Welcome to Pembrooke: The Complete Pembrooke Series

by Jessica Prince

  He reached down and pulled something from his pants pocket, keeping his fingers closed tightly around it. “Oh, I think you know.”

  I nodded. “I think so too, but why don’t you ask anyway?”

  “Chloe Delaney?” he started. I held my breath and waited eagerly. “Will you…” God! The suspense was killing me, “please stop leaving your damned shoes all over the house! For the love of God, woman! I nearly broke my neck last night! I swear, I have no idea what the hell women need with so many shoes. I’m thinking about getting a dog just so he can chew them all to hell.”

  “Derrick!” I shouted, smacking him in the chest.

  “Okay, okay,” he chuckled, opening his palm and revealing a beautiful ring. “Will you marry me?” he asked softly.

  Tears immediately started falling as I nodded my head. “Yes,” I sniffled, snatching the ring out of his hand and sliding it on my finger. “Yes!” I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him like my life depended on it.

  “I love you,” I said against his lips.

  “I love you too, sunshine. More than anything.”

  “You were just kidding about letting a dog destroy my shoes, right?”

  He laughed and pulled me against him tighter. “Maybe just a little bit.” Once we pulled apart, he leaned over the edge of the bucket and shouted, “She said yes!” at the top of his lungs. Our loved ones below — along with some of the other people on the ride — hooted and hollered from below.

  “And you said you’d never get married again.” I couldn’t help but tease as the ride started back up and we began our decent.

  “Well, I never expected a curvy little bakery owner to waltz into my life and throw everything off course all because I called her by the wrong name. It took me a while, but I finally realized.”

  “Realized what?” I asked, staring up into those hazel eyes I’d been in love with since I first saw them.

  “That I’d been waiting my whole life for you.”

  Yeah, I was most definitely getting my fairytale ending.

  Epilogue

  Eliza

  I felt like I’d been living in a fairytale all day long. Everything about my Dad and Chloe’s wedding was so beautiful. I looked around the room, nothing but white Christmas lights twinkling all over as people danced and talked and laughed. It made me wonder what my wedding would look like. I would want it just like Chloe and Dad’s.

  I stood off to the side of the dance floor, watching my Dad and Chloe kiss as they swayed to the music. I was SO glad he picked her to marry. Chloe was the best. She even picked out the prettiest dress for me to wear in the wedding! I felt like a princess as I looked down at my feet, covered by the long skirt. I swished it back and forth, watching the material move around my legs like a wave. I felt like a grownup in that dress.

  My hair was pretty and done up just like Ms. Harlow’s, and I even got to wear a little bit of makeup! I’d hoped it would make Ethan notice me, but when I finally got the guts to go over and talk to him a few minutes ago, he didn’t even say anything.

  I sighed as I remembered how handsome Ethan looked in his tux. He really was the cutest guy I’d ever seen, and I hated that I was so much younger than him. I heard Dad and Chloe arguing about it one night — they always liked to argue so they could make up after, going in their room to kiss and stuff. Dad said Ethan was way too old for me. That he’d gone through most of the cheerleaders in his school already.

  I remembered my face getting hot as I listened in on them. I wasn’t really sure what Dad was talking about, but I knew if Ethan liked high school cheerleaders, then there was no way he would like me.

  “Hey there, kiddo.” My eyes shot up off the floor. The sound on his voice made my stomach flip over and over.

  “Uh… hey.”

  “What are you doing over here looking so sad?”

  “I look sad?” I hadn’t realized I looked sad. I guess thinking about Ethan had kind of bummed me out, but I hadn’t realized people would notice. Especially him. “I’m not sad. I was just… thinking.”

  “What were you thinking about so hard?” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his tuxedo pants and smiled at me. It was the best smile I’d ever seen.

  “N-nothing,” I stuttered. Gosh! I hated when I did that around him. He probably thought I was stupid or something.

  “Well, if you’re not thinking about anything, and you’re not sad, then why don’t we dance?”

  My mouth dropped open and I felt like my eyes were going to pop right out of my head. “You want to dance? With me?”

  “Sure,” he laughed. I loved his laugh. It made my belly feel funny, like there were butterflies in it or something. “We’re basically family, right?”

  My shoulders slumped at his question. I was in love with Ethan Prewitt and he only thought of me as part of his family. He’d never see me as anything more than a sister no matter what I did. “Oh, yeah… sure. Family.”

  One of his eyebrows hooked up in that really cool way. “Do you know how to dance?”

  “I guess,” I shrugged, feeling like such a dork for crushing on the coolest guy ever. “I mean, I know a little bit.”

  “Well then let’s go.” He reached for my hand and I felt goosebumps break out across my skin as he pulled me onto the dance floor.

  “Your girlfriend won’t mind that you’re dancing with me?” My eyes darted all around the room as he put one hand on my waist. My body tingled from him holding me and I thought I could die happy, all because the coolest guy in high school was dancing with me. His hand was on my waist and he was staring Right. At. Me.

  “Nah,” he shrugged. “We broke up. She was kind of a pain in the ass.” I giggled and felt my cheeks turn red. “You know, your dad’s staring at me like he wants to shoot me.” I jerked my head around to see Dad glaring right at me and Ethan. Chloe looked like she was trying not to laugh.

  I turned back around, embarrassed. “He’s just protective.”

  Ethan laughed again and I wanted so badly to lean in closer and press my ear to his chest so I could hear what his laughter sounded like close up. Lilly was going to die when I called her and told her that I talked to and danced with Ethan! She knew how much I liked him.

  “Well, you can’t really blame him, right? I mean, if I had a daughter that looked like you, I’d probably chain her down in the basement.”

  My forehead wrinkled as I looked up at him. “Huh?”

  “I just mean, you’re really pretty. I’d lose my mind if I had a daughter that looked like you,” he shrugged like what he said wasn’t the best thing I’d ever heard in my entire life.

  I was pretty sure my heart stopped beating for several seconds. “You… you think I’m pretty?”

  He shrugged again, “Well, yeah kiddo. You’re really pretty. And when you get older, I bet you’ll be gorgeous.”

  He thought I was pretty. And he thought I’d be gorgeous when I grew up! I only ever heard of people on TV being called gorgeous, or Chloe when my dad had really screwed up.

  In that very moment I made a decision, a decision I’d hold on to for years and years. I was going to have my fairytale wedding one day, and I was going to marry the love of my life, just like Chloe and Dad.

  Standing on the crowded dance floor at the most beautiful wedding I’d ever been to, I made a promise to myself.

  One day I was going to marry Ethan Prewitt.

  He just didn’t know it yet.

  The End.

  Coming Full Circle

  Book 2

  She knew what it was like to feel unwanted.

  At an early age Eliza Anderson learned a very hard lesson. Sometimes the people who are supposed to love you the most are the ones that cause you the most pain. She learned to guard herself, hesitating to let anyone close for fear of feeling that rejection all over again. Then Ethan came into her life, and what had started as a simple childhood crush morphed into a friendship she eventually came to cherish above all else. He was her s
afe place. Her rock. A shoulder she could lean on. Until he ripped it all away.

  He knew what it was like to feel like an outsider.

  Ethan Prewitt grew up learning that you couldn’t always trust the people you loved the most to be there. That sense of security he craved had always alluded him, leaving him to feel like an interloper in his own home. He dreamed of escaping the small town of Pembrooke and building a life where he didn’t have to depend on anyone but himself. What he never expected was for his friendship with Eliza to grow into something that meant everything to him.

  Mistakes were made. Hearts were broken. But now Ethan’s home and he’s determined to make it right. It was time for their relationship to come full circle.

  Because what they had was once in a lifetime.

  Prologue

  Eliza

  I fell in love with Ethan Prewitt when I was nine years old.

  It wasn’t real love or anything. I was only nine—almost ten—after all, but back then it was the most intense, consuming emotion I’d ever experienced in my young life. From nine to twelve I was a blushing, giggling, stuttering mess whenever he was around, and seeing as my Dad and his wife Chloe were best friends with Ethan’s sister and brother-in-law, he was around a lot.

  Ethan was gorgeous and popular and way too old for me — which only added to the thrill of it. But as time passed and we really got to know each other, that young, childish love evolved. I started to grow up, mature, and that immature infatuation turned into a friendship the likes of which I cherished above all else.

  My relationship with Ethan was the most important thing in my life. It was him I went to when I needed advice, his opinion I held in the highest regard, his shoulder I leaned on whenever I needed someone to share my burdens with. As the years passed, that respect only grew.

  He turned into the best friend I could have ever had. We told each other everything, confiding things we wouldn’t dare tell anyone else. We shared our ambitions and dreams. We knew each other better than anyone else. I needed him. I grew to depend on him.

  And looking back, I realized that was my biggest mistake.

  Because needing someone didn’t necessarily mean they needed you back. It was a lesson I’d learned even before Ethan came into my life. You could give a person all the love you were capable of carrying, but that didn’t mean you’d get the same in return.

  My mother hadn’t taught me much in my life, but that particular lesson was the one that stuck the most, sad as it was.

  There were people in your life who were supposed to care, supposed to do their best to protect you from all the bad. My father was one of those people, his wife Chloe another. It hurt to know my own mother, my flesh and blood, wasn’t one of those people, and for that very reason, I kept my circle small. Only those who I’d go to the ends of the earth for and who I trusted to do the same for me were allowed in. I appreciated quality over quantity, and while keeping people out sometimes led to being lonely, I’d convinced myself that it was enough. I had everyone I’d ever need. I had Dad and Chloe, Noah and Harlow, my other friend Lilly.

  And I had Ethan. Or so I thought.

  I only had him for six years before I lost him.

  Now I’ve spent the next six regretting the fact that I ever let Ethan Prewitt in.

  1

  Ethan

  It was yet another sleepless night where I spent hours staring up at the slow spinning ceiling fan above my bed. I tried counting the rotations hoping the monotony would clear my head enough to let drowsiness take over, but no such luck. I hadn’t slept for shit since I took the hit on the field that fucked my knee to hell and took me out of the game for the rest of the season. I’d lived and breathed football for as long as I could remember, and now that it had been taken from me, I was left with nothing to do but think.

  Not a good thing, especially since sitting idle was something I’d been avoiding like the plague for the past six years.

  The warm, naked body next to me in the bed shifted and ripped me from my thoughts. How sad was it that I’d been so lost in my own head that I’d forgotten the woman sleeping next to me?

  “Mmm,” she hummed pleasurably. “Good morning, handsome.”

  My head rolled on the pillow to face the blonde currently pressing her fake tits against my arm. Amber. One of the few women in my phone who got repeat calls… not that those calls were all that often. But seeing as I was holed up in my apartment with a goddamned torn ACL and unable to hit up the clubs and bars with my teammates to pick up a random hookup for the night, my choices were limited.

  Unfortunately, that also meant I’d been left with no choice but to invite her to my place if I wanted to get laid — something I made a conscious effort never to do until now.

  “Morning,” I muttered, sounding sullen despite having marathon sex last night with a woman more than happy to do all the work.

  “You don’t sound too happy,” she purred, running her bright red nails across my chest. “How about I do something to put you in a better mood?”

  My hands went to her hips and grabbed hold, stopping her just before she managed to throw her leg over my hip and straddle my waist. “Sorry, babe. PT will be here any minute, so I’m gonna have to take a rain check.”

  When her bottom lip jutted out in a pout, it took everything I had not to roll my eyes. But since I’d used her for sex and had no intentions whatsoever of calling her again after the night before, I figured the least I could do was be polite to the woman while I attempted to shuffle her out of my apartment.

  “Gotta take a leak, then you should probably get going. No need for you to stay and be bored out of your mind while he’s working my knee.” I shifted her body away from mine and sat up, easing my left leg off the mattress so I could attempt to stand.

  I hobbled awkwardly over to my crutches, the long brace on my leg making it more difficult as Amber spoke. “I really don’t mind. Maybe I could help you out while you’re recovering? Like cleaning and cooking until you can get around a little better?”

  Oh Jesus. The hope shining her in eyes — eyes that had mascara streaked underneath, not a very good look — had me twitching to run, and if it wasn’t for my blown-out knee, I had no doubt I’d already be locking myself in the bathroom. However, I wasn’t that lucky; I was stuck in place while she crawled from the bed, revealing every inch of her body to me as she closed the distance between us.

  Her nails traced along the waistband of my boxer briefs as she whispered, “Maybe I’ll clean naked. It could be fun.” Her lips tilted up in a seductive smile that held little effect since half her makeup had streaked into places it didn’t belong, making her look more like a drunk clown than a seductress. My dick didn’t so much as twitch.

  Fuck me. That was one of the reasons I never had them over to my place, and I never stayed the night at theirs. Things never looked the same in the light of day as they did the night before.

  “Maybe some other time, baby.” I tried to smile, hoping it didn’t look as forced as it felt. “Besides, you wouldn’t want to put my cleaning lady Rosita out of work, now would you?” I gave her a little wink and let go of one of my crutches long enough to smack her on the ass.

  As I pivoted toward the bathroom, the sound of my front door opening and closing sounded, followed by a loud voice. “Wake your lazy ass up, Prewitt. Time to get this shit started.”

  That time my grin wasn’t fake at all. I probably shouldn’t have looked so damned giddy, but I couldn’t help it. Typically I hated PT, but just then I could have kissed Duke for saving me from having to physically remove Amber from my apartment.

  “Looks like it’s time to go, sweetness. I’ll give you a call sometime.”

  With a forlorn expression, she turned and started picking up her clothes, and I took that as my opportunity to take a piss. When I emerged from the bathroom, she was already dressed, but instead of being gone, she was standing next to my bedside table, the picture frame I’d kept there in every single ap
artment I’d lived in the past six years in her hands.

  She looked up with a smile on her face. “Is this you when you were in college? You look so young!”

  “Put that down,” I grunted as I made my way in her direction. Before she could follow my command, I reached her and snatched the frame from her fingers, placing it back down exactly as it had been. No one touched it but me. Even Rosita knew just to dust around it.

  “Sorry,” she snapped in a snotty tone as I scooted the picture a centimeter over, tilting it so it could be seen perfectly from my side of the bed. “Is that your sister or cousin or something?”

  I looked back down at the photo in question, taking in Eliza’s bright, shining smile. My sister Harlow had taken it. She had a gift for photography and snapped the picture just as Eliza’s head was tipped back in laughter at something I’d just said to her. My arm was thrown over her shoulder and I was grinning down at her with a pleased-as-shit look on my face that I’d been able to make her laugh. We’d been in my old backyard, it was the same house Harlow and her husband Noah still lived in. It was their daughter Lucy’s fifth birthday party, and I’d driven back from college in Laramie to celebrate. It was the first time I’d seen Eliza in weeks. Having a full class load and football practice all the damn time, it had been hard for us to catch up. But when I got home that weekend, we’d picked up right where we left off.

  It might have been weird to some, a twenty-one year guy so excited to see a fifteen year old girl, but it wasn’t like that. She was my best friend. The best friend I’d ever had. I never felt the age gap when we were together. Maybe it was because she’d already experienced shit at a young age that no kid should have to go through, but she was mature… and so damn smart. And because of the shit her mom had put her through, she could understand feeling like an outsider. That was probably what bonded us the most.