One Love

by Davenport, Fiona

  One Love

  Fiona Davenport

  Copyright © 2021 by Fiona Davenport

  Cover designed by Elle Christensen

  Edited by Jenny Sims (Editing4Indies)

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  One Love

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Epilogue

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  One Love

  At five years old, Hudson Kendall knew that Grace Carrington was more than just his best friend. Someday, they wouldn’t be playing family and she’d be his wife for real. Thirteen years later, Hudson was ready to make that happen. He’d set things in motion so he could show Grace that they could stand on their own feet without their parents help. But would keeping his plans a secret drive a wedge between them? Or will he be able to convince his one love that it’s finally time to say their vows?

  Prologue

  Hudson

  5 years old

  “Honey! I’m home!” I shouted as I ran into the playroom.

  My best friend, Gracie—oops, I meant wife—stopped doing dishes in the little kitchen and ran over to me with a big smile. “Welcome home!” she shouted. She gave me a big bear hug and a kiss on the lips, making me grin.

  I loved my Gracie. She’d been my bestest friend since we were babies, and we’d be friends forever. She even let me call her Gracie when no one else was allowed.

  Someday, after we’d grown up, we’d get married and do this for real.

  We’d be just like my mom and dad. Get married, kiss allllll the time, and bring home lots of babies. Gracie said she loves babies, and I just want my Gracie to smile all the time.

  * * *

  8 years old

  “Okay kids,” Jonah, Gracie’s dad, said. “Time for bed. Upstairs, girls on the right, boys on the left.”

  I stopped playing my video game and glanced down at Gracie, curled up next to me reading. She always had her nose in a book, and I loved to tease her about it. She’d stick her tongue out at me and haughtily inform me that she’d kill me in a book someday.

  “Nah,” I’d reply. “You’ll have forgiven me by then.”

  She usually smiled, bumped my shoulder with hers, and agreed.

  Her eyes drifted up to mine. She had some kind of weird Spidey sense that told her when I was looking at her. It was strange but kinda cool.

  “Your dad said we have to go to bed.”

  We were at a large cabin in upstate New York. My parents, Gracie’s parents, my aunt and uncle, and our other “honorary” aunt and uncle had all purchased the place together. It was big enough for all the adults and kids to get together.

  I couldn’t remember a summer when we hadn’t spent a week up here. I looked forward to it all year because it meant spending all my time with Gracie without one of us being forced to go home at the end of the day.

  “Okay,” she sighed, putting a sparkly yellow bookmark between the pages of her book.

  “I still don’t get why you don’t use an e-reader.”

  Gracie scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “Where’s the fun in that? I like turning pages.”

  Shrugging, I leaned forward to tuck my game in my backpack before standing up. “Still don’t get it.”

  “You’re such a boy,” she sighed.

  “You’re such a girl,” I shot back.

  Rolling her eyes, she marched over to the stairs and headed up to the attic. After grabbing my bag, I followed after her. The top floor of the cabin spanned the entirety of the house as one big room. It held twenty or so twin size mattresses, set up in rows with makeshift “aisles” between.

  “Yo, Hudson,” Teagan called out from the other side of the room. I considered him to be one of my “cousins.” We weren’t all related, but we might as well have been. Except Gracie...for some reason, she never seemed like a cousin to me. He waved at me to join him over in the back corner with my brother Everett and a couple of other boy cousins near our age. My eyes strayed to the other side of the aisle, landing on Gracie, who sat on a bed talking to London...yet another “cousin.” Except London was a girl.

  The corners of Gracie’s mouth tipped up, and I knew her Spidey sense felt my eyes on her again. I wanted to hang out with her, but she looked busy, and Teagan shouted my name once more.

  Our parents always sent us to bed at night, but we were allowed to stay awake as long as we were upstairs and quiet in case anyone wanted to sleep. I played a board game with the boys for a while, but my gaze strayed to Gracie from time to time. She went to sleep around an hour before we finished, so we didn’t say good night to each other. It bothered me.

  I sighed as I settled under the covers of my bed and wished I’d chosen one closer to my Gracie. Eventually, I fell asleep, but I woke up in the middle of the night when a warm hand slid into mine. My head turned to the side, and I blinked sleepily until I saw Gracie in the bed next to me. She’d scooted in close enough to be able to take my hand.

  “I had a bad dream,” she whispered.

  I squeezed her warm hand. “I’ll keep you safe, Gracie,” I promised solemnly. And I meant it.

  We always took beds next to each other after that, and either no one snitched, so our parents never found out, or they simply didn’t bother trying to separate us anymore. Not that it would have mattered if they had. No one could keep me from protecting my Gracie.

  * * *

  12 years old

  “Mom, this sucks. I want to go home,” I grumped as I flopped onto a lounger on the beach.

  She sighed and glanced at my dad, who narrowed his eyes at me in warning. His glare said “Don’t upset your mother or else.” I knew better than to ignore it, so I turned my eyes back to the clear ocean water and brooded in silence.

  “We talked about this, Hudson. Your mother and I bought this house because we wanted to enjoy it as a family.”

  I didn’t have a clue why my mom and dad wanted a vacation house in the south of France. But Grace had been all dreamy over the idea, and I would have been more than happy to come here if she’d come along.

  “It’s not like Grace is there,” he said with a knowing smile. “Jonah and his family are in Greece for his sister’s wedding.”

  As if I hadn’t known that. Gracie had asked me to come, but my parents had already booked our family vacation when Mallory announced the date of her wedding.

  And since my mom wanted a “family” vacation, there was no talking my dad into allowing me to skip it. We’d been at the beach house for four days, and I’d hated every second of it. Except for the few times Gracie and I had been able to catch each other on the phone.

  “Hudson! Come throw the Frisbee with me!” My eight-year-old brother, Archer, waved at me from the edge of the water. I looked around and saw that our eldest brother—two years older than me—Everett, was nowhere to be found. Probably off trying to impress some girl.

  He’d promised to play with Archer, and I didn’t want him to be disappointed, so I climbed off the lounger and removed my shirt and sandals. Then I jogged out to where my youngest sibling was dancing around in the waves excitedly.

  After dinner that night, I grabbed my e-reader, moseyed out back, and plopped into the large hammock swinging in the breeze. Gracie hadn’t picked up when I called, so I did the next best thing. I opene
d up the book she was currently reading and dived into the same world, kinda like that song about being under the same moon.

  The first time Gracie and I had been forced to spend a vacation away from each other, she’d finally convinced me to try one of her books, insisting that we could meet in our imaginations. She had great taste because I found myself hooked after one book. I only read them to be close to her and so we could have fun talking about them, but I somehow always ended up really enjoying them.

  “Spoiler alert. His brother isn’t dead. He’s with the DOD.”

  I jumped at the unexpected voice, capsizing the hammock so it dumped me out on the wooden planks below it. “Ouch! Fuck!”

  “Ooooh, if your mom heard your mouth…”

  I didn’t believe the voice talking to me was real at first. Then I got my bearings and looked up to see Gracie standing over me with a big, shit-eating grin and laughing blue eyes.

  “Hi!” she said as she gave a little wave and bounced on her toes.

  I scrambled to my feet and returned her huge grin. “What are you doing here?”

  “The wedding only went until yesterday, so my mom and dad made plans with yours for me to surprise you! I’m going to spend the rest of the vacation with you!”

  I didn’t know what to say. I’d been feeling a lot of weird emotions and stuff around Gracie lately. Definitely happy, but the other stuff was new and...super strange.

  “That’s awesome!” I pulled her in for a hug, and a strange warmth spread through my body. See? Weird.

  Then her first words hit me. “What the hell, Gracie! I haven’t read that part yet.”

  She laughed and shrugged, completely unrepentant. “Hurry it up. I want to read about them falling in love, and you’re soooooo slow…”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head with a disappointed frown. “You’re such a girl.”

  Gracie rolled her eyes. “You’re such a boy.”

  We stood there for a minute, just smiling at each other...until it became a little awkward. I wondered if she’d been experiencing any of the same feelings as me but was too chicken to ask.

  “Want to read some more?” I finally asked, gesturing to the twisted hammock.

  “Sure.” She ran inside while I righted the bed of thick ropes and settled myself in it just as she ran back out, e-reader in hand. She handed me the device, then pulled a hair band from her wrist and put her long, auburn curls into a...I thought she called it a messy bun.

  Once that task was accomplished, she carefully climbed in and laid back with her head at the opposite end of mine. Our sizes were so vastly different that her head was at my shin, while her feet rested beside my shoulder.

  Even at twelve, it was clear that I’d grow up to look like my dad—tall with a big frame, dark hair, and gray eyes. Whereas Gracie looked like her mom—short, like a little pixie, with pretty blue eyes. Her size just made me want to protect her even more.

  Gracie held out her hand, and I placed her reader in it. Then we both scooted around until we were comfortable and started to read.

  I didn’t have a clue when we fell asleep, but apparently, my parents had decided not to wake us. Gracie looked peaceful as she slept, so I grabbed her foot and tickled it, startling her hard enough that she flailed and we both ended up on the ground. We laughed hysterically, not bothering to get up. And when we were done, we stayed sprawled out on the deck and I reached out to grasp her hand.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Gracie.”

  “I know,” she sassed. “Life is no fun without me.”

  Life isn’t worth living without you.

  * * *

  14 years old

  “Get the fuck away from her,” I snarled as I approached Gracie’s locker.

  Justin, a varsity football player and all-around asshole, turned his head to glare at me even as he pressed his body closer to Gracie. “Get lost, dickhead.” He had her pinned against the locker with his arms on either side of her head.

  “Are you hard of hearing as well as brainless?” I asked as I reached them. I’d never been one to stereotype people, but Justin was a prime example of the term “dumb jock.” The dude could bulldoze through a line of defensemen on the field without breaking a sweat, but he couldn’t answer a math question unless it equaled “this many.” “Move your arms before I break them.”

  Gracie shifted uncomfortably and glanced at me with pleading blue eyes. Her dad had made sure all his girls knew how to defend themselves, but Justin was at least double her size.

  Fortunately, I’d had a growth spurt during the first semester of freshman year and had developed a pretty ripped physique from boxing and weight training. If Justin had any sense, he’d realize he didn’t stand a chance against me.

  Instead, the idiot laughed. “Go back to the computer lab, nerd. I’m gonna lick this sexy little cupcake.”

  I’d grown up knowing my worth. When people, particularly high school kids, took shots at me, I couldn’t have cared less. But if someone disrespected Gracie, all bets were off.

  “Don’t,” she whispered. “You’ll get suspended.”

  “Don’t care,” I growled.

  When Justin was crying on the floor, whining about his bruised face, and a teacher had me by the arm, dragging me to the principal's office, I glanced back and muttered, “Worth it.”

  Gracie sat on a chair in the hallway, and as I exited the office, she stood. “You didn’t have to punch him, Hudson. You and I both know you could have just broken his hold.”

  I shrugged and grabbed her bag to sling it over my shoulder with my own. “Now the word will get out not to mess with you. Or they’ll answer to me.”

  Gracie giggled. “I doubt anyone expected the computer genius to lay out a football player.”

  “Age of the geek, baby,” I snickered.

  I expected her to laugh, but Gracie didn’t say anything else as we walked back to the lockers. Once we reached mine, I set our bags down and lifted her chin so I could see her blue eyes. “What’s on your mind, Gracie?”

  Her eyes dropped to my chest, then away and she cleared her throat. “Um, it’s just that with you defending me and all, and um...if you accidentally call me things like ‘baby,’ and...and, um, carry my bag and stuff…”

  I almost smiled, but I knew this conversation had been hard for my girl to initiate. Gracie could be a spitfire when she was riled up, but she was mostly shy.

  It probably started that summer when we were twelve, but through the next couple of years, I began to see Gracie in a different light. I started to notice things like her body filling out into a curvy figure that starred in a lot of my dreams. Her face thinned, making her beautiful blue eyes stand out with their fringe of reddish eyelashes. And at some point, every time I saw her lips, I wondered how it would feel to kiss them.

  There were times when I suspected she had similar thoughts about me but was too shy to bring it up.

  However, we were both trying to navigate the early teen years, the changes in our bodies and figuring out who we were. So, I set those feelings aside for the day when I truly understood them and continued to be her best friend.

  Now we’d reached freshman year of high school, and I’d straightened everything out in my mind, body, and heart. I sensed Gracie was ready too. Waiting any longer just seemed stupid. Although I wouldn’t rush her, I had no qualms about making sure everyone knew who she belonged to.

  “First, it wasn’t an accident. Second, what are you trying to say?” I prompted.

  “Well, it’s just that...um, people might think we’re together.” Her face turned crimson, and I couldn’t hold back the smile. She was just so damn adorable.

  “Good.” I nodded for emphasis.

  “Like dating together, not just best friends together,” she murmured as she shuffled nervously from foot to foot.

  I gripped her chin firmly, guiding her eyes back to my face. “And?”

  Her features screwed up as she gave me a cute little
glare. “You’re such a boy!”

  I bent my head low so our mouths were only a breath away. “You’re such a girl,” I said silkily before whispering a kiss over her lips. It wasn’t much, but I didn’t want our first kiss to be in the hallway of our school with students everywhere around us.

  “Why can’t you just give me a straight answer?”

  I pretended to think for a moment, then dipped my head to the side as I responded. “Okay. How about this? I want everyone to know we’re dating because I want them to know you’re mine.”

  Her expression softened, though she still sounded snippy when she spoke. “You can’t just...just decide I’m yours.” Her tone didn’t hide the breathless quality. “We haven’t even gone on a real date.”

  I smirked as I straightened back up. “You’re absolutely right, baby. And I’m going to remedy that Friday night.”

  This time, when her face flushed, her eyes sparkled and her mouth tipped up at one corner. And still, she sassed me. “You can’t just decide I’m yours, Hudson.”

  The warning bell for the next period rang, and I turned her around, placing my hands on her shoulders. I leaned in and whispered, “Yes, I can. You’ve always been mine. And you know it.” Then I smacked her round little ass and gave her a gentle push. She wandered for a minute, glancing back at me, her eyes filled with a little shock and a whole lot of hope.

  I smiled and said loudly, “See you after class, baby.”

  The blush that stole over her cheeks tempted me to drag her to the nearest dark corner and finally find out what she tasted like.