Beginning of Forever (Heaven Hill #7)

by Laramie Briscoe

  It was obvious that she had a lot to think about—especially considering the way her life was going. Things that she’d never once thought about were going to become the focal point of her world, and it was going to be a huge adjustment. Maybe he was right.

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  Chapter Twenty-One

  Halloween in South Central Kentucky could be a crap shoot. Sometimes it was so hot that parents worried about heat stroke. This year, it was very cold and none of them could believe that it was snowing.

  “I’m not sure if we should get her out in this.” Meredith frowned as she glanced at Tyler. Addie was cute as a button in her Elsa outfit. Frozen was very popular in their household, even though it was a few years old.

  “We’ll take her to the clubhouse and she can show off to everybody, and then we’ll see how it is. I think Roni and Rooster are takin’ Carter to the church. They’re doing it inside, and we’ve done some protection stuff for them before, so…”

  Her head snapped up. “You did protection for a church?”

  “What?” He shrugged. “They had vandals who thought it was cute to spray paint on the side of the building.”

  “I swear, you never cease to amaze me.” She laughed as she helped Addie get her shoes on.

  “I’ve done lots of things in my life,” he told her plainly. “But the church has always been very nice to us, so if you want to take Addie with Carter, I’m sure Denise and Liam will take Tatum too. That way we can at least get some candy.”

  “We?”

  “Well, she ain’t eatin’ it all, and you can’t stand the taste of candy right now, so I’m gonna man up and take care of it.” He smiled so broadly that the dimple showed in his cheek.

  “So freakin’ cocky.” She stood up from where she’d been helping Addie and popped her back. She’d successfully made it through the first trimester, and was now at around fifteen or sixteen weeks, and she’d sprouted breasts like she’d never had before, along with a small bump. Her back was killing her and her nose was never going to allow her to take a non-congested breath again, she was sure of that. Ashley had told her that congestion wasn’t uncommon and was a good sign that things were going well.

  “Let me carry her tonight if she won’t walk,” Tyler cautioned Meredith as she reached down to pick up the little girl. “Your back already hurts.”

  “I won’t complain. Let me go change into my shirt, and then I’ll be ready,” she told them both as she went back towards the bedroom.

  Last year she’d had a cutesy costume that matched Addie’s—even going so far as to make both of them. This year, she was so tired, she couldn’t do it. Instead, they’d bought Addie’s and she’d ordered a shirt off the internet. Putting on a black long-sleeve shirt to wear underneath to ward off the coldness, she made sure it covered up the elastic band of her maternity jeans and then grabbed the short-sleeve shirt she’d ordered. It had skeleton ribs and arms painted on it, and then a skeleton baby where her and Tyler’s baby rested. She knew she would cherish the shirt forever, because not once had she ever thought she’d have cause to wear a shirt like this. Slipping on her boots and tucking her jeans into them, she grabbed a scarf and her gloves.

  “I’m ready,” she told them as she came back into the living room.

  Tyler gave her an appreciative glance that moved up and down her body. “Lookin’ good, momma.”

  She couldn’t help the grin that covered her face or the giggle that escaped from her throat. The way he made her feel would obviously never go away, and for that, she was thankful above all. “Thanks.” She blushed as she walked over to kiss him on the cheek. “I do appreciate that.” This had been a rough week, when nothing had fit and she’d had to move her seat back in her car a smidge.

  “I mean it.” He caressed her hip with his hand, leaning in for a kiss.

  Addie kissed her cheek from her perch in Tyler’s arms.

  “I feel doubly loved.” She reached out and tickled Addie’s stomach. “You ready to trick or treat?”

  They had all worked hard on getting her to say trick or treat, and they were as close as they were ever gonna get.

  “Yes!” She clapped her hands together.

  “You two go on out to the car, and I’ll lock up here and grab her candy bucket.”

  Tyler agreed and put Addie in her jacket and gloves before picking her up and taking her outside.

  Meredith smiled as she watched them walk out of the house and off the porch. She couldn’t wait until this baby was here; she thoughtfully cupped the bump at her midsection. They would be able to find out the gender in a few more weeks, and she couldn’t wait for that either. She hoped desperately for a boy, but when she’d voice that hope to Tyler, he’d shook his head and said he wasn’t sure he could take a hell-raiser like himself. She’d not had the heart to tell him she thought Addie had that completely covered. Grabbing Addie’s Olaf candy bucket, she put her jacket on, set the security system, and locked up the house. This was going to be an exciting night.

  *

  “Are mom and dad gone yet?” Mandy asked Charity as she snuck out of her upstairs bedroom.

  “Yeah, they left about fifteen minute ago, and Drew and I are about to head out too. Are we gonna see you and Dalton at the party tonight?” Charity asked as she fussed with her hair. She wore a fairy costume, showing much more skin than Mandy would have dared do.

  “I told Drew that he would see us, but I don’t think he’s going to,” Mandy avoided the question.

  “Where are the two of you going?” Charity’s intuition was on high alert. Something was going on.

  “I can’t tell you, just know it’ll be okay.”

  All of a sudden, it dawned on her where they were going and what they were going to be doing. She sighed and reached over, hugging Mandy to her. “If you need me, call me. I’ll come to you.”

  “I told you, it’ll be okay.”

  Charity hoped, for her friend’s sake, it would be.

  “Can you just get Drew outta here before Dalton shows up?”

  That she could do. “Hey, Drew, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go. The quicker we get there, the quicker we can make an exit.” She threw a wink at him.

  “Sounds awesome.” He leaned in, kissing her neck. Glancing over at Mandy, he raised an eyebrow. “Is Dalton coming to pick you up, or do we need to take you? You aren’t dressed.”

  It was hard to lie to him after everything they’d been through together, but she knew she had to. This was something she definitely didn’t need him around for. “He’ll be here in about thirty minutes; he called and said he was runnin’ late. I don’t want my outfit to get wrinkled, so I’ll put it on right before.”

  “Alright.” He nodded, buying her lie. “Hopefully we’ll be seeing you later, but if not,” he gave Charity a wolfish grin, “have a good night, sis.”

  “You too,” she called out to them as he dragged Charity down the stairs. “Okay.” She breathed deeply. “You can do this,” she told herself. “The only thing keeping you from this is yourself. You trust Dalton.”

  Going back into her bedroom, she grabbed her overnight bag. Layla knew that if anyone called looking for her, she needed to cover for Mandy. Tonight was it; her life was going to change. Just as she put her jacket on, she heard Dalton’s car rumble up the driveway. She’d always loved his car. When he’d first bought it, it’d been a rusted out piece of junk, but he and some of the guys from the club had worked hard on it. Now, it turned heads wherever he went, and even the old guys wanted to drive the 1970 Chevy Super Sport, but Dalton would never give it up.

  Running down the front porch, she made her way over to the car, smiling when he reached over the bench seat and pushed the passenger side door open for her. She got in, closing the door and tossing her bag into the bag.

  “You ready?” he asked, a nervous smile on his face.

  Mandy thought about his question. Was she really? It took only a few moments to decide that she was. “I am.” Sh
e nodded, reaching over to grab his hand. “Let’s go, in case Drew or my parents come back.”

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  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “If people could see us now,” Rooster mumbled as he, Tyler, and Liam got all the kids situated before they went inside the church.

  “They can.” Liam smacked him on the shoulder. “It’s not like we have the cloak of invisibility around us.”

  “Look at that Harry Potter reference.” Tyler whistled between his teeth. “Doin’ a little reading, huh?”

  “Cut the shit. You’ll be doing a lot of reading yourself. More than likely princess books. At least my daughter is tomboy through and through.” Liam laughed.

  The ladies had been tapped to work the concession stand the church was operating for the night, so that left the men to take the kids around and get as much candy as they could. “If anybody hands out those piece of shit, black and orange wrapped taffy ones, we avoid them at all costs,” Rooster instructed, grabbing Carter’s candy bucket.

  “A-fuckin’-men,” Liam agreed. “I cracked a tooth on that shit last year and had to get a crown. What we want are candy bars and sweet tarts. Love the sweet tarts. Drew and I eat those things until we get sores in our mouths.”

  “Are the teenagers coming to the club party tonight?” Tyler asked as he got Addie situated.

  “Hell no, that’s adults only.” Liam shook his head. “But we have babysitters for the kids. A couple of Mandy’s friends needed some extra cash. They’re gonna watch them all night up at the house.”

  “We trust ’em?” Tyler questioned.

  “Yeah, they’re good kids. Most of them have moms that work at Wet Wanda’s, so there is an affiliation there.”

  “Alright, let’s get this over with,” Rooster told them as he picked up Carter. “You hold this bud.” He shoved the candy bucket in Carter’s hand. “Smile big and charm the candy out of these ladies. Daddy wants a Snickers.”

  “Shit.” Tyler chuckled, shaking his head. “Just go to the store and buy one.”

  “Not when I can get it for free. I guarantee you he has more candy than the two chicks by the end of the night.”

  “Ohhhh, you’re on,” Tyler told him, scooping up Addie and taking her inside.

  Tatum stood back with Liam, her gaze on her dad. “We’re old pros at this, ain’t we, baby girl?” She nodded. “What do we do?” he asked her.

  “Smile big at Ms. Jan.”

  Ms. Jan was what some people called a crazy old coot, but all she wanted was to be treated like everyone else. If you smiled at her, she would dump her whole bag of candy in your bucket, just because she appreciated it.

  “That’s right.” He grabbed her hand and led her into the church. “Let’s win this shi…stuff. Let’s win this stuff.”

  *

  Mandy was quiet as Dalton drove along the back roads that took them from Warren County through Barren County, before stopping at a plot of land that Dalton’s family had owned for many years, just off the state park at Barren River. She knew he and his brother, Deacon, had lived here with their uncle for a time, until they had been able to get back on their feet. She didn’t know much about Dalton’s parents, but one thing she did know was that he never wanted to talk about them, so she never brought it up.

  “It should be warm. I came out here early this morning and made sure it was clean and that I’d turned the heat on,” he told her quietly as they pulled up to a trailer.

  She knew by looking at it that it wasn’t much, but it wasn’t anything different than half a million other trailers that littered the countryside here. They were used as weekend getaway homes so that people could fish and camp out in the country. They weren’t meant to be a five-star hotel. It would, however, serve for what they needed for this night. They both wanted a place where they could be alone and no one would bother them. “Thanks.” Her hand shook as she popped open the car door.

  They ran towards the front porch that had been built onto the trailer, and Dalton stopped her, reaching out for her hand. “Be careful, it might be slick. We’re a little more north here than in Bowling Green. I noticed the roads were more covered the closer we got.”

  She gripped his hand tightly as she carefully made her way up the front steps. Her eyes didn’t leave his hands as he took out a key and opened the door, allowing her to go inside. Looking around, she realized that while it was small, it was very clean. He’d done a good job. And it was warm; there was a lot to be said for that.

  “It’s not much,” he spoke to cover the silence. “It was home for a while though.” He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and rocked back on his heels.

  Mandy noticed that as a tell. That meant he was nervous and wasn’t sure what to do with himself. Knowing he was as nervous as her made this easier. “You should see some of the places we lived when we were little—ya know, when Mom was trying to get on her own two feet. Hell, you should have seen some of the meals we had in our house right before Mom met Dad. It was grim for a while.”

  “Don’t.” He shook his head. “Don’t try and make me feel better about where I come from. I come from an entirely different place than you, and I’ve always known that I’m a lucky son of a bitch to even be the Princess’s friend.”

  That took her by surprise. “Princess?”

  “Yeah, that’s what most of us who are friends with Drew call you.”

  “Why?” She shook her head.

  “Because that’s what you are, and that’s how he talks about you. We all know that we don’t mess with you.” His mouth kicked up in a grin. “Except me. I apparently want to get my ass kicked and my balls thrown in a vice. I can’t seem to stay away from you.”

  They’d never been alone before, at least not like this. Any other stolen moments they’d ever had, Deacon or his uncle had been in a bedroom not too far away. Dalton had never wanted to disrespect Drew or her dad by doing anything at her house, and she thought maybe that was why her nerves were so on edge. “I can’t seem to stay away from you either.”

  Both of them were shy in front of other people; neither of them liked to flaunt their relationship because it always seemed counterintuitive. Neither one of them wanted to piss anyone off. But someone was going to have to make the first move, or they might stand gazing at one another all night. With guts she didn’t know she had, she shrugged her jacket off, toed off her shoes, undid the scarf around her neck, and reached down to the hem of her thermal shirt. Before she lost those guts, she pulled it over her head, standing in front of him in her bra. Normally they had the lights off and it was very hard to make out anything, but she could make out everything looking at him now. His brown eyes turned to the color of whiskey, and she heard his sharp intake of breath. It gave her bravery more fuel, so she unbuttoned her jeans and peeled them off her legs.

  Never in her life had Mandy stood in front of someone this exposed. It felt odd, but she trusted Dalton with everything in her life. They’d been friends for as long as she could remember being with the Heaven Hill MC. He was part of her family in a weird way, and there was no one she trusted more than him.

  “I’m trying to be the good guy here,” he told her, swallowing so hard she saw his Adam’s apple move with the force of it.

  “I’m trying to show you that I don’t want you to be,” she whispered.

  He fisted his hands at his sides. There were so many things he wanted to do, so many feelings he wanted to act on, but he had to know that this was her decision. He had to know that she wasn’t doing this because she felt like she had to. He bit his bottom lip and put his hands on top of his head. “I’m not good enough for you,” he bit out against the lump in his throat.

  Her heart broke when she heard those words. “You are, you’re perfect for me.”

  Not overthinking it, she walked over to him, put her arms around his neck, and pulled his mouth down to hers. If there was one thing they were good at, it was kissing. They’d stolen tons of them over the past year. Still, he kept his han
ds to his sides where he had dropped them. Pulling back, she reached down to the hem of the Black Friday T-shirt he wore and pulled it over his head. It was obvious he worked out as much as her brother did, because he also had a set of six-pack abs.

  “Fuck me,” he breathed out. It was over.

  Grasping her around her ass, he boosted her up so that she put her arms back around his neck and had to wrap her legs around his waist. Stumbling over to where a warm bed awaited them, he did his best not to think about all the reasons this was a bad idea. Instead, he did his best to focus on how she felt in his arms and how trusting she was as she stretched against him. Never in his life had anyone ever trusted him that much, and he vowed he wouldn’t fuck it up.

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  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you home?” Dalton asked Mandy as they lay in bed together the next morning. “It’s not that big of a deal, and I would man up for you to do it.”

  She smiled at him, biting her lower lip. “As much as I would love for you to, I don’t want to get into it with anyone, and I don’t want any questions about where I was last night. Layla’s been out here with Deacon before, so she knows where we are and to keep her mouth shut. I trust her.”

  “I do too.” Dalton leaned over, kissing her softly. He ran his fingers through her hair, still not able to believe he was here with her, like this.

  He had morning stubble, something she’d never seen on him before. Normally he was always clean-shaven and it made her feel special that she’d been able to see this side of him. It made her excited about graduating high school and moving on with their lives.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked her, quietly.

  “I’m fine.” She nodded, feeling her face heat up with a blush.

  “I can’t believe you’re blushing after everything we did last night,” he laughed. “Wonders never cease.”

  “I can’t help it.” She punched him in the arm. “It feels weirder this morning.” She buried her head in his shoulder.