“How did dinner go with Daniel?” he asks as his copper eyes linger on my lips, my butterfly tattoos, my pelvis, then drift slowly down my legs and back up again. My legs almost give out from the sensual visual inspection he’s giving me.
“Dinner was good.” My hands twitch with the urge to touch him. I bite my lower lip. “Going to tell me what that was all about today with Fallon?”
Ryder swoops in and lifts me up. “Later. First, I need to fuck you.”
I curl my arms around his neck, so giddy with love and lust that I am about to combust, my body burning to ashes from the heat being generated between us.
“I love you, Elizabeth.”
“I love you too. Now shut up and kiss me,” I demand, tugging the hairs on the back of his head.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Elizabeth and Ryder would like to share a few words with one another…”
“Open the door, baby.”
“What?” My ears pick up a faint noise coming from the front of the house.
“Open the door, Elizabeth.”
I hear the noise again. I jump off the sofa and run as fast as I can to the front door. I fling it open like the house is on fire. And standing before me, looking handsome as sin, is Ryder Cutton. The man I love more than anything. The man I want to spend the rest of my life with.
My body starts shaking uncontrollably and I drop Fallon’s phone. He can afford another one.
“How?” How did he find me? I’ve missed him so much.
Ryder gives me that heart-stopping grin, his amber eyes liquid with unshed tears. “There’s my girl.”
“You marked me last night,” I tell him, pointing at the love bite on my neck. “So, I’m marking you. I’m claiming you. You’re mine, Ryder, just as I am yours.”
“I have always been yours, Elizabeth.”
By the powers vested in me by the state of North Carolina, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Ryder, you may now kiss your bride.”
I lift my head and taste his sweet lips, a tiny tear escaping caused by his beautiful words. I pull back and cup his face, wanting so badly for the dreams of our future to come true. The words I have kept to myself escape out of me. “Marry me. I know this is unconventional and maybe a little unexpected, but I have known in my heart since I was nine years old that I love you with everything I have in me. You have been my best friend, my protector, the man who has always stood by me no matter what. You were patient and waited for me. And not even near-death and the loss of my memory could keep my heart, my soul, from finding its way back to you. Ryder Randall Cutton, will you give me the honor of spending the rest of your life with me as my husband?”
“On bended knee, I pulled out a ring,
And sang, ‘Marry me, Elizabeth,
And say you’re mine forever.
I’ll love you every day that we’re together.
You’ll wear my ring and pick out a wedding dress,
It’s our love story, so baby, please say…’”
Yes.
Epilogue III
Thirty Years Later…
I’m sitting outside a café in Venice watching the gondolas float by in the canal. It’s one of those summer afternoons where you think the sky couldn’t get any bluer and the sun couldn’t get any brighter. It’s one of those perfect days you cherish because you know tomorrow may bring rain. The waiter stops in front of me, and I look up to see him holding a tray with a glass of red wine on it.
“Complimenti del signore,” he tells me and nods over to the man sitting a few tables over. The man tips his head and salutes me with his wine glass.
“Gigli grazie, ma no grazie,” I reply to the waiter. He nods and takes the glass of red wine to the man at his table. The man looks over at me and frowns. I shrug with a smile and go back to drinking my coffee. My phone dings and I look to see who it is. My oldest son, Marcus, texted me a picture of himself with his two siblings, Christopher, my youngest son, and Charlotte, my only daughter. They’re with Julien and Elijah at the beach. Julien and Elijah bought a beach house on Topsail Island and the kids are spending the week with them, along with their two adopted sons, Grant and Nicholas, while I’m in Italy.
Ryder and I have three wonderful, gorgeous children. Marcus, our oldest, is twenty-five, followed a year later by Christopher, and then Charlotte who will turn seventeen next month. Charlotte will become an official twelfth grader in August, and like her father and brothers, plans to attend CU after graduation. She is so smart and has the kindest heart of anyone I know. Ryder always says that she gets that from me. Several years ago, Marcus asked Ryder if he could help run the garage. Just like his dad, Marcus loves cars. He’s basically a little mini-me of his father. Christopher also followed in his father’s footsteps and got his MBA, then joined his brother at the garage. Marcus goes the repairs and custom work, while Christopher runs the business side of things.
And business has been good. When Ryder took over Randy’s Custom Auto from his father, he expanded the business and made it even more successful than it already was. About fifteen years ago, he also bought the Fields from Mr. Jacoby’s grandson and turned it into a proper Motocross track where several sanctioned events are held every year.
I finished medical school and worked in research at the cancer center at Duke. I decided I was more interested in the research side of things, rather than becoming a practicing physician. I took early retirement two years ago.
When Christopher was born, Daniel and Drew moved to North Carolina to live closer to me and the kids. Even in their mid-sixties, they are still stars in the technology world and are both currently in London speaking at a tech conference. I’ll meet up with them on my way back to the States when my tour of Italy ends.
A couple of weeks ago, my children surprised me with the gift of a two-week trip to Italy. They packed my bags, drove me to the airport, gave me tons of kisses and hugs, and then shoved me to the security gate and told me to have some fun. Fun has not been part of my life for over two years. It’s been thirty-one long, lonely months since I lost my beloved husband to acute myelogenous leukemia. But those thirty-one months will never compare to the decades of happiness and love that Ryder showered me with every day. We never took a single day with one another for granted. We filled every second with love and laughter, happiness and joy. We made a beautiful life together which became even better once our children were born.
I do see Jayson once a year when we both visit Elizabeth Ann’s gravesite on her birthday. He and I sit on a blanket and talk to our little girl. We read her stories, sing her songs, and bury the letters we each write to her. We cry and hug and then Jayson walks away, returning to the life he finally made for himself in California. I don’t think he’ll ever be able to forgive me for choosing Ryder. I wish things could be different between us, but there’s only so much heartbreak one person can endure. I don’t blame him. I never did. Jayson eventually married a woman he met in San Francisco. They have one child, a girl named Bethany. I hope he’s happy. I hope he knows deep down how true my love for him was. Even now, after so many years, I feel the loss of his friendship as keenly as I do Hailey and my parents. Jayson was my first love and that will never change.
But Ryder was my forever love. I miss my husband beyond expression. I miss his golden-amber eyes and the way his smile would leave me breathless. I miss the deep sound of his voice and how my heart would skip a beat every time he called me babe or sweetheart. I miss his kisses and the way his arms would wrap around me and hold me tight like he would never let me go. I miss his smell and the scruff of his stubble. I miss the feel of his muscled body against mine as we made love. I miss falling asleep in his strong arms and waking up to his handsome face grinning at me, his eyes filled with love every time he looked at me. I miss the way he held me when we danced under the moonlight. I miss the sound of his voice when he sang to me. I miss the way he would kiss my tears away. I miss his laughter. I miss the way he loved me with every part of his heart.
My soul will forever yearn for my husband every day for the rest of my life.
Before I was coerced into my trip to Italy, my children sat down and talked to me. Marcus said, “Mom, it’s time. You need to start living again.”
Christopher added, “We love you so much, Mom. We will always love Dad. We know he would want you to find happiness again.”
My sweet, angel girl cupped my face in her hands and whispered to me, “Go be happy, Mama. You have so many more next times to live.”
A couple’s laughter a few tables down breaks me from my thoughts. My hand reaches down and touches my heart locket, the one Jayson gave me in remembrance of our daughter, Elizabeth Ann. I finger my wedding bands. The yellow diamond engagement ring, the eternity band my precious Ryder gave to me after singing his version of “Love Song,” and the one he gave me the day he took my hand and made a vow to love me forever and I repeated that vow back to him. I will always love that man.
I close my eyes and silently talk to Ryder like I do every day. “Hey, baby,” I tell him. “Do you recognize where I am? It’s the café you took me to when we were in Venice. I still can’t believe you flew halfway around the world to find me. I love you, handsome. I miss you.”
A breeze floats around me and I can feel Ryder’s warmth envelop me. He’s always with me no matter where I am. I hear his voice in the wind as he whispers back to me, “You are the love of my life, sweet Elizabeth. But it’s time for you to move on. You have so much love to give. Remember what Julien used to say about how you had an infinite capacity for love? You have so much more life to experience. Enjoy the adventure, sweetheart. I love you, baby. It’s time.”
I take in a shuddering breath and wipe away the tears that have gathered around my eyelids. As I’m reaching for my coffee, a shadow falls across my table. The hairs on my arms raise and my skin erupts in tingly goose bumps.
“Hey, kitten.”
A smile spreads across my face until my cheeks hurt. I turn in my chair to see Fallon standing before me.
“Hey you,” I reply, excitement and giddiness exploding inside of me. After over two years of feeling the numbing loss of my husband, the joy I’m feeling right now is almost too painful to bear.
Fallon comes closer and extends a hand to me. I take it. It’s warm and strong. He pulls me up to stand in front of him, then steps into me so our bodies press together. His arctic blue eyes linger over my face in a gentle embrace as they trace across my features, taking in every part of me. My lips, my green eyes, my long blond hair that I refuse to cut because Ryder loved to tangle his fingers in it, and lastly, my smile.
“Secret for a secret, Fallon.”
Fallon breathes me in like I am his oxygen. “I stayed away as long I could, kitten. I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“How did you know where I was?”
“You know I have my ways,” he replies, giving me that cocky smirk I remember so well.
It’s been twenty-nine years since I’ve seen him in person, and he still looks the same as the day I last laid eyes on him—the day I married Ryder. When Fallon left, he started a nonprofit for battered and abused women then traveled the world helping those in need while Trevor took over as CEO of Montgomery Pharma. Fallon never sent me an email or tried to contact me through social media. Instead, he wrote to me and Ryder every month he was gone. Three hundred and forty letters in all. I still have every one of them in a chest that Ryder bought me at a flea market in Virginia. Whenever one of Fallon’s letters would come in the mail, Ryder and I would snuggle together on the bed and I would read it out loud. I’m proud of all the good Fallon has done in the world. All the people he has helped and families he has rescued. I’m not the only one who changed after our adventure together. Fallon may have saved me, but I think I saved him in return.
Fallon’s family grew too. He had joked with me once that it wouldn’t surprise him if he had a dozen half-siblings scattered about. He wasn’t too far off. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know each and every one of the Montgomery siblings. Fallon never did marry or settle down as far as I or his family knows. He’s never said anything in his letters either.
“Your turn. Secret for a secret, kitten,” he whispers, his voice shaking with emotion as his thumbs rub gentle circles across my cheeks.
“I’ve missed you,” I tell him.
He cocks his head in that special way he did whenever he looked at me, and I laugh as tears slide down my cheeks. Fallon tilts my face up and kisses away every tear with his lips.
“Are you ready for another adventure, Elizabeth?”
“Absolutely,” I beam at him.
And then Fallon kisses me. For the first time, I kiss him back.
“I love you, Elizabeth Penelope Fairchild Cutton.”
I smile and Fallon kisses me once more, then tangles our fingers together. We walk hand in hand under the bright blue Venetian sky toward the Bridge of Sighs. Legend says that couples who kiss under the bridge as the St. Mark’s Campanile bells ring will have a love that lasts for an eternity. I should know. It’s where Ryder kissed me in the gondola.
The End…
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That Girl
Coming October 11, 2021! Pre-order your copy today!
Aurora
I was that girl.
The one that was smart and excelled at academics.
The one who lived on the bad side of town.
The one from a broken home.
The one whose father ran off when she was two.
The one with an alcoholic mother who could care less if she existed.
The one with the abusive older sister who would give her bruises instead of hugs.
The one that lived among the shadows, keeping out of sight, trying not to be noticed.
I was that girl.
Until I wasn’t.
Sometimes the best families are the ones you create, not the ones you’re born into. I never knew what true family was like until I had one thrust upon me out of the blue at the age of eighteen. Unlike my mother and sister, I finally found people who wanted me and cared about me. It took the revelation of one secret to change my life forever. I was no longer the pauper; I was the princess.
Then JD Hallstead came barreling into my life. He was everything I never thought I wanted, but everything I craved. That is, until the day he destroyed every part of my heart and left it to burn to ashes in his wake. What is the old adage? The flip side of love is hate. Well, my hate burns bright and it has a name: Jackson Dillon Hallstead.
JD
I was that guy.
The one who played football.
The one voted class president and most likely to succeed.
The one that girls went crazy over and guys wanted to be.
The one who ruled the school.
The one with a secret.
I was that guy.
Until Aurora.
Until she became that girl.
Aurora was the one girl I always wanted but never could have. It took a tragedy to bring us together. It took my secret to tear us apart. Aurora once told me everybody leaves. I told her I never would. I lied. Now I will give anything, do anything, fight everyone, to get her back. Aurora says I broke her heart. Who better than me to put it back together?
That Girl is a standalone, friends-to-lovers-then-enemies-to-lovers, sports, second chance romance that takes place after the conclusion of Broken Butterfly, Fallen Brook Series, Book 3. Fans of the Fallen Brook Series will love seeing some of their favorite characters return! Due to mature content, it is recommended for ages 17+.
Want to read the first t
hree chapters of That Girl? CLICK HERE.
Available for pre-order now on Amazon!
Julien
Coming September 21, 2021! Pre-order your copy today!
Soccer center forward for Fallen Brook High. Best friends with Elizabeth Fairchild and Ryder Cutton. Twin brother of Jayson Jameson.
We all know the story. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. It’s a tale as old as time.
Well, it was until I met him.
My name is Julien Jameson, and this is my love story.
Julien is Book 1 in the Fallen Brook M/M Duet Series, a spin-off of the Fallen Brook Series. Julien chronicles Julien Jameson’s love story from his point of view. It is a coming of age, LGBTQ, M/M, bisexual novel that takes place during high school and contains mature sexual content and foul language.
Book 2, Elijah, is the conclusion to Julien’s love story and takes place during college and beyond.
Reader’s Warning: The M/M duet series is intended for mature audiences ages 18+ due to foul language, and sexual and mature content. All sex is consensual.
If you have read the Fallen Brook Series, you are already familiar with the fictional towns of Highland and Fallen Brook, North Carolina, and the characters of Elizabeth Fairchild, Ryder Cutton, Jayson and Julien Jameson, Elijah Barnes, and Fallon and Trevor Montgomery. Julien is Julien Jameson’s love story told from his point of view. The novel is intended for mature audiences ages 18+.
If you enjoy contemporary story lines with a twist and some OMG moments that are packed with lots of high-heat, steamy scenes, emotion, and love, this series won’t disappoint.
Fallen Brook M/M Duet Series
Book #1: Julien
Book #2: Elijah
CLICK HERE to read bonus chapters in Julien’s point of view (from All Our Next Times)!
Tattoo Confessions
(A letter by the author - unedited)
Dear Reader,
Broken Butterfly: Fallen Brook Series: Book 3 Page 37