JC and Allyson stayed cuddled all night until they were both awoken at about 6:30 with the sunlight streaming into the bedroom.

“Good morning,” JC said softly into Allyson’s ear as he rubbed his thumb against Allyson’s stomach again.

“Morning,” she smiled, placing her hand on top of his, squeezing his fingers a little.

She stretched her arms and legs in the bed and felt a little more of JC than she had the night before as she settled back into his arms again.

“Oh God,” she yelped, shooting her hips forward.

“Sorry, sorry!” he said as he moved his hips in the opposite direction.

“It’s fine, just a surprise. Well, I’m awake now, and it seems so are you!” she said, both bursting out in laughter after trying to stifle it.

“It is morning,” he laughed, his smile reaching his eyes as he blushed.

With his hips still arched away from Allyson’s backside, JC moved his upper body forward to wrap his arms around her and grab hold of her left hand.

“So, how did you sleep?”

“Great! It is nice to wake up next to you,” she said, leaning her head against him as she slightly turned her head to see him out of her peripheral.

“Mhmm,” he whispered into her ear as he rubbed her lower arm and planted a kiss on her cheek.

Allyson’s phone buzzed, and she reached over to see the message. It was from Liz: Up, just in my room.

“Liz is up already, so breakfast?” she said as she turned to face JC.

“I can do breakfast,” he smiled as they shared a quick morning kiss. “I could also spend all day like this.”

“Me too, but we can’t forget Liz. She is the reason I’m even in LA, remember?”

“Of course. Remind me to thank her for getting you out here, by the way,” he chuckled as he stole one more kiss.

She smiled as he rolled out of bed. She looked back at her phone and texted Liz back: Meet you in the kitchen in 10.

“I might not be able to do dinner foods, but pancakes I can do. That sound good?” JC asked the women standing at his island.

“The pair looked at each other and smiled, both nodding their heads. “Works for us!” Allyson said.

“Thank you for letting me stay the night last night,” Liz said.

“Of course!” JC said, getting out a large frying pan. “It’s the least I could do. So what’s on the agenda for you two today?”

“Well, since my flight leaves Friday, we were going to spend today and tomorrow in Disney,” Allyson said, getting a nod from Liz to confirm that was still the plan. “I haven’t been to Disneyland in my adult life.”

“Oh y’all are gonna tear it up, aren’t you?!” JC said with a smile as he stirred the pancake mix.

“We’ll have a good time, I think,” Liz said with a smile.

“I don’t doubt it. So what’s on your Disneyland bucket list, Allie?”

“Everything,” she laughed. “Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, the Tea Cups, Big Thunder Mountain, everything in California Adventure, shoot, even Dumbo!”

JC laughed as she rattled off the attractions. “Just take my advice, pace yourself.”

Allyson smiled and nodded.

JC added the final pancakes to the growing stack on the plate.

“Dang, these look delicious,” Allyson said, genuinely surprised. “If I hadn’t seen you trying to bake pasta, I’d think you knew your way around the kitchen.”

“Ha-ha,” JC said sarcastically. “I know my breakfast food.”

“Thank you for breakfast, JC,” Liz said with a smile. “I feel like I should’ve been making breakfast for you. You really didn’t have to let me stay the night, but I appreciate you letting me crash.”

“No problemo! I know it’s a drive out to Pasadena.”

Allyson took one regular pancake and one blueberry pancake, both perfectly fluffy, and drizzled syrup over the top. The moment of truth, she brought the first bite to her lips. “Oh my God, JC! These are amazing.”

“Well I guess I know what I’m making any time it’s my turn to cook,” he laughed.

“Mhmm,” she nodded, her mouth full of pancake.

Liz nodded her head in agreement as she got her first taste. “Yeah, anytime you want to come by or invite us over to try new ingredients, you just let me know. I’m a breakfast for dinner fan too.”

As they finished breakfast, JC picked up the dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher.

“Well, I oughta get my things from upstairs, and then I’ll be ready to go, Allie,” Liz said.

“OK,” Allyson said as she watched Liz walk up the stairs.

JC had moved from the sink to where Allyson was standing by the island. “Do you have anything upstairs?”

“I think I have everything,” she said, turning to smile at him. “Thank you for everything.”

“I hope you had a good birthday, sweetie,” he said, his arm reaching around her waist.

“I did. It was everything I could have wished for and more.”

“Good! That’s all I ever wanted.”

“And all you ever needed?” Allyson quickly added with a smirk.

JC gave her an amused look and chuckled, “I walked into that, didn’t I?”

“Yeah you kinda did,” she laughed, squeezing her arms that were now wrapped around his waist.

JC leaned over and kissed the top of Allyson’s head. “Do me a favor, double check that you have everything. I don’t want you to miss out on Disney time because you have to come back here.”

Allyson laughed, “OK.”

He watched as Allyson walked across the living room to the stairs and leapt up the slightly curved staircase.

Walking into the master bedroom, Allyson looked around the room – on the bed, on the dresser, in the bathroom. Then, when she got to her side of the bed and looked at the nightstand, there was an envelope with her name on it. It wasn’t anything she brought or a gift she received. Curious, she picked it up and carefully loosened the seal. It did have her name on it, after all.

Inside, she found a sheet of paper thoughtfully folded. Opening the piece of paper, she saw handwritten lyrics to the song JC had played for her. At the top, he had scrawled out “Always” as the title.

She smiled to herself as she read the lyrics. As she finished reading the song, she heard rustling and looked up, still smiling, to see JC standing in the doorway.

“Good, you found it,” he said, casually leaning against the door frame.

“This is incredible!” she said, holding the paper against her chest. “Best birthday gift, maybe ever.”

He blushed a little as he smiled at her.

“When did you do this?” she asked as she made her way around the bed to where he was standing.

“Before the party, basically once I finished the song, I wrote a clean copy of the lyrics. I knew I wanted you to have them. Most of that song is inspired by you.”

Allyson threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the lips. “Thank you so much. This is getting framed and hung up in my room. How often can you say JC Chasez wrote a song for you?”

“Well, I’m glad you like it, baby.”

“I love it! You’re setting the bar pretty high for yourself, though, don’tcha think?”

“Nah, I’m setting the bar high for you,” he smirked. “My birthday’s in August.”

“Oh I’ve already got your gift picked out. We’re taking cooking classes.”

He gave her a puzzled look.

“No, I’m kidding! I’ll do my best to live up to the bar you’ve set.”

“Come on, let’s get you off to the Happiest Place on Earth.”

They made their way downstairs to find Liz looking at the Disney movie collection JC had in the still-open cabinet.

“Perks of being in the Disney family,” JC said, making Liz jump.

“This is truly amazing,” she said.

“Yeah I don’t have to wonder what I have available to watch, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Thank you, again, for everything,” Liz said, giving JC a hug.

“Not a problem at all. Thanks for getting Allie to California.”

“Happy to help,” she smiled back.

“Are we still on schedule?” Allyson asked Liz.

“Yeah, we’ll be good,” Liz said, before turning her head to face JC. “We planned on getting there about 10, so we should make it right around there.”

About that time, a security system on the wall near the door buzzed. JC not only had a security gate with a keypad, but it also had a camera that was connected to a small monitor in the house.

“Well, damn James Bond,” Liz joked.

“You can never be too careful,” he shrugged. “Enough people know me and where I live, especially since I’ve had this home since 2000, that I will do anything I can to protect my privacy, my people and my home.”

“I get it,” she said, taking note of how seriously he responded as he touched a few buttons to open the gate and allow the driver to pull into the driveway. Allie did not want to make JC drive out to Pasadena and back just to drop them off, so he asked the same car service as picked them up the night before to drive them to Liz’s.

He walked the women to the door, and with a grand gesture said, “Your carriage awaits.”

“Thank you,” Liz said, giving JC a quick hug. “I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, have fun at Disney.”

He turned his head back toward the living room and was met by Allyson’s gaze. Without a word, she threw her arms around his neck again, throwing all of her body weight behind it. “I can’t thank you enough. This has been an amazing birthday.”

As he wrapped his arms around her waist, he said, “It was just as amazing on my end. I can’t believe I found someone like you.”

She smiled, but kept it to herself this time that he had just paraphrased another *NSYNC song.

“Have the best time at Disneyland. From now on, I’ll always be just a heartbeat away from you.”

She squeezed him even tighter and kissed him squarely on the lips. “Thank you!”

He watched as they climbed into the all-black sedan. 

As Liz and Allyson started the ride back to Pasadena, it was somewhat quiet, not wanting to say anything in front of the driver. But after about 15 minutes, Liz couldn’t help it. She had contained herself for hours now.

“Soooooo?” Liz asked.

“So what?” Allyson said with a smirk, knowing full well what her friend was asking.

“How did you sleep?”

“Like a baby, until the sun blinded me in my eyes.”

Liz smirked and squinted her eyes. “You know what I’m asking.”

“Nothing happened,” Allyson said through a laugh. “I had a great night’s sleep next to someone who I really, really like.”

They left it at that until getting home, choosing instead to discuss Disney and make a game plan.

Then, as soon as the pair walked through the door, Liz sat her purse down and turned to Allyson. “OK, Allie, it’s just us now. Tell me for real, do you love him?”

Allyson blushed. “Yeah,” she nodded shyly. “I don’t know that I’m in love with him at this point, but, yeah, I care about him and would say that I love him.

Liz cheered upon hearing the words tumble from Allyson’s lips. “I was really hoping that would be your answer!”