by A. C. Bextor
Summer's Bay © 2016 by A.C. Bextor
Blind Faith © 2016 Teresa Gabelman
Kiss, Interrupted © 2016 S.R. Grey
Her Kind of Crazy © 2016 Nina Levine
All rights reserved. No part of this e-Book may be used or reproduced in any written, electronic, recorded, or photocopied format without the express permission from the author or publisher as allowed under the terms and conditions with which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution, circulation or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.
Incompatibly Yours is a work of fiction. All names, characters, events and places found therein are either from the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to persons alive or dead, actual events, locations, or organizations is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
For information contact the publisher, Hot Tree Publishing. www.hottreepublishing.com
Editing & Formatting: Hot Tree Editing
Cover Designer: Claire Smith
ISBN 13: 978-1-925448-15-3 (eCopy Edition)
Contents
A Note from the Publisher
Summer's Bay by A.C. Bextor
About A.C. Bextor
Also by A.C. Bextor
Blind Faith by Teresa Gabelman
About Teresa Gabelman
Also by Teresa Gabelman
Kiss, Interrupted by S.R. Grey
About S.R. Grey
Also by S.R. Grey
Her Kind Of Crazy by Nina Levine
About Nina Levine
Also by Nina Levine
About the Publisher
A Note from the Publisher
"About 10 percent of women (6.1 million) in the United States ages 15-44 have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."
http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/infertility.html
Hot Tree Publishing has got together with four amazing New York Times, USA Today and Amazon International best-selling authors to bring to you four incredible romance stories.
The talented authors have produced new stories especially for our fertility research charity anthology, Incompatibly Yours.
All of the wonderful stories have the central theme of OPPOSITES ATTRACT, intending to show that even when the odds are against you, and the possibility for a happy future seems too far away to achieve, anything is possible, including a happily ever after.
Many women and couples are still searching for their own HEA, and require the fantastic support available to help with fertility issues. 100% of the profits from the sales of Incompatibly Yours will be donated to fertility research and support charities and organizations.
We hope by raising awareness and funds that we are to provide some semblance of a mark to continue to develop the existing support out there.
To do that, we will need your help, too. So please be sure to spread the news of this great new release.
The following services are available for fertility support and information (also seek professional help from your GP):
AU: http://access.org.au/
US: http://www.resolve.org/
UK: http://www.infertilitynetworkuk.com/
CA: http://www.iaac.ca/en/contact
Summer's Bay by A.C. Bextor
Prologue
RYLEIGH
Home.
Summer's Bay, Iowa, the small town my fiancé and I have returned to after being away at college for four years, hasn't changed.
Mr. Valentine, the town's sweet and smiling mailman, still casually walks from house to house delivering the packages and mail. Just like when I was young, kids are playing football in the empty fields down the street from my childhood home until the streetlights come on, signaling the day is over and it's time to head inside. And the one stoplight downtown still changes from red to flashing yellow once the clock strikes 7:00 p.m.
My meddling, but always loving, parents still farm the fields until the last edge of the summer sun sets. My seventeen-year-old little sister, Maggie, still amuses everyone around her with her crazy character and even crazier antics. And my dog, Anna Lee, still chases everything that moves faster than she can.
Nope. Nothing in this town has changed since I've been gone.
Nothing that is, except for me.
Chapter One
RYLEIGH
"You're not leaving this table yet, Ryleigh Ann Davis. At least not until you tell me how Myles proposed," she demands before continuing, "Woman, it's been months since you've been back to visit, and now that you're here to stay, I hate that I hardly recognize you. You look…."
My hands sweat and my heart races, waiting to hear the words my childhood best friend will use to describe how I look to her. However, if anyone is able to see through my blissful façade, it's Kate.
Feigning contentment, I aim to reassure her. "I'm great."
"Great," she repeats with noted suspicion. Her eyes bore into mine, waiting for me to take her bait and lash out with an objection.
Straightening in my chair, I focus on her certain disappointment with confidence and reiterate, "Yes. I'm great."
As she casually plays with her napkin, running the edges through her fingertips, she probes quietly and without any enthusiasm, "When's the big day?"
"August twelfth," I reply. "It'll be hot as hell, but Myles doesn't want to wait until fall."
"August?" she gasps, before sinking back in her chair and taking another drink of her beer. "Good grief. That's just four weeks away. Clearly, your man still doesn't mess around."
No, he doesn't.
Myles Morgan is notorious for his unwavering determination to get what he wants. Both Kate and I have known this about him since we were kids in elementary school.
His undeniably wholesome good looks, coupled with his poignant and persistent charm, are hard for anyone to ignore. Standing just over six feet tall, he towers over my five-foot-four-inch frame. His dark eyes may appear faintly haunted, but are captivating just the same. He wears his hair cropped short and unless we're home alone doing nothing, he rarely dresses down. Suffice it to say, in comparison to other men in this farming town, Myles is considered well-manicured.
"It doesn't surprise me," she states. "I mean, that you'd be getting married so fast. Myles Morgan has always been pretty sure of himself."
"How's that?"
Rolling her eyes, she looks down and nods to my generous, if not a little too flashy, engagement ring. "Myles never did anything slow or small. For as long as we've known him he's always gotten exactly who or what he wanted. Now that he's decided he wants you committed to him for the rest of his life, his rushing to the altar makes sense."
I get what she's saying.
Back in high school, Myles was captain of the football team, president of our high school's debate team, and also student council president. Because of all his varied accomplishments, he was also the one boy every girl wanted to belong to. Even the teachers at our high school would study him with curiosity and admiration. And Myles always noticed.
"He's grown a lot over the past four years, Kate," I defend. "You don't know him. He's not exactly the same person."
"None of us are, but…" She focuses on her bottle of beer while choosing her words. "We both know growing up
Myles was a bully. So I certainly hope he's grown some. I don't know him anymore, though."
As a kid, Myles rarely paid any attention to me. Our families were close, next-door neighbors in fact, so we were forced into spending time together. He'd seldom speak to me unless it was to offer me a stiff one-word greeting or to tell me what to do. I remember his dad lecturing him about being nicer to me. He wanted Myles to treat all women with the respect they deserved. And it wasn't that he wasn't civil, he was just never cordial.
"Do you love him?" Her voice, so sincere, also echoes her worry. "Myles? Do you love him?"
"Yes, Kate. I love him."
Straightening in her chair, she struggles to tell me in a low voice, "I say this because I love you, and also because I've known you forever. But, I've got to ask. Are you certain, without any doubt, Myles isn't a stand-in for who you still really want?"
"Stop," I insist tersely, and then continue to be sure she gets me. "I'm not marrying Myles because he's second to anyone, especially Chase."
Chase Morgan is Myles's older brother. And although related by blood, the two of them couldn't be any more different. Chase is eight years older than Myles and me. He's quiet, only speaking when spoken to. He wears a cast-iron guard around him which makes him seemingly unapproachable. Aside from a few years when I was very young, that's how I've always remembered him to be.
Unlike Myles, Chase is rough around the edges. His idea of dressing up is deciding to wear his cowboy boots versus his tie-up hikers. His clothes are usually covered in dust from riding the farm horses or working in the fields. And his charm stretches as far as answering in monosyllables. He doesn't excel at anything in particular and he's never been materialistic or ambitious.
There were times, when I was really young, too young for a six-year-old girl to play with the rough and tumble boisterous boys in our neighborhood, I'd follow fourteen-year-old Chase around just hoping for a small piece of his attention. And without question, he'd give it to me. He'd teach me about the animals on the farm and hold on to his patience even though my constant childish questions probably seemed ridiculous to him.
He never knew how much I grew to love our time together, though.
Before knowing how to write, I'd spend my mornings as I waited for him to come outside using my crayons to draw pictures of the two of us together.
As I got older, I recognized my feelings for him ran deeper than they should've and it hurt. His life got busy with teenage relationship drama whereas mine didn't. I watched him with various teenage girls; always laughing, touching, kissing. A little part of me ached anew with each passing flavor in his life.
"And you love Myles for who he is, exactly?" Kate asks, reaching for additional verification. "Right?"
"Yes."
She looks unconvinced, but offers, "I'm sorry for doubting you, Ry. I just want you to have everything in this life you deserve. You're one of the best people I've ever known and I wouldn't bring Chase up if I thought you and him had a—"
"I know you care, Kate," I confirm, cutting her off before she has a chance to finish. "But what Myles and I have is good."
The truth is, I never stood a chance with Chase. As I started to grow up, Chase and my relationship transformed. Instead of friendly and innocent, it became stretched and awkward.
Once I reached adolescence, he started having less patience for my questions and told me he was too busy to have me following him around all the time. What he said hurt because I wanted to be with him, even if only in the companionable sense. Once I started high school, Chase completely ended whatever relationship we had. It was as if he were there one day, and gone the next.
About that time, though, Myles took an interest in me.
During our junior year of high school Myles's attentiveness had changed. Rather than continue to let all the other girls in our class shamelessly fall over themselves for him as they always had, he started to focus only on me. It took my best friends, Kate and Kendra, to point out the not-so-subtle change in his behavior. I'd been so consumed with maintaining my good grades and getting into a decent college that I hadn't taken the time to notice him at all. To be honest, I think it was my indifference to him that increased his pursuit of me.
His attention started with him coming over to my house, citing he was there to hang out with my dad. That reason was legitimate, so it was one I didn't question. As we grew up next door to each other, our parents were always together. At the time, his father, Marcus, was the pastor of our church and his mother, Mary, was a stay-at-home busybody. She was also my mom's best friend.
When Myles would stop over to visit, he'd always come in my room first. He'd sit on the floor beside me and hang out while our parents talked about whatever plans they had in the making. Every now and then, while watching TV in silence, I'd look over and catch Myles observing me carefully. I could never understand what it was about me that had him so enthralled, but I remember always feeling exposed under his intense examination.
"Hello?" Kate snaps her fingers in front of my face. "Are you listening? I said Chase is here."
Blinking and pulling myself from memory, I look at Kate as she sits across from me, smirking.
She didn't just say what I think she did.
"Wait. What?"
"Chase," she repeats, carefully pointing behind me. "Chase is here."
Immediately my stomach flutters and not in a way it should. My skin heats and my heart beats heavily in my chest. So much so, I feel the reaction at the base of my throat.
Noticing I've lost my ability to speak, Kate adds with sarcasm, "Right. Yes, clearly Myles is the one for you."
In my defense, I tell her, "You don't know what you're talking about."
Leaning toward me, she rests her palms on the table and whispers, "Honey, we just talked about your wedding, an act that has you vowing to one man forever, yet all I had to do was tell you Chase was in the same room and you look like you're ready to faint."
"I'm not."
"Swoon, then." She points at me. "This is you swooning."
"Stop," I hiss. "Enough."
Sitting back in her chair, she purses her lips before promising, "I'll say nothing more."
"Thank you," I breathe. "Where is he?" I hate that I've asked, but regardless, I want to know and don't want to appear obvious by looking around to find him.
Kate attempts to maintain casual as she flips through the screens on her phone while telling me, "He's sitting at a table in front of the bar. His back is to the wall and he's looking right at us."
Shit.
"Goodness," Kate breathes, allowing herself to focus beyond my shoulder. "The man is just sex." Her voice rises when she adds, "There's no other way to describe him. All sex."
Resting my elbows on the table and hiding my face in my hands, I snap, "Keep your voice down."
Sensing my stress, she stretches her arm across the table and gently grasps my hand. At first I think it's a gesture for comfort, but find I'm wrong as she states, "Honey, tell me you don't see yourself under him every time he uses those big hands to wipe the sweat from his brow. Good God, you'd have to be dead inside not to picture yourself with him."
Please, for the love of all that's good, make her stop talking.
"I don't think of him like that."
"Lies." She smiles before taking a drink of her beer. Stating simply, she adds, "My friend, I believe you've picked the wrong brother."
Gasping in shock, I return, "You didn't just say that."
"I did," she replies. "Seriously. Myles is hot, but Chase is hawt."
Feeling the flush in my face, I attempt to distract her with a question. "Do you remember how much Chase hated me when we were growing up?"
"He never hated you. He ignored you, but I don't think you get why he did, Ry."
"You're nuts," I counter.
Seemingly happy with herself, she informs me, "He looks good. He's definitely aging nicely."
"Oh, God," I reply.
"Tal
l. Broody. Tan. Hawt," she observes next.
"I haven't seen him since Myles and I came back," I explain. "And I don't know if anyone's told him we're getting married."
"If he doesn't already know, he's about to find out, because he's on his way over here now."
Crap.
Chapter Two
CHASE
Son of a bitch.
I came to Bears, the only bar around here, to relax; to unwind after hearing our small town's breaking news.
My spoiled, self-centered, sorry-ass, cheating little brother is getting married.
That's not what the piss of this is, though. I could handle him taking a woman and making her his. What I'm having trouble accepting is the one he's chosen to take.
He's marrying her. Ryleigh Davis.
The town darling.
The sweetest girl ever to grace its population and the only woman in this godforsaken place I've ever truly admired and respected.
"Kate." I nod, greeting her best friend first, then walking around the table before turning my gaze to a frozen-in-her-spot-and-avoiding-me-like-hell Ryleigh.
Kate clears her throat. "Hi, Chase." Her focus moves to her best friend, who's still refusing to look at me, and her eyes widen.
I haven't seen Ryleigh in over a year. Right before she and Myles left for college, I had made every effort to avoid her completely.
They'd come home for breaks every so often, and once I had the heads-up they were en route, I'd disappear. Most of the time I'd head to my aunt's farm in Texas and spend time with my cousin, Todd, who's about my age.
I couldn't stick around. There was too much history with Ry and me that I refused to let myself think about.
As a kid, Ry was sweet. She used to follow me around the farm and talk out loud to every animal we fed as if the thing understood every word she was saying. And she did all this without even knowing how ridiculous she looked.