by Jay McLean
We all go quiet as we stare down at Katie. “If anyone treats her the way we just treated Brace Face—I mean Mia…” I rub my hands across my face. “Jesus.”
“Kids!” Dad calls from downstairs. “You have visitors!”
Lucy exhales, frowns some more.
“Kids!”
No one moves.
Voices sound from downstairs.
Then Dad’s footsteps, thumping.
Lucy whispers, “Fee-fi-fo-fum.”
I chuckle. Lucas’s eyes go wide. “Quick!” he whisper-yells. “Everyone hide.”
Lucy takes Katie off the bed, and then I’m lifting the blankets while everyone tries to fit on the bed. Legs off the edges, arms bent, hands in places they shouldn’t be. Aubrey settles on top of me, giggling into my chest.
Katie coos.
“Shut it, Katie,” Lachlan jokes. “The giant’s coming.”
Fee-fi-fo-fum!
“Kids!” Dad yells, and then the bedroom door is opening, and it’s silent besides Lachy giggling, Lucas’s hand covering our baby brother’s mouth.
“Welp,” Dad says. “Can’t find them. I must be too tired. I’m going to sleep.”
And then the blankets are lifting and we’re laughing, squealing like little kids again.
Aubrey
The Preston property has been converted into a scene from a fairytale, and to everyone here, Katie is the princess. I don’t think I’ve ever met a little girl so spoiled with love and affection. And no one showers her with more love and affection than her Uncle Logan. I watch him holding her, walking around to the party guests one after the other, a giant smile on his face.
It took a while for that smile of his to return after everything that had happened. There was no denying our initial emotional connection, or re-connection. But it was the moments after that led us to the strength we have now. We were both wary of our feelings and the feelings of those around us. While the Prestons made it known they had absolutely no issues with me, that they supported and loved me regardless of what my family ties were, their feelings for my mother was something else. Tom held the same disdain toward my mother as I did, and I couldn’t fault him for that. While I wish things were different between my mom and I—I still can’t look at her and not feel sick to my stomach that she did so little to save those boys, now men.
In my eyes, she’s neither a victim nor a villain. She is, however, a bystander, and that’s something I don’t think I can ever truly accept.
It doesn’t mean I don’t miss her, though.
It was all those things combined that led me to Logan’s therapist.
I see her twice a month. One session alone, one with Logan. We’d see her more if Logan’s schedule would allow it, but with him working full-time, going to trade school, studying for his GED and ticking off the hours for his court-ordered community service, he barely has time to breathe. I learnt that during his four month stint at the treatment facility, his family, along with Senior Deputy Misty Sanders, Judge Nelson (the town’s only judge who also handled Lucas and Laney’s cases against her ex), and Nathan Andrews (a lawyer and family friend) fought his charges. It was another six months before we were able to get Logan’s final sentence. No prison time was the outcome we all hoped for. We were beyond thrilled with the decision.
Now, Logan’s stopping to talk to the lady I’d been introduced to as Virginia, their old nanny, and her daughter Mia… who is nothing like they’d described.
I nudge Leo standing next me, then wince in pain. The man’s a brick wall, muscles in too many places. He’s spent the past year and a half—since Logan’s downfall—working construction and working out. Next week, he’s off to the police academy.
With a chuckle, he throws his arm over my shoulders, brings me into him. “You’re weak, Red.” All the Prestons call me Red.
I look up at him, but he, too, is watching Logan. Logan and Mia. “Mia grew up, huh?”
“No shit,” he laughs out.
“You gonna talk to her?”
“And say what? Hey, I leave next week, but wanna sex?”
I shrug. “Why not?”
“Because I’m not Logan.”
I elbow his stomach made of stone.
“I meant, Pre-Red Logan. Obviously.”
Right on cue, Logan appears, no Katie. “Get your own girl,” he says, pulling me out of Leo’s hold. He takes my hand, walks me to an open patch of grass. Then he stops, turns me to him. He says, his arms around my waist. “I finally found it.”
“Found what?”
He smirks, motions to Linc and Liam working the stereo. “Our song.”
I try to get out of his hold, but he’s too strong. “No, Logan. Not now.”
“It’s a good song,” he laughs out.
“No. Last time you said that, it was 50 Cent’s ‘Candy Shop’!”
He pins my arms behind me, holds my hands tight in his. Then his mouth is on my neck, my jaw. “I promise, this is it.”
The song starts, and I’m already rolling my eyes in anticipation. Logan starts to smile when my features soften. “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat plays through the speakers, through my heart, my entire body. I let the lyrics fill every part of me.
“Was I right?” he asks, slowly releasing my hands. They go behind his neck, fingers linked. We sway, back and forth, his blue-blue eyes right on mine.
“You were right,” I tell him, my cheek pressed to his chest. “This is perfect.”
“You’re perfect, Red. And this life, what we have, what you’ve given me… it’s all perfect.”
We rear back at the same time, just so we can see each other. He’s smiling from ear-to-ear, like a giant goofball. “I’m the lucky one,” I tell him, grasping the Hope Penny around my neck. You + Me. “And I’m kind of crazy in love with you.”
“The feeling’s mutual, Red.” And then his lips are on mine, and everything fades with the swipe of his tongue, with the way his fingers grasp at my waist. I tilt my head to the side, bump the side of my face against something. Katie. “You guys are so cute it makes me sick,” Lucy says in a high-pitched voice. She’s squatting down, hiding behind her daughter.
Logan shakes his head.
Lucy giggles, stands to full height and holds Katie on her hip. “We’re about to light the lanterns for Mom,” she tells us. “Let’s go.”
I let go of Logan, let him be with his family, because I know how important this is to all of them. They did it for Cameron and Lucy’s wedding, and they plan on doing it every year for Katie’s birthday. Lucy and Logan are two steps away before they both turn, in sync, and narrow their eyes at me. “You coming?” Logan asks.
“You guys go,” I say, shaking my head. “It’s a family thing.”
Lucy scoffs, comes back to me, and pulls on my arm until I’m being dragged behind her. “You’ll realize soon,” she says.
“Realize what?”
“That you are family, Red.”
Logan wraps me in his arms, then lifts me off the ground, throws me over his shoulder. He smacks my butt. I squeal, try to get out of his hold, while my world flips. Everything is upside down. Wired wrong. Perfect. And then Lachlan’s running up to me, handing me a sky lantern. He smiles his gap-tooth smile. “Let’s set the skies ablaze, Red!” And Lucy’s right. I feel it. Only the time isn’t soon. It’s now. And all the people watching us—they have it wrong. Katie’s not the princess here. I am. And I’m living my own fairy tale. My own Happily Ever After.
When we get to the end of the dock, we light the lanterns, watch them float high, high, high into the sky. Logan takes my hand in his, and I feel the familiar sensation of the cold metal against my palm. I take the flattened penny from between our touch, my heart racing as I lift it to my eyes:
You saved me, Red.
Want MORE?
Want more of Cameron and Lucy’s story? You can find out all about them in the More Than Series, particular More Than Forever (can be read as a standalone).
More Than This
More Than Her
More Than Him
More Than Forever
More Than Enough
Preston Brothers Novel
Lucas
Also by Jay McLean
The Road Series
Where the Road Takes Me
Kick Push
Coast
Combative Trilogy
Combative
Redemptive
Destructive - Coming Soon
Boy Toy Chronicles
Volume One
Darkness Matters
Darkness Matters
About the Author
Jay McLean is an international best-selling author and full-time reader, writer of New Adult Romance, and skilled procrastinator. When she's not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her two little boys, playing house and binge watching Netflix.
She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her hurt and make her feel.
Jay lives in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, in a forever half-done home where music is loud and laughter is louder.
For publishing rights (Foreign & Domestic) Film, or television, please contact her agent Erica Spellman-Silverman, at Trident Media Group.
Connect With Jay
www.jaymcleanauthor.com
[email protected]