Nobody Else

by Jaxson Kidman

  NOBODY ELSE

  Somebody, Nobody Duet Book 2

  Jaxson Kidman

  Contents

  Foreword

  Stay social with Jaxson

  NOBODY ELSE

  1. Slowing Down

  2. Against a Wall

  3. Slip of the Ring

  4. A Dusty Heart

  5. Locked Away

  6. What the Silence Says

  7. Into the Storm

  8. No Words

  9. The Wonderland

  10. What I Really Saw

  11. All These Plans

  12. Dinner, Drinks, Done

  13. That One Picture

  14. Yesterday’s Goodbye

  15. On the Side

  16. Walking Away

  17. An Old Drink and a Towel

  18. Comfortable and Quiet

  19. Something to Rest On

  20. A Secret You Deserve

  21. A Little Honey

  22. When They’re All Gone

  23. The Inside Picnic

  24. Say Goodbye

  25. Starting From Scratch

  Epilogue

  Hey darlin’

  About the Author

  Foreword

  From the soul of worldwide bestselling author Jaxson Kidman comes a duet that travels through an entire relationship… from that first glance to first kiss… to the deepest heartache and the saddest goodbye… only to find a second chance.

  ‘Your heart is the most important thing in the world to me. And I hope it’s the same for him.’

  Written by Jaxson Kidman

  Stay social with Jaxson

  Readers List (part of True Romance Obsession): bit.ly/jk-readerslist

  Jaxson Kidman Facebook fan page: www.bit.ly/JK-facebook

  Jaxson Kidman Official Facebook group: www.bit.ly/jk-group

  True Romance Obsession Facebook book page: www.bit.ly/TRO-facebook

  Instagram @kidmanthejaxson

  NOBODY ELSE

  It's the past and the future.

  They haven't met.

  They've collided.

  And I'm in the middle, expected to make a decision.

  *

  The perfect life isn't really all that perfect.

  The handsome man holding my hand finally allows us to open our pasts to one other.

  His secrets hurt.

  My love for someone else hurts even more.

  *

  Brice waits for me, just the way he's always done.

  He's kept all our memories to remind me of what we once had - and lost.

  I cannot wait any longer...

  As I walk into my forever, I realize there can be nobody else.

  1

  Slowing Down

  YEARS AGO

  Ben

  I cursed everyone I knew in my life with the exception of myself. I cursed Jeff for pushing the meeting back an hour. I cursed his boss for being a complete asshole and holding Jeff up, which held me up. And, goddammit, why did Chrissy have to get so nasty on the phone with me? She knew the meeting was a big deal. Closing this project would allow me to step forward a little more out on my own. And once I was on my own, my schedule would be wide open. No more boss for me. Nobody breathing down my damn neck. I sat there with her last week and showed her where I wanted to get the pool in the backyard. And the baseball camp for TJ. He was going to be a star someday and I wanted him to have every damn opportunity to achieve it.

  No matter the cost.

  That’s what I was doing with the money from these projects. It wasn’t like I was out burning through cash on cars, women, or other habits like the guys around me. Hell, watching them balance women through their secretaries was insane.

  I did my time and now I was going to be the one in charge of everything.

  With the perfect family around me too. Chrissy at my side. TJ next to her. Even if the kid didn’t share blood with me, he was my son. I had worked damn hard to get him to trust me. To believe in me. All I wanted was to hear him say it once.

  Just say the word… Dad.

  It was a slippery slope and I knew better than to get too close to it. It bothered Chrissy though. A few times she mentioned it to TJ. Explaining that we had been a family for three years now. That I had been in his life for a total of four years. That it was me who bought the house for them. Listening to her talk made me smile, but I told her it wasn’t about material stuff. It was about trust. And when the time came, and I got TJ’s trust for good, I’d never lose it.

  Once this deal was done, and I had moved out on my own, I was getting Chrissy pregnant. We’d been talking about it for too long. Trying to think of the perfect time to have a baby. I knew that in her heart she wanted to get married first. And rightfully so. So, I planned out the entire year, right? The whole fucking year was etched in stone for us as a family.

  I’d close this big deal and use that money for three things. The pool. Baseball camp for TJ. And a ring for Chrissy. I’d take her to our favorite restaurant and spoil the hell out of her. Leaving her on her toes all night and then propose to her right at the turn of midnight. Why? So I could tell her I proposed from one day into the next, meaning my love would carry on forever. I’d give her anything she wanted for a spring wedding. See, summer would end with TJ getting ready for fall baseball. He’d be number one on his team, the town, league, city, even the state. I’d be engaged to Chrissy. She’d be going crazy over the wedding. We’d have one last Christmas together as an unmarried couple. And it would be our only Christmas as an engaged couple. I planned on making TJ my best man too. He was going to walk Chrissy down the aisle and be my best man. Yeah. That was the plan. We’d get married in spring and then set off on a honeymoon. That’s when she’d get pregnant.

  It was all there waiting.

  Like an open book, all for the taking.

  And here she was, worried about a baseball game.

  I knew what it meant to TJ. He was nervous about pitching for the first time in his young life. Truthfully, it wasn’t that big of a deal. The kids were allowed to throw a handful of pitches and then it was back to the coaches throwing the ball. I had practiced with TJ all week. He had a perfection thing about him that sometimes made me scratch my head, wondering if he was somehow actually my kid. People said we looked alike, which was nice, but I was definitely not his father. Well, his biological father.

  Everything went wrong leading up to the meeting and during it. It was rushed, mostly by me, with Jeff ultimately asking if I had somewhere better to be. That was my breaking point on the day. I told him yes, I actually did. I told him about TJ and his game. He closed his folder and said if my kid wasn’t earning millions, I should sit down and focus before I cost myself a career.

  So, I did.

  With the burn of guilt in my stomach, knowing how the conversation went with Chrissy. The second she took the call, she knew. She sighed. She was upset. She said TJ was nervous. I couldn’t talk to him because she wouldn’t walk down to the field and let me. The worst thing she could have said to me was that I wasn’t his father. It was a gut-wrenching reality that I could never change. And it was the cheapest shot she could take to make her point and drive her pain into my heart.

  And I totally deserved it.

  I scrambled for words, telling her to take him out for ice cream. To his favorite place where you walked up to a little window and ordered. Where there were benches and you could sit near a pond and watch ducks as you ate your ice cream. I used to take TJ there in the fall when we’d get those rare warm days. Eating ice cream with the leaves changing.

  She told me she would take him for ice cream. And say it was from me.

  I explained how important the deal was for us.

  She said she would have rather hav
e been back in her crammed little apartment and have me there over any money in the world. Which may have been true in that second, but her life - and TJ’s - was far better now. I knew better than to say that to her. I took the hits she wanted me to take because I earned them all.

  I told her I loved her.

  She said back the last words she’d ever speak to me…

  “Yeah, love you.”

  The traffic was out of control, so I took the back roads. I knew my way down to Philly like the back of my hand. I knew every twist, turn, hill, underpass, and overpass.

  I knew how to get where I needed to go from any exit. Whether I was going right next to the crammed highways or sinking through the hilly section of mansions, I told myself I was getting back home to see TJ.

  The meeting with Jeff wrapped up a little earlier than I thought it would. He was happy with my work and the potential buyers were in love with what we had to offer. They just needed to get verification from their boss and the deal would be closed within twenty-four hours. That meant I had to shoot home, see Chrissy and TJ, and come right back to Philly for a seven-am meeting to wrap this thing up. My plan then was to get home, get Chrissy, call TJ out of school, and take them wherever they wanted to go.

  I dodged all the highway traffic.

  It took a little longer than I hoped.

  Which meant I missed the game.

  The entire fucking game.

  I hurried to call Chrissy, wanting to get on the phone with TJ. I already knew how much of an asshole I was going to sound like as I tried to convince him that what I did wasn’t the worst thing in the world, when in reality it was. To him it was. To his heart it was. How the hell was I ever going to end up getting all of his trust like this?

  Of course, Chrissy didn’t answer the call.

  She was pissed.

  She was going to ignore me until I got to her.

  Which was fine.

  I’d prove myself by showing up.

  Late, yeah, but it was better than TJ’s father, right?

  Low blow, Ben.

  I drove as fast as I could on the side roads. I passed through stop signs with my knuckles white from gripping the wheel so tightly, hoping I didn’t cause an accident.

  Then I hit more traffic.

  On a main street, too.

  Cars all stopped in both directions.

  Which meant there was an accident or something.

  I was within walking distance of the ice cream place.

  I thought for a second that if I walked, I would get there before them. I’d order TJ his favorite. A double scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough. And I’d get Chrissy her favorite. Mint chocolate chip with chocolate syrup on top.

  I managed to sneak my car through the traffic and parked.

  I started to run on the sidewalk, knowing what was at stake here.

  I loved Chrissy with all my heart. And I loved TJ like a son. He was my son, dammit. We were a family. And we were just getting started in this life together. Of course there were going to be bumps in the road. But in the end, it would be worth it. We wouldn’t even remember this day.

  Only I was wrong.

  I would remember it.

  Every single day for the rest of my life.

  Because the accident that caused all the traffic was the one that took both Chrissy and TJ from me.

  2

  Against a Wall

  Years (And Some Time Later)

  Kinsley

  “I know you love him, but you don’t want to marry him.”

  I had put myself into this position once again. Staring into the eyes of Brice as he held me tightly, my back against a dirty wall in the back room of the dirty bar he worked at. The smell of old grease lingering in the air, plastered to the walls and ceilings like a coating of wax.

  He was positioned between my legs, everything obvious, our breaths heavy, battling each other. He was sober because he was working. Me, I’d had a few too many drinks. Vodka on my breath, lust in my eyes, a fire between my legs that I hated myself for not being able to fully control.

  I didn’t come to the bar to do this with Brice.

  I wasn’t wearing any rings or anything like that. Which should have been the end of the conversation he insisted on starting for the hundredth time.

  You know why you came here, Kinsley. You came here for this. You fucking liar. All you do is lie… one heart to another heart… like a deadly spider knitting a web of lies to suck both of them in and destroy them…

  Brice kissed me.

  He growled as he did so.

  My hands dug through his hair and I groaned into his mouth.

  It was a filthy kiss.

  His tongue teased down my neck and around to my throat. I gasped for air as he moved to the other side of my neck. No man could ever do what he did to me. Ever. It was worse than a drug. It didn’t just cloud my mind, it made excuses that felt as good as him pressing himself between my legs.

  Brice kissed my cheek and inched away a little, putting distance between us.

  “Just fucking tell me the truth,” he whispered.

  The tip of his nose against mine, flirting.

  “Brice… I don’t know what you want me to say…”

  His lips touched mine for a split second. “Tell me you’re not going to marry him. I know you have a lot to think about. And this whole thing is fucked up. But you can’t marry him.”

  When he kissed me again, I was like a puddle of water.

  My knees bent as urges took control.

  His right hand touched my waist, driving me back against the wall again. His fingers playfully teased the button on my jeans. I gasped with a shuddering breath as I saw the look in his eyes.

  “I’m staking my claim again,” he whispered. “Unless you stop me. If you don’t… then I won’t stop. Your heart belongs to me, Kins. We both know that.”

  His hand eased down as I shut my eyes for a second to do everything in my power to convince myself to grab his wrist and pull it away.

  All I wanted was to come out for a drink with Linda. To get away from the situation at home. Nobody understood what was happening there. It wasn’t just the ring… it was more than that.

  And it didn’t mean that I didn’t love Ben. I did. I loved him so much.

  But this was Brice…

  “Three, two… I get to one, love, you’d better stop me or bite your lip…”

  My lips moved, but I had no idea what I would even say if words could actually form in my brain in that moment.

  Brice was spontaneous and sexy. He was willing to sneak me into the back of a bar and throw me against a wall to make me feel beautiful and dirty at the same time.

  Not Ben. He was elegant. Candlelit dinners. Perfect flowers. Expensive wine. Flirting conversation. A slow build all the way back home; up to the bedroom to slowly undress me and kiss me…

  “One,” Brice growled.

  I reached for him.

  Not for his hand though.

  I reached for his face.

  My nails dug into the sexy scruff that I was now used to seeing on him.

  He curled his lip.

  “You’re going to break my fucking heart, Kins,” he whispered before kissing and taking me with his fingers.

  In my mind I nodded.

  I’m going to break everyone’s fucking heart, Brice…

  3

  Slip of the Ring

  Before That

  Kinsley

  I must have put the ring on my finger and taken it off at least ten times already. Sitting in the driveway to what was supposed to be my forever home. I didn’t even bother to pull the SUV into the garage anymore. Only if it was going to snow. To my right, the rest of the driveway was empty because Ben was hard at work. He had really been figuring out a better schedule for himself, and us. Change was always hard to get used to, and when it came to Ben and working, I always had the sinking feeling that this was all temporary.

  Kind of like the way you wear
the ring, Kinsley?

  I curled my fingers into a fist, the ring pressed against the palm of my hand.

  Ben tried to tell me it wasn’t necessarily an engagement ring, but the size of the diamond suggested otherwise. He said the plan was to propose at Christmas, but with everything that was going on and continued to happen, he wanted to take things slowly. The ring was the promise of his love and a promise of a future. That’s what I needed to focus on when I looked down at it.

  Except anyone who saw the ring assumed it was an engagement ring, and I was peppered with a hundred questions about it. And when people started talking about it, my first instinct was to look around. As though Brice was going to be standing a foot away, a look of surprise on his face, followed by a crushing heartache.

  Yet I couldn’t give a straight answer to either him or Ben.

  I wanted to be open with Ben about everything. The more he told me about what happened in the past, the closer I felt to him. But I wasn’t sure what that closeness actually was. My heart was waging a battle against itself. The past that never had closure and the present that suddenly felt so new.

  I opened my hand and slipped the ring onto my finger.

  It had been a long day. On top of the nonstop thinking that consumed my brain, there were too many sick animals for some reason. Some days were like that though. Sometimes I could just breeze through the day with checkups, new puppies, new kittens, and any sick visits were quick and easy. But today was rough. It seemed like everyone brought in their pet hoping for the news that they would live forever, only to have me explain the animal’s age, condition, and what options were next. Medicine, surgery, and the worst feeling in the world… talking about saying goodbye.