Forever Altered
Page 29
“Please, you know damn well I never reveal my secrets,” she teases.
“I love it! Thank you so much!” I kiss her on the cheek earning myself a remark from Logan. Some things will never change.
“Enough of this mushy shit! Champagne for everyone,” Shane says popping the top of the bottle.
Rocco starts pulling glasses out. “Since when do you drink champagne?”
“Since I have a reason to celebrate,” he tells Rocco while he starts filling the glasses.
“What exactly do you have to celebrate?” Rocco asks.
“My new job.”
“Shane, what happened to the job you just got after graduation?”
Shane looks over at Jessica with the biggest grin on his face. She goes over to him and wraps her arms around him. He hugs her back. Shane met her last summer when he came down to visit us one weekend at my dad’s house. She is one of Jill’s nieces and she just happened to stop by when he was there. They’ve been dating ever since.
“I quit,” he explains passing out the filled glasses. “Following your ass to South Jersey seems a lot more fun than staying up here all by myself.” Rocco and I are having a house built not too far from my dad. It’s supposed to be done when I graduate in May in about four months. “Besides, there’s this girl who asked me to move in with her. I figured, why not? She’s hot,” he teases. Jessica punches him in the arm.
“You’re really moving down there with us?” Rocco asks. The poor guy has had enough shocking news for one day.
“Guess we’ll make a Philly fan out of you after all,” I joke.
“Oh hell no! I’m having satellite installed before I even move in. I’ll be damned if I’m watching those losers all the time.” He hands me my glass last and kisses me on the head.
Rocco comes to stand behind me and takes the glass from me. “I’ll drink that for you,” he whispers, but his action doesn’t go unnoticed.
“What the fuck, man? She becomes your wife and she’s not allowed to drink?” Shane never misses anything. My guess is Rocco was counting on that. I can literally feel his excitement radiating off of him.
“No,” he gloats. He slides his free hand around the front of me and rests it on my lower abdomen. “She’s not allowed to drink since she became my pregnant wife.” Everyone is almost as thrilled as we are over the news.
“You work fast, Matthews,” Logan tells him shaking his hand.
“The best things in my life just find a way of springing themselves on me,” Rocco tells him as he leans over to kiss me. “I don’t plan any of it.”
“Well, damn, that totally trumps my news,” Shane sulks. Jessica consoles him while we all laugh at his expense.
For the rest of the evening, we have a great time like we always do. We tell them about the things we did after they left. They fill us in on what’s been going on around here. I notice how from just a year ago, we are all very different. Everyone is growing up and moving on to the next chapter in their lives. Things won’t be exactly the same. We won’t all be living together. We won’t be able to hang out all the time like we are used to. We will always be friends who are more like family, no matter the distance between us. We will always be there for each other.
After everyone leaves, Rocco and I curl up on the couch to relax before heading upstairs. “I’m sorry I told everyone about the baby, even though you asked me not to.”
I couldn’t help but giggle at him. “Rocco, you’ve been glowing since you opened your gift this morning. Someone would have pried it out of you eventually.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out the dog tag I had engraved for him.
“To the best husband, who will soon be the best dad,” he read it again. “I still cannot believe it,” he says shaking his head.
“Believe it or not, Matthews. Come September it won’t be just the two of us anymore,” I tell him. As the words come out of my mouth, a thought crosses my mind that throws me for a moment.
“What’s wrong?” Rocco is instantly concerned.
“It just occurred to me that I’m going to get fat,” I sigh.
He starts chuckling. “I can’t wait until you have a belly. It’ll be adorable.”
“Liar. I’ll be huge and you’ll want someone else. You’ll stop loving me,” I pout.
Rocco puts his hand on the side of my face turning me to look into his eyes. “Sunshine, when are you going to get it? No matter what, you will always be my girl.”
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I need to thank my husband, Jason, for all of your support while I took time out of our crazy life to write this book. Yes, you drove me crazy every chance you could. Yes, you have always teased me over my love for reading (or anything for that matter!). However, your love and encouragement mean more to me than I could ever express. Let’s face it, if we learned anything during this experience, it’s definitely that you are a much better housekeeper than I ever will be! Thank you for everything! OXOX
To my two precious kiddies. Thank you so much for being the reason I get out of bed every morning! You may not realize it, but you both mean the world to me! A huge thank you for still thinking I’m the greatest Mommy in the whole wide world, even though I was completely nutty in the few months it took to complete this book. I hope you remember to always work hard for the things you want in life and to never give up on your hopes and dreams. Don’t let ANYONE hold you back or tell you these things are not possible. I love you!
To one of the greatest friends a girl could ask for, Terri. I could take pages and pages to tell you how lucky I am to have you as a friend, but you already know. I tell you all the time! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking this journey with me and for all of your help! I’m not sure I would have ever done this if it wasn’t for you. Also, thank you for not letting me give up when I thought I wanted to and enjoying this story as much as I have! **Smooches**
To another one of the greatest friends a girl could ask for and the BEST college roommate ever, Cara. Thank you so much for helping me along the way during this process! Your ideas and recommendations were genius and essential to the story. ‘Leah’ is an awesome roommate, but she’s got nothing on you!!
To the best sister-in-law, Michelle. I am so glad you offered to read this for me. Thank you for taking the time to help me out. Most importantly, thank you for being so damn good at finding my mistakes and for making the suggestions you did! They made the story so much better! (P.S. If you find any mistakes on this page, I’m sorry!)
Thank you Briana and Colleen, two more friends I couldn’t live without! Thank you for your input when I asked for it, for loving my story, and asking for more!
To the best cover designer, Samantha. One of the greatest things that happened to me in all of this was finding you! Thank you so much! Forever Altered would have never been complete without its beautiful cover!
To everyone and anyone who reads this book, THANK YOU! I hope you enjoy reading my story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
D. J. Pierson graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2002 with a degree in Radiologic Technology. While she is more of an obsessed reader than writer, she decided to share a story of her own. She currently resides in New Jersey with her husband, their two children, and two crazy dogs.
To find out what’s new, you can check out her Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/D-J-Pierson/547669458607713
Or you can email her at:
D.J.Pierson@comcast.net
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
&nb
sp; Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue