by Jessie Evans
But I stay awake, watching her sleep, too high to close my eyes. I’m high on escape, and on anticipation for our life ahead. But most of all, I’m high on the love I feel for this woman I am lucky enough to call mine. No matter what the future holds, or how many lies we’ll have to tell to protect ourselves from the past, I know one thing will always be true—loving Caitlin is the greatest rush I’ll ever know.
Epilogue
Seven summers later
Caitlin
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
We arrive at the summer cottage the same time we do every year, just after the spring chill has faded from the air, but the sea is still too cold to swim in, while the village of Porec is still relatively tourist free, and the only bustle on the streets is from the fisherman heading out to sea in the early morning light.
I always get up early the first few days of the trip to sit on the porch with a cup of tea and watch the ships drift out toward the horizon, savoring the moments of peace before the chaos of the day begins. It’s something I’ve done since that first summer, when we came here fresh from that miserable year that is a dim memory now, but this is the first time Danny has joined me in my early morning ritual.
My brother, like most twenty-year-olds, isn’t big on getting up before sunrise.
“You’re sure you’re going to be okay?” he asks, tucking his sandy blond hair behind his ears. It’s long enough to tie back, but still tangled from sleep at five-thirty in the morning. “You don’t need me to stay a little longer?”
I smile. “I’m fine. Gabe already has Emmie enrolled in dance lessons three days a week, and Ray has his job at the bookstore to keep him busy. We’ll just have to find a way to keep Sean entertained until his friends from school come down in a few weeks, but everything else is under control.”
Danny’s eyes drop pointedly to my swollen belly. “But what about You Know Who?” he asks, our nickname for the unborn baby.
Gabe and I decided we didn’t want to know the sex until our son or daughter was born, which resulted in my brothers coming up with all kinds of nicknames for the baby including Critter, Loin Fruit Number One, and Creature from the Womb Lagoon. Needless to say, I’m glad “You Know Who” is the name that stuck.
“The baby is fine. We’re both doing great, and Gabe is hovering enough for three fathers,” I say. “Go have a great summer with Sam.”
“Did I hear my name?” Gabe steps out onto the porch, coffee in hand. He’s wearing striped pajama pants, and a battered gray tee shirt, with his hair sticking up in ten different directions, and sleep puffing the edges of his bright blue eyes, but he still takes my breath away.
The man keeps getting better looking—or I keep falling deeper in love with him, one or the other. Either way, just looking at him is still enough to make me feel lit up from the inside out.
“Caitlin said you were cramping her pregnant lady style,” Danny says, grinning that wicked grin I would say he inherited from Gabe if they were related by blood.
“I did not.” I shift over on the porch swing to make room for my husband. He sits, and I swing my legs into his lap, knowing I’ll get a foot rub as soon as he finishes his coffee. “I said you were very…attentive.”
Gabe lifts a skeptical brow. “Well, the baby will be born soon, and then I can hover around her crib, instead. Give you your space.”
I shake my head, lips curving. “You know I don’t want my space.” I lean in for a kiss and Danny groans.
“Could you please give it a rest, you two?” he asks. “Some of us haven’t seen our girlfriends in a year. It’s not fair to rub your love in everyone’s face.”
“Don’t be jealous,” Gabe mumbles against my lips as he kisses me again. “She has terrible morning breath.”
I pull back with a laugh and slap his arm, careful not to spill my tea. “I do not, you rat. I brushed my teeth before I came outside.”
Gabe grins as he sets his coffee on the table beside the swing, brings his coffee-cup-warmed hands to my puffy ankles, and begins to rub. “Just trying to ease Danny’s pain, draga.” Out of all of us, Gabe has assimilated to our new country the best. We all speak Croatian now, but Gabe is the only one who uses Croatian pet names.
We probably could have gone back to the states several years ago—Gabe’s parents never did turn over that tape, and no charges were filed against me—but we liked our new home even more than we thought we would. It felt good to start over in a place with history, and a weight to it neither of us had ever felt in South Carolina. We all ditched our fake personas a few months into our adventure—a relief for everyone, especially the kids, who had a hard time getting used to their new names—and Gabe and I applied for citizenship. We have decided to stay in Croatia indefinitely, though Emmie and the boys are still citizens of the United States.
“So have you gotten hold of Sam?” Gabe asks, his nimble fingers working their magic on my aching feet. I never dreamed being eight months pregnant would be so hard on my ankles, but they hurt even worse than the small of my back.
Danny shakes his head, and the smile fades from his face. “No. But I’m sure she’s just busy with finals and other college girl stuff.”
“I’m sure she’ll call soon,” I say, hoping I’m right.
Miraculously, Danny and Sam have stayed together for seven years, maintaining their relationship long distance during the school year, and meeting up on Maui every summer, when Sam goes to visit her mother, and Danny goes to stay with Sherry and Bjorn. Their relationship has lasted longer than a lot of adult marriages. It would be sad to see them break up now, when Sam is halfway through college, and Danny is making enough money as a videographer and extreme sports tour guide to set them up with a nice little nest egg by the time Sam graduates.
Danny shrugs. “Yeah. I’m sure she will.” But he doesn’t sound sure, and I can tell his light, teasing mood is gone for the day. “I’ll go finish packing, then. If you’re sure you don’t need me hanging around.”
“We’ll get by, even though we’ll miss you,” I say, smiling at this tall, muscular man my little brother has somehow become. “Wake Emmie up when you go in, okay? She wants to come with you and Gabe to the airport to say goodbye, and you know it takes an hour for her to get her butt out of bed.”
Danny laughs. “She’s such a slug. I never got to sleep late in the summer when I was eleven. You had me up making breakfast for everyone by seven every day.”
“Poor thing,” I say with mock pity. “But look what a good man you grew up to be, in spite of your summers filled with pain and suffering.”
“Right, right,” Danny says, chuckling as he disappears into the house.
Gabe and I are quiet for a long time after, sitting in companionable silence as the air grows lighter and the ocean sparkles in the first rays of sunlight creeping over the mountains. We watch the water until the fishermen’s boats are specks on the horizon and the only movement is the gentle roll of the waves toward shore.
“What are you thinking?” Gabe finally asks, hands still busy on my grateful feet.
“I don’t know. I’m a little sad, I guess, knowing Danny isn’t coming back from Maui this time. It feels like his life with us is really over.”
“It’s not over,” Gabe says. “He knows he’ll always have a home here.”
I nod, fighting a wave of emotion, refusing to cry before eight o’clock in the morning, no matter how many pregnancy hormones are coursing through my body. “I know. And he’s a pain in my ass. I should be glad he’s finally leaving the nest, right?”
Gabe presses a kiss to my forehead. “I love your good heart.”
“I love your good fingers,” I say, wiggling my toes. “Do I still get foot rubs after You Know Who is born?”
“Of course.” He leans in for another kiss. “I mean, I plan on getting you knocked up again as soon as possible, so…”
“No way.” I smile so hard our te
eth bump together through our lips. “I want at least two years between babies. No Irish twins for this Irish girl.”
“All right,” he says, nipping at my bottom lip. “As long as you promise I’ll get lots of practice time in the bedroom. I don’t want to forget how to make babies while we’re waiting for number two.”
I sigh into his mouth, my skin tingling at the thought. “Sounds like a plan.”
We kiss for a long, sweet moment and pull away with twin hums of contentment, and just like that, I’m not worried about Danny leaving any more. My brother will be okay. He has a family who loves him, and even if things with Sam don’t work out, he’ll always have us. He’ll always have a home with me, Gabe, Ray, Sean, Emmie, and You Know Who. A home full of laughter and love, where it’s okay to make mistakes, and color outside the lines.
Speaking of…
“So how did the job go last night?” I ask Gabe, licking his coffee taste from my lips.
“Perfect,” he says. “In and out in ten minutes and, thanks to a virus unleashed on his computer, Mr. Anic will have a much more difficult time stealing tourists’ credit card information this season.”
I smile, but I can’t help feeling a little jealous. “I want to be busy. I don’t like sitting on the sidelines.”
“You’ve been helping set up a daycare, taking Emmie to a million lessons, and cooking a baby. You’ve hardly been sitting on the sidelines.”
I scrunch my nose and shrug. “Yeah, but you know what I mean.” Gabe and I are more selective about our targets, and more cautious than we used to be, but tipping the scales of justice back in favor of the underdog is still one of our favorite hobbies.
Gabe squeezes my foot. “It won’t be much longer now. And just think how much babysitting Sean is going to owe us in exchange for letting his obnoxious friends stay here for an entire month.”
I laugh. “All sixteen year olds are obnoxious. They can’t help it. But you’re right. He’s going to have to pay for our pain and suffering. And babysitting will be good for him. I think helping take care of Emmie when she was little made Danny and Ray more empathetic people.”
“And less inclined to accidentally get a girl pregnant,” Gabe says, making me laugh.
“True,” I say. “Changing a few, poop-up-the-back diapers will do that.”
Gabe’s brows lift. “Is that a real thing?”
I grin, launching into an in-depth description of the time I had to cut Emmie’s onesie off of her body to keep from getting the poo that had squirted up to her neck into her hair, laughing as Gabe plays up trying not to gag.
I laugh so loud, I wake the baby, who gives me a strong kick.
“Ow,” I say, still laughing as I smooth my tee-shirt over my belly, glancing down in time to see something small, adorable, and bony ripple the skin of my stomach.
“There’s the little alien.” Gabe lays his hand on my stomach, an awed expression crossing his face as You Know Who rewards him with another kick. “That…never gets old.”
I reach up, patting his scruffy cheek. “Neither do you.” And then he kisses me, and it is better than our first kiss, or our hundredth, or our thousandth, because every day we spend together proves that some things just keep getting better. Like wine, and cheese, and a love like the one I was lucky enough to find one hot Carolina summer.
The End
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Keep reading for a sneak peek at the first chapter of THIS SWEET ESCAPE, Wild Rush Book Three, Danny and Sam’s story.
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More sexy, contemporary romances by Jessie Evans:
Always a Bridesmaid Series
BETTING ON YOU (Always a Bridesmaid Book One)
KEEPING YOU (Always a Bridesmaid Book Two)
WILD FOR YOU (Always a Bridesmaid Book Three)
CATCHING YOU (Always a Bridesmaid Four-Short Story)
TAKING YOU (Always a Bridesmaid Five-Novella/Short Novel)
Fire and Icing Series
MELT WITH YOU (Fire and Icing Book One)
HOT FOR YOU (Fire and Icing Book Two)
SWEET TO YOU (Fire and Icing Book Three)
PERFECT FOR YOU (Fire and Icing Book Four-Short Story)
SAVING YOU (Fire and Icing Book Five-Novella/Short Novel)
Cupid Island Novellas (Short Novels)
AUDITIONING YOU (Cupid Island Two)
A Cupid Island Christmas Anthology by Jessie Evans, Lila Ashe, and Ruby Laska
DARING YOU (Cupid Island Weddings)
Edgy, New Adult Reads
ONE WILD NIGHT-Wild Rush prequel
THIS WICKED RUSH-Wild Rush Book One
ONE PERFECT LOVE- Wild Rush Book Two- June 9, 2014
THIS SWEET ESCAPE-Wild Rush Book Three (Danny and Sam’s story)-October 2014
About the Author
Jessie Evans gave up a career as an international woman of mystery to write contemporary Southern romances and sexy, boundary-pushing New Adult reads. She enjoys sweet, small town romances, and fictional walks on the wild side, and can't imagine a better job than playing pretend for a living.
She's married to the man of her dreams, and together they're raising a few children in a cabin in the boonies. She grew up in rural Arkansas, spending summers running wild, being chewed by chiggers, and now appreciates her home in a chigger-free part of the world even more.
When she's not writing, Jessie enjoys playing her dulcimer (badly), sewing the worlds ugliest quilts to give to her friends, going for bike rides with her house full of boys, and wandering the woods, glass of wine and camera in hand, on the lookout for Bigfoot.
A southern girl, born and bred, Jessie loves writing romances with sizzle, and hopes you'll enjoy her stories set in the South.
Please enjoy this excerpt of THIS SWEET ESCAPE, out October 28th, 2014.
This Sweet Escape
A Wild Rush Novel
Can you run far enough, fast enough, to escape a broken heart?
Samantha
For years, I’ve hidden my shameful secret behind my “good girl” image. Perfect grades, perfect smile, perfectly fractured family, with a stepdad who loves me, and a stepmom who buys me designer clothes—even a perfect boyfriend. I’m the only one who knows that Danny’s life has been anything but picture perfect. He’s always trusted me with his truth; I only want to escape mine. But now I know that’s impossible, and I have to get out before it’s too late. Reality has let me down for the last time. From here on out, I’m making my own reality, and taking Danny with me.
Danny
Since we were kids, I’ve known Sam and I were meant to be. Her smile is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and her laughter is a mystery I want to spend the rest of my life solving. No one believed we would last for the long haul, but I never doubted it. Not until the summer after we both turn twenty, when Sam meets me at the airport with two duffel bags, and says it’s time for a great adventure. As we hop a plane to New Zealand, I want to believe we’re just getting an early start on the world travel we’ve been planning, but deep down, I know something’s wrong. Sam is running from something bad, and the bad things always catch up with you, sooner or later.
And when they do, they have a habit of tearing people who love each other apart.
**THIS SWEET ESCAPE is a standalone novel featuring secondary characters from THIS WICKED RUSH and ONE PERFECT LOVE. It can be read before or after books one and two in the series**
THIS SWEET ESCAPE is a sexy, boundary-pushing New Adult read about shedding your skin and learning that sometimes the only way out is back down the roads that led you into darkness. This book contains heavy subject matter and is appropriate for readers over the age of eighteen.
Prologue
Seven Year Earlier…
&nb
sp; Danny
“And both were young, and one was beautiful.”
-Lord Byron
It’s raining on the approach to Maui, and the captain warns us to keep our seatbelts fastened and all our belongings safely stowed. It’s only my third time on an airplane, and as we lurch toward the runway, the plane stuttering up and down like an EKG monitor, I’m certain I’m going to die.
I’m going to die, and I’ll never get to tell Sam that I love her.
That I will always love her, for the rest of my life.
I’m only thirteen years old, and no one believes I’m really in love, but I’m not some dumb little kid. I’ve been helping my big sister raise my younger brothers and baby niece since I was nine. I was making breakfast for my family when most kids were still getting their pancakes cut up by their mom or dad, and giving Caitlin grocery money from my odd jobs around the neighborhood, while my friends at school bitched about not having enough allowance to buy video games.
I know what it feels like to shoulder big responsibility, but until Sam, I never wanted any of it. I helped out and pitched in, but deep down, all I wanted was to grow up, get out, and never have lives depending on me—even a little bit—ever again.
And then I met Sam.
Sam, with her wild, curly brown hair, a living thing that follows her head around like a crazy pet. Sam, with her sharp blue eyes that make my stomach flip every time she looks at me. Sam, who rocks a skateboard like it’s her job, never cries when she shreds her skin on a fall, and didn’t make fun of me a single time when she was teaching me how to surf, even when I wiped out for the ten thousandth time.
Sam, who let me kiss her for the first time right before we left for my dad’s funeral.