“As for Trevor, don’t add harming an innocent child to your list of follies.” For the first time ever, she actually flushed in embarrassment. “You should also know, Crystal, that Emily has a very good case against you for slander and defamation of character. Did you know the courts are now handing out some very large settlements?” Her hands were in her lap, but he knew she was shaking inside. “Sign it, Crystal. Walk away today. As you can see, I’m being extremely generous. There’ll be no suit from Emily and no action will be brought against you, but only if you sign. I’m sure your lawyer will be able to advise you of your chances of winning a slander and defamation suit of this degree. Your choice. Right now. You don’t want me for an enemy. Even you can’t be that foolish.” He noted her hesitation, the uncertainty.
She picked up the pen that had been placed precisely beside the envelope. Her hand shook as she turned to the tabs clearly marking where she needed to sign. After signing and initialing each page, she threw down the pen and rose from the chair.
“Pack your bags and get the hell out of my house, now. The money will be in your account as soon as this is filed.” Without a word, she hurried upstairs.
Chapter Forty-Six
Brad sat out on the front porch, breathing in the cool night air on this unusually warm spring night, smiling to himself about the way things had turned out. The day he’d received the news in Keith’s office flooded him with sweet, overwhelming relief. To have Crystal gone and out of their lives was like a black, tension-filled, cloud dissipated. Even the sunshine seemed to beam brighter around them. Crystal had left town right after signing the papers, leaving instructions for the rest of her belongings to be sent to a condo in Seattle.
Keith filed the papers that day. He pulled strings to have a judge sign the divorce decree a few days later. Thirty-one days and Brad would be a free man.
For the first time in his life, he felt as if he was living with his eyes wide open. “You know, Dad, I’m glad you and Mom are going to stay for a bit.”
Brad’s father clinked his glass to Brad’s. “Here’s to a good woman, your son, and finally getting it right.” He swallowed the single malt scotch, and turned when the screen door squeaked.
“Are the kids asleep?” asked Brad.
Emily nodded, and rested her hand on his shoulder.
When he looked up into the passion burning in her sparkling eyes, a lump formed deep in Brad’s throat. She took his breath away.
“I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone.” Rodney stopped and rested his hand fondly on Emily’s shoulder, looking down on her as a father would his daughter.
“Thanks, Dad.” Brad reached around and lifted Emily onto his lap.
“Mmm, yep, all fast asleep.”
He leaned his head down and kissed the tip of her nose. She still couldn’t believe he’d done it; showing up, ordering his men to pack up all their things and move them back out to the ranch. He hesitated, for only a moment, and informed her he loved her. And as soon as both their divorces were final, he planned to marry her.
The way he looked at her, with such everlasting desire, friendship and love, she knew he’d just handed her his heart. For him, it was a rare gift of trust.
Sitting on his lap now, his fingers linked with hers, she knew they had a future filled with possibility.
“You never answered me, Em.”
She slid around on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Answer you about what?”
“I think I asked you to marry me. And you’ve left me hanging.”
She caressed his face with the back of her fingers, unable to remember her heart ever being so full. “If I recall, you informed me we were getting married. But the answer’s yes.”
She snuggled a little closer, she couldn’t wait to share the news with him. She took his hand and placed it on her stomach as a slight blush rose in her cheeks. The doctor said the baby would be born in November.
THE END
Next in The Outsider series, A Baby And A Wedding, a bridge short story.
Getting married and having a baby ... for Emily and Brad everything was perfect, or so they thought until an unexpected surprise threatens to derail their happy day.
The Outsider Series in order:
THE FORGOTTEN CHILD
A BABY AND A WEDDING
FALLEN HERO WITH BONUS SHORT STORY THE SEARCH
THE AWAKENING
SECRETS
RUNAWAY
OVERDUE
THE UNEXPECTED STORM
THE WEDDING
--“Loved this book series! I just couldn’t get enough of the characters and ended up reading the whole set in a day.”—Reviewer, Jen
--“I loved all these books. All about the cowboys and their lives. Love at first sight and the things they will do for love. I couldn’t put them down.”—Reviewer, Suzanne
--“Wish there were truly men in the world like the Friessen men.”—Amazon Reviewer, Sara
The Outsider Series in order:
The Forgotten Child: - An Amazon Kindle Bestseller. How do you tell a man there is something wrong with his child?
A Baby and a Wedding: (The Forgotten Child to Fallen Hero bridge short story of Brad & Emily)
Fallen Hero including bonus short story, The Search: A cowboy who walked away from his family’s fortune. A woman who returned for justice. What they didn't expect was to find love.
The Search: (Fallen Hero to The Awakening bridge short story of Andy, Jed and Diana)- When her husband goes missing she’s forced to call the one man she shouldn’t.
The Awakening: A young woman who's lost everything, and the wealthy rancher who saves her.
Secrets:“Jed always told me he’d take care of everything. And I believed him, I trusted him, I loved him.”
Runaway: Andy sets out to bring his runaway bride home. But when he finds her, he’s in for a big surprise.
Overdue: (Runaway to The Unexpected Storm bridge short story of Jed and Diana)
The Unexpected Storm: He can have any woman, except the one he wants.
The Wedding: A man who’s always planned everything, and a woman who’s struggled alone—The Wedding will change their lives forever.
Or simply click here to grab all the books and short stories in this romantic family saga in one collection. The Outsider Series: The Complete Omnibus Collection.
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Book 3: The Deadline
The Friessens: A New Beginning, Book 1
Chapter 1
How do you describe the feeling you get the first time you drive down a long, winding road to a place that is all yours? To Andy Friessen, this wasn’t just a house or a piece of land: he had staked a claim in another state, in another part of the county, uprooting his family and selling everything, all for a brand new beginning.
Andy took in the miles of vast hillside and the cleanest pastures he’d ever seen. The green grass swayed in the wind and, for the first time, he sensed the sun, the moon, the stars and the changing of the seasons more deeply than he ever had before. This was a part of the country he had never travelled, but it felt like coming home. He glanced over at his wife, Laura, asleep in the passenger seat, her head resting against the door, her breath whispering softly in and out. He always knew when she was overtired, as she snored in her soft, delicate way. This time, she stirred a bit before settling into a deep sleep, as if her body had finally run out of steam.
She was on edge and had been for some time, but that wasn’t unusual for a mother of newborns. For Andy and Laura, there was twice as much stress with their six-week-old twins, Chelsea and Jeremy, who were sound asleep in the backseat of the truck. Their five-year-old big brother, Gabriel, Laura’s son from a pregnancy at fifteen, sat beside them.
Laura was so young but had lived through more heartache, rejection and struggle than most people would in a lifetime. As a teenager, she had been tossed out onto the s
treet by her judgmental parents, who thought she was a bad influence on her younger brothers. Laura had only mentioned it once to Andy, and only when he pushed. He wanted to know what had happened, to know everything about her family, but he saw the deep hurt like a tread mark on her soul. No matter what he did, he wondered if that was something she’d never be able to make peace with. Andy wouldn’t, not in this lifetime. In fact, George and Sue Parnell were the first people Andy had ever hated without even meeting them.
They had come so far, Laura and him. At first, the only reason he had married her was to save her son when the state took him away. Laura and Gabriel had been living in her car, and Andy had married her because he felt responsible for the entire mess. After all, it had been his mother who fired Laura from her position as a maid in the Friessen house. Andy had treated her horribly at first, but so much had changed since then. He loved her—his child bride, as everyone teased him. She had recently turned twenty-one, legal in every state, and Andy would soon be thirty-three.
Andy pressed the brakes to slow his pickup as the ruts deepened on the driveway. The horse trailer rattled, and he glanced in the side mirror and rolled down his window just as his three-year-old buckskin mare, Ladystar, nickered. Apparently, she’d had enough of this two-day trip, leaving North Lakewood behind and moving two states away to a seventy-two-acre spread Andy had purchased outside of Columbia Falls, Montana.
“Where are we?” Laura said. She didn’t open her eyes as she yawned. Her short bob was a tangled mess, but it was cute. Andy had been irritated when she cut off all her hair, saying it was easier to look after. Maybe so, but he liked her long hair. “Andy?” she said. The leather seat rustled as she sat up.
Andy had to clear his throat. “We should be close.…”
He stepped on the brakes when a sprawling one-story ranch house came into view. It had a light wood finish and a post-and-beam front deck, but something about the place didn’t look right. The railing appeared broken, with pieces of wood scattered here and there. Everything looked unkempt. Piles of debris littered the yard, including a rusted-out pickup with missing wheels parked in waist-high grass that was now weighted down by the melting snow. Maybe he had the wrong place? He eased on the gas pedal and started up the slight incline that circled the house. It was similar to the photos he had seen, but the house in the photos had been newer than this. A couple of the shutters were hanging sideways, and the fence surrounding the house was falling down, as was the corral, but it was the junk, the debris, the plastic, garbage and scattered metal parts, that pissed him off.
“What the hell is this?”
He’d bought the place unseen. The Montana realtor had sent photos of the exterior and interior, and maybe Andy should have asked when they had been taken, but he’d been in a hurry to get Laura and the kids as far away from his family as he could. He parked in front of the house and spotted the red and white realty sign leaning against the front step.
“Andy, this doesn’t look like the pictures the realtor sent,” Laura said. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
One of the babies started fussing, and Ladystar nickered from the trailer.
“Andy, are we here?” Gabriel called out from the backseat, rubbing his eyes.
“Yeah, just stay there, bud,” Andy said as he opened his door. Laura was reaching over to unbuckle Jeremy from his car seat, his tiny hands flailing. “He hungry?”
Laura appeared so tired as she nodded. “I think so. Wet, too.” She patted his bottom and rested him on the seat. “Andy, can you reach the diaper bag on the floor in the back?” She had already unfastened his sleeper as Andy lifted the blue bag, shut the back door and set the bag on his seat.
“Just stay in here until I check things out,” he said.
Laura glanced up with a weary smile. “Okay.”
He shut the door and stepped around the truck, taking in the mess. Ladystar nickered again. “Okay, girl,” he murmured, unlatching the horse trailer and leading his horse out before tying her to the side and bringing out a flake of hay for her. “Better find you some water, too,” he said, pulling out his bucket. Around the side of the house, he found a barn with a missing door, another gated pasture, and a round ring. As he stepped closer, he noticed the round pen appeared intact, with no missing posts and all the rails up. It was probably a safe bet for tonight, at least for Ladystar, until he got a better look around.
He found a water tap at the back of the house and turned it on, but rusty water poured out. “Crap!” he muttered, waiting for it to run clear before he filled the bucket. When he took it back to the trailer where Ladystar was tied and eating, Laura opened the door of the truck and called out, “Andy, Gabriel has to go to the bathroom, and so do I. Can we go inside?”
Andy took in what was supposed to have been a ten-year-old sprawling rancher, with a wraparound deck where they could spend evenings and mornings looking out over their spread. Instead, it resembled the kind of house his cousin Jed would have picked up for a good price to gut and renovate—not something Andy was interested in doing.
“All right,” Andy said. He opened the back door and lifted Gabriel, who was already unbuckled and waiting. “Stay here, Gabriel. Hey, Laura, Chelsea is still sleeping.” Andy lifted his very quiet daughter from the car.
Laura slid down, carrying Jeremy, who was fussing again. She had on just a beige sweater. “Ooh, it’s cold,” she said. She reached in the truck for her tan jacket and pulled it out, holding it out to Andy so he could help her as she juggled the baby.
Laura started up the steps, and Gabriel and Andy followed. At the sound of a vehicle coming down the road, they both turned to see a newer pickup truck flying over the ruts and then pulling in just behind the horse trailer. A woman with a round face, bright smile, and dark hair tied back in a ponytail stepped out, wearing a sheepskin coat and blue jeans.
Laura shrieked behind Andy. He turned just as the screen door Laura had pulled fell over and crashed to the front deck. Chelsea, who had been sleeping, whimpered and then started howling along with her brother.
Chapter 2
“Andy, the door fell off!” Laura cried out.
“Are you all right?” Andy barked as he set Chelsea’s baby carrier on the deck and picked up the door, moving it over and leaning it against the house.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Laura replied. She was shaking as she clutched Jeremy, who was now crying louder. Her shoulder started to ache where the door had clipped her, and she must have pulled a face, as Andy was right there, setting his hand on her arm.
“You sure?” he asked. “Did it hit you or the baby?”
“Got my shoulder, but I’m okay.” She loved it when he touched her, but right now she’d give anything for some warmth, her own home, and a hot bath.
“Looks like you got quite a mess here,” the unfamiliar woman said, approaching with her gloved hand out. “Kim Edwards.” She shook hands with Andy and then winked at Gabriel before taking in Laura and the two crying babies. “I saw you drive in. I live on the next property over. Thought you might be lost or something, as no one comes out here.”
“Andy Friessen, and this is my wife, Laura,” Andy said. He picked up Chelsea’s carrier and swung it a bit to soothe her. She loved being rocked in it, especially if it was her daddy doing the rocking. Laura was proud to be his wife, to be the mother of his children, and he wondered if she was lifting her chin higher at the sight of the strange woman. He also knew she’d never tire of hearing him claim her as his wife. “Unfortunately, I think I bought this,” he added. “I need to have a word with the realtor.”
“Who’s the realtor?” she asked.
“Clayton Holmes. He came highly referred,” Andy bit out.
Laura remembered all too well their original realtor, who had passed on Clayton’s card. Now that she thought about it, Laura recalled their realtor might have mentioned he was family.
Kim winced. “Referred by whom?”
The way she said it had And
y taking on an expression Laura had come to recognize as a sign that he was digesting information and sifting it through his shrewd mind, deciding the best way to handle something. Unless someone knew him really well, they might think he was being rude by not answering.
This was a dark side of him that Laura knew all too well. He would protect his family at any cost; and she’d learned not to ask what he was thinking, because he wouldn’t tell. His silence had been a source of many of their fights in the past.
“Good luck! You may want to make sure everything is where he said it is—if you can find him.” Kim chuckled, but it didn’t sound as if she found their predicament funny.
“What do you mean, if I can find him?” Andy asked with a bit of an edge.
“Well, last I heard, he left town, but then, I don’t know for sure.”
Danger Deception Devotion The Firsts Page 34
