Beyond Words: The Hutton Family Book 1
Page 18
Weeks turned into months and my grief passed. Missing Mom still felt like missing a limb. Like a basic part of me was gone, though sometimes I swore I could still feel her with me.
Lucas bought a house. An unassuming three bedroom near the water—not too far from The Hut. There was never any question as to whether or not I would move in. We just packed up our things and life entered a new phase, the two of us together, and stronger because of it. Eli and Caleb eventually went home, because for them, home wasn’t that far away. They were still close enough to help out if they were needed, though between Lucas, Wyatt, and Rebecca they mostly had things sorted out. Wyatt carried more stress now than he did when I first arrived and Lucas said it was one last ‘gift’ from their father—an accounting error that went back for years. Harlow still had her room on the third floor, and no one really knew how long she intended to stay.
Rebecca and I worked together to understand everything we had learned about holistic healing during the time my mom spent at the resort. There were a million hotels stretched out along the Keys, but not many of them focused on the health and wellbeing of their customers. Together, we dreamed of a place people could come to stay and put their lives back together. A place of peace. Of health. Of joy.
Today had been a long day of training for me. One of the things that had brought my mom the most comfort was Reiki massage. I was determined to learn the intricacies so I could bring my clients that kind of relief—an homage to my mother. As I was washing my hands and gathering my things, my phone pinged with an incoming message and I was surprised to see Skywalker’s old email address. We hadn’t used those emails since we had learned the truth about each other.
* * *
from: Skywalker
to: Katydid
date: March 14, 2019 at 5:39 pm
subject: Miss me?
I’ve been reading all of our old emails, remembering how shocked I was to find your journal, almost as if you were left as a gift to me. It’s easy to see how I fell in love with you, KatyCat, and as I was reading through your words, I realized how quickly and how deeply you had fallen for me.
Maybe I chose not to act because I was blinded by the beauty of a charismatic redhead.
Maybe I chose not to act because if I did, I would have to choose between the two of you and how could I do that?
The person you keep hidden, the one you only showed me through our emails, she is so beautiful. You dad spoke of how your mom saw the magic in each day and I see that in you. You find something special in everything—maybe that’s why you look at me like I’m some kind of miracle. You see something no one else has. Whatever the reason, I’m thankful for it. I’m addicted to the way you look at me. I crave it. Your love fills me up and spurs me on to become a better man.
With you, I feel whole again. There is no disconnect between what I think and what I say. I don’t feel the need to censor myself, nor do I feel the need to fill the silence with idle chatter. I know you understand and appreciate both sides of me and there is such freedom in finally being myself.
Anyway, I’m rambling on.
By the way, you look so beautiful right now, I don’t know why I’m bothering to write an email when I could just walk over and touch you…
* * *
When I looked up, I saw my Lucas, standing on the back porch of The Hut, leaning against the rail. He smiled as our eyes met and a surge of happiness warmed my soul. That man, he was everything. I could sum up my life in two distinct segments: pre-Lucas and post-Lucas.
Before him, no matter how perfectly everything went, no matter how hard I tried to find the beauty in a given day, I was always aware I was missing something. Even if I couldn’t name it, even if I wasn’t fully able to understand the feeling, that still-small voice never stopped whispering to me…
Find him.
And now that I had, now that I woke each morning to his warm body stretched out next to mine, that quiet urging was gone. I was content. Maybe for the first time, ever.
I made my way across the sand to him, a question on my face. “What are you doing here?” I asked as I took the steps.
“I needed to see you and I couldn’t wait for you to drive home.” His gaze raked over my face, my body, and I swear, he saw straight through to my soul. “I am so in love with you.”
“Well, now.” I stepped closer, eager to be in his arms. “Doesn’t that make me the luckiest woman in the world?”
Lucas regarded me as if I were the only thing on the planet worthy of his awareness. It was the look he gave me the first time I saw him, sitting behind the desk in the office. That first day, it unnerved me. It didn’t anymore. I basked in the glow of his undivided attention.
Before I knew what was happening, Lucas lowered himself to one knee, holding out a small, black box with a dramatic diamond glittering in the setting sun. “I’m hoping you’ll make me the luckiest man in the world. Will you marry me? Be my KatyCat for the rest of our years?”
In that moment, peace washed through me and I had the strongest sense of my mom—I inhaled deeply, imagining her scent traveling to me over the breeze. Tears pricked my eyes and I swallowed hard. “Oh, Lucas,” I said, dropping down next to him. “I’m already yours for as long as the earth spins on its axis.”
The backdoor swung open and Wyatt poked his head outside. “That means yes, right?”
I nodded, laughing, and Lucas helped me to my feet, then slipped the ring on my finger as the rest of the family filtered out, wrapping me in hugs and thumping Lucas on the back. He looked at me, a question in his eye.
“It’s a yes,” I murmured, and that still-small voice whispered forever.
Epilogue
Wyatt
Wow, Lucas and Cat! Who saw that coming? Answer—all of us.
Watching the way they came together reminded me of that feeling in your gut right before a hurricane makes landfall—you could deny it, you could protest it, you could get angry about it, but the one thing you couldn’t do, was anything to stop it.
And good for them!
So what that they managed to stumble into that rare, once-in-a-lifetime-if-you're-lucky kind of love that most would kill for. That was no reason not to be happy for them, even if it meant I had to force a smile every time that happiness was all up in my face and I couldn’t get away from it.
Which, considering one of them was an employee and the other was family, happened just about every day. So yeah, I had been pretty much screwed ever since they got together.
In my experience, ideas like love and relationships were highly overrated. In order to keep the hope of a magical happily ever after alive, no one ever thought about the negative side of love, especially not at the beginning when everything was new and beautiful. But for anything to be good, there must also be bad. How could there be yin without yang? How could one appreciate the light, if they had never seen the dark?
I witnessed that dark side firsthand—one more gift from my father. By the end, everything Burke Hutton touched turned dark. The only reason our family survived at all was because he died before he finished tearing us apart.
And even in that, shadows of him remained.
The most notable shadow of all?
Her.
Kara Lockhart. She had been a plague on my life, my heart, and my morality for years.
And after all we had been through...
…just when I thought I would never have to see her again…
…she came back.
* * *
Thank you so much for reading Beyond Words!
I am DYING for you to read Wyatt’s story—Beyond Love. Because I’m impatient, I’ve made sure you can get a taste before the book even hits the shelves!
Tap here to get your free first look at Wyatt Hutton and Kara Lockhart!
(If you’re reading this in paperback form, shoot me an email at abby@abbybrooksfiction.com for a link to the sneak peek.)
Looking for more information? Head over to my website! (There’s a picture of The Hut waiting for you in The Hutton Family Extras!)
www.abbybrooksfiction.com
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Turn the page for an excerpt from Wounded, A Brookside Romance Book 1!
Wounded Sneak Peek
Chapter One
BAILEY
The security guards stationed outside his room smile and stand as I come near. I know they do it out of politeness, but it unnerves me every time. I want to throw up my hands and remind them I’m just me.
Gary, a tall man with one hell of a potbelly, holds up a hand. “Why don’t you hold off a beat?”
Just as I open my mouth to ask why, a loud crash sounds from inside the room.
“Damn it, Brent! I am not going back to LA. End of story!” Liam’s words come blaring out into the hallway, with the hushed response of Brent—his manager— low, oily, and too quiet to understand, following quickly after.
I give Gary a weary nod and then smile at Josh, a much younger and thinner version of his partner. “Has he been like this all day?” I ask.
Josh lets out a low whistle. “This is an improvement.”
Great. Liam is a challenge when he’s on good behavior. When he’s in a mood? It’s just bad all around. “Wish me luck,” I say as I prepare myself to enter the lion’s den.
“I’ll cross my fingers for you.” Josh smiles a little too widely, the space between his teeth glaring at me like a jack o’lantern carved by a five-year-old.
“And where the fuck is that nurse? I hit the call button an hour ago!”
I cringe. “There's my cue,” I whisper, squaring my shoulders and adding steel to my spine before entering the room.
Liam is up and out of bed, the alarm on his IV pump beeping away. “Took you long enough.” He glares at me and folds his arms over his chest. “You need to make this machine stop beeping. Now.” I can tell by the way his hospital gown flutters at his waist that it’s open in the back. Good god. Does the guy have any modesty?
I roll my eyes and bite my tongue as I hit the alarm mute button. A quick investigation shows me that the cord has been pulled out of the wall. “These things have a really short battery life.” I bend to plug the thing back in. “You shouldn’t pull the cord out of the wall or the alarm will go off like this,” I say, twisting to look him in the face and give him my best don’t mess with me or I’ll cut you look.
Liam sets his jaw and scowls, looking unfortunately sexy despite his shitty attitude. “Yeah, well, I can’t sit still anymore because I’m losing my mind in here. That thing’s going to have to figure out how to hold its charge longer.”
Right. Because that’s even a possibility.
I hold my tongue and study Liam. His auburn hair is bleached blond and somehow, even in the hospital, is swept back away from his face and gelled to perfection. Both ears are pierced and he has enough tattoos to make me wonder what exactly he’s trying to prove. The bandage covering half his face does very little to take away from his looks, and even I can admit he’s gorgeous.
Well, that is, until he opens his mouth and ruins everything.
Keeping it professional, I put on my blandest smile and stare up at him. “Since I’m here, I’ll go ahead and check your bandage. Please have a seat, Mr. McGuire. I’ll get the things I need and be right back.”
He glowers down at me. “I’d prefer to stand.”
I stifle a growl. He’s such a petulant child. If this is how they treat people out in Los Angeles, I’m more than happy with my simple life here in Ohio.
“And I’d prefer not to have to climb up on a chair to do my job.”
He glowers down at me, determined to get his way.
This guy has no idea what he’s getting into. I put my hands on my hips and shift my weight back to my heels, lifting my chin to stare him straight in his face. There’s no way in hell I’m standing on a stool to change his bandage. If he wants to see which one of us has the widest stubborn streak, I am more than ready to dig in my heels until he backs down.
Brent, the manager from hell, saunters toward us, his hands outstretched as if to avert the war he sees brewing on the horizon. “Come on, Liam. Do you really want to have to wait for this girl—”
“Woman.” I glare at Brent.
“Whatever.” He waves a manicured hand at me. “Do you really want to wait for her to find a stool?”
“Nope,” I say. “I will most definitely not be finding a stool. You’ll take a seat so I can do my job and go check on my other patients.”
Liam and Brent’s jaws drop in unison and I turn on my heel to leave the room. As soon as I’m out of sight, I pause and blow a puff of air out from between my lips.
“He is such a pain in the ass,” I say to Gary and Josh.
Josh gives me a thumbs up, a cheesy grin lighting up his face. “You’re doing amazing.”
The guy means well, but his awkwardness just adds fuel to the fire of frustration in my belly. I return his thumbs up, looking decidedly less enthusiastic than he did, and head off in search of the supplies I need. When I come back into Liam’s room, Brent is still talking a mile a minute.
“When that bitch comes back—” He looks my way as I walk in, a greasy smile sliding across his face as if he wasn’t just talking about me.
I raise my eyebrows to let him know I heard, but bite my bottom lip to keep in the response that’s stomping its way up my throat. They can think whatever they want to think about me as long as I never have to see them again once they check out of the hospital tomorrow.
“Shut up, Brent,” says Liam, and for the first time since he was admitted here, I feel like thanking him.
Liam meets my eyes, and, taking extreme care to exaggerate his movements, he grabs his IV stand, turns, and crosses the room to sit in an armchair, stretching the power cord to its limit.
Yes, his hospital gown is open in the back.
No, he’s not wearing anything under it.
I am more than certain he thought he’d embarrass me by giving me a view of his admittedly magnificent backside, but he’s going to have to try harder than that if he wants to unsettle me. I’m a nurse, for heaven’s sake. I see people’s butts all the time. If he’s looking for a flustered girl with red cheeks, he’s looking at the wrong woman.
“Thank you,” I say as I come to stand at his side.
Liam stays silent as I pull on a pair of gloves. I pick at the edges of the tape around the gauze and he turns to look at me.
“Eyes front, please.” I don’t meet his gaze. The last thing I want to do is give him another reason to complain about something.
He flops back in his chair, ripping the bandage from his face with the movement. The thing dangles from my hand and I stare at it in surprise. So much for being gentle.
“See?” he says, flaring his hands and glaring at Brent. “She won’t even look at me. Can you think of any other time a female has been this close to me and not lost her fucking head trying to get my attention?”
Being rude back won’t get us anywhere, but he’s got one more chance to be an ass before I won’t be able to keep my mouth shut anymore. I’m strong, but I’m not that strong.
Brent waves a hand in my direction. “She is obviously not in your target demographic.” His gaze sweeps over me, assessing and dismissing in one smooth movement. “She’s too old and not nearly trendy enough to matter. If I were you, I would take it as a good sign that she’s not trying to engage. This is not the kind of girl you’re looking for.”
I dab antibiotic ointment on his wound, biting the inside of my lip so hard I taste blood. “I’m right here,” I mutter.
Liam shakes his head and pulls away from me. “Holy shit
, Brent. Do you ever shut the fuck up?”
I lean in with my ointment and Liam waves me away. “They’re all going to act this way.” His dark eyes flash as he gestures towards me. “You and I both know that my brand is all about sex. The body. The face. No one cares what I sing as long as I look good doing it.” He rests his ankle on his knee and looks me full in the face. “Be honest. You can barely stand to look at me. You’re not going to like my music as much now that I look like this.”
“All I want to do is change your bandage so I can check on my other patients. As your manager suggested, I’m not in your target demographic.” I almost tell him I never liked his music in the first place, but I swallow the words. Two wrongs don’t make a right and just because he’s an ass doesn’t give me a reason to be awful in return.
“What the hell happened to you?” Liam stares me right in the face and laughs. “It looks like you swallowed something nasty. Face all screwed up. Nostrils flaring. Not your prettiest look, sweetheart.”
So much for being professional.
“First of all,” I say, my words carefully carved from ice and stone. “I didn’t swallow something nasty, thank you very much. I just get a little sick to my stomach being around you. Second of all, I can barely stand to look at you because you’re an asshole. And third of all, I never liked your music. You can rest assured that’s not going to change now.” I put a finger on his dropped jaw and turn his head towards the wall. “Now, if you’d just keep your face pointed that way, I can get you bandaged up and get out of here.”
Liam does not look at the wall like I just asked him to. He brings his gaze right back to me and there’s a flash of emotion on his face that I recognize. It’s only there for a moment, one tiny little millisecond of feeling, and then it’s gone. Whisked away with a sniff of his nose and a shake of his head. But it doesn’t matter. I saw it and I recognized it for what it was.