Crazy For You

by Alexander, S. B.

  “I understand you and Colton are dating. He seems like a wonderful young man.”

  He was the best. I sat on a wicker chair on the opposite side of the room and sighed with indecision. “It seems like we might run into each other more often.”

  “Are you saying you’re ready to listen?”

  I tangled my hands in my lap. “Yes and no. I’m angry and curious.” I hadn’t gotten over my anger, which was probably one of the reasons why I’d been procrastinating.

  She skirted the chair and lowered herself in a matching wicker love seat far enough away that I didn’t feel like she was suffocating me. “We’re not leaving for an hour. But I don’t want to talk if—”

  I held up my hand. “It’s okay.” I was pretty sure it was okay. I couldn’t promise how I would react when I heard her story.

  She held up her chin. “I had my speech all planned. But as I look at you, I don’t even know where to begin. I am sorry, but I know that doesn’t help.”

  “Were you in love with my father?”

  She winced as if I’d said a swear word. “No. We were teenagers who got caught up in the moment.”

  Great. I was a mistake. Shut up, subconscious.

  I was grateful, though, that Nan had made a doctor’s appointment for me, which I’d gone to last week. I was officially on the pill.

  “But your father was the hottest guy in school. I was surprised when he noticed a freshman like me. Then before I knew it, I was pregnant.” She glanced out the floor-to-ceiling window. “As soon as my parents found out, they whisked me off to a private school out of state. They were the type of parents who prided themselves on appearances and what others thought about them. They couldn’t have a daughter pregnant at fifteen.”

  I swallowed down the shock at how young she’d been, which meant she was only thirty-two.

  “That look on your face was the same one I had when I found out I was pregnant. Anyway, I barely had time to tell Jake.”

  “My father?”

  The dusting of blush on her cheeks sparkled in the light. “Yes. Jake Townsend, star quarterback, bright future, a girl magnet.” She trailed off as she looked everywhere but at me. “I was so naïve then. After I told Jake, he wanted nothing to do with me or my pregnancy. All he cared about was football.”

  “So you got pregnant and decided to just give me up because he didn’t want me?” My anger held steady.

  She jerked her head, the area under her eyes wrinkling. “Not at all. My parents were the ones adamant about giving you up. I protested until I was blue in the face, but my dad wasn’t budging. But in my last month of pregnancy, I convinced my mom to let me keep you. I knew as soon as you were born and she saw you, she would change her mind, and she did.” She paused, tears filled her light-brown eyes, and her chest rose. “Then I came home with you tucked into my arms. I’d never been so in love or excited in my life. You were the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t wait for Jake to meet you. I knew as soon as he saw you, he would fall in love.” She lowered her gaze briefly. “Then I came home from school one day, and you were gone. My parents had been working with a local adoption lawyer during the time I was pregnant, and I didn’t know. Their plan all along was to give you up. I’d never been more traumatized in my life.”

  “How old was I?” I was riveted to her every word as the anger swirling in my gut directed itself at her evil parents.

  “Three weeks old. I never got a chance to introduce you to Jake, either.”

  How sad. I couldn’t imagine how she must’ve felt when she’d gotten home and found her baby gone. I also wasn’t sure I was a fan of my bio father for not wanting anything to do with her. My adoptive parents had always taught me to take responsibility for my actions. God, I missed them.

  Then a lightbulb came on in my head. I shouldn’t be angry with Ashley. Maybe at her parents, but in the end, if they hadn’t given me up, I never would’ve met Randall and Candance Lawson. I couldn’t imagine my life without them. For seventeen years, I’d had the best darn parents, the most love any mom and dad could give a child, and they shaped me into the young woman I had become. If Mom or Dad had been with me, they would have told me to give her a chance.

  Heavy footsteps pounded somewhere in the house, and then Mr. Dyson came into view. “Oh,” he said to Ashley. “Take your time.”

  She scooted to the edge of the cushion. “I’ll be a second.”

  More footsteps clamored behind Mr. Dyson before Grady and Colton appeared.

  Colton took in the scene, then prodded me with his eyes, wanting to know if I needed him.

  I smiled to let him know I was okay.

  Mr. Dyson then waved the guys out of the kitchen and into another room. “Give them some space.”

  I abandoned my seat and joined Ashley on the sofa. Candace Lawson would forever be my first mom and the woman who’d loved me unconditionally, and Nan was definitely my second mom and would always hold that spot, but maybe having a third mom wasn’t so bad.

  Regardless, I sensed that opening the door for Ashley and me to get to know each other wouldn’t hurt. I figured it would be nice to know my lineage at some point in the future. I also could see how hard it was for her to tell me that story.

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that.” I really was. “Can I hug you?”

  She flung herself at me. “You never have to ask that.”

  My muscles tightened. I wasn’t quite ready to open myself fully to her, but she looked like she could use a hug. “Did you try looking for me?” I untangled myself from her.

  She ran a finger under each eye, clearing the mascara that had smudged. “For years. My parents made it so they didn’t know who adopted you. They didn’t want to know and felt if they did, I would eventually get them to tell me. But a year ago, on my mom’s deathbed, she finally directed me to a file my dad had kept on the adoption. But the only thing in that file other than your baby picture was the attorney’s name. Sadly, the attorney closed up his practice after a fire gutted his office. I tried to track him down, but I kept running into dead ends. Even if I did speak with him, he was bound by attorney-client privilege, and I wasn’t his client.”

  “Then Mr. Wilson found you,” I said.

  “Yeah.” She flicked a strand of my hair off my forehead. “I like the name Skyler.”

  “You didn’t name me?”

  “I did. I’d always liked the name Melanie. But I like Skyler better. The name fits you.”

  The door burst open and Georgia came in. “There you… oh.” She ran over and extended her hand. “I’m Georgia, Skye’s bestie.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Ashley said, taking Georgia’s hand.

  “And you’re beautiful,” Georgia gushed. “Just like Skyler.”

  Ashley laughed. “Thank you. You have great friends, Skyler.”

  I rolled my eyes at Georgia with all the love in the world. “I do.”

  As if a bell had sounded, Grady and Colton sauntered in.

  Colton wasn’t the star QB, but he was the hottest guy in school. I hopped up. “Hey.”

  He encased me in his muscular arms. “Everything good?”

  “Everything is perfect.”

  Maybe Ashley and I would get to know each other, or maybe we wouldn’t. Either way, I would be okay. Colton was my family now, and my future was with him. That much I was certain of, and I couldn’t be happier.

  Epilogue

  My senior year passed in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t believe I was no longer in high school. A lot happened after Dad died and I met my birth mom.

  Ashley and I had developed a friendship. I still couldn’t bring myself to call her Mom. That title was and would always be reserved for Candace Lawson, my adoptive mother, who had poured her heart and soul into raising me. I wasn’t saying Ashley didn’t deserve the title. What had happened hadn’t been her fault. Maybe one day “Mom” would drop from my lips when I referred to her. She didn’t care if I called her Ashley. She gav
e me the impression that “Mom” would make her day, but baby steps.

  “Skyler Lawson, where are you?” Georgia shouted over the music and chatter of people packed into Grady’s house. “We need to sing Happy Birthday.”

  I hid behind Colton. “Shh.”

  He chuckled as he spun around and pinned me against the counter near the stove. “I’m with Georgia on this. It’s your eighteenth birthday and we need to celebrate.”

  I ran my hands up his chest, not caring if anyone was watching us. “Traitor.”

  He leaned down and nibbled on my ear. “I have the best birthday present for you later.”

  I giggled like a crazy schoolgirl. “I can feel it.”

  Colton and I had been inseparable since we started dating, with the exception of the week after graduation, when he moved his mom to South Carolina. We’d thought his house would sell when they put it on the market back in the fall, but with the new construction of homes throughout the beach town, older homes were harder to sell.

  Georgia huffed. “There you are. All I have to do is find Colton and I know I’ll find you.” She tried to pry Colton and me apart. “It’s time to sing.”

  “Do we have to?” I protested. I was all for a birthday party, but I didn’t like to be the center of attention.

  “You know it.” Then she whistled, and the people who were scattered about the kitchen stopped talking. “It’s time to sing Happy Birthday. Gather around.” She waved her hands.

  Colton moved to my side, giving me a full view of the long island where my four-tiered cake acted as the centerpiece amid a variety of finger foods and goodies.

  “Nan, if you’ll light the candles,” Georgia said.

  Guests were coming in and finding spots where they could.

  Once Nan lit the candles numbered one and eight, she held out her hand. “Come here.”

  I slid over to her with Colton nudging me forward.

  “Don’t look so pained,” Ashley said from the other side of the island.

  Mr. Dyson, who had his arm around his sweetheart, laughed. “I don’t like the attention either,” he said to me.

  Mia emerged through the crowd, her cheeks flushed, her dark hair messy. Behind her, Grady came in looking like he’d been doing something he shouldn’t.

  Whether his dad noticed or not, he didn’t say a word.

  I rolled my eyes at Mia.

  She shrugged as she stood beside Ashley.

  I couldn’t blame her for sneaking away with her boyfriend. I desperately wanted to do just that with my hunk of a man.

  I eyed Georgia. “Anytime.”

  Colton wrapped me in his arms from behind while the guests launched into singing Happy Birthday.

  As I listened to the out-of-tune melody, I took a minute to think of Dad. Once he was diagnosed with ALS, eighteen became the magic number. But things hardly happen the way one wants them to. I looked back on the last two years—because it had been close to two years since Dad and I had cried in his bedroom at three in the morning when he told me he had ALS, and I realized in that moment, among family and friends, that each step in our journey had been necessary to get me to where I was.

  I was with a guy who loved me so hard it hurt, but in a fantastic way. I had friends who would die for me. I even liked Grady more than I had when he’d stuck his tongue in my mouth in elementary school, and we were on track to be stepsiblings. His dad and Ashley were tying the knot in October.

  When the guests finished singing, I made a wish that one day, Colton and I would get hitched. He was my forever, and I wanted to build a future with him. Then I blew out the candles.

  Claps resounded, then trailed off as the guests resumed talking or refreshing their drinks. Nan and Ashley began to cut the cake.

  “What did you wish for?” Colton bit lightly on my ear. I’d learned quickly that Colton was an ear man. He loved doing things to my ear that made me want to jump his bones. I guessed that was why he did.

  “I can’t tell you until it comes true.”

  “I can tickle it out of you,” he said.

  “You can try,” I volleyed back.

  “Mmm. I will later, then.”

  He could do whatever he wanted to me.

  Two days had passed since my birthday party, and I stood on the porch, hugging Nan and not wanting to let go. She and I had been crying for the last twenty-four hours, which was crazy—Colton and I weren’t going to be gone that long. But I felt like I was losing a part of my life that I’d come to love with Nan. She’d been the best guardian ever.

  “Skyler, let’s go.” Colton’s sexy and impatient voice sent shivers over my entire body. “We’re only leaving for a couple of months.”

  We had to be home in time for Ashley’s wedding to Mr. Dyson. I’d agreed to be her maid of honor, and Colton had accepted Mr. Dyson’s offer to be a groomsman.

  I snarled over my shoulder at the love of my life. “I’m coming.” I could almost hear Colton saying, “You will be later when you’re under me naked.”

  I dashed a tear away and smiled. “I should go.” I kissed Nan on the cheek. “I’ll call you when we get to Columbia later tonight.”

  Colton and I were headed out on our road trip—not around the world, but across the great US of A. We’d decided it would be cheaper, especially since we never got those jobs we’d planned on getting during the school year.

  Both of us had too much going on. Colton had gone to see a therapist to work out his issues with his father and Josh’s death. And I wanted to take time to mourn Dad, get to know Ashley, and build a relationship with Nan.

  I grabbed my bag at my feet, gave Nan one last hug, then hightailed it over to Colton, who was sizing me up from head to toe like he always did when I walked into a room or toward him, swinging my hips. “I’m ready.”

  He pecked me on the lips. “Are you sure?”

  I playfully punched him in his hard-as-stone abs. “Wherever you go, I go. So let’s get a move on. Oh, wait. Did you get my skateboard out of the garage?”

  “Of course. I also have your helmet and other gear to protect you,” he said sternly.

  I rolled my eyes as I climbed into the truck. He freaked out every time I fell. I couldn’t blame him. If the tables had been turned, I would have felt the same way.

  Nan waved at us, looking forlorn. My heart pinched as though I was losing her, but she would always be part of my life. I owed her so much. I knew that as she grew older, she would need me to help her in some way, and I wouldn’t hesitate for one second to be at her side. Great caregivers were super-special people, and in my book, they deserved to be honored and cherished.

  Colton slid behind the wheel and started the engine. “Is she going to be okay?”

  I buckled in. “She will. It’s just hard. We’ve grown so close.” I sighed, ready to shake the sadness and start a new adventure. I pulled out my iPad from my bag. “First stop will be Columbia, South Carolina. Grady and Mia are expecting us tonight. Then we head out to Tennessee to see Georgia at the end of the week.”

  Our friends chose to attend college, though Colton and I had decided to put off major life decisions for a year. I wasn’t in a rush. As long as we were together, I was over-the-moon happy and still had to pinch myself sometimes because I was hopelessly in love with the best guy on the planet. He’d come a long way since that day in the parking lot of the Latte House when he’d hit me with his truck. The mysterious Colton, who had been angry with the world, was as loving and caring as my dad had been.

  Colton had been through hardship that I couldn’t even imagine. The physical and emotional abuse he’d been through was something no one should ever have to endure, let alone the death of his brother. I would do everything in my power to make sure Colton knew he was loved every minute of every day.

  The future was ours to make new memories, and I was sure we would. But for the time being, Colton and I needed space to heal, to shed the darkness that had clung to us for so long, and to have fun and breathe.
Regardless of any obstacles thrown our way, our love for one another was all that mattered.

  * * *

  Thank you for reading Crazy For You. Would you like to know what Colton was thinking when he saw Skyler drinking at Grady’s party? CLICK HERE and download your free copy in Colton’s POV.

  If you enjoyed Crazy For You, check out Unforgettable, an angsty, new adult sports romance.

  Afterword

  I hope you enjoyed Crazy For You and Skyler and Colton’s story. This book was my outlet and I wrote it to deal with my own emotions. I’ve also dedicated this book to my husband.

  To my husband of twenty-two years who is the most courageous, honorable, moral, and wonderful man I have ever met. His battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, has been a challenging journey for the last five years. But through the ups and downs and twists and turns, he always has a smile on his face. He’s the love of my life and my soulmate, and I’m honored to call him my hero.

  With all the love in my heart.

  Susan

  Our journey has been challenging, emotional, and often maddening. I’ve been angry, sad, bawling most nights when Bill’s asleep, happy, grateful, and so many other emotional roller coaster rides. And yet, while I would love nothing more than to have my husband back in full health, I can’t complain. I’ve learned so much. I’ve grown by leaps and bounds as a person and as a wife. You never really know how much you love someone until you’re faced with a life-changing situation. Bill always has a smile on his face—morning, noon, and night. And since he lost his ability to speak at the very beginning before he’d been officially diagnosed, I use his smile as a guiding light.

  He does communicate with me through his eye-gaze computer. I have a love-hate relationship with that thing. But it has been a godsend.