Finding Forever: Treading Water Series, Book 5

by Force, Marie

  “Wow, what a challenge that must’ve been for her.”

  “It was, but she’s just the nicest person you’ll ever meet, and we adored Eric. I told you he was born deaf, right?”

  “You did, and when he came into your life, that’s when you learned sign language.”

  “That’s right. He and I had an instant bond. I can’t even explain it, but from the minute we met, we were just buddies. We still are. He’s one of my closest friends, and vice versa.”

  “You’ve got me sitting on the edge of my seat here, because you told me your mom recovered, so now I’m wondering what that was like.”

  “It was amazing and insane at the same time. A lot happens in three years… You don’t realize as life goes on its merry way, but Andi got pregnant.”

  “Oh my God. Whoa.”

  “Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Then we found out she was expecting twins, which was super exciting. I couldn’t believe there were going to be six of us. My dad was hilarious about it. I could tell his head was spinning, but he was thrilled. He and Andi were crazy about each other, and it was so nice to see him happy again after everything he’d been through. And Andi, too. Eric’s father left them when they found out he was hearing-impaired.”

  “Shut up. Who does that?”

  “I couldn’t believe that, either. It’s his loss. Eric is amazing.”

  “Wow, just when you think you’ve heard everything…”

  “I know. So Andi is pregnant and due in September, and that April, my mom got really sick with a high fever that went on for days. She was in the hospital, and we really thought that was it, that we were going to lose her for good this time. My dad was there around the clock, and Jamie kept him fed while the rest of us tried to focus on school and stuff.”

  “That must’ve been hard.”

  “It was. All our grades suffered during that time. My dad was with her two weeks after she went into the hospital when she opened her eyes and looked at him.”

  “He must’ve freaked out.”

  “He did. We all did. It was unbelievable. A total miracle.”

  “What did he do? What did Andi do?”

  “Andi moved out.”

  “Oh man. I’m heartbroken for people I’ve never met.”

  “It was brutal for all of us. When she moved to live with us, her company hired her to manage the Newport hotel, so she took Eric and moved into the manager’s suite. She told Dad and us to focus on our mom and to not worry about them, but my poor dad was a wreck over it all.”

  “Who wouldn’t be?”

  “He’s a good guy, always tries to do the right thing, and he’d promised Andi he’d never leave her alone with their babies, and now…”

  “I can’t even imagine that dilemma. And your mom! Waking up after all that time to find out her husband had someone else and twins on the way. Christ have mercy. Someone should make this into a movie.”

  Maggie laughed. “Sometimes real life is too painful to be entertaining.”

  “True. So what happened?”

  “My dad tried to tell my mom, as gently as possible, everything that’d happened. He started with us, how Jill had graduated and was at Brown and how Kate wanted to go to Nashville after she graduated and how I was almost thirteen. She couldn’t believe that she’d been ‘gone’ for three years. And when he told her about Andi and the babies, she asked him to leave.”

  Brayden took a sip from a bottle of beer. “Did he go?”

  “He did, but he kept going back, trying to get her to talk to him.”

  “And what about Andi? Did he see her?”

  “No. She wouldn’t see him, but she arranged for Eric to see him every week. He’d become like a dad to Eric, and she made sure they saw each other.”

  “He must’ve been dying over her being pregnant with twins and living apart from him.”

  “He was. It was so hard for him. Then my mom had a dream that brought back the memories of being attacked by a client she was showing a house to. She’d been a Realtor before all this happened, and the guy threatened to kill one of us if she ever told anyone. So she didn’t tell anyone. When she saw that car coming at her that day, all she saw was a way out.”

  “Sweetheart… My God. I don’t even know what to say.”

  It occurred to Maggie that she should’ve told her mom about Ethan, because she would’ve understood in a way that no one else ever could have.

  “What’re you thinking? Your expression totally changed.”

  She shared the thought with him. “Everything with my mom happened such a long time ago that I didn’t even think to tell her. I haven’t told anyone that story in years.”

  A warm smile lit up his sinfully handsome face. “I’m very honored that you’re telling me. So what happened after she had the dream?”

  “I’ll tell you the rest the next time we talk. I have to get some sleep.”

  “Oh come on! You can’t leave me hanging! I’ll go crazy waiting to hear the rest.”

  “No, you won’t. You’ve got fish to catch and beaches, boats, bars and ballads to keep you busy.”

  “I never would’ve suspected you were so mean to leave me on a cliffhanger this way.”

  Maggie laughed at the outraged expression on his face. “You’re going to want to tune in for the next episode.”

  “Have no doubt I’ll be there. Same time tomorrow?”

  “Go out and get drunk, Brayden. You’re on vacation.”

  “I’d much rather talk to you and hear the rest of this captivating story than get drunk. I can do that any time.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I say so. Same time tomorrow?”

  “I’ll be here.”

  Chapter 17

  Brayden thought about Maggie and the story she’d told him all day while fishing with his friends, eating dinner and trying to pass the time until ten o’clock.

  “You’re not staying in again tonight, are you, dude?” Josh asked while he got ready to go out. The two of them had been roommates in college and always shared a room when they traveled with the guys.

  “I’m afraid I am.”

  “I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

  Brayden laughed. “Yes, you do. Who’s the one who can never go out anymore at home because he’s so married?”

  “That’s different! That’s home. This is vacation.”

  “What can I say? I’d rather talk to her than go out drinking with you losers.”

  “That’s hurtful, Brayden.”

  Josh’s efforts to make a hurt face only further amused Brayden.

  “Go have a good time. That’s what this is all about, right? Everyone doing what they want.”

  “That’s right, and what we all want is to go out and party—with you—like we always do.”

  “Remember how it was when you first met Ashley?”

  Josh, who’d been using the mirror over the dresser to bring order to his wet blond hair, turned to face Brayden, his tanned face as serious as Brayden had seen it in a long time. “You’re comparing this chick to Ashley?”

  Josh and Ashley had been together since college and were crazy about each other, had been from the get-go.

  “So what if I am?”

  “You just met her a couple of weeks ago?”

  Not even that long. “So what?”

  “You’re putting her on Ashley’s level? This is more serious than I thought.” He opened the bedroom door and summoned the other four guys, all of whom were dressed in shorts and T-shirts after having showered. “Boys, we have a situation.”

  Brayden rolled his eyes and flopped back on his bed like a fish landing on a deck, resigned to his fate.

  “What’s up?” Max asked. He still had the body of the linebacker he’d been at UT as well as the dark hair and blue eyes that’d made him the ultimate chick magnet in college.

  Josh was more than happy to fill them in on what was happening. “Our boy Brayden just compared this chick he’s been mooning ove
r all week to Ashley.”

  “Shut the fuck up.” Taylor’s face went blank with shock. “She’s your Ashley?”

  “I didn’t say that. I simply asked Josh if he remembered what it was like when he first met Ashley.”

  “This is huge,” Isaac said. Tall, with dark-brown skin and the same muscles he’d had when he too played football at UT, Isaac worked as an accountant these days. “We gotta meet this girl.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Are you ashamed of us, bro?” Max asked.

  “Fuck yes. You’re to stay far, far, far away from her.”

  “I’m hurt,” Taylor said. He’d been training to be a doctor for so long, he said he’d forgotten what it was like to not be in school of some kind. One more year, and he’d be done.

  “You have to have feelings in order to be hurt,” Brayden said. “Now all y’all need to fuck off and get out of here so I can call her.”

  “So whipped,” Josh said.

  That led to a cacophony of whip-cracking sounds being made by the lot of them. Thankfully, the siren call of the bars was more appealing to them than continuing to bust Brayden’s balls. They weren’t done with him. That much was certain. He’d made a critical error with the question about Ashley. She was the gold standard, and evoking her name had raised the stakes in his fledgling relationship with Maggie, at least in the feeble minds of his friends.

  He waited for twenty minutes after they left to make sure they wouldn’t be back before he FaceTimed Maggie, ten minutes later than scheduled.

  She answered on the third ring and seemed out of breath. Her cheeks were rosy, her hair was up, and her eyes, as always, were gorgeous.

  “Where’d I get you from?”

  “I was in the kitchen, heard my phone ring and realized I’d forgotten it in my room.”

  “And here I thought you’d be counting the seconds until I called. After what I’ve just been through for you, that hurts me, Maggie.”

  Her brows furrowed with confusion. “What’ve you been through for me?”

  “Another ass-kicking from my friends wondering who this chick is that has me skipping the bars so I can stay in and talk to her for hours.”

  “Oh. What did you tell them?”

  “I said her name is Maggie, and she’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met and has a heart of gold, too.”

  “You did not tell them that!”

  “No,” he said, chuckling, “but every word of that is true.”

  “Stop it.”

  “Stop what?”

  “I am not the most gorgeous woman you’ve ever met.”

  “Yeah, you are, and you love horses, too. Win-win, baby.”

  “Brayden…”

  “Finish the story, Maggie. I’ve been dying to hear the rest all day.”

  “Where did we leave off?”

  “You know exactly where we left off. Your mom woke up, Andi moved out, she’s pregnant with twins, your dad is freaking, and your mom remembered what’d happened to her.”

  Maggie smiled at his rapid-fire review. “Right, so when my mom had that dream that brought back all those memories, she asked the nurses to call my dad. After he told her about Andi and the babies, she hadn’t asked for him in weeks, even though he continued to go by the hospital to check on her and see if she needed anything.”

  “The poor guy was trapped in a nightmare.”

  “He kept saying how thankful he was that my mom had recovered, no matter what complications it caused for him and Andi. He was glad she was back, that we had our mother again. He never once said anything other than that, at least not to us.”

  “Do you think he meant it? That he was glad she’d come back?”

  “Yes, I do believe he meant it. But it was a challenge for all of us to bring someone back into our lives who’d been absent for such a long time.”

  “I’m sure it was.”

  “You think, oh, my mom is back, and thank God for that, but do I have to ask her if I can go to Sophie’s house like I used to, or do I still ask my dad that, or which end is up, you know?”

  “Yeah, that’s a little wild.”

  “It was, and I was anxious about what would become of Andi and Eric and the babies. By then, I loved them as much as I loved my mom, and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  “That’s totally understandable.”

  “It was all very confusing. I didn’t hear the details of all this until years later, but when my mom told my dad what she’d remembered, they decided together to call the cops and report it.”

  “Good for her.”

  “They found out that the guy who attacked her had been convicted of almost the exact same crime in California, and it was his third offense. Since he was already in prison and would be staying there for a very long time, they decided not to file new charges. Shortly after that, my mom asked Andi to come see her in the hospital.”

  “No way.”

  “Yes! I couldn’t believe it when I heard about it, but she wanted to meet the woman her husband had fallen in love with.”

  “Oh my God. Did Andi go?”

  “She did.”

  “Wow. What happened?”

  “From what I was told much later, they had a very nice conversation after which my mom asked to see my dad. She told him that she wanted what she’d had before, but after meeting Andi and hearing about her and how they were as a couple from us, she knew that she could never again have that, because he was in love with someone else. She said she was letting him go because she didn’t want to have to always wonder if he’d rather be somewhere else.”

  “Holy crap, Maggie. Your mom is amazing.”

  “She really is. They’d been married more than twenty years, all of them good years, but she was so wise to see that everything had changed, and there was no going back to who they’d been before all this happened.”

  “It takes some kind of courage to be able to see that and do what’s best for everyone else.”

  “I was too young to realize that at the time, but I’ve come to see what an enormous thing she did for my dad and our family.”

  “So he must’ve gone right to Andi.”

  “Not quite. He took the time to get divorced and went to her on the two-year anniversary of the day they met after he planned a wedding at the hotel that brought them together. She was told so many lies by everyone to keep it a secret from her. After all, she was the hotel manager and lived on the property. But he pulled it off. I’ll never forget what she said.”

  “I’m dying to hear. This is better than any movie I’ve ever seen.”

  Maggie grinned at him, and he wanted to freeze that moment so he’d have that picture of her forever. “She said, ‘I thought you weren’t coming.’”

  “Oh damn!”

  “Kate was working at the hotel that summer, performing at the outdoor bar, and she’d told Andi what my mom had done weeks earlier.”

  “And then he never came for her! What she must’ve thought.”

  “I know, right?”

  “What did your dad say to that?”

  “He said, ‘I wasn’t coming until I could offer you everything.’”

  “I’m dead.” He placed a hand over his heart and fell back on the bed. “Your dad is the most romantic guy who ever lived.”

  “Ew, that’s gross.”

  “Maggie, that line is epic.”

  “Maybe a little.”

  “Totally epic. He’s the dude who ruins it for the rest of us mere mortals.”

  Maggie laughed. “I cannot think of my dad as a romantic or I’ll vomit.”

  “So they got married?”

  “They got married, and Andi went into labor during the reception. My identical twin brothers, John and Rob, were born an hour later at the hotel. They discovered later that she’d been in labor for two days, but it was all in her back, so she didn’t realize it was labor until it was too late to get to a hospital.”

  “Best story ever. Thank you for sharin
g that with me.”

  “You’re welcome, but there’s more. I have to tell you about my mom going to Vermont to help with renovations to her brother’s ski house and falling for the contractor who’s now my wonderful stepfather, Aidan, and how Kate came to Nashville and fell for Reid and how Aidan’s amazing O’Malley family became part of our family.”

  “I can’t wait to hear all of it. You have the best stories.”

  “I guess they’re pretty good. When you’re living it, sometimes it doesn’t seem so great, but in hindsight, I can see how someone else would find it pretty cool.”

  “You went through a lot in the midst of the best story ever.”

  “We did. My mom’s accident and three years without her… Those were hard times, even if we got a lot of new people to love out of it. I can’t imagine my life without Andi, her mom, Eric, John, Rob, Aidan, their sons Max and Nick and Aidan’s amazing family.”

  “It’s good that you can see it that way.”

  “My glass is way more than half full, for sure. That’s one of my Grammy O’Malley’s favorite sayings. She’s been nearly incapacitated by arthritis, but her glass is always more than half full.”

  “I’d love to meet the stars of this amazing story someday.”

  “You would? Really?”

  “Yes, Maggie, I would. Are you going to put me out of my misery and agree to go out with me?”

  “You’re in Key West basking in the sun. You’re not in misery.”

  “I’m in total hell waiting to hear if you’re going to shoot me down because you’re worried about us working together or some other manufactured reason.”

  “That’s not a manufactured reason! It’s a real concern.”

  “That I told you won’t be an issue. If we go out and it turns bad, I’ll leave. I know Matthews House is your gig, not mine.”

  “The therapeutic riding program is important to me.”

  “To me as well.”

  “I’m also worried about the thing you won’t talk about.”

  “I told you that’s nothing to be concerned with. It happened a lifetime ago. It doesn’t matter.”