Forever Together (Forever Love #2)

by Jade Whitfield

  "Where’s my little lady?" My Dad's deep voice distracts me from my self-pitying and head burying as I turn to see his smiling face as he walks through the den towards me.

  His bright blue eyes are twinkling and the slight wrinkles at the corner of his eyes from forty-five years of laughing pull me out of my depressive state and I start running to him. I throw myself into his pot belly and breathe in his familiar spicy cologne.

  "Hey, it’s good to see you too." He laughs while spinning me around as if I weigh nothing more than a feather. I love my Mom to death but I’m a Daddy’s girl through and through.

  He puts me down while holding me at arm’s length.

  "When did my little lady grow up, huh?" He says while I smile wider at his nickname for me.

  "I’m twenty years old now Dad. I don’t think I’m so little anymore."

  "You could be fifty years old and you'd still be my little lady. Just like all your brothers and sisters, you'll always be my babies."

  "Hear hear." My Mom chimes in with a warm smile on her face.

  "Actually, where is everyone?" I point out, realizing that the usually busy household is near enough empty. Normally it’s a fight to get a seat and a chorus of squabbling.

  "Luke is working with your Father now. He’s got his own apartment downtown. It’s very swanky. He’s got a wall with a fish tank in it. In the actual wall! Can you believe it?" Her eyes widen with excitement. "Oh, and Aiden and Avery both got jobs for the summer. Aiden’s working in the hardware store and Avery is working at Annabelle’s."

  "Wow." Is it sad that my eighteen-year-old brother and sixteen-year-old sister both have jobs and I don’t? I think it is.

  "Yeah honey, maybe you can get a job while you’re here. Actually, I’m sure you could do with some help answering the phones couldn’t you, Jim?" She says, raising her eyebrows towards my Dad.

  "Come on Deena, the girl just got here." My Dad thankfully comes to my rescue and gives her a look that tells her to cut it out.

  "I’m just saying." She holds her hands in the air in surrender. "It would help get her mind off everything."

  "Uh hello! I’m still standing right here and I don’t need to get my mind off anything." I say.

  "Of course you don’t dear." My Mom smiles sweetly in a bid to placate me.

  My Dad simply throws a wink my way and sits down on a stool.

  "Where am I sleeping anyway?" I ask to change the line of conversation. The mantra in my head right now is "please don’t be with Bailey, please don’t be with Bailey." I’m almost tempted to put my hands together in prayer.

  "Oh, with Bailey but don’t worry, you get the choice of bunks." Someone pass me a gun so I can pop myself in the head please? I can’t really argue the point though. As I said before, I don’t live here anymore.

  "Ok." I sigh. "I'll go and get my stuff."

  I have a pout on my face that could rival Bailey’s as I walk out of the house towards my car. I've not even been here half an hour and I already want to leave. The only thing that could make it any worse is bumping into a certain guy whose name begins with B. Well, it was definitely a bad idea to even think of him. I have no idea how I’m going to spend the next three months living in the same town as him. There’s no way I'll be able to avoid him for long, not in a town as small as Franklin. What am I going to do when I do see him? What if he has a new girlfriend? Oh crap, there’s no way I could bare to see him with another girl, that'd just about finish me off.

  I pop the trunk and bite my lip while thinking about how much coming home was a bad idea. Not only do I have to avoid a certain someone, but I just can’t face Noah and Liv either, not after snubbing them for the past six months. She probably hates me now anyway and Noah probably hates me for hurting her feelings. On graduating from High School with dreams of getting out of Franklin, I definitely didn’t think that I'd find myself back here for the Summer two years later, single and friendless.

  Anyway, it looks as if it'll definitely be an interesting Summer. One other things for sure, I’m definitely not the same Cindy who left two years ago or even drove away in tears six months ago. The thing is, I’m not totally sure if I like this new Cindy or if I want to try and recapture the old sweet happy go lucky one. Well, I've got the next three months to find out at least.

  Chapter 2

  Brady

  I stare down at the phone in my hand and only one word comes to mind.

  "Shit!" I shout, causing the damn dog to jump halfway up in the air.

  Only two words are on the screen and they cause my heart to almost beat out of my fucking chest.

  She's home.

  As soon as I saw the text from Cindy’s Mom Deena, I thought I was gonna keel the hell over. After shooting a text over to my boy Noah, I’m expecting him to come through the door any minute. I've been waiting for this day for nearly six fucking months and now it’s finally here, now I haven’t got two and a half thousand miles between us, I’m fucking stumped as to what to do. That’s why I need my boy here, he’s all experienced in romance and shit considering he’s getting married next month, so he’s the one that I want advising me. I can’t exactly ask that gigolo - Tucker.

  I pace the living room floor, Brian’s wide brown eyes following me as I do. I don’t know what the hell to do. Maybe I should buy one of those white board thingies to plan my attack. Shit! I sound like a fucking psycho. Yeah that'll work, I can be like "Hey Cindy, how you been? Good? Yeah well I’m a wannabe fucking stalker now." Yeah she'll just jump into my arms with that shit.

  At that thought, I hear the front door open before slamming shut and Noah comes barreling in the place.

  "It took you long enough, bro!"

  "What?" He’s completely out of breath as if he’s been running a damn marathon. "What the hell’s going on?"

  "She’s back. She’s fucking back and I don’t know what to do and since you’re the pussy whipped one, I need your advice."

  "Are you kidding me? You called me from work for this shit?" He’s waving his hands in the air like whack job. What the hell did he expect me to do anyway? Wait? That’s bullshit, this is way too important.

  "This shit is my life dude."

  Noah takes a deep breath as if bracing himself.

  "You told me that you might have broken your leg. I fucking rushed through three red lights with the siren on thinking you were dying or some shit." I knew he would be over dramatic.

  "I needed you to hurry up. I couldn’t wait till six for you to finish."

  "For fucks sake Brady!"

  "Listen, this is not the point. The point is that Cindy is back in town right now. She’s fucking here dude. She’s actually here."

  Noah slumps down on the couch, narrowly avoiding Brian.

  "Hey, watch it. You nearly squished Brian."

  "Brady, I've already had enough of you today, don’t start with the damn pansy ass dog."

  I ignore his comment and pick my blonde haired Pomeranian up from the couch to sit on my lap. Brian’s a badass dog, I don’t care what no one says.

  "What do I do?" I ask as he lies his head in his hands. I don’t know what the hell’s up with him, it’s my ex and the love of my life who's just come back to town.

  "Give me a sec to catch my breath will ya?"

  I nod while nervously tapping my foot. Brian wiggles in my hold and I place him on the floor. Noah takes some deep breaths while I impatiently wait for him to gain his fucking composure and get a move on. What the hell did he expect me to do anyway? I ain’t got time for this. I don’t know how long she’s gonna be in town for and I’m about ready to lose my mind. That’s exactly what six months without seeing her gorgeous face, without hearing her voice will do to a man. Send them completely lala.

  "Ok, I’m good. How'd you find out she's back?" He clasps his hands together and leans forward.

  "Deena." I’m not into going through this right now so one word answers will just have to do.

  "Well, maybe you should give
her a few days before you go breaking down the door and carting her out."

  "I haven’t got days, so instead of thinking of things in days, maybe we should do it in hours."

  "Brady, it’s a what six-hour flight from LA to Savannah? The girls probably gonna be asleep. Just give her a few days to get settled."

  "I don’t like it." I shake my head from side to side before the most brilliant idea comes to me. "I know, get Liv to call her. We can stage a run in, you know where they’re having coffee or some shit and we just happen to bump into them." It’s official, I’m a genius.

  "Bro, Liv hasn’t spoken to Cindy in months so I don’t think a fake run in is really gonna work."

  "Why? Don’t you think Cindy will speak to her? Doesn’t Liv wanna phone her?"

  "Liv really misses her but you gotta face it dude, I don’t think this is the same Cindy that left. She was a mess when she went, she didn’t answer anyone’s calls. I've heard you say yourself that she even avoided her Mom. What the fuck happened between you two?"

  "We broke up, I told you." I can’t tell him I was such a pussy and ran from commitment like a bat outta hell. I look at myself with disappointment every day in the mirror, I don’t need to see it from my best friend too. That’s why this is so important. I need to make it right, she needs to be where she belongs, with me. She needs to know I care, that I was wrong and that I know I fucked up.

  "Fine, keep your secrets but seeing as your leg isn’t broken, I gotta get back to work. I don’t wanna go back on traffic duty. I'll call you when I finish and we'll come up with something. But please Brady, don’t do anything stupid. Just wait until I call, ok?" Noah stands up from the couch and I follow his lead.

  "Ok, see ya later." I give my boy half a hug and a clap on the back and watch as he walks out the door.

  The conversation with Noah hasn’t helped at all so it was obviously a waste of time calling him. Maybe I should call Liv, she'll help me as long as she’s over that whole thing with me accidently eating her cake samples. Yeah she'll be over that now, that was days ago anyway.

  I grab the phone from the couch and run through the contacts on my phone until I come to Liv's name, Blondie. After pressing on it, I pull the phone up to my ear and wait for her to answer.

  "Dickwad." She answers the phone with a sigh.

  "Yo, Blondie. How are ya?"

  "I’m still pissed at you."

  "Oh, about the cake? I think we should put that behind us. Look at it this way, I can totally help you. I know which one is the best and I think you should definitely go with the Buttercream. There, problem solved."

  "You're so not helping your case right now. What the hell do you want anyway?"

  "Cindy’s back."

  "Really?" Her voice sounds genuinely surprised and kinda happy which is good since I wasn’t sure if she was holding a grudge or something.

  "Yeah, I was thinking that you could invite her for coffee or some shit. We could stage a run in and then bam, we're back together."

  "Is that your plan? Cause I gotta tell you that is terrible."

  "Christ, you sound like fucking Noah." This is not how this was meant to go.

  "Oh, I get what’s happened, you told Noah your plan and he told you it was shit so you thought you'd call me. I’m sorry Dickwad but it’s fucking terrible."

  "You're just saying that cause you're mad at her."

  "Is that what you think?" Her voice sounds hurt and I feel like shit. "I’m not mad at Cindy, Brady. I miss her, you know this. But you can’t force her into a corner, you'll just drive her away."

  "I miss her." My voice comes out all broken, like my heart.

  "I miss her too. Listen, I'll call her ok. If she doesn’t answer, I'll go to her house and force her to listen to me." That definitely perks me up, I knew I could count on blondie. She’s officially replaced that dickhead Noah as my number one friend.

  "Thanks blondie."

  "Oh, Brady before you go, don’t do anything stupid!" With that she hangs up. Why the hell does everyone think I’m gonna do something stupid? I’m a level-headed guy, it’s not like I’m gonna go all caveman on Cindy...yet. Though if she starts dragging her feet I may just throw her over my shoulder.

  I drop my phone back into my pocket and look back at Brian who's head twitches from side to side.

  "We're gonna go get your Mama boy. We just gotta do some investigating first."

  ***

  I lie on my side across the front seat of my truck with binoculars in one hand and my cell in the other. Though I’m not outside Cindy’s, I’m near enough that I can see her front door from where I am down the street. I've been here for the past hour and apart from Cindy’s Dad, Jim, taking the garbage out there’s been no sight of my black haired beauty.

  My attention is focused totally on the house, only broken when I hear tapping on the window.

  "What the hell man? Cant everyone see I’m busy stalking my ex?" I grumble to myself, hopefully not loud enough for the person to hear.

  I straighten myself up, ignoring the stitch in my side from lying down too long and look up to see Noah’s scowling face. What the fuck is wrong with him? I roll the window down not wanting to break my cover.

  "Dude, what the fuck?"

  "Brady, I thought you weren’t gonna do anything stupid." He half whispers.

  "I don’t remember any such conversation." I answer with a completely straight face. "What're you doing here anyway?"

  "Mrs. Miller called 911, thought you were trying to fucking kill her. You need to move."

  "That old bat’s lying."

  "Do you really think Cindy finding you camped outside her house with... are those fucking binoculars?"

  I quickly shove them behind my back hoping that he can unsee that shit.

  "Nope."

  "You do realize what you're doing is stalking right? If it wasn’t me that took the call, then you'd probably be getting arrested right about now."

  "Listen Officer Spoilsport, I’m not stalking, I’m protecting. As that old bat Mrs. Miller pointed out, there’s fucking killers round here. I’m just making sure Cindy is safe."

  "Brady, I’m gonna say this once and once only. Get. Going. Now."

  "No can do. You won’t help me with a staged run in and neither will that fiancé of yours so I gotta get shit done myself."

  "You called Liv?" His eyes widen and his mouth drops open. Doesn’t the dude realize you can catch flies that way?

  "I may have butt dialed her and then I couldn’t exactly ignore her when she was calling my name through the phone and confessing her undying love for me. I gotta be honest bro, I don’t think you're really doing it for her at the moment. Want some pointers?"

  "You have ten seconds to get off this street Brady or I’m taking you in, friend or not." Well he’s not even my number two best friend now.

  "Ok, I’m going, I’m going." Yeah I'll go and I'll be back in five minutes after this loser’s gone.

  "And I’m staying around here to make sure you don’t come back so get that thought outta your head as well." Son of a bitch!

  "Listen br-" My words die off in my mouth when a quick glance in the right direction at the right time gets me my first glimpse of heaven in six months.

  "Brady, what the...Oh shit!" Noah quickly ducks his head down.

  Her hair’s a little longer, she must have grown it out even more over the past few months. It’s still the same midnight black color it’s always been. Her pale skin which has always been a fucking mystery seeing as the girls got fucking Italian in her, looks as clear and spotless as ever. Even from this distance, I know that she’s as gorgeous, if a little thinner than she was six months ago. I hope she hasn’t been doing any of those bullshit diets she used to do in High School, she’s perfect just the way she is. The red cami top and dark skinny jeans show off her killer body with the ass that defies gravity and the tit’s you just wanna grab. It’s been six months and my need for her is as strong as ever. My heart still be
ats outta my chest at just the sight of her.

  I watch completely entranced as she lifts a box from the trunk of her car, her now long black hair blowing in the light June breeze. I don’t even realize I’m moving to get outta the car until I feel Noah’s hand on my shoulder.

  "Dude, not now, remember?" He whispers.

  "What do you mean not now? She’s right fucking there. I’d say this counts as a chance meeting."

  "Just sit the hell down and make sure she doesn’t see you, ok?"

  I don’t know if it’s the fact he’s all engaged and shit but I’m totally ready to chuck Noah from my friends list altogether, the guy is just way too much of a fucking goody two shoes lately. No, actually I'd say it’s the uniform that’s done it. Definitely the uniform.

  Cindy strides back into the house, her head down. I can practically hear as Noah the pussy breathes a sigh of relief.

  "That was close." He says.

  "Close? Are you fucking kidding me? You're ruining my life here bro. Me and Cindy could have been making out in the front yard if it wasn’t for you butting your big fucking nose in."

  "Ok, number one, you're totally fucking crazy as well as a stalker if you think she’s just gonna take one look at you and all’s gonna be forgiven. Number two, I don’t have a big nose."

  "Whatever man, I’m outta here."

  "Don’t do anything stupid man." One more person tells me that and I’m gonna drive my truck through their fucking living room.

  Noah pulls away from the truck and with a halfhearted wave, walks back to his own black and white patrol car. It’s not like I could have stayed here long anyway what with Brian the little shit probably crapping and peeing all over the place.

  As I drive past Cindy’s house I can’t help looking. I’d be happy with just another glimpse but there’s nothing. I came here thinking that by seeing her it might make me a little less crazy, if anything, I’m more of a fucking fruit loop than before. I don’t need this shit, not at all.