by Mia Madison
Only His
First Loves Duet, Book 1
Mia Madison
Only His
First Loves, A Duet (Book 1 of 2)
Copyright © 2020 by Mia Madison.
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.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
About the Author
Chapter 1
It sounded crazy, but I started falling for David the very first time I met him.
It happened during our annual Christmas party when I was only fourteen. We’d only been living in Bellwood since that summer and the few guests who showed up at the party were evidence that my parents hadn’t fared much better than I had at making new friends. Most of the attendees were family members—the main reason for our move in the first place.
Being the only teenager at the party meant I was nearly bored to tears and looking for any and every excuse to disappear up to my bedroom for the night. The excuse of not feeling well was on the tip of my tongue when the doorbell rang.
“Who’s that?” Mom asked as she glanced around. “Everyone’s already here.”
Dad rushed to the door as he called, “That must be David from work! I wasn’t sure if he was going to make it.”
He opened the front door and it was like being struck by lightning. To this day, I swore I heard harps playing as little cupids flew around David’s head, their little arrows pointed directly at me.
David was tall with short brown hair that was perfectly mussed. His jaw and killer cheekbones were covered with a few days’ worth of stubble and the smile on his lips was warm and charming. When his penetrating blue eyes landed on me, my breath caught in my throat. He looked like he should have been on the cover of a magazine or starring in a movie—not working at a construction company and palling around with my dad in his free time.
As if going through puberty wasn’t an awkward enough time. Might as well throw in a crush on my dad’s only friend in town.
In my defense, David was a decade younger than my dad. The age gap between them was still less than the fifteen years that separated us, but that kind of logic wasn’t welcome in my adolescent mind upon seeing him.
And, boy, I saw him a lot.
David was right at home with my entire family. He not only became a regular visitor at our house but also at my Uncle Mike’s. One evening just before school let out for summer vacation, my parents went out of town and forced me to stay with my grandmother. I got off the bus only to find David mowing the lawn—his soaking wet t-shirt hanging over one shoulder.
That was a memory I’d cherish for the rest of my life. Not the blushing and stammering that happened when he tried to greet me—no, that was horribly embarrassing—but the glorious sight of him was forever embedded in my memory. I wasn’t even ashamed to admit that I watched him for the next hour from between the cracks of the blinds of the bathroom.
My obsession with him didn’t stop there.
As my high school years went on and David grew closer to our family, something changed. Significantly.
I was terrified my body had stopped growing when I was fourteen, so words couldn’t explain how grateful I was when I realized I needed a bigger cup size. As the years progressed and my body changed and filled in, the boys at school started to notice me and my confidence soared.
Eventually, I started running to ‘keep in shape.’ I jogged around my block for weeks, waiting until I was absolutely certain I could make it down David’s street without looking like an exhausted wreck.
Soon, I was jogging past his house as often as possible. I knew his schedule well enough to know when the best opportunities were to catch him, but the friendly waves and occasional chit-chat by his mailbox weren’t enough for me. I applied for a part-time job when I was sixteen, and with my paychecks, I bought more running clothes.
Skimpy running clothes. Tiny shorts and the tightest tops I could find. When it was hot, and my parents weren’t around to see me leaving the house, I’d pull out the crop-tops to show even more skin. Without fully realizing what I was doing, I became a glorified tease.
But it worked. At least partially.
David’s eyes would linger just a tad bit longer on my body before he managed to meet my eyes and give me a friendly smile. On his visits to the house, I’d catch him subtly looking my way while he listened to whatever my dad was rambling on about. I fell harder for him every time we spoke, and I could practically feel him warming up to me in a way that had to be more than just lust. Everything was progressing perfectly.
Until, suddenly, it wasn’t.
Not long before my high school graduation, my parents dragged me to dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town. When we arrived, I was stunned to find everyone from my father’s work gathered in the largest dining area. As far as I knew, there hadn’t been a company dinner thrown in years.
Within ten minutes, I realized it wasn’t a company dinner. It was a going away party.
For David.
I went numb the instant I heard the news, and it continued long after David’s house was empty. He left with little fanfare—that dinner being the only event to mark his departure—and moved to Uniontown, which was over two hours away. It was practically impossible for me to see him anymore.
While I was devastated by the loss, I still continued to run. My heart broke a little more every time I passed his vacant house, until the day I saw a moving truck parked outside. I stopped in the street and watched the new family moving in their furniture, the reality finally sinking in.
David was gone, and he wasn’t coming back. It felt like I lost a vital part of me.
Numbness gave way to depression for a while. I tried to silence my thoughts by focusing on school and my part-time job. My parents were pleased with my grades and the work ethic I developed, though I doubted they would have approved as much if they knew the reason for my newfound focus. It wasn’t until the time to apply to colleges came around that I poked my head up for air and tried to make a real plan for my future.
Aside from becoming a mother, the only other thing I wanted to do with my life was to help people, even in the smallest kind of way. After giving my options a lot of thought, I decided to look into getting a degree for nursing at one of the local colleges. Thankfully, the ones close by all offered terrific nursing programs.
That was when my new, terrible idea started.
I knew for sure that I didn’t want to stay in a dorm, so I either had to continue living with my parents for the time being or get an apartment near campus. While discussing the options, my dad was tickled at the amount of money I’d saved up over the past year and a half.
“At this rate, if you stay with us while you finish school and keep on working, you’ll have a nice down payment to put on a house when you’re done! Or at least enough to cover rent for a long while if you want an apartment.”
And he wasn’t wrong. Within an hour of his comment, I was on my laptop, browsing through the houses listed for sale or rent in Uniontown. David wasn’t coming bac
k to Bellwood, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t go to him. I had to at least try. I didn’t mind sacrificing my social life by living with my parents. I had bigger concerns.
At the same time, there was a tiny part of me that hoped I’d meet a nice guy in college and forget all about David. I met plenty of guys—and got plenty of invitations for dates—but no one ever clicked for me.
Which was ultimately how I ended up standing in my new yard, staring at the house next door with a ridiculous smile on my face.
It was fate. I applied for a job at the hospital in David’s town as soon as I finished my degree and nailed the interview. Then, as I was researching the daunting prospect of trying to get a mortgage since I wasn’t fond of any of the apartment options, the house next door to David went up for rent.
It had to be fate. There was no other explanation. Everything was just too perfect to be a coincidence.
He wasn’t home when I visited the house the first time, nor was he home the day I moved in, but I knew it was his house. I snuck a peek at Dad’s address book just to double-check.
The plan was simple. Move into the house next door to David and continue right where I left off—only amp up the flirting now that I was officially an adult and my parents were no longer in the vicinity. I wasn’t exactly experienced when it came to men, but I didn’t doubt that I could do it. I could seduce him. I was sure of it.
I heard the roar of a truck pulling in next door and began to panic. The only things I had unpacked were some of my clothes and makeup. The rest of the time I spent getting dressed and waiting for him to get home from work.
I peeked through the window in my new living room, smiling like an idiot as I watched David sliding out of the truck. The sun hadn’t quite set yet, so his sunglasses were still on, but I caught him glancing over at the house, obviously wondering about his new neighbor. He hesitated for a moment on his porch before unlocking the door and disappearing inside.
I wondered if he would come over to welcome me to the neighborhood. Even with the distance between our houses, I could somehow sense that he was contemplating it.
I shuffled around on my feet nervously while I debated it. In the end, I knew it would probably be best to go to him, just in case I was wrong. The last thing I wanted was to wait until it got dark and go over there like a creeper. No, it was better just to do it now.
As soon as the knot in my stomach untwists, I swear.
I dug out a box of kitchen supplies my mom packed for me and poured myself a glass of water, taking a few minutes to calm down. Once I felt certain that I wasn’t going to make a total ass out of myself, I steeled my nerves and grabbed my house keys.
The walk from my yard to his was short. I couldn’t stop myself from wondering how he’d react when he opened the door and saw me for the first time since he moved. Sure, David had come back to visit my dad a few times, but he was long gone by the time I got home from school or work. During the moments where I indulged my paranoia, I wondered if he was purposely avoiding me. I refused to dwell on those thoughts.
“Got to be positive,” I whispered as I reached up to ring the doorbell.
I straightened my skirt and smoothed my hair down, mentally preparing myself to continue right where I left off, just as I intended. I bit my lip as the door opened.
David stared at me with a look of pure shock as I smiled sweetly and said, “Well, hello, neighbor.”
Let the seduction begin.
Chapter 2
I was all about making an impression—hence the short skirt and tight top I chose to wear—but making David freeze with what appeared to be dread was not what I was shooting for. Not at all.
My smile faltered as I forced myself to ask, “You’re not happy to see me?”
Either my expression or the way my voice wavered seemed to shake him out of his stupor. Literally. He shook his head as he scratched the back of his neck, chuckling softly like he didn’t fully believe I was standing on his doorstep.
“Of course, I am.” He cleared his throat before finally smiling at me, though it looked more bewildered than happy. “I’m just surprised. What are you doing here, Emily?”
There was a hint of accusation in his voice. It was enough to make my words falter.
“I… Well, I live here now,” I said, waving my hand toward the house next door. “Well, I live there. I was looking at houses in the area and it went up for rent, so…”
I trailed off, ignoring his confused frown while he processed my explanation. In the meantime, I couldn’t help but scan him up and down with my eyes. He looked… good. Better than good, actually. His hair had grown out a little, curling around the ears. I itched to run my fingers through it. There were a few extra lines around his eyes, but they only increased his charm. It also appeared that he had bulked up more. He’d always been fit, but with a leaner build than he was currently sporting. He must have hit the gym pretty hard over the past few years.
Damn him. How could a man look even better at thirty-six than he did at twenty-nine? It wasn’t fair to the rest of the universe. Not that I intended to complain—especially if I managed to seduce him.
“You’re my new neighbor.”
“Yep,” I confirmed with a nod, grasping my hands together behind my back while I rocked back and forth on my heels. When he made no move to invite me in, I felt my good mood begin to deflate. With a sad smile, I started to back away. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it. I just… wanted to say hi.”
“Emily, wait.” I turned back just in time to see him take a step back and open the door wider. “You hungry? I just ordered pizza.”
“Starving. It turns out that moving is just as exhausting as it looks.”
That got a smile from him and an outstretched hand that was as good as any verbal invitation. I stepped inside, watching his frame from the corner of my eye as I purposely brushed against him on my way past. His posture stiffened, but I couldn’t tell whether it was from discomfort or something else.
He offered me a drink while we waited for the pizza to arrive. I took a seat and accepted the lemonade with a polite smile, frowning just a tad when he opted to lean against the counter with his arms folded across his chest instead of sitting at the table with me.
“Your parents must be upset that you moved all the way out here.”
The words were spoken carefully, but I wasn’t naïve enough to not sense the meaning behind them. He was fishing.
“Maybe a little, but I needed a change. Overall, they’re very happy for me.”
“How’d you end up here? In Uniontown, I mean.”
There it was. The question I knew was inevitable, but never really figured out a great answer for. I was hoping that I’d have more time to come up with something, but I could wing it.
“Well, I went to college for nursing and I got a job at the hospital here.” I stood up and started idly moved around his kitchen, taking in every little detail I could. “I wanted to stay close enough for my parents to be able to visit, so I applied at a bunch that were within driving distance.”
“And this hospital was the only one that would hire you?”
“No, I had other offers. The pay was pretty much the same at all of them, but the hospital here offered me the most paid vacation time.”
A pang of guilt gnawed at my stomach as soon as the words left my mouth. Okay, so I did technically apply at a few other hospitals for my parent’s sake since they started breathing down the back of my neck as soon as I graduated. But when it came time for those interviews, I’d leave the house and mysteriously get lost on the way there and end up catching a movie or hanging out at the food court in the mall for a few hours.
Whoops.
The accidents kept happening until the interview for the hospital close to David, and I was beyond relieved when they offered me the job since I really didn’t have a back-up plan. Dad was excited about the possibility of visiting his old friend whenever they came to see me and Mom was thankful that I’d know at
least one person in my new town.
David nodded in understanding as I continued to peruse his kitchen. While I was doing my best to feign disinterest, I had an ulterior motive.
I needed to check for evidence of a woman. I didn’t think David had a girlfriend, but I also wasn’t sure how often he spoke to my dad anymore—or if that would even be information they’d discuss. I also couldn’t be certain that the news would trickle down to me even if my dad did know.
From my very limited time in his house so far, it appeared to be just him living here. I kept my guard up just in case. By the time I turned back around to face him, David was staring at me through slightly hooded eyes. I froze to the spot, gulping when his eyes traveled back up to my face.
“You look different.”
“It’s been a while since you saw me.”
“I know. It’s been, what—two years? Three?”
“Four,” I corrected, turning away to avoid the suspicious look he gave me. “The last time I saw you was the day before you moved out.”
“Right,” he drawled, a frown forming once again. “God, I can’t believe it’s been four years. Doesn’t feel like it.”
David looked up to the ceiling, deep in thought, and I struggled to figure out a way to pull him back from whatever memories had taken hold. I wasn’t sure why I expected our meeting to be less awkward and more flirtatious, but the situation felt impossible for me to navigate. How was I supposed to turn this weird encounter into something totally different? And why in the hell did I expect this to be easy?
I felt foolish for being so naive. The feeling lasted long after the pizza arrived and we ate in a not-quite-comfortable silence. The only saving grace to the evening was the fact that every now and then, I’d glance up to catch David’s eyes glued to me intently.
