by Natalie Ann
Copyright 2018 Natalie Ann
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.
Dedication- To all those couples still in love after so many years!
Author’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Teamwork
Like a Woman
Intelligent Conversation
Be That Way
To the Point
She Belonged
Not Embarrassed
Boyfriend
Make It Special
A Bit Personal
The Future
Some Advice
About Control
All the Rest
Is This Right
Epilogue
Prologue
William Harper looked up at his wife of more years than he could count when she walked into the room. If she’d asked him the number, he could tell her—just like he could tell her anything about their lives—but he liked to pretend he couldn’t and watch the fire leap into her eyes.
She handed him a beer, then set her wine glass down and crawled into his lap, leaning against his chest while he pushed back the bottom of his recliner. It was a nighttime ritual for them. Relaxing together at the end of their day.
To this day, he still loved to feel her in his arms—to hold her tight and think back to the time when he thought he wouldn’t be able to have her. That he’d never be good enough.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, lying her head against his chest and snuggling in some more. It was a move that touched him just as much today as it did so long ago.
“Just thinking about the beautiful woman on my lap right now. That fills my head so that nothing else can occupy it.”
“You always were a smooth one,” she said, kissing his neck. “Well, maybe not in the beginning, but then you got your confidence.”
He laughed, loving how she picked on him. “And you fell for it all. Hook, line, and sinker. I tossed the line and reeled you in good and strong.”
“You keep trying to tell yourself that.” She ran her hand lovingly up and down his thigh, then sighed.
“What’s wrong?” He knew her better than he knew himself at times. She’d been a little sad lately, and that was completely unlike her.
“I spent the day with Michele and we were talking about the kids.” Michele Mathews was Isabel’s best friend and when they weren’t actually together in their free time, they were still chatting some way or another.
“Thomas mentioned something about Lucas dating a new girl that just moved to the area. Has him all twisted around.” Thomas Mathews was more than William’s best friend. He was the man who helped him build his life. The life he’d always wanted and the life that he’d been able to provide for his wife and four children. The life he’d thought he needed to win Isabel over. Turned out all he needed was to love her.
Isabel heaved a big sigh again and he had a feeling where this was going. “She thinks there might be a wedding around the corner.”
“I heard that, too. They’ve got to be thrilled.”
“She is. When are our kids going to settle down? The boys are in their thirties. Kaitlin close behind. Someone should be married by now, don’t you think?”
It would be unwise to laugh at his wife, so he didn’t. He wanted to, but knew better. “Plenty of time yet. Don’t be pushing them into something they aren’t ready for.”
“Ready? Aside from Phil, not one of them is even dating someone. And if Phil thinks of marrying that girl, I’ll put my foot down.”
“I don’t think Phil is even considering it, no matter how much people are talking about it. What’s this really about?” he asked. There had to be more.
“I want grandkids. At Alec and Phil’s age, we were married and had all four of them.”
“Times are different now and you know that. Ben just got home and he is nowhere near ready to settle down. Alec is out having too much fun. Phil is searching for something he can’t seem to find, and no one can help him. And Kaitlin is too busy building her career. Relax. It will happen when it does.”
“You’re right. I know you are. I just want it to happen now.”
“You’ve always been impatient,” he said, his hand roaming under her shirt. Her skin was still as soft and smooth as it was all those years ago.
She turned and put her lips on his. “And you’ve always loved it. Do you remember the first night we met?”
“Luckiest night of my life. I’ll never forget it.”
“That’s sweet. Guess it was luck for me too that no one stole my purse.”
“You’ve never lost it again, either. Or left it anywhere. Guess you learned your lesson that night.”
“Oh, I learned it, all right,” she said, turning around and straddling his hips. “I learned that sexy bartenders have their eyes on everything going on in the bar at all times.”
“How else would I have known where you left it? Or who it belonged to?” She was doing a good job distracting him.
She pulled the beer out of his hand, the one he hadn’t even taken a sip of, and put it next to her untouched wine. “Why don’t you show me what you wanted to do to me that night but were too afraid to? No one’s watching now. Just like no one was back then.”
He didn’t need to be told twice, and slid her off his lap, standing up next to her. “Let’s go upstairs.”
She laughed, the same sexy laugh she had that night, and all his brain matter settled into his pants. “We aren’t some old couple that needs to go to our room. We’ve got a whole empty house to ourselves. Where do you want to start?”
That woman he fell in love with all those years ago had only gotten better with age. She was still sweet and soft, rebellious and adventurous, and she was all his, thanks to a lost purse on a cold winter night.
Teamwork
Thirty-four years ago
The snow was coming down hard outside, the bar empty inside. It’d been hopping like a normal Friday nigh
t early on, but dwindled down about two hours ago. The last of the stragglers left about ten minutes ago.
The minute they were out the door, he’d locked up and started to put chairs on the tables he’d already wiped down, preparing to mop the floor and get it cleaned up for the owners to open tomorrow afternoon.
Four years of college, working ten hours a day and another several at this bar on the weekends, and he still had little to show for it other than a ton of debt, a sore body, and a cold bed to go home to.
He turned the radio on behind the bar so he didn’t feel so lonely. Loneliness was something he felt too much of in his life lately, it seemed.
He was almost done, hurrying more than normal, just wanting to get home and put his feet up on the coffee table in his little apartment. Nights like this, he was too lazy to even open up the sofa bed, falling asleep where he stopped for the night.
When he picked one of the last chairs up to turn it over, a purse fell on the floor. Just a tiny one, and he knew exactly who it belonged to. The petite brunette that was sitting at this corner table with two of her friends.
White wine. Two glasses of it. Her friends were drinking red. But it wasn’t the choice of her wine that stood out to him in a bar where everyone was drinking beer. No, it was the way she looked. Too nice and too classy to be frequenting this bar.
Her dark hair was long and parted in the center, raining over her shoulders, looking like silk. Straight as a board, swishing side to side when she moved her head. A curtain of sorts, and he wondered how it’d feel in his hands if he lifted it away and placed his lips to the pulse at her neck.
But he pushed those thoughts away because he was working in a bar, barely able to keep his head above water in his studio apartment in the wrong section of town, waiting for his break to come. Waiting for someone to believe in him enough to give him a chance.
He placed the purse behind the counter, pushing the lovely lady from his mind, and went back to his manual labor. He was wiping the table down when he heard a knock on the glass.
Looking toward the window, he didn’t see anything but white beyond, wind and swirling snowflakes. He put his head down to finish up fast and get home, thinking it was his imagination until it sounded again.
This time he walked to the door, pushed the old paisley curtain aside, and thought he was dreaming.
Only he wasn’t, because there she was. The beautiful brunette he was fantasizing about all night long, standing there shivering, her arms wrapped around her waist, smiling at him and nodding her head impatiently for him to let her in.
***
Good grief, Isabel thought, what more did she have to do to get the bartender to open the door? Strip naked and do a dance for him? She’d been standing there knocking for over a minute.
“Sorry to bother you,” she said, stepping in and shaking the snow from her hair. “I think I left my purse here. When I got back to my place, I couldn’t find it, so the cab driver brought me back.”
“Yeah, you did. It’s behind the bar. I’ll get it for you.” He left his rag on the table, then rubbed his hands on his jeans. He was taller than she’d thought he was, towering over her by at least a foot. She realized now that the bar wasn’t raised as high as she’d thought, that it was him.
“Thanks so much. I’ve never done that before. I’m not sure what I was thinking.”
“No problem. I didn’t go through it or anything. I just figured you’d come back for it.”
She waved her hand. “No worries. Not much in there really.”
“Your ID,” he said, cracking just a tiny grin.
He was even handsomer up close. Dark hair, not quite as dark as hers. His eyes, though, they were almost black. A little dangerous and definitely probing, with him not looking real friendly at the interruption. It should’ve unnerved her but instead excited her. She’d decided she needed a little excitement in her life lately.
“Well, if I hadn’t come back for it, then you’d know where to find me,” she said, teasing a little.
Not much reaction from him. “True. The owners take care of lost items. It would have made its way back to you at some point.”
She looked around the now empty bar. It was more dismal than it looked earlier when it was half full. Her roommate, Dawn, had wanted to go out for the night, but she would have rather stayed home. Now she was glad she didn’t.
“So you have to close all by yourself?” she asked.
He shrugged. Guess he wasn’t much of a talker. “Not a big deal. Quiet night, so not much to do.” He hadn’t made an attempt to pick up his cleaning rag and continue. Instead, he was just standing there watching her hold her clutch in front of her.
“Looks like you’re almost done.” Chairs were on all the tables but the one next to her, where it looked like he was working when she knocked.
“Just need to sweep and mop, then I can call it a night.”
“Do you need some help?” she asked. “It’s coming down pretty hard out there, so I’m sure you’d like to leave.”
He eyed her funny, looking over her long jacket and knee-high boots. “I’m good. You probably should go grab your cab before he leaves.”
“Oh,” she said, turning quickly. She’d completely forgotten about that. She’d told Dawn she’d just be a minute. “I guess I’ll let you get back to it.” But when she turned to leave and opened the door, she saw the cab was nowhere to be found. “I think they left me here.”
“I can call you another one,” he said.
“Or you can bring me home. I mean, if you live in the city. I’m just a few blocks from here,” she said before she lost her nerve.
He hesitated and then said, “I can do that. I’m in the city, too. I’ll probably be done before someone could make their way here anyway. Why don’t you have a seat at the bar while I finish up. Can I get you another wine or a water or something?”
He was pretty cute, looking flustered at the moment and not at all dangerous like she first thought with those dark looks of his. “I’m good. And I’ll help you. It’s the least I can do. I’m Isabel, by the way. Isabel Carmichael.” She walked up and held her hand out to him.
When his hand touched hers, she almost had to leap back from the spark. “William Harper. Nice to meet you.”
“My pleasure,” she said, and she meant it. He walked over and cleaned the last table off, then turned the chairs over. She removed her jacket and hung it on the back of a bar stool. When he walked out of the room and came back with a broom and dust pan, she took them out of his hands. “Let me do that. You can mop behind me. Teamwork.”
He nodded, almost bashful-like, but handed over the broom, and she got to work while she heard water running out back. They worked in silence for all of five minutes before it started to get on her nerves.
“So, William, how long have you worked here?”
He looked up sharply, as if he’d completely forgotten she was in the room with him. Talk about a blow to her self-confidence. “Just a few months.”
“Do you work every night?”
“Friday night. Saturday and Sunday afternoons until close.”
“You’ve got the weekdays to yourself then. That’s nice.” She started to sweep faster now. He appeared to be a complete dud. Guess she was wrong about him, if he couldn’t say more than a few words.
“What?” he asked. “No. I work during the week, too.” Then he went back to moving his mop around.
She rolled her eyes but slowed down her sweeping. Maybe they could get somewhere now. “What do you do during the week?” she asked. It was like pulling teeth. She did that all day with her students; she wasn’t sure she wanted to with a man.
“I work at Weber Investments.”
“Really?” she asked, leaning on the broom. That surprised her. “What do you do there?”
“Not much,” he said, then laughed. “Sorry. I’d like to do more, but right now it doesn’t seem to be working out the way I envisioned it.”
�
��Why’s that?” He didn’t look like the suit and tie type to her. He wore his faded Levis well and the cotton shirt pushed up at his elbows even better.
“It’s not easy drumming up clients. My boss doesn’t get the need to hustle. He’d rather sit around and wait for people to come to him. I guess he figures it’s his due now.” At her odd look, he finally added, “I’m an investment broker.”
She was right about him. Not a dud, but a go-getter. Maybe a little shy about it. “How long have you worked there?”
“Just a few months. Right out of college,” he said, slowing the motion of his mopping too. They were barely doing anything other than talking at this point. More looking at each other than anything, and things were picking up in her mind.
“Why are you working here then?”
“I’ve got to pay the bills somehow. The bulk of my income is commission and right now, it’s not very high.”
“But it’s got to be exciting, right? Going out and meeting new people, taking some risks and gambling a little.”
“It is. It’s just trying to talk others into taking that risk with me. My day will come, I’m sure. A little hard work never hurt anyone,” he said. “What about you? What do you do?”
Finally, he was asking her something. She didn’t miss his glance at her left hand for a ring. “I just started working myself. I’m a math teacher.”
“Where?” he asked.
“Emma Willard.”
“The college prep school for girls, right?” he asked.
“That’s the one,” she said. Most people were surprised when they heard she taught there. Then when they found out her father was the head of the school, they figured that was how she’d gotten the job.
Deep down she knew it was, but she was out to show she could do it on her own. She wanted to prove she didn’t need her father to get her a job. What she wanted to do was give back to the girls in the school that she’d attended. She wanted to show them that there was a whole wide world out there, and that they should work hard and try to achieve their goals. Not to rely on their fathers or future husbands…even though they all thought that was what she was doing.