***
The funeral procession made their way slowly from the house Kevin and Lynette had once shared with the man who’d been arrested for his own son’s murder. He’d made the decision not to go to the funeral, even though Mary-Ann had tried to convince him to, because she thought saying goodbye to both his son and his wife would be good for him. He disagreed. Sally was holding tight to Mary-Ann’s hand. She knew the whole truth about what had happened to Kevin, including the fact his dad would have used her as a scapegoat.
Due to where the house was they went all the way through Green Springs, and Mary-Ann was hit with memories every time they went past another place. There was the park, the coffee shop, the house she’d once lived in… Kevin had kissed her for the first time when they were standing on the doorstep. A very young Kevin. He believed the two of them would be together for the rest of their lives and she’d wanted it to happen. Being with him had changed her life. She’d loved him more than she thought she could love anyone, at least until she met Robert, but that was different. She wasn’t a teenager. She’d lived her life and that was why she couldn’t have been with a man who hadn’t. Breathing deeply she tried to focus on what she needed to do next. She was going to be speaking for Kevin and the best thing she could do was prepare herself as best she could for standing in front of the entire town on behalf of Kevin’s dad.
Everyone knew the truth. Robert had written the report, making certain it was as in depth as it could be, and she’d been grateful for him for being as tactful as he could about the whole mess. Mary-Ann glanced over her shoulder at him. He smiled at her. Her smile was nowhere near as strong as his, but she knew he understood. When she turned back to the car that was taking Kevin through the streets Sally squeezed her hand. “How are you doing?”
“As well as can be expected.” Mary-Ann sighed. “I don’t want to be the one speaking.”
“I know, but you’re the best one to do it.”
“Maybe I am.” Their eyes met. “How are you doing?”
“Better than I thought I would be. Knowing the truth helps. I wish I didn’t know, but I’m glad someone has been arrested for the murder. Kevin deserved better than that.”
“He did.” Mary-Ann shrugged. “Unfortunately he stumbled onto a truth that meant someone wanted him dead.” She shook her head. “I just wish it hadn’t been his dad.”
“That is… I never thought anything like that would happen in Green Springs.”
“We’re all people, Sal. People, with emotions, who can do stupid things, and that’s exactly what Kevin’s dad did. He did something very stupid in order to protect himself and he didn’t care who he hurt in the process. There’s a part of me that’s glad he’s not here, because if he was it wouldn’t be anywhere near as easy as it is to do this.”
“So am I.” Sally nibbled her lip. “I tried to convince him to come too. He said if you couldn’t then no one else could.”
“We did our best for him, even though he didn’t deserve it, and now we have to say goodbye to Kevin. That’s the most important thing.”
“Yes, it is.” Sally looked at the car again. “I wonder if he’s watching over us.”
***
Mary-Ann looked out at everyone. “Thank you all for coming today.” She smiled. “We appreciate the support you’ve given us all during this difficult time. Finding out the whole truth about what happened to Kevin wasn’t easy for any of us, but today is not a day for hatred. It’s a day to say goodbye to a young man who lost his life far too young.
“Kevin and I had been close for a long time, which is why I was chosen to be the one to speak, and it’s hard to say goodbye to someone I believed I would be growing old with. Now that’s not going to happen and I hope he knows how much I miss him.”
She ran her tongue over her dry lips. “There was a time when the two of us talked about being married in this church.” She looked at Sally. “When he realised the two of us were never going to get back together he found himself falling in love with someone else. I remember talking about it, because he didn’t think it was possible for him to fall in love again, but he did, and we managed to find the right ring between the two of us. On Sally’s birthday he would have been proposing to her. She would have been the one walking down the aisle with him and I wish that hadn’t been taken away from the two of them.
“I wish Kevin had a chance for his happily ever after. He was one of the most deserving people. His death has taken someone from us who was strong, and kind, and considerate, and someone I believe would have made the right choices all the time. That’s why he was willing to look into the death of the woman he believed was his mother. There was no way he could have known what was going to come from that and if he had I don’t think that would have stopped him. He believed in honesty. He believed that the villain in the story would always get their comeuppance, and this time he was right, but that doesn’t mean everything worked out the way he probably believed it would.
“When he made the decision to be the man who found out the truth he proved himself to be the person I always believed he was. That is the man I loved, the man Sally loved, and the man we all cared deeply about. Knowing he’s in that casket when he should be planning his wedding…” A tear trickled down her cheek. “If I could turn back time to stop this all from happening I would do it in an instant. Kevin had become one of my best friends and my life is going to be very different without him in it.” She turned to look at the casket. “Goodbye, Kevin. Rest in peace, friend, and know that the truth has come out.”
***
The casket was lowered slowly into the ground. Kevin was next to Lynette. She wasn’t the woman he thought of as his mother, but Mary-Ann was certain the two of them were getting to know each other somewhere. Another tear trickled down her cheek. The funeral had made it more real than she wanted it to be. He was really gone.
“Come on, love.” Robert gently tugged her hand. “You’ve done enough.”
Mary-Ann opened her mouth to argue with him. “Mare, if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t know who killed Kevin.” Sally squeezed her other hand. “Let Robert take you somewhere away from all this. You’ve said your goodbyes. You’ve spoken on his behalf.” She looked down at her ring. “You’ve told me how much I meant to him and I will always be grateful to you for that. Now the time has come for you to put yourself first.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ve got people here to support me.”
James put his hand on Sally’s shoulder. “We’ll be here to make sure she’s okay.” He smiled at Mary-Ann. “Do as you’re told. You’ve done the hard part. Go get yourself a drink and let yourself cry for him.”
Nodding, Mary-Ann let Robert guide her away from the grave, the two of them making their way slowly towards the town hall. That was where they were having the wake. She looked at him. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s no reason for you to apologise. You and Kevin were close. I knew that from the very beginning. I would never have begrudged you this.”
“I know, but I feel like I’ve been putting him first this whole time.”
“You have, and that’s not a bad thing. You had to do this. You had to say goodbye.” He kissed the top of her head. “This was harder than Paul’s death, because you knew Kevin, and this was the only thing you could have done.”
She sighed. “It’s going to take a while to come to terms with this.”
“Of course it is.” He smiled. “You can take all the time you need. We aren’t two people in a bubble. You had a life before you met me and you will have a life if the two of us end up splitting up in the future. While we’re together I’m not going to take that away from you, even though I think your ex might have done.”
“That is a conversation for another day, Rob.”
“Yes, it is.” He smiled. “Let’s get you a strong drink. Then you can finally let yourself cry this all out.”
“I don’t want to cry.”
“It’s
one of the stages of grief. Comes before getting very drunk and singing his favourite songs.”
Mary-Ann laughed. “It does, does it?” She squeezed his hand. “In that case I’d better get the crying out of the way.”
“You should.” He pulled her into a hug. “You’re going to get through this. I’m going to be by your side the whole time and I will do everything I can to help you deal with this.”
The Caring Cowboy’s Love
Chapter 1
Working at a doctor’s office was sometimes an adventure in change, learning, and adjustments. Life was more or less the same way of learning, adjusting, and adapting hopefully for the better.
I had worked hard to make my way through medical school and to become a successful doctor. Becoming a doctor was hard work. I had worked several odd jobs here and there to pay my way through medical school. I had wanted to be able to pay as much out of pocket as I could so I wouldn’t be straddled with enormous student loan debt that I knew was coming. While I had my pride I did take out student loan debts when I needed to. You know what they say about pride going before a fall...
As a doctor I did make good pay which my parents had warned me that it may attract the wrong type of person as they feared I could meet and be with someone who only wanted my money.
The funny thing about being a doctor is you spend a lot of your pay on paying off your student loans, insurance, and other things that you need. They don’t give you don’t get that white coat for free, after all!
I had been able to set up a small but successful practice. Many doctors strike out on their own and start their own practices and I was no different.
Interior decorating was not considered one of my stronger points as I was a more logic and critical thinking type of person. I had decided to leave the inside nice and neutral coloring wise to try to keep things calm. I suppose I was going for what would be considered minimalist lifestyle or at least a minimalist room.
There were a few paintings on the wall, magazines on a table, and even a gold fish tank that was near the receptionist’s station. There had been gold fish in them until someone over fed them and they promptly died.
Jake, who was a member of the office and unofficially in charge of feeding the fish sighed and said, “And there’s the story of my first contract killing.”
“That’s not very comforting,” Anna, my receptionist said rather coolly.
“Better not let the patients hear that,” I soon added.
“At least we can get new fish,” Anna said. “Gold fish are so hard to care for and they’re always dying. What other types of fish are good for offices that are nice and small?”
“Why not a piranha?” Jake asked.
Anna raised an eyebrow and looked at him, “Can you even legally have those for pets in this country?”
Jake shrugged, “Just be grateful I didn’t suggest a rattle snake or tarantula!”
“Our job here is to heal and help patients, not have them running screaming out into the street in mortal terror in the middle of an examination,” I said.
Jake was early for his shift and I did suspect he had a crush on Anna. Unfortunately for him it was unrequited love as Anna had no interest in pursuing a romance with anyone.
In her private time Anna would claim to be writing a fantasy novel about sailors and mermaids. None of us knew what it was about as she refused to share it with anyone until she was done. Some people chose to argue that she wasn’t interested in romance because she was too busy writing. I, personally, suspected something different but it wasn’t appropriate for me to comment on it so I never did. It was possible that Anna did or could not feel a romantic attraction to anyone. Human sexuality was a very complicated thing.
My love life, however, was quite different as I was very happy with a man named Tyrese. Several months ago I had met Tyrese at the grocery store when his cart literally bumped into mine with such force that it felt like an earthquake had gone through me. I wasn’t a small person but Tyrese was built like a football player and he could easily knock a person down without intending to do so.
“Oh jeeze! I’m sorry! I didn’t see you there! Are you alright?” Tyrese asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” I said as I steadied myself. It was like running into a grizzly bear. Heaven help anybody he angered.
Once again Tyrese began to apologize and even offered to take me out for coffee. I felt flattered and surprised by his invite. I soon accepted it and I realized I was attracted to him. Hey, I’m only human.
Tyrese was a good looking man with a big goofy smile that he would give to anyone. He was almost always smiling at people and looking cheerful. When he laughed his eyes would almost appear to close entirely which he often joked about. On the few occasions he would get his portrait drawn he would joke with caricature artists to draw him without eyes.
I liked it that Tyrese was also intelligent and spoke his mind. He had told me he was currently in school to learn engineering. How things worked and were put together always fascinated him. He had hoped to be able to put buildings together and even learn how to do blue prints one day.
The only thing that I could really dislike was him calling me “babe” or “baby.” It always felt like it was making me out to be a child instead of a grown woman. We were all babies once, but now I was an adult.
Pet names as a rule never bothered me but that one did for some reason.
Lately Tyrese had been engaged in frequent communication with his classmates. With finals coming up and a big group project in the works this didn’t surprise me. I know I certainly remember those big group projects that we had back in medical school. Thank goodness I had unlimited texting as my classmates and I were constantly texting one another about the latest up to date information for the big projects.
That evening after work I found Tyrese sitting on the couch with his phone in his lap. He suddenly grinned that big grin of his and chuckled rather loudly at what I assumed was a joke.
“Anything exciting?” I asked before shutting the door behind me.
He looked up at me with an expression of surprise, “Mia! Hi! I didn’t expect you to be home so early.”
That confused me as I had returned home at my usual time. I didn’t think I was that early. Perhaps Tyrese had lost track of time. Shrugging it off I said “Traffic was good.”
“I see,” Tyrese said and pocketed his phone.
“How is your finals project going?” I asked.
“Fine but slow.” He rolled his eyes, “Mike is taking his sweet time in getting the numbers back to us so we can complete that project. We can’t figure out the structure’s strength without those numbers so everything is at a temporary stand still. Someone needs to put a bee in his bonnet.”
I never expected anything bad from Tyrese. He rarely, if ever, complained so his complaint came as a surprise to me. He had either been a very convincing actor in always being happy or I had been very foolish in my thoughts. Perhaps it was a bit of both. Or perhaps I even chose to ignore it.
Tyrese had never given me a reason to distrust him which is why what happened a few days later came as such a shock. I had come home for lunch and planned on surprising him with some salt water taffy which was his favorite treat. I liked it as well and it was sorely tempting to eat it on the way home. I had planned on making a joke to Tyrese that he had better appreciate all the hard work that went into this.
I opened the door and got the shock of my life. There on the couch was Tyrese and a girl I did not recognize. They were sitting next to one another as if joined at the hip and her hand was on his abdomen and moving downward. I didn’t need a medical degree to know where her hand was going. At first my mind didn’t want to believe that Tyrese could be cheating on me.
“What the hell is going on here?” I demanded.
I had the feeling I would not like the answer and I was right.
Chapter 2
Both Tyrese and the stranger looked at me shocked and perhaps even ang
ered that I had invaded their “territory” and even broke up their moment.
“Who is she?” The stranger demanded.
“Mia!” Tyrese cried out.
“Me? Who is she?” I demanded as I pointed at the stranger.
The stranger was having none of that. She stood to her feet and placed her hands on her hips as if to exert her perceived dominance. “Me? I’m his girlfriend!”
“Yeah? Well so am I but you can have him!” I shouted. “Both of you get out of my house!”
“Mia, I can explain,” Tyrese began.
“There’s nothing to explain! I want you both out!” I screamed and my voice became higher in both volume and pitch. “Out now!”
Tyrese didn’t bother trying to gather up any of his belongings but did leave with the stranger.
The stranger, in a final act of defiance or just being a horrible person slammed the door so hard behind them that the whole house practically shook.
At first I was in shock that was replaced by hurt and then anger like I had never felt before. I screamed at them to get out as I owned the small home and I could legally throw them out. Legally they had forty-eight hours to get out but to my gratitude they left sooner.
I was enraged! How could he do this to me? At the same time I didn’t want an explanation as part of me feared he could lie to me and somehow make me decide to go back to him.
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 82
