Ninety-Eight (Contemporary Romance)

by Shannon Mayer

  Laughing, I hugged her again. “I expect you to come visit me. Lots.”

  “As soon as I can get away from Dr. Winston.” She gave me a wink. “I bet he won’t be as nice to me as he was to you.”

  I grinned at her, touched a hand to her strawberry blonde hair.

  “You might even end up having to go to school, become a tech and get a real job.” I glanced over my shoulder at the bus as it filled. “I’d better go.”

  Penny frowned, her eyes filling with tears. “You take care of yourself.”

  “I will.” I stepped onto the bus, waved at her one last time, and didn’t look back.

  For the first time in a long time, I didn’t look back.

  22

  INDIANAPOLIS WAS AS good a place as any, and Victor helped me find a job with a local clinic. He always had been a good guy, and that hadn’t changed in the years we’d been apart.

  His wife, Maryanne—a dark-haired and dark-eyed girl—was sweet, and very pregnant. She didn’t seem bothered that I’d called Victor up. In fact, she invited me over for dinner with them a day after I moved there.

  I went for dinner, somewhat reluctantly, but my worry was all for nothing. It took all I had not to pee myself laughing the entire night. She had him hopping, barking at him to get this, help her with that. I’d never seen a man so whipped, or so happy to be at someone’s beck and call.

  Damn, I really liked Maryanne. And Victor was a better man for being with her; they were a good match.

  When I left, she gave me a pat on the shoulder and I leaned in close to whisper. “You make him a better man. I’m so happy for both of you.”

  She beamed up at me. “Yes, he needed someone to kick his ass. And it’s a cute ass, so it’s worth kicking.”

  Laughing to myself, I went home.

  Home was a small apartment, in a somewhat crappy neighborhood. But since I had a piece of junk car, I fit right in and didn’t have to worry about getting my ride stolen.

  Fiddling with my keys, I fumbled when my phone whistled at me. A text from Penny that was cryptic at best.

  Tomorrow. Bus depot. 8am.

  I typed back quickly. What are you talking about? But she didn’t respond. I tried phoning her, but she wouldn’t pick up. I shook my head and let myself into my apartment. What was she up to anyway?

  That night, I could barely sleep. Since I’d moved, the nightly dreams of Darwin had disappeared, and I struggled with losing that connection with him. Even as morbid as they’d been in the past, they were something. Tossing and turning, I fell asleep as the sun was just starting to come up and then my alarm was going off.

  “Damn you, Penny. I do not want to get up this early.” I shoved my hair under a baseball cap and yanked on my cut-off shorts and a t-shirt that had seen better days.

  Driving to the bus depot, I mulled over what Penny had sent me. The thing was, I couldn’t come up with anything. Penny was as broke as me. I snorted to myself, who was I kidding? Penny had less money than I did and I was broke.

  I pulled into the parking lot and put the emergency brake on, leaned my head back and closed my eyes. I was so tired, it would be so easy to just sit here and sleep—

  A tap on my window snapped my head forward and I twisted, blinking several times at what I was seeing.

  Who I was seeing.

  “Micah?” I breathed his name and rolled down my window. He crouched beside me, his dark hair rumpled and his aquamarine eyes looking tired.

  “Hey, you know you’re a hard lady to track down.” He reached in and touched my chin; I couldn’t help but pull back, my initial shock turning into a sharp stabbing pain. I couldn’t do this, not with Micah too.

  “Penny helped you find me?”

  “Yes, in trade for using my truck to move her brother out of town. Listen, we need to talk. You took off so fast after last Saturday—”

  “I thought that was best considering the circumstances.”

  His lips tightened. “Well I didn’t.”

  I turned the key in the ignition and put the car into reverse but held my foot on the brake, hesitating to leave even though I knew it was best. “You’re a married man, Micah, and I’m not going down that road again.”

  His hands tightened on the edge of my door. “I didn’t marry her. I’m not letting you go that easily, Brielle. I saw you at the church, and I know what you think. And if I’d known you were going to leave, I wouldn’t have put up with the scene there as much as I did.”

  My junky little car idled and I struggled to comprehend his words. “But I saw you all come out of the church together. I heard the pastor speaking about love and honoring your spouse.”

  “Can we go somewhere to talk about all this?”

  I nodded, and Micah walked around to the other side of my car and tapped on the door. I leaned over and opened it up, too stunned to do anything else. He slid into the passenger seat.

  The silence was anything but comfortable, so I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Why does your uncle hate you so much?”

  Micah groaned. “You think this is a better topic?”

  I stared straight ahead, refusing to look at him. “It is for me.”

  “Fine. My father and Bruce are brothers. My dad is almost twenty years younger—an ‘oops’. Before I was born, my dad broke up a relationship Uncle Bruce had, and it got real ugly. The fight was bad, and I don’t know all the details, those two are still close-lipped about it. It comes down to this. Bruce is not the forgiving kind, you know? And when I was born, he took out his anger on me. Didn’t help that I look just like my dad, and it didn’t help that my dad rubbed it in that my uncle never had kids. It’s just ugly family history.”

  “That’s sad,” I whispered, knowing without a doubt that somehow our families had been tangled up long before we’d ever met. How and why, I’d probably never know, but if things had turned out differently, I might have been raised knowing Micah. How different would life have been?

  No more words were spoken between us, as I drove to the closest coffee shop, not a mom and pop place, but a franchised set up that was bustling with people.

  Micah nodded toward the long line-up. “I’ll get us some coffee; you find a seat for us.”

  In a matter of minutes, I was nursing a really, really bad cup of coffee, but it gave me something to focus on. Something to stare at while I gathered my thoughts.

  “Did Fiona and James make up, then?” I asked softly, staring at him over the rim of my cup.

  He shook his head. “Nope, they didn’t make up. I got there before the wedding, and I took her aside, told her that James was hurting Darwin. She argued with me, tried to get me to marry her.” He shook his head again. “Anyway, I didn’t know it, but James and Darwin were in the room next to us getting ready, and there was a connecting door. We heard a thump and opened the door up. James had his back to us, and was slapping the little guy. Hard. He had knocked him down because he’d made a mess in his diaper.”

  I put a hand over my mouth, and my eyes filled with tears. I hurt for little Darwin, and I was horrified that Fiona had let it go on for as long as she had. “What happened?”

  “I beat the shit out of him. Fiona called the wedding off, and the pastor decided to give a sermon since he had a captive audience.” He smiled at me, reached across the table and took my hand. “Fiona packed up and left town with Darwin, went to Florida with her parents. Her father, I spoke with him about her, and he agreed that it was best she moved in with them. They plan on filing for joint custody of the little guy.”

  His fingers rubbed across my knuckles, and I just stared at our entwined hands. “You mean that she’s gone?”

  Micah stood and shifted seats so he was right next to me, then slid an arm over my shoulders, snuggling me tight to his side. “Yeah, the crazy woman is gone.”

  “What about Darwin? You can’t tell me you can just let him go.”

  “I’ll go visit him. Fiona’s dad is not a stupid man. He’s already s
poken to me about Darwin spending time there, on the farm.”

  I swallowed hard, emotions constricting my throat. “You’re staying on the farm?”

  “They hired me to run the facility full time. I haven’t said yes or no yet, that depends on what happens with you.”

  I took a deep breath. Micah wasn’t married to Fiona. Fiona was gone. Little Darwin was going to be okay. And I had kept my promise to Darwin.

  We’ll be together.

  So why was I hesitating, what was holding me back?

  Micah shifted in his seat, so that he could look me in the eye. He put one hand on my chin as if to hold me there. “Brielle, come back with me. I don’t want anyone else in my life. We don’t have to stay on the farm, we can work something out.” He took a breath as if he wasn’t sure if he would continue. “There are things in this life, and this world, that I can’t explain, that make no sense to me, like the events that brought us together, the tragedy and heartache, the pain and loss. From the outside looking in, they just look bad. But they aren’t all bad, because all of those things are what did bring us together. And for that, I will be forever grateful. I will never take you or what we have for granted.”

  There, that was the missing piece. I hadn’t been able to find the words, but he had shown them to me. What he’d said, it was the understanding we both had that, as bad as things could be, they had turned out in the end. That old wounds had been healed and new beginnings offered to us both. It was the truth that everything we had between us was finally as it should be.

  I put my hand on his thigh and leaned into him so I could rest my head against his chest, could hear his heart—Darwin’s heart—beating strong. I would never stop loving Darwin, but somehow in my heart there’d been room for one more. For another man who rivaled Darwin’s ninety-eight percent. Micah was everything I could ever want, and though I wasn’t sure I’d ever tell him, Micah was my one hundred percent, the man I’d been waiting for all my life.

  “I’ll come back, on one condition.”

  His arms circled around me and he held me tight. “Name it.”

  I looked up into his eyes and circled my arms around his neck. “Never kiss me goodbye again. No more endings, just beginnings.”

  He tipped his head and pressed his lips to mine, his mouth warm and soft, his answer in his kiss, and the beat of his heart—Darwin’s heart—under mine.

  Beginnings … for the first time in a long time, I was looking forward to what the world had in store for me.

  To facing it with Micah at my side, to falling asleep each night with his arms around me, to knowing that I’d finally found everything I’d been searching for.

  I closed my eyes, tears pricking at the back of them, as emotions of gratitude and loved swelled through me. Coming home had taken me a long time, and every step along the way had brought me near to my knees. But in the end, every step had been worth it, because every step had brought me here.

  To Darwin.

  To Micah.

  To the men who would show me what love meant.

  To my one hundred percent.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Shannon Mayer lives in the southwestern tip of Canada with her husband, dog, cats, horse, and cows. When not writing she spends her time staring at immense amounts of rain, herding old people (similar to herding cats) and attempting to stay out of trouble. Especially that last is difficult for her.

  She is the author of the The Rylee Adamson Novels, The Nevermore Trilogy, A Celtic Legacy series and two contemporary romances. Please visit her website for more information on her novels.

  For a full list of Shannon’s books check out,

  Website:

  www.shannonmayer.com/

  Facebook:

  www.facebook.com/ShannonMayerAuthor

  Twitter:

  https://twitter.com/TheShannonMayer

  Shannon Mayer’s Amazon Author Page:

  http://amzn.to/19vLaCg

  JOGGING TO THE stairs, I put Elise from my mind … something that was easy to do when I got a glimpse at the girl walking up the stairs, a camera slung around her neck. Photographer or tourist? She had long, wavy, dark hair that was causally messy and gave me an instant itch to bury my fingers into it; to see if it was as thick and silky as it looked. Grinning, I thought about Hugh’s suggestion and it suddenly seemed like a very good idea. I slowed my steps so we met on the next landing. I stood between her and the stairs going up, put on my best, crooked grin—the one that had earned me cookies, women and jobs, depending on my age.

  “I’m sorry, you can’t go up there; it’s a closed set. I’m afraid I’ll have to escort you back to the lobby.” I pointed to the lower stairs, and then folded my arms across my chest, grinning like a fool. A whiff of perfume curled around me and the smile on my face stretched wider; she smelled like heaven, whispers of flowers and moonlit nights. Shit, I was damn near poetic in my musings.

  Her eyes flicked up to mine, surprise crossing her face, but it was me who caught my breath. Her eyes were green, shadowed with a dark ring of black, smoky and full of depth. Those eyes sucked me in with an effortlessness that shot through my body. And although the beauty of her eyes was undeniable, there was something else, a quality I couldn’t put my finger on, a softness that I hadn’t seen since what seemed like a lifetime ago … .

  “I have a pass,” she said, her sweetly husky voice coiling around me, lingering on my skin as if she’d touched me with her fingertips. She held up a tag and a camera that hung from her neck. “I have an appointment waiting for me.”

  I gave into temptation, stepping closer to her, drinking her in; the curve of her cheek, the sudden hollow in her throat as she took a deep surprised breath. She blushed; she actually blushed! How long had it been since I met someone who wasn’t skilled at playing men? Who hadn’t worked what they’d wanted from the man in question and then left as soon as they could?

  This girl was no model, no actress, not because she wasn’t beautiful, but because she was dressed in a t-shirt and cut off shorts with no name brand, and scuffed running shoes that had seen better days. Inwardly, I heaved a sigh of relief. She wouldn’t be after anything I had to offer, no connections for this girl.

  She was perfect.

  I continued to smile, feeling the tension between us and the pounding of my heart, like I was about to pull off a particularly risky move; knowing by the way her eyes dilated she felt the … whatever it was between us too.

  “Excuse me, I don’t want to be late.” She tried to step around me, and I followed her, making sure to keep my distance, but not letting her get away from me. God damn, she was fine. Natural, that’s what it was; she had a natural beauty untouched by surgery, Botox or heavy make-up. She was clean and fresh, something I’d almost forgotten existed.

  I wanted to taste her. Without another thought, I lifted my hand to brush along the edge of her jaw, her skin like satin under my fingers. Her eyes widened, dilating further as her mouth pursed and her jaw tightened. Such a mixture of desire and denial in those deep green eyes. The emerald color flashed with irritation, sparkling as if on fire—green fire to burn me all the way to my soul and back, if I let it. I stifled a shiver of anticipation, my muscles tensing, prepping me to move fast. To move in for the killer kiss that would seal the deal, leave her at my mercy.

  The way she stood, the tension in her muscles, the spark of fire in her eyes at being touched without permission, all told me she wasn’t like the other girls. Which only made me more certain that I wanted her.

  She was exactly what I’d been looking for without even knowing it.

  I closed the distance between us, the tension in her body vibrating off her skin. She lifted her chin, eyes snapping with impatience, and put a finger to my chest, poking at me.

  “I said excuse me; I meant it. I have a meeting, and I don’t think he will appreciate me being late. He’s a busy man.”

  “What kind of meeting?” My lips quirked upward; damn, she had some spunk
too. This was looking better and better. “You don’t mean like the kind of meeting that pays you by the hour, do you?” I had no such thoughts, but I couldn’t resist teasing her.

  Her mouth dropped open. “I would … never … ugh!”

  I held up my hands. “I had to ask. Because if we’re going to continue this relationship I need to make sure that I’m your one and only. I don’t share well, nor do I play well with others.”

  She drew herself up, reached out and for a split second I thought she was going to touch my face, maybe even cup my chin for a kiss. Nope, not my Spitfire.

  She grabbed my ear, twisted it hard, and punctuated her words with increased pressure and torque. “I will never be your one and only; it’s none of your business why I’m here, now get out of my way.”

  I yelped, unable to pull away from her hand and my ear, which she continued to clutch as she dragged and pushed me from my place in front of the stairs.

  “What the hell was that?” I griped as she let go and I put a hand over my now throbbing ear.

  “That was a move I learned to use on my brother when he was being a pain in my butt.” She snapped over her shoulder as she strode up the stairs, long legs eating up the steps, her pert little ass beckoning me with each sway of her softly rounded hips.

  Well, I’ll be damned.

  I scrubbed at my ear and let her go; if she was here on some sort of assignment, I would track her down. I stared up the stairs, listening to the woman’s footsteps grow distant. To be fair, I’d have followed her if it wasn’t for Elise waiting at the top for me.

  “Spitfire, don’t forget me!” I called up the stairwell.

  “Shut up!” She shouted back.

  I chuckled to myself. Nope, I wouldn’t be forgetting her anytime soon.

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  Table of Contents

  Praise for Ninety Eight

  Acknowledgments