Untwist

by Coopmans, Kathy

  But that loyalty to a little girl who changed the course of my brother’s life was what made him one of the best men to walk this earth. Still, it didn’t mean he couldn’t find someone who loved Lexi because she was a part of him.

  “Since the day Dad died, you been protecting me and Seth. Now look at you, engaged, settling down, moving. No one deserves a woman like Ellie more than you.”

  I nearly choke out a laugh.

  “I agree I deserve her. I disagree with the more. There’s someone out there waiting for you to find her, Lane.” I end my words with a truthful stare.

  “Guess she’s going to wait a long time then. Let’s not talk about me and agree to disagree.”

  Lane seeing me happy isn’t going to change his mind, so I drop the subject, grabbing onto hope that one day soon a woman comes along and knocks him off his feet.

  “I wouldn’t have Ellie if it weren’t for you being quick on your toes. Thank you, Lane, for looking out for me. For taking care of things, for making life easier on me.” I might have thanked him before he left, but I was half out of it with worry, add my pain, exhaustion and whatever emotions I had running through me and Lane didn’t get the proper thanks he deserved.

  He took the bull by the horns, saving Ellie. Listing the club. He found an opening in the circle that had been sucking the life out of us and plowed right through that bitch to find a way out. Destroying it all in a matter of days.

  “Like I said before, no need to thank me. It’s me who needs to thank you for everything you’ve done, not only for me but Ellie. We’ll never know if Shadow would have eventually found her. I’d like to think he wouldn’t have. If he had and you would have listened to me when I told you to leave her be, she might not be wearing that ring. She wouldn’t be sitting there next to my girl listening to her, caring about her. She wouldn’t have made my big brother the happiest I’ve seen him. Shadow’s gone, out of your life for good and I honest to God mean it when I say you deserve her. You already know that though. I saw it in your eyes the minute she gave you a second chance.”

  My mouth takes off in a sprint through the door he just opened.

  “You deserve a chance at love too, man. Don’t let what one woman who was fucked in the head make you give up. Stephanie was unfixable, only thought of herself. You aren’t, Lane. Look at what you’ve done with your own life. Do you have any idea how many good women would fall for a man who put his daughter above anything else? How many would fall for that girl the way Ellie has? Don’t be the guy like I was and waste your life. You’ll regret it.”

  He shoots a glare my way. I see it, my brother wanting, begging for it even. Those eyes wanting it so badly he can almost see it.

  Then as quickly as the door opened, it slams shut in my face. His eyes shuttering over that want. As much as I’d love to lay into it more, I bite my tongue, hold on to hope a little tighter.

  Hope I once didn’t have that my life would turn in the right direction.

  Lane runs his hands through his hair, I can sense something else is on his mind when his gaze shifts back to Ellie and Lexi.

  “When you left for Texas, I had this feeling you and Ellie would wind up wanting to live there. Now that I’m out of a job, I think it’s time for another change. Not only for me, for Lexi too.” He pauses, leaving my head spinning, wondering what the hell he’s thinking.

  Once Lane met Stephanie, he quit coming to the club. The loyal man was done fucking for money. Once he found out she was pregnant, he took that loyalty to a whole new level even though he wasn’t positive Lexi was his. He built them a house, was ready to settle down and he would have remained loyal to a woman who didn’t deserve it.

  Lane had always taken on doing our books. Out of the three of us, he was the only one with the desire to go to college. Good with numbers, he became an accountant. Word got out he was starting a business and it grew. The thing was, most of his clients were local members of the club.

  “You telling me you lost clients because Behind Closed Doors shut down?”

  He lifts his shoulders, his smile widening as we watch Lexi pick up Ellie’s hand and look at her ring.

  Whatever change he was thinking suddenly changed the shift in the air or maybe it’s me sensing something good in a different way was about to happen.

  “Not all of them, but yes. I don’t give a shit about them, Logan. They can take their business and shove it up their asses. I care about keeping stability and normalcy for my daughter. My baby starts kindergarten in a little over a month. Going to give her a vacation that I hope she’s old enough to remember. I can raise Lexi just fine on my own, but we’re a family, and this family is growing. I’m staring at the best addition to it. Told you the day of Lexi’s party she comes before anyone and anything. Ellie loves my girl, my girl loves her. I’m giving Lexi a new home, close enough to her aunt and uncle. Close enough for me to bug the fuck out of my big brother. I bought a house in a small town on the outskirts of Houston. Once Seth gets through rehab he’s looking for one too. I was thinking maybe we could all go into business together. Mitchell Brother’s Holdings still exists.”

  A smile ticks at the corner of my mouth. Ellie’s right. We’re all going to be okay.

  Chapter 19

  Ellie

  Laughter floods the living room of our apartment. Aunt Sandy and Renita are sitting on the couch, whispering and then cackling like a couple of mother hens.

  I watch them, child and teenage memories surfacing. So many happy times, so much love, it makes my heart swell with what I’m about to tell them.

  Love. There’s so much of it in this room; it’s threatening to smother me.

  I welcome it. I’ll miss it, and I’ll cherish it always.

  My mother was right; there are so many different kinds of love. The emotion grips me everywhere. Adoration, affection, devotion. But here, with the people who kept it flowing in my heart when my past tripped me and I fell in a hole, is the foundation of it.

  Really, it was Renita who laid the groundwork and built me up from there.

  And through the groundwork to where they’ve helped me stand on my own two feet, is where I surprisingly and without looking, fell in love with Logan.

  These past few weeks with Logan have made me feel more alive, more cherished than I’d ever felt in my adult life. And as the saying goes, life isn’t worth living if we don’t live it with someone we love.

  To my amazement, I’m not worried or scared that Logan and I are rushing into moving in with each other or our engagement. After all, time is on our side, we can get married whenever we want.

  But will be waiting for Seth to return before we do, because once again like my mother said, through love I found family and if there were ever two families deserving to merge into one, it’s mine and Logan’s.

  A smile arches my mouth big and wide as my phone vibrates next to me. The screen lighting up with Logan’s name. Picking it up off the counter, my pulse vibrates when I slide the screen to the three words he promised to tell me every morning when we woke and every night before going to bed.

  I love you.

  I fall a little further then, the man changing me, changing himself, changing the course of my life.

  My once dark knight in shining armor is the best change, best choice, best decision I’ve made.

  My pulse picks up speed, my soul excited with anticipation.

  I shoot the same words back, drop my phone in my bag and turn toward Norah who is pouring a round of tequila shots.

  After Logan dropped me off, I spent an hour saying goodbye to Eric, thanking him for everything he did for me. Finding out he had a new job he’d started last night and learning he wasn’t shocked at all to find the club was no longer. I then wandered the streets of a city I never expected to fall in love in. Let alone with a man connected to my past. I walked by the YMCA, said goodbye to some of the staff I’d become fond of before landing in front of the store, admiring years of sweat, tears, long days, and sleeples
s nights.

  The most content kind of smile tugged at the corners of my mouth as I stood there watching Renita and Norah talking behind the counter.

  Tears of joy and happiness sprang to my eyes as I thought how Ebony and Ivory was more than a place to work. It was a partnership; it was my income; it was fulfilling. It was my life. To say I will miss everything about the place will be one of the most honest things to ever pass through my lips.

  I promised myself as the plane dipped and New Orleans came into view, I wasn’t going to dwell on missing a part of my life that held some of the best days, not when the two people I worked with were what I was going to miss the most.

  I am, however, going to find another job. One that’s as fulfilling. I’m not that kind of woman to not work, and even though Logan would never force my hand to do so, I’m not the kind of woman to let someone else take care of me either.

  “That’s the last one for me,” I tell Norah, not quite ready to tell her why yet. I’ve kept my move and engagement a secret all day while I worked and I’m bursting at the seams to share my news now that we’re alone. They know about my mother’s clothes, her dress, and the letter because I couldn’t wait to tell them. My engagement needed to be told in person.

  Plus, I need to start packing because I’m as eager as Logan is to start this journey.

  Hope and dreams coming alive.

  They didn’t know about the club closing which didn’t surprise me when Eric told me Logan asked him not to tell them because he wanted to tell me himself. They weren’t shocked at all when I told them. Honestly, neither was I when Logan told me. It not only makes me happy and proud of Logan and his brothers, but it also gives me hope that Seth and Lane will find someone to love them for the men they are.

  Big and rugged men with just as big of a heart waiting for someone to come along and claim it.

  “You’re hiding something from me. Spill it right this second. I’ve waited weeks to look you in the eye and make sure you’re honestly okay. You,” she pauses and tips the bottle of tequila my way, “are the happiest I have ever seen you. Are you moving in with Logan or something?” She levels her curious observation on me, those light brown eyes squinting in her nosy tell-tale way.

  “You’ve asked that already. At least a handful of times throughout the day. My answer is still the same.” I bite my lip, deciding to hold off on telling her the same way I did when she kept hounding me about it.

  Before I walked through the door of Ebony and Ivory this morning, I slipped off my ring and put it in my pocket. Up until now, I’ve been able to keep a straight face. Now that we aren’t surrounded by customers I guess I’m not doing a very good job.

  A little more happiness curls through me when she tilts her head to study me. Wheels just spinning inside her head. She’ll never guess, no matter how hard she tries.

  When Norah tricked me into going to Logan’s party I was angry at her for butting her nose in where it didn’t belong. Really, it’s Norah I have to thank for pushing me into Logan’s arms, but God, taunting her is so much fun.

  My best friend, my sister. My person.

  “That’s because I know you.”

  I know her too, I want to add. I’d also like to know why every time I called her she asked if I’ve seen Rocco. I found out from Logan the two of them got into it, and then the other day Rocco called asking for her number. But I’m going to leave it alone. For now.

  “Hmm.”

  Sliding the ring on my finger, I pick up the shot glass Norah set in front of me, lick my wrist, tip my head back and let the tequila glide down my throat. Following with a lime.

  Shock scatters across Norah’s features before she lifts her head, chin trembling, eyes filling instantly with tears.

  “Is that what I think it is? You’re engaged? Oh, my God. When?” Her mouth stays open, and her brows shoot up.

  “Yes and yes. The night before last.” Excitement bled from within me while tears well in Norah’s eyes as she leans over and takes hold of my hand. I have this feeling there won’t be much more laughter tonight. I think my mother would be okay with that.

  I surely am. The tears shed tonight will be ones of celebration with many more to come.

  “So,” she says, her fingers tracing my ring a couple of times before intertwining our fingers. “You opened your beautiful soul like I hoped you would, you found the positives in a man who I knew the night you met he was going to be the one and now look at you, you’re getting married, Ellie. Your moving home, aren’t you?”

  There’s no sorrow in her expression, only profound happiness.

  “Yes.” I tuck my trembling lip between my teeth.

  “I’m happy for you, Ellie. I’ll miss you. When are you leaving?”

  “A week or so. I’ll miss you more, Norah, but we aren’t that far away and we’re family. Family is forever.”

  Anticipation weaves through me. I can feel a little more of my old life unraveling. I’d already found peace. Logan made sure of that, and the journey we are starting is something I can’t wait to see where it takes us. I was starting over, a new life and gaining so much more than Logan. I was gaining more family. More bonds. More of a beautiful life I thought would be broken forever.

  Before and after. God, I couldn’t wait to get to all those afters. Cherish them for the rest of my life.

  But I was going to miss living with Norah more than I was going to miss anything else. We have a bond that no matter where life would have taken either one of us, it would have never been broken. It was just this morning when I was showering, eagerness coursing through me to get here when suddenly I realized just how close Norah and I are.

  My best friend, the center of me, the one who knows me best of all. Renita might be the foundation, it was Norah who built the walls. I don’t mean the walls that I spread to protect myself, the ones to show me what true sisterhood was about.

  When I think about everything Norah has done for me, even if it was just being awake late at night and all we did was sit in the dark. I think about the impact of her love. Without her, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

  Norah and I are tethered together. She’s not the sister I didn’t have. She is my sister.

  “Yes, we are family and I couldn’t have asked for a better one. Home is always where the heart is and even though physically you were here, your heart was always in Texas. Now you get to share it with a man who came along and swept you off your feet. Dreams do come true, Ellie, and yours has. To me, no one deserves theirs to come true more than you.”

  I waver on what to say. Norah and I have been through so much together. Sharing secrets, hopes, and dreams. Dreams that were the same, and it’s because of the bond we share, of how we know each other well that I can’t hope and dream as I sit here that hers comes true too.

  “Well, hell, it’s about damn time Logan asked you. When you called yesterday to say you were coming to see us, that was when I knew he did.”

  It’s my turn to open my mouth. Shock widening my eyes when I whip around to see Renita getting off the couch and nearly flying across the room. My aunt who as of last week went from a cast to a boot is limping behind her. Both with smiles and overjoyed tears.

  “You knew?” Norah and I ask at the same time.

  “I did. I knew there was a man buried underneath Logan’s secret. One that is so in love with you, so respectful of family, that he came to me and asked my permission to ask you to marry him. It wouldn’t have mattered if I told him no, he would have anyway. You caught yourself a good man, Ellie. A very good one.”

  My rib cage constricts my heart. I swoon a little too. Logan proving again his devotion to family.

  The damaged, dark, and dangerous man I met months ago has done more than change himself, he’s changed me and I couldn’t be happier.

  Two people whose paths were interconnected and crossed at the right time have fallen in love. Because only the Lord knows where I would be if Logan Mitchell hadn’t come onto me t
he night we met.

  God, it’s only going to get better from here.

  Tears soak my face.

  “He’s everything to me, Renita.”

  “I know, Ellie. I knew all along Logan would be. The minute you stepped through the door and I saw your face, I wanted to run and pull you into my arms and congratulate you. Let me see the ring. Bet it looks as good on you as it did on your mother.”

  Moisture glistens in her eyes.

  “Pour another shot, Norah. Keep them coming, we have to celebrate and start planning a wedding.”

  I’d been wrong about no more laughter. It came out in the rest of the tequila and singing and dancing to our favorite songs.

  Epilogue

  Ellie

  “Sometimes we sit around and contemplate the choices we have to make. We worry if we’re doing the right thing. We weigh our options, trying to tip the scale one way or the other. Deciding whatever way it falls is the choice we’re making. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are certain situations where the wrong choice could cost, but I think those choices we make where we don’t think about the outcome because in our hearts we already know it’s right, are the most vital choices we will ever make.”

  It takes everything I have in me to keep quiet as I listen to Renita. To not let the happy tears of the choices I’ve made since meeting Logan leak over my closed lids.

  My thoughts drift toward the windows, knowing the best choice I’ve made is on the other side probably waiting not so patiently to catch a glimpse of me.

  “You made a choice to embrace fears and follow your heart. Logan made a choice to change. You did it for each other, Ellie. You took a risk, and you leaped, and the choices the two of you made brought you home. It brought you happiness and peace and so much love. You’re the woman your parents wanted you to be, Ellie. Happy and loved and cherished. There, I think you’re ready to go marry that choice, baby girl.”

  Opening my eyes, I catch Renita as she backs away from the mirror propped up against the kitchen table.