FOREVER SERIES: COMPLETE BOX SET

by Lynn, Sandi

  “She has Cystic Fibrosis too,” he told me as we started walking towards the house.

  “Really? How did that come up?”

  “She started coughing a little and it sounded like mine, so I told her that I cough like that sometimes and she told me.”

  I could tell Jacob was happy because he’d finally met someone that was like him. As we walked in the house, the women were getting ready to leave to go shop and my dad had arranged for Jake and Mason to spend the day with Jacob. I gave Amelia a hug and kiss goodbye.

  “Remember, my dad’s buying. Shop. Shop. Shop.”

  She giggled and playfully smacked me on the chest. “I’ll do my best. I love you.”

  “I love you too, baby.”

  * * *

  “What did you want to talk about Connor?” Diana asked as we went and sat outside.

  “Collin, why don’t start,” my dad said.

  “You two have me very nervous,” Diana spoke.

  I reached over and grabbed her hand. “Don’t be nervous, Diana. I just don’t know how to say this.”

  “Are you firing me?” she asked with a look of fear in her eyes.

  “Oh my God, no!” I said. I cleared my throat and took in a deep breath. “I think you and Jacob need to move to California.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, right. I can’t move,” she said as she looked at my dad.

  “You saw how much better Jacob was at the beach house in the Hamptons and you see the difference in him since we got here to California. I think this would be the best place for him.”

  “That’s nice of you to think that, Collin, and believe me, I would love to move here for Jacob but it’s not possible.”

  “What if my dad and I made it possible?”

  “What? What are you talking about?” she asked in confusion.

  My dad took over the conversation.

  “Diana, I have another house down the beach, and I want to rent it to you. I think it would make an incredible home for you and Jacob.”

  “But, Connor, what about my job?”

  My dad looked away because he didn’t want to lose her as his secretary.

  “I have another job here for you. You’d be making a little more money and you’d still have all the same health benefits. But instead of working in an office setting, you’d be working at my art gallery. It’s only a twenty-minute drive from here.”

  Tears started to fill her eyes. “I…I…I can’t. You’ve done way too much for me already and there’s no way I could accept anything else.”

  “They have programs here, Diana. Programs that work with kids and Cystic Fibrosis. It’s way better here than in New York. Jacob loves the water, and he loves the beach. You’ve seen how happy it makes him, and today, he met a little girl who also has Cystic Fibrosis. Her name is Lexi and she lives in a house somewhere along the beach,” I said.

  The tears that filled her eyes began to stream down her face. My dad looked at me and shook his head. He placed his hand on her arm. “No tears, Diana. If you want to move here, we’ll make it happen for you and Jacob. But the decision is completely yours. Would you like to go look at the house? Then after, we’ll take you to the art gallery.”

  She nodded her head and my dad handed her a tissue. “Great, let’s go see the house.” I smiled.

  We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the house and then we took her to the art gallery. My dad introduced Diana to Joel, and they hit it off right away. I nudge my dad and he told me to knock it off. Diana seemed to love the house and the art gallery. I was almost positive she was going to move here.

  “Take some time and think about it,” my dad said to her. “Talk to Jacob and see what he wants.”

  “Thank you so much Connor and Collin. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve the two of you in my life. You are the most incredibly giving people I’d ever met.”

  “Aw, stop.” I smiled.

  We drove back to the house and Diana told Jacob that the two of them were going out for pizza because she had something she needed to talk to him about.

  Chapter 33

  We flew back to New York and back to the snow and cold. I wanted to stay longer in California but there was business to be done and everyone had to get back to work or school. Amelia still had another week left before her classes and clinicals started up again. Diana had a long talk with Jacob and they both decided that they were going to move to California. On one hand, I was really happy because Jacob would be doing better, but on the other hand, I was sad because I was going to miss them both terribly.

  “What’s wrong?” Amelia said as she sat down next to me on the couch.

  “Nothing much. I was just thinking about how weird it’s going to be not to see Jacob all the time.”

  “I know. But you said yourself it’s in his best interest to move to California. Plus think of how happy he’ll be and how much better he’ll feel.”

  “Come here,” I said as I pulled her on my lap. “Have I told you today that I love you?”

  “No. I don’t think you have. You better tell me.” She smiled.

  “I love you, Miss Grey, and tomorrow we’re going somewhere. Just me and you.”

  “I love you too, Mr. Black. Where are we going?”

  “You’ll find out tomorrow. Now, enough talk. Kiss me.”

  She gave me her amazing smile and brushed her lips against mine. As our kiss became passionate and I practically had her shirt off, there was a knock at the door.

  “Collin, it’s Julia. I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer your phone.”

  I looked at Amelia and she laughed. I got up, adjusted myself and opened the door.

  “Hey, Julia. What’s up?”

  “Can you watch Brayden for a while? Jake and I need to run some errands and we’d get done quicker if Brayden wasn’t with us.”

  I looked at her as she held him in her arms. I knew my sister and I knew her well.

  “You and Jake want to have sex with no baby in the house.”

  She looked down at Brayden. “No, why would you say something like that?”

  “I know when you lie, Julia.”

  “Okay, fine,” she said sternly as she walked into my apartment. “Jake and I want some time alone because every time we start to make love, our sweet son starts to scream. I can’t have an orgasm with my son screaming! I need to make love to my husband without any interruptions. Is that so much to ask?”

  “Julia, TMI!” I said. I took my nephew from her arms and kissed her on the cheek. “Go and spend some time with your husband. In fact, have sex a few times and don’t worry about Brayden. Where’s mom and dad?”

  “They went out to dinner with Peyton and Henry. Thank you, Collin. I owe you.”

  “No, you don’t. You know I’m always here for you.”

  She set the diaper bag on the table, kissed Brayden goodbye and headed back to her apartment. I stood in the middle of the room and looked at Amelia who was smiling on the couch.

  “What?”

  “You are so sexy holding him. I know you’re going to be an amazing dad someday.”

  I walked over to the couch and sat down. “And you’re going to make an amazing mom.”

  I leaned in to kiss her and Brayden started to cry. We both laughed, and now I saw what Julia was talking about.

  * * *

  “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Amelia asked.

  “You’ll see when we get there.” I smiled as I tapped her on the nose.

  We climbed in the Range Rover and headed towards the Hamptons. Worry consumed me because I didn’t know how Amelia was going to react when I tell her that I was the one who bought the house. A part of me said she’d be thrilled, while the other part said she’d be pissed.

  “Are we going to The Hamptons?” she asked.

  I couldn’t lie to her. “Yes,” I replied.

  “Why? It’s the middle of winter.”

  “I know but there’s something there I want yo
u to see.”

  We pulled onto the street of the beach house and I pulled in the driveway.

  “Why are we here?”

  “Follow me, baby,” I said as I took her hand and unlocked the front door.

  “Why do you have a key to my old house?”

  “This is my house now. Our house. I’m the one who bought it.”

  “What? Why would you do that? Do you know how long ago that was and you’ve been keeping it from me?” she said in a raised voice.

  “Yes, and I’m sorry. I wanted it to be the right time to tell you.”

  “This is the right time?”

  “I don’t know. But what I do know is that I couldn’t keep it from you anymore.”

  She looked at me with daggers and shook her head. “I can’t believe you. Why would you buy this?”

  “Because I know how much it means to you. You said yourself that you didn’t want to sell it.”

  “But I didn’t want you to buy it. Fuck, Collin. That really pisses me off! And then the fact that you kept it from me all these months.”

  She was mad. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her this angry before. “Amelia, I’m sorry.”

  “How could you keep something like that from me? If you could so easily hide that then it makes me wonder what else you haven’t told me.”

  “That’s not fair. I’ve never kept anything from you except this,” I said as I raised my voice.

  “I want to leave right now.”

  “We just got here.”

  She opened the door and climbed in the Range Rover. I sighed and shook my head as I locked the door and climbed in next to her. I reached over and grabbed her hand. She pulled away.

  “Baby, please. I’m sorry.”

  “This wasn’t just a small purchase. This was huge and it’s just not something a boyfriend does.”

  “He does if he has money,” I said.

  “So you think that because you have money, you can just do whatever the hell you want? I’m so mad at you, Collin. Please, just don’t say another word to me and take me home. I just want to go home.”

  I started the car and tore out of the driveway. There was complete silence the entire ride home. When we entered the apartment, Amelia went to the bedroom and took her bag from the closet.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m going to stay with Mia for a couple of days at her apartment. I just can’t stay here right now.”

  “Amelia, please. Don’t do this. I didn’t do anything wrong. For fuck’s sake, I did this for you!” I screamed.

  “I need to think, and I need time alone. God, Collin, I can’t believe you did that,” she said as she walked out the door.

  I paced back and forth throughout the apartment trying to make rhyme or reason out of all of this all. I went to my cabinet and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. I took a glass from the cabinet and sat down on the couch. I looked at the glass before I poured some whiskey and set it down on the table. Fuck the glass. I drank it straight from the bottle. I drank almost the whole bottle and I was trashed off my ass. I got up from the couch and fell onto the floor. The room was spinning and when I closed my eyes, it was worse. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and I heard my dad call my name.

  “Collin. What the hell is going on? Are you okay?”

  The door was unlocked, and he walked in and saw me lying on the ground.

  “Son, what happened? Where’s Amelia?”

  “She left.”

  “Oh God, you reek of whiskey.”

  He pulled out his phone and I heard him talking to Jake.

  “Jake, I need you to come across the hall and help me get Collin up to the penthouse. He’s drunk.”

  “Dad, I’m not going to the penthouse,” I slurred as I tried to get up but managed to fall over.

  “Yes, you are. I don’t want you alone when you’re like this. What happened?”

  Jake walked in and came over to me. “Go around to the other side and I’ll grab this arm,” my dad said.

  “Hey, buddy, you okay?” Jake asked.

  “She packed a bag and left.”

  “Amelia did?”

  “Yeah, we got into a fight,” I slurred as they picked me up and helped me up to the penthouse.

  When we walked through the door, my dad called for my mom.

  “Shit, Dad. Really?”

  “Quiet, son.”

  “Oh my God, what happened?” she asked as she hurried to me.

  “Your son and his girlfriend must have gotten into an argument because she packed a bag and left, and he drank a whole bottle of whiskey.”

  “Not the whole thing,” I slurred.

  “Oh, Collin. Get him upstairs to his room,” my mom said.

  My dad and Jake set me down on my bed. My mom followed behind and lifted my shirt over my head.

  “On your side, mister,” she said.

  I closed my eyes and all I could see was Amelia’s face, and the pain and hurt that splayed across it when she found out I was the one who bought the house. I needed to sleep to forget.

  Chapter 34

  I woke up, and when I looked at the clock it was five thirty a.m. My head was pounding so I decided to take a shower. After standing under the stream of hot water for almost twenty minutes, I stepped out and pulled on a pair of sweatpants I found in my drawer. I went downstairs, started the coffee, and gathered the ingredients for the cocktail. My parents were still asleep, so I tried to be as quiet as possible. I ran up the stairs to find my phone and it was lying on the floor in my pants pocket. I pulled it out, and before I looked at it, I prayed there was a text message or call from Amelia. There wasn’t. I went back to the kitchen and finished making my cocktail. A few moments later, my parents walked in.

  “Here, let me finish that for you. Go sit down, sweetheart.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  “How are you feeling?” my dad asked as he poured some coffee.

  “Not good,” I replied.

  “Want to talk about what happened between you and Amelia?”

  My mom set the cocktail down in front of me and I chugged it down to get it over with.

  “I took her to the Hamptons yesterday; to the house. I told her that I bought it and she got pissed. She got really pissed and I don’t understand why,” I said as I put my head down on the table.

  “Maybe it’s because you kept something from her that you shouldn’t have,” my mom said.

  “I told you, son, that you should’ve told her about the house,” my dad chimed in.

  “I remember someone doing the exact same thing. Not once, not twice, not even three times, Connor.”

  “I know, Elle, and you know I regret each and every one of those times.”

  “Okay, okay. I fucked up. What else is new? What am I supposed to do?”

  My mom walked over and kissed me on the head. “Alcohol doesn’t solve your problems. It only creates more. So the first thing you’re going to do is lay off the booze. The second thing, find a way to make things right. You’re your father’s son. You can do it.”

  She walked out of the kitchen and my dad sat across the table and looked at me.

  “Give her time. She needs to think. You need to think. Don’t call. Don’t text. Just give her time. When she’s ready, she’ll come around.”

  “Easier said than done, Dad. I miss her like crazy already.”

  “I know, son. Trust me. Maybe send her a text and tell her that you love her and that’s it. It’s the little things, you know? She’ll forgive you. She loves you and love conquers all.”

  “Thanks, Dad. I’m going into the office now. Do you want to drive with me?”

  “No, Ralph is driving me in. I have a meeting across town this afternoon.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you later.”

  * * *

  I sat in my office trying to concentrate on the work that needed to be done. I threw my pen across the desk and pulled out my phone.

  “I love
you.”

  No response.

  I sighed and decided to go to the gym. I always kept a bag in my office for those spurs of the moment workouts. I walked in the gym and went straight to our private locker room to change into my swimming trunks. I grabbed a towel and headed to the pool. When I opened the door and walked in, I was shocked to see Julia, my mom and Brayden in the water.

  “Collin, what are you doing here?” my mom asked.

  “I needed to work out.”

  “Does your father know you’re not at the office?”

  “Mom, cut me some slack. It’s fine.”

  I jumped in and swam over to Julia and Brayden. I took him from her arms and held him in the water.

  “First swimming lesson?” I asked her.

  “Yeah. Never too young to learn. How are you? Mom told me what happened.”

  “I’m a mess, as usual. Nothing new there, right?”

  “Don’t say things like that. Amelia loves you and she’ll come around.”

  “I just don’t understand why she’s so upset. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  “Maybe she’s pissed off because you kept it from her and didn’t talk to her about it first.”

  “I wanted it to be a surprise. She deserves surprises in her life.”

  Brayden started to fuss, and I handed him back to Julia.

  “She’s not Hailey, Collin. I know what you’re thinking, and I know you’re scared. This is your first fight, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah it is,” I said as I looked down.

  “First fights are always the hardest. Don’t worry, she’ll be back in your arms before you know it.”

  “Thanks, Julia. I’m going to do some laps now. I don’t want to be gone too long because Dad will get pissed.”

  “I think Brayden is starting to prune. I better get him out of the water.” She laughed.

  “Where’s Mom?” I asked her as she got out of the pool.

  “I have no idea. That’s strange that she just left like that.”

  * * *

  Ellery

  I hated seeing my son in pain again. It was bad enough what he went through after Hailey left him and I didn’t want to see him like that again. I quietly got out of the pool while Collin and Julia were talking and went to the locker room to call Amelia.