Finding Forever

by Gael, Christine

  Finding Forever

  Max Burrows thought she'd finally found "the one". But when Tyler gets the opportunity of a lifetime and leaves Bluebird Bay for Paris, she can't bring herself to join him. She worked like a dog to make her own dream come true by opening the bookstore, and she won't give that up. Not for Tyler.

  Not for anyone.

  So when she gets a notice from the new landlord that her shop's lease is being terminated? It's like the rug has been yanked out from under her, yet again. Rather than curl up and accept her fate, she makes it her mission to get Ian Thackery to change his mind, no matter what it takes. As she gets to know him, though, she finds he's more than just the devil incarnate, intent on ruining her life. He's also funny, charming, smart, and way too handsome for her own good.

  She might be in deeper than she thought…

  Max found love before and lost it. Will she find forever this time?

  Finding Forever

  Christine Gael

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  1

  Max

  Canary yellow, Max Burrows thought, glancing down at the itchy little tulle number she was wearing with a wince. It reminded her of her prom dress back in her junior year of high school…the one with the high waist and the lace-trimmed sleeves, except that one had been purple.

  Exhaling through her nose, she put the champagne glass to her lips and tipped it back, only to realize that she had already drained it dry. Now she found herself wishing, not for the first time today, that it was socially acceptable to just slip out the back door and disappear from the marina altogether.

  Stop it, Max told herself, plastering a smile onto her face and waving at her handsome brother, who was making the rounds through the reception area. Sasha was on Gabe’s arm, looking especially radiant in a glorious, white ball gown, the kind of wedding dress so many little girls dreamed of. Gabe’s eyes met Max’s briefly, and he grinned – that same crooked, warm smile that had charmed the girls ever since they were kids.

  Get glad, girl. It’s your brother’s big day, for God’s sake. The last thing he needed was her being a downer. It was true; weddings were supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, after all. She certainly didn’t want to taint the happy couple’s memories by spending the day walking around with a black cloud over her head.

  Maybe more champagne would do the trick. She was already feeling tipsy from the alcohol, which had been flowing in a more-or-less nonstop stream ever since the wedding ceremony had finished and the group had come down to the restaurant for the reception. After this, her brother and his new bride would ride his boat out into the sunset together to spend the next two days a couple hours south of Bluebird Bay snuggled up at a cozy B&B, leaving Max to the inevitable question she found herself asking more and more frequently of late.

  What if she had made the worst mistake of her life?

  She blinked back tears and cut a path through the guests, most of whom seemed to be having a great time. That only served to make her feel worse, and her desperation for the emotional band-aid of free booze was becoming almost too much to handle. She smiled and nodded at a few of the familiar faces in the crowd as she sidled up to one of the caterers.

  “More champagne, Miss?” he asked, offering her a flute.

  “Absolutely,” Max replied, trading her old glass for the new one and starting in with a swig so big that it verged on socially unacceptable. At least she’d already done her obligatory rounds chatting up the guests, which meant that if she wandered off to stand in the corner like a kid at a middle-school dance, maybe no one would notice.

  Looking around, she could see the other guests standing in clusters, laughing over the rims of their glasses while casting admiring glances over at the happy couple. Business associates, friends, and a smattering of Sasha’s family members that Max didn’t know. One glaring observation? The vast majority of them seemed to have dates on their arms, with the exception of Max’s father, who had recently broken up with his mistress.

  Max had been secretly relieved when things between them had ended before Gabe’s nuptials. Her mom had managed to be cordial, but who wanted to spend their son’s wedding day faking friendly with the woman who stole their husband and, worse, their dog?

  On the other side of the room, her mom sat at one of the tables. Cee-cee’s boyfriend, Mick, sat next to her, letting her lean on his broad shoulder with a dreamy expression on her face. Luckily, Cee-cee had reclaimed both the dog, and her life. Max couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her mother looking this serene. Since Max’s parents split last year, there had been times when she had wondered if her mother would ever really find herself again.

  But she had, against all odds, pulling herself up by her bootstraps in every sense of the word. Now she had her own business, a cupcake shop that seemed to be growing more popular by the day, and Mick was everything Max’s father hadn’t been. Attentive, loving, supportive of Cee-cee’s dreams. Just seeing her mom and Mick together told Max everything she needed to know about her mother’s happiness, and she couldn’t thank him enough for bringing the romance back into her life…even if Max herself wasn’t currently in the most joyful of romantic situations.

  Spurred on by the alcohol, Max wandered forward, swaying a little in her shoes. Why the hell did I wear heels, anyway? She found herself making her way over to her mother, drawn to the promise of comfort and unconditional love like a moth to a flame.

  Cee-cee looked up when she approached their table, sinking into the chair next to her.

  “Hey, honey,” she said, reaching for Max’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “Are you all right?”

  Mick had turned to chat with the person on his other side, leaving Max the sole focus of her mother’s attention.

  “Hm?” Max raised her eyebrows, realizing she hadn’t responded. “Oh. Yeah. I’m fine.” She smiled wanly, pressing her lips together. She would not ruin her mother’s proud and joyous day with whining.

  “Yeah?” Her mom eyed her with a familiar, scrutinizing look that told Max there would be no keeping secrets from her. “You look a little…” She frowned, not finishing the thought.

  “I was just thinking about everything that’s happened,” Max admitted, taking another sip from her wine glass. “It’s been a tough run. For all of us, I mean.”

  “It really has,” Cee-cee agreed, exhaling as she followed Max’s tipsy gaze around the room. “I’m so sorry, honey.”

  At one of the nearby tables were Aunt Anna, the youngest of her mother’s siblings, and her boyfriend, Beckett. Anna was a blast. A beacon of light and laughter that Max would normally drift to immediately at a social event like this, and she had always been the most spirited of the three siblings. Recent events in her life – specifically, a prolonged battle with breast cancer – had seemed to have given her even more enthusiasm than she’d had before, and Beckett was just the cherry on top of the cake. They seemed to be doing great, and she got along brilliantly with his family.

  Dancing on the other side of the room were Aunt Stephanie and Ethan. Steph’s world had been most recently turned on its head – first with the ne
ws of her husband’s death, which had shaken their whole family, including Max, to the core. Uncle Paul had been a rare breed, a genuinely good guy, in some ways more of a father to Max than her own dad had been. The revelation that he had been having secret meetings with a stunning mystery blonde had sent them all reeling again, even two years after his death. Ethan, a police officer, had been there to help them chase the truth, even if that truth had been even more unthinkable than a secret love affair. In the end, Uncle Paul had been faithful until the day he was murdered. His own best friend and coworker had killed him after Paul had caught him stealing company funds.

  Max couldn’t even comprehend the tumult that had caused her aunt, even with Paul’s murderer now behind bars. She had been shot, almost drowned, all in the name of finding the truth… but Ethan had always been there for her. He’d proven a second love, and as she watched them dance, foreheads touching intimately, Max felt a swell of happiness for her aunt.

  Her mother and aunts were all doing splendidly, and she was happy for them. But seeing them with their new loves only felt like a reminder of everything Max herself had lost.

  Had it really only been four months since she had reunited with Tyler?

  It wasn’t like either of them had been expecting to find each other again. They had known each other back in high school, and the attraction had been both real and mutual, but nothing had come of it… until she found herself wandering into a bar on her mission to find out if Uncle Paul had been cheating on Aunt Steph. Who would end up serving her that night but Tyler Martin? Tyler had gone on to become a professionally-trained sommelier before returning home and coming to help at his father’s bar. The chemistry between the two of them had been strong and immediate, and before Max had even known what was happening, she was falling headfirst into a new relationship, this one without any of the toxicity of the one that had preceded it. He’d helped her add a bar to her bookstore, and in the aftermath of everything that had happened with Aunt Steph, things had really been looking up.

  The only problem with having the perfect relationship, though?

  Giving up your own happiness so that your partner could have theirs became almost too easy.

  John Jacques was a world-renowned sommelier based in Paris, and when the opportunity for Tyler to personally work under him had arisen, Max had told him to take it, initially even considering following him to France. But her own passion was here in Bluebird Bay, the bookstore she had put so much time and dedication into, and the thought of giving it up and leaving behind her family? Was the only thing more unbearable than the thought of giving up Tyler. Holding each other back would have been the opposite of love, and even though they had briefly considered a long-distance relationship, it wouldn’t have been good for either of them. As much as it had hurt, it had been the right thing to do, for both of them. The last time Max had been in contact with Tyler had been the week before, the last in a string of increasingly-infrequent texts that they’d been exchanging since he left.

  Now here she sat, watching Gabe and Sasha as they cut their wedding cake. It was a gorgeous, three-tiered lavender design, courtesy of Cee-cee herself, and they laughed as Sasha struggled to get the knife through before smearing frosting on Gabe’s nose. He planted a kiss on his new wife’s forehead as they began to pass out cake, looking like they were on top of the world. “You want me to get you a piece?” Cee-cee asked, standing up.

  “Definitely,” Max replied. “You know I can’t resist red velvet.”

  “I sure do,” Cee-cee said, laughing. “Not to toot my own horn, but I think this is one of the prettiest ones I’ve done yet.”

  “You say that every time,” Max teased, but she smiled at her mom as she walked away from the table. A little sugar, especially one of Cee-cee’s recipes, sure couldn’t hurt as far as sweetening her mood. As soon as her mother was out of sight, though, the smile slipped from her face. All she really wanted to do now was go back to the bookshop, where a bottle of Pinot Noir – one of Tyler’s recommendations – was waiting for her. Max had been saving it for a special occasion – the special occasion, in this case, being the aftermath of one extremely depressing wedding reception that only made her feel even lonelier than she had before.

  Anna, Steph, and their respective partners meandered over, then, holding their own cake plates. The rest of the group made small talk as Max stuffed her face, piping in with a comment here and there but otherwise staying quiet. By the time they had all eaten, the partygoers were getting a bit rowdy, a few of them already standing up and dancing with renewed enthusiasm. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise when Anna, who had been hitting the champagne as much as Max had, took her by the wrist and said, “Come on, you. We’re getting the chicken dance going up in here.”

  Max couldn’t help but laugh, reluctantly getting to her feet. “Are you serious?”

  “Dead,” Anna shot back.

  Steph chuckled. “You’d better get up there, Max. I think she means it.”

  The others grinned and began getting to their feet, as well. Before long, everyone at the reception – bride and groom included – were flapping their arms and shaking their rumps like they were trying to take flight but couldn’t quite manage it. At least the dance was appropriate, considering Max’s dress made her look like some kind of exotic bird. Her head swam with the movement, and her feet ached in her heels, but she forced herself to be enthusiastic.

  She’d make the best of it, and later, have her own, private, pity party.

  By the time the afternoon-into-evening affair began to wind down a couple hours later, it was after seven, and the first few partygoers had begun making their way out. Max forced herself to remain until Cee-cee stood up, a tipsy Anna hanging on her arm.

  “Do you want a ride home, Max?” she asked, nodding to Anna, Mick, and Beckett. “I think we’re going to head out.”

  “Thanks,” Max replied, “but I’m okay to walk. I want to stop and pick up something to read at the bookstore anyway.”

  “All right, if you’re sure,” Cee-cee said, eyeing Max for a moment before pulling her into a hug. “I’ll talk to you soon, honey,” she murmured, and there was a tinge of motherly concern in her voice. “I love you,” she reminded her, pulling away.

  Max mirrored Cee-cee’s smile. It was forced, though, and she knew her mother could tell. “I love you, too, Mom.”

  She headed out to the sidewalk, blessedly avoiding more small talk and goodbyes on her way. The sun hadn’t yet set, and the weather was balmy and warm. No storms over the water – the perfect evening for a nautical ride into the sunset. Her bookstore was only a ten-minute walk away from the pier where the ceremony had been held, but Max still found herself swaying on her feet as she wandered back down the waterfront. The booze was making her head spin, and all the ruminating had finally gotten to her; she had to fight back another wave of heartache as she trudged toward the store. The wedding was over, and her sisterly obligations were taken care of. All she wanted to do now was take these damned shoes off, and drown her sorrows.

  She told herself it was just the sentimentality of the event that was bumming her out this much. It all hit too close to home, given how things had ended with Tyler.

  Her happily ever after hadn’t ended happily after all.

  But everything would look better tomorrow, she promised herself. It always did.

  She reached for her keys as she approached the front door of the store, and then stilled as a white sheet of paper caught her eye. Her vision was blurry with unshed tears, but the five little words at the top of the page stood out loud and clear as she stared in disbelief.

  Notice of Lease Non-Renewal.

  Son of a...

  2

  Sasha

  "Welcome to the honeymoon suite, Mrs. Burrows."

  Gabe's low baritone flowed over her like warm honey as he let her into the gorgeous hotel room and set their overnight bag down. The space itself was open and luxurious, full of elegant furniture and glea
ming marble floors, but it was the view that had her gasping.

  "Stunning!"

  The sunrises were always amazing in Maine, breaking over the ocean in a play of orange and red, but seeing the water burnished by twilight as the whitecaps pounded the sand was almost as glorious. One would think with as much time as Gabe spent on the water for work, and with the both of them growing up on the coast, that the beauty of it would have lost its magic by now.

  One would be wrong.

  They were both wowed by the wild beauty of the sea, making this ten-story view overlooking the Atlantic the perfect choice for their first night together as husband and wife. A perfect end to an amazing day full of food, family, and love.

  So much love.

  Gabe had truly gone above and beyond ever since their breakup the year before, owning his part in the issues plaguing them. Vowing to work harder to put their relationship first. He'd hired some help so that he could take a day off each week for them to spend together. He'd dug in and became a true partner in the wedding planning and home renovations. He'd done every single thing she'd asked of him in therapy.

  And she?

  Well, she was a big, fat liar.

  A deceiver in the worst way. And it was killing her inside.

  "Look at that!" Gabe said with a wide grin as he pointed to the long dining table on one side of the room. "They sent up a bottle of champagne and some chocolate-covered strawberries for us." He padded toward it and plucked up a note. "Enjoy your happy ever after! Your friends at the Luxe." He dropped the note and picked up the champagne bottle. "Nice touch out of them. I'll have to send a thank you note to the manager when we get home."