by Anthology
I thought about it for a minute. “Sure. Why not?”
“Well, don’t sound too excited to see me.” He chuckled half-heartedly.
“I’m sorry. It’s just—”
“Hey, no need to explain. I understand. Be ready by eight?”
“Sure. See you soon.”
The next few hours blew through like a tornado. And by the time I locked my door so I could go meet Garren in the parking lot, I had everything set for my two-week trip back home. My bags were sitting by the front door. My boss was more than happy to give to me the time off, and for a ridiculous fee, I was able to change my flight.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Garren greeted me as I exited my apartment building. He held his arm out for me and kissed my cheek.
“Always the gentleman.” This I could handle. Garren was always easy to be around, no expectations for anything other than fun and some occasional sex. He was a man who took everything at face value and never asked for more than I wanted to give.
“Always. You have anything special you’d like to do?” he asked, as we walked to his car.
“Not really. What about bowling?” It had been a while, and bowling and beer sounded like something fun to do.
***
“I can’t believe how many times your ball went in the gutter.” I laughed so hard.
Garren was kind enough to walk with me the two blocks from where he had to park his car to my apartment building. Along the way I felt a chill then shivered, and he must have noticed because he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Thanks.”
“Of course. We can’t have you catching a cold before you meet your nephew.” He kissed the side of my head. Why couldn’t things with Zack be this easy? Why couldn’t Garren be relationship material? “You know, when you get back we’re going to have a redo of tonight. I haven’t bowled that bad since”—Garren exaggerated as if he were thinking really hard—“well, never. I have no idea what happened tonight.” He chuckled, and I started laughing again, which caused me to stumble and almost fall on an uneven section of sidewalk. Garren caught me around the waist and saved me. When I looked up to thank him, there was a look in his eyes and his face was only inches from mine.
“What the fuck?” A deep male voice blurted in a harsh whisper. I turned my head in time to see Zack stand from the bench right outside my apartment building’s front entrance.
“Malia,” he said firmly.
“Oh, shit. Zack—it’s not what it looks like.” He stepped closer and the anger in his eyes penetrated my heart. I turned to Garren, silently apologizing. He made sure I was stable before he released me and pressed a lingering kiss to my cheek.
“Happy Birthday, babe. Have a safe trip home,” he whispered for my benefit only, tucked his hands in his front pockets, and walked away. Afraid of what was to come, I stood there watching until Garren disappeared around a corner. I exhaled a heavy sigh then turned to face Zack, who was looking at me as if I had just broken his heart.
“It was innocent, Zack. Please don’t look at me like that.” I stared at him, hoping for the best.
He cleared his throat. “Looked like a lot more to me.”
I shivered again and wrapped my arms across my chest. “Well, it wasn’t. Garren took me out for an early birthday celebration, that’s all. What the heck are you doing here, anyway? It sounded like you had more important things to tend to.”
His jaw ticked, then clenched. “He has a thing for you,” Zack stated matter-of-factly and jerked his head in the direction that Garren walked off. “Are you two seeing each other?”
“We’re friends, Zack. Seriously, does it even matter?” I sighed and walked past him. I was not going to argue with him on the sidewalk in front of my apartment building in the middle of a cool fall night.
“It does when you’re mine.” He followed me in.
“Zack, you gave me up five years ago, remember? Whatever happened last month was …” I sighed again as I unlocked my apartment door. “I belong to no one.” Admitting that triggered the tears to form. I set my purse on the counter and turned to face Zack, who was burning holes into my suitcases with his eyes.
Finally, when he turned to look at me, his eyes were glassy. “You’re leaving?” he asked in a whisper that sounded strangled.
I nodded. “I’m going back to Hawaii—”
“Don’t. Please? I came here tonight—” He rushed to where I was standing and pulled me into his arms. “I came here to surprise you. You can’t leave, Malia. Please. Please stay.”
“Zack—” This time I was silenced with a kiss.
“I’ll go with you. I’ll stay with you for however long you’ll have me, but please, Malia, I need you to know—” he rambled out in a panic.
“Zack—” My voice hard-lined.
“No!” He shook his head. “This cannot happen again. You cannot get on that plane without me, Malia. I came back for you. I took the job managing the Portland office. I want another chance with you. Spending that week with you made me realize that I’m still in love with you.”
I stared at him, shocked by his admission. “Zack—”
“Please,” he begged. He hung his head, and I hated that I could hear the torment in his voice.
“Zackary Davenport! Will you please shut up and listen to me, dammit!” I chuckled, hoping to break the tension. He didn’t even flinch, so I laced our fingers together and led him over to the couch. “Sit.”
He followed my order but rested his elbows on his thighs and dropped his head in his hands. “This is it, isn’t it? We’re never going to get another chance like this again, are we?”
“I’m going home for—”
“Fuck.” He stood and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the city. How could he be so torn up about this?
I followed him, laid my hands flat against his back, and pressed a kiss to his spine. “I’m going home for two weeks to meet my nephew. Syd called and said that she’s due any day now.”
He was silent for so long that I was getting ready to repeat myself, but then his hand found mine, and he turned to me. “I’m an idiot,” he confessed softly. The small smile that played at the corner of his lips and his good looks melted my heart. He held my cheek in his palm and pressed our foreheads together. “Malia, everything I said earlier I meant wholeheartedly. I want another chance with you.” He pulled back, his eyes shifted from left to right. “What do you say, sweetheart?” Zack laced our hands together and kissed the back of mine.
There was no longer any reason to have to “figure things out” or “see where this would go.” Spending time with Zack again and realizing our feelings had never changed in five years apart proved we were meant to be together. I knew without a doubt what I needed to do. Quick on my heels, I went back to the kitchen and got my phone from my purse.
“What are you doing?” Zack asked, following on my heels.
But I barely looked up from my phone when I answered. “What I should have done five years ago. Zackary Davenport, I’m taking you home to Hawaii. You’re going to officially meet my family.”
Our fate was sealed with a kiss.
The End
About the Author
Nicole was born and raised and currently resides in Hawaii with her family.
At an adolescent age she took a strong liking to reading and even had a pipe dream of writing her own book. Life and growing up had put reading on the far end back burner, but her dream recently came true with her debut novel The Beauty of Grace, book one in the She’s Beautiful Series.
A hopeless romantic, she has a love for romance novels which she credits her late mother passing on to her and now an even stronger love to write her own stories.
Facebook: facebook.com/n.richard.books
Goodreads: goodreads.com/nr_books
Amazon: amazon.com/author/nicolerichard
Chasing Leigh – R.J. Van Cleave
Chase Baker’s birthday weekend is about to be ruined. His brother, Gavin, needs
him to fly to Oregon, of all places, to help a friend in need. Chase reluctantly agrees to go, and figures his birthday is going to wind up like the disasters of his past, when he finds himself stuck in Portland.
Leigh Beckman is trapped in the bachelorette party weekend from hell. Once again, her birthday is going to have to take a backseat to someone else’s happy occasion. Things quickly look up when she gets her hands on the hunky out of town cowboy she crossed paths with at her hotel, just the day before.
Leigh is bound and determined to show Chase a good time. Chasing after Leigh is frustratingly hot, but Chase is more than up for the task. When Leigh offers to drive Chase to his final destination in Pendleton, they’ll discover that the best birthday gift is the one that neither of them wished for – falling in love.
Chapter 1
Chase Baker wasn’t really big on celebrating his birthday. The problem wasn’t that he disliked birthdays. In fact, he actually used to love having that one special day all to himself. From the time he could remember, his mom would make him his favorite breakfast of homemade biscuits and gravy, and send him off to school with a special treat in his lunch.
It was also the one day out of the year that Chase’s three older brothers, Logan, Gavin, and Danny had to eat whatever Chase chose for dinner. The way his brothers treated him in the days leading up to his birthday always determined whether it was the dreaded liver and onions that his brothers detested, or something everyone would enjoy, like ribeyes on the grill.
Then she came along and fucked it all up. She was the one and only, Megan Teresa Baker, baby sister and stealer of Chase’s thunder. Meg actually had the balls to arrive on his eighth birthday, and from that day on, his birthday was no longer about him.
But it’s Meggie’s first birthday, surely you understand why we have to have such a big party for her. We’ll do something special for you next week!
That never happened.
Meg only turns five once in her life. I’m sure your friends won’t mind coming to a princess themed birthday party. OH! You boys can dress up like princes! Isn’t that a fabulous idea?
Fuck no, it wasn’t. Not for a thirteen year-old boy on the cusp of manhood.
In fact, Chase’s friends grew so tired of attending the girly co-parties that they eventually just stopped coming. His parents, however, never noticed. By the time Chase turned sixteen, he decided that birthday celebrations were a waste of time. With his license in hand, that year he started the tradition of going off alone. He’d take the day and do whatever the hell he wanted to do in his hometown of Blossom Grove, California.
As he got older, the trips extended in both length and distance, and Chase would head a few hours north to Los Angeles or farther to San Francisco, or less than an hour south to San Diego and even headed into Mexico, a time or two. Chase was a man on a mission, when it came to celebrating his own birthday. He always did exactly what he wanted to do, and his family learned to just leave him the hell alone.
He never once blamed Meg, because he eventually realized that it wasn’t her fault. She adored Chase the most, out of all her brothers, and always tried to find a way to cheer him up on their shared birthday. Unfortunately, his twenty-seventh birthday looked like it was shaping up to be the biggest disaster of them all…
“What in the hell do you mean you need me to fly to Oregon for you, on my birthday weekend?” Chase screamed at his brother, Gavin.
“What part of Bree’s in the hospital do you not get?” Gavin sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck in an attempt to stop the tension headache that was forming. “Bree could have the baby any day now. I can’t leave. Therefore, you need to go in my place.” Gavin stared at his brother and prayed that something would click in that tiny little brain of his.
“But…Oregon?” Chase all but screeched like a whiny, little girl.
“Come on, Chase. You remember our PATH instructor, Ingrid, telling us about her brother. The one who volunteers at the Pendleton Round Up on the Children’s Rodeo day, right? Please tell me that rings a bell?”
“Yeah, yeah, Pat, or Paul, or something like that,” Chase sighed as he recounted the story their therapy horse instructor told them. “Pendleton has that rodeo day for the special needs kids in the area, right?”
“Now, we’re getting somewhere!” Gavin exclaimed. “But Peter not only works with the kids that day, he’s also a therapy horse instructor in a town not too far away.”
“This is all fantastic, and while I love taking trips down memory lane with you, I’m still not understating why I need to go to Oregon, you moron,” Chase interrupted.
Gavin sighed again, “I just have to cut to the chase with you, don’t I Chase?”
“Tick tock, man. We’re burning daylight,” Chase said as he moved his hands in that ‘move along’ gesture.
“Fine. Short and to the point. Peter has two therapy horses but he needs to find a few more. Since I’m so good at finding potential therapy horses, I was supposed to go with Peter this year, and help him look at a few. Only when I made the promise last October, Bree wasn’t pregnant.”
“Still not seeing how poor planning on your part constitutes an emergency on my part,” Chase snapped. He already had plans for his birthday this year, and flying off to some freaking town in Oregon, wasn’t part of it.
“Come on, Chase. I didn’t PLAN this! When everything was fine, I was going to take Bree’s family’s corporate jet and only be gone a day or two. But now Bree’s in the hospital and the baby could come a month early, so I can’t leave,” Chase paused to collect himself. “Danny and Logan don’t do what we do, so it has to be you. And you know damn well Ingrid took us on when she didn’t have to. She busted her ass to get us trained as PATH instructors, and helped us get established. We owe her this much,” Gavin explained. “Plus,” he then smiled at Chase, “Bree promised that IF she happens to deliver the baby on your birthday and IF it’s a boy, then you can plan his birthday party every year, and do all the things that you missed out on.”
“If she delivers on my birthday?” Chase asked cautiously.
“Mmmhmm,” Gavin nodded, not admitting to his brother that Bree’s contractions slowed once she was given IV fluids for her dehydration.
“But only a boy?”
“Well, you’ve gone through enough little girl’s parties, so maybe you might be good at that too…” Gavin lifted one shoulder as he smiled.
“Ha ha. Fuuuuny. So I’d get to plan HIS every birthday party?” Chase narrowed his eyes at his brother.
“Well, probably not for his entire life, but I think we’ll be able to agree on a timeframe,” Gavin replied, while also praying like hell that Bree’s preterm labor was only due to her dehydration and nothing more.
“Deal,” Chase said, surprising the hell out of his brother.
Chapter 2
The flight from San Diego to Portland was smooth, and for the first time, Chase had actually enjoyed flying. He obviously had the best sister in the entire world, because not only had she taken care of his travel arrangements for him, she’d put him in first-class, Plus, she had found a beautiful bed and breakfast for him to stay at just outside of Pendleton. His layover at SFO was an entertaining one because he’d never sat on a plane waiting for a flight to continue. The flight crew had obviously worked together, and enjoyed ribbing one another as they cleaned the plane in preparation for the second leg of the flight. For once, flying was actually fun for Chase.
That all changed when he touched down at PDX. “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Chase cried as he looked at the text from Meg that came through after he switched his cell off of airplane mode. He obviously had the worst sister in the world and he quickly realized it had been a stupid mistake to let her handle all of his travel arrangements. He had been so comfortable in first-class that he hadn’t bothered to double check anything about his connecting flight. When he saw the size of the airplane he was flying on from Portland to Pendleton, he was ready to kick his own as
s.
“Is there a problem, sir?” the cute flight attendant asked. If it had been under different circumstances, Chase would have turned on that old Baker charm, and gotten a date with her. The fact that he was about ready to piss himself didn’t bode well for that.
“Um, no. No problem. Thanks,” was all he managed to sputter out.
“Oh. Okay then,” she replied, clearly disappointed, before she moved on.
“Get it together, Baker,” Chase mumbled to himself as he looked at his phone again. “You can do this. You have a two and a half hour layover to psych yourself up into getting on, on that...” He had to swallow down the bile when he saw the actual size of the single prop, nine-passenger Cessna Caravan aircraft on the airline’s website. “I’m gonna die in that thing,” he squeaked out.
How he got from his first-class seat to his current position in front of the Starbucks by the security check point, Chase hadn’t a clue. His brain was apparently on autopilot, and he just followed the herd from the plane to where he was now standing. According to Meg’s text, all he had to do was take the Concourse Connector over to where Concourse E was, and he could sit and wait until his 3:20 PM flight. Looking at a terminal map, Chase decided that one of the breweries located in that terminal would be the perfect place for him to find some liquid encouragement during his layover. Plus, he’d also needed to call his sister and chew her out for sending him to an early death, the day before his twenty-seventh birthday.