Saving Her
Alexis Noelle
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Ashley Piscitelli
All rights Reserved. No parts of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter without written permission from the author, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Table Of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Epilogue
Prologue
“Lace, over here!” Jules is waving me down as I pull up to her new house. Her fiancé, Brian, bought this house for the two of them and surprised her with it. In fact, I helped him find it.
I walk over to my best friend wrapping my arms around her. “Hey, don’t you look all sorts of glowing. You better not smile too much or your face will stick like that.”
She laughs before grabbing my hand and pulling me around the house to the backyard. We walk onto the brick patio and sitting in a circle are the finest group of men I have ever laid eyes on. She said Brian’s friends would all be here, but I wasn’t expecting a more casual appearance of thunder down under.
I nervously run my hand through my hair. “Guys, this is my best friend, Lacey.” Jules chirps. “Lacey, these are Brian’s friends. That’s Hunter, Jake, Ryan, and Mason.” My eyes pause on the last one she introduces, Mason.
The man looks like heaven wrapped in just the right amount of hell. His hair is buzzed close to his head and his green eyes are staring at me with immense intensity. His bulky forearms are resting on his knees, and without even seeing him in full glorious form, I know he has a body that I could bounce coins off of.
Men like this are not supposed to be real. I mean you may read about them in books and build some fantasy around really buff celebrities. However, they are not supposed to be this hot within licking, I mean touching distance. He is still looking at me and I am the first to break contact needing to catch my breath and regain some composure that Captain Sexy Pants stole from me.
“You want a drink?” I nod at Jules’ question and follow her into the house. Brian comes walking into the kitchen at the same time, hair wet from a shower, obviously trying to clean up from a quickie. That is why she was glowing. I shoot Jules a knowing look and watch as she blushes. She pours us a couple margaritas before we head back outside.
Mason is at the grill flipping the burgers. I don’t know what comes over me, but I make the stupid decision to go over to him. “Hey, what’s cooking, hot stuff?” Did I really just fucking say that? Am I an eighty year old cradle robber? I want to dig a hole and bury myself alive.
He gives me a sideways look before returning his gaze to the grill. Walk away, Lacey, walk away.
“So big talker. You come here often?” I wink. I actually fucking wink. I swear I’m high at this point maybe I’m drunk on the fact that he looks like a damn Greek God. It is like continuous uncontrollable word vomit. Once again I get a sideways look, but this time there is a hint of a smile. Okay, maybe I’m breaking through the ten foot “I’m a hard ass wall” that he has up. Either that or he thinks I’m a complete asshole.
“Please stop, you’re talking my ear off at this point. I don’t think I can take much more.” I get one more look from the sex God before he closes the grill and walks back over to the chair he was originally sitting in. I’m in limbo at this point.
The only other person I know here is Jules and she disappeared. I can stand here like an idiot or I can sit in one of the chairs and look even more desperate than I already do. I end up not needing to make a choice when one of Brian’s other friends approaches me. I’m trying to search in my head for his name but, I am coming up blank.
“You know trying to talk to him is useless. The man is like a lockbox, a really old one. Where even if you know the combination this shit is still really hard to open.” I smile at him. “I’m Jake.”
“Hey, and yeah, I noticed. It was like trying to pull teeth from a rabid lion.” Jake laughs and we fall into an easy conversation. At least one of Brian’s friends has a personality so far. I’m laughing at some stupid joke Jake is telling me when Mason comes barreling through almost knocking him over.
Jake just shakes his head. “That seemed like a warning shot to me. I’ll talk to you later, Lacey.”
A warning shot? I look back over at Mason trying to figure him out. He won’t even acknowledge me but when I’m talking to Jake he shoulder checks him. With tequila running smoothly through my system, I feel even braver as I approach him once more.
“What is your problem? I mean are you a mute, cat got your tongue? Or are you just a damn asshole?” I cross my arms feeling strong and confident until he turns and faces me.
He towers over me by at least a foot. His eyes are looking down at me boring holes through my soul. He leans down until his mouth is at my ear and his hot breath is causing goosebumps all over my body.
“I’m just a damn asshole.” He laughs before walking away once more.
I need another damn drink.
Chapter One
I wake up not wanting to get out of bed. Today is my birthday and the first one that I have spent without Scott in four years. Living through this divorce for the past year has killed me. I feel so beaten down, and my level of confidence has taken a huge nosedive. It’s almost like every time I think of starting some sort of relationship I get scared and chicken out. I don’t want to be hurt again and I don’t want anyone to have the power to hurt me.
I thought I knew him, and I thought he loved me. I was wrong. He was never the person that I had imagined him to be. When I married Scott I thought that I would be with my soulmate for the rest of my life. The one person who knew me inside and out and would never hurt me. I was wrong. I dreamt of the kids we would have and what they would look like. I used to daydream about how we would be a happy family. I was dead wrong.
Oh, he had a happy family, but it damn sure wasn’t with me. The day my marriage ended and my life went into the shitter was the day I found out about Scott’s real family. In the next town over he had a fiancée and two kids. He had met her a year after we got married and she became pregnant within a couple months, and then again a few months after the first was born. This was all really shocking to me considering I was his wife and he told me he didn’t want kids. He used to threaten if I went off birth control and tried to get pregnant he would l
eave me. It hurt me so much that he was taking away something that I wanted so bad. I felt like he didn’t want kids that would be like me. Almost as if something was wrong with me.
I made a lot of excuses for him, to my friends, to my family. I guess the saying is true that love is blind. Honestly the saying should really just be changed to love is fucking stupid.
I look around at the apartment and hate the emptiness that surrounds me. My old house was decorated perfectly, and felt warm. There were pictures all over of Scott and I and cute little things that we had picked out together. He got the house in the divorce, I’m sure that he moved her into it and I bet he probably has her barefoot and pregnant again already. I hated to give him that house, it meant so much to me because looking for houses is what showed me how much I love real estate. It’s what gave me the career I have today.
The only good thing in my life right now are my friends. My best friend Jules, her husband Brian and his friends. I didn’t spend too much time with them before the divorce but when all you do is sit at home and watch trash TV it gets lonely.
Everyone is taking me out tonight for my birthday. Half of me is excited and half is dreading it. I enjoy going out and being able to let loose, but if the group will be there then Mason will be there.
Mason Brooks. The face I see when I get myself off, and the same that makes me want to kick him in the dick. He is by far the sexiest damn man I have ever seen. He should be a walking ad for sham wow panties because that’s about the only thing that can help me when he is around. However aside from his orgasmic looks he is a complete douche. I mean make you want to rip his balls off and shove them down his throat. If he even acknowledges my presence, all I get is a dirty look, a caveman grunt, or some smart ass comment. I’ll tell you the thing I hate most about Mason Brooks, that I am completely infatuated with him. I don’t know what it is. It’s like the more I try to hate him the more I’m drawn to him. I think it has to do with my need to help, and to be a good person.
I think about him every waking minute and in most of my dreams too. It’s like I pissed off cupid somehow and Mason is my punishment.
Hey Lacey, here is a complete asshole who won’t give you the time of day, but you will want him anyway. Enjoy.
In a way though I think that my obsession with Mason is good. Scott destroyed the very existence of love for me. I never want to feel it again. I never want to be put in a position where someone can break me. Mason makes that possible. He is more screwed up than I am. This means that there is absolutely no possibility of a relationship, leaving me in a safe place. To most people that may seem pathetic or pointless. For me Mason is a safe bet to be infatuated with. He will never give me any part of himself which means he can’t hurt me.
I get up knowing my doctor’s appointment is in an hour. Every year I make it on my birthday. Seeing my oncologist to make sure the cancer didn’t come back scares me. It also reminds me how precious each day and each year is. That’s why I do it on my birthday. When I was in college I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. I dropped out to fight it and I beat it. It was the worst two years of my life. There wasn’t one day that I didn’t pray for a miracle. For God to either take the cancer away or just end my pain. I had no fight, but Jules did. She had enough for the both of us and was probably one of the main reasons I made it.
I would be lying if I said this day isn’t the scariest day for me. Living with cancer was hell. I lost all of my hair, I was so weak I could barely function, and I thought I might die. You never appreciate life more then you do when you think it may be taken away.
***
“Miss Hunt?” The doctor walks into the room with my file in his hands. I look up swallowing hard from the nervousness of the news he is about to deliver. His face shows no emotion as I’m trying to read it. “I have your results back. I’m sorry to say that the cancer has returned.”
My stomach drops. No. It can’t be back. This is just a bad dream. A tear slips down my cheek as I stare wordlessly at him. He continues to talk but all I hear are sounds. Everything sounds almost as if I’m underwater. I had known there was something wrong. They hardly ever ask me to come in for scans, but they did earlier in the week after I had my panels done at the lab. I hoped it was just something that happened every few years, guess not.
“I know this comes as a shock, we want to have you come in for blood work and then start the treatment next week. The cancer seems to be more aggressive than it had been the first time you were diagnosed. The area affected is almost double so we need to start you on treatment as soon as we can.” He looks at me once more for a response but I don’t have any. I have cancer. Again.
The first time it was only a small area and now it’s doubled, that can’t be a good sign. I have this sinking feeling in my stomach as I send a silent prayer to God. The first time I was diagnosed I found religion again. I pray every night for myself and my friends, and for my health. The only question on my mind as the doctor continues to speak to me about levels, and counts is…why?
Chapter Two
My cell rings for the third time and all I can do is look at it. I know if I don’t answer Jules’ next step will be to stop by, and I don’t want that right now. She doesn’t know I had my appointment today and I really don’t want to tell her, or anyone else.
“Hello?” I answer the phone reluctantly.
“Lace! Happy birthday chica! Where the hell have you been?”
“Sorry my phone was on vibrate.” I try to push the sadness out of my voice knowing that Jules will pick up on it.
“Okay, well I’ll be by to pick you up tonight at seven.” She sounds so excited, and I was too until this morning. We are supposed to go to dinner and then out dancing later. That’s the last thing I want to do right now.
“Um, I don’t know about tonight. I’m not feeling that great, maybe we can reschedule?”
“Nope. You’re getting your ass out of the house girl. It’s time to forget about that stupid douchebag. I miss my sister. I’ll be there to get you at seven whether you are dressed or not. Love ya!”
Before I can reply I hear the phone click in my ear. Last time I went through this everyone knew, and while they were there for me I hated it. I make the decision that I’m not telling anyone. I don’t want the looks of pity, or the constant hovering. I know that I may need to tell them eventually, but I just don’t want to deal with it right now.
I still can’t believe its back. Knowing that there is something in your body that is attacking it and you can’t do anything about it is scary.
Happy birthday to me.
***
My door opens a few minutes after seven and I hear Jules calling me downstairs. “Coming!” I look at myself in the mirror, I feel like people will know. Like I have cancer written across my face, like a scarlet letter. I know it’s nothing that I could have controlled, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of but I am. I felt so strong for beating it, for living. Now I feel like that’s all been taken away from me. I walk downstairs and plaster on a smile. Jules can usually call me on my shit, so I’m hoping she doesn’t notice.
“It’s about time girl! Come on, let’s go have some fun.” She grabs my hand and drags my out to her husband Brian’s truck. I look into the backseat, just my fucking luck. Mason is sitting back there.
“I hate you.” I look over at Jules as she is about to open her door. I know she planned this.
“No you don’t, you love me.” She blows a kiss in my direction before climbing in. I reluctantly follow suit and climb into the back seat.
“Happy birthday Lacey.” Brian greets me with a smile and I thank him. I’m so glad that Jules and Brian found each other again. They were separated for years, and a lot of crazy shit happened between them but it all worked out. I have never seen her happier then she is when she is with him.
I peek over at Mason. He is sitting there stoically his forearms resting on his knees. God, that man is sexy. My eyes trail down his arms slowly taking in all
the defined muscles. His eyes meet mine and I realize that I’m caught. I can feel my face redden as I face forward. Why the hell do I like him? I mean he doesn’t even have enough manners to say “hi” or “happy birthday”. I need a drink.
We pull up to the restaurant and head in. The rest of our group is already here and I greet everyone as birthday wishes are exchanged. Before my group was just Jules and I, then after Brian came into the picture we tripled. When Brian and Jules were separated he joined the Army. When he and the guys became close, they all realized they grew up close to each other. Ryan, is a police officer. Mason flips houses with Brain, and Jake is a personal trainer. The last of the guys was Hunter, he is a bodyguard and has been dating his girlfriend Sam for a few months now.
I look around at the people lining the circular table, and I know that I have an amazing support system. If I told them about what’s going on they would be here for me. The waitress stops by and takes our drink orders. I order two knowing that I need them right now, and using the fact that it’s my birthday as an excuse.
I can feel Mason’s eyes on me but when I turn toward him he looks away. I down my current drink already scanning the room ready to order another even though I still have one. Drinks take forever to come and with him staring at me I need them to be coming at a steady flow. Last time I was so nauseous from the chemo that I could barely eat much less enjoy a drink. Tonight I am going to consume every carb in sight and get shit faced.
***
As I walk, or more like stumble, into the club all I want to do is dance. Well that, and eat pizza. I wonder if the club serves pizza. Jules is pulling me toward a table, but I’m fighting with her to get to the dance floor.
“Come on Jules! I wanna dance!” I shake my hips and she laughs shaking her head at me. “It’s my berfday!” I pout at her and she relents following me to the middle of the club.
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