Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  SUMMER DIDN’T BOTHER going to Carolina Dreams the next day. Rose would most likely be at the store, and she did not want to face her right now. Instead, she met with Ms. Foster, informed the woman of her plans, and then walked out again.

  She trudged up the street, not wanting to notice the blue sky or the bright sun. She certainly didn’t want to smell the flowers.

  She was in no mood for any of it.

  There was no reason for her to stay in Holland Springs any longer. Her purpose for coming back was no longer a goal. She had no purpose, much less a goal.

  She had no job, no place to live, and no car, because she refused to take Gabriel’s thoughtful gift with her.

  Her only choice was to clean out her checking account, and purchase a bus ticket to the other side of the country. This time, she would make herself stay away. She would give Gabriel the divorce he deserved, so he could be with a woman who deserved him.

  She swallowed a sob, then another, until she had to sit down on the nearest bench. Breathing deeply, she tried to get her emotions under control. It wouldn’t do for anyone to see her like this.

  Not that anyone would care to see her like this.

  Well, Jemma Leigh would care and Gabriel, maybe even Gabriel’s family.

  Out of the corner of her eye, a flash of red caught her attention. She turned, watching in disbelief as Gabriel practically danced through the park. He didn’t see her. She stood, shrinking back into the shadows and behind a tree.

  He looked so happy, so pleased with life, that she couldn’t help but smile with him. A tear trickled down her face.

  Suddenly, Elise appeared, bumping into Gabriel, and Summer’s heart leapt into her throat.

  Gabriel turned around, looking sheepish and apologetic. Elise burst into tears, and Gabriel’s arms automatically went around her, pulling her closer. He said something to his ex-girlfriend, most likely words of comfort, because that’s just who he was.

  A watery smile appeared on Elise’s face.

  Summer couldn’t take anymore. She had to leave, and not because she thought Gabriel was wrong or he would cheat, but because Elise was the woman he deserved.

  The faster she left town, the better it would be for everyone.

  She marched out of her hiding place, not bothering to answer when Gabriel called out her name, even as her heart screamed at her to stop.

  Tears ran down her face, but she didn’t bother to scrub them away. She wanted to remember this moment, this decision to be selfless for the third time, and let the one she loved have a better life. Without her.

  “Hey you!” Jemma Leigh called from their usual table at Muffin Top.

  “I really can’t, Jemma Leigh,” Summer said, trying in vain to keep the blonde from seeing her tears. Jemma Leigh would be nice and concerned, and make Summer feel a million times worse.

  She’d miss Jemma Leigh, and the knowledge hurt almost as bad as leaving Gabriel to Elise.

  “What in the world happened?” Jemma Leigh said, quickly catching up with her.

  “I’m leaving.” Summer stopped walking, and Jemma Leigh did the same.

  Jemma Leigh pursed her lips, nodding. “I see that.”

  “It’s for the best.”

  “That darn Bernice. I told her I didn’t believe a word she was saying about you and Jeremy.” Jemma Leigh tossed her head. “As if my best friend would ever mess with my husband.”

  Summer’s eyes grew huge. “Someone told you I was messing around with Jeremy?”

  “Just Bernice, but no one ever takes her seriously,” Jemma Leigh said. “She wears white after Labor Day and thinks college football is boring.”

  Summer laid her hand on Jemma Leigh’s arm. “I would never, ever sleep with your husband, or anyone’s husband, for that matter.”

  Jemma Leigh rolled her eyes and huffed. “Silly woman. I know. We had an entire conversation about it. Gosh, I didn’t fall off the turnip truck last night. You’re my best friend, Summer Jean Holland Edwards, and nothing’s more sacred a bond between women.”

  Summer threw her arms around the taller woman. “I love you, Jemma Leigh Stratford, and you’re the best friend a woman could ever have.” Then she let go of her and did what she did best.

  Summer ran away.

  AFTER LUNCH WITH Carlos, Gabriel strolled through the park with a smile on his face and lightness in his step. He wanted to sing and dance, and give praise. He felt like King David, when he’d brought home the ark, and his joy couldn’t be contained, so he’d stripped down and led all his people into rejoicing.

  Only he wasn’t King David, he didn’t have any people, and he was pretty sure he’d be arrested for stripping in the middle of the park.

  Still…

  Summer Holland loved him. She loved him. Wait. Make that Summer Holland Edwards loved him.

  Had the sun ever been any brighter? Had the sky ever been as blue? Had the flowers ever smelled so sweet?

  The answer to all his questions was a big, resounding no.

  Whistling, he did a little shuffle dance by a tree and almost bumped into another person.

  “I’m so sorry,” he began, turning around and finding Elise there. “What’s wrong?”

  Tears streaked her face. “I’ve made a mistake, but now it’s too late, because I know—I know…” She burst into tears.

  Immediately, he hugged Elise. She looked so lost and forlorn that he couldn’t help himself. “It’s okay. Tell me what I can do.”

  “I need a friend, someone to talk to,” she sniffed and he got a funny feeling in his stomach. “Can we go somewhere private?”

  That funny feeling turned right back into the off feeling he’d had when they had been a couple. But he didn’t want to hurt her feelings, not when she was obviously hurting again. “There’s hardly anyone in the park,” he said into her hair. He lifted his head and set her away from him, gently smiling. “Why don’t we sit down on the nearest bench and talk?”

  Elise looked at the bench, and then at him. “Summer’s cheating on you.”

  Gabriel clenched his jaw. “Oh really?”

  “Yes. I have it on good authority that she’s cheating with some man named Jeremy Stratford.” Elise dabbed at her eyes with a lace handkerchief. She looked sincere enough, but Gabriel didn’t care.

  What he did care about—people running their mouths about Summer.

  “My wife is sleeping with her best friend’s husband?” he asked tightly.

  “Yes, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have broken up with you like I did, because then you wouldn’t be in this mess.” She blew her nose. “Everyone is talking about it.”

  His stomach dropped. “Everyone?” Oh crap. He had to warn Summer.

  A familiar flash of pale hair had him reeling. Summer’s brown-eyed gaze met his. She looked heartbroken while he felt like his heart was breaking. She must have heard the rumor, and now she thought he believed it, when that was the furthest thing from the truth.

  Summer spun away, dashing in the opposite direction. He shouted her name and went after her.

  “Why are you going to her?”

  “Because she needs me,” he tossed over his shoulder, and that’s when he almost stopped in his tracks. He really did have a need to save people, to be needed, and save the day. Hadn’t he automatically comforted Elise, ready to help her in whatever she needed?

  Summer crossed the street, and a large moving van went by, obscuring his view of her for only a minute, but it was enough time for her to disappear.

  Gritting his teeth, he kept himself from roaring her name. She didn’t need any more attention drawn to her, and if he acted like some jealo
us husband (though he wasn’t), shouting at her in the middle of town, then it would only serve to make the gossips happy.

  As cars passed, more than a few drivers waved at him. He waved back, heading to the parking lot where his truck and Summer’s bright green VW Bug was parked, arriving in record time.

  It wasn’t there.

  He smacked the roof of his truck and then dug into his pocket for his keys. He unlocked the door and started to get inside when another woman yelled his name.

  “Bella,” he groaned. “I have to get to Summer.”

  “It’ll only take a minute,” Isabella pleaded.

  He didn’t have a minute, but this was his sister. “You have one minute.”

  Isabella nodded, her normally tan skin pale. “I’m asking you to wait until I’m done before you get upset.”

  “Good grief, Bella. I don’t want to hear about Summer and Jeremy.”

  Isabella wrinkled her nose. “They’re planning a birthday party for Jemma Leigh. It’s supposed to be a surprise.”

  Oh God. His wife was actually trying to do a good deed, and this was how she was paid back. “Fine. I’ll be sure not to spill the beans.”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Gabriel blinked, his grip loosening on his truck. He actually felt lightheaded. “What did you say?”

  “I’m pregnant, and I don’t know what to do.”

  Gabriel saw red. “I’ll kill Peter, that rat bast—”

  “You don’t know the rat bastard,” Isabella said, her cheeks flushing. “The father isn’t from around here.”

  Learning that the father wasn’t Peter made him feel marginally better. However, the isn’t from around here descriptor didn’t exactly make him all excited.

  “Are you disappointed in me?” his sister asked in a small voice.

  “Soon as I become the most perfect person on the planet, then I’ll be disappointed with you. Or if the baby’s father is a Romanov,” he joked, unsure of what else to say.

  “He’s not a Romanov, but he is the best friend of one.”

  Gabriel ran a hand through his hair, wishing he didn’t have to deal with this right now. Selfish, maybe, but he needed to get to Summer before she did something dumb—like skip town, without him.

  “When did you meet the best friend of a Romanov?”

  “It’s not important, but Gabriel…” Isabella’s voice shook. “I’m scared.”

  He pulled his little sister into his arms, kissing the top of her head. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

  “Summer said I should at least give the guy a chance to have a choice in the matter.”

  “My wife is very smart.” He could only imagine how Summer felt when she learned she was pregnant, and the baby’s father had been killed.

  “Can you promise not to tell Mom and Dad?”

  Gabriel leaned back. “It’s not my place to tell. It’s yours, but what I can do is support you, in whatever way is best for you and the baby.”

  Isabella hugged him tighter. “Thank you. You’re the best big brother a girl could ever have.”

  Gabriel smiled. Now all he had to be was the best husband a girl could ever have and convince his wife to stay.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  SUMMER FINISHED PACKING the last of her belongings as Gabriel walked into their bedroom.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t home sooner, but Isabella needed me.”

  “Don’t apologize for helping you sister. She’s family.”

  He exhaled and then saw her bags. “Don’t do this. Please don’t do this. ”

  “I have to.” She smoothed her faded red t-shirt down over her jeans shorts, and then shoved her hands into pockets that peeked out from beneath the frayed hem. Leaving the clothes Jemma Leigh had let her borrow for an indefinite amount of time was the right thing to do. “I’m leaving you, Gabriel, and it’s for the best.”

  “But we belong together.”

  “Wish I could say the same.” Coming back home made her entire life muddy. It made her question who she was, where she was headed, and where she’d been.

  He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in places. Making her want to smooth it back down. “Tell me why you’re in such a hurry? Is it because you saw me comforting Elise?”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to be flippant about the whole thing. To be the old Summer who always came back home with a mountain on her shoulder. “You belong with her, not me.”

  Taking a step closer, his indigo eyes seemed to see right through her. “Don’t you think that’s for me to decide?”

  “No—I mean, yes.” She pulled her hands out of her pocket and held them up. “Look, I don’t expect you to understand, but there’s nothing here for me.”

  “Not even me?”

  Pain ricocheted inside of her. She lowered her gaze to stare at his shoes. “I don’t deserve you.” Glancing back up at him, she found his gorgeous eyes full of compassion. “Ivy doesn’t need me in her life.”

  His hand came up to cup her jaw, his thumb tenderly rubbing her skin. “Maybe you need her in yours, and I sure as hell need you in mine.”

  It would be so easy to lean on him, to draw in his strength when she had none of her own. “No, you don’t .You need someone to love you, to be able to go to church with you, and fit in with your friends. Right now, I can’t do all of those things.” Brutal honesty was the only way to make him let go of her.

  But he didn’t. His thumb kept up that slow glide. “Yes, you do. You’re just too afraid to admit it.”

  “I’m not afraid of anything,” she cried, jerking her head back. “Least of all you, and what you want.”

  Gabriel stepped closer. “But you are. You’re afraid to think that you’re worth loving, you think that your past is your present and future. But I’m here to tell you that it’s not. I don’t love you despite your past. I just love you, as you are, as you were, and as you will be. You’re my heart, Summer Edwards.”

  Fury and self-loathing bubbled in the pit of her stomach. Why wouldn’t he call her out on the selfishness that had carved its way inside of her?

  “Everyone thinks I’m cheating on you with Jeremy Stratford.”

  He shrugged. “Who cares what everyone thinks?”

  “You do!”

  “If I believed the rumors, would I be begging you to stay?”

  She frowned. “I don’t know.”

  “I wouldn’t be here, but it doesn’t matter because you’re not that woman. You never were. She never existed.”

  Why did he have to say such beautiful things? “I’m still leaving.”

  “Please stay. For me.”

  His words hung in the air, tantalizing and shimmering with temptation. This wasn’t good. Nothing good ever came of them trying to be a couple. “No.” One last desperate try. “I can’t.”

  He leaned in, his lips dangerously close to hers. She searched his face. His five o’clock shadow had already made its appearance, then his cheek dimpled. “Stay.”

  Wetting her lips, she made the mistake of blinking. The gentle brush of his mouth on hers had her gasping for air.

  “You’d be miserable.”

  “Stay.” He brushed her lips again, and she trembled. Her eyes were wide open, his closed.

  “I’m the town whore, and you’re the idiot who married her.”

  “Utter nonsense.” Another kiss, light as a butterfly perched on asters. “Stay.”

  Centuries must
have passed while he kissed her. While he whispered ‘stay’ against her mouth. While nothing but his lips and words touched her.

  She breathed him in. His kiss. His plea.

  “Stay.”

  Breathe in.

  His tongue glided across her bottom lip.

  Breathe out.

  “Stay.”

  “No.” She wrenched herself away, grabbed her bag, and ran to the silver truck, and not the VW Bug. Hands shaking, she wrenched open the door and climbed inside, but for some reason, she couldn’t put the key in the ignition.

  Gabriel appeared on his front porch, his face drawn tight. She stared at him, biting her lip so hard that she tasted blood.

  He moved to the steps.

  Her hand went to the door to pull it shut, but she couldn’t do that either.

  “I’m sorry for failing you, Summer,” he said. “I’m sorry for not being there for you, for expecting you to change when you were perfect as God made you. I failed us, and I’m so damned sorry.”

  Tears began to fall. She sniffed. “Stop it,” she whispered.

  “I love you, Summer. If you need me to tell you a thousand times a day, I will.”

  Bewildered, she shook her head. “Why? Why do you love me so much?”

  “I just do.” He ran a hand through his hair again. “I’ve loved you from the start.”

  “But you can’t love me,” she said, “not after everything, not after…” She almost choked on the words before saying them. “Not after all I’ve put you through.”

  “Grow old with me, right here in this house.” He kissed her forehead. “Have lots of babies with me. Every day, I’ll pick flowers for you to wear in your hair, and together, we’ll watch the kids.”

  “Stop it,” she said, but her resolve was weakening. She wanted to stay. Not only was she tired of running, she wanted to be with him. Forever.

  He laced their fingers together and helped her out of the truck. “Make this the moment you decided to show those no-good busy bodies that you are here to stay, with me. Always and forever. You don’t have to do this alone, not anymore, and not ever again.”