Limitless
By C.A. Williams
~Dedicated to all of the people who have supported me throughout this whole process. Thank you, I truly appreciate it. ~
Text Copyright 2013 C.A. Williams
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
All rights reserved. This edition is copy-written by C.A. Williams and any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written consent of the author, except for the brief quotations in a book review.
Edited by Tanya Keetch
Cover Photo:
Istockphoto.com
Cover Design:
C.A. Williams
Table of Contents
Text Copyright 2013 C.A. Williams
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
About the Author:
Chapter 1
Leah
"Al, can you throw me that bag over there, please?" I swiped at a piece of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail, almost completely drenched in sweat after packing for half the day. I needed a serious shower, but that could wait until I was completely finished. Might as well get it all over with now. I would be glad when it was finally done and over with.
"Here you go, Leah. You need help with anything else? It looks like you have pretty much everything you need. I’m going to head over to Kilroy’s to see the band play if you’re good."
I rolled my eyes at her knowing exactly why she was heading to Kilroy’s and it wasn’t to see the band play. She and Teddy had been dating, or whatever you wanted to call what they were doing together, for a little while now. They were both seeing other people still, so I wasn’t really sure what exactly was going on there and I really didn't want to.
"Yeah, go ahead I think I have just about everything packed up. Now I just need to move onto Caleb’s stuff, I’m sure that will be a ton of fun. I can’t wait to get started. I’m sure you’ll have tons of fun," I added sarcastically.
Ally laughed and rolled her blue eyes at that. I still had to do a double take whenever I saw her lately. I wasn't used to her smoky makeup compared to the bright colors she used to wear when I had to have sunglasses on just to look at her.
I swear she was schizophrenic when it came to her look. Her neon colors and flowing clothes had been replaced by more of a rocker chic look with old band shirts and skinny jeans or frayed denim skirts but Ally could pull off anything. I think Teddy was somewhat rubbing off on her lately. It seemed like that happened with whomever she was dating.
"Well, I am most definitely getting out of here now. Good luck with that! And you’re right, I’ll be having boat loads of fun." She wiggled her eyebrows at me before she skipped out of the room and I heard the front door slam behind her. I walked down the hall to Caleb’s room, which seemed suspiciously too quiet, that was never a good sign with a four year old.
"What’s going on in here?" I swung the door open and folded my arms over my chest to survey the damage. Caleb was jumping up and down on his special suitcase that he had picked out all by himself and I could see it was overflowing with just about everything from his room; clothes, toys, books, and his poor giant giraffe that was being squished to death.
"I'm all packed up and ready to go, Mommy. Is it time to leave yet?" I shook my head at him, which instantly led him to give that cute puppy dog face of his that I loved so much. Who could really ever resist that? His curls and brown eyes completed the look he was going for so perfectly.
"We aren't leaving till tomorrow morning, remember?" And tomorrow couldn't come soon enough. I was so ready to leave. I heard the doorbell ring from down the hall and ran to get it, figuring Ally had forgotten something. Maybe her dignity.
"Don't pack anything else, Caleb," I shouted over my shoulder. "Mommy will be right back to help you." At this point, we would be paying a fortune for Caleb’s luggage alone. I might just need to borrow some money out of his piggy bank to cover the costs.
I opened up the door but it wasn't Ally standing there, instead it was some middle aged guy in a suit and tie that I had never seen before. Probably someone trying to sell me something or convince me to come to their church, it happened often in this neighborhood, almost daily, and I would not miss it one bit.
I placed a hand on my hip and leaned against the door frame, waiting for the usual spiel that I knew was coming and was dreading. “Can I help you?"
His dark brown eyes looked me up and down before stopping and staring at my face, like he was studying me or checking me out, I really wasn’t sure which one and I was starting to get a little uncomfortable under his roaming eyes. Maybe I shouldn’t have opened the door to a stranger, like I beat over and over into Caleb’s head all of the time. When would I learn?
He ran a hand through his graying hair and then shifted on his feet like he was nervous about something before he spoke. Maybe this was his first time out alone, well he wasn't getting this girl to buy anything and I was most definitely not going to be attending church.
"Hello, I'm Roy Barnum. I'm looking for Leah Rossi, would that be you?"
"Well, that depends. What are you trying to sell? Just know there’s about a ninety-nine percent chance I’m not buying, before you waste your breath."
He scrunched up his nose at me and gave a small shake of his head before stuffing his hands into his pockets and pulling out a piece of crumpled up paper.
"I'm not trying to sell anything, trust me I wouldn’t be this nervous if that was the case. I, um...I knew your mother, Marie, and she sent me this letter awhile back. It took me a little bit of time to track you down, but she had said in her letter that she had left one for you too."
A light bulb went off in my head and I remembered exactly what letter he was talking about. The guy that my mom had ditched Caleb and me for, Tank Harvey, had given me a letter that my mom had written before she had selfishly killed herself. When I had gone to the police station to sign the paperwork before I could make any kind of arrangements, Tank had been waiting for me.
The guy had intimidated me a little with his overbearing size and stereotypical biker look. I mean, his name fit him to the T. Luckily, once he handed over the letter, I had never seen him again. I had tucked the letter away and figured I would read it someday, but I had been a little busy. I had assumed nothing too important had been in it, except for how sorry she was about being such a horrible mother and blah, blah, blah. Like I would believe that.
"Well, judging by your silence and that you didn't recognize my name, I'm guessing you never read it. I guess I could understand why, judging by the circumstances of your relationship with Marie.”
"You sir, are a mind reader. Care to share the important details that my fabulous mother left behind for me? I could onl
y guess the wealth of knowledge she wrote in a letter before she decided to selfishly off herself.” I guess I had a little more anger built up about that whole situation than I thought. I had gotten one good cry out after I had found out she died and closed the lid on it tightly. To say I was a little bitter about my mother was putting it mildly.
"Well," he drawled out, shuffling his feet around a bit more and kicking around a few stray rocks that had found their way onto the porch. "This will probably be a little bit of a shock, just to warn you. Your mother wrote me a letter in which she said that she had left one for you too, explaining the situation as well, so you wouldn’t be taken by surprise. I met her awhile back at some little bar she was working at, I don't even remember the name of it. I was just passing through on business and, well, one thing led to another."
I rolled my eyes at him, okay buddy, tell me something I don't know; I knew my mother had serviced her customers very well. I had to listen to it almost every night growing up with her and had learned early on how to drown it out. Her promiscuity was one of the many reasons I had never wanted to date. I really didn’t want to be labeled a whore and I most certainly didn’t want to end up with a kid, not having any idea who the baby’s daddy was.
But this guy didn't look like her usual customer, they tended to drive a motorcycle, have bad hygiene, and drink. A lot.
"Marie seemed to believe that the little boy you are raising, which let me just say is a great accomplishment for a young woman like yourself, is mine. Now, obviously we'll need to do a paternity test to confirm her suspicions but…"
I don’t think I heard much after that. My heart was pounding in my ears and I felt a cold sweat break out all over my body. I just knew one thing, this man was going to try to steal my Caleb from me. The boy that I had taken care of, on my own, for practically his whole life. I had been the one to change almost every one of his diapers, make sure he had clean clothes to wear, and fix endless amounts of bottles in the middle of the night. All while trying to keep up at school and keep myself slightly sane. I think I had done a pretty good job at that. For the most part.
Of course, dear old Mom just had to go and mess everything up, even from beyond the grave. Figures, seemed like something she would do. How did she even know how to contact this guy? She normally hadn’t exchanged contact information and I didn’t see very many repeats. She had always said that she had no clue who my father was and I was sure that was the truth. But those big brown eyes looked so familiar…
“Of course, I know this might come as a little bit of a shock to you and I just want to reassure you I’m not trying to take him away from you or anything. I just want to make sure that is absolutely clear to you before we go any further.”
My eyes snapped back to his at that and the whirlwind going on in my head paused for a minute as he continued on. “But I would like to be a part of his life as much as I can if the results come back that I am, in fact, his father. I can’t be for sure, but the timing does add up.”
I nodded my head at him slowly, trying to put myself in this guy’s situation and I could see how he would feel that way, even though I felt a strong urge to grab Caleb up and run away, never to be seen again. No, I couldn’t do that. If this really was Caleb’s dad, both of them deserved to be in each other’s lives. I had grown up without a father; I knew how it felt. And I think I had turned out pretty well for the hand I was dealt in life. I had basically raised myself without much parental supervision.
“That’s…understandable. So what’s the next step, how do we go about getting a paternity test?”
He pulled out a yellow sheet of paper from his briefcase that I just noticed he was carrying and then grabbed a small business card out of one of the divided pockets.
“This is all of the information you need for the lab that I found around this area. Don’t worry, it’s just a simple swab of the cheek, no needles required. I made sure to check, I really don’t want to put him through more than necessary. I actually live in Indianapolis and when I found your new address here I figured I’d drive down and see if I could catch you. I thought maybe you were trying to avoid me after reading your mother’s letter.”
Well, maybe if I had read that letter right away…No, just stop, negative Nancy. Just because I was feeling a little selfish, okay maybe a lot selfish, didn’t mean I could just push this guy out of Caleb’s life if he really is his father. Now, maybe if this guy was one of the usual customers I would run and hide until he decided to give up. But this guy seemed to be pretty decent.
“Would you like to come in for a minute so we can talk more about things?”
A look of relief passed over his face and I noticed his shoulders visibly relax at my words. He was probably relieved that I hadn’t slammed the door in his face. I was kind of surprised at myself that I hadn’t done it. I gave myself a pat on the back for controlling my urges and made my way into the living room, kicking toys aside and moving a pile of clothes off one of the couches to make room for him to sit down.
“Sorry, there’s a little bit of a mess. We’re packing right now, so it’s a little bit chaotic to say the least.”
“Oh, where…” He was interrupted by a shrill scream and the sound of a bike racing down the hardwood floors of the hallway.
“Caleb! You know you’re not supposed to be riding that in the house.” I stood with my hands on my hips and saw Mr. Barnum studying Caleb the way he had just done to me as he skidded to a stop at my feet. I’m sure it was a bit of a shock to see your supposed child for the first time.
“But Mommy, I already packed all of my other toys, this is all I got. Can’t I just ride it in here this one time? Please?” He gave me one of those puppy dog looks again but saw that I wasn’t budging this time and hopped off the seat of his bike quickly.
“Who are you?” Caleb asked bluntly, eyeing Mr. Barnum up, who looked at me with a confused face like he wasn’t sure exactly how to answer that. Truthfully, I wasn’t either.
“Um, my name’s Roy.” He crouched down to Caleb’s level and reached out a hand to shake Caleb’s, who answered with a fist bump instead. Chase had really rubbed off on him.
“I’m Caleb, do you wanna see my room? I can show you all of my toys, but they’re all packed up right now. You can help me re-pack them if you want. Mommy says I can’t take all of ‘em anyway. I don’t know why, they’ll miss me when I’m gone and I don’t want them to get lonely.”
Yes, I’m sure all of his toys would be a crying heap when Caleb left. Tears of joy would be more like it, if the toys really had feelings, they would probably be excited for his departure. No more getting thrown around or colored on. What the hell? Am I actually thinking about talking toys? I really needed a break. “Maybe some other time, buddy. Can you go back in there and work on packing for a minute? I need to talk to Mr. Barnum for a little bit. And this time let’s limit it to two toys and the rest clothes. I don’t think you want to be running around naked, right?”
“No, silly Mommy,” he answered back with a giggle and took down off the hallway once again on his bike. I had a feeling that thing was seriously going to end up in the garbage before the day was over.
I turned back to Mr. Barnum who watched Caleb until he was out of sight with what seemed like a look of awe on his face. I had to admit, the kid was pretty amazing. I was pretty proud of myself for how he had turned out so far.
“So, we’re actually getting ready to leave town tomorrow morning. Do you think it’ll be all right if we wait until we get back to do this? I don’t think I really have the time to add anything else on my to- do list at the moment.”
Not that I wanted to put it off any longer than necessary but I already had enough going on, at least I could wait until we got back to worry about this more, even though I know that’s what I would do the whole time.
“Sure, not a problem, Leah. I know I just dropped all of this onto your plate, it’s a lot to handle and I don’t expect you to put a halt to everything you’
re doing. I gave you my business card, I travel a lot for my job but get a hold of me when you get back to town and we’ll work something out. Sound good?”
I nodded my head, looking at the lab paperwork and his business card that he handed me. Well, at least it looked like he had a pretty good job working for an advertising agency. I glanced at him again and didn’t see a wedding ring, so I assumed he was not married, so at least he didn’t cheat on his wife and Caleb would end up to be hated by a step-mother. I think I was getting ahead of myself a little bit, I just needed to put this on the back burner for now.
“And please call me Roy.”
“Okay, Roy…that all sounds good. I’ll be in contact with you in about a week or so then.” I led the way to the front door and couldn’t help but feel self- conscious the whole way. The house was nice but it was definitely difficult to keep it clean with a kid around. And it probably had to do with the fact that I was probably the world’s worst housekeeper. Roy left with a wave and made his way to a newer looking midsize car.
Roy seemed nice and like a good guy. But one thing was for sure, I would fight tooth and nail if anyone ever tried to take Caleb away from me. That was for sure.
Chapter 2
Leah
“Can you believe we’re finally on our way?” Chase’s muscular arms wrapped around my waist and I buried my face against his solid chest, wishing I could just take a nap right there. His chest was the perfect pillow for that.
We had left home super early for a six o’clock flight, leaving out of Indianapolis which was about an hour drive from us. So basically, we rolled out of bed around two o’clock and headed out half asleep to Chase’s truck that was all packed up and ready to go the night before. Luckily, I had been thinking ahead or I would have been even grouchier if that were possible.
“Yeah, it’s been so long. I mean, why did we wait this long? We should’ve just eloped or something, it would have been quicker.” My voice came out muffled against his chest and I could feel him vibrating with laughter. That man had no patience.
Limitless (Journey Series) Page 1
