Winning my Best Friend's Girl
Page 23
Palmer’s gaze focuses on him like she’s watching the Lake Starlight baseball team. My girl loves baseball, something her uncles couldn’t be happier about. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe she sees the resemblance even at her young age.
Jamison signs to her. Hello.
My head whips to Palmer and she smiles, signing back. Hello.
Oh hell no. I grab Jamison’s arm, pulling him out of Terra and Mare.
He follows without a fight this time and I release him as soon as we reach the sidewalk. But seeing all the faces of my family and guests plastered to the window, I grab him again and move us further down the sidewalk out of everyone’s sight.
“You’re pregnant?” he asks.
“That’s obvious. What are you doing here?”
Now that the immediate threat to Palmer is gone, my gaze skates across him. I hate that my body isn’t listening to my brain. He looks good, healthy—and resembles the guy I fell in love with, not the guy I left. His cheeks are rosy with color, his body lean with muscle. His bright blue eyes sparkle, no longer dull and glazed over as they had been for so long.
Our eyes catch as though we both just took a trip down memory lane, except I definitely don’t resemble the woman he fell in love with. I’m far from that seventeen-year-old girl he’d flirt with in the hallway of our high school.
“I’m here for you and our daughter.” He says it as though he can snap his fingers and we’ll grab our bags and be off. But that’s Jamison’s way, everything has always come easy and the one time it didn’t, he decided to destroy his life.
“Sorry, we’re not available.” I cross my arms over my chest and his eyes dip to my cleavage. He probably forgets how big my breasts got with Palmer because a bottle of vodka was more appealing than I was in those days.
“I’m clean,” he rushes out. “For a year.”
“Good. I’m happy for you.”
It’s true. I might not love Jamison anymore but one day Palmer will want answers and I’d like to tell her that her father got his shit together.
“I never should have let you leave.”
A huff escapes. “Hard to fight for us when you’re passed out. I was always curious how many days it took you to realize I’d left you.”
He looks dazed like he doesn’t remember. Probably kept waking up thinking I was at the store.
“I want another chance,” he says, ignoring my jab.
I shake my head.
“Is she deaf?” he asks changing the course of our conversation. I want to keep all things Palmer away from him until I have a better idea what’s going on with him these days.
“Listen, I’m in the middle of something. Are you staying at Glacier Point?” If he is, I’m going to be pissed at my brother-in-law Wyatt for not giving me a heads-up that he’d booked a room.
“Um, I haven’t booked a room anywhere yet. I just flew in this morning.”
“So you were just going to wheel your suitcase around and hope you found me?” Typical unprepared Jamison.
“I wasn’t sure. I’ve been planning this moment for so many months and now that I’m here, so close to you, I don’t know what to do. My plan went out the window. You’re gorgeous by the way, but you were when you were pregnant with our daughter too.”
He reaches out to touch me and I retract my arm. “Funny, I never thought you noticed.”
His head tilts, and he tries to use that same look that would get me to forget our stupid fights back when we were together. Well, not this time. This isn’t him leaving the toilet seat up or not loading the dishwasher. “I’ve loved you since I’ve known you. Of course I noticed you. You glowed just like you do now. But tell me, do I have competition? Who’s the father of your baby?” He glances to my left hand and I pull it behind my back.
A million lies flash through my brain like pop-up thoughts in the comics above my head. My ring doesn’t fit anymore. We’re not engaged. But all of it is a lie. So I go with snark. “My life is none of your business.”
He nods. “Just hear me out. One coffee or tea or whatever you can drink in your condition.”
I roll my eyes. “Jamison, I’m happy you’re doing well but nothing is going to change between the two of us.”
His shoulders slump, and he says nothing for a minute. “Just one coffee. I understand you’re mad, I would be too, but I’m only asking for you to hear me out.”
I fight the impulse to say yes. He was always hard to say no to, hence how I ended up pregnant. “I don’t know. It’s been a long time.”
“Please, Sedona. Please.” A line forms at the bridge of his nose as he pleads with me.
The door of Terra and Mare opens and we both glance over to find Kingston wheeling Jamison’s suitcase out and resting it by the side of the building. Instead of going back, he stands there with his arms crossed staring over at us.
“King,” I say with an irritated tone.
“It’s just such a beautiful day. I want to take full advantage.” He shoves his hands into his pockets and his head circles up to stare up at the sky.
The door opens again a second later and Stella shoots me a sympathetic look while trying to drag Kingston back inside the restaurant. They exchange a few words, but Stella wins per usual.
“Now is not the time. I have to get back in there,” I say to Jamison once they’re gone.
He nods. “Tomorrow?”
I exhale a big breath. “I don’t know.”
“Please, Sedona.”
I guess I wouldn’t mind some explanations after all this time. Plus it gives me an opportunity to tell him it’s completely over between us since he seems to be on a mission to win me back—if what he says can be believed. “Fine.”
He reaches out again and I step back. His hands fall to his side. “Thank you.”
“But not here.” I glance around. “I’ve kept us out of Buzz Wheel for this long, and I don’t want that changing. A lot of people still know you here. Meet me in Sunrise Bay. Tomorrow at ten o’clock. There’s a diner called Two Brothers and an Egg.”
“Perfect. I’ll be there.” He smiles and I ignore the way it chips at my defenses.
I nod and walk back toward the entrance to Terra and Mare.
“Sedona?”
I circle back to face him.
“Is she deaf?”
I nod and move to open the door, but my curiosity gets the better of me. “How do you know how to sign?”
“My uncle was deaf.”
So there’s the answer to the question about Palmer’s deafness.
He must see me trying to remember ever meeting his uncle because he says, “He died when I was over here during senior year, remember?”
Vaguely, but we had so much going on trying to figure out how we would stay together after high school ended. Though now that I’m thinking about it, I vaguely remember him missing the funeral because his family couldn’t afford the airfare home.
“Bye, Jamison,” I say.
He raises his hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I open the door and disappear into Terra and Mare. Holly and Austin are opening the presents. I want to thank my sisters and sisters-in-law for spurring them to continue on and not have everyone waiting for me. I sneak into the room, sliding into a chair in the back row.
Palmer slides off of Stella’s lap and climbs up onto me. The one thing I miss now that I’m so pregnant is the fact that I can’t get her as close as I want when I hug her. She nuzzles up in my arms and rests her head on my belly because it’s her nap time.
Phoenix sits next to me and grabs my hand in hers, conveying that we’ll get through this. I know she believes that. I run my hand through Palmer’s hair and watch her breathing become shallower and shallower as she drifts off to sleep.
Oh baby girl, our world just blew up and you don’t even know it. But rest assured, I’ll never allow him to hurt you the way he’s hurt me. That’s a promise.
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Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings
Whoa, that story was all kinds of emotion, wasn’t it? At one point in the middle of the story Rayne thought to herself, is this even funny? But as any of our faithful Piper Rayne fans know, we try to be true to the characters. Kingston and Stella just had too much of a past, and their love was so deep it felt more emotional than funny a lot of the time.
* * *
We’ve had all the Bailey covers ready to go since book one. Stella and Kingston’s photograph is one of our favorites but we’re not going to lie, we were worried about the backlash of two white women writing a black heroine. We’ve seen the comments on Facebook—some people think books should be more diverse regardless of the race of who is writing them and others disagree. But we just didn’t feel like the reality would be that out of nine kids, they would all marry in their same race. We had trouble finding photographs of interracial couples but fell in love with Stella and Kingston’s photo as soon as we saw it. (Are you listening photographers? Please start shooting more interracial couples!!!) Because of our concern, we reached out to diversity editor, Renita McKinney, for her help. She’s an amazing woman and she helped us tremendously with this book! We also had three sensitivity readers go through the book and we owe them a huge thanks as well—Amber L. Cotton, Isha Coleman and LaToya Toney-Walterhouse. Any issues within these pages are on us, not anyone else.
* * *
When we decided on writing this story line, I’m not sure we thought it was going to toe the line of second chance romance. Originally, we thought maybe Stella would work at the local bar but then that would mean she would’ve always been in Lake Starlight. But as we teased Kingston and Stella’s story and brought Owen in, it quickly turned into something bigger. It wasn’t just a my best friend’s girl trope because Kingston had been friends with her too. Good friends. The best of friends. Add in the fact that they weren’t getting their HEA until book eight and we knew they couldn’t both live in the same town for that long and never get together. And so Stella left for school and didn’t return for a long time.
* * *
One of our secrets is, we came up with their past while writing this book. We knew something huge had to have happened for Stella to run but we had no idea what until we started WMBFG. Thankfully, because we kept Kingston and his history with Stella vague in previous stories, we didn’t write ourselves into a corner.
* * *
Rayne did a shit ton of research on the crazy ass stunts Kingston loves. She watched video after video wanting it to seem authentic because she’d never dream of doing any of them, but she admires those who do. You can go to YouTube and look up speedriding down mountains or bore tide in Anchorage. You can even see the Alaska Adventure Race. Alaska is so beautiful and all the videos show how lucky the Baileys are to live there.
* * *
Our team deserves HUGE HUGS, who if not for them, we’d never be able to get these books to you!
* * *
Danielle Sanchez and the entire Wildfire Marketing Solutions team!
Renita McKinney for her diversity edit.
Cassie from Joy Editing for line edits.
Ellie from My Brother’s Editor for line edits.
Shawna from Behind the Writer for proofreading.
Our sensitivity readers— Amber L. Cotton, Isha Coleman and LaToya Toney-Walterhouse.
Sarah from Okay Creations for the cover and branding for the entire series.
Sara from Sara Eirew Photography for the super sexy picture of Juno and Colton.
Bloggers who consistently carve out time to read, review and/or promote us.
Our Piper Rayne Unicorns who champion this series to others with their whole hearts.
You the reader who took a chance on our book with so many choices out there!
* * *
We’re already tearing up just thinking about Sedona’s book. The last full-length book in The Bailey series. UGH. But Jamison is back and the Bailey brothers aren’t on the welcoming committee, that’s for sure. We can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. Bet you can’t either. ;)
* * *
XO,
Piper & Rayne
About the Author
Piper Rayne, or Piper and Rayne, whichever you prefer because we’re not one author, we’re two. Yep, you get two USA Today Bestselling authors for the price of one. Our goal is to bring you romance stories that have "Heartwarming Humor With a Side of Sizzle" (okay...you caught us, that's our tagline). A little about us... We both have kindle’s full of one-clickable books. We're both married to husbands who drive us to drink. We're both chauffeurs to our kids. Most of all, we love hot heroes and quirky heroines that make us laugh, and we hope you do, too.
www.piperrayne.com
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Also by Piper Rayne
The Baileys
Lessons from a One-Night Stand
Advice from a Jilted Bride
Birth of a Baby Daddy
Operation Bailey Wedding (Novella)
Falling for My Brother’s Best Friend
Demise of a Self-Centered Playboy
Confessions of a Naughty Nanny
Operation Bailey Babies (Novella)
Secrets of the World’s Worst Matchmaker
Winning My Best Friend’s Girl
Rules for Dating your Ex
* * *
The Modern Love World
Charmed by the Bartender
Hooked by the Boxer
Mad about the Banker
* * *
The Single Dad’s Club
Real Deal
Dirty Talker
Sexy Beast
* * *
Hollywood Hearts
Mister Mom
Animal Attraction
Domestic Bliss
* * *
Bedroom Games
Cold as Ice
On Thin Ice
Break the Ice
Box Set
* * *
Charity Case
Manic Monday
Afternoon Delight
Happy Hour
* * *
Blue Collar Brothers
Flirting with Fire
Crushing on the Cop
Engaged to the EMT
* * *
White Collar Brothers
Sexy Filthy Boss
Dirty Flirty Enemy
Wild Steamy Hook-up
* * *
The Rooftop Crew
My Bestie’s Ex
A Royal Mistake
The Rival Roomies
Our Star-Crossed Kiss
The Do-Over
A Co-Workers Crush