Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Other titles by Danielle Lewis (Click title to start reading)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
About The Author
Something Old
Something New
(Lost Love Series)
( Erotic Romance)
Copyright
Something Old Something New (Lost Love Series) (Erotic Romance)
Written, Compiled & Edited by: Danielle Lewis
Copyright © 2013 by Danielle Lewis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Other titles by Danielle Lewis (Click title to start reading)
The Cop (Lost Love Series) (Erotic Romance)
Requited (Lost Love Series) (Erotic Romance)
Passion (Lost Love Series) (Erotic Romance)
Ebony Desires (Interracial Romance Erotica)
A Woman with a Secret (Looking Behind: Part 1) (Sizzling Erotic Thriller)
What Lies Behind the Smile (Looking Behind: Part 2) (Sizzling Erotic Thriller)
Learning of Each Other (Looking Behind: Part 3) (Sizzling Erotic Thriller)
The Hunt (Looking Behind: Part 4) (Sizzling Erotic Thriller)
Chapter 1
Mia was busy icing of the fourth tier of a wedding cake when her phone rang, startling her. To her dismay, the delicate rose she had been working on was crushed when she jumped. She sighed, frustrated with herself. Part of her wanted to fix it immediately, but her phone was still ringing. Looking at the phone, she saw it was her friend Emily.
“Not a great time, Emily,” she grumbled when she answered the phone.
“Something wrong?” asked Emily, sounding concerned.
“No,” sighed Mia. “It’s all right.” Her frustration passed quickly. It was just the icing, and it would be easy enough to fix. “Just a little cake issue. Nothing I can’t handle. What’s up?”
“I’m getting married!” Emily was practically shrieking with joy. It was infectious, and Mia immediately caught it.
“Oh my God! Matt proposed?! Tell me everything!”
“Oh Mia, it was perfect!” Emily gushed. “You know how much we both love dear old State. Matt took me back there for a home game. I thought we were just going to party and tailgate, but he took me all around campus. We reminisced over all of our favorite spots, and then when we got the ice cream place where we had our first date, he knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said -”
“Marry me, Juliet. You’ll never have to be alone?” supplied Mia with a small smile.
“Yes!” Emily sounded so very happy. “He did the entire verse!”
“That’s so cute!” Mia was impressed. When they were in college, Emily had become a hard-core Taylor Swift fan. Matt certainly knew her well.
“It was amazing, Mia! Say you’ll be a bridesmaid!”
“I would be honored.”
“You are so wonderful! I have to go though – there are so many people I need to call before it ends up on Facebook.”
“Good thinking,” Mia approved. “Talk to you later, kay?”
“Bye!”
After hanging up the phone, Mia found herself inexplicably a bit sad. What Emily and Matt had was beautiful. When she was a younger woman, she had felt a hole in her life where romance was lacking, but over the years Mia had learned to be content on her own. She concentrated on her little bakery and being financially independent. Besides, even though she had no romance, she certainly did not lack for love. Her friends and her family were what really mattered. There was no room in her life for a man, and most of the time, she gave romance no thought. Some days, however, she could not help but regret her choice.
Chapter 2
“My family is so weird. Why were my aunts giggling whenever I broke a ribbon?” asked Emily as she picked up the broken ribbons from where they fell on the floor.
“It’s an old bridal shower tradition,” explained her sister Kathleen who was returning from loading the last of the gifts into the car. “The superstition is that for every ribbon you break, you’ll have a baby.”
“But that’s like 17 kids!” exclaimed Emily.
“I guess you better get started,” said Mia solemnly. Emily swatted her with some wrapping paper, and they both laughed.
“Matt and I have decided we would like to have three,” she told them. “Not right away of course, but eventually.”
“That’s a good number,” approved Kathleen. “I don’t think James and I will have more than two though. Robbie and Sam already keep us busy enough as it is! Speaking of, I should probably get back home. The poor babysitter is probably tearing her hair out!”
“You go,” said Mia. “Give the boys our love. We’ll clean up here.”
“You sure?”
“Don’t worry – we’ve got this,” Emily assured her.
As Mia started rolling up the plastic tablecloths to throw away, Emily walked over to help.
“Now that it is just us, there is something I have been meaning to talk to you about,” Emily began hesitantly. One look in her friend’s face, and Mia knew something was wrong.
“What is it?” she asked, setting down her trash bag to focus on her friend.
“William is coming to the wedding,” Emily said. Mia felt her heart skip a beat, but struggled to stay calm. She did not need to ask who Emily meant. There was only one William who had ever mattered.
“He’s back in the country?” asked Mia, forcing her voice to remain light.
“He came home about six months ago,” Emily told her. “He was honorably discharged after he got hit by an IED. He’s all right,” she added quickly, seeing the look on Mia’s face. “He only lost his right leg below the knee. The doctor’s say he was lucky.”
Mia did not respond. Honestly she was not sure what to say.
“I know we should have told you sooner, but given your history, Matt and I thought it might be best if you didn’t know.” Emily looked concerned. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Mia assured her, lying through her teeth.
“If you want, we can still tell him not to come,” suggested Emily.
“Don’t be silly,” Mia shook her head. “He and Matt are old friends. Will should be at his wedding.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Chapter 3
As she got dressed for the Rehearsal, Mia’s stomach was filled with butterflies. After 8 years, she was going to see Will again. She could still remember the day he told her he was enlisting with perfect clarity.
“I’m scared, Will,” she told him, clutching him to her as if they would make him stay. They were alone at his parents’ house. He was holding her in his lap as they sat together on the couch.
“I have to do this, Mia,” he said firmly. “You know that.”
“I don’t know that! Why should I?” she argued, looking up at him with tear filled eyes.
“My country needs me,” he said.
“I need you!” she cried.
“I need you too,” he told her, kissing her lightly on the top of the head.
“Then why are you signing up to get yourself killed?” she demanded.
“We’re at war, Mia,” he said. “I can’t stay home and pretend nothing’s happening when I know men just like me are fighting and dying in the Middle East.”
“Why not?” she asked bitterly. “Everyone else does.”
“I am not everyone else. I have to do this, Mia.”
“What about me?” she asked. “How will I bear it, living my life, everyday dreading that I’ll hear from your family that you’ve been killed?”
“I will be all right,” he promised her. “I’ll come home. I’ll come back to you.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Please, Mia,” he said. “Don’t make this harder.”
“You’ve made up your mind then,” she said softly. Her tears were gone, replaced by a feeling of grim acceptance.
“I have,” he said.
“I don’t like it,” she warned him.
“I know.” They sat on the couch for a long time, their bodies curled around each other. Mia held him close, trying to soak in every last moment they had together.
Mia could still remember how she had felt that day. She had been so frightened. She had tried to be strong for him, but the thought of him dying out there so far from home was breaking her heart.
Will had been the great love of her life. They had started dating in high school, when she was fifteen and he was seventeen. They were only together for a year before he had enlisted. In the years that had passed, she had not loved anyone else. Every time she thought of him, she was filled with regret. She understood the choice she had made eight years ago. It had seemed sensible at the time. Now that she had lived a bit longer in the world, however, she wished she could go back in time and change her mind.
Her musings were interrupted by the sound of her doorbell. Emily must have arrived. The two of them were going to drive over to the church together.
Chapter 4
“Sarah, you start walking first, then Mia will follow, then me, then Emily. Everybody got it?” Emily and Mia rolled their eyes at each other. Kathleen was a loving older sister, but being named Maid of Honor had turned her into a bit of a dictator.
“Well what are you waiting for?” she demanded. “Move it!”
Sarah scurried down the aisle, and Mia did not wait long before following. She tried to walk at a calm, reasonable pace, despite the thousands of butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. After 8 long years, she was finally going to see him again.
When she stepped through the doorway, her eyes were drawn to Will like a magnet. He had changed since she had last seen him. His shoulders were broader, and his black hair now had some grey in it. There were lines on his face that she did not remember. Even the way he stood was different. Will held himself tall, just like the perfect soldier he had become.
He was clearly in the middle of a conversation with Matt, but he glanced over to her as she walked in. In that moment, Mia felt time stop. The world stopped turning, and it was as if they were the only two people in the universe. Everything she had ever felt for Will seemed to well up in her chest. Just like he promised, he had come home.
“Move it, Mia!” hissed Kathleen, poking her in the back. Mia blinked, and the moment was gone. Will turned back to continue his conversation with Matt as if he had not even seen her. Mia felt like she had been punched in the gut. She had not known what to expect, but she had at least expected something. It would be too much to hope that he would be overjoyed to see her. Her guess had been that he was still angry, and she had been so nervous to face that anger.
Now, she realized anger would have been better. Anger would have meant that he still cared. She took her place beside Sarah and tried not to stare at Will. His utter indifference was breaking her heart. She could feel Emily’s eyes on her while she walked up the aisle toward her husband-to-be. Mia forced herself to stay calm and match Will’s indifference. This wedding was Emily’s moment. She would not allow herself and an eight-year old break-up to ruin it.
So Mia took another deep breath, turned, and smiled at her friend. Even just walking up in her dress for the rehearsal dinner, Emily looked radiant. She had wanted to get married for so long, but Matt had insisted he was not the marrying kind. After five years of dating and a four year engagement, she had finally convinced him.
Matt was the opposite of Will in that regard. For perhaps the millionth time in the past eight years, Mia found herself contemplating what her life would have been like if she had made a different choice. Would she ever have started her bakery? Would she have children of her own? It seemed like a completely different lifetime.
Chapter 5
Because this day was not already hard enough for Mia, Kathleen insisted that she pair up with Will to exit.
“You’re both tall,” she explained. “It will look better.”
“But Zack was standing closer to Matt,” Emily quickly pointed out. Mia loved Emily for trying to protect her.
“Well then during the actual ceremony, they’ll have to make sure to switch,” Kathleen declared. “Can you handle that?”
“I think we can manage,” said Will, sounding faintly amused. Silently, he offered Mia his arm. With some trepidation, she took it. Even just touching his sleeve was enough to send an electric current through her body. He, however, did not seem effected in the slightest.
Together they began to walk back down the aisle. She remembered Emily telling her about his injury, but he seemed to have adapted to walking with the prosthetic quite well. In fact, if Emily had not mentioned it, she never would have known he had been hurt.
“I’m glad you made it home safely,” Mia finally said when she couldn’t handle his silence anymore.
“I seem to recall promising I would,” he said, a slight edge to his voice.
“Yes,” she said softly. “I remember.” Perhaps speaking was a mistake. They walked the rest of the way out of the church in silence.
When they reached the restaurant, Kathleen’s dictatorial nature appeared again. Everyone had been assigned seats.
“We’re not in school, Kathleen,” teased Emily.
“You have place cards for the reception, so this will be good practice,” Kathleen explained, sounding slightly exasperated. “Just sit.” Everyone in the room was wise enough not to disobey.
In retrospect, Mia realized she should not have been surprised that she and Will were seated side by side. It was that sort of day. Emily looked concerned, but Mia shot her a quick reassuring smile to say she was all right. She was not, of course, but Emily should not have to worry about her best friend’s love life on the night before her wedding.
As she sat down, she was careful not to let any part of her body brush against his. Even if he had forgotten her, she could never forget him. Every touch sent fire through her veins. It seemed wisest not to put herself in that position. Instead she focused her attention on Zack, who was sitting on her other side.
She and Zack had a lovely chat. He was an old friend, and talking to him was always so easy. Not to mention the wine – that certainly didn’t hurt either. After a few glasses, she found herself smiling naturally, laughing at everything, and holding onto Zack. He didn’t seem to mind. They had known each other a long time. He knew how physically affectionate she got after a few drinks.
“She’s had enough,” she heard Will say softly. She turned swiftly and saw a waiter with a wine bottle nodding and backing away from her glass.
“I’m fine,” she assured Will. Speaking to him did not frighten her at all anymore.
“One more drink, and you are going to find yourself in bed with that guy,” he commented. His tone was light, as if he were just making a casual observation. His eyes, on the other hand, were steel.
“Trust me,” she sai
d as she burst out laughing. “That’s not going to happen.”
“I know you, Mia,” he told her. “One more glass and you’re in his bed. One more after that and you’ll spend the night vomiting.”
“I’m not seventeen anymore, Will,” she snapped. Her voice carried a bit further than she intended. The whole table fell silent to turn and stare at her.
“Time to go,” he said, standing swiftly. He gently but firmly gripped her arm just above the elbow and pulled her to her feet. She was so surprised that she didn’t say a word. She just stared at him.
“Sorry everyone, I think Mia’s had a bit too much. I’m going to make sure she makes it safely back to her room.” Mia felt him put his arms around her to support her. He had spent the whole evening ignoring her, and now suddenly he was Mr. Knight in Shining Armor?
“Some things never change,” muttered Matt. Emily glared at him in annoyance.
“Thanks, Will,” said Emily, looking at Mia with concern. Mia felt awful. She had tried so hard to keep from messing up Emily’s moment, but here she was, making a scene anyway.
“I’m fine, Emily,” Mia assured her. She tried not to wobble too much as Will led her out into the hallway.
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