I had only planned to stay at my dad’s for a few days; however, his comfort was a soothing balm on my soul. I’d missed him fiercely and reveled in the feel of one of his suffocating hugs.
Which he gave me often since getting here.
The days were rather uneventful. Dad and Lindsey were excited when they learned I was pregnant.
They immediately took me to a doctor to check on the baby, just to make sure he or she was healthy. I was worried at first that the doctor would see some bear shaped lima bean in there when the ultrasound started. That thought was quickly squashed from my mind when I realized how stupid it was. I was only five weeks along, so even if for some reason I did have a shifter baby in my belly, nobody would be able to tell.
Unfortunately, my days didn’t stay uneventful. Matthew heard somehow that I was back in town and showed up just as I was sitting down with my usual morning coffee. Which, of course, was now decaf. I missed caffeine almost as much as I missed Bastian.
I got up from the couch and answered the door, only to jump in surprise at seeing Matthew standing there,
“Daisy, wow, you look amazing,” he said when he saw it was me.
It never occurred to me in all the years I spent with Matthew, how unbelievably pompous he actually looked.
His chocolate brown hair was gelled back, and he was dressed to the nines in an expensive suit. His chin was cleanly shaved with not a speck of beard in sight and his mouth was fixed in a permanent smirk.
I always thought he was handsome when I was in love with him. But now, the sight of him disgusted me beyond reason. All the anger of what he’d done and the added mix of pregnancy hormones, had me doing the one thing I promised myself I would do if I ever saw him again.
I reared my fist back and punched him straight in the nose. The impact was so hard, his head snapped back and he flew backwards. He let out a groan of pain as his back slammed into the porch.
“What the fuck, Daisy?” He yelled.
I shook my hand out from the pain of punching him and scuffed. “That was all the years of pent up anger, asshole! Get the hell off my daddy’s porch!”
I heard my dad hooting with laughter as he came up behind me and rested a hand on my shoulder. “You heard her, boy. Get the hell off my property.”
Matthew glared up at us and shakily stood. “Fuck you. You aren’t worth this bullshit.” He wiped the blood from his nose and began walking down the steps.
We watched as he angrily jumped into his fancy sports car, revving the engine before taking off. Watching him bleed was the best thing that had happened to me in weeks.
“What a pansy,” Dad stated with a laugh. He pulled me inside and closed the door before pulling me in for a hug. “Proud of you, sweetheart. That was a hell of a punch.”
I laughed and squeezed him before letting go. “I think all my pent-up aggression over these past few years towards him went into my hand. It felt like a Popeye moment or something.” I shook out my hand again.
He linked an arm around my shoulder. “Let’s ice that hand and figure out what we’re going to do for dinner, shall we? I think that punch deserves a celebration.”
I nodded and let him lead me into the kitchen.
I thought my day couldn’t get any more eventful after finally punching that cheating asshole in the face. I rode the high of the liberation that came from it as Dad and I cooked dinner together.
We had taken up doing this a few nights here and there, making us both reminisce doing this when I was a kid. I loved these moments with my dad. I’d miss them once I went back to Chicago. I couldn’t hide out here forever. I had to face that Bastian may not want to be a part of my and the baby’s life and move on. I had to be strong for the both of us.
I just washed the carrots for the stew Dad and I were making, when the doorbell rang.
I looked over questioningly at my dad. “You expecting anyone?”
He shook his head and wiped his hands on a towel. “Nope. If it’s that Eubanks boy though, it’s my turn to punch him. You’re slacking in cutting up the veggies from the first one.”
I stuck my tongue out at him as he walked out to answer the door.
I listened as best I could when I heard his voice speaking to whoever it was. Since there was no yelling, I was happy to realize it wasn’t Matthew coming back for a second helping of Lennox justice.
“Daisy Mae, can you come here please? Someone is at the door for you.” Dad called from the living room.
“Coming!” I shouted. I washed my hands and dried them as I walked to see what he was calling me for. I didn’t know anyone else here anymore other than Matthew. Who could possibly want to see me?
When I walked into the living room though, it was as if my world froze. Time ceased to exist when I locked eyes with the one person in this world I never thought I’d see again.
Bastian.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” I stuttered out as I tried to breathe through the shock of him standing there.
“I came to get you back, Daisy,” he replied in his husky voice that still managed to send shivers up my spine.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him or get over the shock of him standing in my dad’s home.
He was dressed in his usual grey t-shirt and jeans. His white hair was styled to keep it from falling in his face like it normally did. His hands were shoved in his pockets, making him look more vulnerable than I’d ever seen him.
Tears sprang to my eyes and I began to shake. I wasn’t sure what to do but just stand there and stare. My mind couldn’t process any of this, and I was afraid if I looked away he would disappear.
Dad slowly walked towards me, kissing my temple quickly as he passed me to go into the kitchen.
Noticing I wasn’t moving, Bastian closed the space between us, leaving barely a foot.
“The things I said to you, were the biggest lies I’ve ever told. I didn’t understand why my bear was so close to the surface and on edge when you barely said anything. He heard leaving and reacted, making me forget myself and all rational thought. But when I read your letter I knew why.” His hand slowly reached out and touched my stomach. “My bear could sense you were pregnant and reacted so violently because you were leaving. It’s not an excuse at all for what I did, but I understand now, why I couldn’t control my anger at you. Why I would allow myself to say such awful things to the woman I love more than anything.”
The tears fell harder, and my hand unconsciously went over the one he placed on my belly.
I didn’t even care anymore why he reacted the way he did. Bear or no bear, this man had traveled all this way to see me. To tell me how he truly felt for me in person rather than a letter like me. I had been a coward.
“You still love me?” I whispered unsure.
His mouth tilted into a smile. The amount of adoration reflected back at me from his stare was more than enough of an answer, but still he said the words I’d been dying to hear.
“I will love you for the rest of my life. A life I refuse to live without you in it. You belong with me and Addy. You and this baby.” He took my hands in his, and suddenly knelt down on one knee.
My breath caught, and my throat closed.
“Daisy Mae Lennox, I have loved you since the moment you fell through that rotted porch. I have wanted you for your beauty, your intelligence, and your kindness. But I’ve also wanted you for your stubbornness, your inability to walk in a straight line ever, and your horrifying ice skating skills. You are everything I’m not and everything I need. You would be a good mother to Addy and you’re the woman I was destined for.” He paused and took a deep breath in and out. “Will you do me the greatest of honors, and move back to Canada with me?”
I stared at him for a minute in confusion. He knelt to ask me to move back with him? What the fuck? This was his grand proposal?
His face split into a grin, “And marry me of course.”
One hand went to his pocket and pulled out the most beautiful ring I’
d ever seen. It was white gold and in the shape of a daisy. A large diamond made up the middle and smaller diamonds created the petals.
I slapped a hand to my mouth and let out a loud laugh as tears ran down my face harder. I nodded my head rapidly. “Yes. Yes, I will move back to Canada with you!” I replied with a laugh.
His grin was wide as he slipped the ring on my finger and jumped to his feet. In one quick motion, I was up off the floor and being kissed with more love and passion than I ever thought I’d feel again.
For the first time in weeks, I finally felt like I found my true home in his arms.
He was mine and I was his. And that was all that mattered.
Epilogue
Five years later...
Addylin
“Read it again mommy!” My little brother Bryson said to mom after she finished reading his bedtime story for what felt like the hundredth time this week.
It was the story of mom and dad that she had written. Bryson loved hearing their story of how they met almost as much as I did. I had actually made her read it to me many times these last few years. She skipped out on the more adult details, of course. I knew they were in there, but was glad to completely skip that part nowadays.
“It’s time for bed, honey. You gotta sleep or you won’t get to go sledding with Auntie Hannah when she gets here tomorrow,” she chided before bopping his nose gently with her fingertip.
Daisy and my dad married not long after he brought her home from Chicago five years ago. I pretty much immediately began to call her mom after that. She cried for a solid hour when I told her I wanted to.
I missed my birth mom even though I didn’t remember her, but Daisy had become a mom to me the moment she stepped into our lives.
The wedding had been here with the whole town there to celebrate, along with my new grandpa, Daisy’s dad, and Aunt Hannah who designed mom’s dress.
Bryson was born not too long after the wedding. He inherited the shifter gene like I did and was definitely a handful when he would shift mid-tantrum. Mom was at a loss of what to do half the time, so I helped her out with teaching him to shift. Dad could’ve done it, but I felt at the time it was my job as a big sister to guide him.
I would do the same thing for this one that mom currently had growing in her belly. It was a girl they were naming Eve after my birth mom.
Dad’s furniture business was growing exponentially these days. He now had Mom’s help when it came to designing things. He would build it and she would paint it. They were the perfect team together.
Mom continued writing books and actually became quite a high ranked author for Polarity of Us. She’s sold thousands of her books and has her readers constantly begging for more. She doesn’t plan to write a sequel, though. She told me when I asked her why, that we were still writing it. She’d told the story she needed to, and now, she was perfectly fine just living it instead.
It was because of words like those that I wanted to be a writer just like her someday. I begged my parents for new journals all the time to write in since I was constantly filling them up within a week or so of getting each one. Mom was a huge supporter in everything I wrote and helped me edit my short stories that I would use in my creative writing classes in school.
“Hey mom?” I asked her as we left Bryson’s room.
She looked up at me with that glowing smile she never stopped using on me when I called her that. “What’s up, sweetie?”
“You think we could sit on the porch with some hot cocoa and write together for a bit?” It was my favorite thing to do with her. Apparently, she did it with her mom when she was a little girl and always wanted to pass on the routine of it.
She palmed the side of my face and nodded. “Absolutely. Let me just tell your dad he’s going to have to cuddle with himself for a while tonight.”
“I heard that!” We heard him yell from their bedroom, making us both giggle.
Our life together was chaotic and magical and everything in between.
We cried, and we laughed. We loved, and we fought. We were polar bear and we were human. But, through all of that, we were perfect together in all our differences.
And that was all that mattered.
The End
Daisy’s “Get Laid” Brownies
Ingredients
•½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
•1½ cup white sugar
•½ tsp pure vanilla extract
•2 eggs, room temperature
•¾ cup all-purpose flour
•½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
•¼ tsp salt
•¼ tsp baking soda
•1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (aka beautiful bastards)
•A pinch of cinnamon ;)
Instructions
Instructions
1.Preheat oven to 350F degrees. (NOT 400. NOT 375. 350!!!)
2.Prepare an 8x8 square baking dish with a light coating of cooking spray, or wipe with a small amount of butta.
3.In a bowl, combine the fuck outta the white sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract until smooth. Like REALLY smooth
4.In a second bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. (Or in the measuring cup...cause I'm lazy and don't wanna clean a second bowl)
5.Beat the shit out of the eggs, one at a time, into the sugar and butter mixture
6.Add that deliciously chocolatey flour mixture in little bits at a time, mixing at a snails pace with your mixer.
7.Toss the chocolate chips into bowl, then fold those beautiful bastards into the batter.
8.Pour batter into pan and use a rubber spatula thingy to level off the top all nice and neat.
9.Bake for 20-25 minutes. Brownies are done when edges are set and have started to pull away from the sides of the pan like you pull away from that handsy uncle at Christmas. The center may appear to be slightly jiggly in the center like Santa's belly, but will firm up like Channing Tatum's abs once brownies have cooled.
Also by K.B. Ladnier
Make Me a Wish: The Conduit Trilogy Book One (co-author)
Wishful Thinking: The Conduit Trilogy Book Two (Coming May 31, 2018)
Blood: Under the Skin Book One
The More the Merrier: A Naughty Nights Novella
The Arbiter: Divinely Damned Book One (Coming 2018)
Reap the Heart: Night Hawk Harem Book One (Coming 2018)
Acknowledgments
I just want to say another big thanks to my amazing editor Rachael at Muddy Waters Editing. She always finds ways to help me make my books better. I’d be pretty lost without you.
To my best friends and fellow authors that helped push me forward with this passion project, thank you. I would’ve given up if ya’ll hadn’t cheered me on.
To my betas Anna and Carli for reading this book like fifty times lol, ya’ll are seriously awesome!
Thank you to Jamie, Courtney and Victoria for naming my male lead in this book. I seriously can't imagine him being named anything else
To Gina Wynn for making this book beautiful on the inside.
To Stacy Ane for making it beautiful on the outside.
And especially, thank you to my readers for sticking with me when I pulled myself out of my usual genre to write this. You’re the reason I keep writing.
About the Author
K.B. Ladnier is from a small city in Southern Mississippi. She has one daughter and three cats who she claims are stealing her soul in only tiny doses, so she won't notice. She is a cyborg and spends most of her time hiding from her tiny human, so she doesn't have to share her snacks as she reads her favorite books. She hates the beach, yet lives only ten minutes away from it and daydreams of mountains and snow. She is married to a hot nerd and loves him dearly even though he hordes cookies and occasionally hides her prosthetic leg from her, so he can get a quick escape when she’s mad. She plans to write as long as people continue loving what she does, otherwise she's going to say s
crew it and do her second dream of owning a coffee shop. Though, she may still do both.
Polarity of Us Page 17
