My mom and Ella pouted about it all the time. Their only grandchild preferred Henry over either of them. But as jealous as it made them that Henry was her best buddy, they never gave him shit for it because the gleam that was present in eyes when he was around Lark was something that hit you right in the gut. Their bond was unbreakable and unparalleled and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Every girl needed a hero, didn’t they?
If I could, I would relive this day over and over and over again, like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.” It was perfect, special, a full-circle experience.
Don’t get me wrong, the last five years had been jam packed with so many high points I was beginning to wonder what I did to deserve such a picture-perfect life.
As soon as I was back on my feet following the kidney donor operation—and the minor setback with Cedric and Marco—I went out and bought London a diamond ring fit for a queen.
When we were just kids, London shared her daydreams of her wedding with me as if I cared. I used to pretend I wasn’t listening or that her girly blathering meant nothing to me, but I paid attention to every single word, down to the minute details of what kind of ring she hoped to have. I hated to even let my mind wander back to Hunter, but I remembered being very confused when he proposed to her all those years ago. The engagement ring was nothing like the one she described in her fantasies, and so different from anything I pictured her taste to be.
But the ring she wore on her left hand now, it was everything that resembled my gorgeous girl. And although she was expecting the proposal because we talked about it often, the look on her face when I got down on one knee and asked my best friend to be my wife was one that would be engrained in my memory for all of eternity.
She said yes, of course, and made me the happiest man alive by becoming my wife right here on this beach about a year later. Her mother—newly engaged to her now-stepfather—gave her away with such pride it shone brighter than the glowing sun that graced the sky that brilliant spring day.
Her brother was not in attendance. Their strain was still too fresh and raw at the time. I tried the best I could to encourage her to put their differences behind her—for her mother’s sake—but after so much upheaval and change, London needed to do things on her own terms. I respected that, because I respected everything about my strong, beautiful, self-assured woman.
She had come a long fucking way from the broken and fragile girl she’d been after her divorce from Hunter. She withstood losing him, their house and any future they might’ve had, dealing with her mother’s illness and slow recovery, surviving the clutches of a lunatic boyfriend, living to tell about a near death experience with a bunch of thugs, and a series of lies, betrayals, and bullshit to go along with it all.
“I am in awe of you,” I told her as I lay down beside her on the blanket beneath the shade of our umbrella.
I would tell her that exact phrase whenever I could. There was no one like her, not even close. I’d known it all along—from the time we were nine-years-old—but this last phase of our lives together only solidified what I was already sure of. London Monroe is the only girl for me.
“Why now?” she asked, giggling. “Because I feel a lot like a beached whale, and my size should be the only thing you’re in awe of.”
“Are you kidding me? Your size is gorgeous!” I wrapped my arms around her flawless body and pulled her close to me, where she belonged.
I loved London pregnant. Hell, I loved her in any light, at any size, during any time of day, but knowing that my child was living and flourishing inside of her made her that much sexier. I could never get enough.
“Come here, babe,” I growled as I nibbled the inside of her wrist. “At least I can’t get you pregnant again.”
She laughed uncontrollably as she struggled to break free from my imminent attack. “Stop! Dad will be back with Lark any minute. It’s almost time for her lunch.”
“Oh, please. They won’t be back for a while. You know she’s like a fish.” I continued to kiss up her arm to her shoulder and neck, and finally landed on those prized lips that I adored so much.
Putty in my hands—or just third trimester exhausted—she relented and let me kiss her the way I wanted. Without abandon or shame, right here in broad daylight for everyone to see that she was mine.
A man cleared his throat behind us as a woman giggled something that sounded like “they’re at it again.”
Reluctantly, I stopped kissing her and pressed my forehead to hers before looking up to find Memphis and Allie casting a shadow over us.
“Hey!” London’s face lit up at the sight of her brother and her other best friend. “You guys finally made it!”
Placing a cooler down on the sand, Memphis emptied his arms of their beach chairs. “Our flight was delayed last night. We got in really late, otherwise we would’ve been here earlier.”
“Where’s Mom?” London asked, looking behind them.
“She decided to stay back. She’s already cooking up a storm at home. I think she’s really excited about having everyone under the same roof again,” Allie answered, hooking her arm with Memphis’s.
“Yeah. She hasn’t stopped talking about it for weeks,” I added as I stood to shake Memphis’s hand in greeting. “Any chance my mother was there with her? She said she was going to drop in to help.”
Allie nodded with wide eyes. “I’d skip lunch if I were you. There’s not an inch of free countertop space. I think they’re making a twenty course meal.”
“Tell that to this baby. There is no meal skipping for me anymore,” my wife mumbled around a mouthful of watermelon.
“How cute does she look, Memphis? Don’t you want to give Lark a little cousin?” Allie nudged Memphis with her elbow.
The day that Cedric and Marco had come to New Bedford was the day Allie and Memphis became inseparable. Memphis felt as if he owed her for what she’d been through at his expense. He spent a lot of time trying to make it up to her—and paying me and Henry back. Soon their long distance friendship turned into something more and she moved out to California to be with him.
But from the deer-in-headlights look on my brother-in-law’s face, I could tell he and Allie were not on the same page about starting a family of their own. At least not yet.
“Why don’t we share our good news first before we get carried away, huh?” Memphis turned to Allie with a sheepish grin which prompted her to jump up and down the way Lark did when she had to use the potty.
“What news?” London asked, wiping the watermelon juice from her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Savage, babe.” I laughed as I handed her a napkin.
Everyone laughed at the pregnant lady’s expense as Memphis and Allie got settled in their chairs.
Once they were seated, Memphis revealed what London was clearly dying for him to spill. “We were going to wait until dinner to tell you guys, but . . . we’re moving back to New Bedford. We want to be . . . home. It’s finally time.”
Finally time. How true that statement was. Memphis and London had long since put their differences aside and settled the score. There had been many late night phone calls that resulted in screaming and crying fits, but one day—out of the blue—something clicked. Maybe it was after she found out she was pregnant with this baby and realized that Lark could have a brother, like she did. I was an only child, so I couldn’t relate. But Memphis was London’s only sibling and too much time apart had passed between them. It was a constant stress on Ella, and I truly believed it was an incessant worry for London, as well.
But this—this was how it was supposed to be. Water under the bridge. Moving forward and not looking back.
I leaned over and clapped Memphis on the back. We’d come to terms with everything, too. We were in a good place. “I’m glad to hear it, bro. You think you’ll be settled in by the time the new baby’s born?”
“I’d say so.” He smirked at Allie. “Considering we bought one-way tickets this time around.”
“Nope! We’re back for good!” Allie squealed.
They shared a long overdue hug and started chatting at the high speed rate of a word per millisecond.
Before long, Henry returned to our setup with a sand-coated Lark. “Well, look who’s here, kiddo. It’s Uncle Memphis!” He plopped the filthy toddler onto an unassuming Memphis’s lap. “Thanks to the princess, I have sand in places sand should not see. I’m going to wash off one more time and then head home to help Ella. Okay, sweet pea?”
“No, Grandpa! Stay!” Lark was already wriggling out of her uncle’s grasp, stretching her arms out to Henry.
“Come on, baby. Let’s go dunk you in the waves and get the sand out of your hair and then we can make sand castles with Mama and sister.”
“Mama and brodder,” she corrected, garnering a glorified I told you so laugh from London.
“See, even the three-year-old agrees.”
“Four,” Lark insisted, shoving four chubby, sandy fingers in front of her. “I’m almost four!”
“Four going on fourteen.” Memphis chuckled as he let her slip off his lap and run toward London.
She scooped Lark up and tickled her underneath the arms. “Yeah, you have no idea. And now that you’re home, you owe me lots of babysitting time. Little lady missed her uncle.”
“I can’t wait,” Memphis groaned.
“I’m sure,” I said, getting ready to chase my girls down to the shoreline. “We’ll be right back. Let me go help London wrestle our firecracker.”
I met my wife down where the ocean lapped up onto the sand. Controlling our ornery toddler on her own was becoming harder for her toward the end of this pregnancy.
“Come to Daddy,” I sang with my arms open wide.
Lark catapulted from her mother’s grip and wrapped her tiny body around me. “Let’s all swim, Daddy. Mommy and brodder, too.”
“You brainwashed her,” I said as I splashed my wife.
“I did no such thing.” She waded in the water, finally submerging her entire body. When she came back up to the surface, beads of salt water dripped down her beautiful face. Her brown hair was a glossier ebony when coated with the ocean. I stared at her in awe of her beauty, but more so in awe that she was mine.
“It’s a girl, you know.” She smiled as she bit her lower lip.
“You found out without me?” I shrieked.
“By accident. I would never do something like that behind your back. The doctor slipped. I’ve been holding it in since yesterday morning, but it’s been killing me. More because you were right than anything else.”
I rushed over to her and sandwiched Lark between us as I wrapped my arms around her. “Another girl to love and adore. How the fu—”
“Babe,” London scolded, looking at Lark whose ears were perked at attention.
“How on Earth did I get so lucky?” I kissed Lark on the cheek and then crushed my lips to London’s salty ones.
“Because you were patient. Because you are the best friend I have ever had. You got everything you deserve . . . and I promise there is so much more where this came from. I hope you’re happy, Goodwin.”
Happy wasn’t the half of it.
THE END
IF YOU HAD to wait the six weeks between Every Breath You Take and this book, I apologize for leaving you hanging. That was never my intention, but as you can see from what you’ve just read, there was so much more to tell and these characters deserved more than having all of this crammed into the last few chapters of book one. So, I hope it was worth the wait and I hope that this duet was everything you hoped it would be. It was that and so much more for me and I need to start off by thanking Trish Mint again (there will never be enough thanks) for guiding me through this process when all wanted to do was call it quits. Thank you for believing in me and helping me see this through. I love you, Blanche.
I’ll make this short and sweet since it seems like just yesterday I was thanking all the same people for keeping my ass in gear while writing Every Breath You Take. Once again, I could not have done this without the support of my family and friends and I thank you from the bottom of my humble heart for always allowing me to “do me” and live out my dreams. Jon, Julia, Leah, and Rocco, you are my daily motivation and my entire heart. I love you more than words can say.
To the team of amazingness that always has my back: Najla Qamber for knocking these covers out of the park, Brenda Letendre for making editing fun and enjoyable, Christine Borgford for formatting like the pro that she is, Heather White for being my go-to chick, and the lovely ladies of Give Me Books for their unending patience and wonderful professionalism.
Trish, Cleida, and MJ . . . your beta skills were on point, once again, and I thank you for helping me get everything right when it came to portraying every nook and cranny of this duet and its characters properly. I’m so happy books brought such amazing friends into my life.
To my fellow author friends, all the bloggers, readers, bookstagrammers, and my beloved Gotta Have Faith members . . . thank you for all that you do to make the book community a better place. So much has changed over the years, but our love for words and for LOVE remains the same. I am so grateful that my books get to be included in that passion. Thank you for reading them and for loving my characters, it means more to me than you can ever imagine.
STANDALONES
Moore to Love
Garden of Goodbyes
Garden of Goodbyes on AUDIO
The Hipster Chronicles
THE DREAM SERIES
Man of My Dreams
Back to You
After the Storm
THE GRAYSON SIBLING SERIES
Keep Me
Keep Her
Keep Us
THE FATE SERIES
Feel Again
First Came You
Freeing Destiny
THE EVERY BREATH DUET
Every Breath You Take
Take My Breath Away
FAITH ANDREWS IS LIVING OUT her dream right outside the greatest city in the world, New York City. Happily married to her high school sweetheart, she is the mother of two beautiful and wild daughters, and a furry Yorkie son named Rocco Giovanni. When she's not tapping her toes to a Mumford & Sons tune or busy being a dance mom, her nose is stuck in a book or she's sitting behind the laptop, creating her next swoon worthy book boyfriend. Coffee addict, lover of wine and cheese, and sucker for concerts and Netflix, Faith believes in love at first sight and happily ever after.
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Take My Breath Away (The Every Breath Duet Book 2) Page 21