The Commitment
The O’Connells
COPYRIGHT © Lorhainne Ekelund, 2020, All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Contact Information: [email protected]
Editor: Talia Leduc
The Commitment
The O’Connells
Lorhainne Eckhart
www.LorhainneEckhart.com
Contents
Keep in touch with Lorhainne
About the O’Connells
About The Commitment
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Please Leave a Review
Next in The O’Connells
The Missing Father, Chapter 1
Other works available
Vanished Chapter 1
About the Author
Links to Lorhainne Eckhart’s Booklist
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About the O’Connells
The O’Connells of Livingston, Montana, are not your typical family. Follow them on their journey to the dark and dangerous side of love in a series of romantic thrillers you won’t want to miss. Raised by a single mother after their father’s mysterious disappearance eighteen years ago, the six grown siblings live in a small town with all kinds of hidden secrets, lies, and deception. Much like the contemporary family romance series focusing on the Friessens, this romantic suspense series follows the lives of the O’Connell family as each of the siblings searches for love.
The O’Connells
The Neighbor
The Third Call
The Secret Husband
The Quiet Day
The Commitment, An O’Connell Novella
The Missing Father
The Hometown Hero
Justice
The Family Secret
The Fallen O’Connell
The Return of the O’Connells
And The She Was Gone
The Stalker
The O’Connells Box Set Collections
The O’Connells Books 1 - 3
The O’Connells Books 4 - 6
About The Commitment
The O’Connells Novella
As far as Marcus O’Connell is concerned, his situation is perfect. He’s now living with the love of his life, Charlotte, and they’re serving as guardians for Eva, a little girl he rescued whose mother is serving time in prison for a crime of which, in Marcus’s mind, she was unfairly convicted.
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But Charlotte isn’t on board with Marcus’s way of thinking. Because her divorce is now final, she wants—no, expects Marcus to want the same things she does. One of those things is a committed relationship, which, to Charlotte, means marriage. For Marcus, though, marriage is only a piece of paper, and it doesn’t have anything to do with commitment.
* * *
However, when circumstances change for Eva, whom they both love deeply, Marcus is forced to make some hard decisions to keep both Eva and Charlotte, and he questions his reasons for not wanting marriage. What will he need to do to keep the child he and Charlotte now consider theirs?
Chapter One
“You know my divorce is now final,” Charlotte said as Marcus tucked his revolver in the gun safe on the top shelf of their small closet, which was packed with clothes. Charlotte’s took up more than three quarters, so his meagre shirts were crammed in at one end.
He turned the dial of the safe and put his duty belt on the dresser, taking in Charlotte, who was in faded blue jeans and one of his old T-shirts, lingering in the doorway with a dishtowel over her shoulder. Her hair was hanging long and loose, and something about the way she was looking at him told him there was more.
“That’s good, isn’t it?” he said as he unbuttoned his uniform shirt and pulled it from his trousers before sitting on the queen-size bed that filled the master bedroom in their small older two-bedroom house, where it seemed as if everything they had was squeezed in. As he pulled off his shirt, he realized she hadn’t responded from where she leaned in the doorway.
There was something about Charlotte. He swore the woman could’ve made a grain sack look sexy, and yet, as he took her in, he could see she had something more on her mind.
“Charlotte…” he finally prompted.
She glanced over her shoulder into the narrow hallway before pulling in a breath and then giving him everything. “Well, of course, considering it took the full ninety days to clear a court even when my lawyer said it shouldn’t take that long.” She was holding up her bare hands now, fiddling with her fingers, as he leaned over and untied his tactical boots.
He slipped them off as he glanced up, waiting for her to finish. “Well,” he said, “it’s done now, so how long it took is kind of a moot point. Why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?”
She seemed to stiffen. The way she touched her ear, it was just one of the little things she did that told him she had something on her mind, something she was holding on to. He stood up and unbuckled his belt, and now she stepped into the bedroom and closed the door after glancing over her shoulder. He knew she was listening for Eva, who would likely be fast asleep, considering how late it was.
“How long have we been together now, Marcus—four months?” She crossed her arms, and all that did was accentuate her remarkable bust.
“About that.”
She nodded, but it seemed he still hadn’t figured out where this was going. “Well, it has been that long, add in a day or two, since we got Eva. We’re a family, we’re settled, and I guess I expected you’d have made things more permanent, considering I’m no longer married to Jimmy Roy. I took back my maiden name. Had to, with the state law and all, which is bringing all sorts of complications, considering all my legal documents and licenses have my married name.”
He pulled in another breath, wishing she’d just say everything she was thinking. He felt as if he were walking a tightrope. “I would say this is permanent,” he said. “We’re living together, looking after Eva. We’re a family…”
She was nodding, and it was then that he realized what she was expecting. “In every way that matters,” she said, “but I kind of expected you to ask me to marry you, to make it official, you and me, Mr. and Mrs. O’Connell. I thought that’s where we were going. I mean, I’ve loved you for so long, I just never figured we wouldn’t already be married by now.”
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Marriage…so she wanted something official, on paper, a ring on her finger. Why was it that he was hesitating?
“Is this what you want, Charlotte?”
There it was, the way she could suddenly turn on a dime: the annoyance, the passion, the emotions that could have her becoming unreasonable. Every part of her seemed to stiffen as if she were getting ready to stand her ground on a topic he wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about.
“Seriously, Marcus? I want you to want it. Now I’m starting to think that maybe I’m the one who’s been misreading things. Of course I want it all, marriage, family, a life with you, but not if you don’t. Just forget I said anything.”
He caught the edge of her temper as she rested her hand on the doorknob, ready to turn it and walk out. He pressed his hand over her head to the door, holding it shut.
“Don’t walk away all pissed and angry,” he said. “I asked a simple question, Charlotte. I’m not a mind reader. It’s been a long day.”
She turned and pressed her back against the door, and she was so close that he was touching her. Having her there, he couldn’t imagine going back to how he’d lived before, single and alone.
“Maybe not, Marcus, but right now you’re making me feel as if this is it, that I shouldn’t want anything more, that living together is all the permanence you need or want. I guess I just feel that…” She shrugged and looked away, pressing her teeth into her lower lip.
“You feel what? Come on, Charlotte. This works only if you share everything. It’s been a long day, I’m tired, and you think I’ve been ignoring you. Of course everything is good, and maybe I just never thought that getting married would make a difference. I love you, you know that, so what would be different if we were married? It’s just a piece of paper…”
“One that would tie us together, Marcus. It would be official. I know everyone thinks and believes that because we’re living together and have Eva, we’re married, but the thing is that it matters. It matters to me, and I know it matters to you, considering that during all the years I stayed married to Jimmy Roy because neither of us was willing to give up the house, you wouldn’t allow yourself to become involved with me. As you said, separated is still married. Don’t bullshit me, Marcus, because I know marriage does mean something to you.”
He pushed away from the door. “Of course it means something. While you were married to him, you and I couldn’t be together, because married is married. Now you’re not, so I guess you are right about that much. It does matter…”
The fact was that Karen was the only one of his siblings who was married. What was it about his siblings, how they were different with each other than with everyone else? Something had bound their family together, yet when their father had walked out on all of them, it had destroyed Marcus’s idea of family and commitment.
He stepped back, brushing the bed, wanting to strip out of his pants and climb into a hot shower and try to forget the pile of paperwork waiting for him at the sheriff’s office. Charlotte was silently waiting for him to make a move, to say something, when all he wanted was for her not to have brought it up.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Charlotte. I love you, and I love Eva and what we have, but at the same time, I’m not sure a piece of paper is going to make a difference for me. Maybe I’ll feel different down the road, but right now…”
She pressed her hand over the flat of his chest, and he could see it in the way she looked at him and forced a smile to her lips. She gave her head a toss. There wasn’t a chance she could hide the hurt that he’d never wanted to put there.
“It’s okay, Marcus. Forget I said anything,” she said. Then she stepped back and pulled open the door.
“That’s the thing, Charlotte. You and I both know you can’t un-say something, and you and I can’t forget it.”
She pressed her hand to the doorframe as she stepped out and glanced back to him. “You’re right, but I guess I have my answer. I’ll heat up the leftover dinner for you. You have to be hungry.”
Instead of waiting for him to say something, she walked away, her footsteps squeaking on the floorboards of the old house. All Marcus could do as he pulled in another breath, wanting to kick his own ass, was realize that instead of resolving anything, their discussion had revealed something about his relationship with Charlotte, which he’d thought was perfect. Now, it simmered with an underlying tension, all because she wanted to get married and he didn’t.
Chapter Two
“So what’s going on with you and Charlotte?” Ryan said as he rested two cases of beer, stout and amber ale, on the already full island in their mom’s kitchen, then pulled open the fridge and shoved them all in.
“What are you talking about?” Marcus said. He lifted his gaze to the window over the sink, which looked out into the backyard, where Charlotte was sitting at the patio table. Eva was perched on her knee, and his mom, Suzanne, and Karen were sitting and talking with her.
“Oh, come on. While you’re in here, making burgers for everyone, alone—and where’s Owen, by the way? He usually has the grill fired up and ready, but his van isn’t outside.”
“No idea. Expected him to be here already. Mom said he had a call, some plumbing emergency, but he should be here soon…” He trailed off as the door opened and both Harold and Jack strode into the kitchen from where they’d also been out back.
“Heard the beer is here,” Harold said. “Suzanne’s put in her order.” He was still in his deputy uniform, whereas Jack was in dark dress pants and a light blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, his dark hair short and neat. Everything about him still had Marcus watching him closely from afar. Although Karen seemed happy, he had his doubts on their so-called marriage and how there could be a happily ever after considering everything that had happened between them.
Ryan handed a stout to Harold and held one out to Jack, who just shook his head. Right. Another thing about the man was that he seemed to sit on the sidelines with water instead of alcohol.
Marcus realized Ryan was still waiting for him to say something as he set one of the amber ales on the counter in front of him. Marcus tossed the last burger patty on a cookie sheet with the other dozen he’d already made and then set the bowl in the sink and washed his hands, taking in the way Ryan glanced out the window to where Charlotte sat with her back to him.
“She’s fine,” Marcus finally said. “Everything’s fine between us. Not sure what you’re getting at.” He wiped his hands, lifted the beer, and took a swallow, watching as Harold and Jack realized they’d obviously walked in on something.
“That’s not what Jenny said,” Ryan replied.
Marcus dragged his gaze over to him. His brother was still in his park uniform. It seemed Marcus was the only one who’d gone home after work and changed into blue jeans and a faded shirt.
“What, exactly, did Jenny say?” he asked. “And where, exactly, are Jenny and Alison tonight, anyway?”
There it was, an exchange between Jack and Ryan. Evidently, Karen’s husband knew something, too. Harold was the only one who hadn’t pulled his gaze from Marcus, and he wasn’t sure what he was thinking or what he knew, considering he was hard to read.
“Jenny and Alison stopped at the store to get burger buns and are picking up dessert, too. They should be here soon,” Ryan said. “You do realize all the girls talk—Karen, Suzanne, Jenny, Charlotte. And Mom knows everything, as she seems to always be there, hearing about us.”
Marcus dragged his gaze over to Ryan and then took in both Harold and Jack.
“They seem to share everything,” Jack said, jumping in. “I learned that from Karen.”
There was something about this that didn’t sit right with Marcus. At the same time, he knew how frosty his relationship had become since Charlotte had brought up the fact that she was waiting for him to slip a ring on her finger.
“Look, her divorce is only just final,” Marcus said. “I don’t understand what it’s about, this n
eed to have it all so formal and so fast. What’s the difference, really, between a piece of paper and how things are now? I’m committed, we’re a family, we live together…”
Ryan seemed to hesitate, and from the expression on Harold’s face and the way Jack didn’t pull his gaze from him, Marcus realized that maybe they weren’t on the same page.
“Excuse me, are we talking…?” Ryan gestured with his beer as he lifted a brow.
“Marriage,” Marcus said. “Charlotte wants to get married, and I’m guessing that’s not what you heard, so I have to wonder what it is that you’re talking about.”
All his brother did was shake his head, and Marcus wondered what wasn’t being said.
“Ah, well, that makes sense, then,” Ryan said, then actually glanced over to Jack, who only shook his head. Again, Marcus wasn’t sure what to make of their expressions. Meanwhile, Harold was taking them all in as if waiting until he’d heard everything to add what he did or didn’t know.
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