“No, you didn’t hurt me. That was wonderful, Sam, I didn’t know… I mean… It was amazing… You were… so…” Julie couldn’t finish the sentence.
Sam laughed, and tickled Julie. “So you liked that, did you?”
“Maybe,” she admitted, then gave him a peck on the lips.
“Hmm, looks like you’re more of a brazen little hussy than I thought,” Sam said, his hand sliding between her legs. “Not that I mind.”
“You probably shouldn’t call the mother of your child a brazen little hussy,” Julie admonished without even thinking, her mind still muddled by endorphins.
Sam sat up. “What? What did you just say?”
Julie knew she’d messed up, this wasn’t the way she’d planned to tell him, but she’d gotten so used to the idea she’d forgotten that he didn’t know. “Um, nothing,” she tried, smiling up at him.
“Nope, you said something. What did you say?” Sam looked down at her, clearly not planning to let her off the hook.
Julie took a deep breath and said quite clearly, “I said, you probably shouldn’t call the mother of your child a brazen hussy.” Then closed her eyes.
The next thing she knew Sam was covering her face with kisses, when he finally stopped, he cupped her face in his hands and said, “I love you, Julie, and I love our baby.”
Julie laughed. “You’re not mad?” she asked.
“That we’re going to have a baby, nope. I’m thrilled, especially since now you’re going to have to marry me,” he said, then added when he saw her face. “Oh, don’t worry I’ll ask you first.”
“But…” She tried to interrupt.
“And no more chasing poachers for you. You’re going to stay in the lab where you’re safe,” Sam said, more excited than she’d ever seen him. Then he grinned at her again and asked, “Did I tell you that I love you?”
Julie pulled him back down next to her. “I love you too, Sam,” she said, unable to hold in the laugher that bubbled up inside her. “I had no idea it was possible to be this happy, to feel so complete, but you can slow down a little, we’ve got a long time to go before this baby’s here and we have the rest of our lives together.”
“I know, sweetheart, I’m just anxious to begin our new life together,” Sam said with a sheepish grin.
“I think we’ve already done that,” Julie said, and put her hand over the slight swelling in her middle.
An Unlikely Love
Two people in their 40s are about to find true love
Description
Tip: Search BWWM Club on Amazon to see more of our great books.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 1
“This has been doing nothing but crushing my spirit for nearly the past thirty years, but especially the past 15, Nathan!”
Hilary stood there, talking with her hands again, practically yelling, and Nathan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Nathan Gladwell was a practical man, despite that his lifestyle didn’t reflect that. He had been successful in the business of oil investments and starting up his own energy resources company, Crude Transfer Partners.
Being a billionaire had gained him more than his small town life in Oklahoma could ever have in his youth: a college education at a prestigious university, the chance meeting with his wealthy father-in-law who introduced him to investing in his oil company, his own Fortune 500 company, and properties he owned all North America and Jamaica. But now, he felt like he was losing everything because Hilary was his everything.
“You are not going to do this, Hilary,” Nathan said looking at his wife in shock.
“You are not going to start yet another argument that this is me ruining us because you are wanting to go off on some spirit retreat or adventure!”
“Oh, screw you,” she said in defiance. “You’ve known for years I’ve wanted to pursue more than just more business ventures with you, more real estate timeshares with you, more EVERYTHING surrounding you and the money because I never needed money from you!”
Her voice became shrill. Hilary then realized she was losing her composure, which went against her meditation practices. She took a deep breath before speaking again.
“You and Dad have always scoffed at my pursuits in spirituality. It’s the reason I wasn’t able to pursue my holistic medicine license when we were in the states. Then, when you said you wanted to come here to Jamaica, I tried to be optimistic that maybe this was finally a way for us to get away from it all.”
Tears were now gathering in his wife’s eyes. Nathan’s shoulders lowered. They were standing in the middle of the opulent kitchen of their Jamaica mansion, with its marble countertops, Italian imported tile floors, and stainless steel appliances. In that moment, Nathan looked around and considered maybe he hadn’t considered what mattered to Hilary for quite some time. Her vision for life in the islands was primitive but charming. She had shown interest in villas and smaller dwellings before they even set in stone that they were going to purchasing a home there.
The stark differences between them were now staring him in the face. After thirty years of him taking her interests in philanthropy work and seminars on renewable energy as hobbies, he was now seeing he totally dismissed what she was passionate about, and it was him or his own business goals in the oil and energy resources industry.
Nathan looked at his wife, his confidante, and friend in the eyes. “Hilary, I’m sorry,” he said as he took steps toward her. He rubbed the tears from her cheeks and looked her in the eyes.
“Tomorrow, we’ll take time to start seeing if we can fund whatever projects you want to start here. Whatever it is, I’m behind you. I’ll get in touch with Bill in accounting and see if we can even start some kind of school here or company that focuses just on---”
She cut him short. “I’ve already made arrangements to fly to Colorado.”
Nathan’s hands dropped to his sides, but his eyes never left hers.
“I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon,” she whispered. Sniffling and wiping her own eyes now, she turned away from Nathan and went to sit on a chaise lounge in the open great room space. Nathan’s hands weren’t the only things that dropped, but also his heart.
“You’re leaving tomorrow?” he asked. It wasn’t so much a question as an inner affirmation to himself. This was really happening.
He thought when this argument started maybe they’d have a heated discussion as usual and she go to bed angry, only to apologize tomorrow. He thought she’d stay again this time. He couldn’t move.
“You already bought the plane tickets?” His voice cracked just a little. At hearing that, she turned to him as if to see was he truly hurt.
“I did. I didn’t want to tell you like this,” she said through more tears. “I’ve had my bag packed in the guest room for five days now, debating if I was actually going to go through with it.” Nathan could not say a word. He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it all.
“Are you going to Henry?” He could only hope she’d be with his father-in-law, who might talk some sense into her to return to Jamaica; talk her out of a divorce. Divorce. The word seemed to take up space in his mind the more her leaving was sinking in.
“No, Nathan. I’m going to Colorado, to a biotope commune there. The one I showed you two years ago.”
“You don’t know those people, Hilary” he yelled. Has she lost her mind! he thought to himself. “Hilary, you can’t be serious!” But she was. Later that night, she slept in the guest room, and he slept in their master suite.
*****
Nathan was still stunned hours later. How? Had he neglected her that much? Had he overlooked her goals, her hopes? The entire night, all he wanted was to run over to the other side of that mansion and beg her to stay. However, Nathan was now glad the
re was so much space between the two of them, so she couldn’t hear his crying through the walls at feeling like he would trade every bit of the billions he had to keep his first and only love in his life. In the morning, he would drive her to the airport and pray she might change her mind at the last minute. He didn’t know it then, but the time would come that he’d be so thankful she left him in his Jamaican oasis.
*****
She had seen a lot of beautiful pregnancies in her day, but none so special as this one. Marnie Hall had been the doula, or midwife, of her small Kingston community since she was sixteen. Her mother said she had a calling for caring for the sick and the young, which inspired her to pursue nursing school when she was eighteen.
Now, forty-three years old and retired from nursing, she had been able to take part in beautiful ceremonies and births like that of her god daughter’s.
“Push, Lupe,” she instructed the young mother. Marnie and her best friend, Dominique, had been helping Dominique’s niece plan every single thing leading up to this day.
It was never a question whether she would be the midwife helping her god daughter’s baby come into the world. Everyone in their neighborhood looked to Marnie for advice on every matter of life, seeking her wisdom through her tarot reading, palmistry, midwifery, and just natural born insight into the spirit world.
Lupe gave one more forceful push, and as Marnie, Dominique, and Lupe’s husband Charles were all reaching out their hands of the birthing pool they were sitting in, Marnie caught the little newborn girl who swam to her. She lifted her out the water and instantly sat her on Lupe’s chest.
“She’s beautiful!” cried Dominique.
Charles went to Lupe’s right side to look upon his daughter for the first time. It was moments like these that made Marnie cherish her work as a doula and healer. Receiving her degree nearly twenty years ago was just a way to find steady work, but it was this, her calling, that brought her so many beautiful memories in her lifetime.
After ensuring Lupe and her family were recovering from an intense birth, and that each was healthy and well advised on what next steps to take at the hospital in the morning with their new bundle of joy, Marnie retreated back to her own home. No sooner than she stepped through the door her cell phone rang. It was Dominique.
“Well, Lupe, Charles, and little baby Aniya seem happy and healthy.” Her voice was kind of sing-song over the phone. “And I, of course, am happy as any auntie can be, but you left seeming not so happy.”
“Yeah, somewhat,” Marnie began. “I am happy I got to bring my god daughter into the world, but seeing them all made me think about what that must be like.”
“What what must be like?” Dominique asked, not quite following. “I know you are not talking about starting a family!”
“No!” insisted Marnie. “I mean, what love must be like.”
At that, Dominique sighed. “Oh my goodness, here we go.”
“What do you mean here we go?” Marnie giggled as she sat down her things next to her couch.
“You deliver a baby or you give a reading to someone or you give a gris-gris or juju to someone for love and then we have this conversation,” Dominique explained. Marnie plopped down on her couch and let out a sigh.
“I know, I know, but,” she lamented,. “I’ve always been able to help others just figure those things out and bring love into their life. Even babies are a symbol of someone who loved someone else for a little while. It’s different when I try to apply those things to myself.”
Dominique sounded slightly frustrated in return on the other end of the phone. “But you never apply those things you know to yourself,” she said.
“Look,” she continued, “tonight, let’s go to Bill Bak up in Ocho Rios. Let’s just go and drink and dance and just let go.” Marnie liked the sound of that, but she disliked how Dominique was glossing over the topic of love as usual. Her friend went on talking.
“You get so wrapped up in romance and fantasies you get to this point you’re at right now, and the first man that so much as blinks in your direction you swear it’s love.”
Marnie didn’t respond because she knew her best friend was telling the truth. On more than one occasion she had found herself longing for love and romance so badly she didn’t see the warning signs that someone may not be the one she believed them to be at the start of the relationship. It was the story of her life for nearly her whole life. Loving too fast, too soon, and it ending with her feeling completely heartbroken again.
“You’re right,” she said into the phone. “So, where are we going, then?”
She could hear Dominique scrolling through her phone, probably searching for night spots they hadn’t been before. They didn’t go out often, but when they did, they liked going to the resort areas. The resort clubs and tourists’ spots offered familiar food and local artists but were often more upscale and better organized than the small town dancehalls speckled across Kingston.
“Oh,” Dominique suddenly shouted. “Bill Bak! It’s in Ocho Rios, about an hour and a half drive, but that’ll give us time to talk and listen to music on the way. How about it?”
With that said, the two women agreed they’d meet up in about an hour and take the trip to the coastal resort city of Ocho Rios. Dominique wanted to see her friend smile her beautiful smile for the right reasons and Marnie wanted an excuse to drink and dance away her singlehood blues. She got up from the couch and proceeded to shower. But, secretly, in the back of her mind, she was wondering what were the odds of her finding Mr. Right rather than Mr. Right Now. Perhaps, this night out would be a chance to weigh those odds.
*****
Days went by. Then, weeks; months, even. A year had nearly passed since Hilary had flown back to the states, to Colorado. Finally, on one of Nathan’s routine stops into the local post office, it came. Nathan stood in the post office looking down at the large, bubble wrap filled safety envelope. His hands began shaking when he saw the law firm’s address at the top; his wife lawyer’s name neatly typed behind the “c/o” portion of the address. He and Hilary had been keeping contact via their respective legal advisors and accountants. It was all negotiations and talk about dividing assets. While the media was eating up his billionaire divorce details, Nathan was dying a little each day waiting for the official document to come. And there it was.
On the drive home, he thought over the past year. He’d been on more than a few dates--at the advice of a bachelor friend-- that all ended the same. It started off with them having similar interests, mutual friends in certain social circles, him spending far more money on wining and dining, then finding out they were the type of women who expected the wining and dining. Treating a woman with respect and admiration was one thing, having the women who knew him simply for his wealth and status and taking advantage of it was another. It was the downside of his newfound bachelorhood. The more dates he went on, the more he wished Hilary had stayed. It wasn’t just her beauty in their youth that made him love her, it was her loyalty. She had been there when he was no one. She made the complicated things simple. Dating in your forties was complicated. Giving up, to Nathan, was simple. Too simple.
Pulling into the driveway of the mansion he still called home, he gave this simplicity approach to dating more thought.
“Just stop looking. It’s that simple,” he said to himself.
Maybe, that was why the divorce was hitting him so hard. Hilary had forced him to start over, and he wasn’t sure how. He sat there, looking around the inside of DB11 Aston Martin, and glanced through the windshield at the sprawling one-level mansion with its perfectly landscaped lawn and guest house. “Trying too hard, Nathan, my boy,” he said to himself. “Trying too damn hard. Go simple.” Even once inside the mansion after parking his car in the garage, he kept this in mind: simplicity. When he and Hilary were younger they were simpler people.
He wasn’t entirely sure what changed him, the money or the prestige. Was it the media coverage after his first billio
n? What had…changed him? Looking at his tailored suits in the walk-in closet of his master suite, he thumbed through until he found the kitchy-almost tacky-island inspired patterned shirts Hilary had picked out for him. They joked about ditching the designer threads for tourist chic. Nathan found himself smiling a little as his hand rested on a black and white damask floral patterned button-up shirt. It looked like something worn by a Cuban sugar daddy. This thought made Nathan chuckle as he pulled it off the hanger. He found some white slacks, and a pair of black Ferragamo shoes he wore when he had to walk comfortably about his company’s headquarters. His mind was made up.
Rather than go out to the ritzier places of the usually rich, famous, and overly dressed masses at the coast front, he’d go to one of his favorite local spots in Ocho Rios tonight. Bill Bak had great music, great food, and just a fun atmosphere. Typically, he’d take business acquaintances who were visiting the area from abroad looking for a prime real estate or were thinking of investing in some of the resorts. It was a casual place he’d share with them to show the local flare for food and dance and have a few drinks. But tonight, he wanted to go and let loose, just have a drink, hear some good Soca or Reggae, and maybe meet a new friend. Yes, a friend. Companionship. He had, unintentionally, been flashing his influence with his car, his clothes, his fame, and getting nowhere. It was time to just ease the pressure off of finding someone to replace the hole in his heart that Hilary was leaving behind, and find someone who could help him heal a little at a time. After a quick shower and getting dressed, he called for a cab and set his mind to having a good night out, and nothing more.
*****
The drive to Ocho Rios was long but worth it. Marnie and Dominique sang along to their favorite songs, talked endlessly, and also had a heart-to-heart talk about love, especially. Dominique and Marnie had met in nursing school, but Dominique stuck to being a nurse even long after Marnie left the profession. Dominique loved what she did for a living, but her schedule often meant her and Marnie didn’t get much time to just kick back and laugh like they used to while attending college when they were younger. They had to schedule it around holidays or just pop up at each other’s homes out the blue.
Have My Child: BWWM Romance (Brothers From Money Book 14) Page 13