Finding Peace (Finding Series Book 1)

by Love, K. J.

  “What the heck? You took your ex to Scott’s apartment?”

  He puts his finger up to my mouth.

  “Let me finish.”

  I bite my lip to keep from screaming at him.

  “Let’s just say, things didn’t go as I had thought they would. Once I got them there, she passed out. I put her in Scott’s room and I had planned on staying in the guest room. The one we shared.”

  I blush thinking back to that night. Looking into his eyes, I feel that familiar pull. “Go on. Finish.”

  “Anyway. Once I put her in the bed and had Max settled on the couch. I went out to my truck to get my bag I had packed to come here. I went back in and into the kitchen to call Scott. He cussed and fussed, then told me he needed his key back as of yesterday. When I made my way down the hall to the guest room, I opened the door to go in and Max and Jessica were having sex in the bed I had planned to sleep in. From what I could gather through their drunken talking was that Jessica went into the bedroom thinking she could get me to give in and sleep with her, but Max went in to apologize to me, saw Jessica naked on the bed and well, as they say the rest is history.”

  I can’t believe this. Am I supposed to believe such an outlandish story? What the hell? “Why didn’t you just take her home? Why did you have to take her to that apartment? Why didn’t you just let anyone else take care of them?” Furious, I get up and walk toward the house. Honestly, I don’t know what to believe or what to think. He could be lying about all of it.

  “That’s not the kind of person I am.”

  I stop, but I can’t turn around to face him.

  “Kayla, if I had left either one of them and something had happened, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself. I wasn’t brought up that way. Listen, I promise you nothing happened between me and Jessica. With you is the only place I wanted to be then and it’s the only place I want to be now. My only crime was trying to be a nice guy and doing the right thing for a couple of friends. You wouldn’t want to be with a man that would have left a girl who was drunk and barely able to stand up alone and vulnerable. Anything could have happened to her Kayla. Please understand. I did nothing wrong except get so mixed up in their mess. And I thought it was too late to call when everything was said and done.”

  “How can I believe that?”

  I wait for his answer. Every fiber of my being is telling me to run into his arms, but my pride is holding me back. What if he touched her? What if he kissed her with those lips I love so much? I can’t even bear the thought of them being together.

  “If you’ll look at me for more than a second you’ll know I’m telling you the truth. Stop fighting this Kayla. Just fall with me. I promise I’ll catch you. I’ve already told you, you left an imprint on my heart. There will never be another girl for me. You’re it.”

  I shake my head no. “You hurt me. I never knew anything could hurt as bad as that. There’s only two other times that came close. I can’t risk that kind of pain again.”

  “Damn it! Look at me! If you’ll let me, I’ll fix it. I’ll make it better and I’ll never hurt you again. I did nothing wrong, Kayla. I’m here. I’m right here. Please Kayla. Look at me.”

  With tears running down my face, I turn and face him. When I see the tears coming from his eyes, I lose it even more.

  “I’m so sorry, baby. You have to know that.”

  I stand here fighting with everything I have, not to run to him. The pain and need is so overwhelming that I fall to the ground and break down. I look up at him and shake my head.

  He takes a deep breath and it looks as if he is struggling with something that he wants to say. Oh please don’t tell me that you slept with her. Just walk away now and leave. He throws his arms out to the side as if he is giving up. And then my world comes back into focus with his next words.

  “I love you, Kayla. I’ve loved you since the first time I laid eyes on you. I feel incomplete when you aren’t near me. You are the other half of my soul and I can’t live without you. I love you!”

  I blink a few times and look at him as if he’s lost his mind. Did I hear that right? He loves me. I’m shaking my head yes and he walks slowly toward me. He sits down beside me and all I can do is continue to shake my head yes. He pulls me onto his lap and I lay my head on his chest. My body is shaking and my heart is overflowing. I feel whole again, I feel complete with him. Everything is okay now.

  He whispers as he kisses the top of my head and lets out a breath letting his body relax some. “I love you, Kayla Jameson now and for the rest of my life. I love you.”

  I raise my head as he lowers his and our mouths collide in a kiss that ignites me, wakes me up from a life that was stuck in gray tones into a life full of color. He loves me and I love him. Life cannot get any better than this.

  Breaking our kiss, he holds my head in his hands, we are so close the tips of our noses are touching.

  “I have missed you so much, Kayla.”

  A shirtless Blake is a distracting sight, he fogs my brain and causes me to lose all cognitive thought.

  Blake laughs, bringing me back to earth. “Where were you beautiful?”

  “Huh? What do you mean?”

  Reaching for my pony tail holder he asks, “May I?”

  Realizing that he wants to take my hair down, I shake my head yes. He gently removes the band causing my hair to fall down around me, using his hands he separates the wet locks.

  “You’re breathtaking.” He says with a sigh.

  “Thank you.” I reply shyly. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  “Oh, I know. I’m a stud. You’re lucky you found me when you did. I’m a hot commodity. Pretty sure girls all over the planet are crying their eyes out right now.”

  “Why, what happened?” I ask sarcastically.

  He smirks, “Because I’m off the market. Hearts are breaking everywhere.”

  Leaning back to make sure he can see me, I look at him with an are you kidding me look, as I say, “I said ‘You’re not so bad.’ Never did I say you were an Adonis. I’ve seen better.”

  Taking his plump, kissable bottom lip into his mouth, he gives me that look that I love and hate, then pops his lip free. Don’t let him see that he is getting to you. I take in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  Smirking, he abruptly stands with me in his arms, closing his arms around me even tighter. He is making his way back to the dock.

  “What are you doing?” I yell.

  “After a comment like that you deserve to be thrown in the lake again.”

  Oh, no, he’s not. Wrapping my arms tightly around his neck I say, “Don’t you dare!”

  “Oh yes, my love. You are so going back into the water.”

  This causes my hold to tighten on him even more. “If I go, you go!”

  His laughter increases. What? Instead of that stopping him, he begins to run.

  Knowing now what he is planning to do, I squeal. As he reaches the end of the dock, he launches both of us into the air. We come down together hitting the surface of the water making a huge splash.

  Thankful that I held my breath, I kick my legs furiously to make it to the surface. Blake is already treading water, laughing while waiting on me.

  String bikinis are cute and sexy, however, when you don’t get them tied just right, then add the force of the downward motion of your body into water, you risk the chance of losing either your top or your bottoms. In my case, my top is gone, however, in my rush to get back to the surface for air I have failed to realize this.

  “I can’t believe you did that. You jerk, I will pay you back for that.”

  Blake has quit laughing and is just staring at me. This is until he hears a boat in the distance.

  “Umm, Kayla.” He rubs the top of his head with his hand, then points at me. “Your…”

  “What? Spit it out!”

  “Your top.” He says lowering his eyes toward my chest.

  Screaming, I wrap an arm around me, while still trying
to tread water.

  “Help me find my top. Don’t just keep staring at me.”

  He shrugs, raising his eyebrows. I’m going to kill him.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, that’s the Brooks’ speed boat headed this way. I’m really not that comfortable with any of them seeing me topless and I’m pretty sure Tessa will flip because, Asher is with them.”

  “Shit.”

  “Exactly.”

  He begins scanning the water for my top. It’s nowhere in sight. Swimming toward the dock, he reaches up and pulls himself out of the water.

  “Where are you going? Blake!”

  He runs to the wet T-shirt he left lying on the dock. I roll my eyes at myself. Is he kidding? He turns back to me.

  “Swim over here, Kayla.”

  Doing as I’m told, swimming toward him, keeping everything except my head under the water. He leans down in front of me, holding the neck of the shirt open.

  “Here put this on.”

  Laughing I say, “What are we having a wet t-shirt contest? Seriously Blake?”

  “It’s the best I can do right now. Just put it on before they get here. The thought of someone else seeing you… well lets just say, I don’t like it.”

  He slips the wet shirt over my head, then assists me with each arm. The whole time averting his eyes. My southern gentleman. He lifts me out of the water and starts choking as he looks at me.

  “I told you that wouldn’t work.”

  “Oh, it works, trust me.”

  And just like that, my cocky man is back. Seriously, you could get whiplash around him. Slapping him, I hear the boat getting closer.

  “Grab my towel, it’s on the grass up there.” I say, pointing to where I dropped my stuff earlier.

  Wrapping my arms around my chest to cover myself, I watch as he runs to get my towel. His calf muscles are beautiful, everything about him is beautiful.

  Putting the towel around me just in time, I laugh at his relieved expression.

  “That was close.” He whispers in my ear, causing me to shiver.

  “We came back to check on you and to see if you wanted to come with us.” Troy states.

  Wanting to say no, but not knowing what Blake wants to do, I look at him.

  “I’ll do whatever you want to do.” He says, giving me that look that makes me stupid.

  Leaning into him I whisper. “It’s going to be hard to explain where my top went.”

  He laughs and hugs me to him. Burying my head into his chest, hearing his heart is music to my ears.

  “I think we’ll hang out here for a while. Maybe later.”

  “Okay then. We’ll be back in a while. Asher grab that inner tube since you and Tessa want to ride.”

  Picking my head up to see if that’s something Blake would like to do, he looks down at me, winks, and then kisses my forehead.

  “Did you lose something, Kayla?” Asher says, holding up my bikini top up for everyone to see.

  Everyone is staring at us, Blake rubs the back of his neck as we both begin to try to explain.

  “You see I …”

  “We were…”

  “And then I Jumped…”

  “And when we came up…”

  “No top…”

  Troy holds his hand up. “Stop, I got it. We will be back in a while. I trust you’ll be wearing more than Blake’s wet T-shirt?”

  “Yes, Sir.” I reply.

  Asher throws my bikini top at us. Blake catches it without a problem. Asher and Tessa are trying really hard not to laugh at us. We stand there in each others arms, watching them as they pull away again.

  Chapter 34Blake

  “I can’t believe that just happened. How embarrassing.” Kayla says, shivering.

  “Let’s get you inside and into some dry clothes.”

  Never thought I would be encouraging a girl to put clothes on. With this girl though I’ve learned my lesson. I will not be pushing her into doing anything. The last thing I want is for her to run again.

  Telling her that I love her was not something I had planned on doing, but in that moment, I felt like I was going to lose her, so I had nothing to lose by telling her.

  The words felt foreign to me. Having never told a girl that before and truly meaning it like I do with her is scary. The thought of plunging into this with both feet terrifies me. Being raised to believe it is a man’s place to provide for his family puts a lot of pressure on a man. It is fine by me if she wants to work outside the home. But if she wants to stay at home, I believe it should be an option. With Kayla, I want her and the whole nine yards, the house, the children, and even a dog, all of it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t freak out at the thought of it. That’s a lot of responsibility. The only thing that terrifies me more is not having her in my life.

  We make our way back to the house. I’m in awe of the structural detail on the outside, then once we walk in through the door, I’m blown away. The clean lines, the crown molding, it’s all beautiful. They even have a state of the art, central vacuum system, with inlet set up throughout the house. That makes life so much easier for the homeowner.

  “Wow, this place is really luxurious.”

  My eyes land on the pool table in the center of the room. Meeting her eyes, I cock my head to the side, smirking, “Do you play?”

  “No, not really.” She laughs. “I’m going up to get some dry clothes on. Make yourself at home.”

  She starts up a set of stairs when I ask, “Does that mean you’re letting me stay tonight?”

  She stops and turns to look back at me. “I wouldn’t let you leave even if you tried.”

  “Well, I’m not going unless forced to. I’m going to go get my bag out of the truck. Where do you want me to put my stuff? I’m guessing your room is out of the question?” I give her my best innocent smile.

  “Definitely out of the question, Mr. Sexy.”

  The smile on my face couldn’t be stopped. Pointing my finger at her, I exclaim “Aha! I knew that was what you almost called me that night. So, you do appreciate my fine physique.”

  “Oh, brother. I think I’ve done the impossible.”

  “Which is?”

  “Made your ego even bigger.”

  We both laugh. Then there’s a moment that passes between us as we look into each others eyes. It’s an unspoken language that we seem to be developing. That, along with that current of longing and need that always seems to be pulling us together, it’s all too much for either of us to deny it exists.

  She finally shakes her head and points to a door behind me.

  “That’s where you’ll be staying. It’s one of the guest rooms. You can put your stuff in there.”

  She then points to a door at the bottom of the stairs.

  “The bathroom is through that door. I’ll be right back.

  “Okay. Thank you.” I say, smiling at her.

  She smiles, then heads up the stairs again. Watching her ascend the stairs in my wet T-shirt is a sight to behold. I take in a breath and let it out as she disappears from view.

  Going out to my truck, I notice a black sedan driving by slowly. Not thinking anything of it at first. Maybe they are just lost. Then the car circles back around before I even make it back into the house. They must have decided they were on the wrong street.

  Walking back inside, I go straight to the bathroom. Deciding that a quick shower would be nice.

  Fully dressed now, feeling much better, I exit the bathroom. Taking my bag into the guest room, I set it down by one of the beds. Hearing someone, I assume is Kayla I walk back out into the main room and run into a young guy, with sandy blonde hair, who’s about my size. I recognize him as the guy who threw me Kayla’s bikini top. He extends his hand to me.

  “Hi, I’m Asher. Tessa’s boyfriend. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Shaking his hand, I notice that we are the only ones here.

  “Sorry, I can’t say the same about you. Where’s Kayla?”

  He loo
ks a little uncomfortable now. That may have come off a little rude, but I didn’t mean it to be.

  “Tessa and Kayla are upstairs helping Lisa cook. I think Troy was worried about leaving you guys here alone. So, he made us come back early.”

  “Oh. I see,” I say, laughing.

  “You want to play a game of pool while we wait?”

  “Sure, rack em up. I’ll just go grab my stick out of my truck.”

  “Great! If you have your own stick I’m probably in trouble.”

  “Nah, I’ll take it easy on you.”

  “Sure you will.” He laughs as I walk out the door.

  Running to my truck, I notice that black car again. That’s weird, maybe they are visiting someone, but it’s not parked in front of a house. The car just doesn’t look like it belongs in the neighborhood. Grabbing my pool stick, I walk back in the house.

  Laying my case on the couch, I pull the stick out and put it together, then walk over to the table.

  “I’m really glad you made it this weekend after the week Kayla has had, she really needed you here.”

  Looking at him, I furrow my brow. “What do you mean? She hasn’t said anything to me about having a bad week.”

  He looks shocked that I don’t know what he is talking about.

  “Look, I’m sorry man. I just figured she would have told you.”

  “Obviously you think it’s something I need to know, so, just tell me.”

  He starts to shift uncomfortably, looking back and forth between me and the stairs.

  “I don’t know, man. If she didn’t tell you, I don’t think it’s my place.”

  Somebody is going to tell me. It’s obvious that Asher thinks I should know.

  “Let me ask you this, if it was Tessa would you want to know about it?”

  He doesn’t even hesitate before answering, “Yes. I’d be mad as hell is someone didn’t tell me.”

  “So, tell me. I’ll try to keep my cool.”

  As Asher tells me everything that has been happening, I can feel my blood pressure rising. I’ve never felt this kind of rage.