What Lies Beneath (Count on Me Series #7)

by Melyssa Winchester

  Dillon switched teams.

  Asshole.

  “You think this is funny, huh?” I smirk, stepping toward Belle and chuckling when she starts backing away with her hands held up. Her head shaking like she’s reading my mind as her eyes plead with me not to do what I am so going to do now that I see what’s going on.

  I’m definitely not letting her get away with this.

  Swiping the leaves off my clothes, I kneel down and grabbing as many of the fallen leaves as I can, hop back up quickly and shift my attention to her, smiling serenely.

  When she bolts, I’m ready, especially after catching sight of the area she’s just taken off toward. The other portion of this day and what I asked that turn coat best friend of mine to put together looking to be her final destination.

  It might not have gone off the way I saw it in my head, but its damn sure going to end that way.

  I’m not the one going into the leaves in this memory.

  Belle is too.

  Giving chase, making up the head start I’d given, I pull her into my arms, spinning her around as she squeals in laughter, losing breath with every turn. Making sure that as I drop her feet to the ground, I don’t give her time to get her footing, instead using her unsteadiness to push her lightly back into the pile.

  My own laughter quickly joining hers until the hard shove of something heavy hitting me throws me off my own feet and straight down in the leaves with her.

  “Thanks, D!” Belle calls out and before I can mount a defense, I feel her body pressing tightly to mine before she slides over and straddles me. Leaves beginning to fall from the sky, raining down over my head and landing in my face until they’re blocking my view entirely. Her laughing drowning out the sputtering I do as I attempt to swipe the cool wetness of the leaves from my face.

  My only thought as our eyes finally connect when we’ve worn each other out trying to get the upper hand, is so simple I can’t believe it didn’t happen before.

  This is even better than the first time.

  Something tells me that life with Belle is always going to be that way.

  Every day, every memory.

  Every single moment better than the last.

  A few days together with only a book, our memories and dreams between us and I finally get it.

  Belle has always been what lies beneath the ugliest parts of me.

  Only ever her.

  That’s not all that’s clear, though.

  “Look Forward.” They all said and now that I am, there’s only one last thing to remember as we go forward.

  She’s also what lies ahead.

  Epilogue

  6 Months Later

  Between classes for my degree and working at the shop, I’m running on empty.

  So when I finally pull into the driveway and put the car in park, all I’m thinking about is grabbing Belle away from whatever task she’s in the middle of, taking her to bed, making love, and falling asleep with her in my arms. The best gift I can think of to give myself at the end of every long monotonous day being the feel of her body pressed to mine, the light brush of her soft hair against my skin, breathing the best kind of life into me.

  A life filled with contentment. Calm.

  An endless boardwalk leading into forever.

  What I’m not expecting is for her to be waiting at the bar, her normally bright and smiling face, subdued and serious. A detached look in the blue eyes that on an average day seem to hold all of the happiness in the world behind them.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, tossing my bag to the floor, forgoing the hook and instead making my way across the room as quickly as my legs can carry me. Taking her face in my hands and studying her, the closeness of her face to mine now only making the earlier expression even more potent.

  “We need to talk.”

  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the few relationships I’ve had, and especially during my time with Belle, is just how scary those four words can be. Especially when as far as you’re aware, things couldn’t be better.

  Our lives settling into an even rhythm after our day at the park months ago. Each day, no matter how little time we have together during it, spent making memories.

  Capturing them in pictures and words for our next walk down memory lane.

  I’m never going to have a problem talking to Belle, but I’m definitely not going to look forward to it if she’s looking like someone just stepped on her heart.

  All that look makes me want to do is find the asshole that did it and crush them.

  “About what, baby?”

  Pressing a kiss to her head, I shrug out of my jacket and lay it across the bar. Making sure as I do to bypass the papers I didn’t notice in my haste to make my way to her.

  “I’ve been doing some thinking.”

  Throwing my ass down onto the stool and pulling her into my lap, I reach across the bar until my finger lands in the center of the papers.

  “Does it have something to do with this?”

  “Yes and no.”

  Picking them up and pulling them toward us, I take a closer look and looking from her to the papers and back to her again, she blushes.

  “Why do you have these?”

  Applications. Two or three different copies. For what has to be the last thing I would ever expect Belle to do.

  Become an ordained minister.

  Who the hell does she want to marry?

  “That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about.” She says, as her cheeks continue to change shade as her blush grows deeper.

  “Well, I’m all ears. I’d love to know why my fiancée, who hasn’t even given me a date to marry yet, is thinking about doing it for someone else.”

  “It’s Mom, Kay.”

  This is about Grace?

  Wait…

  “Your mom’s getting married?” I ask in disbelief. I’m aware she’s been seeing someone, and according to Belle it’s someone that she knew around the same time she met Belle’s dad, but I had no idea that it was this serious, let alone that it was leading to marriage.

  Honestly, I didn’t think Grace would ever marry again.

  “Uh, when did this happen?”

  “A couple of weeks ago. At least that’s what she told me this afternoon.”

  “And she wants you to marry them?”

  With a quick nod, she looks down toward the papers, the faintest trace of a smile beginning to lift and erasing the more serious one I’d walked in on before. The news about her mom obviously bringing my girl back from wherever it was she’d gone in her mind.

  “Do you want to do this?”

  “Yeah. They’ve even asked Tristan to be a part of it. With the way those two seem to have become inseparable since she finally introduced them, it makes sense. She wants it to be a family affair.”

  Belle has come so damn far since we were kids, but even now, years later, she still has trouble with social settings. Especially when there’s more than just a few close people around.

  Having her officiate a wedding?

  What is Grace thinking?

  “Is this you trying to conquer another hurdle?”

  “Yes and no. I want to do this because it’s something I’ve never done and I want to see if I can handle it, but it’s also something else. She told me she can’t imagine having anyone else being there for her in that way. That when she walks down the aisle to Ethan, it’s not a stranger she wants to be standing in front of, but someone she loves most. She wants me to be that person and so do I.”

  “When’s the wedding?”

  “Not for a while, but you know how I am.”

  That’s true. Belle needs the plan, even if its years off. So it makes sense that even if the wedding isn’t right around the corner, she’d want to have everything prepared for when it does.

  “I guess this means I’m gonna need a suit, huh?” I ask jokingly. “Is that why you looked so lost when I came in? You were afraid of how I was gonna react to dressing
up?”

  Smacking me on the shoulder, she laughs. “No, Kay. That’s actually the other thing I want to talk to you about.”

  “Okay…”

  Now, I gotta admit. I’m secure in my relationship. Secure in her feelings for me and the fact that no matter what gets thrown in our path, we’re gonna face it and conquer it together as a team, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t also waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  I guess some things won’t ever change.

  “Okay, well, before you tell me, just answer me one thing. Does it have to do with this wedding stuff?”

  “Yes.” She answers easily. “Just not my mom’s.”

  I’ve been wanting to marry this girl since the day I dropped to one knee in the park, so if this has to do with our wedding and what will be our marriage, then I’m more than ready to hear it. I want to take what’s already in my heart and make it legal.

  “Belle, just tell me whatever it is.”

  Going back to the pins again, you could hear one drop in the silence that envelopes the room after I’ve asked her to tell me what’s going on. And where I could normally look to her facial expressions or the way her body sits against mine in order to figure out exactly what could be coming, I can’t this time.

  She’s giving nothing away.

  “Belle…” I whisper against her ear, breaking the silence. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “I picked a date.”

  Say what?

  “You mean…”

  “I don’t want to wait anymore, Kay.”

  If it didn’t mean throwing her off my lap, possibly over the bar, or worse, to the floor, I’d jump the fuck up right now with the surge of adrenaline that her words just caused. Words that I knew one day would eventually come, but that I hadn’t been expecting for a while. At least not until we’d made it through school.

  “When?” I somehow manage to choke out, calming myself just enough to press my lips to her hair when the reality is, all I want to do is spin her around until she’s pressed against the bar and kiss her until we’re both left breathless.

  “A year from now.”

  “So, you want to get married next April?” I deduce, my head swimming with details and days. “But what about your birthday?”

  “That’s the thing, Kay. I was thinking that we could get married on my birthday.”

  “Done.”

  “Really? It’s that easy?”

  “I would marry you right now in the middle of this kitchen if that’s what you wanted. But considering we’ve got to turn you into a minister for another wedding, I suppose I can hold out a little longer.”

  Reaching into the pile of papers, she pulls out a lined sheet and holds it out, the smile she’s wearing reminding me of exactly the way she’d been when I walked in earlier.

  “You played me, didn’t you? You were never upset.”

  With cheeks lifting higher and eyes dancing, she grins and gives me what I’m after.

  “I totally played you, but in my defense, I never claimed to be upset. I just said we needed to talk.”

  “Very funny.”

  “I thought so too.” She laughs before leaning in and brushing her lips gently over the bridge of my nose. “But now that we’ve talked, there’s something else I need you to do.”

  “Name it, Wifey.”

  Moving her eyes to the paper between us, I take it and seeing the date at the top, am taken right back in time again.

  The day that through our original beginning, we were able to craft an even better one.

  “I want you to read this and tell me what you think when you’re done.”

  “What is it?” I ask, ignoring the date and the significance of it, wanting—no, needing to hear how she sees what written on the page.

  “The beginning of the next chapter.”

  So just like I did six months ago when I pulled the dusty old journal out of storage, I do again. I read. Making sure, despite the need to stop and tell her how much I love her, to see it through to the end the way she wants me to.

  October 15, 2016

  Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there was a girl.

  An extraordinary girl who had abilities that often times went unseen because they were overshadowed by things that made her stand out. Made her different from the rest. Often times, not so good things. Ones that in the end would make her stronger, but also at the same time vilify her from the rest of the people that didn’t quite act the way that she did.

  But one day, this not so average girl, well, she met a boy.

  A boy with the most beautiful emerald colored eyes that once locked on you, pulled you straight in and despite your need and desire to be let go, never did.

  Eyes that the older the boy grew, the more his hair seemed to get in the way of, but whose power never lessened.

  The boy held the girl, but for every second that he did, she held him.

  In her arms, in her head, and in the softest parts of her heart.

  She held onto him and onto his heart so tightly because the girl knew that one day, when the waves stopped crashing into the shore and the dust settled, it would be those eyes and that heart that would be her peace.

  And through that peace, the boy would and could find his way home again.

  Home to her.

  Home to the part of her heart that she held him so tightly in.

  And he did.

  You see, that boy, he eventually slayed the beast that according to him had been determined to do the same to the girl, and in the end, he saved her.

  In the best way possible.

  By saving himself.

  Kay,

  You’ve spent your entire life believing you were the beast of this story. The monster. But the truth is, you’re the hero.

  My hero.

  I found love, peace and serenity in you. But most of all, I found where I belong.

  With you.

  So, Kayden Walker…I energy you more.

  Isabelle Walker <3

  Grabbing the pen from the bar, I scribble the date in as big and bold print as I can before sliding it across to her. Giving her the first part of the answer she wanted when she first asked me to read.

  Isabelle Walker

  April 19, 2018

  Meeting her eyes when she takes in what I’ve written, catching the tears before they have a chance to fall down her beautiful face, I go back into the past one more time. Pulling her words from that day in the gym from their place around my heart and repeating them back. The tear that slips out, along with the lift to her lips in the moment making me fall in love all over again.

  “What took you so long?”

  The End

  What Lies Beneath Playlist

  Holding A Heart – Toby Lightman

  No One – Cold

  Say Anything – Tristan Prettyman

  Easy To Love You – Theory of a Deadman

  Dancing In The Moonlight – Toploader

  Colorful – The Verve Pipe

  Army – Ellie Goulding

  Legacy – Eminem

  The Best Is Yet To Come - Hinder

  Count Me In – Early Winters

  By Your Side – Faber Drive

  Monster – Imagine Dragons

  Kiss Me – Ed Sheeran

  Love Alone Is Worth The Fight – Switchfoot

  Here’s To The Night – Eve 6

  Count On Me – Default

  I Dare You To Move – Switchfoot

  Love Me Anyway – Parachute

  Forever – Faber Drive

  Acknowledgements

  Most anyone that’s reached out to me during the time period in which I started the Count On Me series, knows that they’re fictional stories based in my very real reality. Count On Me existing because of my daughter Isabella Rose, and one of the follow ups in Take Me With You (Eric and Amelia’s Story) pulling double duty in depicting not only life with my oldest Caleb, but also the very real struggles of my best friend and so
metimes co-author Joey Reagan.

  So for me, there is no bigger acknowledgement that I can give then the one to my children, Caleb, Noah, Raine and Isabella (My CNRI) and my best friend Joey because truly, without them and their experiences, which in turn have become my learning experiences, these books would not exist. These characters that I have come to love as much as I do my own family, wouldn’t be as alive as they are.

  So to all of you. Thank you. Thank you for loving me, for supporting me, but most of all thank you for teaching me. For proving once and for all that love really is worth the fight.

  Fans, friends, family. My three favorite F’s (that aren’t a curse word lol). Where would I be without you? Nowhere is where. So for all of you that reach out to me about my books, share my teasers, news and posts and who never waver in your support of me. From the bottom of my very humbled and appreciative heart, thank you.

  Readers. Book Buyers. Blogs. Often times, the bigger we get, the more attention we receive, we can lose sight of the people that worked tirelessly to get us where we are. The real champions of this whole crazy book releasing dream. The people that anxiously wait for the pre-order to go up from their favorite author and then spread the word when it does. The people who buy the books, read the books and then talk about the books. The people that feel the words on the page, more than just read them and carry them out into the world with them. Without all of you, there would be no me. There wouldn’t be any author. So from all of us as writers and publishers, thank you.

  For anyone that comes across me or my stories after the publish button has been hit on this story…Thank you for taking a chance on some random Canadian woman with a dream. I love your face and I always will, no matter what.

  About the Author

  Melyssa Winchester is a mother of four from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

  She’s currently working on Luke Grayson's story from Remembering Sunday, Ready When You Are and the third book in the Black & Blue series, Heroine.