren trailed off.

“Buried with her, yes,” I told her.

We stayed a few more minutes, but it was then time to go. Lauren had her hand on my thigh the entire drive home, supporting me with her presence. Parking the truck, I led Lauren back inside. She waited on my couch while I went upstairs to put the ring in my safe.

“The girls will be here after lunch?” Lauren asked from her spot on the couch while playing on her phone.

“Yup,” I confirmed as I sat on the couch and pulled Lauren’s bare feet into my lap. “We’ll watch a movie or something before dinner.”

“Sounds good,” she nodded, wiggling her toes in my lap. “What are we having?”

“Ham, Brussels sprouts, baked potatoes,” I answered as I grabbed a foot and started massaging. “A salad to start, and I got dessert, too.”

“Sounds yummy!” Lauren smiled at her phone. “You said Michelle’s last name was Larkin, right?”

“Yeah, why?” I asked in confusion while rubbing her dainty foot.

“You mentioned she was a huge fan of mine, and I was just responding to fan mail,” Lauren explained. “I did a search in my email and found a Michelle Larkin who sent me an email a couple years ago.”

“Really?” I laughed. “I wonder if it’s her. I don’t know how common a name hers is.”

“It could be, which made me think that maybe it would be okay if we told them,” she said nervously.

“Really? It took your ex-fiance coming here to drag you home for you to tell me,” I pointed out.

“I know, I know,” Lauren sighed. “I just hate lying. I told you I was a writer, which was true. I kind of lied to Chloe and Sean. I told them I was an editor. I guess it was true, since I edit my own work?”

“It was mostly true,” I agreed while continuing the massage on Lauren’s other ankle, the one she had sprained. “You can answer fan mail on your phone?”

“I have a dedicated email fans can reach out to,” she responded. “Some people still send snail mail, which gets forwarded by the publisher, but most people prefer email these days. I try to respond to as much as I can.”

“That’s good of you,” I inclined my head. “I trust Michelle and Riley. If you’re comfortable telling them, I’m sure Michelle will be thrilled.”

“Hearing how much they did to help you with Nikki convinced me,” Lauren explained, sighing happily as I rubbed her foot. “That feels good, babe.”

“Do you have a lot of mail to respond to?” I inquired, stopping the massage momentarily to grab the remote.

“Yup,” she giggled and nodded. “Most of it is really sweet, but you get some weird ones. It would be worse if people thought L. Walsh was a woman, I’m sure. Mostly I get people who think they can get me to tell them who I really am.”

“You can run home and grab your laptop if you want?” I offered. “It’ll be easier to answer emails. I can entertain myself with the television.”

“If you don’t mind, that would be great!” Lauren smiled. “We did say we weren’t gonna work this weekend.”

“And you already ruined it. Thanks for that,” I teased, placing my hand over her toes. “May as well go all the way, right?”

“Fine, dickweed,” she rolled her eyes before pulling her feet out of my lap and standing up. “I’ll be right back.”

Brady tried to follow Lauren, but we eventually convinced the Labrador that she would be right back. My girlfriend returned with a laptop bag and dark blue binder. She plugged in the laptop and started it up. Her hair was in a ponytail, and she looked so adorable.

“What’s the binder for?” I wondered.

“A surprise for Michelle,” Lauren shrugged, giving me a quick glance.

“What kind of surprise?” I followed up with.

“Deleted scenes from Ascendant Exile,” she answered simply as she started typing on her laptop.

“Wait. What?” I inquired, whipping my head around to face her, the television forgotten.

“All media has deleted scenes, Tim,” Lauren rolled her eyes. “Movies, television shows, books.”

“I know that,” I grunted, reaching for the binder. “I’m saying, why is that for Michelle? I want it!”

“Oh, and why should I give it to you?” she challenged, grabbing the binder and pulling it out of my reach.

“I’ll eat you out?” I offered with a big grin.

“You already agreed to that in exchange for nudes. Try again,” Lauren pointed out.

“I never got those nudes!” I protested, trying to reach over her, but she kept leaning back. Tall, long legs, and long arms. Fuck.

“And you haven’t licked my twat again yet,” she countered. “That’s a different deal, it doesn’t apply here.”

“What are your demands?” I sighed, accepting defeat.

“Some pampering,” Lauren smirked. “Tonight, you’re gonna give me a long, full-body massage.”

“Done! Deal. Now, give me the binder!” I whined.

“You’re easy,” she giggled, pecking my lips as she handed over the blue binder.

I muted the television as I opened the binder and lost myself in its contents. Lauren’s fingers were clicking the keys while I read. A number of pages were torn out of a notebook, and they were even hand written. Lauren had really pretty handwriting, even as a young teenager. Sections were crossed out, some with words written above them. There were notes in the margins, and I could tell she spent a huge amount of time on this.

Ascendant Exile was a standalone novel, so there were no real spoilers. However, I did notice there were a lot of differences between her original ideas and the final product. Some pages were typed out, and much more organized. I also saw notes from other people, likely editors and the publisher who ultimately bought the manuscript.

“Hey, Lauren?” I asked at one point.

“I’m not telling you if the prince is still alive. Fuck off,” she grunted, not even bothering to look up from her screen.

Lunch was a couple of sandwiches with chips and sodas. Lauren hadn’t built up an immunity to the big brown eyes, causing her to cave and let Brady have a potato chip. She didn’t find him as cute when he laid his head on her bare knee and drooled all over her thigh.

“Labs are big slobs,” I laughed.

“I’d say you were a lab, but you’re too little,” Lauren teased, removing her hair elastic.

“Hey! I am more than average!” I crossed my arms and pouted.

“Between the legs, sure, but not in the height department!” the tall woman laughed while leaning over and pecking my cheek.

“You’re gonna pay for that one,” I growled.

Riley sent me a text to tell me that she and Michelle were on their way. Lauren put away her laptop and snuggled beside me on the couch to wait. Brady perked up, letting us know that the girls were here about thirty seconds before there was a knock at the door.

“Hey, girls!” I announced. “Don’t you look nice today!”

Michelle was wearing a tight pair of jeans and a Planet Trek Wars t-shirt. Riley was in a green sundress that fell to mid-thigh. After cuddling with Lauren, it took a moment to adjust to hugging women who weren’t taller than me. In fact, Michelle and Riley were both barely over five feet tall.

“You look very handsome,” Riley confirmed, kissing my cheek.

“You do,” Michelle nodded.

“This is Lauren, the jolly blonde giant,” I declared, gesturing toward my girlfriend.

“Fuck. You,” Lauren snarled at me before facing the girls with a smile.

“I told you you’d pay for that comment,” I shrugged.

I sat in the armchair with Lauren in my lap, giving up the couch to Michelle and Riley. We chatted for a little while, allowing everyone to get to know each other. Lauren learned quite a bit about life at Abbott Trails summer camp, and she got to laugh at a few stories. Michelle even went in to detail about Brian when explaining how she ended up getting so close to me. Lauren told the girls she was a writer and editor, and they were curious, but she deflected their questions expertly.

“What should we watch? Horror? Fantasy? Science fiction?” Michelle asked.

“Just don’t ask Tim, he’ll put on porn or something so he can hope for a foursome,” Lauren teased, playfully messing up my hair.

“I would never do such a thing!” I declared, acting offended.

“Old Tim wouldn’t,” Riley spoke up. “He came alive again after he squirted in my mouth!”

“I don’t think I heard this story,” Lauren looked over at the strawberry blonde curiously. “I know he had a three-year dry spell after the accident.”

“Nikki tried to seduce him earlier,” Riley answered. “I went after him to be a shoulder to lean on. I ended up on my knees, and someone came very, very fast.”

“Is that so?” Lauren asked while Michelle giggled.

“It is!” Riley nodded. “You girls know that grunting noise he makes when he cums?”

“Like you’re sucking his soul out through his dick? Yes!” Lauren laughed.

“It does sound like that,” Michelle nodded, blushing almost as red as her hair.

“Can we not talk about this?” I mumbled, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“Oh, you’re fine,” Lauren rolled her eyes. She was sitting sideways in my lap, her feet over the armrest. “Such a damn twatwaffle.”

“Twatwaffle? I love it!” Riley laughed.

“Michelle just wanted to know what kind of movie we should watch!” I exclaimed as the girls all giggled. “Hm, how about science fiction? You’re quite the science fiction expert, aren’t you, Lauren?”

“We could watch the Traveler’s Guide to the Universe?” Lauren offered.

“Oh, that’s a good one!” Michelle added while Riley groaned.

“Really, more science fiction?” Riley sighed. “How about some romance! We could torture Tim and watch Sluts About Town?”

“No!” I declared loudly. “No, no, and no!”

“So, you’re saying you don’t want to watch it?” Lauren jokingly asked for clarification.

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” I grunted. “How about comedy?”

“Did you have something in mind?” Riley inquired.

“There was a really popular movie a couple years ago about some woman who was hired to help a sheltered trust fund kid learn to date?” I suggested.

“I remember that one,” Lauren smirked. “You just want to watch it because it has full-frontal nudity.”

“Well, uh, that’s not, no!” I protested while the three girls giggled. “No! I mean, she was my celebrity crush and all that, but no! It’s supposed to be really funny!”

“I did want to see it,” Michelle admitted, coming to my defense.

“Thank you, Chelle,” I smiled over at the redhead.

“I saw it. It was really funny,” Riley said. “Fine, let’s watch it.”

The movie was absolutely hilarious. I loved it. Lauren was laughing loudly throughout the entire time. She even let out an adorable snort at one point, blushing bright red as she covered her face with her hands. I just tickled her sides while kissing her.

When the nude scene happened, I did see an amazing pair of tits and a cute bush. The actress really was gorgeous, and I glanced at Lauren. Was Lauren more beautiful? Did Lauren have a nicer body? In my opinion, yes. I didn’t care. Lauren was Lauren. Just her presence was more comforting, more arousing, all around better. She looked over at me with her baby blues, and I felt it. A beautiful connection, a deep bond.

My girlfriend felt it, too. I was sure of it. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. Lauren quickly pecked my lips before we both went back to watching the movie. The ending was pretty good, I liked that they didn’t have the guy and girl get together. It was a change. The two of them made great friends, but they were at different points in life.

“I should start dinner,” I declared, tapping Lauren’s calf to indicate I needed her to get up. “Shall I grab you girls some wine coolers?”

“Oh, yes, please!” Michelle nodded her head.

“Make sure you’re actually starting dinner, not rubbing one out while thinking about titties,” Riley warned.

“I’ll do my best,” I rolled my eyes.

I brought out wine coolers for the girls before heading back into the kitchen to start dinner. There was quite a bit to do. I got the ham in the oven first, since it would take the longest to be ready. I also made the salad, but left it in the refrigerator until dinner. The Brussels sprouts and baked potatoes would cook much faster, so they weren’t an issue.

“Nothing good on television?” I asked, returning to the living room with a beer to find the three girls giggling.

“We haven’t looked,” Michelle admitted.

“We’ve just been talking about our bedroom experiences,” Lauren declared, holding up her wine cooler. “It’s nice to be among fellow butt sluts!”

“You’re not a butt slut, yet,” Riley countered. “You haven’t done it!”

“I know, but I will!” Lauren insisted.

“So, have you been regaling Lauren with tales of our exploits?” I asked, sitting down on the armrest beside Lauren.

“Yes!” Riley declared. “You seem to have neglected to tell her about our threesome!”

“He did,” Lauren agreed, looking up at me with disapproval. “You told me you were with these girls, but you left out it was at the same time!”

“I was trying to respect their privacy!” I reasoned.

“Thank you, but it’s fine,” Michelle blushed.

“We all swallowed cum from the same man, we have no secrets,” Riley pointed out.

“And we’ll all have been fucked by the same man very, very soon,” Lauren purred sexily, looking up at me with lust.

The girls continued teasing me while they described my sexual prowess. Michelle was slightly embarrassed, but the redhead was getting more and more comfortable with Lauren. The second round of wine coolers didn’t hurt, either.

I talked with the three ladies for a little while longer before returning to the kitchen to finish dinner. Everything was set up in the dining room, and I lit some candles. Then I announced that dinner was ready, inviting the lovely women to join me. I even pulled out their chairs.