Breaking the Story

by Ashley Farley

  She opened another beer and wandered around the downstairs, admiring the home she’d created. She wondered how one went about moving their belongings overseas.

  An international correspondent. Her dream job come true. Nothing was stopping her now but her own fears.

  Scottie jumped at the sound of the doorbell, spilling some of her beer on the hardwood floor. Case in point. How could she go into a war-torn country, with bombs going off all around her and bullets whizzing by her head, when the sound of the pizza man ringing her doorbell turned her into a shivering coward?

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, stunned to see Guy standing on her front door stoop.

  “We need to talk. Do you mind if I come in?”

  “We said everything that needed to be said last night at the hospital,” Scottie said, making no moves toward letting him in.

  “No, Scottie. You said everything you wanted to say. I, on the other hand, still have a few things I need to get off my chest.”

  Scottie saw the Chanello’s delivery car turning the corner and heading toward her house. “All right, fine. But first let me pay for my pizza.” She brushed past Guy and went out to the street to meet the pizza man. She noticed an Enterprise rental car parked on the curb behind her Mini. What could be so important for Guy to rent a car and drive all the way to Richmond to see her? Hadn’t she made it clear they didn’t have a future together?

  She gave the delivery man twenty dollars and told him to keep the change. Pizza in hand, she returned to the house. “You might as well come inside,” she said to Guy as she passed by him on the sidewalk.

  In the kitchen, she removed two Stellas from the refrigerator and handed him one. “Courtesy of the US Government.”

  He furrowed his brow in confusion.

  “Never mind,” she said. “Do you want to go out to the courtyard? It’s less than a hundred degrees outside for the first time in months.”

  “I guess.” He eyed the pizza box on the counter. “I don’t want to interrupt your dinner or anything.”

  “It’s a pizza. It’ll keep,” she said holding the door to the terrace open for him.

  Scottie sat down in the middle of her wooden bench, leaving no room for Guy to join her on either side. He stopped to examine the dead flowers in her planters. “I watered them when I was here. But that was days ago. I guess no one else thought to take care of them.”

  “I’m pretty sure watering plants isn’t in the job description of an FBI agent. Why are you here, Guy? I thought we settled everything last night.”

  He placed his beer on the brick steps and crouched down beside the bench. “I want to be a part of your life, Scottie. You were wrong last night when you said we don’t belong together, because we do. I get you. And I think you get me too.”

  Scottie let out a deep breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “We talked about this in DC. You driving all the way down here to say it again doesn’t change anything.”

  “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?” He nudged her to move over, to make room on the bench for him. “What I didn’t say last night is that I love you. In fact, I’m crazy head over heels in love with you. And I think you feel the same about me.”

  She looked away from him. “I won’t deny that I have feelings for you. But those feelings are all jumbled up with my messed-up life. I am so exhausted from thinking about it all.”

  “And understandably so. Which is why I’m willing to wait as long as it takes for you to figure things out.”

  “That’s the thing, though. I don’t know if I’ll ever figure things out, if my life will ever feel normal again. What if you wait two years, or however long it takes for me to get my head straight, and it turns out we’re not right for one another after all?”

  “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.” He set her beer on the ground, and took her hands in his. “There’s no doubt in my mind that you’re perfect for me. I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I love your sexy body, your inquisitive mind, and your sarcastic sense of humor. I love the way you furrow your brow and scrunch up your nose when you’re deep in thought. And I love lying in bed in the dark with you, sharing our secrets and our dreams. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing other things in bed with you as well.” He brought her hands to his lips and kissed her fingertips. “I respect your need for adventure, your need to travel the world. And I promise you I won’t stand in your way. I won’t cramp your style.”

  “What if I told you I’ve been offered a job with Reuters and they want me to move to London?” Scottie watched closely for his reaction. His face registered surprise at first, and then he broke into a genuine smile that made his eyes sparkle.

  “That is so awesome,” he said, offering her a high five. “Your dream job come true. You deserve it. You’ve worked hard.”

  “Problem is, I never imagined my dream job would take me to London. Reporting on a story in Europe is one thing. Moving there permanently is a whole other matter.”

  He was silent for a minute, deep in thought. “Maybe I’ll move to London with you. That is, if you want me to of course. Depending on how the election goes, I may not have a job come November anyway.”

  She stared at him dumbfounded. She never thought he’d consider moving across the ocean just to be near her. “How would you earn a living? I don’t imagine there are too many job opportunities in Great Britain for an American politician.”

  “Maybe I’ll write a book.” He mimicked typing on a keyboard.

  “You mean, like a novel?”

  “Maybe. Or a nonfiction perspective on what’s wrong with our political system and the country as a whole. The critics can only hurt me but so much if I’m all the way across the ocean. I could get a job bartending or waiting tables to pay the rent.”

  “No offense, Guy, but I’ve been there and done that.” Scottie got to her feet and crossed the courtyard, kneeling down next to the flowerbed that bordered her brick terrace.

  Guy came to stand beside her, watching her as she pulled weeds. “It’s not fair for you to compare me to Brad. We are two entirely different people.”

  “Fair or not, the reality is, I don’t know you well enough to know whether I can trust you. Whether I can count on you to keep the promises you make. So far you’re one for one. You withheld certain information about your career from me, but then you went out on a limb to help my brother find me. I honestly don’t know what to think about you.”

  “I guess that’s a risk you’ll have to take. Life does not come with guarantees.”

  “What happens if Blackmore wins the election and offers you a White House job? You can’t turn that down,” she said, yanking up a clump of weeds. “And I wouldn’t want you to.”

  “Then we’ll try the transatlantic commute. We can Skype every night. I’ve always wanted to have cyber sex.”

  “That sounds like a barrel of monkeys.” She stood to face him. “What about children? You deserve to have a family.”

  “And we’ll have one if that’s what we decide we want. Based on what you’ve told me, getting pregnant isn’t your problem. We can find a specialist who deals with high-risk pregnancies. If that doesn’t work out, we can adopt or hire a surrogate. These are problems couples face together, Scottie. This is what life as a married couple is all about, charting out our course together.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “What do you say, sweetheart? Will you travel with me on my journey?”

  The tenderness in his eyes made Scottie weak in the knees. Was she crazy to jump into another relationship so soon after the breakup of her marriage? And what about her dream job? Could she really ask him to come with her all the way to London? As she stared up into his handsome face, she knew she couldn’t let him go. A part of her, maybe a bigger part of her than she was willing to admit, had already fallen in love with him. She wanted him to wrap his protective arms around her and never let go.

  “I’m willing to give it a try, Guy. B
ut that’s the only promise I can make right now. If things get too complicated, I may need to ask you to back off.”

  He wrapped his arms around her. “That’s fine by me. Consider yourself in the driver’s seat. We’ll take it slow or fast. Along the straight and narrow path, or down the rocky road, whichever you choose.”

  She took his face in her hands and kissed him tenderly on the lips. “In that case, fasten your seatbelt, Guy Jordan. It’s gonna be a wild ride.”

  The End

  Author’s Note

  If I had my life to do over, I might consider a career in photojournalism, a profession that would combine my two favorite hobbies—writing and photography. How exciting would it be to travel the world, capturing snapshots of history in the making? Part of the fun of being a fiction writer is exploring fantasy worlds. Which is exactly what I’ve done through the eyes of my protagonist, Scottie Darden. I hope you have as much fun reading about her as I had creating her.

  I am working diligently on the sequel to Her Sister’s Shoes, which I plan to publish late this summer. The saga of the Sweeney sisters continues in my revisit to the fictional town of Prospect, in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. The three Sweeney sisters—Jackie, Sam, and Faith—take on new challenges including a young newcomer who rocks their world.

  Acknowledgements

  I’d like to express my gratitude to my wonderful street team for their continued support. To Mamie, for being such an avid reader and providing such valuable feed back. To Alison, for helping me stay connected to the world and for offering such great advice. To Cheryl, for being the best public relations person an author could ask for. To Ellen, for starting my day with your smiling face and positive attitude. To Jody, for buying more of my books than you can give away. To my mother, for being you. To Pat, my trusted editor, for accommodating my schedule and for keeping me honest. To Kim, for your amazing talents as virtual assistant. To my husband, Ted, for being my biggest fan. And to my readers, for making the hard work worthwhile.

  I’ve dedicated Breaking the Story to my children, Cameron and Ned, whose close relationship was the inspiration for my story. Cherish every day with the ones you love.

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  Please visit my website for more information about my novels www.ashleyfarley.net

  Copy right@2016 by Ashley Farley

  Smashwords Edition

  Cover design: damonza.com

  Formatting: damonza.com

  Editor: Patricia Peters at A Word Affair LLC

  Leisure Time Books, a division of AHF Publishing

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 Ashley Farley

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN for ePub: 978-0-9861672-4-9

  ISBN for Print: 978-0-9861672-5-6