by Natalie Ann
Parker knew how he felt and he believed he should get some credit for not pressuring her, but he wanted his daughter to be born with married parents. Kaelyn and Harris did it and had a huge reception months after and he’d talked about it a few times in Parker’s presence.
When the doorbell rang, she looked over at him. “Why don’t you get that,” he said.
She frowned and got up, then moved to the front door. A UPS driver was standing there with a box in his hand. “I didn’t order anything.” He was behind her now grinning. “This is the wrong house. It’s for you, Evan.”
“I was told to bring it here,” the driver said.
“Thanks for that,” Evan said and then reached forward to sign for the package.
“No problem.”
He took the box out of her hand and pulled her into the living room and on the couch. “What is going on?” she asked.
“I knew this was coming today. I left instructions with the driver to bring it across the street since I had to sign for it. It’s not like it was out of their way.”
She laughed. “True. What is it?”
“Open it,” he said.
She frowned and he reached a hand out and ran it over her brown eyebrow. She was beautiful to him, but more so now. She had a glow to her that warmed his heart on this cold day. To know that his daughter was inside of her and with any luck Parker would be his wife soon.
Yeah, it reminded him that people could change.
She pulled the tape off and lifted the flaps to reveal the jewelry box inside.
She gasped. “You didn’t.”
He laughed at her. “Of course I did. It’s how we met. Your package came to my house twice by mistake. Mine went to yours wrong. This time I planned it though.”
He was watching her face for any reaction that she might tell him no. But there were only tears in her eyes. “You did well,” she said, laughing. When she pulled the lid off the box, she did more than gasp. “Evan. This is huge and way too much.”
“Never enough for you,” he said. He pulled the ring out and got down on his knee in front of her. “You know I love you. You know I want to marry you. I even talked to your father a few weeks ago and got his blessing right along with your brothers.”
She rolled her eyes and then started to cry. “I should have figured you’d do that and they knew and never said a word.”
“They like me,” he said. “What can I say?”
He’d expected to get a bunch of shit from Marcus and Jeremy, but it never happened. The minute her brothers had shown up to talk to him, he professed his love for Parker and asked for their help to get her to marry him. They’d laughed and said Parker knew her own mind better than anyone, but they wished him well.
Shane Reed, Parker’s father, had been easier to win over and there’d been no problems there.
“They do,” she said. “Everyone does. Even my mother. Though I don’t really care what she thinks with the way she is acting lately.”
Parker’s parents did separate last month and she was trying to stay out of it, but Emma Reed kept trying to pull her in. His future wife knew how to walk a fine line and she was doing it well.
“You’re not the only one that knows what to say and when to get people to listen to you.”
“Oh,” she said. “So you’re a good salesperson too? Sell me.”
“I don’t need to sell you anything because I know how you feel. But I’m going to ask you. Parker Reed, will you be my wife? Will you move in with me next week so Marcus can move in here? Will you let me love you and care for you and my daughter? And will you not give me too much crap if I get a little protective and overbearing? It’s out of love.”
“All out of love,” she said. “And yes, I’ll marry you. I’ve been waiting for this moment and started to wonder if I’d have to ask you.”
“You’ve had enough pressure on your shoulders in your life. I didn’t want to add to it, but I would like you to be my wife before April first. New year, new life,” he said.
“For all three of us. Oh, and by the way,” she said. “I already bought the dress I’m going to wear to marry you, so we have to do it soon so I still fit into it. Good thing it was delivered to the right house a few weeks ago.”
He tilted his head back and laughed, then stood up and pulled her into his arms, his hand going to her belly. “The story we are going to have for our daughter someday.”
“A love story,” she said. “One with a perfect ending.”
“It will be more perfect when you let me add you and this little bundle to the Butler Christmas postcard next year,” he said, rubbing her belly.
“By then I’ll be a Butler and you can put me anywhere you want,” she said, laughing.
“I’d like to put you on your back.” But the doorbell rang and he laughed too. “Always bad timing.”
“Not always,” she said. “Unexpected deliveries are sometimes the best there are.”
The End!
Check out Forever Mine…Whitney Butler’s Story!
Prologue
Whitney heard the beeping of a horn and got up to look outside her office window. There was Kevin sitting in a black Mercedes convertible.
She let out a sigh and went outside to see what her husband wanted this time. As if she couldn’t figure it out.
“You’re out here making enough noise,” she said when she moved to the driver’s door. “Testing out another new car?”
“We got this on the lot a few hours ago. What do you think?”
“I think it’s something that isn’t practical,” she said.
“It’s perfect for you,” Kevin said, grinning at her. At one point she’d fallen for that grin. When she was young and impressionable. Stupid even, but she’d never admitted that to anyone in her family.
“It has two doors and hardly a backseat. Where would we put a car seat?”
Kevin rolled his eyes. “You’ve got an SUV for that when the time comes. This is for fun. You need fun in your life. You’re too damn uptight.”
She’d been hearing this for years now. “And you’re irresponsible. Life isn’t all about fun.”
“Please,” he said. “You used to be a lot of fun. Now you’re a downer all the time. Take a test drive with me. You’ll love it.”
She wanted to grind her teeth over one more insult he threw her way. It never ended. She couldn’t be good enough for him. At least not in the past several years.
“I’m working,” she said. “Don’t you need to get to work?”
“Your family owns the business. You can come and go when you want and you know it. Not sure why you always feel like you owe them so much.”
He didn’t get it and never would. Butler Construction was her family business and part of her legacy. One she planned on handing down to her kids someday.
If she ever had a child.
“Because they’ve done a lot for us.”
He snorted. “Yeah, right.”
It’d never been enough for her husband that was six years older than her and wanted the world on a platter without prepping in the kitchen. He sold cars for a living. Yes, he was good at his job. He made a lot of money. But he spent his time schmoozing with the guys and flirting with the women. She knew it. She’d seen it.
She had the money between them. Or her family did. And Kevin always expected that her parents would hand it over whenever she asked, even though she wouldn’t and didn’t.
“I’m not going to get into it with you right now,” she said quietly. “The boys are on their way for a meeting and I don’t want another scene.”
Her brother Ryan had never liked her husband and thought she’d gotten married too soon. Too young.
Yep, a month before her nineteenth birthday while she was in college was too young for her twenty-five-year-old husband. Everyone said it, but she was in love and saw the future family she’d been dying to have.
It still hadn’t happened almost ten years later.
“You always side w
ith them,” Kevin said. “What’s your deal today? You were all pissy when you got up this morning too.”
“Nothing,” she said. Of course he wouldn’t remember she had to have more tests done today to find out why she couldn’t conceive a child. He hadn’t been to the doctors with her in years and didn’t ask questions when she tried to talk to him about it. It was obvious to her she was the only one interested in starting a family.
“What, are you on the rag again?” he asked, laughing.
He never used to be this crude either. “No. I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. They still can’t find anything wrong and don’t know why I can’t get pregnant.”
“Because you’re so damn uptight. We know it’s not me. You got pregnant once. It’s you. Relax. Come for a ride with me. Maybe we can conceive junior in this.” He was smirking and she wanted to just wipe it off his face.
Yeah, she got pregnant before they were married. She’d taken a home pregnancy test and told Kevin. He was shocked and not all that happy but said they should get married. They hadn’t been dating long, but she loved him and knew everything she wanted was coming true.
A week later, she’d gotten her period before she could get into the doctor’s office to have it verified. The doctor said it was normal for that to happen, she was young and wouldn’t have a problem conceiving in the future.
How wrong they’d all been.
Kevin had been so sweet during that time and they continued to plan their wedding, her knowing she’d get that family in time.
Since she was in college, it was decided they’d wait until she finished to try again. It just wasn’t meant, she’d told herself.
“I’ve got to work. So do you,” she said again.
“Fine. I want steak for dinner tonight. Stop and get some on your way home.”
He put it in drive and sped away. Heaven forbid he’d ask what she wanted. Or offer to cook let alone stop at the store to get anything.
She turned her head and saw Ryan pull in with her cousins Evan and Christian for a meeting.
“What did that dick want? Doesn’t he have a job?” her brother asked.
“Nice way to talk about your sister’s husband,” Evan said to Ryan.
Ryan scowled at Evan, then turned to her. “Let me guess. He wants you to buy him that new toy?”
She forced a grin. “He said it’d be perfect for me.” She wasn’t going to relay the whole conversation. She never wanted to give Ryan more ammunition to hate her husband.
“Really?” Ryan said, looking over to the end of the parking lot. “Talking you into that new SUV that he said he could get a good deal on three months ago wasn’t enough?”
“I don’t need a money manager,” Whitney said. “It’s a nice vehicle and will last me years.”
“Until Kevin brings home something else,” Evan said, grinning.
Her cousin Christian shoved his brother, Evan. “Don’t get involved. It’s Whitney’s life.”
“Thanks, Christian. It is my life and my money, and no, I’m happy with that and I’m not a pushover when my husband wants me to be.”
She’d put her foot down years ago when the credit card bills started to pile up. The last thing she wanted to do was go to her parents and ask for money so she’d consolidated and paid them off. She cut the plastic up and told Kevin to get his cards in his name. She wasn’t doing this again.
Of course that was another fight that lasted a solid month, but at least he was paying his own bills off...or so she hoped.
“Let’s get the meeting going,” Ryan said. “Are you okay? You don’t look good.”
Under her younger brother’s rough exterior was a caring heart. “I’m fine,” she said, fighting back the tears. “Just a long couple of days.”
Ryan rubbed his hand on her arm. “Why don’t you go lie down. You had a doctor’s appointment today, right?”
Even her brother knew and asked and she hadn’t told him. Her mother knew, so she suspected he got the information that way. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
But at the end of the meeting, she had a splitting headache and decided to leave. She ran to the store and got the steak that Kevin wanted for dinner because she wasn’t in the mood for another argument today. He was going to start one about the car, she knew.
She went into the house that her family had built three years ago for them in Paradise Place. She’d never told Kevin it wasn’t in her name, but her father’s. She couldn’t get the loan because Kevin’s credit was so bad, but she was still making the payments.
When she went into their walk-in closet to change, she noticed one of Kevin’s shirts on the floor and picked it up to hang. He was such a slob at times. But once the light gray button-down shirt was in her hands, she smelled something floral and brought it to her nose.
Perfume? No. She didn’t wear any. And though Kevin wore cologne, this wasn’t the scent either.
She started to go through his side of the closet and found another shirt balled up in the back, and pulled it out. It smelled the same, but this time there was a red stain on the collar. Lipstick.
She didn’t wear lipstick.
After taking a deep breath, she started to snoop everywhere on his side of the closet, then went to his home office. She didn’t go in there often; there was no need to. There was now.
She went through his desk, found his stack of bills to pay. The ones in his name. The envelope for a credit card bill had been opened, so she pulled it out and tried not to cringe at the balance.
When she saw the three charges for hotel rooms locally she didn’t burst into tears—she got angry. Ryan wasn’t the only one with a temper and Kevin better damn well be prepared to be served more than steak when he got home.
Chapter One
Still Come True
Four years later
“You look tired,” Ryan said when he walked into her office.
“Do you talk to your wife like that?” Whitney asked, grinning.
Ryan laughed. He was one changed man and she knew first hand that love could do that. He was still considered a newlywed, having gotten married two months ago over the summer.
“Never,” he said. “She is beautiful no matter how much sleep she gets.”
“Where is Ryan Butler and what have you done to him?”
“Yeah, I know. I can’t help it. I never thought I’d see this day. Shannon and I brought Jeffrey for his first day of school today. Shannon cried; Jeffrey pleaded with me to get her to stop. It was funny.”
“You wanted to shed a tear, didn’t you?” she asked.
“No. I know they aren’t my kids, but it feels like it.”
“They are yours now,” she said. “Jeffrey looks at you as his father and Maddie adores you.”
“It is a nice feeling,” he said, puffing his chest out. She wasn’t sure if he was aware he’d made that move. Ryan’s wife, Shannon, was a widow with two young kids when she relocated to Colonie fifteen months ago. Whitney was pretty sure the last thing Shannon thought she’d find here was love again so soon and a second marriage.
“So the question is, when will you have your own child?” she asked.
“Probably soon,” he said. He stopped to look at her. Really stare at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I’m not.”
She didn’t need her brother to apologize to her for finding love and a family and wanting to add to that. “Yeah, but we all thought it’d be you with the kids by now. It’s been your dream.”
“And dreams can still come true. As we know, it wasn’t meant and it’s a damn good thing nothing is tying me to Kevin.”
“Asshole,” Ryan said.
“He was that. And many more choice words. But he’s out of my life for good.”
She’d thought for sure she’d have to buy him out, but during the divorce proceedings, she got her fast divorce and they went on their separate ways. The fact their biggest asset, their home, wasn’t in either of their name
s worked in her favor. They had a joint savings account that she only put part of her income in, they split it and divided up some things in the house and he was gone as if she’d snapped her fingers and he went up in a puff of smoke.
“Damn straight,” Ryan said. “Now you need to get on that horse again. Don’t let him hold you back.”
“I’m not,” she said. “We’ve had this conversation several times. I don’t hate men and never did. I’ve got too many good examples of them in my life to feel that way. I’m just more selective now.”
She wouldn’t admit trust was a factor with moving on completely, but she figured many assumed it.
“If Evan can find someone, anyone can,” Ryan said of their older cousin.
“Evan isn’t nearly as bad as you used to be and Parker is perfect for him.”
“You’re obsessed with Parker because she was on Survivor.”
Whitney did a little shoulder wiggle. “She was awesome. Girl power there. Sorry, reality shows are my guilty pleasure.”
“Just don’t sign up for any of those Bachelor shows.”
“Good God no. I’ve had enough drama in my life. Anyway, one of my backup smoke alarms was beeping last night and it kept waking me up and I had a splitting headache this morning. It’s fine now.”
“Does it need a new battery? Do you want me to stop over and check them out? It was cold the last few nights, your furnace kicked on fine?”
“I don’t need my baby brother to change a battery that I did this morning. After I figured out which one it was. It’s all good. And yes, my furnace is working.”
“Okay. I know you are all independent and everything, but if you need anything you can ask any of us.”
“And I do when it’s something I can’t figure out on my own.” She appreciated the help and support she got from her father and brother. No one lived that far from the other in Paradise Place. Her whole family lived there, except Christian who was always buying and flipping homes all over the area on the side.
“If you have a minute I wanted to go over some supply orders with you,” Ryan said.
“Pull up a seat,” she said. She was a jack-of-all-trades for the business. The office was fairly big and she ran it. She oversaw the staff and the building itself. She dealt with most of the new build paperwork that went through their realtor, Ruby Turner. She handled all the customer and vendor relations. Not to mention the website for the business and marketing.
