“Billie, baby, turn around,” I told her.
“But… the box…” she began before turning around and gasping. She dropped the cup of coffee she was holding on the floor and caramel colored liquid flowed across the dull, gray street.
I cleared my throat. This was my big moment. “Billie, ever since you came into my life, you’ve been a force to be reckoned with. Like a hurricane, you came without warning and caused chaos in my world, but this time, it was for the better. Knowing you has made me want to become a better person, to see the world as a brighter place, and enjoy my time instead of drown myself in work. Wilhemina Nichols, will you make me the happiest man on the planet and become my wife?”
I would never forget the look on Billie’s face. Simultaneously, she looked like she wanted to leap for joy and sob her heart out. Tears framed her beautiful chocolate eyes and her cheeks pinkened from excitement. When she realized it was her time to answer, she rushed toward me and wrapped her arms tight around my shoulders.
“Oh, Quentin… Yes! Of course, it’s yes!” she practically screamed in excitement before bursting into giggly laughter.
As soon as she drew back from our embrace, I kissed her with all the love I had inside me and held her close to me, listening to the beat of her heart and the soft sound of her breath. She was everything I’d ever wanted and now, finally, I had made her mine.
When we pulled apart, I took hold of her left hand and grinned at her as I slid the expensive solitaire diamond ring into place on her finger. It fit perfectly and looked gorgeous just as I knew it would. We both stared at it for a long time before our eyes met once more, tears stinging in both of them.
“You… You surprised me,” Billie stated with a tearful smile. “I… I had no idea you were planning something like this. I mean, a few months ago you said you wanted to marry me, but… Aren’t you worried it’s too soon?”
Nervously, she bit down on her bottom lip and I could see the fear in her eyes. It wasn’t unwarranted, sadly. When Billie and I had finally made our relationship official, we’d told everyone in our lives - including everyone at work. Most people were happy, including my parents, Peter, and all of Billie’s friends. Tracy had even baked us a cake with the word ‘FINALLY’ iced on top in big, bold letters. But there was one person who hadn’t managed to get onboard yet.
Billie’s mom.
I could understand her hesitation, but I knew that what Billie and I had was real. It wasn’t some fling and I was never going to abandon her. With time, I knew Billie’s mom would come around, but a lifetime of being told horror stories about dating your boss had done a number on Billie. She needed my reassurance now more than ever and I was more than happy to give it to her.
“Darling,” I began as I stepped forward and took her hands in mine. “I want you forever and ever. Time is relative in this world and everyone moves at their own pace. It isn’t too soon as long as you feel ready and happy to go through with it. So, tell me, how do you feel about being engaged to me?”
As soon as I asked the question, all traces of doubt vanished from Billie’s face and her smile grew wide. “I’m so happy, Quentin. Happier than I think I’ve ever been,” she gushed.
“Then there’s your answer,” I told her with a smile before pulling her in for a hug.
For a moment, Billie was silent. Then, she nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”
With that decided, the two of us walked back into the building, into our home, for the very first time together. As we walked through the door of the apartment, my parents and Lincoln turned to look at us.
“Are you all done now then, son? I bet you’re sick to death of seeing--”
“Oh my God!” my mother interrupted with a screech. “Is that what I think it is?”
Her eyes were fixated on Billie’s hand and she pointed to where the ring laid delicately on her finger. Billie was grinning like the Cheshire cat and I couldn’t help winking over at my mother.
“What can I say? I’m not one to wait around,” I remarked with a laugh.
My father had quickly cottoned on and both my parents came over to congratulate us. My dad patted me on the shoulder while my mother hugged Billie close.
“I’m so happy for you both, Billie. You’re going to make a wonderful daughter-in-law,” my mom whispered to Billie.
It was all too much for her it seemed. Billie burst into tears and clung close to my mother while my father and I looked on sympathetically.
“You’ve done well, my son,” Dad said, squeezing my shoulder. “She’s definitely a keeper.”
“I know, I know,” I agreed with a nod. “And if it wasn’t for the two of you, I never would have met her. Billie told me that you hired her thinking something like this might happen.”
My parents laughed while Billie finally drew back from my mother and dabbed at her damp eyes.
“Well, we had an inkling,” my father admitted. “But it was all the two of you, really.”
“I’m not so sure I believe that,” I argued with a smile. “And because of that, I have a present for you both.”
“Oh?” my mother said, arching one eyebrow curiously.
“Yes, in order to thank you both, I got you this.” I reached into the drawer of the sideboard in the hallway and pulled out a thick envelope. I handed it over to them with a smile while my parents looked down at it confused. It only took a moment for them to open it up and when they did, they started smiling too.
“A round-the-world cruise for two?” my mother cried incredulously. “Oh, Quentin, you shouldn’t have!”
“How could I not?” I replied before reaching over to hug them both. “Thank you for Billie, for looking after Lincoln, for raising me, for everything.”
We hugged for a long time after that, all four of us getting misty-eyed while Lincoln napped in the background. Eventually, it was time for my parents to get home and I was ready for some alone time with just Billie, Lincoln, and Lucky.
“How about we order take-out tonight?” I said to Billie as the sun set outside.
“That sounds perfect.”
After stuffing our faces with delicious Chinese food, Lincoln, Billie, Lucky, and I all climbed into bed together. I put on a nature documentary in the background for Lincoln to fall asleep to while I hugged Billie tight. As I looked around the room, I couldn’t believe how drastically my life had changed in such a short time, but I was grateful for it.
My family was finally complete and I was going to hold onto them tightly. Nothing would ever take them away from me and I was finally at peace.
Secret Baby
Description
It was my duty to my country that tore us apart.
But I’m back to make things right again.
Jessie took my breath away the moment I saw her in college.
She was so mine.
But I knew I had to leave for a SEAL mission.
And I didn’t have the heart to say goodbye to her.
It was just a year-long mission.
Until it wasn’t.
We were torn apart for way longer than I’d expected.
Long enough for her to keep a secret from me.
I missed her sweet lips.
Her intoxicating smile.
And I had to have her again.
So I returned, wishing that fate was on my side.
On our side.
And hoping that her little secret doesn’t destroy our second chance.
Prologue
Jessie – Seven Years Ago
“So, what do you think?” I twirled around in front of the mirror and batted my eyelashes at myself. Without waiting for a reply, I grinned.
My best friend, Henny, sat on the edge of the bed and stared at me.
“Jess,” she said, blushing a little. “You’re not wearing a bra.”
I glanced down. “So?”
Henny blushed harder. “You should always wear a bra, Jess,” she continued.
“Did you hear that from you
r mother or from Cosmo?” I asked, cocking my head to the side and raising an eyebrow.
Henny bit her lip. “You look great,” she admitted. “But like, everyone is going to be staring at you. Is that what you want?”
I turned back to my reflection in the mirror. In my favorite pair of high-waisted black leggings and a black lacy top, I was about as dressed up as I was ever going to get. In my twenty-one years on earth, I had never really been one for dresses.
Or parties. Or makeup.
“Hen,” I said. “This is our senior year. We deserve attention, don’t we?”
“I don’t know,” Henny said slowly. “I don’t even know that I want to go. You want to stay in and watch 13 Going On 30 again?”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I loved Henny – she had been my roommate since freshman year and even though our personalities were like oil and water, she was kind, loving, and generous to a fault.
She was also likely the reason that I hadn’t been expelled from Seaside University. It was Henny who had convinced me to send a thoughtful letter of apology after getting into a heated argument with my ethics professor after he’d said that plus-sized people should automatically buy two plane seats. Henny who had gently persuaded me into tutoring younger students, in an attempt to get in good with the chair of the English department after I’d said that Joseph Conrad was a racist hack. Henny who had gone to bat for me, so many times, when I’d threatened a group of punks who had made my twin brother, Jared’s, life a living hell just for being gay.
In short, she was my guardian angel.
But tonight, I was getting my way.
“No,” I told her shortly. “I want to go to this party. And I want to eat and drink and dance and have fun.”
Henny looked doubtful. She shifted her skinny ass on the bed and twirled a lock of her pin-straight red hair around one finger.
It wasn’t just our personalities that clashed. Henny was pale and skinny as they come, with practically no curves and bright red hair. Her default facial expression was a shy smile with twin circles of pink on her cheeks, and her blue eyes had a constant bashful look about them.
I, on the other hand, was as large as my personality. A big head of curly brown hair. Brown eyes that, according to Jared and Henny, were constantly on the lookout for a challenge. And a big, round body that Henny politely called “curvy” ... and that had prompted my parents to ask if I’d like a Weight Watchers subscription for a birthday gift. I knew they were kidding – mostly – and to be honest, I wasn’t sensitive about it. I had never been some delicate flower, and that wasn’t about to change just because I was a woman now instead of a little kid. I was who I was, and if people didn’t like me, well, it didn’t bother me all that much. Mom always said that attitude was off-putting, that I needed to be more sensitive and forgiving.
But I always said that I didn’t have time for assholes, and I didn’t sense that changing any time soon.
Henny must have sensed that I wasn’t backing down. She slid off the edge of the bed and stood straight up, tossing her head.
“Well, okay,” she said finally. “But like, just because we’re seniors, okay? And next weekend, we do what I want to do.”
I grinned at her. “I think I’m rubbing off on you,” I teased. “You sure?”
Henny flushed, but she nodded.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m sure.”
It was twilight dusk as the two of us left our dorm and trooped across the campus of Seaside University. It was late in the second semester of our senior year and the air smelled like salt from the nearby Atlantic Ocean and perfume from the wisteria and magnolia that had blossomed like wildfire over the last few weeks. It was so hard to believe that I was graduating. College had been wonderful but truthfully, I was more than ready for it to be over. I wanted to get out into the world. Seaside University had been an insulating bubble. It had been great when Jared and I had first moved out of Mom and Dad’s house – but I wanted more.
My dream had always been to become a sports journalist and with an internship lined up with a local news station, I felt that I was well on my way. I’d just gotten the news earlier that day and I felt that I was oozing confidence as Henny and I walked across the darkening quad.
“You’re going to stay with me the whole time, right?” Henny asked.
“Hen, the point of a party is to mingle and meet new people,” I said. “I bet there are going to be tons of cute guys there.”
Henny put her face in her hands and groaned. “Don’t remind me,” she mumbled. “You know I can’t date right now.”
I stopped walking and put my hands on her shoulders.
“Henny, look at me.”
She took a deep breath, but lifted her face from her hands and turned to me.
“You are a beautiful, strong woman,” I said. “And any guy would be lucky to have you.”
Her chin wobbled. “Derrick didn’t think so.”
“Derrick sucks,” I said. “He dumped you after three years of dating so he could do, what? Screw his way through Europe for one semester? He’s not worth it,” I told her loudly. “You deserve better.”
Henny gave me a thin smile.
“Repeat that,” I said. “You deserve better.”
“I deserve better,” Henny said softly.
“Of course, you do,” I said with a grin. “Now, let’s get going.”
The party, located at a shared house off-campus, was already buzzing and thumping with loud music by the time that we arrived. I waved at a few people I’d seen here and there in classes – Seaside University wasn’t exactly huge – and then made a beeline for the keg, where I poured two plastic red cups to the brim and gave one to Henny. Beer sloshed over the edges and I grinned at her.
“Sorry,” I said.
“It’s so loud in here!” Henny yelled. “I can barely hear myself think!”
“You’ll get used to it,” I called back. “I promise.”
Henny and I did a lap through the party – I called it our Clueless move – and she found a group of people with whom she’d suffered through organic chemistry with. One guy in particular, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes, couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“I’m going to stay with these guys for a while,” Henny said, almost shyly.
I grinned at her. “Go get ‘em, tiger,” I said as I playfully patted her on the shoulder.
“Jessie!” Henny said. “Shh!”
“They didn’t hear me, don’t worry,” I told her. “It’s way too loud in here.”
As I left Henny with her chemistry friends, I realized that I was sweating. It was hot inside the house – it felt like the heat was on, even though it was in the eighties outside, and I was breathing hard. I gulped down the rest of my beer, then refilled my cup and stepped outside to the back garden. Whoever had rented the house before the students had taken great care with the garden itself but now, the flowers and vegetables plants were eclipsed by the weeds. There was a rose trellis against the side of the house and I smiled as I ran my hand along the whitewashed wood.
I loved living in Wilmington, North Carolina. It was the only home I had ever known, and even though it was kind of provincial, I honestly hoped that I’d stay there for the rest of my life.
Plus, covering the Wilmington minor league baseball team had always been my dream.
The spring air was soft and sweet and the beer was perfectly cold and frosty – the perfect thing to refresh me after being inside that hot, sweaty, loud house. I smiled to myself as I walked through the garden and tilted my face back to look up at the moon. It was funny – I had been the one who had wanted to come to the party and here I was, shunning everyone for some moonlit roses and weeds.
The sky was so beautiful that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it. As I wandered further away from the house through the ruins of the garden, I didn’t see the tall, hulking figure that stood in my way and before I knew it, I stumbled over my feet and bumped into it.
/>
Him.
“Watch where you’re going,” a stern voice said and I gasped, practically leaping backward and spilling my beer everywhere.
“I didn’t see you,” I said, narrowing my eyes and crossing my arms over my ripe bustline.
The figure shifted and moved and turned to me. In the moonlight, I saw the hottest guy I’d ever laid eyes on. His face looked like it could have been carved from ivory with dark hair that tumbled away from his brow. In the bright beams of the moon, I could see that his eyes were dark and intense.
And he was glaring at me.
I couldn’t help it – I burst into giggles.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said. “It’s just ...” I trailed off, then took a deep breath. “It’s just funny, that’s all. What the hell are you doing out here? Don’t you know the party is in the house?”
His nostrils flared slightly. “Maybe parties aren’t my thing,” he said.
I blinked. “Then what are you doing here?”
He stepped closer and I smelled a slight hint of cologne – something musky and woody and fresh. The scent made my mouth water and I swallowed hard, suddenly feeling more awkward than I ever had in my entire life.
“My friend dragged me,” he admitted. For a brief moment, there was a crack in his stern armor, the look of someone who was unhappy and almost lost. It vanished after a second, so quickly that I wondered if I’d imagined it.
“You sound like my roommate,” I said. “She didn’t want to come, either. And now, she’s inside, laughing it up with a bunch of friends.”
“Really?” The guy smirked. He raised an eyebrow at me and our gazes met and locked. My heart fluttered with excitement and I felt a tingle spreading through my entire body.
“Yeah.” I cursed myself – I sounded like a total idiot! – and swallowed again. Despite the two cups of beer that I’d practically inhaled, my mouth was dry.
“Benjamin,” the guy said. He offered his hand a second later and I had to wipe mine on my thigh before accepting his grip. As soon as our hands touched, I nearly gasped. The air between us grew heated and I could feel that tingle again, stronger than before, pulsing and racing and lighting up my whole body.
Forbidden First Times: A Contemporary Romance Collection Page 60
