by Natalie Ann
Copyright 2018 Natalie Ann
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.
Dedication- To the first dentist that came at me with a needle behind her back laughing like she did when we were kids on the playground so many years ago.
Author’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton- Last Chance
The Fierce Five Series
Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed- Brody
Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti - Aiden
Love Collection
Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love
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Table of Content
Prologue
In the Way
Kind of Young
Another Day
Overstep Himself
Mixed Signals
Shut Him Up
Hits a Nerve
Back for More
Moving On
Needy for Affection
A Curse and a Blessing
Worth the Wait
No Pushover
Keep Her That Way
Domineering Side
Taking Charge
Always Be Right
I Can Help
Firm Belief
Embarrass Me
Being Equals
An Independent One
Want to Stay
Never Admit
Makes You Happy
What She Hoped For
Protect Her
Judged Him Wrong
Trust Me
The One
Not Harmless
Here We Go Again
Always Rush
More Relaxed
See the Stars
Delicate Areas
All Mixed Together
Break Something
Different Worlds
More Heat
Crack and Bleed
Big Deal
Never Doubt
The Truth
Epilogue
Prologue
Riley Hamilton sat on her couch looking around her living room at all the boxes neatly stacked and labeled. Time to move on. Time to leave this place that never felt like a home to begin with.
The movers would be arriving in a few hours with exact instructions, just like the packers had yesterday. The plan was set in motion.
She took a deep breath, stood up, and walked over to her kitchen counter, sliding her new cell phone into her purse and putting her old one in the pocket of her blazer. She knew precisely where that was going to end up.
No doubt, she’d rather be in a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers today, but instead she was dressed like she was going to work. Gray trousers, cream and gray shirt, a teal blazer, and gray and teal flats. She couldn’t raise any suspicions. She had to look like she did every morning, five days a week. She didn’t want questions or comments. Nothing. She’d made up her mind.
One more deep breath. She hitched her new purse on her shoulder, grabbed her briefcase filled with her laptop and all her important legal documents, then made her way out the door and toward the subway at exactly eight a.m., just like every other day of the workweek.
But today was Friday and today was different, and no one was supposed to know.
Arrangements with a friend had her SUV parked for the night in a secure location one stop earlier than her regular exit. The routine of leaving the subway, then hailing a taxi to her office was going to be interrupted today.
It’s not like she was hiding. Not like she was escaping to a faraway land where no one could ever find her. But she was leaving. She was starting fresh. Looking for the life she always wanted. The life she was going to finally have.
With her earbuds in her ears, she listened to seventies rock during her twenty-minute commute. When Stevie Nicks’s “Landslide” came on, she knew she was making the right choice. Not that she doubted herself, not really. But that song said it all. Time made her bolder and time made her stronger. She was her father’s daughter and she was moving on. He understood she needed to leave; so did her mother. They supported her, but they didn’t understand it all. She couldn’t tell them. Not everything.
The truth of what had pushed this decision so fast—and so out of left field in their eyes—had to remain a secret.
But it wasn’t abrupt in her eyes. She’d seen this for years. Seen this change and knew it was time. Time to grab the dream and make it hers.
So lost in the raspy voice of Stevie, she almost missed her stop. Jumping up fast, she turned sideways and slid through the doors before they could shut on her. Then she made the two-minute walk to her vehicle, climbed in, and proceeded on with her plans.
Ten minutes later, she was pulling in behind her office complex next to the dumpster. She hit the button and waited for her window to roll down, then tossed her old cell phone in. Throwing away everything she could at this point. It was better this way. Out with the old.
She looked over at her office, said a tiny goodbye to the place that gave her the experience she needed. Told herself she’d call and say goodbye to all the staff, keep in touch with all her friends, but knew in her heart she wouldn’t. Time to leave. Time to run.
Even if it was only from herself and the only life she’d ever known.
In the Way
“Are you sure it’s okay?”
“Riley,” her brother, Max, said, his ever-present patience missing at the moment. “My door is always open. There is more than enough room and you know it.”
She looked over at Lily, Max’s sister-in-law, as she came strolling in. “I don’t want to be a burden.”
He followed her gaze and then laughed. “You aren’t.” Lily walked back out with a bottle of water in her hand, giving them both a little wave. “Lily is only here a few more weeks, then she’s heading back on campus to work and take some classes for the summer.”
“But I’m in the way with Quinn and the baby,” she said. Max’s wife had given birth to their daughter j
ust three weeks prior.
“You aren’t in the way at all. Quinn is going crazy right now. Having another adult in the house—a female adult—is helping to keep her sanity.”
Riley was about to argue that statement until her niece, Lara, and nephew, Davy, came rushing in arguing with each other about some TV show they’d watched last night, then started banging around in cabinets.
Unlike Quinn, Riley wasn’t used to the noise. She was used to the peace and quiet of her own little apartment. She’d actually enjoyed the solitude the last few months before she moved. Until she didn’t feel safe anymore. Until the quiet felt like spiders crawling over her skin…even in her sleep, waking her up, forcing her to sit up straight, her heart pounding. The city had been getting to her and she’d waited long enough.
Max laughed. “Kids. Enough arguing and slamming things around. I don’t want you to wake up Jocelyn.”
“Too late,” Quinn said, walking into the room with the baby squirming in her arms. “She was up.”
“Sorry, Dad,” Lara said, rushing over and stopping in front of her baby sister. “Sorry, Joce. Can I hold her, Quinn?”
Quinn handed the baby off to Lara. “You didn’t wake her. This child wants to eat nonstop,” Quinn said, walking to the refrigerator and pulling out a bottle to start to heat up. “Speaking of food, what does everyone want for breakfast?”
Riley stood up fast. “I’ll fix it. You just relax and take care of my new niece.”
She hated adding to the chaos of the house and was trying to help as much as she could, when she could. If only they’d let her do something.
“Sit, Riley,” Quinn said, testing the temperature of the formula on her hand now. “You’re a guest in the house. I can’t just lie around doing nothing. I feel fine. Women used to squat in the fields, drop their kids, and finish working. I can handle breakfast for this rowdy bunch.”
Max winked and Lara said, unfazed, “I want pancakes. Can we have them if I feed the baby for you?”
Riley was going to offer to do that, loving the feel of that tiny baby in her hands. The soft smell of freshly cleaned skin. The contented sigh when the bottle was put in Jocelyn’s mouth and the only thing that mattered was immediate satisfaction. It was a peaceful feeling that Riley hadn’t felt in a long time. But Lara looked as though she wasn’t going to release her baby sister without a stick of dynamite in front of her.
“Pancakes coming up. Max, are you staying?” Quinn asked.
“If I wasn’t, I would be now. But you keep forgetting I’ve got to take the kids to school.”
“I can do that,” Riley said.
“And give up pancakes?” Max said, looking slightly outraged. “No way. Just sit and relax, Riley. What’s going on with you?”
Every time she offered to do anything, they shot her down. “Nothing,” she said, letting it drop. The more she talked right now, the more Max would be looking closer for the truth she wasn’t ready to share. “I really appreciate you letting me stay here until my house is ready.”
“Think nothing of it,” Quinn said. “I like having someone here at night who isn’t crying and asking for food.”
“We don’t cry,” Davy said, smirking at Quinn. Riley was glad to see Davy finally out of his shell. He’d been such a quiet kid the past few years. His parents’ divorce had hit him hard and it seemed no one had been able to reach him. She was guessing Quinn did.
“I’m talking about your father,” Quinn said, walking over and filling his coffee cup for him.
Riley saw Max smile at his wife. Yeah, she was jealous. But Max deserved it after his last marriage. They all did.
Still, she’d had dreams and hopes of having this family dynamic at some point in her life. But not now. The last thing she wanted was a man until she got her life in order.
“I’ll clean up when you’re done then,” Riley said.
“That I’ll let you do,” Quinn said.
After everyone was finished eating, with the kids and Quinn upstairs getting ready for the day, Max walked up to Riley at the sink and pulled a bowl out of her hands to dry. “I really am glad you’re here. I don’t want you to feel like you’re in the way. You’re not at all.”
She turned and looked at her older brother. The person she’d looked up to so much in her life. The person she always thought she’d be. The person her father wanted her to be…but she didn’t have it in her to follow in their footsteps. It wasn’t what she wanted, and if her father taught her anything in life, it was to stand on her feet and be her own person. She was trying to find that teenager from so long ago again to do just that.
“I don’t want to be another person Quinn has to take care of.”
“She isn’t taking care of you. You’re almost invisible here. You’re staying in her old suite that was just collecting dust anyway. It’s helping her since it’s one less room she feels she has to clean, because we’ve always known how much of a neat freak you are.”
The old nanny suite was nice and private, with a separate entrance from the rest of the house. It allowed Riley to come and go as she pleased, but it didn’t change anything. The two weeks she’d been here already felt like two years. She was ready to be gone. Almost as ready as she’d been to move out of her parents’ house and head to college eleven years ago.
Max sighed, sensing her mood, like he had so much when they were growing up. “When is your house going to be done?”
She’d bought a house sight unseen. A townhouse, really. Something closer to town for her, not so far out on the lake. Not that she didn’t enjoy it here, but after living in New York City, this was too quiet for her. She wanted to look out her window and at least see a streetlight now and again. Not pitch-blackness. Things could hide easier in the dark. Fears crept up in the dark. Nightmares happened in the dark.
Dreams got lost in the dark.
Courage sometimes needed to be found in light places, at least for her.
“The floors are finally finished, so the countertops are going in tomorrow and then I think just retiling both tubs in the bathrooms. That should be all that’s left.”
She had a little germ phobia—or as Max just said, she was a “neat freak”—which was odd considering her job. She had her hands in people’s mouths all day long. Nothing was hygienic about someone’s teeth no matter how much they brushed them. The mouth was a breeding ground for nasty things that would cause most people to gag if they knew.
But when she was working, she was in a zone, taking all the precautions she needed. At home, she wanted certain things fresh and clean. And since she didn’t know the previous owners, or how clean they might have been, replacing all the counters, toilets, and showers, and refinishing the hardwood floors satisfied her slight neurosis.
“So you’ve got one, maybe two weeks left with me?” Max asked.
“Pretty much. I didn’t even want it to be this long, but they said close to a month.”
“Then let’s take advantage of it. We never got to spend a lot of time together growing up.” He pulled her forward into his arms, and settling against his larger frame, she felt safe and secure. Kind of like what she thought Jocelyn might feel when she was held. Riley hadn’t felt safe and secure much lately. Not even mentally.
“Deal,” she said. “Since I know you won’t let me cook…” He gave her a funny look, but she continued on, “I know you’ve got a thing for your wife’s cooking and I can’t blame you in the least. I couldn’t compete even if I wanted to. But my point is, if you won’t let me cook, can I bring pizza home for dinner now and again? Or something. Just name it.”
“I think Quinn would like that. She loves to cook, but it is nice to have a break from it. I’ll let you know a good time to do it.”
“Thanks,” Riley said, hoping he kept his word. She may still be his baby sister, but she was an adult now. One who had lived on her own for a long time. One who had just picked up her entire life in less than three months and kept the whole thing a secret from most
of the outside world until it was finalized.
She didn’t need to be babied by anyone.
Kind of Young
Trevor Miles moved his jaw back and forth and flinched in pain. Then that slight wince caused him to feel like needles were jabbing at his gums. How could a toothache hurt so much?
He grabbed a bottle of Motrin and shook four into his palm. Yeah, it was more than the recommended dosage, but he’d taken that much yesterday, too.
He tossed them back with his coffee and then swore when the hot liquid touched the spot causing his ache. He’d be fine once they kicked in. He was yesterday, and his day had started exactly the same. Same as the day before. And the day before that. If the pain lasted longer each day than the previous day, he would just continue to lie to himself and say it was getting better. A little mind game never hurt anyone.
After his gun was holstered and his badge clipped to his belt, he grabbed his keys and climbed into the Lake Placid Chief of Police SUV, then pulled out of his driveway and down his street, looking at the lake as he made his way into town.
He always found peace on the lake. He had no problem admitting that now. It was only natural when both his parents had retired and moved to be near his youngest sister, Taryn, in Florida, that he’d buy the house from them. His other sister, Kennedy, who was four years younger, still lived in Lake Placid. But she lived above her business overlooking Mirror Lake right off Main Street.
He worried about her, but reminded himself she could shoot a gun as well as any of his officers and probably could take half of them down, himself included, from her years of karate as a teen.
Parking his vehicle in his designated spot, he walked into the police station, past the metal detectors with a wave to the guard on duty, swiped his card, and let himself into the back with the offices. His assistant, Marcy, quickly shoved her iPad into her desk. “What level are you on now?” he asked her, knowing her addiction to Candy Swipe games.
