“I’m late.”
“No you’re early. I thought we were meeting for lunch at noon.”
“No Lynnie, you know what I mean. Late.” She pulled out a box with a pregnancy test.
“Oh.” A smile grew on my face. “Are we excited?”
She tossed the box on the coffee table and began to tie her long brown hair over her head. “I don’t know. I mean, we talk about kids, we want kids and we finally agreed to start trying.” I walked back into the kitchen and grasped my cup of coffee, her footfalls behind me. “Can I be pregnant when we only tried once?”
“You’re the doctor here.”
“Crap, why am I so scared?”
“Pee on the stick.” I retrieved the test and handed it to her.
“What if it’s too soon?” she pushed her hands in the air.
“You wouldn’t have bought the test if it was too soon.” Go pee right now.”
Her small, trembling hands opened the box before she walked towards the bathroom. I waited patiently outside the door, my heart racing with each passing second.
“Well?”
“I’m peeing, hold on.”
Once she was done she opened the bathroom door her eyes filled with emotion, good or bad I couldn’t tell. “I can’t look.”
“Has it been two minutes?” I asked looking behind her. The plastic stick sat on the sink.
“Hurry up and look! Tell me if I’m going to be an aunt.”
Kennedy turned back and flipped the stick over, her hand rushing to her stomach as she gasped. I moved next to her to see the word “pregnant” written across the small screen. “Pregnant. Oh my God!” I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. “You’re preggers!”
Kennedy sobbed with excitement and embraced me. “I’ve gotta call Caleb!”
She walked back towards her purse, pure joy present on her face. Genuine happiness coursed through my body. My dearest friend was going to be a mom.
As Kennedy called Caleb and her mother, I popped my laptop opened noticing a new email from my realtor.
Braelynn,
This home has just popped up on the market. It’s absolutely beautiful and I really think it’s exactly what you’re looking for. Let me know if you can see this today (I’m free at 4pm) because I don’t think it will be on the market long.
143 West End Place
Old Brookville NY
I’ll meet you there!
Jane
It was time to find my own happiness and move forward with my life like Kennedy and Gus had done.
The cab cost me a fortune to get to Old Brookville. When it pulled up to a vacant land, I looked around. There was no home in sight, just an open green field. I paid the cabbie and walked out.
My heels sunk into the grass and a path of white roses appeared in front of me. Tossing my shoes to the side, I walked barefoot through the white silk petals.
My heart missed him.
My soul missed its other half.
Peyton stood in the middle of the lined roses dressed in dark blue jeans and a light blue button down shirt. As I walked closer to him, I realized the roses were a blueprint of a house; the walls to a home. He stood in the center, his hand tucked behind his back, a boyish grin appeared on his face that made him seem younger.
“You came.” His voice coaxed my heart.
“What is this?” My breath grew irregular, my hands trembling at my sides.
“This is what I have planned for us. It’s a project I want to start with you. It’s our home. Well, at least that’s what I want it to be.”
He reached for my clammy palms, but I held a fist over my heart. I needed to touch my skin so I knew I wasn’t dreaming.
“You did all of this?” It was the gesture of all gestures.
Peyton stepped out of the blueprint of roses and took my hands away from my body. “Braelynn, I don’t deserve your love. I don’t deserve your smiles. But I can’t stay away from you. When I met you, I thought I was a man, but I wasn’t. I was still an adolescent. I had no clue what it was like to love. You taught me how to become a man, how to love with every fiber. I need you in my life. I want to grow old with you, build memories with you, and watch our love grow with each passing day. You asked me before to pick you, but you were my only choice. Braelynn, please forgive me. Please, come home.”
It wasn’t a proposal for marriage. It was more.
Home. That’s where I wanted to be. Peyton was my home. In his arms was where I belonged.
My toes pressed into the cool grass as I pushed up with my legs and jumped into his arms. Peyton stumbled back a bit but brought me closer to him. I crashed my lips over his, my hand tangling through his hair. I cried both for the heavy weight being released off my shoulders and tears of joy I felt.
His hands framed my face as he kissed me tenderly. His lips slowly pulled away from mine. The honey tint in his eyes stared back at me. “I promise to be worthy of your love.” He placed a chaste kiss on my lips. “I promise to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. You are home, Braelynn, and I’ll never let you go.”
I climbed up his body, needing to be closer to his heart. Peyton wrapped his hands around me and dropped to the grass. Tangled in each other’s arms, Peyton’s lips traced mine. I closed my eyes letting the sun bathe us.
“I want to take you home and make love to you for hours on end. I want to make up for lost times and lost kisses,” he whispered, his lips trailing down my neck.
“Take me home, Peyton. That’s where I belong. With you.”
My lips were tender and sore when he pulled away. Desperate for air I panted, my fingers trailing around my lips. He leaned back into me and kissed the top of my nose before he stood. This made it impossible to see his tall frame. Shielding my eyes from the sunrays. I looked up at him. His hands extended toward me. I stood barefoot in the cold grass, stains from the ground on my slacks. Without my heels he seemed like a giant. Peyton cradled me in his arms. My arms locked around his neck. As he stared at me his eyes sparkled brighter than the golden sun. I loved him. Every part of our bodies filled together as one. These past few months, I had been lost without him, lost with out my other half.
When we reached his car, which had been hidden behind the bushes, he sat me on the hood. His fingers delicately pushed away my loose tendrils.
“Where to?” He whispered against my lips. His voice made chills run up my spine.
“Your place.” I kissed him hungrily. “You have the bigger bed.” I batted my eyes to him. “And the playroom.”
He chuckled helping me off the car. I held his hand as I looked back at the blueprint of roses. He was going to build us a house. I would make it our home, and one day, together, we would make a family.
Braelynn
Four Years Later
“You’re doing it again,” I moaned.
I could always feel when his eyes were on me without having to open my own. I lay on the white linen sheets, the sunlight from the windows warming my skin.
Peyton grazed his fingers up my bare back. Even when we didn’t have sex, he insisted there be nothing between us.
The ruffling under the sheets told me he had pulled himself closer to me. I opened one eye and looked at him.
My love story.
My heart.
My soul mate.
It took us sixteen months after the blueprint of white roses to have it move-in ready, but we had finally settled into our center colonial home. It had a large back yard, a huge kitchen with an attached dining room, and a family room that held a big TV on one side and an overused couch in the center. It was massive because Peyton like the space, but it was homey and colorful. Instead of expensive art, the walls were covered with pictures.
Though the home was the complete opposite of his penthouse, the bedroom remained the same. It was serene to wake up in an all white bedroom. The playroom was added at the back of our walk-in closet. We would go in there to play at night, but would always return to our bed for a final moment of te
nder lovemaking.
“I can feel your eyes on me,” I said, tucking my hands under my chest.
“You’re beautiful. You can’t expect me not to stare.” His fingertips continued to run up my spine. “And it’s your thirtieth birthday.”
I rolled over so my breasts were exposed to him. I shook my head and smiled. “I’m turning twenty-ten. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He climbed over me, slipping his body between my legs. “You’ve accomplished so many things before turning thirty. You should be proud.”
When Peyton and I got back together, I left the DA’s office. Yes, it had been a dream of mine since college, but I wanted to do something different with my life. With the help of Peyton’s mother, who I’d become very close with. I opened up a foundation for battered women and rape victims. It was a safe place where they could come for help, shelter or counseling. Loren and I had lucked out when we came out east. We were blessed with Jennifer and Scott but most girls aren’t as lucky.
Not to mention that our first few months together Peyton and I were at each other’s throats. Living in the same house with the top rated defense attorney in New York made it hard not to want to ring his neck after a day in court. I left the District Attorney’s office for me; I needed to find something I was passionate about.
“Twenty-ten.” I looked up and traced my hand around his chiseled chin.
“Okay.” He chuckled. “Twenty-ten. I like it.” His lips tickled my collarbone.
“I feel like I need to make my next five-year plan.” I ran my hand along his spine.
Peyton lowered his body, stopping at the mounds of my breasts, he looked up at me. “Oh.” He spoke along my breasts and I could feel the heat of his breath on my skin. “What do you have in mind?” His tongue flicked over my nipple.
“I’m thinking kids.” I focused on his reaction.
Peyton pushed off my body and cocked his head to the side. “Kids?” he asked.
“Well, maybe one to start with.” I lifted on my elbows.
“You know how I feel about kids, Braelynn.” I knew exactly how he felt. I had brought it up once when Loren was in Asia adopting Eloise. “I don’t want to have them unless we’re married.”
I had avoided the marriage conversation. It was a topic that I think we both dodged. I couldn’t get out of my head that if I had said yes after Kennedy and Caleb’s wedding, we wouldn’t have spent almost a year apart. I believed that he evaded it as well because of his engagement with Devon. It was something that we fought about when we first got back together. It took a long time to get over the fact that she was wearing a ring that he had given to me first. “And the last time I asked you to marry me you said no.”
“I said not now,” I reminded him.
“Okay, not now.” He rolled his eyes while shaking his head. He was still bitter that I had said no. I poked at his side and a hearty laugh escaped his throat. “So a kid within the next five years. That seems doable.” He pushed my elbows back and returned to fondling my nipples again.
It took all I had to form a coherent question. “Marriage first, then a baby?”
“Yes.” He moaned, his hands pushing my tender breasts together and his tongue lapping my erect nipple.
“I have eight months to plan a wedding,” I moaned.
Peyton’s hands froze. He raised his head, his eyes looking at mine for answers. “Eight months?”
I bit my lower lip to contain my happiness. I was six weeks pregnant. “Marry me?” I blurted. I had found out late last night.
“Are you . . . Are we pregnant?”
Brushing my hands through his soft thick hair, I repeated myself, “Marry me?”
He slowly shook his head. “No.”
“What?”
“Not in eight months. I want to marry you now. Today.” He kissed my stomach. “My baby.” He looked up at me, his hazel eyes hidden behind the tears. “I love you.” His lips crashed down on mine. “I love you. My love, my wife, the mother of my child.”
“And I you.”
By seven that night, our house was filled with our friends and family. It was my twenty-ten birthday, after all . . .
And also our wedding day.
After we got out of bed, we called the florist and caterer asking them to upgrade what we had planned for my party. We surprised our guests with the impromptu wedding deciding, to wait to tell them about the pregnancy until after the first trimester. Gus quickly became an officiated minister over the Internet, and Loren walked me down the makeshift aisle we’d decorated with white flowers and lit candles. Outside the home we’d built together, surrounded by our loved ones, Peyton and I stood on our deck under the dark sky and exchanged vows.
He was my definition of love. My hero and my addiction.
He was my everything.
Love.
It’s a word that we all toss around like it has no meaning. But as Caleb said at his engagement, love is only a word until someone gives it a meaning.
Kennedy and Caleb were still as happy as the day they married. He continues to look at her as if the ground she walks on turns to gold. Kennedy gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Declan. I was there holding her hand along with Caleb while she pushed and cried. I’m Declan’s godmother and take my role very seriously. I have him all to myself most Sundays so his mommy and daddy can have some alone time. Needless to say, she’s now expecting her second child, a little girl.
Loren and Matt are still together. Though it was unethical to date while she was his patient, they kept it a secret until she was able to walk again. I guess us Wolf sisters enjoy secret romances. They flew out to Vegas one weekend for what was supposed to be a spontaneous weekend away, but came back married instead.
Matt is the best brother-in-law a girl could ask for. Aside from the fact that he treated Loren like a precious treasure, he also cared enough to build a relationship with me. He took the time when I would go up and visit them, to sit down and pick my brain for hours.
Though Loren never had kids of her own, they’d decided to adopt. After two years of paperwork, they finally flew overseas to meet their daughter, Eloise. Loren had named her after our mother.
But not all love lasts. Some love stories stop once their love has run its course. Which brings me to Gus. My dear, sweet Gus. Love for him ran its course three years after his marriage to Jon.
Soon after they married, Jon was picked up by a modeling agency and started traveling around the world. For the first year, Gus was right behind him cheering him on. But he had his own career to focus on, and it’s hard to work on a marriage when your other half is across the country. Gus and Jon drifted apart, and he said it felt like they were roommates and no longer spouses. Gus spent a lot of time lounging on the couch and eating pints of ice cream with me when he filed for divorce.
And then there’s me.
I’d met Peyton six years ago in a dark nightclub. He was an egotistic asshole, and as much as I denied how much I wanted him, I couldn’t stay away. Our love found it’s way through the cracks of the wall I had built to keep him out. And when he found his way to my heart that’s where he stayed. There were times I felt like a love like ours couldn’t exist. It was intoxicating, controlling, and at time I felt like I was drowning in it. But I reveled in the feeling.
And now I finally understand why.
I have always belonged to him and he has always belonged to me.
The End
I hope you enjoyed Contingent. I would love to hear from you. Please consider writing a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, Kobo or iBooks. I do read all of my reviews and would love to see what you thought.
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Thank you for your support.
Livia Jamerlan
Since this is the final book I think I will make it light and sweet.
To my editor Jennifer Roberts-Hall, when I first sent you Consensual you were a stranger. I’m thrilled to say that you are now a dear friend. I can’t wait to see how our friendship continues to blossom.
To the best proofreader an author could ever ask for, Shawna Gavas, thank you from the bottom of my heart for finding every little thing that it was missing. Thank you for your professionalism and your friendship.
To the talented Christine, my wonderful formatter, thank you for making my books look oh so pretty! You have a gift my friend.
Sommer Stein, thank you for giving this trilogy three beautiful covers.
To Faith Andrews, Elisabeth Grace, and BA Wolfe: They say friendship is one of life’s greatest treasures. I was lucky and found three. You three are the kind of friends that are loyal, are always there to make me laugh when I am down, y’all as Barb would say, are not afraid to help me avoid mistakes and you look out for my best interest. This kind of friendship we have: squirrel moments, special PM’s and Gandy Candy though I will never understand that last one, can be hard to find, but I know our friendship will last a lifetime. I love you my sexy bitches!
Sharon, Melissa and the girls over at Sassy Savvy and Fabulous, you have been with me since the very beginning of this trilogy and I couldn’t thank you enough. Thank you for all of the hard work and assistance.
Sharon, my dear sweet Sharon, your friendship I cherish as a special gift. Thank you for understanding me, and letting me vent when I needed someone to hear me. Though you may be small your heart is gigantic.
Ashley Heather, you amaze me every day. I never expected to have a fan like you. Out of the kindness of your heart you pimp my books, you recommend them to your friends and you simply love my character. I will always have you in my heart. Thank you my dear friend.
Books by Livia Jamerlan, I love every single one of you. I appreciate all your love and support.
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