by Kennedy Fox
To all our ARC readers: You all never cease to amaze us with your support and love and we just wanted to let you know how much we truly appreciate every single one of you. Thank you for your time and writing an honest review plus all the work you do for indie authors!
To our readers, old and new: THANK YOU for picking up this book, for supporting us, whether or not you liked it, thank you for giving it a chance! We hope you all love Hunter & Lennon as much as we do!
To our families: You’re the real MVPs here who deal with our workaholic personalities and obsessiveness when it comes to writing, working the business side of things, and the never-ending sleepless nights. Thank you for loving us and putting up with writer-wives!
Until next time,
Brooke & Lyra, AKA Kennedy Fox
A Note from the Authors
Hey guys, Brooke here!
* * *
Thank you so much for taking this journey with us and reading Hunter & Lennon’s story! We can’t tell you how excited we were to share this story with you all!
I wanted to give you some insight on what writing this story meant to me. You might hear a lot of authors talk about what inspires them and how therapeutic it is. I can definitely tell you that it was an emotional journey for me—as I hope it was for you too—and how it helped me work through some tough personal issues.
My husband was in a terrible motorcycle accident eight years ago. It rocked my world and my family’s, as you can probably imagine. He barely made it out alive and ended up needing his right leg amputated. To this day, he suffers with chronic phantom pain and has been unable to return to work. We have an eight year old daughter together and even though he can’t be physically active, he’s still very present in our lives, and I’m so grateful for the medical hospital that saved his life.
With that being said, I avoided books with motorcycles for years. I couldn’t bare to think about it in my fictional life when it’s my reality. When Lyra and I talked about this story and the events that would take place, I bravely suggested Brandon should die in a motorcycle accident. I knew it was time; time to stop letting the pain and fear control those feelings. I knew the only way to do that would be to do what I know best—writing. I needed to write those chapters, pour those feelings and anxiety out of me in a fictional world so they would stop burdening me in the real world.
Brandon’s accident happened similar to my husband’s except his life was spared. My husband was hit by a large work truck who didn’t see him, he flew off the bike, and landed in a ditch. He was wearing his helmet, he’s six foot, nine inches tall (a big dude, yes) and the right side of his body took the brunt of the hit. He would’ve bled out to death had a woman who was a nurse didn’t stop and apply pressure to his open neck wound. His leg was bleeding out, his ankle severed on contact, and he was in shock—trying to insist he could get up and walk and was fine. (Shock is a funny thing like that).
I remember the day so vividly because it was like any other day. A Sunday to be exact, in mid July. It was a warm, sunny afternoon. I took our eight month old daughter out to lunch with a friend. I remember I told him I loved him—as we always exchanged—before he left for a joy ride. He wouldn’t be gone for more than a couple hours.
It was less than that when the sheriff found me at a restaurant. He had gone to my house and my father was there who told him where I was. My dad sped the entire way with the sheriff on his heels, making sure he didn’t crash on the way to me. We weren’t married at the time, but we were engaged. We’d been together for 2.5 years at this point. I was twenty-three years old.
The sheriff told me, He’s been in a bad motorcycle accident. I don’t know the extensive details as of yet… I simply asked him if he was alive. He replied, He was alive when they took him flight for life. That’s all I know.
I was terrified. Shocked. My entire body went numb.
The medical hospital was forty-five minutes away. My dad drove me while my aunt watched our daughter. Time stood still. I called his family, not really knowing anything, but I needed to keep busy. I needed them to know in case my next call to them was that he didn’t make it.
They were moments away from rushing him into surgery when I arrived. I saw him for less than five seconds, his body brutally attacked. Again, I was in shock. You never think this will happen to you. You never imagine in your life this will be your reality. My dad told me to tell him I loved him, which I did, but I couldn’t get the words out. As soon as I took a breath, the tears poured out, and I told him I loved him before they took him into surgery.
I wouldn’t find anything out for six hours. By then the waiting room was flooded with family members, they all drove 2+ hours in a panic, not knowing. I didn’t have any news to give them, except that they were trying to re-attach his ankle. His neck had a large gash, they were able to stop the bleeding. One of his lungs collapsed, he broke his right scapula, the C3 & L7 vertebres in his back, and they managed to reattached his ankle, but 24 hours later, there was no blood to the foot and we had to make the decision to amputate to prevent any life-threading infections. He was in a medical coma for ten days. It was the longest we’d not been able to speak to each other. We celebrated the baby steps—a hand squeeze, an eye slowly opening, his stats staying steady. And then we cried during the low points—not being able to wear a prosthetic leg, being diagnosed with diabetes, knowing there’s no cure for phantom pain.
As you can see, this was a time in my life that has molded my future. Two years after, I started reading romance again, which brought me to my love of writing. I needed an outlet, something to avoid reality for a little bit. I had always loved to write, often had journals and notebooks filled, but I never tried writing a book before. I suffered with anxiety and depression due to the aftermath of my husband’s life-changing accident. It continues to affect us today, probably forever. It’s all my daughter knows. Her dad doesn’t walk and she’s understood that from a young age.
Though he was one of the lucky ones and survived, I still grieve. We grieve the life we once had, the one we should’ve had, the one we no longer get to live. Grief happens differently for everyone and Hunter & Lennon are no different in how they grieved Brandon’s death. Finding solace in each other and the waves of sadness that hits them.
So why am I pouring all of this out to you? Because I want to thank you for giving me a safe place to create stories, pour parts of myself into them, and for reading them! Thank you for allowing me to use this book as a therapeutic way to tell parts of our story through a fictional character. I know that things could be worse, I know we could’ve lost him for good, and that my daughter would’ve had to grow up without a dad. I’m so thankful for what we do have and that he’s here today. He’s seriously my biggest fan and strongest support team, understanding the long hours, my face constantly glued to the computer screen, and when I can’t start dinner till seven pm.
For any of our readers who ride motorcycles or have family and friends who do, please be safe out there. Too many drivers don’t see you, (he’s had some close calls even before the accident) and I know firsthand how devastating it can be when there’s news of an accident. There have been so many in my community due to drunk car drivers, reckless driving, and blindspots.
Remember to always tell your loved ones you love them. You never know when it could be the last time.
* * *
Thank you for you reading!
-Brooke
Hey y’all!
* * *
It’s Court/Lyra/Fox. See what I did there?
Thank you so much for downloading this duet and taking a chance on us. We are forever grateful. Your support allows us to do what we love most—write. See, Brooke mentioned leaving a note in the back of the book, and honestly, that’s a hard act to follow. LOL. And I always want to make jokes instead of being completely serious...case study 1.
But with that being said, I’m going to 100% honest and tell you this book almost broke me. We planned to write it
in October of 2018, which was 6 months ago. We pushed hard to get it done, thought we were ahead of schedule for once, and then had two long weeks of intensive and unexpected rewrites. It was hard work, though writing a book is always hard work, but this story was different. It was special. It was personal. Three years ago, Brooke told me we would never write books with motorcycles. So, when she suggested we write this I agreed, knowing she was ready. It was important to her. To us.
After the accident scene was written, I had to write the funeral scene. There are only two books out of the 20+ I’ve written that’s made me personally cry when writing...this one was the second.
Death and grief is a funny thing. We don’t know when either will happen. None of us will live forever, but you never expect to lose someone who means the world to you. It leaves a hole in your heart and there are times when grief hits you so hard you completely lose it. The funeral scene was hard to write because I recently lost someone I cared about very much and the heart doesn’t forget. To this day, it’s still really hard for me to smell fresh flowers because it reminds me of being in the funeral home. It’s brings back too many memories. There are parts of me that have healed but other parts that are still raw. See, this is the point where I want to start making jokes, but I know we’re being all serious so I won’t. The reality is, as writers, we often write what we don’t know, but there are times when we delve deep and write things that are so personal to us the thought knocks us off our axis. We allow ourselves to bleed on the page and let it all out one word at a time.
Baby Mine has nuggets and full chapters of us, of our struggles, worries, and sadness. And we’re not telling you this for pity, it’s so you have a greater understanding of why those scenes are so powerful to read, why they draw such deep emotion. It’s because it’s personal to us and we’re so grateful you’ve allowed us to share that with you. I can never say thank you enough.
* * *
The girl with too many names,
Court/Lyra
Truly Mine Prologue
Subject to change before publication
Mason
“Are you almost ready?” My roommate, Liam stands in the doorway of my bedroom chugging a beer. We’re both dressed in suits ready to go to the wedding reception our friend Hunter invited us to. His brother Hayden is finally getting married to his high school sweetheart Savannah and that’s something to celebrate. Plus, free booze.
I straighten my tie then glance at Liam. “Yeah, gimme two minutes,” I say.
He nods and walks off finishing his beer. I hear the glass clank into the recycling in the kitchen. I sit on the bed and slide on my dress shoes before running my fingers through my short hair. I scrub my hand over my face as I yawn, needing to wake up, though I’m exhausted from a long ass week. Between working for my dad in the District Attorney’s office and training in the testing lab, I have minimal free time, but it will be well worth it when I’m officially a forensic investigator in the fall. The position has basically been promised to me and I’m so damn thrilled that all the years of school and hard work is going to pay off. Investigating crime scenes isn’t an easy job, but knowing that I’ll be able to help give closure to those who lost loved ones is well worth it. Closure can mean everything.
After tucking my wallet into my back pocket, I meet Liam in the living room. He stands from the couch and follows behind me, locking up the apartment. We don’t waste any time and drive across town to a large venue where the reception is held. It’s early evening and the party’s supposed to last all night. Though I’d rather be in my bed, I’ve been looking forward to hanging out with my friends and celebrating all week. Between Hunter getting engaged to Lennon and her sister’s busy work schedules, it’s been too damn long since we’ve gotten together.
“Excited to see Sophie?” Liam teases, and I glare at him. Sophie is Lennon’s older sister. He knows I hate when he gives me shit about her, but loves getting under my skin.
“She still dating that fuckwad?” I ask since they’re always texting each other. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they were secretly dating, but I know he really has a thing for Maddie, Sophie and Lennon’s youngest sister, though he’d never admit it. Most days, he acts as if she doesn’t exist, which drives her insane.
“Yeah. Apparently. We haven’t really talked much lately,” he says, shrugging. “Probably because of Weston. Douchebag,” he mutters.
“And you’re surprised, why? I wouldn’t want my girlfriend talking to you either.” I taunt him with a smirk as I park.
“Just because I’m better looking than you,” he fires back, and I flip him off.
We get out of the truck and walk toward the entrance where the music’s already blaring. As soon as we walk in, I see Hunter across the room smiling. Almost instantly, Liam gets pulled away by a tall blonde and leads her to the bar. The dude is a chick magnet.
Shaking my head, I head over to where everyone is sitting and smile when I meet up with Hunter and Lennon who’s holding Alison, their six-month old baby. Maddie forces a grin but I can tell she’s annoyed, probably because she’s spotted Liam at the bar flirting with Blondie. I hold back a chuckle, knowing it’s all stemmed from jealousy, and settle for a smirk, which causes her to groan. Subtle is one thing she’s not. She’s made it known she likes Liam and he continues to ignore it.
Deciding I need a drink, I grab a beer from the bar then look around, and notice Sophie isn’t here. “So where’s the other third musketeer?” I ask the girls.
Lennon glances down at her phone and shrugs, her smile slightly faltering. It’s not lost on me that she’s supposed to be here right now. Her phone dings moments later and she announces they’re finally here and going to wait in the hallway for her. Lennon hands Alison over to Maddie then Hunter follows her out of the room. Sipping my beer, I narrow in on Maddie, knowing I’ll get the truth from her.
“What’s up with Sophie?” I’m being direct, but I noticed the way Lennon tensed when I asked where she was. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that these Corrigan sisters are bad liars.
“Not sure, honestly. She’s been weird lately. Well...since she moved in with Weston a few months ago, actually.” Maddie puts her attention back on the baby, and I can tell she wants to change the subject. They’re all being weird about this, which gives me a bad feeling.
I grind my teeth, holding back what I really want to say about Weston, not wanting to act jealous. All I’ve ever wanted is for Sophie to be happy, to be in a relationship she deserves. Something I can’t give her regardless of our past. When we met, I was still too damaged and needed more time to heal. Sophie’s a forever girl, and I was a one-night kinda guy. Now she’s taken, and I miss her being around.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen Sophie and she’s avoided me like the plague since getting with that prick six months ago. She seems to only do whatever he wants or at least that’s what I’ve assumed. By how her sisters are acting, it’s pretty much confirmed. Before I can ask any more questions, Liam walks over and joins me, the blonde long gone, which makes Maddie more than happy. Though Liam tries to act like a hard ass most of the time, I notice how his face softens when he sees Maddie holding Allie.
A moment later, my eyes land on Weston as he forcefully drags Sophie into the room. My nostrils flare watching the scene unfold in front of me. The way he jerks her around, infuriates the fuck out of me.
Hunter and Lennon walk back to our table as I keep my eyes on Weston and watch him take Sophie to the bar. The greedy asshole orders two drinks for himself as Sophie shakes her head she doesn’t want anything. That alone is strange because we’ve gone out with the girls dozens of times and she always has a couple. Sophie turns toward us and makes eye contact with me, and I can see straight through her facade. I notice her eye is swollen and she’s tried to cover it with makeup. My jaw ticks at the thought of him hitting her. Hunter glances at me and I stiffen, causing Liam to zero in on Sophie and Weston who are hav
ing a not-so-quiet argument. Her voice is hushed while his is loud, and I can tell she’s embarrassed he’s causing a scene. She lowers her head and it’s obvious she’s trying to avoid attention.
Eventually Sophie comes over to our table, leaving her dickhead boyfriend at the bar. As soon as she’s away from him, Lennon takes the opportunity to capture Sophie and takes Allie and Maddie with her to the ladies’ bathroom, knowing damn well Weston would be ballsy as fuck to follow her there.
“Lennon’s going to get her to open up, don’t worry,” Hunter tells me, but I barely hear him. I’m microfocused on Weston, who’s snarling at me before he chugs a beer. He may not be saying a damn word, but his body language is screaming to test him, and I want to get in his face the way he got in Sophie’s.
Liam crosses his arms over his chest and warns me. “Don’t, Mason. Not the time or place.”
“Did you see Sophie’s face?” I ask, looking between the two of him. “He fucking hit her.”
Hunter frowns with a short nod.
“I’ve heard of way too many domestic cases and can see it all over her. The way he jerked her toward the bar and how she cowered around him makes it more than obvious to me.” Manipulation and controlling leads to abuse or even worse. Something isn’t right. She’s hiding something.” My chest rises and falls, and I try to calm my anger.
Her boyfriend orders another beer then walks over to us. “What are you looking at you pussy ass bitch?” His voice is wrapped in arrogance.
My brows shoot up. The fucking audacity. He’s goddamn lucky we’re in a public place right now.
Liam steps in the way, hovering over Weston like a statue, putting space between us. Considering he’s built like The Hulk and was a bouncer through college, he’s the last person anyone wants to fight.