Love like Yours Series (Box Set #1-4)

by Nicole S. Goodin

  Stella picked up her fork, grabbed another handful of potato and tried to squish it onto the fork.

  Everyone cracked up laughing.

  “That’s not exactly what I had in mind.” El giggled, getting up to help her daughter.

  “Am I a terrible person for finding that adorable and for hoping she’ll do it again?” Lexie whispered to me.

  I chuckled. “Well if it does, then we’re both bad people.”

  “It’s always funny when it’s not your kid,” Ellerslie told us. “You just wait until you’ve got your own one day.”

  Bring it on.

  I peeked at Lexie, she was still watching Stella’s every move with amusement.

  “That’s the Pierce coming out in her,” Quinn announced proudly. “Right, Stella girl? Loving those carbs.”

  “Warbs,” Stella repeated.

  Harrison laughed. “Just like her aunty.”

  I had to agree, for such a skinny little thing; Quinn sure put away a ton of food.

  Ellerslie turned to grab the wipes off the side table at the same time that Stella decided to grab another handful of her dinner. This time she was inspired to smear it all through her hair.

  “Princess!” Lawson groaned.

  The rest of us exploded into laughter.

  El turned around – wipes in hand. “Oh, Stella! Are you serious?”

  Stella grinned at her and El bit back a smile.

  She dropped the wipes to the table with a thud. “You may as well finish it off, baby girl, then Daddy can take you out back and hose you down afterwards,” she joked.

  Stella clapped her hands together gleefully and sent mashed potato flying all over the show.

  “It’s in my hair,” Quinn moaned as she tried to fish the lumps of food off her head.

  Lexie giggled and tried to hide it by burying her face in my shoulder.

  One look at Harrison attempting to scoop mash out of Quinn’s hair with a spoon – a giant grin on his face, was all it took to push me over the edge.

  “We’re definitely terrible people.” I chuckled, as I tucked my face into her hair. “We’re going straight to hell.”

  Lexie looked up at me and smiled a beautiful smile. “Well if you’re going to be there, then so am I.”

  ***

  Lexie had just excused herself to go to the bathroom and I decided that this was probably the best opportunity I was going to get to talk to Quinn and Ellerslie about the airport tomorrow.

  “Can I talk to you both in private for a minute?” I asked the girls as soon as I knew Lex would have been out of earshot.

  I gestured towards the living room and they both followed me through.

  “I just wanted to talk to you both about Lexie leaving tomorrow.”

  “Flight’s at midday, right?” Quinn replied.

  “If you could get her there, we can just meet you? We’ll go straight from the office,” El added.

  I took a deep breath. The two women standing in front of me were by all accounts strong and independent – they weren’t the type of women that were used to being told what to do. I knew I was going to need to tread carefully if I wanted to get out of this alive.

  “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you both about. I think it might be best for Lexie if you all said your goodbyes tonight. Less stress for her tomorrow, ya know?”

  Quinn’s eyes narrowed at me instantly, and I knew she already had her back up.

  “You’re trying to tell us we’re not welcome at the airport,” she hissed the accusation at me.

  Fuck my life.

  I looked at El in an attempt to get some support, but she didn’t look much happier with me than Quinn did.

  Screw it.

  If I was going to get my way, I was going to have to find my balls and stand up for what I knew was the right thing for my girl.

  “It’s not about being welcome, Quinn.” I sighed. “It’s about what is best for Lexie.”

  “How can her two best friends not being there, be what’s best for her?” Quinn cried.

  “Because she’s not coping,” I snapped back at her.

  Deep breath.

  “You should have seen her in the park today,” I explained gently, more in control of myself now. “She’s tearing up all the time... she’s really worried that the distance will come between us.”

  I risked glancing between the two of them. El was now watching me carefully; a look of sympathy in her eyes. Quinn still looked pissed as hell.

  “I know how hard it’s going to be tomorrow, for her and for me... and I’m pretty sure that if she turns back and sees the three of us standing there, then she won’t get on that plane.”

  “And that would be a bad thing, why?” Quinn demanded.

  I shook my head. “I couldn’t live with myself if she gave up her job and her life without really thinking it through. It’s not that I wouldn’t want her here,” I assured them. “I want that more than anything. But her and I... we can make this work until we figure something out; she’s my girl now, and I need you to trust that I’m doing what’s best for her.”

  It won’t be easy, but we can do it.

  I heard a rustling noise in the hall behind me, but when I turned and looked, there was no one there.

  Quinn opened her mouth to argue, but I cut her off.

  “I don’t want Lexie to have any regrets, and I know that she would regret just dropping her life and walking out on her job with no notice. That’s not the kind of person she is.”

  I could feel myself getting emotional now. I knew she had to get on that flight, but that didn’t make it any easier to stomach.

  “You’re right,” El replied quietly, surprising me.

  “But—” Quinn tried to argue.

  “He’s right.” El looked her in the eye. “He’s doing what’s best for Lex, and in this case, it’s having us say our goodbyes tonight.”

  They stared off for a few beats before Quinn caved.

  “Okay... fine,” she grumbled. “But I can tell you one thing.” She spoke quietly. “In a few days you’re going to wish we’d gone to that airport and convinced her to stay.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat, already knowing that she was dead right, but torn between wanting Lexie to stay, and doing what I knew was the right thing.

  “I know what a man looks like when he loves a woman, Colt, and I don’t know how you think you’re going to live without her, but I hope you find a way to make it work, I truly do,” she added before giving me a small smile and turning to walk away.

  El squeezed my arm in sympathy and followed Q back into the kitchen.

  Tears stung the corners of my eyes and I tried my hardest to blink them back.

  Get it together.

  I couldn’t upset Lexie now, no matter how badly I was hurting.

  “I think you’ve really got to wait and see how things play out. Sometimes a decision you might consider a regret or failure in the present can turn out to be the catalyst for something extraordinary in the end.

  Some of life’s wildest journeys begin with a wrong turn.”

  - Beau Taplin

  25. Lexie

  “Do you believe in fate?” I asked him as I snuggled in even closer to his warm, hard body.

  He lay still for a moment, the only movement the rise and fall of his chest beneath my cheek.

  “Yeah, I think I do,” he finally answered.

  “Yeah?” I replied, tracing light patterns on his bare abdomen.

  “Yeah... you gotta believe in something, right?”

  “I guess so,” I agreed.

  “Well, something brought you to me.” His voice turned husky. “And I don’t know if it was fate, or divine intervention or whatever else...”

  He rolled me onto my back so he was leaning over me, looking right into my eyes.

  “But whatever it was, Lex, I owe it for that. I owe it for giving me you.”

  My heart felt like it was going to explode. I didn’t know wh
at good I’d done to deserve this man...

  Some seriously good karma had come my way.

  I sighed.

  And then some bad karma...

  I must have done something pretty shitty in a past life to make me deserve the goodbye we would be forced to have when I boarded that plane at midday tomorrow without him.

  This wasn’t fair. You aren’t meant to find the person you want to share your entire life with and then have to walk away from them.

  This is what I was afraid of.

  “Don’t, little bird, don’t get yourself upset again,” he told me, sensing that I was heading for a meltdown. “We’ll make it work somehow; I’m not letting you go,” he promised.

  He knows me so well already.

  I lay back down, content in his arms, just listening to the beating of his heart for a moment to regather myself.

  “I don’t know if it’s just because we’re on borrowed time that it all feels so... intense...” I ran my fingertips gently over his jaw. “Do you think if we had forever that it would still feel like this?” I asked him timidly.

  “All I know,” he told me softly as he stared deep into my eyes. “Is that this is the most real thing in my life and there’s not even one reason I can see, that we can’t have forever, okay?”

  God I hope he’s right.

  I nodded. “It’s just you and me.”

  He kissed my lips softly. “It’s just you and me,” he repeated back to me.

  ***

  “Just get one shift done, baby,” Colt encouraged. “That’s what? Only a few weeks away? And we’ll make plans to see each other as soon as you get back on dry land, okay?”

  I nodded.

  I couldn’t talk.

  I’ll lose it.

  At this point I was already borderline hysterical.

  Not Colt, he’s staying strong for me.

  It was no secret that I wasn’t coping. He’d even banned El and Quinn from coming to the airport; I’d overheard him begging and reasoning with them last night.

  Until I nearly got caught eavesdropping.

  He knew that it was going to be too much for me today, and he was right. I was barely keeping it together as it was, if they were here too, it would have been that much harder to set foot on that plane. We’d said our goodbyes last night, and that had been hard enough.

  I’m going to miss them so much.

  I didn’t feel like I was going home, I felt like I was leaving my home. It wasn’t so much about the place as it was about the people – or more specifically one person in particular. Colt was my home now.

  I sobbed quietly, trying my best to be strong and failing miserably.

  “Please don’t cry,” Colt begged me, his face a tortured mask. “I’m trying to be strong for you, Lex, but I can’t handle your tears, baby, they’ll break me.”

  “I’m... sorry,” I told him between sobs as I desperately tried to reign it in.

  He pulled into the parking lot of the airport and slowly switched off the engine. He turned in his seat to look at me.

  “Lexie, baby, are you going to be okay?”

  I forced myself to be brave and look into his eyes. His beautiful golden eyes were rimmed with unshed tears and it broke my heart. But even now, his only concern was me and my emotions – he really was the most amazing man I’d ever met.

  “I miss you already,” I told him, my voice cracking with emotion.

  “I miss you too,” he replied quietly.

  We sat there, just staring at one another for what felt like forever. I didn’t know what was going through his head, but me... I was memorizing every single detail about him.

  The way his silky hair sat... the shape of his jaw... the curve of his nose... his perfect, soft lips... the way his hazel eyes were flecked with gold.

  “Why does this feel like goodbye?” I whispered.

  “Oh, baby, it’s not really goodbye... not forever.”

  Another sob escaped my control.

  “Come here,” he instructed, patting his lap.

  I threw off my seatbelt and scrambled over the center console and into his lap.

  His arms came around me like a vise, holding me tight. I’d never felt safer than I did in that moment, which was crazy – considering I was about to leave him.

  “I promise you, Lexie Chase, I’ll see you as soon as we can make it work.” His words were muffled as he spoke against my shoulder. “This is not goodbye; it’s just... see you soon.”

  I let out a snuffled laugh. “You sound like some kind of cliché quote.”

  “I don’t care – it made you smile,” he boasted.

  “You always make me smile.”

  We sat, me in his lap, just holding one another for a few minutes, Colt rubbing slow, relaxing circles on my back.

  “This isn’t the end, baby; you and me are just getting started.”

  “I know,” I agreed with a sniff. And I did know that. But it didn’t make this any easier.

  We fell into silence again.

  “I’d better go,” I finally said with a sigh. “I’ll miss my flight.”

  Colt let out a devastated groan.

  I sat back so I could look at him again.

  I love you.

  I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t, the words got caught in my throat and wouldn’t come out. I was scared – scared it would make this too hard, and scared he wouldn’t be able to say it back to me.

  His hands went straight to my face, clasping it gently in his safe hands. “You mean everything to me.”

  “I know.” I sniffed.

  Our mouths met in a kiss filled with love, lust, pain and promise. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I kissed him like it just might be the last time and he gave as good as he got in return.

  We were both breathless by the time our lips had finished telling each other goodbye.

  “I’ll get your bag,” Colt whispered sadly.

  ***

  Colt jogged back over from where he’d been chatting with one of the airline staff, I had no idea what it was about, but that was Colt for you... the man was full of surprises, and I didn’t doubt that his conversation had been anything other than the organization of a surprise for me. I hadn’t seen him get his wallet out, so at least I knew he wasn’t wasting his money on me.

  He slowed his jog to more of a prowl and I felt my belly clench.

  The things that man does to me...

  I hadn’t expected him to come in here with me. I’d thought we were saying goodbye in the car and that I was going to be left to fall apart without an audience.

  Colt had informed me, however, that if I was going to kiss him like that, then he was coming back for seconds.

  So here we are.

  “What was that about?” I quizzed him as he reached me and fitted me back into his arms.

  He tapped the end of my nose and grinned. “Never you mind, little bird, never you mind.”

  “What did you do?” I scolded in mock outrage.

  “What makes you think I did anything?” he asked, his face the picture of innocence.

  “Because I know you better than you think.” I giggled.

  He squeezed me tight and replied, his voice hoarse in my ear. “You have no idea how lucky I am to have you, Lex.”

  He was dead wrong about that. I was the lucky one to know him, and have him know me. This week had been, without a doubt, the best of my life.

  “I guess this is it.” I shrugged.

  I had my ticket in my hand, and Colt couldn’t come with me through the security check. This was the moment I had to leave the man I was totally and utterly in love with, and go back to my life like it had never happened.

  No.

  Nothing will be like it was before.

  “I made you something,” he told me shyly, digging his hand into his pocket.

  “What is it?” I asked in a whisper. I had a feeling that whatever this was just might have had the power to push me over the edge.
/>
  “You’ll have to wait until you get home.” He pressed a USB stick into my waiting hand.

  I sighed in relief.

  He really had thought of everything. I had no doubt that he was well aware of the fact I wouldn’t be able to deal with anything sentimental right now, so he’d given me something I couldn’t access until I was alone and in the comfort of my own apartment.

  “Thank you.” I pushed up to my toes and kissed his soft lips.

  “Anything for you, Lexie,” he told me genuinely.

  “I’ll see you soon?” I asked timidly.

  “You can count on it,” he promised as he kissed me again, and I knew this time, it was the last one.

  I looked into his eyes one last time before turning and walking away.

  I didn’t look back, I couldn’t. Tears were streaming down my face faster than I could swipe them away, and I knew if I turned back, I’d go back, and there would be no getting on that plane.

  My heart was screaming at me to turn around, but my head assured me that this was the way it was meant to be.

  Why does it hurt so damn much?

  I knew the answer to that question, if I was really being honest with myself.

  I love him.

  I loved him more than anything else in my life. More than my job, more than my life back home, more than anything... it had taken me less than one week to fall head over heels in love with Colton Hunt, and I knew without a doubt that it was the kind of love a person never really got over.

  “I love you,” I whispered to the floor.

  ***

  The USB port on the panel in front of me was taunting me. I knew it was a bad idea to put that stick in there right now, surrounded by a plane full of strangers, but I couldn’t seem to get the message to my hands, as they uncapped it and plugged it into the port.

  I slipped my earphones into my ears and waited as it loaded up, my knee jiggling nervously up and down.

  This was a bad idea. I’d only just managed to stop the fresh wave of tears that had started when I’d discovered that Colt had sweet-talked someone at the ticket counter into bumping me up to first class.

  That was the only reason I was even considering looking at whatever Colt had given me now, rather than waiting until I got home. First class was a hell of a lot more private than coach, and my little booth was providing me with a sense of security – even if it was a false one.