Forever With You
Page 33
Embarrassed, I shrug off her hand. I’m sure as hell not going to tell her it’s usually how I pass the time I should be in class. The same classes I’m mostly failing.
“I’m walking you to your car.” I say it in a way she knows it’s useless to argue with me.
Resigned, she sighs and retrieves her leather purse from the couch. The thing is white like her jeans and sandals, and big enough to be considered luggage.
By the time we get to the gray Mazda she rented, conversation has grounded to a halt. I keep expecting her to tell me about my daughter—Brianna—but beyond some oblique references to me being needed, she doesn’t say anything about her. And I’m too much a chickenshit to ask. I want to know and I don’t. Guess which one wins out?
At the driver-side door, she reaches up and presses another kiss on my cheek. “I’ll call when I get home,” she whispers. “And here—” she reaches into her purse and pulls out a manila envelope “—this is for you. There’s also something in there from Paige.”
After shoving the envelope into my hand, she quickly gets into the car. I then watch in dazed silence as she reverses, beeps the horn, gives me a short wave, and exits the parking lot.
I study the envelope the entire trek back up to my apartment. The thing weighs almost nothing so it’s got to be some kind of letter or document.
A letter from Paige? I start sweating just thinking about what she’d have to say and how it would make me feel. I open the damn thing the second I’m inside my apartment.
The first thing I see is one of those glossy photos that are almost the same size as the envelope itself. I know who’s in the picture before I actually take it out.
When I look at the face staring back at me, I literally feel as if my breath has been knocked out of me. A linebacker hit that caught me blind.
Dark-brown hair, two front teeth in an otherwise gummy smile, and eyes so green, they look like colored contacts. She has my eyes but the rest of her is all Paige.
My daughter. So damn beautiful it hurts.
I don’t remember heading to the kitchen but that’s where I find myself a minute or so later. Clutching the photo between my fingers, I place the envelope on the table and lower myself onto the closest chair. There’s a heaviness in my chest that makes it hard to breathe.
I’m not sure how long I sit there staring at her, memorizing every inch of her beautiful little face. But it must have been long enough.
“Earth to Kingston.”
My roommate’s voice finally penetrates, bringing me out of my stupor. My head snaps up to see him standing at the opening of the kitchen. If he’d been a murderer, I’d be a dead man. I hadn’t even heard him come in.
“You deaf? I called you a couple times.” His date must have gone well because he’s wearing one of those shit-eating grins. “What’re you looking at?” he asks, as he approaches.
My gaze goes back to my daughter. When I don’t immediately respond, he rounds the table until he’s peering at the picture over my shoulder.
“Cute kid. Whose is she, your sister’s?”
I shoot a glance back at him before replying, “No, she’s mine.”
Steve makes this strangled sound in his throat, his expression going from shocked to disbelieving. Then he emits a serrated laugh. “Yeah right. Shit, you almost had me. Quit fucking with me.”
It’s quiet for a couple beats.
“Holy shit. You’ve got a kid?”
What he really means is, You’ve got a kid and didn’t tell me.
“I can’t fucking believe it.”
It’s late, I’m emotionally drained and I’m not in the mood for an interrogation. I grab the manila envelope from off the table and come to my feet. I’m surprised when a regular-sized, white envelope falls out of it and onto the floor. It’s only then I remember what Diane said. There’s also something in there from Paige.
The photo is obviously from my sister so this letter must be from Paige. I scoop it off the floor, place the picture of Brianna down, and remove two sheets of paper from the envelope.
Once I unfold them, I realize it’s not a letter. It’s a document. I have to read the heading at the top of the form three times before I can make sense of what it says. What it means. And that’s when everything inside me goes numb.
“Holy shit,” Steve, who’s hovering behind me, exclaims softly, obviously reading it over my shoulder. “Is that from your ex?”
I don’t answer. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory.
But apparently it’s not, because he goes on to ask, “Is that a form to give up your parental rights?”
Yeah, that’s exactly what it is.
BUY TRAPPED
Other Books
To receive news on upcoming releases,
click here to sign up for Beverley Kendall's Newsletter
New Adult Romances
Unforgettable You Series
Book 1 - ONLY FOR YOU (Olivia & Zach)
In high school, he refused to give her the time of day.
In college, she proves impossible to ignore.
Book 2 - ALL OVER YOU (Rebecca & Scott)
An ex is an ex for a reason.
Rebecca knows that. But the pressure Scott is exerting is crumbling her once stalwart resolve.
Book 3 - ALWAYS BEEN YOU (April & Troy)
The best way to ruin a perfectly wonderful friendship?
Have sex with your BFF.
Book 4 – FOREVER WITH YOU (Emily & Graham)
Her lie had nearly destroyed his life.
She’s seeking his forgiveness. He wants her to stay the hell out of his life.
***
Connecting series
Trapped
Free Prequel - THE TRAP (Paige & Mitch’s Beginning)
An unplanned teen pregnancy can test the true strength of a relationship.
Book 1 - TRAPPED (Paige & Mitch’s HEA - Includes The Trap & Christmas Bonus short)
He abandoned her when she needed him most. Can she trust him with the love of her life—and her heart—when he returns?
Book 2 - PLAYED (Erin & Josh)
Coming 2018
They were supposed to keep their relationship strictly physical. And it was...until it wasn’t. And that’s when Erin knew she had to end it.
* * *
Historical Romances
The Elusive Lords series in chronological order.
SINFUL SURRENDER (James & Missy)
James discovers the consequences of a forgotten night of drunken passion has left yet another lady of ton compromised.
A TASTE OF DESIRE (Thomas & Amelia)
Her social faux pas lands her under the same roof of the man who took her place in her father’s affections…the man her father one day hopes to call ‘son’.
ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE & SEDUCTION (Derek & Elizabeth) - novella
She hopes to gain his affections. He is determined to ruin her.
AN HEIR OF DECEPTION (Alex & Charlotte)
The return of the very woman who introduced him to the darkest side of hell brings not only the haunting memories of bittersweet love and abandonment, but the son he never knew he had…
Connecting series
The Temptresses
TWICE THE TEMPTATION (Lucas & Catherine)
Never has Catherine been so confident in the outcome of a courtship…that is until she discovers her would-be groom proposed marriage to her identical twin sister first.
THE ROAD TO TEMPTATION (Prequel – Meghan & Rhys)
TBD
A WICKED TEMPTATION (Meghan & Rhys)
TBD
Book 2 in the Trapped series
PLAYED
Coming 2018
Last year when Josh and I got together, we agreed to keep things strictly physical.
And it was.
Until our casual hookups stopped feeling casual.
Having sex with him stopped being just about sex.
And the thought of calling a halt to it left me f
eeling empty and cold.
But Josh doesn’t “do” relationships, so I called it quits before I started to fall. Luckily, I was able to move on from the experience completely unscathed, my heart fully intact.
Or so I thought.
And then I saw him again.
His arm was wrapped around her. And unlike me, she isn’t a hookup or a “booty” call.
No, she’s the girlfriend he told me he didn’t want. And she’s getting from him everything he’d said he couldn’t give any girl.
So it turns out that Josh isn’t averse to being in a relationship after all. He simply hadn’t wanted to be in one with me.
Acknowledgments
This book saw me through parts of one of the most challenging periods in my life. As the world seemed to catch afire all around me, I took solace in Emily and Graham’s story. And it the end result couldn’t have happened without my sister, Linda, Chanpreet, Mary and Anastasia. But I must give a special thanks to my editor, Peter, who did a fabulous job telling me the good, the bad and the ugly. If you found anything wrong with this book, it’s probably where I didn’t take his advice. ;)
However, if you’d love to see more of the Unforgotten You gang, don’t worry you can read about their marriages and babies in some of my upcoming books and the Trapped series. Kelsey gets a book (VIRGINS NEED NOT APPLY), Blake gets a book, Brett Pearson gets a book, and Cole Leighton gets a book. Honestly, I feel like Oprah. I hope you’ll continue to follow all of them in their sexy, circuitous, emotional and sometimes crazy journey to HEA.
Dedication
To the love of my life, Ryan.
Mom is proud of you and loves you always.