“Uh…” I stutter.
“Yes, that’s her. I think she’s a little nervous,” Jay says behind me with a laugh.
“Come on in then. Hey, little man, do you want to take a seat over on that sofa?”
I watch as Denny walks off, but panic that I’m about to leave him in the reception of a tattoo parlour.
“Don’t worry, my wife’s just out the back making him a hot chocolate. She’ll keep a close eye on him.” Right on cue, a gorgeous blonde woman appears with two mugs piled high with marshmallows. She has almost as many piercings and tattoos as her husband.
Carl ushers me into a back room and I sheepishly follow behind him.
“It’ll be okay,” Jay whispers in my ear. The feeling of his breath on my neck calms me down slightly.
I get myself on the chair as Carl wheels himself over on a little stool.
“So then, you’re boyfri—”
“Fiancé,” Jay interrupts.
“Sorry, your fiancé here tells me you want a tattoo.”
“I…uh…” I blow out a breath and try to ground myself a little, because I do want this. I want a reminder of us and everything we’ve been through permanently on my body. “Yes,” I say with much more determination. “I would like exactly what Jay has on his inner arm but on the top of my foot. Is that okay?”
Carl waits while Jay removes his hoodie and pulls up his sleeve. “Looks good to me. Show me where you want it and I’ll get it sorted.”
I pull my boot off and point.
“Okay. It’ll be sore there, mind. You ready for that?”
“Yes.” I try to sound confident about my ability to cope, but I’m not sure my pain threshold is all that high really.
I shut my eyes and rest my head back when Carl’s ready to start. Jay comes to stand next to me and I grab onto his hand as I prepare for the pain to start.
“Okay, all done. What do you think?”
“Oh, is that it?”
“Yeah, look,” Carl says with a laugh, nodding down to my newly tattooed foot.
I smile as I look down at my new ink and let out a big sigh. That wasn’t half as bad as I imagined, and totally worth it.
Now not only is Jay a permanent fixture in my heart and my life, but a part of who we are is marked on my skin.
Everywhere and Nowhere.
Epilogue
I’ve no idea how he did it, but five weeks after he put an offer down on our house, we have the keys and we’re about to put them into the lock for the first time.
We’re not officially moving in for a few weeks as we want to decorate and make it ours. But today is our first day owning our first home together.
We walk in and out of each room, me with a notebook, pen and paint chart, and him with a tape measure. I make note of the window sizes in each room and we debate what furniture we want where, what we can make use of from my house, and what we can buy new.
After a lot of thought, I eventually put my house on the market. It holds so many memories of my parents and my younger years, but I can’t imagine renting it out and having others live there, and there’s no point it sitting empty. We might not need the money for this place, but I don’t want it to do nothing for us. I’d rather invest it somehow, maybe buy another place to rent out that I have no attachment to.
The last room to measure up is the smallest of the bedrooms, the one Jay mentioned could be our nursery when he first told me about this place when we were away at Christmas.
“Shall we just leave this room as it is for now?” Jay asks as he looks at the fairly fresh walls.
“Yeah, I guess. We can then decorate it the right colour once we’ve had a scan.”
“Yeah that’s wha…Wait, what?”
I put everything in my hands down on the windowsill and walk over to him. I stare up into his eyes as I thread my fingers through his. He doesn’t breathe the whole time.
“In about sixteen weeks we should be able to find out if we’ll paint it blue or pink.” I can’t help my smile as I say it.
“You’re...you’re pregnant?”
“I am. I did a test first thing this morning but I’ve been suspicious for about a week.”
“Oh my god,” he gasps. The shock is clear on his face. I’m worried for all of two seconds because his lips twitch into a stunning smile before he grabs me and starts spinning me around the room.
“You’re pregnant!” he shouts as he puts me down. “How? When?”
“I’ve no idea. I was on the pill, but…” I trail off with a shrug.
Jay stares down at me with a look I’ve never seen before. It’s so serious and intense, yet full of emotions but after a few seconds a smug smile starts to play on his lips. Neither of us says anything as we stare at each other. Then he snaps, and he steps towards me and backs me up against the wall.
“I think it’s time to christen our new house, Skittles.”
“I can’t wait,” I whisper.
The End
(It really is this time!)
Acknowledgments
I can’t even begin to explain how much Erin and Jay have meant to me. I guess my first mention and thank you should be Evelyn, my editor, for suggesting Never Forget Us wasn’t enough and these two needed a little more. I hope this short and sweet epilogue was the perfect end to the rollercoaster Erin and Jay’s relationship had been.
There’s no way I can walk away from these characters quite yet, so there is going to be a Frankie and Dean story in the near future. They already have so much history, that giving them a future will hopefully be just about much fun as I’ve had with Erin and Jay.
Once again, I’ve got to say a huge thank you to Michelle for being my left hand woman on this journey, for giving me a kick up the arse when I need it and for not being afraid to tell me when I could do better. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your honesty and support.
Deanna, for everything you do to help me daily. Helen, Lindsay and Tracy for once gain beta reading and making my characters a part of your lives.
And finally a huge thank you to you for getting this far and enjoying Erin and Jay’s angst-filled romance. I hope it tore you apart and put you back together, just like it did for me. Thank you for taking the time to pick up and read my books; it means the world to me.
Read Beth for FREE!
Grab your FREE copy of Beth now:
Click here to claim your copy
About the Author
Tracy Lorraine is a M/F and M/M contemporary romance author. Tracy has just turned thirty and lives in a cute Cotswold village in England with her husband, baby girl and lovable but slightly crazy dog. Having always been a bookaholic with her head stuck in her Kindle Tracy decided to try her hand at a story idea she dreamt up and hasn’t looked back since.
Be the first to find out about new releases and offers. Sign up to my newsletter here.
If you want to know what I’m up to and see teasers and snippets of what I’m working on then you need to be in my Facebook group. Join Tracy’s Angels here.
Keep up to date with Tracy’s books at
www.tracylorraine.com
Also by Tracy Lorraine
Angel Series
Molly - part one #1
Molly - part two #1
Abbi #1.5
Beth #1.6
Emma #2
Connie #2.5
Lilly #3
Taylor #3.5
Nicole #4 coming soon
Chasing Series
Chasing Logan
Ruined Series
Ruined Plans #1
Ruined by Lies #2
Ruined Promises #3
Never Forget Series
Never Forget Him #1
Never Forget Us #2
Everywhere & Nowhere #3
The Cocktail Girls
His Manhattan
Sneak Peek
Ruined Plans (Ruined #1) by Tracy Lorraine
Ruined Plans
Prologue
N
ew Year’s Resolutions
1. Spend less time working
2. Visit Aunt Addy
3. Date nights
I pick up the piece of paper that flutters to the floor as I attempt to clear my desk for the night. Sitting back in my chair, I stare down at the words I wrote only a few weeks ago.
I glance at the time on my computer screen to see it’s almost 8pm on Valentine’s night, and here I am still in my office with mountains of work to do. I guess that explains how well number one on the list is going. Actually, it pretty much answers all three. I think in the last six weeks I’ve spent more time in the office than ever, so even thinking about planning a trip to see Aunt Addy hasn’t happened. And as for date nights, code for attempt to sort out my shitty marriage—I just didn’t want to write that down—that’s the reason I’m finishing up early for the night. My assistant poked her head in just under an hour ago to say she was leaving and I placed a takeaway order so I could surprise my husband and make some kind of effort. It is Valentine’s day, after all.
I go down to the ground floor of the office block we work in to collect my delivery before heading straight up to the top floor to my husband’s office.
We’re both lawyers for his family’s company. I’m pretty sure it should excite me; after all, it’s what I spent years studying for. Here I am, a high-flying lawyer for a renowned company in the middle of the city, married to the boss, living in a gorgeous penthouse apartment only five minutes from here.
I fucking hate it. All of it.
It hasn’t always been this way. At the beginning, I thought I was living the high life: hefty pay checks, designer clothes, meals at any swanky restaurant I wanted, and a husband every woman in the office wanted a piece of. That all soon wore thin once I was promoted—not because I married the boss though, I’d like to add. I started working longer hours and all the benefits I enjoyed before were pushed aside to spend more hours in the office. It’s pretty shit. Then Edward’s dad retired, leaving him in charge, and our marriage took even more of a backseat.
“Good evening, Addison.”
“Evening,” I say when I see Greg, one of the security guards in reception. “Shouldn’t Mr. Boss Man be taking you out for some slap up meal?”
“You’d think, right?” I reply as I wave my takeaway bag at him.
“Enjoy,” he says with a wink as I head back towards the lift.
I sail straight to the top. The building must be practically empty seeing as it’s Valentine’s day so my journey isn’t interrupted by anyone wanting to join me.
There’s no one to be seen as I walk down the corridor past the giant offices. It looks like the rest of the management has some kind of work life balance.
The glass wall that allows everyone to see into Edward’s office has been darkened but I don’t think anything of it. I shove the handle down and fling the door wide open.
“Surprise,” I announce happily, but my mood changes when I see the reason for the blacked out windows.
My husband’s behind his desk like I expected, but rather than going through case notes he’s currently balls deep inside my PA, who’s bent over his desk.
He sees me, his eyes widen in shock, and he stops moving as he stares at me. It’s clear she has no idea I’ve just interrupted because, without opening her eyes, she moans, “Eddie, keep going…so close.”
Eddie? Who the fuck does she think she is? My husband hates the name Eddie.
I stand there staring at the scene in front of me for a few more seconds as something inside me explodes. I want to say it’s devastation, anger even, but I’m pretty sure it’s the tingling of freedom.
I drop the bag of takeout on the floor and, with one last look at my cheating prick of a husband, I make my way out of the Chapman-Webb offices with every intention to never walk through the front door again.
Download Ruined Plans now to continue reading.
Everywhere & Nowhere Page 5