by LYNN, K. C.
Sweet Destiny
K.C. LYNN
Published by K.C. Lynn
Sweet Destiny Copyright © 2020 K.C. LYNN
Kindle Edition
First Edition
Editing: Wild Rose Editing
Formatting: BB eBooks
Cover Art by: Kari March Designs
Cover Image by: Nicole Ashley Photography
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication and use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
DEDICATION
Megan, something I learned this past year is that time is not always on our side. It can span years and sometimes just one more second. I’m thankful for all the time we have had together and I look forward to making more memories. You’ve been my friend since the sixth grade and have been on this journey with me since the beginning, not only editing every word but also cheering me on. I couldn’t do this without you. Thank you for being you.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Other Books by K.C. Lynn
Connect with K.C. Lynn
Acknowledgements
About the Author
PROLOGUE
Sam
Three Months Earlier
The nightmare always starts off the same way. Vivid and soul shattering. Horrendous images flash through my mind on repeat, helplessly propelling me back to a historical moment in time…
I’m surrounded by smoke. There’s so much it’s suffocating. I cough and sputter my way through it, my eyes burning as much as my lungs.
“Joshua!” His name rips from my raw throat as I stumble through the destroyed streets. I look around at the charred city we once called home, the man I love somewhere in the midst of destruction.
“Joshua!” I scream for him again, refusing to give up.
I will never give up.
A figure suddenly emerges from the smog and the first tendrils of hope infiltrate my heart when I notice all the fire gear.
“Thank God.” My heels click on cement as I run toward the firefighter covered in soot, but I quickly realize it’s not my beloved husband. It’s one of his fellow brothers, Firefighter Gibson.
He grips my shoulders and the heavy regret in his red-brimmed eyes sends my heart plummeting straight to my stomach. His mouth moves, telling me the unthinkable, but I shake my head, refusing to believe it.
It can’t be true.
“I’m sorry, Rose. We lost so many, but a little boy lived because of him.”
Despair grips my heart in an unforgiving vise, my entire world shattering as I crumble to my knees. The pain of my screams echo through the ruined streets, shredding my vocal chords and destroying what’s left of my existence.
“Sam, wake up!”
I bolt upright on a scream. Blanketed in darkness, my mangled heart beats rapidly. Sweat coats my skin and tears soak my cheeks as I try to breathe through the spasms ravaging my chest, my hand clutching the spot that physically aches.
Jase’s handsome face appears before mine, drowning out the shadows in our room. Dark eyes that are so similar to the ones that haunt my dreams peer back at me with concern.
A sob tumbles from my lips and I scramble onto his lap, my arms curling around his neck as I cry out a loss I can’t understand but feel all the way to my soul.
“Breathe, baby. It’s okay.” His strong arms come around me, holding my broken pieces together. “It was just a dream.”
It wasn’t. I can still smell the pungent smoke. It lingers in the air, the remnants of it reminding me of all that was lost.
He pulls back, his gaze searching. “Same nightmare?”
“It’s not a nightmare,” I choke out. “I lost you and I’m going to lose you again, I know it.” Voicing the words out loud only compounds my fear even more.
“No, you’re not,” he argues sternly. “We talked about this, Sam.”
He doesn’t understand. He can’t. Not when he hasn’t seen what I have. Felt the devastation and loss.
For the past several months the same nightmare has plagued me, and I fear that one day it will eventually become my reality.
“Look at me.” Framing my face between his hands, he lifts my gaze back to his. “You’re not going to lose me.”
“I already have.” The knowledge burns in my heart as strongly as it did for Rose. “This isn’t some nightmare, Jase. You die in a fire saving a little boy. Only you aren’t you and I’m not me. At least not our names. But…we are them and… Ugh!” Frustrated, I trail off, sounding insane even to myself.
“Baby, I’m right here. Look at me—feel me.” He places my hand over his strong and steady heartbeat. “I’m yours, Sam. Always and forever. Nothing will ever change that.”
I gaze back into his eyes, eyes I know I have looked into and lost before, all for the sacrifice of his job. “If I asked you to quit firefighting, would you?” The selfish question is out before I can stop it, desperation running my mouth.
“Yeah, I would,” he answers, surprising me. “But I’m really hoping you won’t ask me to do that. I love my job, Sam. As much as you love yours. It’s who I am. It’s what I’m meant to do.”
I rest my forehead on his, my eyes closing in shame. “I know, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to change but I can’t lose you, Jase. I want to marry you and have your babies but I’m terrified of losing it all before we even have a chance to build a life together.”
Just like Rose and Joshua.
“I could walk across the street one day and get hit by a car,” he says, “or end up in a plane crash.”
It’s not a plane crash that took him from me. It was a fire and his sacrifice.
“Nothing in life is ever guaranteed, Sam. Except for one thing.”
“What’s that?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
“My love for you and that I will always come home to you. One way or another.”
I desperately want to believe that but the memory of all that was lost is still too fresh. I drop my forehead on his shoulder, feeling scared and depleted.
“Fuck it.” Gathering me in his arms, he stands.
My head snaps up from his shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“We’re finishing this once and for all.” Determination marks each step as he walks us into the kitchen. He deposits me in a chair then rips the calendar off our fridge and drops it down on the table in front of me. “Pick a date.”
“What?”
“Pick a wedding date. The sooner the better. Then I’m going to knock you up,” he blatantly informs me. “We are going to fuck like crazy, have a ton of kids, and I’m going to raise them with you until we are old and gray.”
God, this is insane.
Jase drops down in front of me. “Pick a date, baby. Let’s do this so I can prove to you that we are going to grow old together.”
Sniffling, I wipe my cheeks with the back of my hand and look at the calendar. We talked about a few dates, mainly summer of next year, but something held me back. The days we talked about never felt right, but now, as I turn each page of the calendar, I stop on one, the fated date standing out amongst the rest. It’s a feeling I can’t explain, a purpose far greater than either of us realizes.
“This one,” I whisper, pointing to the day.
“September second,” he murmurs.
September 2nd, 1869.
That date holds meaning, a pivotal one. I don’t know what exactly but I know it as sure as I know my love for this man.
“Is that okay?” I ask, looking down at him.
“It’s more than okay, but we have a lot to do. That’s only three months away.”
“I’m ready if you are.”
A crooked grin tilts his lips, the same one that captured my heart and never let go. “Baby, I was born ready.”
He says the words so casually, not realizing the power they hold. I have no doubt we were born for each other. That somehow, someway, we have shared a life and love as equally strong before as we do now, but we were robbed of our chance at forever. Perhaps this is fate’s way of making up for that loss so long ago. Maybe this isn’t just about Jase and me but a second chance for Rose and Joshua.
“I want a garden wedding with a vintage theme,” I say, the suggestion feeling right.
He quirks a brow. “Vintage, huh?”
I nod. “Something that represents the late eighteen hundreds. Like an old train clock or maybe even a horse drawn carriage.” My heart fills with excitement as I list all the items, every one of them feeling sacred in some way.
“Not to dash your creative vision, baby, but where the fuck are we going to find an old train clock?”
“I have no idea,” I laugh, “but I will find a way. I’m very resourceful, Crawford. You know this.”
His lips curl into that sexy smirk. “True, but I’m even more resourceful. So if my woman wants an old train clock then she’s going to get a fucking train clock.”
I shake my head at the ridiculous statement but also can’t deny how sweet it is. “What about you?” I ask. “Anything specific you want to have?”
“As long as you’re there I have everything I need.”
Warmth invades my chest, spreading right to the tips of my fingers and toes.
“And peaches,” he adds. “There needs to be lots of peaches.”
“Of course, how could I have forgotten those?”
His obsession with the particular fruit has only grown over the course of our relationship, which is why the majority of my wardrobe and undergarments consist of the color. It drives him wild. Grace even sells our Peach Kiss Pie at the bakery. It’s a big hit and Jase gets it every time he goes in.
“Maybe we can get some from Mr. and Mrs. McNally’s peach farm again?” I flash him a suggestive smile, remembering the time we made love there.
He groans, fingers squeezing my hips before he drops a kiss on my bare thigh. “That was a good fuckin’ day.”
It was more than good. It was beautiful and the most spontaneous thing I’d ever done, a moment I’ll treasure forever.
“It’s a long way to go for some peaches though,” he says. “I’m sure we can find another farm around here and corrupt that one, too.”
“Actually, I was thinking we could have the wedding at my parents’ lake house in Colorado.”
He rears back, clearly surprised. “Really?”
“Sure. It’d be perfect since that’s where we met and fell in love. Besides, our friends and your family are there. It would make things easier on everyone and the property is beautiful. It’s also large enough for all of us to stay at for the weekend.”
His eyes practically bug out of his head. “You want both of our families to stay in the same house?”
“Why not? Surely our fathers can put aside their differences for a weekend.”
He gazes back at me unconvinced.
“I want us all to be together, Jase. It’s important to me.”
He nods. “Then I’ll make it happen. Whatever makes you happy.”
My heart prances at his kind words. “You make me happy.”
Leaning in, he takes my mouth in a soul-touching kiss before picking me up from my seat and carrying me back to bed.
My back meets the cool mattress, his hard body following down on top. His face hovers just inches above mine, the love in his gaze holding every bit of me captive. A love I never want to live without.
The desolate thought has my hand lifting to his face, fingers fanning his jaw. “Promise me that we will always have this. That you will never leave me.”
The request is unfair and I know it but the burning images of that nightmare are embedded into my soul forever.
His dark irises hold mine in a time-stopping second. “I promise to love you until your last breath, Samantha Evans, then I promise to find you again and love you even harder.”
The vow flows through every part of me, completely obliterating any remaining fear. Curling my fingers around his neck I bring his lips to mine again, losing myself in what I have faith will always be ours.
I have to because the other alternative is too unfathomable.
*
Jase
Sam’s breathing eventually evens out as she succumbs to sleep. Only then, do I release the long, tortured breath I’ve been holding in.
I’m not a superstitious person, never have been, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little more than freaked out by the nightmare she keeps having. A nightmare I know so well because I’ve had the same one for as long as I can remember.
Even before we were together, I experienced it. Lived it and knew it. Being engulfed in flames as I covered a small boy, agony ripping apart my chest with the knowledge that I would never see the pretty green eyes I lived and breathed for again. Green eyes I never thought I’d see outside of that dream…until the day I met Sam.
I have no idea what it all means, but I refuse to believe it’s a sign. I make my own destiny and it will be with this woman in my arms forever. A vow I have every intention of upholding until the end of time.
CHAPTER ONE
Sam
Present Day
Fresh air blasts through the lowered windows of our rented Jeep, making the ends of my blue floral dress tease the tops of my thighs. My hand rests on top of my straw hat, holding it to my head as I tilt my face up toward the late afternoon sun, basking in its warmth while we drive to my parents’ lake house that is nestled deep in the Colorado Mountains.
I think about all the memories I have made in this state, including the one where I fell in love with the man who has held my heart for far longer than I can even comprehend.
In just two short days Jase and I will be declaring our love for one another in front of our closest family and friends, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Some days I still can’t believe we made it here. He was the most unlikely suitor. As cocky and arrogant as he is charming and sexy. With dark, disheveled hair, warm chocolate brown eyes, and a panty-dropping smirk, he’s the very definition of tall, dark, and handsome.
He’s also my brother’s sworn enemy, both of them too much alike for their own good. Our fathers are rivals in every sense of the word, their feud dating all the way back to their days in high school. Now we are all about to spend the weekend together.
The Evans and the Crawfords under one roof could very well end in total disaster, and I know it, but it’s important to me for us all to be together. I want my and Jase’s love to be the tie that binds our families. I have faith that it will. I
t has to because this is our destiny. It’s what was always meant to be.
I never believed in soul mates let alone past lives until I met Jase. The deep connection we had from the beginning was unexplainable, his touch a buried memory in time. Then I met Madam Raman, a gypsy psychic that somehow saw into my very soul. Despite what Jase thinks about her, I’m even more convinced what she said about us is true. How can I not after the dreams I’ve had? The ones of a love that runs as deep as the loss.
This day isn’t just for Jase and me but also for Rose and Joshua. Every detail I put into this wedding was with them in mind—modern with a touch of vintage, right down to the custom wedding dress my sister made for me.
I just wish I could have found an old train clock, knowing it holds significance in some way, but finding the antique piece proved impossible. I refuse to let that get me down though. The day will be as perfect as our love because this is our second chance. History will not repeat itself. I know this because it’s already headed down a different path.
My hand moves to my stomach, love spreading through every cell of my body as I think of the tiny life growing inside of me. A life that Jase and I created in our love for one another.
It wasn’t planned. Not yet anyway. But it seems fate has intervened once again, and I’m not sorry that it did. It’s been a hard secret to keep but I want to surprise Jase with the news on our wedding night. I’m sure he will be more than shocked but I have no doubt he will be as happy as I am.
I’m pulled from my thoughts when he reaches over the console, taking my hand in his. “You’re awfully quiet over there, Peaches. You okay?”
I rest my head back on the seat, a contented smile forming on my lips as I gaze over at his handsome face. “Yes. I’m perfect actually.”
It’s the honest truth. I don’t think my life could be more perfect than it is right now.
“Well, I could have told you that.” He flashes me that dirty grin of his, showcasing those sexy dimples that I can never get enough of. “Why do you think I’m marrying you?”
