I look back to see my mother standing there with his gun in her hand. “I gave you everything,” she says, walking to him, and he groans, holding his shoulder. “Everything. I stood by you when I caught you with my best friend on our wedding day.” She points the gun at him. “When you chased the staff around. When I had to spend my birthday alone because you were with one of your whores!” she screams, and you see that she is broken. “I did everything for you.” She sobs. “Everything.” I get up now and walk over to my mother who stands over my father, and her hands are shaking. “Everything!” she yells, and I call her name.
“Mom,” I say, and she turns her face to look at me.
“He ruined everything,” she says.
“I know he did, Mom,” I say, “but this is not going to help anyone. Give me the gun. Let him stand there in the courtroom and let everyone know what he did. Just give me the gun,” I tell her, holding out my hand. “Just give me the gun.”
Her hands shake as she holds the gun, and a sob rips through her. “I’m so sorry,” she says, handing me the gun. The front door swings open, and I hear boots running down the hallway.
“Beau!” I hear Jacob scream my name.
“In here,” Savannah says, her own sob coming out of her. “We’re in here.”
The door swings open, and Jacob runs in and sees my father on the floor. “Shit,” he says.
“I shot him,” my mother says. “I shot him.”
It takes an hour for them to take my father out on a stretcher, and my mother is sitting down on the couch, her composure is just like it always is. She sits there with her feet crossed at her ankles and her hands on her knees. “Is she going to be arrested?” I ask Jacob.
“Not unless your father presses charges,” Jacob says. “Right now, he’s not saying anything.”
“How are you doing?” Savannah says, coming over to me and hugging me around the waist.
“I’m doing okay, baby,” I say, kissing her head.
She looks up, and the clouds suddenly start to roll in. “Looks like a storm is coming.”
I look up and see the black clouds start to roll in just as fast as the white clouds chase it away. “Looks like the storm passed us,” I say, kissing her. “And we are still standing.”
Epilogue One
Savannah
One year later
“This is silly,” I say, looking around the room at Olivia and Kallie. “We are already married.”
“But this time,” Kallie says, coming to me, “you got to pick your own wedding dress.”
“Even if we had to have it altered since your baby bump kept growing,” Olivia says, and I put my hand on my lace wedding dress over my little baby bump. We were not trying to get pregnant, but when it was time to renew my pills, Beau told me to maybe not take them, and let’s see what would happen. Well, it took one month, one month of trying or not being careful, and I was carrying our baby.
“She looks like she has a basketball under there,” Kallie says, smiling. A lot has changed in a year. After Mary Ellen shot Clint, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in jail, but after a month, he had a heart attack in his cell. I felt sorry that Beau lost his father, but I didn’t shed a tear for that bastard. When the truth came out, I found out that my own mother had to have two abortions at two different times. She also decided that she wasn’t going to let any man dictate her life, so two months later, she married her landlord. I shake my head, hoping that she lives a happy life. Chase got off with doing five years and hopefully moves far away from us.
“The baby just kicked me.” I laugh. Taking Kallie’s hand, I put it on my stomach so she can feel it. “She likes you.” Kallie just smiles at me, and that, too, has changed quite a bit. This rivalry that we had when she first got to town is now gone. I know that she would do whatever she could for my son, and to me, that means everything.
“I don’t know if I could have done this without you,” I say. My eyes fill with tears, but I am going to blame them on the baby. “You didn’t have to do anything for me.” I put my hand on hers on top of my stomach. “I made you lose eight years of your life. I can never give those years back to you.”
“It was meant to happen this way,” she says. “Besides, who knows if I would have ended up with Jacob had I stayed.” She winks at me, and I roll my eyes. “You never know.”
“You were his missing piece,” I say. “I know it’s silly and all that, but I wanted to know if you would be my maid of honor.” I dab the tears that are running down my face. “It’s fine if you don’t want to.”
“It would be my honor,” she tells me, grabbing me and bringing me in for a hug.
“If you guys continue with the waterworks, there will be no more makeup left, and your pictures will have to be edited,” Olivia says. “God, I can’t wait until you both stop with the hormones.”
“Is it still a secret?” I ask her of her own little bump, and she nods her head.
“We are still waiting for the twelve-week mark.” She puts her hand to her stomach. “So yes, it’s still a secret.”
“Mum’s the word,” I say with a smile. I’m about to say something else when a knock comes on the door, and it’s pushed open by my tall boy.
“Mom, Uncle Beau said if you don’t get out there now …” He smirks just like his father and uncle. “He’s throwing you over his shoulder and dragging you out there.” He laughs, and I look at him. He has grown so much in one year that the suit he had the last time had to be replaced.
“Tell your uncle to hold his horses,” Olivia says as she walks to the door. She walks out with Ethan, no doubt to scold Beau.
“I see she got her country down.” I shake my head.
“It’s like she was born with it,” Kallie says, picking up the flowers. “Now let’s go and get you remarried.”
I grab the small bouquet and walk out to meet my husband. I walk with Ethan who just smiles and high-fives all the guys once he hands me over to Beau, who kisses me right away. “I think that is supposed to be for after,” the officiant says.
“She’s already mine.” He winks at him, then he bends and kisses my stomach, something that he does all the time, which makes him even more special and makes the women swoon even more.
“I can go on.” The officiant smiles at him, and Beau just nods. “Since the two of you are already wed in holy matrimony, I’m going to go straight to the vows,” he says. “I believe that you two have your own vows.”
“We do,” Beau says. “I’ll go first.” Making everyone laugh and just like our first one, the wedding is our closest friends and family. “Savannah, I was sitting down the other day, and I tried to think back to when we were younger to try to pinpoint when I fell in love with you.” When he starts talking, my tears just don’t stop, and I don’t even try to stop them. “My whole life I’ve loved you from afar. I waited for the right moment to tell you how I felt, and I prayed that when I did this, you would feel the same.” He turns to the crowd. “She did.” Making everyone laugh. “Walking hand in hand with you through this life is so much more than I knew it would be. Thank you for making my dreams come true each and every single day by holding my hand and being the best friend and mother to our children.” He grabs my face in his hands now and kisses me. “I love you.”
“Another kiss,” the officiant says, shaking his head. “Savannah.”
“Right,” I say, my hands shaking. “Beau,” I say. “For my whole life, I’ve wanted to fit in.” I look down, not sure if I should have started with that and let everyone know how vulnerable it has made me. “I used to walk with you in town when we were teenagers, and I would make pretend that you were my boyfriend and that we were together. It was everything that I dreamed of and more. You have held my hand and been my protector since I can remember, and every single day, you show me how much you love me and our children by putting us first.” I’m almost sobbing. “My heart is yours, and you were my missing piece. You were my everything. Thank you for taking ou
r house and making it a home.”
He kisses me now, grabbing my face and not letting go, not even when the officiant talks above the cheering that is going on around us. “Mr. and Mrs. Beau Huntington.”
Epilogue Two
Beau
Ten years later
“I have to get going,” I tell Cassandra on my way out of my office. “It’s our anniversary, and I’m sweeping her away to our cottage.” I smile, thinking about having Savannah all to myself for two straight days. There will be no carpool to ballet or soccer practice. No cheerleading, no rodeo. Nothing but me, my wife, and a bed.
“Have a great weekend.” She smiles at me, and I rush home. I smile when I see Ethan’s car in the driveway. He loves coming home for the summer.
I walk up the steps and walk in just in time to hear our daughter, Chelsea, yell at the top of her lungs. “Mom, Ethan has a girlfriend, and she gave him a red mark on his neck!” I close my eyes. Ethan is very much loved by the ladies, and his father and I have both given him the sex talk. I just hope he listens to us.
“Ethan.” I hear Savannah say his name. “What did I tell you about the hickeys?” I walk into the room while he stands in front of her.
He grew to six feet four, and he is all cowboy. He beat Casey’s record at the rodeo not too long ago. “Mom, it’s not my fault if the ladies can’t control themselves around me.” He turns to Chelsea. “You’re not allowed to date until you’re twenty.”
“You were playing tonsil hockey with Emily when you were fifteen.” She points at him. She just turned ten years old, and she has already had five “boyfriends.”
“Hey,” I say, walking to my wife and kissing her on the lips.
“Gross,” Ethan says, giving me a hug. “I’m surprised you guys still have …” He raises his eyebrows.
“All the time,” Chelsea says, looking at us. “You guys need to keep it down a touch.”
I look over at her with my mouth hanging open, but Savannah answers her. “If you don’t like to hear it, you should go to bed when I tell you to.”
“Don’t worry, squirt,” Ethan says, picking her up and tossing her over his shoulder. “I’ll get you some earphones.”
“I’m back!” I hear our eight-year-old son, Toby, shout from the front door. He came into this world as quiet as can be, and he’s even more quiet now, but don’t let that fool you. His happy place is being on the farm with Billy and Casey.
“Take off the muddy clothes in the mud room!” Savannah yells to him. “What time are we leaving?”
“As soon as we drop them off at Jacob’s house,” I say.
“I can take them,” Ethan says. “I promised Dad and Kallie I would drop in and spread my love.”
“Like you spread it with—” Chelsea says, and he blocks her mouth.
I wrap my arms around my wife and kiss her neck. “Do you want to head out?” I ask her as Toby comes into the house and goes to the fridge. “Wash your hands,” I say before his mother does and he groans. “Where is Keith?” I ask of our six-year-old son.
“He’s already at Kallie’s,” she says. “Charlotte came over to drop off pie,” Savannah says when Ethan pops his head into the kitchen.
“Grams brought pie?” He smiles and goes to the fridge. I feel a twinge of sadness when I think of my brother and my mother. They both moved away as soon as my father died. My mother couldn’t stand the town knowing her business. My brother, on the other hand, went to rehab for ninety days, came out a reformed man, and now sells insurance. His wife miscarried the night my father was shot, but they have two kids. We talk occasionally, but it ends there. I look around the kitchen now at my almost twenty-year-old stepson eating pie directly from the plate while his sister argues with him about germs. My wife’s yelling at both of them to knock it off. This is what content feels like, I think to myself, looking around and seeing all the family pictures hanging on the walls throughout the house.
The sound of thunder rips through the house. “A storm is rolling in,” Savannah says, looking outside.
“The storm already arrived,” I say, repeating the sentence we always say.
“And we are still standing,” the kids finish for me.
Two Years Later
“He’s going to be here any second,” I whisper shout to all of the family members waiting around in the living room to surprise Ethan.
Savannah dabs her eyes. “I can’t believe my baby is twenty-one.” I grab her around the shoulders and bring her to me, kissing her temple. “He’s a man.”
“He’s been a man for a long time,” Chelsea says, and I glare at her.
“He’s here,” Jacob says, standing beside me now with Kallie next to him.
The door opens, and I feel the air crackle around me as I watch him walk into the room. His face is streaked with tears, his chest heaving up and down, and a piece of white paper is crumpled in his hand. He speaks before anyone of us can react. “He’s not my father.”
* * *
Find out what happens next with
Emily & Ethan
in
Southern Sunrise
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Books By Natasha Madison
SOUTHERN SERIES
Southern Chance
Southern Comfort
Southern Storm
Southern Sunrise
* * *
This Is
This Is Crazy
This Is Wild
This Is Love
This Is Forever
* * *
Hollywood Royalty
Hollywood Playboy
Hollywood Princess
Hollywood Prince
* * *
Something Series
Something So Right
Something So Perfect
Something So Irresistible
Something So Unscripted
Something So BOX SET
Tempt Series
Tempt The Boss
Tempt The Playboy
Tempt The Hookup
* * *
Heaven & Hell Series
Hell and Back
Pieces of Heaven
Heaven & Hell Box Set
Love Series
Perfect Love Story
Unexpected Love Story
Broken Love Story
* * *
Mixed Up Love
Faux Pas
Acknowledgments
Every single time I keep thinking it’s going to be easy. It takes a village to help and I don’t want to leave anyone out.
My Husband: I love you, I don’t tell you enough. Thank you for letting me sit in bed most of the day writing, and for not busting my chops when I don’t cook. Oh wait you do!
My Kids: Matteo, Michael, and Erica, Thank you for letting me do this. Thank you for being proud of me, I love you honey bunches and oats!
Becca: I don’t even know where to start. Thank you for taking me in and making this series what it is. Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone.
Dani: Thank you for taking me on and not quitting on me when I started to message you twenty times a day! I don’t know what I would do without you.
Jenny: For taking my manuscript and making it perfect! Thank you for always being ready when I send you a PM!
Beta girls: Teressa, Natasha M, Lori, Sandy, Yolanda, Yamina, Sarah, Jan, Mary and Layla. Thank you for holding my hand, telling me when things sucked and for being by my side.
Madison Maniacs: This little group went from two people to so much more and I can’t thank you guys enough. This group is my go to, my safe place. You push me and get excited for me and I can’t wait to watch us grow even bigger!
Julie: You’ve been with me since book one and I trust you with anything and everything. Thank you for loving me and for making my words looks pretty!
BLOGGERS. THANK YOU FOR TAKING A CHANCE ON ME. You g
ive so much of yourself effortlessly and you are the voice that we can’t do this without.
My Squad: Sabrina, Melanie, Lydia, Shelly, Stephanie, Marisa. Your support during this whole ride has been amazing. I can honestly say without a doubt that I have the best Squad of life!!!!
And Lastly and most importantly to YOU the reader, Without you none of this would be real. So thank you for reading!
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