Mended-Hearts

by Gordon, M. E.

  “The only thing I want you to promise me is that you love me, that you’ll tell me the truth, even if you think I shouldn’t know it. Spencer--” I said, adjusting in the bed so I could sit up and look him in the eye. I gestured to my arm. “--this is nothing. I’d endure a hell of a lot more to be with you. You mean that much to me.”

  There it was--his smile, the one I found myself living for. “You’re insane, and stubborn as hell,” he said, shaking his head at me.

  “And you’re a control freak with a slight temper problem. I think we were made for each other. You make sure I don’t go into the insane asylum, and I’ll put a lid on your temper.” I winked at him, reached out, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him closer. He had to stand from the chair as I brought him over top of me. “Now, kiss your girlfriend like you mean it,” I said, as I yanked on his shirt again.

  “Okay.”

  My eyes shut as he closed the distance between us. The room went darker, but not for long. For, the moment his lips touched mine, colors erupted behind my eyelids--beautiful colors of bright reds and clear blues, lime greens and daisy yellows, sunset oranges and stormy purples.

  Whatever pain I felt in my arm disappeared as those colors danced around my head. I held on to him, gripped the back of his head by his dark hair with my good hand, and kept him close. He left my lips and kissed my neck but the colors remained.

  “Don’t you ever let go of me,” he breathed in my ear.

  “I won’t,” I whispered back.

  Chapter 40

  Spencer

  I’d never understand why Elizabeth loved me so unconditionally. She was everything I needed but nothing I deserved. I was the monster in this story. I was the reason why so many people had been hurt.

  I was given a second chance at life, a second chance with a family that loved me, and I’d taken it for granted. I spent the first year with the Salvatores, silent. I didn’t talk to anyone, not even my best friend T. My mother had told me not to blame myself, she told me I was nothing like my father--turned out I was.

  I had no other family, or at least I didn’t know I did. It was always just the three of us, my mother, my father, and me. I never met any grandparents or aunts and uncles. I never knew my father had a sister, let alone a twin sister. It all made sense now, the resemblance between her and my father, the way she laughed at things that weren’t funny, the evil she was willing to inflict on others.

  With her dead, and the men T and I fought arrested, I was terrified that, at any moment, I was going to be next. If she was in contact with the same people my father worked for and if she’d told them the truth, my days were numbered. On the flip side, if the police found out, I’d be in jail for killing my father and posing as someone else. But I’d been living with that hanging over my head since the day I shot my father, and I didn’t regret doing that for one second. What I did regret was missing out on everything my mother and I could have had together.

  Everyday of my life I woke up, wishing I would have been killed in the car with her, that way we’d be together. I’d lie in bed until Ellen or James came and got me up for school. As an adult, I turned on a robotic part of me. I woke up, went to the gym, and went to work. I put on a show for everyone around me. I acted like I was enjoying my life but, in reality, I wanted nothing more than to open my eyes and see my mother again.

  I never dated after the incident that happened in high school. That time in my life scared me to the core. I was acting like someone my mother would have despised. I played the part of the rich boy. It made my skin crawl when I thought about how I treated people back then. I was jealous and became violent when I’d heard that my girlfriend at the time was cheating on me. I went off the rails and, when I looked in the mirror at the police station, I saw my father looking back at me. So I changed that night. I swore I wouldn’t be put in that situation again, the robot turned on, and I simply followed him around.

  I’d always attracted women. One good memory I had when I was young was being in kindergarten and being stuck in the middle of two classmates who were fighting over who was going to be my girlfriend. It was harmless back then, and I didn’t really understand or care. But as I got older I was able to use my looks to persuade girls to kiss me. In middle school, I was Romeo and the number of Juliet’s lined up and waiting at the balcony was astounding. As a man, I had desires but I went into everything telling the women that I was with that it was strictly a one-time thing.

  I grew up, knowing that, at any moment, someone could find out who I was or what I had done. Thankfully, I had a group of people around me who protected me. In the beginning, there were five people who knew. With T’s father gone, T took over for him. He’d had an ear to the ground and was as good, if not better, than his father at making sure anything that might arouse suspicion was taken care of.

  The night I met Elizabeth Monroe, it was like the robot started to malfunction. I felt alive when I was near her. I felt my heart rattle against my chest for the first time in a very, very long time. I found myself smiling when I was around her. I didn’t know how to talk to her. I was rendered as speechless as she was. So I’d send her notes, but it wasn’t enough, and she was with someone else. She’d pushed my buttons and brought me back. I was terrified because I could feel the jealousy and my temper rise with every touch and every kiss. I pushed her away and then pulled her back for my own pleasure.

  She should have hated me, she should have kept clear of me, but fate had other plans. She was right about us. We were made for one another, and we fit together perfectly. For a long while, I believed we’d be able to get through it all. Hell, we had so far, but the moment I heard the story about her parents, it started a downward spiral.

  T and I found out that it was her parents car my mother hit. We had to open files that had been sealed and, when we did, someone saw my father’s file, and I had a feeling it was Natasha. She was watching my every move and must have had me followed.

  When I got a call from T that someone had opened the file after we had, I panicked. Again I pushed Elizabeth away.

  I couldn’t tell her, even though I wanted to. I tried to push her back to Nick, but that backfired and, when I read the note I thought she had left me about ending it all, I broke down and prayed that, if I could make it to her, I’d tell her everything and trust in her love for me. Because if there was one thing I knew about Elizabeth Monroe, it was that she loved me as much as I loved her, and I was a fool for thinking otherwise.

  As I walked out of her hospital room, I stopped just outside the door and looked back in at the woman sleeping. She was my new angel. She was my reason for waking up. She’d destroyed the robot. I might not have been the most even-tempered man but she made me want to be better, and that was all I needed.

  Epilogue

  Elizabeth

  “Nick, I’m not going to tell you again. Stop throwing the football in the house.” His cheeky little smile made it hard for me to yell at him, but enough was enough. I wasn’t cleaning up another broken picture frame.

  “Mom, I have to practice, tryouts are only a week away,” the brown-haired, brown-eyed little boy huffed.

  I rubbed my aching back and rolled my eyes before flopping down on the couch. “Fine, you can tell your father when you break another one of the picture frames, or vase, or windows.” I peeked at my eight-year-old and had to stifle a chuckle as he stomped his feet and mumbled under his breath. We might have created a little monster. Sometimes, I think he can be worse than his father. Okay, so maybe I played a little part in his stubbornness.

  “Mommy--Mommy, look at this. Daddy got me a new doll.”

  I sat up and braced myself as a blonde four-year-old with clear blue eyes came running right to me. “Oh, Caroline, it’s beautiful.”

  It was a fact that the little girl sitting on my lap was going to be spoiled rotten because her father kept buying her every little doll he could get his hands on.

  “Why don’t you sit here?” I said, moving her so
she was sitting on the couch next to me. “Now, play with your doll. I need to talk to Daddy for a minute.”

  Next, I began the painful process of getting my pregnant ass off the couch. My motivation--yelling at my husband.

  I stood at the entry way to his office. He was sitting in his high-backed chair, looking out the window. The tall glass book shelves lit up the room as the sun danced off them. He was talking business, something about one of the hotels that we owned winning an award or stars, I couldn’t really tell which. Once he said goodbye, I watched as he hit a button on his ear piece then took it out.

  He stood from the chair and walked closer to the window. His large-suited frame still took my breath away. Maybe it was because I knew exactly what was underneath it, maybe it was just because he was the most handsome man alive, and all mine. Either way, I won.

  Clearing my throat, I took a step just inside the office. “Mr. Salvatore,” I called to him.

  He turned from the window and that devilish smile spread across his face. He moved from behind the desk and leaned against the front of it. His hips rested on the edge as he crossed his long legs in front of him. “Mrs. Salvatore, how can I help you?” he asked, placing his hands on either side of the desk.

  I crossed my arms, resting them on my round belly. “We have a problem.”

  “A problem? What might this problem be?”

  Oh, he knows damn well what the problem is. The jerk doesn’t listen, that’s the problem.

  “A certain little girl just came running to me, ever so excited because her daddy just bought her another new doll. Do you know anything about that?” Raising a brow, I shifted my weight to the other foot and waited for his response.

  He confidently shook his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  I shifted my weight again. “Really?”

  He shrugged. “Nope, I have no clue what that little girl is thinking, saying I gave it to her. Maybe she found it.”

  Unfolding my arms, I moved them to my aching lower back. “Spencer, I told you, you can’t keep buying her dolls.”

  “Relax, Elizabeth, it’s not a big deal. I told you before, if I want to buy my children things, then I’m going to do it.”

  His sexy blue bedroom eyes could usually do magic and get me to back off, but not while I was pregnant. Then they didn’t work at all. “Don’t tell me to relax, Spencer! If you keep buying her things, she’s going to be a spoiled brat. Now, we don’t want to deal with a spoiled brat for a teenager, do we?” I asked as if I was addressing one of the children.

  “She’s four, Elizabeth. If I want to buy her a baby doll, then I’m going to do it.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. The doctor had warned me to keep my temper in check while I was so far along. He feared it would bring on early labor. Too bad my doctor didn’t realize that that was nearly impossible. “Spencer, you can’t buy her everything--”

  A tinge of pain shot across my lower abdomen. I reached my hand under my stomach to try and ease it. Sucking in a hissing breath, I curved my body around my stomach, thinking that might help too.

  The moment it happened, Spencer was up off the desk and by my side. “Are you trying to have this baby four weeks early?” he asked, rubbing my stomach.

  “Well--” I panted and glared up at him. “If someone would just listen to me, I might be able to keep my temper in check.”

  “Come here,” he said, pulling me over to the desk. Leaning against it, he placed me between his legs. I rested my head on his chest while he rubbed my back. His strong hands relieved the ache from standing.

  “You’re a jerk, you know that?” I tried not to smile because I was mad. This was all his fault, the baby dolls, the aching back, all of it, but I couldn’t help it. The man still made me weak. So my lips curled up in an unwanted smile, like they always did.

  He smiled back before leaving a kiss on my nose. “So you’ve told me.”

  “Mom, Dad. Uncle Chuck and Aunt Gia are here. Can I go outside and play with Thomas and Luke? We want to play football in the backyard.”

  “Yeah. That’s fine, but tell your cousins not to break anything this time,” Spencer yelled, in hopes that our energetic son had heard him. “Those boys are terrors,” he said in a serious tone.

  “They’re ten, and boys, and a little wild. I don’t think they’re that bad.”

  “Say’s you. They broke the fountain last time they all played ‘football.’ I’m not sure how dish soap is involved with football, but those boys found a way to get the whole fountain covered in bubbles.”

  I kissed his cheek and began playing with his shirt. “They’re good boys. They’re just a little mischievous, I mean look at their father.”

  Spencer nodded. “Good point.”

  I pushed myself off his chest and pointed my index finger at him. “Seriously, Salvatore, back to why I came in here.”

  “You mean you didn’t come in here to kiss me and tell me how much you love me?”

  I smacked his chest and gave him my best angry face. It didn’t have any affect, except to make him laugh at me and pull me closer. So I resorted to pouting up at him.

  “Okay, Okay I’ll only buy her a few dolls a week.”

  “Spencer--”

  “Fine, fine, you win for now, but once this baby is out, we’re going to have a real conversation about it, and you know how I love our ‘conversations.’”

  “Yes, I do, Mr. Salvatore, yes I do.”

  Worlds will collide in

  Opposite

  Hearts

  Coming Soon

  Keep reading for a brief preview

  Chapter 1

  Teddy

  I’d just gotten off the six hour plane ride from New York to LA. No need to go to baggage claim, I only had time to grab an overnight bag, which I kept stored in the office in case of an emergency, and what I had just went through was pretty much the worst emergency a man could go through.

  I hopped on the first direct flight they had available and rushed to the hospital. I sat in the busy waiting room with my brother and ex-girlfriend. Talk about feeling awkward. The two had made it public and I was happy for them, but it didn’t downplay the fact that I was tired of everyone getting what I so desperately wanted in my life. As we awaited the news about our sister, I kept busy on my phone, sending e-mails, checking my calendar, and watching stupid cat videos thinking that maybe it would take my mind off the real reason I was there.

  My baby sister had been hurt. It was my job to protect her, and I didn’t. I was the oldest, I was the one who was supposed to keep her safe, steer her in the right direction, but I left her because I couldn’t take seeing my ex with my younger brother.

  With both our parents dead, I took it upon myself to become theirs. My brother Chuck and I were only a year apart but anyone could tell I was mature beyond my seven years when our parents died. I grew up fast, focused on school, helped out my grandparents when it came to my siblings. I skipped all the things teen boys usually did. I didn’t play sports, I didn’t have a girlfriend. I just studied and looked after my siblings.

  I finished college early and took over our father’s business and soon my brother followed suit. Together we expanded it beyond what my father ever expected it to be. He was in real-estate and soon my brother and I were dabbling in nightclubs and other ways to expand.

  Now that my sister was healthy, safe, and in love, and my brother had a handle on his own life without me breathing down his neck, I was left all by myself. I’d spent so long focusing on them, I forgot about me.

  I stepped on the moving walkway in the airport, letting it take me on the slow monotonous ride which was much like the life I’d been living. I laughed aloud at the irony. People beside me, in front, and behind all turned and stared at the over tired, overworked, shell of a man I’d become. I smiled at them and put my head down in embarrassment. How did I get here?

  I felt the vibration before I heard the ring of my phone in m
y pocket. I scrambled for it, thinking the worst, but was relieved to see it was only my secretary. “Please tell me something good.” I said, answering my phone.

  The sweet female voice of my secretary Kelly came through the receiver, delivering on my request. “I do have good news,” she declared. “Your team found the next big thing.”

  “And what exactly did the team find?” I asked skeptically. My LA team had been begging to do the same thing as the DC team did. The DC team managed to convince Chuck to open a nightclub. I wasn’t thrilled about it in the beginning but it was doing good, and you couldn’t deny the green that came with it.

  “Well, there’s this already existing bar that just went on the market. The owner doesn’t want to be bothered with it anymore and just wants to cash out. The current manager wants to keep running it so, you’ll just be a silent owner, unless you--”

  “Send me the specks, I’ll look it over.”

  “Well here’s the thing. Bradshaw is trying to beat us to the punch.”

  Bradshaw, the realtor equivalent of an arch enemy. “Why’s he interested it?” I grumbled.

  He was a fifty-four year old jealous jackass. Until Chuck and I came to LA, he had the market locked down, but people didn’t want the old man anymore. They wanted young and fresh. So, now he did everything we did with a fake tan; facelift; and spoiled, paid-for, twenty-something-year-old girlfriends.

  Kelly sighed from the other end of the phone. “Because he’s seen how much success you’re having and wants to jump on anything you’re even considering.”