“Oh my God, are you okay?” Evy dropped to her knees and scanned the bloody hole in Dean’s shoulder, terror wrenching her face.
“I’m all right.” His breath rushed out in wet bursts. “How bad is it?”
She helped him lean forward and checked his back. “There’s an exit wound,” she said, hoping that was a good sign but not really knowing for sure. She turned to Ben, who was tucking the gun into the small of his back and keeping a close eye on Megan. “Call 911!”
“I’m on it!” Brooke replied, cell phone pressed to her ear. When someone answered on the second ring, she began talking way too fast and had to repeat it all over again.
Evy grabbed an apron and wadded it into a ball. “You’re going to be okay. Help is on the way,” she said, firmly pressing the apron against the wound.
He tensed, moaning in pain. His labored breathing came in ragged gasps, but his eyes were alert. “I’m sorry.”
She covered him with his shirt. “You just sit still.”
“They’re on their way,” Brooke said, setting her phone down by the sink. “Fucking bitch!” She pulled a green high heel back and Ben grabbed her at the last second. The heel swiped through the air, narrowly missing Megan’s ribs.
Megan lifted her head up and it wobbled like a newborn’s. “Can somebody call me a cab? I’ll be good. I promiff.” She fell back to the tiles and started laughing. It echoed off the walls and went on for what seemed like an eternity.
Dean watched her, slowly shaking his head. “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…”
Evy brushed hair from his eyes, finding his gaze. His eyes brightened as she kissed him on the lips, pressing the bloody apron against his wound.
Brooke put a towel to Ben’s ear, careful not to slip and fall again. She pulled it away to examine the flesh wound. “Oh my God, you could have been killed, Benjamin! What were you thinking?”
He glanced over his shoulder to Dean and Evy, heart racing. “Next time, let’s just do it in the truck.”
Chapter Forty-One
It was quiet outside the sanctuary. Inside, family and friends filled the pews with stoked anticipation and soft murmurs floating on the air. The air-conditioning hummed in Evy’s ears. She clutched the bouquet of white roses tighter in her hands, staring at the closed double doors ahead of her. It was so quiet she could hear her heart thumping in her chest. She looked down and smoothed her white dress, which was tight and cut just above the knees. The silky material hugged her in all the right places and suddenly felt like it was hugging a little too tight. She took a deep breath and released it, staring vacantly at her roses.
“You look beautiful.”
Evy jerked her gaze over to find her father’s warm smile. She blushed and straightened his skinny, black necktie. “You are so handsome.” Her voice sounded like someone else’s in her head.
Will brushed lint from his tux, admiring his get up. “I feel like James Bond.” He grinned at the elderly fellow manning the arched double doors in front of them. The thin man’s oversized gray suit hanged from his bones like loose elephant skin. Will smelled the yellow carnation pinned to his lapel. “Don’t worry, I’m not packing heat,” he said to the man, winking at Evy and then speaking out the corner of his mouth. “As far as he knows.”
A car skidded to a stop just outside the church’s glass front doors. The three of them turned to see Shaun and Carrie hop out and scurry inside.
“Oh, shit! I am so sorry, Evy,” Shaun panted, tucking his sunglasses inside his black tux coat. “Fucking kids.”
Carrie flashed Shaun a cautious look. “My mom got sick so we had to drop the girls off at the other grandma’s house.”
“Who lives way on the other side of town.” Shaun shook Will’s hand. “Mr. Bond I presume.”
Will’s face lit up. “Why yes, my good man.”
“I’m just glad you’re here,” Evy said, setting a hand on Carrie’s wrist. “I need a drink.”
“Already two ahead of ya,” Shaun muttered, pulling his black slacks up.
Carrie took a step back and placed a hand over her chest, covering a silver pendent pinned to her bridesmaids dress. “You look just beautiful, honey!”
“Thank you, so do you.”
“Is that the new Stingray?”
Shaun followed Will’s gaping stare out the front doors to the black Corvette glimmering in the hot sunshine. A smile crept from one ear to the other. “Oh, you mean that fully loaded, black on black symbol of American muscle? Yep, just picked that bad boy up yesterday.”
“Wow,” Will murmured. “Your beers must really be flying off the shelves.”
“Just signed a deal with Champs.”
“Congratulations, Shaun,” Evy said with a big smile. “That is huge!”
Carrie took him by the elbow. “We should get inside.”
“Can I drive it?”
Shaun stared blankly at Will for a second or two and then extended the keys. Will reached out, his face beaming. Shaun yanked the keys back at the last second. “Are you high?” he laughed, towing Carrie by the hand toward a side door into the sanctuary. “You’re not ready for that kind of power yet!”
Will’s jaw dropped. “I had a Camaro in high school!” He watched them disappear down the hall. “Sonofa…”
“Wow,” Evy said, admiring the sleek sports car out front. “Last year at this time he was selling his prized Corvette just to put food on the table. Now look at him.”
Will smiled at her, eyes gleaming. “That’s why you never give up, honey. Opportunity always comes back around. Always.”
She pressed her lips together. “Thank you so much for being here, dad.”
He let out a reflective sigh, his face softening around the edges. “I can’t believe my baby girl is all grown up.” He fought back the tears welling in his eyes. “It seems like just yesterday you were watching cartoons and eating cereal on the floor.”
“I still do that.” She twisted the ring Dean had paid a scuba diver to find in the lake. It had only taken the guy forty-five minutes to locate and had cost three hundred dollars to do so. She had tried to pay for it but Dean insisted upon having something to hold over her head down the road.
“You’re getting married, Brooke is pregnant…I just can’t believe it.” Will sighed again, clasping his hands in front of him. “Your mother and I have empty nest syndrome and it’s not good.”
“I’m so happy for Brooke and Ben. They deserve it.”
“They really do.”
“They will be such fun parents.”
He stared vacantly at the doors before them. “I’m going to be a grandpa.”
Evy looked up at her father, a tear building in the corner of her eye. “I’m so happy for you, too.”
Will smiled proudly. “And a boy to boot.” He squeezed his daughter’s hand. “I just want you to know that when you and Dean have a little one someday, I will build you a tree house as well. Even if it’s a girl.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet. Thank you, daddy.”
“Ben wants a Jacuzzi with a skylight in theirs.” Will clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Tall order.”
She chuckled softly and checked her dress again before taking another calming breath. She let it out and repeated, imagining Dean in his classic black tux and skinny necktie. A warm shudder coursed through her body from head to toe. She couldn’t wait to see him.
“You okay?”
Evy nodded tightly.
The elderly man flashed them a crooked smile and adjusted the pink carnation pinned to his lapel. The quiet hummed in Evy’s ears like a charm of hummingbirds hovering around her head. She felt dizzy. This was really happening. How had this day gotten here so fast? How had it gotten here at all? It was nothing short of divine intervention. She snorted. Sooner or later, fate has a way of finding us all.
Will squeezed her hand. “You’ve got a great guy waiting for you on the other side of those doors.”
&n
bsp; “I know.”
Will’s smile spread into the one she remembered as a child. The one he would shed if her French silk pie won a blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair or if she got an A in Algebra. “Your happily-ever-after is just beginning,” he said, his eyes watering.
She nodded, trying her best not to cry and ruin her makeup.
“Amazing things are waiting for you in there,” he whispered, a tear rolling down his cheek. “And I couldn’t be happier to be a part of your next chapter.”
“It’s going to be the best one yet.” She blinked a tear down her cheek and Will wiped it away with a soft thumb.
He cupped her cheeks and kissed her on the forehead. “I know it will, baby girl.”
The sanctuary organ fired up, stirring Evy’s nerves with a single keystroke. The elderly man came to attention, ready to perform his part of the ceremony without fail.
Will straightened his coat and rolled his shoulders. “You ready, princess?”
Evy wiped away another tear and took a heavy breath that made her chest swell even more than it already had. “I’m ready.”
Will nodded to the older gentleman. “Open the doors, my good man!”
Evy looped her hand through Will’s elbow, thankful for something to hang onto. The doors swung wide open and the organist broke into Here Comes the Bride. Everyone stood and turned to face them. Blood pumped thickly in her temples as she scanned their smiling faces. After exchanging a quick look with her father, they stepped inside.
It was cooler in the sanctuary and that felt good. Mrs. Johansen smiled at Evy from beneath a wide brimmed lavender hat, fanning herself with a gloved hand. She brushed away a tear as Evy slowly paraded past. Mayor Andrews gave her a smile as big as his heart, his pressed suit complimenting his wife’s sparkly dress. He had helped save Sugars from closure and, subsequently, taken them under his wing, stopping in nearly every day for his lifetime supply of free cupcakes and coffee. If Evy didn’t already have the world’s greatest dad, she would have wanted Mayor Andrews for a father. He was a good man who genuinely cared about the people in this town, and government needed more like him. Evy sent him a pretty smile and tightened her grip on Will’s arm, willing her legs to keep moving without tripping over her own two feet.
Faces passed by in a slow blur. Her mom dabbed tears from her eyes with a purple handkerchief that matched her dark green dress. Her lips pulled down at the corners as she shook her head. So beautiful, Laura mouthed. Evy looked away, determined to avoid anymore tears.
One foot in front of the other, one breath after the last.
Up by the altar, Brooke stood beside Tasha and Carrie, their candy apple red dresses showing off their arms and legs. They watched Evy as she came closer with tears in their eyes. Evy looked away before she could cry, concentrating on one foot in front of the other, thankful she wasn’t wearing a long dress she could trip over.
Her eyes swung across the elevated stage and found Ben, Jon, and Shaun – all of whom stood smiling in tuxes with their hands clasped in front of their belts like secret agents with MI6.
Ben elbowed Jon in the ribs, his grazed ear little more than a lasting scar. “You’re next.”
Jon grunted and looked over at Tasha. She sensed his eyes upon her and turned to him. He shot her a coy wink that made her blush.
Evy was certain her heart would explode at any second. Even with her pulse racing at warp speed, she took a moment to give thanks for the people in her life. Without them, she would not be who she is today. Without them, there would be no…
Then her misty eyes landed on him.
Everything slowed down except her heart.
A smile curled the corners of his lips when their eyes met, a silent understanding passing between them that would last a lifetime. His slicked back hair glistened in the sunlight spilling through the massive stained-glass window behind him, his classic tux setting off the blue carnation pinned to his lapel. Her body tingled, light as a feather. With his arm in a black sling, he gave her a reassuring nod. Even in this cavernous church, in front of all these people, he could still make her feel like the only person in the room. Her feet glided down the red aisle, suddenly floating on air with the greatest of ease. It was perfect and she was almost to him now. Blood rushed in her ears. A stubborn tear broke loose and Evy let it have its freedom. This time, nothing could stop them from being together. Joy danced in her eyes without shame. Even Megan would forever hold her peace – at least for the next several years.
At the carpeted steps, Will humbly handed his first born off to Dean. Evy took Dean’s arm, smiling up into his eyes, breathing him in.
“You look beautiful,” he whispered, ushering her to the podium. “More beautiful than any man deserves.”
The way he looked at her made her feel good and she loved him for that.
They joined hands and turned to face Pastor Kirkman, united until the day they died. Another tear rolled down Evy’s pink cheek. It was a new chapter all right and she couldn’t wait to turn the next page. The pastor spread his arms and welcomed everyone there. Brooke traded a happy smile with her big sister and then it passed it on to Ben. She set a soft hand on her belly and he gave her a comforting wink.
Dean stole another look at his bride-to-be, unable to contain himself.
Evy caught him and squeezed his hand.
He squeezed back.
Laura Burnett wept.
Thank you so much for reading Fate Interrupted 3!
Find out more about Brooke & Ben, Tasha and Will in Brooke & Ben: Before Fate Interrupted - now available: http://www.amazon.com/Brooke-Ben-Before-Fate-Interrupted-ebook/dp/B00E8HS7GA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1391441100&sr=8-3&keywords=fate+interrupted
About Kaitlyn Cross:
When not scoring great deals on purses and shoes, Kaitlyn Cross enjoys drinking red wine, spending way too much time on Pinterest, and denying that she still watches The Vampire Diaries.
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Fate Interrupted
Fate Interrupted 2
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Life is short, buy the shoes!
Chapter Forty-Two
Clay slapped the folded newspaper onto the metal desk with a hollow thud. He let out a frustrated breath and put the cell phone to his ear, sweeping a tongue across his teeth as it began to ring. He could still taste this morning’s powdered eggs, watery oatmeal and stale bread. His stomach rolled – only eighteen more months of that shitty breakfast to go, or five hundred and forty-eight days to be precise. Tops. He cringed at the thought.
“Aloha,” a female voice answered brightly in his ear.
He plopped onto his bunk, the bedsprings protesting the weight he had put on over the last twelve months of incarceration. “Hello, is Frank around?” he said in the same pleasant tone that had helped get him into office.
“He is; can I tell him who’s calling?”
A wide grin swept through Clay’s gray stubble like fire through a dry mountainside. “An old friend.”
There was a brief pause, long enough for him to hear Elvis Presley singing Suspicious Minds in the background. “I’ll get him; just a moment.”
“Thank you, mam.”
She took the phone with her and the music got louder. The crowd noise told Clay it was a live recording. His eyes drifted back to last week’s copy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He blurred the wedding announcements into a black and white blob, his mind going over what he wanted to say one more time even though he had already rehearsed it a hundred times before. After all, what else did he have
to do? Clean toilets and watch bad daytime television? No thanks.
The sound of static traveled across the four thousand miles between them. Then it stopped.
“Aloha.”
“Frank! It’s good to hear your voice again.”
Frank set his sweaty Mai Tai down and didn’t answer.
Clay snorted. “How’s Maui? Bet the surf is fantastic this time of year.”
“How’d you get this number?” Frank whispered coldly.
“Oh come on now, Frankie, you know I still have a trick or two up my sleeve.”
Frank glanced over at Victoria, who stretched out in the chase next to him and shut her eyes against the sun. He swung his bare feet to the patio.
Clay rested a foot on a tiny desk chair, peering out a thin window overlooking the gray day outside. “I hope you will pass my congratulations on to the new Mrs. Ryder.”
Frank waited until he was on the other side of the peanut-shaped pool before speaking again. “If you’re looking for help with your commissary, you’re climbing the wrong tree.”
Clay leaned back against a cold cinderblock wall. “Quite the opposite, Frank. I was looking to add to yours.”
There was dead silence on Frank’s end and then he chuckled. “I heard they cleaned you out during the trial. Sold the house and everything.”
“Well, like I said, I have still have a…”
“Spit it out, Clay, before I hang up.” He stepped inside their tropical bungalow and slid the patio door shut, downing out the ocean waves. Cool air washed over his tan skin.
Clay’s face hardened. He picked a piece of lint from his orange jumpsuit and let it float to the concrete floor. “They locked Megan in some loony bin way up in Sheboygan Falls.”
“I heard.” He grunted. “Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?”
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