by Emma Quinn
“Two hands, two feet, one well-formed head. Your boy’s doing just fine.”
“A boy?” gasped Peter. He stroked my hair and laughed. “We’re having a boy?”
“I love you,” I whispered to him, meaning every word I said.
“I love you, too, Rachel.”
I wiped at the happy tears welling up in my eyes, cherishing the kiss Peter planted on my lips like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. My place was with him, no matter what anybody else had to say.
Epilogue
David
Nine Months Later
I
n good old Alance fashion, a huge dinner party was thrown in celebration of little Peter Jr.’s birth. It was a lavish affair, one that I was incredibly lucky to be invited to. I was effectively the kid’s uncle at this point, and I was going to be the very best uncle that I could be. I even rented a suit to wear so I could impress the little guy. First impressions were important, after all.
Peter and I, we had an understanding. He was going to take care of her, buy her everything that top dollars could buy because that was what she deserved. We both loved Rachel to death, but she had made her choice. It was so obvious to me how happy Peter made her that the only right thing for me to do was step aside. I wanted what was best for her and her baby. And it wasn’t like I was never going to see her again because Peter managed to whisk her off her feet before I could.
I was genuinely happy for her, though. Rachel deserved the world, and Peter could give it to her. It sometimes hurt to see her with him sometimes, but I was slowly getting over it. Seeing her with a chipper baby in her arms and a man who knew how to treat her right was more than enough for me.
We were all gathered around a massive dining table. I didn’t know what the difference was between a salad fork and a regular fork, but I watched and observed everybody else to copy their actions. I’d already given Peter Jr. his gift –a soft blue knitted blanket that he could wrap himself up in. It wasn’t as fancy as the other gifts the rest of his family gave him, but it was the most practical. At least I wasn’t the idiot who purchased a mini-motorized vehicle for the kid to drive around in. Peter Jr. could barely even lift his head by himself yet, so that flashy toy was likely going to sit in storage until the boy was old enough to sit up straight.
I was sitting directly next to Rachel, mainly because she was the only other person that I knew here. Resting on a chair between us was the baby, sound asleep in the fancy cradle someone had purchased him.
“Thank you, Anastasia,” Rachel giggled. “I definitely think he likes it.”
I looked up to find a tall, slender goddess hovering just behind Rachel and Peter. If I were living in a comic book, my mouth would have dropped straight to the floor. Was she a model? She had to be. With a gorgeous figure and petite face like hers? She reminded me of a delicate porcelain doll, perfect in every single way imaginable. Her long, curling hair looked ridiculously soft, and a part of me desperately wanted to know what it smelled like. When Anastasia noticed me and smiled, I was fairly certain my heart burst then and there.
“You must be David!” she squealed happily, hopping over to shake my hand enthusiastically.
“Uh, hi. Yes, I am David.”
Rachel laughed. “David, this is Anastasia De Clare.”
I swallowed. “You mean like the– Like the–”
“Like the cosmetics company?” the woman teased. “Yeah, exactly. Rachel was telling me all about you?”
I blushed harder than I ever had in my entire life. “R-really?”
Anastasia nodded. “It’s very nice to meet you in person. You seem really sweet, judging by the stories she’s told me.”
“Hopefully nothing too embarrassing.”
“Actually, now that I think about it, she’s only ever told me the embarrassing ones.”
“S-she didn’t. You’re k-kidding, right?”
Anastasia threw her head back and laugh. “Maybe. You’re fun to tease.”
“Oh, I, uh–” She threw a cheeky little wink my way and all of the words fell right out of my head. “How do you two know each other?” I managed to blurt out.
Rachel hummed. “It’s a long story.”
“But the short version,” Anastasia piped up, “is that I’m now one of Rachel’s clients. She’s designing a complete marketing campaign for a new lipstick line my company’s launching come Fall.”
“Anastasia really is my only client at the moment, but I she’s already put me through to several of her friends. I might have a growing roster soon.”
I smiled. Rachel had worked so hard to finally get her graphic design business up and running. It definitely helped that Peter was able to support her financially. He even purchased her a state-of-the-art computer that was powerful enough to run all of her editing programs.
Anastasia continued gleefully, “I’m going to grab another drink from the bar, do you maybe want to join me later?”
It took me exactly five seconds to realize that she was talking to me. “Oh, yeah!” I nearly shouted so loud that I startled the baby awake. I quieted down immediately when Peter Sr. leaned back in his chair and glared at me. “I mean, yeah. That sounds nice.”
“Drinks are going to have to wait,” said Peter as he rose from his chair, picking up his wine glass and a tiny little spoon that I was fairly certain was meant for dessert. Everybody’s attention turned to the new father, a hush falling over the room. “Everyone, your attention please. I would like to propose a toast.” Everybody, including myself, raised our glasses. All of our eyes were on him and his little family. Peter cleared his throat before continuing. “It’s been a long and successful year. Alance Tech’s merger with China has opened up trade avenues we could only dream about years ago. I was blessed with the chance of welcoming my baby boy into this world. And most importantly, I was able to meet the love of my life, Rachel. I know there have been a lot of rumors swirling around in the media, but I wanted to set things straight once and for all.”
Peter placed his glass down on the table and reached into his pocket, pulling out a purple velvet ring box. He opened it, but it was empty. The ring he meant to present was already wrapped around Rachel’s finger. Even after their initial misunderstanding and fallout, Rachel never once took the ring off. It meant too much to her. Nevertheless, Peter got down on one knee and smiled up at Rachel.
“Rachel Ellis, will you marry me? For real, this time?”
Rachel giggled and took Peter’s face in her hands. “Yes, I will,” she laughed before planting a kiss on his lips.
Their happiness was contagious. The room broke out into applause as the happy couple embraced, little one sleeping soundly between them. They’d found their prizes, their reason for being. Nothing else seemed to matter. Even as people congratulated them and gave them good wishes, Rachel and Peter kept their eyes on one another.
THE END
Extract from the book:
Sugar Rush
Emma Quinn
1
Brandon
“ I
don’t understand you at all!” Lara screamed at me across the room, lobbing her shoe so hard that it just about missed my ear. “Why can’t you be excited for me, Brandon? This is great news for me.”
“I was excited!” I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “I said that’s awesome. What more do you want?”
She shot me a scathing look. “Twenty five thousand Instagram followers isn’t ‘awesome’, it’s incredible. It means the world will start taking me far more seriously as an influencer and that will help my modeling career as well. This is fucking incredible news and you’re treating it like it’s nothing.” Her hands flung on to her hips in defiance. “Just because I don’t go to an office every day to work like you, it doesn’t make me less of a person.”
Fucking hell, this was getting frustrating. Over the last few weeks I felt like I couldn’t say anything right to Lara. After nearly two years I felt like she was gett
ing irritated with everything that I did. It was ridiculous.
“You know I don’t feel that way. I have always supported your career, Lara.”
“No, you haven’t.” She pouted out her bottom lip childishly. “Just because you’re God damn thirty six years old, seven years older than me, you think that I’m not as good as you. I’m sick of it, Brandon. I’m sick of wanting more from you. You should be pleased for me, encouraging me, helping me out…”
“I do when I can.” I narrowed my eyes curiously, trying to work out where this one had come from. I’d had a lot of careless accusations tossed my way in our explosive fights, but this was a new one. “I have a business to run as well. BRJ Marketing doesn’t run itself, but when I can help you, I do what I can…”
I didn’t want to remind her that without my business we wouldn’t have this roof over our head, so much as I wanted to dedicate myself to making Lara’s career work, I had to focus on my own thing as well.
“Look, Lara, I don’t want to keep fighting with you,” I told her wearily. “This feels so unnecessary to me. Can we just agree to disagree and move on with our evening? We both have things to do…”
“Wow, that is just crazy.” Lara grabbed her yoga mat and stared angrily at me. She might as well have had steam pouring out of her ears because she was so furious. “You are a ridiculous human being. Because you’re in the wrong, you just want to ‘forget about it’? You can’t even say sorry for being a massive dick head…”
“But I don’t think I did say anything wrong.” It wasn’t the right thing to say, I probably should have just apologized, but instead the need to defend myself over shadowed everything else. “I supported you.”
“If you can’t understand what you have done, then this conversation is over.”
She stalked towards the front door and she slammed it so hard behind her that the walls of the whole building might as well have shook. I hung my head low, a sadness over coming me as I realized that we had yet another night ruined. And not just ruined but utterly destroyed, and really over nothing. Because she was talking about her Instagram account and I didn’t give her the right answer that she wanted. That set her off. Now we were going to be in a pit of rowing all night long. As soon as her yoga class was over and I got back from the bar, we would be back in this fight. Lara didn’t let things go easily and these days she seemed to hold a grudge more than ever. With me anyway. There were a lot of days where I could do no right.
With a deep sigh, I grabbed my keys and I headed outside, glad that at least Gary would cheer me up. That man had been my best friend since we met in business school and he always knew what to say…
“Hey!” I was barely through the bar door before Gary yelled at me top note. “You finally made it. Did the ol’ ball and chain take a while to lift her thumb off your head today? You look all hen pecked…”
“Don’t give me that, Gary,” I declared wearily. “I just need a drink. It hasn’t been the best of days.”
“Uh oh.” He slid the glass of beer my way. “More arguing? What did you do this time?”
I took a giant slug of the amber liquid before I replied. I needed the warmth of the beer and the fizziness that it might give me after a while to get me in the right frame of mind to discuss this. It felt like it was never ending at the moment, that it was one issue after another, and I hated the stress it balled up within me.
“I didn’t congratulate her properly on something to do with her Instagram account, so she went off, yelling that I don’t support her and all this other stuff… I lost track of most of it.”
“Don’t support her?” Gary was incensed on my behalf. “What about all the head shots you’ve paid for? That photographer you sourced for her? All the times that you have driven her to shoots?”
“Yeah, that’s true. I forgot about all of that.” I drank some more. “I have done a lot for her, haven’t I? She makes me forget all of that when she yells at me. She twists me all up in knots.”
Gary clapped me on the back sympathetically and ordered me another much needed drink when I finished the first one. He slid in my way and watched me with sad looking eyes, making me feel even shitter about my situation. How had it gotten so wrong between me and Lara? How could we get it right once more?
“You need to get rid of her, mate,” he finally told me. “She is no good. She treats you like shit.”
I groaned loudly. “You always say that, Gary, but I can’t just break up with her like that.”
“Why? She doesn’t make you happy. Look at you,” he shrieked a little too loudly. “You’re miserable. She treats you like crap, she yells at you all the time, she makes you forget the good things you’ve done…”
I shook my head hard. “You just don’t get it, Gary. You haven’t ever been in a relationship, so you can’t get why I might want to stick around. I love Lara. She’s my girlfriend. We’ve been together for years.”
“That doesn’t make it right.” Gary was stuck in one place; he wasn’t going to shift his mind one bit. “She still doesn’t have the right to speak to you badly. She has stripped the life out of you, Brandon. You aren’t half the man that you used to be. Me and you used to have the best time ever, remember how fun our party days used to be? I’m still loving that life and you can as well. You just need to give yourself a chance…”
The idea of being a single party boy again just didn’t appeal to me at all, but I wasn’t sure that Gary would get it, so I figured the best thing for me to do was ignore his remark. To carry on with what I wanted.
“Look, Gary, all couples fight. It doesn’t mean it needs to be the end of everything. I have a way to make things right anyway…” I smiled to myself as I thought about my plan. “It’s Lara’s thirtieth birthday soon, and I’m going to make it special because I’m going to propose. I think it’s finally time.”
“Oh, fucking hell.” The groan that came from Gary’s chest was utterly ridiculous. He definitely went too far with his displeasure in the idea of me getting married, but I guess that was to be expected from the forever bachelor who wanted to be a player until he was in his old age… and probably even then. “Don’t do that, Brandon. Please tell me that you haven’t brought a ring or anything because this is dumb. You can’t marry her. She is so wrong for you. Hot but crazy, sexy but life ruining, Lara is the sort of woman that you have an intense one night stand with, but you don’t marry her because she will destroy you.”
I slid my chair back and glared at my friend, not taking his comments kindly. “Look, Gary, I know that you think you might have my best interests at heart, but I don’t like you speaking that way about my girlfriend. Just because you don’t like her or the idea of us getting married, I don’t need you to be so cruel.”
“It sounds to me like you’re digging your head in the sand.”
“No, Gary, that isn’t it at all.” I shook my head and stuffed my hands in to my pockets while walking towards the door. “I can’t talk to you about this because you don’t understand. I have to make this work with Lara because she is the only woman that I have ever loved. She’s the only person I’ve cared about. I want her to be my wife. I just need to…” I raked my fingers through my hair in frustration. “I just need to be more careful about what I say, that’s all. I need to stop being so involved in my work that I’m distracted and not the best man I can be for her. If I want her to marry me then I need to be perfect.”
As I span and walked towards the door, I heard Gary calling out comments about me making a whole bunch of mistakes and that I would regret what was to come, but I ignored him. His single life of partying every night might have worked for him, but it wouldn’t ever be for me. I had been there and done that, I was beyond it now. Now, I wanted to be with Lara, I wanted to marry her and make it work, just because we had our issues it didn’t make it wrong. It didn’t mean that we shouldn’t be together.
No, it was fine, we were going to make this work. I was going to be there when Lara got out of her
yoga class and finally apologize for everything that I had done. Really, our issues didn’t stem from the Instagram comment, it came from me not being present enough with her. That, I could work on, that I could change.
2
Jane
“ T
hese donuts are the bomb!” one of the teenagers in her school uniform declared loudly. “I have to get one before school every single day. Luckily, I still have a good metabolism at the moment.”
“Are you going to sue Bluebell Bakery if you end up getting fat?” her friend laughs. “It’s her fault.”
I turn my back on the group of girls and roll my eyes. Like it can be my fault if these girls love my baking. Honestly, it’s their choice to shop here every single morning. I try to make my treats as healthy as possible whilst also keeping them delicious. It just seems like I am doing an incredible job of it.
“Jane Watson.” Just as the girls slide out the front door with their donuts in their hands, my old friend Mrs. Lovely, the teacher from the local elementary school, came to the counter for her usual. “What are you doing to me, young lady? I dream of your cupcakes because they’re so good. I wake up craving them in the morning…”
I let out a laugh as I grabbed the cakes that she pointed out and I put them into a box for her. One of the purple flower shaped boxes that made my bakery stand out from the rest. Everyone knew that as soon as they saw one of those boxes, the products had been purchased from my store. It was all about the little touches.
“Well, I’m glad that you always come to see me, Mrs. Lovely, because I enjoy talking to you.”
She remained in the store for a while, chatting to me about her nextdoor neighbors’ flowers, her niece’s piano lessons, and the newest book that her book club was reading. That was another part of the job that I liked, and another aspect that made me stand out from the competition, the community feel, the personal touch where I got to know my regular customers well. They shared their lives with me, and I liked that.
