Driving down the street where I had lived while sitting next to Elijah was surreal. I thought that my heart would beat out of my chest and my palms were so sweaty.
"We're here," Elijah announced as he pulled the truck to a halt in the parking lot outside my apartment building. I wasn't sure what I would find once I went inside. My father and I hadn't talked since I had left for my trip to Colorado. After that, I had just relocated to Albuquerque with Elijah. I made sure that all of the bills were paid at the old apartment, though.
"I haven't talked to my dad in over six months," I admitted, staring down at my hands folded in my lap shamefully.
"It's okay," said Elijah. "I'll wait here. Go and talk to him and I will be right here. If you want me to come in, I can do that, too."
I thought for a minute before responding.
"Let me go and see what's going on and then I'll let you know," I said. Elijah nodded.
I got out of the car, stretching the stiffness out of my legs and back. The walk down the sidewalk heading toward my apartment seemed more like a death march. I was almost certain that once I opened the door, I was not going to like what I saw.
When I walked up to the door of the apartment, I could hear the drone of the TV set. I couldn’t help feeling like Elijah should be with me. So, I leaned out over the balcony and nodded my head in a motion that signaled he should come up, after all. He quickly got out of the car and began heading in my direction as if he knew I was going to change my mind. We seemed to have secret ESP couple language like that.
Once Elijah was with me where he belonged, I took his hand. Then with my other one, I put my key in the lock and pushed the door open. The lights were on, but I didn't see anyone in the living room.
"Michelle, I’m so glad you came back," said my father, walking into the room.
He looked surprised, but not as surprised as I thought he would. And, he looked much better, overall, than I had feared he would. He had on a button up white shirt and suit pants.
"Where are you going all dressed up?" I asked, surprised. My dad smiled shyly.
"Oh, I have a job interview,” he said, smiling proudly. “Your old dad is trying to turn his life around.”
“That’s wonderful,” I told him. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m glad to see you,” he said. I went over and gave him a hug.
“I thought you’d be mad at me for taking off and not coming back,” I told him.
“How could I be mad at you for that?” he said. “You needed to live your own life. I was only dragging you down. And it was a wake up call to me, too. I’m sorry I wasn’t making the best choices. You know, I thought of calling you so many times, but I didn’t want to be any more of a burden on you than I already had been. I decided that when you were ready, you would come see me. And here you are.”
He let go and looked at me, then hugged me again and continued.
“To be honest, though, I promised myself that once I was set with a good job, I would contact you to let you know I was going to pay you back for the rent you’ve paying on this apartment for all these months so that I could live in it, and also to tell you that I was a functional human being again, and that I would love to have the honor of seeing you again in my life. But, I’m sorry if you thought my lack of contact was for bad reasons. And, again, I’m just so sorry for everything I put you through.”
“It’s okay, Dad” I said, my arms wrapped tightly around him. “I know you were going through a lot. I too thought of contacting you many times but I thought you were happy without me, or that you would be mad that I left you like that. I’m so glad to find you’re doing much better now.”
“And I'm glad to see that the relationship between your mother and I didn't ruin your chances at love,” he told me, breaking away from our hug and nodding at Elijah before extending his hand to meet him. “I wasn't sure that I would ever get the chance to see you walk down the aisle, but it looks like all of that may change?"
My father looked at Elijah questioningly as they shook hands and Elijah introduced himself.
"Dad..." I said, beginning to fidget uncomfortably.
"Don't 'Dad' me, I'm just saying. It's a good thing. I am very happy for my daughter and her... boyfriend?" my dad said, a smile creeping up on his face.
"Yes, boyfriend," said Elijah. "For now, that is.”
As they continued to grasp hands, I remembered how Elijah had told me that freeing my conscience when it came to my dad would help me the way that it had helped him when he’d confessed his feelings to his fellow SEALs. I took a deep breath and decided to plunge right in with it.
“Dad, speaking of you and Mom,” I said, a tear springing to my eye as soon as I mentioned her name. “I loved her and am still really sad about her. But there’s something I wanted to tell you about someone at the funeral. I’d been keeping it in because I didn’t want to hurt you any further, but…”
“It’s okay,” Dad said, walking over to place his hand on my shoulder. “This is about that Jean guy, isn’t it? The asshole.”
“What?” I said, looking back and forth between him and Elijah. “You knew about Jean?”
“Not at first,” he said, sitting down on the couch.
Elijah and I sat too. Dad looked at his watch and then continued.
“I have five minutes before I have to leave for the job interview, and that’s about all the time and breath I’m going to waste on Jean,” he said. “But, yes, I knew. At first, I didn’t know who exactly he was or the extent of the involvement, but, I’m no fool. I knew your mom had found someone else. I was trying to get her to talk to me about it, but, probably not very well. It was easier to just stick my head in the sand and ignore things instead of having to face them and deal with them.”
“I know exactly what that can be like,” Elijah said, nodding.
“Well, that Jean dude came up to me after the funeral,” Dad said.
“He came up to me, too!” I exclaimed.
“I didn’t know that, or I would have kicked his ass,” he said. “Instead, I just threatened to. I told him your mom’s and my marriage was between us and us alone and that he should honor her memory by staying out of it.”
“I agree!” I said.
“You know what’s funny?” my dad said, although he wasn’t laughing. “Your mom and I had had a fight that day she left, a real, actual fight. I had told her to pick, him or me. She had said she needed time to herself, but that she knew she had to do the right thing and call off anything she had going with third parties so that she could focus on herself and be in the right frame of mind to be there for you and to think about what to do when it came to our marriage.”
I looked at him, flabbergasted.
“She told me not to tell you she was leaving,” I said.
“I know,” he replied. “And I don’t blame you for keeping your promise. It didn’t surprise me when Jean said she was leaving me, but, I honestly don’t think it was to go to him. She really seemed to act as if what she and he had was just a crazy fling. I mean, how could she think she seriously wanted to be with that dork, anyway?”
“Exactly!” I said, laughing despite myself.
“She just needed to find herself,” he continued. “I have hope that she would have decided to work things out with me. I can’t say I’d want her back, after all that cheating, to be honest. But, I also highly doubt she would have ended up with Jean.”
We all three snickered at his name.
“I wasn’t always the best husband to your mother, and I think I would have forgiven her her transgressions if she had forgiven me mine. However, we never got to find out. Life had other plans,” he said. “The thing that has kept me going, in addition to wanting to be a better father to you, is the thought that all of us are imperfect and only love can see us through. I decided to live a life that was worthy of your mother’s memory— not the bad part, but the good part. She and I were together for a long time and it wasn’t all bad. Plus, I didn�
��t want that Jean guy to win, and to know that he had successfully destroyed my family. I still have my love for your mother, and I still have you.”
Dad reached out and took my hand, and I squeezed it, trying not to cry.
“Well, Dad, I really think you’ve learned and grown a lot over these past six months,” I told him, proudly.
“And it looks like I can say the same for you,” Dad said, patting my hand and then standing up. “I have to get to my interview. It’s a second one— a follow up— and I really think I’ll get it. If you kids want to stick around, hopefully we can celebrate with ice cream afterwards. Vanilla, hand dipped in chocolate?”
The memories of ice cream trips with my mom— and her favorite kind to choose— flooded me in a mixture of good and bad memories. I guess that like Harlow always likes to say, the only thing to do with feelings is so strong is feel them and live through them.
“That sounds great,” I told him, looking around at my old apartment. He had actually kept it pretty clean, but there were some dishes in the sink, and it could use a good deep scrubbing. I decided to tidy up while he was gone. “We’ll stay here and wait for you. Elijah can watch some baseball on TV.”
“You a baseball fan?” my dad asked, turning with a smile towards Elijah.
“I like to watch a good game now and then,” Elijah nodded.
Of course, his cave hadn’t had TV, and he had barely watched the one in his cabin because he liked to be active outside. But now that we had moved to Albuquerque, we had gone to some Isotopes games with some of the Bradford family members, and he had gotten into watching some games on TV.
“I think we’ll get along just fine,” Dad said, with a wink.
“Me too,” Elijah told him. “And if things keep going the way they have been, I have a pretty good feeling that you'll be walking your daughter down the aisle soon, after all."
I hadn't expected to hear him say that, but it made me happy he did. He wanted to marry me.
Elijah had helped me reunite with my dad, just as I’d helped him reunite with his SEAL friends. And we’d both found purpose in the veterans’ charity work. The fact that he had taken me as his captive in his cave had helped free both of us for a life of happiness and love— and some bad feelings we had to work out sometimes, too, but that was part of life and at least we were facing it together.
On top of everything else, it looked as if my mountain man and I were going to be engaged soon. I wondered how it would happen— perhaps when he took me back to the cave and tied me up for old time’s sake, as we had talked about before we had come here to Iowa.
Being engaged would just be the icing on top of the cake which was our very amazing life together. I had gotten my very own happily ever after, after all.
Thank you for reading and for your support of this indie author. If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review. If you would like to join my ARC team and receive free advance reading copies of books, please send a link or screenshot of your review to [email protected]. Love, Juliana.
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Chapter 1 – Hailey
I stepped off the plane at Miami International Airport and shuffled along with the other passengers toward the baggage carousel. It was the first time I had left Colorado. I had grown up in Fort Collins and had been all over Colorado, but I had never left the state.
And I was excited. I came all the way to Miami to visit Carly Donovan, my best friend. She had moved out to Miami a couple of months ago to be with Brad Williams, her long-lost lover. I was happy for her that she’d found love again but since she moved away and left me behind, I’d been miserable.
Carly and I had studied together. We started out as roommates during our first year, and we’d become such great friends that we bunked together ever since. When Carly had transferred her MBA studies to online classes instead of attending her post-graduate studies with me, I decided I had to convince her to come back.
And that was why I was here.
But it wasn’t only that. I wanted to see my friend again and to finally meet the man who’d managed to steal her away from me.
When I collected my bags from the carousel, I walked through to the receiving area, and Carly waved at me, her hands flying in the air. I hurried to her, and we threw our arms around each other. It had only been a few months, but I had missed her so much.
“God, it’s so good to see you!” Carly cried. “I can’t wait to show you around.”
We walked arm in arm to the parking lot, and I loaded my bags into the back. When we pulled out of the airport and headed toward North Beach, Carly started talking.
“You have to see the place we have now. Brad bought a beach house for the two of us. He said his condo was a bachelor pad. So, you have the spare bedroom with a bathroom all to yourself.”
“That’s great, Carly,” I said, and I meant it. I missed her, and I hated that she wasn’t with me at Colorado State anymore, but I was happy she’d found the love of her life, and she was creating a future for herself. Maybe it was selfish of me to ask her to come back with me.
Miami was beautiful. It was hot and humid with the skies clear and bright. I got a view of the city when we drove through town. The buildings were tall and shimmering, and as we headed out toward North Beach, the scenery changed from city vibes to beach vibes. I loved it. I hadn’t been to the coast because I’d never left Colorado, and it was an experience to be out here where even the air tasted salty.
“We have so much to catch up on,” Carly said. “You have to fill me in on your love life. I know you’ll never tell me anything about that on the phone, you’re so tightlipped.”
I shrugged. “You can complain all you want. But I don’t like talking about it on the phone. Besides, there’s not much to tell.”
Carly chuckled. “I’ll be the judge of that. You tell me everything, and I’ll decide how significant it is.”
I laughed. This was the Carly I knew and loved, the friend who always got into my business.
“I’d rather you tell me about you and your love life. I think that’s way more interesting,” I said.
Carly smiled, looking downright blissful. “Brad is such a sweetheart,” she said. “And his friends are amazing. I guess they’re my friends now, too. Especially their wives. They’re all used to fast-paced lives and a lot of money, and I thought I wouldn’t fit in, but they made me a part of their circle.”
“Your life sounds like a television show,” I said.
“It really does,” Carly agreed. “And I love it.”
We crossed the bridge to North Beach. The houses were decidedly bigger, and when we drove down a road that ran parallel to the beach, there were restaurants and hotels scattered all over the place as if someone had dropped a handful of them and the tourists rejoiced.
“This is so picturesque,” I said. “It looks like a postcard.”
“I’m sure it’s where the postcard photos are taken,” Carly said. “And Brad is home, so you’ll get to meet him.”
I had heard a lot about Brad. When I had met Carly, she had only just broken up with him and things had been horrible for her. She hadn’t wanted to look at another man, and her studies had been rocky as well. It had been a bad start for her. Slowly, she had gotten over the guy and moved on, and the two of us had set out as two single women, Carly with her healing heart and mine with my unrequited love story. When Carly and Brad got together again, I felt like she’d abandoned me, despite how happy I was for her.
But I had never met Brad. I’d seen him on TV a lot of times, but this was the first time I’d meet him face to face.
And I was nervous. Of course, he was nothing more than a guy, but he had been built up by the media so much, I felt like I might be meeting a god. It was strange to think I was headed into the inner circle of the rich and famous and that the person to get me there was my best friend. Two years ago, I would never have imagined this was where we would end up. Of course, when Carly and Brad had first broken up, he’d been a regular guy. It was during his break that he’d become famous.
“Can you believe this is where we’re at now?” I asked. “I’m not only talking about being here in Miami together, driving to your famous boyfriend’s beach house, but as people too.”
Carly shook her head. “It’s crazy.”
When I mentioned I was nervous to meet Brad, Carly shook her head.
“Don’t be nervous. Brad is awesome, and he didn’t let the fame go to his head. He’s a great guy, and he’ll accept you with open arms because you’re my girl. You’re important to me, so by default, you’re important to him.”
I liked the way that sounded.
We pulled into the driveway of a huge house, and I leaned toward the window, whistling.
“I can’t believe you live here,” I said.
Carly chuckled. “Better believe it. It’s a dream come true.”
The front door opened, and a big guy came out. He carried himself the way an athlete did, with a fluid gate and a smile that was camera-ready.
“You must be Hailey,” Brad said. I held out my hand, but he pulled me into a hug, talking about being part of the family. Carly watched us, smiling proudly.
“Hey, babe,” Brad said, kissing Carly after he greeted me. “How was traffic?”
“Fine,” Carly said. “Will you grab the bags? I want to show Hailey to her room.”
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