Anna's Dress: a heart-wrenching second chance romance story that will make you believe in true love

by London Casey

  “I’m right here,” I said.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Playing…”

  Anna climbed over the bed. Her hair was so messy. Knots and random strands sticking up everywhere, curling. If I didn’t remind her to shower and brush her hair, she would go days without doing so. Even then, if I didn’t brush her hair, she wouldn’t do it right.

  She jumped to the floor and landed on her knees. She looked at what I was doing and raised her eyebrows.

  “What? I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

  “Playing with dolls still?”

  “Still? You’re younger than me.”

  “I don’t play with dolls. Unless you make them do it.”

  “Do what?”

  “You know… it.”

  “It?” I asked.

  “Ohmygod, who are you?” Anna asked. “Take their clothes off and…”

  “No. No way. Stop.”

  I grabbed the dolls and shoved them to the right. I didn’t need Anna to do anything crazy with my toys.

  Anna giggled. “You’re such a dork.”

  “Me? Why?”

  “Look at you. You’re a freaking teenager and you act like a seven year old.”

  “No I don’t.”

  “Have you even tried smoking yet?”

  “No. It’s gross. And it’s bad for you. Why? Have you? Anna…”

  She grinned. I couldn’t comprehend her age and seeing her do that kind of stuff.

  “Wanna try it?” she asked. “I have some stuff in my room.”

  “Anna! No. You better get rid of it.”

  “Why?” she asked. She stood up. “Are you going to tell Beth? Are you going to be a tattletale bitch about it?”

  I gasped. “Anna…”

  “No. You’re supposed to be my sister.”

  “I won’t say anything. I promise.”

  “Good,” Anna said. She slowly sat back down. “What are you doing with this stuff? Seriously.”

  I looked around the room again. “Hey, Anna. Have you ever kissed a boy?”

  “Oh, totally. Like seven.”

  “Seven?”

  “Yeah. Why? You haven’t…” Then she laughed. Not a normal laugh. But a pick on you kind of laugh. She pointed to the toys. To the dolls. “You were making your toys hump each other. Because you don’t know anything.”

  “Stop. I was not.”

  “Yes you were. You dorky prude.”

  “Stop it,” I snapped.

  Anna kept laughing. She fell to her back and kicked her legs.

  I lowered my head. I felt empty and hurt inside. I didn’t like when Anna made me feel that way. All I wanted to do was take care of her. And all I wanted was someone to take care of me. But I couldn’t take care of Anna, could I? She was already smoking. She was already kissing boys. I heard a noise last week and went to check on her only to see her climbing off the roof and running through the yard.

  I wished Anna would play with toys like me. Or with me. We could have been really good friends. Sitting together, playing with dolls, talking about life. She tried to be so tough and old, yet she was afraid of shadows in her bedroom. And sometimes she cried for our parents. But she never told Aunt Beth that. She would just come into my room, into my bed, and cry, wishing our parents were alive.

  I looked at her on my floor, laughing at me.

  I could have said something hurtful to her. But I held back. I didn’t want her to ever feel like I did when she made fun of me.

  “I needed that laugh,” Anna said. “I was coming in here to tell you that you should come for a walk with me.”

  “A walk. Why?”

  “No reason. Just to do it.”

  “No. You’re going to get into trouble.”

  “No I’m not.”

  “Swear to me then.”

  Anna stood up again. “Fine. Screw you, Adena. Play with your stupid dolls. Rub their plastic bodies together like some loser. I don’t care. Don’t say I didn’t try to show you how fun the world can be.”

  I swallowed hard. “Anna, you can’t keep getting into trouble.”

  “I can do whatever I want. And nobody will ever stop me. If you tell Aunt Beth I’m gone, I’ll tell everyone at school that you play with dolls.”

  I gasped. I shook my head. “Anna…”

  “See you later,” she said. “Make sure you cover for me.”

  I turned, on my knees, leaning against my bed. I watched her leave my bedroom.

  I felt a tear escape from my eye.

  I didn’t care what Anna had to say about anything.

  Someday… I would find a boy who was nice and who loved me… someday.

  Epilogue

  (Keep Searching)

  NOW

  (Adena)

  I dug my nails into Evan’s back as hard as I could. I didn’t want to hurt him… but come on, I sort of did. He thrust hard and deep, my back against the hardwood floor, trying to arch but I was pinned by his rock hard chest. His lips kissed up to my left ear where he groaned and growled, then nibbled.

  I thrust my hips at him, working with his body as my toes started to curl as climax was inevitable. My mouth opened to let out a yell but I was breathless. A second later, Evan’s mouth connected with mine. We started to kiss as I came, Evan right there with me, knowing exactly how to love me as my body peaked with pleasure.

  In a fast and wild move, Evan hurried up to his knees. He pulled his chest away from me and his hands grabbed my hips. Lifting me, positioning me where he wanted me, he kept going. Offering his thickness over and over as the depths of my core continued to pulse with a tingling release that threatened to leave me numb everywhere.

  I tried reaching for something, anything, but ended up slapping my hands to the hardwood floors, my nails curling. I swore that I was going to leave scratch marks in the floor.

  Evan looked gigantic before me, his hands gently sliding around to my ass, holding me steady as he kept going. I groaned as loud and as much as I wanted to. Why? Because we were in a house. Our house.

  Evan started to move his hands up my back. I loved his strength. Tender, yet rough. He made my back lift up off the floor, all the way to my neck. I looked like I was in some crazy yoga pose, but this feeling was so much better than fucking yoga.

  As his hands curled up around the top of my back, he slowly lowered himself back down to me. He then put a hand to the floor and kept his other hand spread wide across the top of my back, pulling me with ease, making me sit up a little. Our bodies collided and I hurried to touch his face. We were gently bouncing as his powerful thrusts began between my legs and forcefully rippled through the rest of my body. When we kissed, sometimes our lips touched, sometimes they didn’t. It was perfect. It was nothing but temptation and satisfaction at the same time. Swirling together like a crazy storm and I was in the middle of it.

  Evan grunted and I felt him getting ready. The pressure grew and I gasped… my right hand grabbing the back of his hair as I forced him to kiss me. Our tongues flirted as I felt him let go. Right there on the floor in our new house… where our couch would be in about twenty minutes.

  With a long exhale, Evan rolled to his back and took me with him. I rested my head on his chest, feeling his heart racing.

  “Okay,” he said. “So that takes care of the kitchen, the dining room, and now the living room.”

  I laughed as I blushed. “You know, most people actually move their stuff in on moving day. And you think we would have started in the bedroom?”

  “When have we done anything normal?”

  “Good point,” I said. I kissed his chest.

  Outside in the driveway was the moving truck. The back opened. The ramp pulled down. A few boxes on the ground. Evan had some friends from work coming to help but I think he told them a later time for this exact reason. To get me inside and make sure we enjoyed every room in the house. Which I wasn’t going to complain about at all.

  He took a job with some guy named Ji
mmy. He got paid a lot of money and helped his uncle on the side. His uncle was finally going to retire and enjoy the rest of his life. To Evan, that meant sitting around, drinking beer and whiskey, eye humping half naked women on calendars, and smoking until his body just shut down.

  As for the building…

  “Hey,” Evan said. “Jimmy said the lot would be cleaned out by tonight. We should go there next.”

  “Have sex in an empty lot?”

  “No. In your new parking lot. In your new building. For your new business.”

  I smiled. “Let me get things up and running first.”

  “Oh, I can get things up and running in no time.”

  I laughed.

  Evan’s uncle refused to hand the business over to him. But he had no problem in helping me buy the building and get it redone into my dream business. The old man even signed off on everything to help me. I wasn’t sure if he liked me or just wanted to piss Evan off. Although by helping me it didn’t exactly piss Evan off. Whatever it was, it sort of worked out. I was able to sell the house and use that money to put toward the building and of designing my dream bakery. I had spent countless hours sitting at Evan’s crammed table in his crammed apartment, starting over from scratch with a business plan. But it was well worth it.

  I didn’t expect Evan to show me a listing for a house. It seemed insane to buy a house right after selling a house and buying a building and starting the process of starting my business over. But Evan had everything organized with it. The house was perfect. Not some brand new house but a lot more room than a little apartment. There were projects inside the house everywhere. Which meant all we had was time in the house.

  The only thing I left with from Aunt Beth’s house was the dress. I couldn’t just throw it out. I couldn’t burn it either. But I couldn’t bring it into the new house. As luck would have it, the mortgage person had a sign on her desk about donating dresses to those who were less fortunate. So that’s where Anna’s dress went. Well, it was my dress… but Anna… whatever. The dress was gone. Someone would wear the dress and never know the impact it had on my life. And I just hoped the person that wore it would feel beautiful, enjoy their night, and pass the dress on to someone else. If Anna’s last and lingering memory was making someone feel pretty, then it was worth it all.

  Evan looked down at me as I just stared at him. I couldn’t help but stare at him. He was gorgeous. And he thought I was beautiful. So in some crazy way it all worked.

  He grinned and it gave me butterflies. That grin… it was the same one he gave when he told me about his uncle wanting to help me get the building. It was the same one he gave when he showed me the listing on the house.

  My heart raced.

  Something was up…

  The doorbell rang.

  My eyes went wide. “I’m naked.”

  “Me too.”

  “You’re a guy. Go answer the door.”

  “With my dick hanging around.”

  “It’ll scare whoever it is away,” I said with a giggle.

  “Funny,” he said.

  Evan picked up his jeans and hurried to step into them. I reached back and grabbed a folded up blanket. It had been used as a makeshift pillow when Evan and I first started on the living room floor but ended up across the room. Whoops.

  I opened the blanket and wrapped it around my body.

  I approached the door with caution.

  “Yeah, thanks. I’ll give you a call later.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  Evan shut the door before I could see who it was. He turned with a piece of paper in his hand. He went from the foyer to the kitchen and I followed him.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “Pizza,” Evan said.

  “What?”

  “Some kid handing out menus for a pizza place,” he said and laughed. “Hope he didn’t look through the window and see the show, huh?”

  I blushed and looked at the counter and saw the menu.

  “Pizza,” I said.

  “So there’s dinner for tonight,” Evan said.

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Evan grabbed the blanket and pulled me to him. He lifted me up and put me on the island in the kitchen. He looked at the stove.

  “Well, we have about thirty minutes until the guys get here,” he whispered. “I guess we could kill that time…”

  His hand slipped between the opening in the blanket. His fingertips touched my skin and I shivered.

  “Oh, Evan…”

  He peeled the blanket off me and I was sitting on the island with no clothes on.

  I reached for his jeans and he put my hands on the island.

  We started to kiss and things heated up within seconds.

  Evan pulled away and grabbed the blanket.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I growled.

  Evan grinned again. That grin.

  “There’s one thing left I have to do before forever starts.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  I was sitting there on the island in the kitchen, my body aching and wanting Evan, and he was backing away from me. I thought it was some cruel joke.

  Until he reached into his back pocket and took out a ring. He held my hand and put the ring into it. He curled my fingers up before I could get a real good look at it… but I knew what a diamond ring looked like.

  I looked at him again. Our eyes locked tight.

  No words said.

  I tried to count the seconds that passed by but my heart was pounding too hard and fast to keep up.

  “Since the day I met you,” he whispered. “And until the day I die, Dena. It’s always been about you.”

  “Evan…”

  “I already promised you my forever. But I think you’ll look even more beautiful wearing this ring. So…will you wear this ring?”

  “Yes,” I whispered. “Are you…”

  Evan put his hand over mine and came close to me to kiss me. “Sweetheart, I’ll ask you to marry me if you want, but if we already believe in forever, then what does it matter?”

  “I’ll do anything with you, Evan,” I said.

  Our lips were an inch apart.

  “Then again,” he whispered, “you never got your dance, did you? You never got to wear your dress the way you wanted. So… Adena…”

  Evan peeled my fingers back open and took the ring from my hand. He lowered himself down to one knee. Shirtless. Sexy. Asking me a question that would shape the rest of my life.

  Stealing my breath so that I couldn’t answer, just nod yes.

  I would say he stole my heart - but that happened years ago.

  THE END

  From the authors:

  Thank you for reading this novel. This started as a quick idea and exploded into the biggest “first of the year” launch of our career. This book really hits home and touches on personal elements, going deeper than we’ve gone before. Hopefully this book connected with you in some way. We love to hear from readers and hope to hear from you! Feel free to email, message, tag us on Facebook or other social media!

  Until next time… thank you for being there with us along the way…

  London (Karolyn) & Jaxson

  Please be sure to leave your review for ANNA’s DRESS right now. Find the book on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/2jUsnmh

  Breaking News!

  You remember this announcement: “London Casey (Karolyn James) & Jaxson Kidman will have a collaboration release coming 2017!

  Set in the world of St. Skin, the first novel in the series is titled IN HER WORDS.”

  Well, guess what? IN HER WORDS became an instant international bestselling novel! Reaching the top 200 in the US, top 100 in the UK and Canada, and the top 10 in Australia, readers all agreed that St. Skin IS one of the BEST series not only for 2017 but perhaps EVER!

  If that’s not enough, the second novel was released in early March! That novel too blazed up the charts.

  These novels are complete st
and-alone books that do NOT need to be read in order.

  So… are you ready to experience St. Skin?

  A new adult, real life, romance series that's focused on the small town of Hundred Falls Valley and a tattoo shop called St. Skin. Each book is packed with emotion, heat, and raw story.

  BOOKS IN ORDER OF PUBLICATION DATE:

  In Her Words

  A Boy I Used to Love

  Secret Exposure

  Lost, Found, Loved

  Our Last Ride

  Stay up to date on all St. Skin here: www.facebook.com/StSkinSeries

  About the authors:

  Stay social with Jax:

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/JaxsonKidman

  Newsletter (part of the Outlaw Romance Obsession team): http://eepurl.com/b9BDKb

  Email Jax: JaxsonKidman@gmail.com

  Amazon Page: http://amzn.to/2lgfpLG

  Jaxson Kidman is the bestselling author of several novels, including:

  Dear Everly

  In Her Words

  5 Years Later

  Look for his upcoming novel, Anna’s Dress

  Stay social with London (Karolyn):

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/KarolylnJamesAuthor (the official Outlaw Romance Obsession fan page!)

  Newsletter (part of the Outlaw Romance Obsession team): http://eepurl.com/b9BDKb

  Email Jax: KarolynJamesWrites@gmail.com

  Amazon Page: http://amzn.to/2jUsnmh

  London Casey (Karolyn James) is the author of the bestselling series, Back Down Devil MC

  These books have no set reading order. They are all stand-alone novels set in the BDD MC world. She is also the author of several stand-alone novels, including:

  This Crazy, Forbidden Thing

  A Boy I Used to Love

  Steal His Heart