It was a good day. Joey seemed happy about moving because they’d promised him a place with a bigger yard. They were able to get a lot of packing done. They’d found a special on a u-haul so it was going to cost less than they’d thought it would.
Brandy pondered taking her car with her but she didn’t want anything that Gabe had given her. She was going to give him the keys to the car and the cell phone back. Rich had already gotten her a new phone on his plan. She thought her new phone was even nicer than the one that Gabe had gotten her anyway.
At seven o’clock after they’d eaten the pizza that they’d ordered for dinner and Joey had had his bath Brandy looked at Rich and said “It’s time to go.”
She was going to drive her car to the bar and leave it with Gabe. She was also going to tell him that she was quitting and leaving town. Rich was going to follow her in his truck. They were going to leave Joey with Brenda, which was okay with Joey. Brenda had gotten another new puppy and he seemed to really like her kids.
She’d already looked to make sure that Gabe wasn’t sitting outside their house again and he wasn’t. Chloe had told her the night before that he had hired a new girl because she was leaving. Chloe was eloping with a guy she’d met two weeks before on the internet. While Brandy thought her friend was half crazy for doing it, she wished them the best of luck. At least it meant Chloe would be getting away from Gabe too, she thought.
“Are you sure you want to do this babe? You don’t have to go back there at all if you don’t want to. We can leave the car in the driveway with the keys in it when we leave. It won’t matter since it’s his house.”
“I have to face him Rich.”
He sighed, but then smiled as he turned to Joey. “Okay. You ready to go see Miss Brenda little man?”
Joey nodded. “Yes please.”
“Okay. Tell Mommy goodbye.”
“Bye Mommy.”
She smiled at her son and leaned down and gave him a hug. When she looked at him, she thought he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and wondered why she had let her parents make her give him up. She was beginning to think that they’d all have been better off if they had let her keep him. She didn’t think she would have let herself go down the dark roads that she had if she’d had Joey to take care of.
But, she thought the past was the past, and they were going to have a beautiful future. She had a man that loved her, a beautiful son, and a baby on the way. Now, she thought if only she could walk away from Gabe without too much trouble the future would look even brighter.
“I love you Joey. Be good for Miss Brenda.”
“Love you too, Mommy.” He took Rich’s hand. “C’mon Dad. Let’s go.”
She smiled. She was so happy that she could hardly believe it. Life was so much more beautiful than she’d ever known it could be. Her smile faded as she thought of Gabe though. Would he let her go that easily she wondered? Would he really leave them alone and let them be the happy family that they deserved to be?
Rich was back within a few minutes. He was smiling. “All of Brenda’s kids are so good with him, especially Charlie. She’s going to make a really good mother. Brenda said that her boyfriend is going to stick with her and that he wants to marry her after graduation.”
“That’s good. I’m glad Brenda isn’t doing what my parents did. Charlie is such a sweet girl. I don’t think she could take it. I’ve missed so much of Joey’s life.”
“We’re making up for it every day darlin’.” He reached out and squeezed her hand. “Are you okay Brandy?”
“I want to get this over with Rich. Let’s go.”
He kissed her. “It’s gonna be okay babe.”
“I know.”
She took his hand and they left the house locking the door behind them. They kissed again briefly before they parted both getting into their separate cars. When they got to the bar Brandy thought her heart was going to pound right out of her chest she was so nervous.
She went over to Rich’s truck. He got out and held her. “I love you Brandy. You know that I’ll go in with you if you want.”
Gabe’s truck was parked a few spaces down so they knew he was inside. “I have to do this myself. I got myself into this mess. I have to get myself out of it for once and for all.”
“Okay baby. I’ll be right here if you need me. You know you can hit the speed dial button if you need me. I’ll be in there in no time at all if he tries anything.”
Brandy sighed. “I know.”
She squeezed his hand one last time and taking a deep breath, went into the bar. She said hello to Sabrina and the beautiful new girl who was behind the bar. She felt sorry for the girl. She barely looked over eighteen and had a pair of wide, frightened looking green eyes. She looked like she was the last person that needed to get involved with Gabe Brandy thought.
She walked down the hallway to Gabe’s office and opened his door, not bothering to knock.
Gabe looked up at her and gave her a wide smile. “Brandy. To what do I owe the pleasure of an unexpected visit from my favorite girl?”
“I’m not your girl Gabe. I’m Rich’s girl. We’re getting married. Tomorrow or the next day.”
“Sit down Brandy.”
“I think I’ll stand. I’m quitting Gabe. I’m leaving town. We’re buying a house where Rich’s new job is and he’s going to adopt Joey. We’re starting a new life together. I don’t want you to be any part of it. I need you to leave me alone. I need to know that you won’t follow us when we leave. That you’re serious about not trying to get custody of the baby when it’s born.”
“You’ll have a girl. I can feel it. I was serious when I promised you that I wouldn’t seek custody of our child. I keep my promises. You don’t have to leave. I’ll give you a raise; let you go on paid maternity leave early.”
“You knew we were leaving Gabe. We’re just leaving a little earlier than we had originally planned. I don’t want Joey to get settled in and suddenly have to move again. I also can’t take you sitting outside my house anymore.”
“I’m sorry Brandy. I miss you so much. You can change your mind right now. If you tell me you want me I’ll drop everything. I’ll adopt Joey and we’ll raise our baby together, be a family.”
She shook her head. “I’ll never change my mind. I don’t want you Gabe. I’m in love with Rich. He’s the one for me.”
“I love you Brandy.”
“You don’t love me. You just think you do. You don’t like to lose Gabe. You don’t like it when girls walk away from you instead of the other way around. There’s nothing that you can say that will change my mind.”
He sighed. “As you wish. I will miss you Brandy. You and that beautiful body of yours.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Stop it Gabe. I’ll give you an address to send my last check to as soon as I have a permanent one.”
“I’ll pay you now.”
He opened the safe and pulled out an envelope full of bills, pushing it across the desk to her. She didn’t want to take his money. It felt like dirty money and she’d already taken so much from him. But she knew that they could use the money and in some ways she felt like he’d taken more from her. She felt like she’d let him take her dignity and self-respect for way too long.
“Thank you.” She took the cell phone he had bought her out of her purse and placed it and her car keys on his desk. “We’ll leave the house keys under the mat when we leave.”
“You don’t have to give back the car or the phone. I bought them for you. You can also sell the house if you want. I’ll put the deed in your name.”
“I can’t let you do that. Goodbye Gabe. Thank you for helping me get off of drugs.”
That at least she could truly thank him for she thought.
“You’re more than welcome. If you ever decide that you’ve changed your mind, I’ll always be here waiting for you.”
She smiled, though it felt a little sad. “You won’t wait for me Gabe. I see that you’ve alre
ady got a new girl behind the bar.”
He sighed again. “Chloe is leaving me too. Marrying some Italian idiot that she met online.”
“I think she’ll be happy with him.”
“I don’t know.”
“Goodbye Gabe.” She put the envelope in her purse and headed to the door of the office. “Thank you for getting Joey back for me. It might take a while, but I think he’s going to be okay.”
“He’ll be fine. He’s better off with you than with someone that would sell him to the highest bidder.”
She nodded, turning back towards the door. Finally, feeling a little sorry for him she turned back to him. “The new girl is beautiful Gabe. She looks like she really needs you to take care of her. Maybe she’ll be the one that loves you back.”
“I hope so Brandy.” His voice so quiet she could barely hear him.
She walked out of Gabe’s Place and never looked back.
It took them the majority of the next day to finish packing, so they decided to stay one last night in the house. On the day they left town they ate breakfast at a little diner. Brandy wasn’t sad to say goodbye to Brunton. Rich said he wasn’t either.
Rich was driving the moving truck while she followed in his truck with Joey. Joey had wanted to ride with Rich, but they both agreed that it would be safer if he rode with her buckled into his car seat.
They were married in Welton in the chapel that Rich had mentioned. Brandy thought she’d never been happier when he was able to call her his wife.
They only had to spend two nights in a motel because they were able to find an affordable three bedroom house the first day they got to town. With the money that they’d both saved and what Gabe had given her they were able to put a nice down payment on the house that made their house payments less than they’d anticipated.
Joey loved their new house because it had a big yard, both front and back. They found a puppy and a kitten at the local animal shelter. Joey slept in his own bed for the first time since he had been with them the puppy curled up at his feet and the kitten curled up next to him on his pillow.
There was no sign of Gabe. She’d heard from Chloe, who was on her honeymoon and very happy, that Sabrina had told her that he was already heavily involved with the new girl working in the bar whose name was Brittany. For that she was glad.
When the baby was born she had blonde hair and blue eyes. Brandy wanted to cry when she first saw her and not just because she was beautiful, but because there was no mistaking her as Gabe’s child.
When they took baby Catrina Elizabeth Natasha Jackson to the nursery Rich looked her in the eye and said “So we’ll both dye our hair blonde for the next eighteen years. She doesn’t need to know that anyone besides me is her Daddy. I’m the one that loves her. That’s all that matters.”
She wiped her eyes, squeezed his hand and said “I think you’d be even sexier as a blonde. And I’ve always wanted to be a blonde myself. I love you Rich.”
“I love you too Brandy.”
While Catrina may have realized when she got older especially since her older brother and her younger brother and sister all had dark hair that both her parents’ blonde hair came from a bottle of dye; it never mattered. As Rich had said, he was her father in all the ways that mattered.
Girls of Gabe’s Place 2: Robyn
Misty Reigenborn
Copyright 2012
By Misty Reigenborn
Chapter 1
Robyn Carmichael looked at the positive pregnancy test in her hand and felt tears prick her eyes. She was happy to be having a baby, but she wasn’t sure how her fiancé Fuller was going to feel. Well, she thought, maybe he wasn’t technically her fiancé since he hadn’t exactly proposed or given her an engagement ring. But they had talked about getting married.
She’d waited a while to take the test because her periods had never been regular and she hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up for nothing, let alone Fuller’s. He loved her, but he had a temper.
Robyn left the pregnancy test on the bathroom counter and returned to the living room. She’d taken the test this late in the day on purpose, because Fuller should be home from work soon.
But the minutes ticked by and still no Fuller. She thought about calling him, but her cell phone was out of minutes and she only had a little change in her purse. She didn’t want to waste it all to make a phone call. Money was definitely tight in their house.
Money had always been tight since she’d been with Fuller, but she didn’t really mind. Robyn certainly hadn’t grown up rich and they had a two bedroom apartment. The rent was higher than a one bedroom of course, but when Fuller had chosen the two bedroom, she’d hoped that it meant that he was ready to think about having a child.
They’d talked about it some, but he was cautious when it came to children. Robyn sometimes wondered if Fuller would ever tell her that he was ready to have a child. But now they were going to have one whether they felt ready or not. She just hoped that Fuller would take the news well.
As more time passed, Robyn started to feel sick to her stomach. She hadn’t had any morning sickness yet, and she didn’t think that the nausea came from the baby. She knew that it came from her worry about where Fuller was. He drank too much and had been in jail. He’d also had what she considered being entirely too many different jobs since they’d been together.
But she loved Fuller and was willing to stand by him no matter what. He might stay out late some nights and spend money that he shouldn’t, but she was sure that he would settle down once they got married, and especially now that they were having a child.
At one point, Robyn had worried that Fuller was cheating on her. But in her paranoid moments after they had moved to Brunton when she had followed him in her car while he’d been out late, she had never seen him with another woman. Robyn had felt like a fool for following him, but she’d been cheated on before and had never felt for a man what she felt for Fuller.
He was so handsome. He was exactly her type too and that had amazed her. She considered her type to be tall guys that were well built with dark eyes, and preferably dark hair that was not super short. Tattoos turned her on when they were on the body of a good looking man. Piercings either turned her on or off depending on the man. Fuller didn’t have anything pierced at the moment, but he’d had a stud in his tongue when they’d first met.
The first time she had laid eyes on him, she’d been blown away. She’d been bartending in the town they’d lived in before, a middle sized town that was much closer to her parents than where they were now. It was a busy Friday night and she’d been sharing the bartending duties with the beautiful blonde twins that she’d worked with most weekends, Mary Jean and Mary Beth.
She’d been helping another customer and both twins had been free for the moment, but Fuller had approached her and waited patiently for her to finish serving the man in front of him. He’d given her a killer smile. She’d felt like he had really had had her at hello. It sounded like such a cliché and Fuller had laughed about it when she’d told him, but for her it was true.
He’d stayed around until closing time, drinking that night much less than she’d found out that he normally put away when he went out to the bar. He’d asked for her phone number and the whirlwind that was their relationship had begun. He’d asked her to move in with him two days after their first date, and told her that he loved her and that she was the only woman for him.
Robyn had been stunned, especially since he hadn’t made a move to do anything more than kiss her. But she had agreed since her apartment was a dump and so far away from the bar that she’d had to drive half an hour to get there, which with the size of the town they lived in, was pretty much almost all the way across town.
They’d lived together for two weeks before he’d made love to her. The night had been so romantic that she didn’t think she’d ever forget it. When she’d returned home from work tired and looking forward to her day off the next day, she’d found scented candles lit
in the living room and a candle lit dinner in the kitchen. Fuller had served her dinner. Then he’d poured her a glass of champagne and given her a foot massage.
When he’d taken her hand and led her to the bedroom, she’d seen a bed outfitted with satin sheets. There was a pink bag from the lingerie store waiting on her pillow. He’d undressed her, and then helped her into the slinky lingerie. Then he’d stripped his shirt off and led her to the bed, where they had kissed for many blissful minutes.
It was the first taste he’d given her of his tongue. Robyn had felt like she was on fire with passion by the time Fuller had pulled away from her and stripped himself of his jeans and boxers. His hands had removed her lingerie with the gentlest touch of a lover. They’d pleasured each other orally and then made love.
The love making had been incredible. And they’d had many other nights of incredible love making since then. But Fuller’s sex drive had been one of the reasons that she’d suspected him of cheating. He was usually very affectionate, and they always lay down together at night with her cuddled against his chest and her head tucked under his chin. But when it came to sex, Fuller ran hot and cold.
Robyn knew that he enjoyed their love making. He rarely wanted to just screw. He liked taking his time and always made sure that she enjoyed herself just as much as he enjoyed himself. Fuller sometimes made love to her three times a day, seven days a week for a whole month. Those times had usually been when he was satisfied with his job and money hadn’t been quite as tight.
When money wasn’t as good or he had lost one job and was having trouble finding another, sometimes he would turn to her and their embraces would turn into lovemaking, or sometimes just screwing. Sometimes when things were not the best financially, he acted responsibly and looked for work during the day and saved what little money they had left and stayed home at night. Then, their love life was still good. They didn’t make love quite as often, but Robyn didn’t mind because Fuller sometimes seemed to be addicted to sex.
Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set Page 56
