My Beautiful Neighbor (The Greene Family Book 1)
Page 22
Adam
“Did that woman just call you babe?” my new girlfriend, Alicia, asks with a “what the hell” tone.
My mouth is too dry to answer her question. I can’t stop staring at “that woman,” a.k.a. Lucy, and my thoughts are racing faster than an Indy car.
Before you assume I’m an asshole who cheats on his girlfriend, know I’m not. A year ago, the woman who just called me babe—my wife—walked out on me without any explanation. Now, after I’ve pulled myself from the depths of depression and tried to move on with my life, she approaches me at my brothers’ brewery as though we’re still married. I haven’t seen or spoken to her since she left.
If you want to be technical, she is still my wife. She never sent divorce papers, and it wasn’t until last week that I went to the town lawyer and asked him to start the process of drawing up papers. I was going to send them to her parents’ house in Idaho, which is where she said she was heading when she left.
Alicia clutches my arm because I still haven’t taken my eyes off of Lucy. My estranged wife is flitting around my family, hugging everyone and conveying how much she’s missed them, pausing at my brother Cade’s new fiancée, Presley. We’re supposed to be celebrating their engagement right now. Good thing Cade’s used to plans never going the way we expect—as often happens when you have a family as big as ours.
I spot Lucy’s mother, Susan, push through the crowd of gawkers in the brewery. Everyone’s whispering and staring at us. There couldn’t be a worse time for Lucy to show up out of the fucking blue.
“Susan?” I say because I’m hoping she has an answer as to why Lucy’s acting as if we’re still happily married. She doesn’t answer immediately, her concerned gaze focused solely on her daughter. The look is alarming enough to suggest there’s a missing puzzle piece that’s makes my stomach clench. “What the hell is going on?”
Susan’s gaze flickers to mine. She looks surprised—by my tone maybe. She scolds me with her narrowed eyes, but her shoulders fall. “She suffered an accident and… she lost her memory, Adam. Well, everything from after your wedding. She has amnesia.”
“So?” I ask.
Alicia’s breast brushes along my bicep as though she’s afraid I’m going to get away.
“She thinks you’re still happily married.”
My stomach clenching turns to full-on nausea. Married we are, but definitely not happily.
“You’re married?” Alicia asks, her arm winding out of mine.
I run a hand through my hair, looking to my father to somehow fix this for me. “Technically yes.”
“And you failed to ever mention this to me?”
The last person I have time for conflict with right now is Alicia. We’ve barely begun dating. Seeing her has been my first attempt to put myself out there since Lucy left.
“Excuse me.” Lucy comes back over and nudges between Alicia and me. She always was good at making sure people knew I was hers. If I wanted to go down memory lane, I’d remember that it was something I loved. “Who’s this girl?” she whispers in my ear.
“Lucy, we should go.” Susan takes Lucy’s hand and attempts to pull her along.
“Why would I leave? Look, I found Adam.” Just as Lucy’s gesturing toward me, her smile dims and she looks at her mom. “Wait… you mean…”
“You and Adam are no longer together,” Susan says.
A strangled cry leaves Lucy and she removes herself from me. “Oh.”
Lucy looks at Alicia as though she’s the reason we’re not together, causing fury to build in my chest. She should look in the mirror.
My entire family stands there speechless, a small miracle in itself. I guess it takes a woman with amnesia to silence them. Maybe not the best time for a joke, but I have no idea how to handle this situation. The despair in Lucy’s eyes is killing me. A huge part of me wants to fix it for her, tell her she can have me if she wants. But what would that solve? The damage was done a year ago and there’s no coming back from it.
She points at Alicia. “Are you Adam’s?”
“We need to go. I’m so sorry.” Susan urges Lucy to her side. “Have a good night.”
I open my mouth to say something, though I don’t know what, then shut it, watching them leave. Alicia cuddles up to my side again as though we’re going to carry on with our night as planned. It all feels wrong now.
“I’ll be back,” I say, dislodging myself from Alicia.
“I thought he was just going to stand there.” Cade says it as though that would be the worst thing in the world.
I owe Lucy nothing. She’s the one who broke my heart. So she had an accident and lost her memory. That’s not my business nor my problem anymore. At least I tell myself that as I wind through the crowd, catching up to Susan and Lucy on the cobblestone road outside the brewery. Susan has her arm around Lucy’s shoulders and they’re whispering as more people try to stop them to say hello.
“Lucy!” I yell.
All the hustle and bustle of the celebratory night before tourist season kicks off halts, leaving a deafening silence blanketing the square.
Lucy slowly turns. I slow my steps and narrow the distance.
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Series is complete and ready to BINGE!
Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings
Staring a new series is always scary for us. Especially after all the love The Baileys received, so we hope you enjoyed the start of The Greene Family series. We plotted this series out much like we did with The Baileys, trying to find tropes we haven’t used yet, and later storylines we could weave into earlier books.
It’s also exciting to start a new family! Especially when we only have to move over to the neighboring town.
As most of our readers know, we changed the name of this book from My Beautiful Nemesis to My Beautiful Neighbor. Cade just didn’t come on the page like we expected him to. As Rayne wrote the rough draft she kept trying to get them to be enemies but she just wasn’t feeling it. When Piper went through edits she called Rayne to say, “Um, they aren’t enemies”. She was right and so we changed the title to better reflect the story.
It goes to show even the best planning doesn’t always work when you actually sit down to write the character. But if we would’ve reworked the story or changed Cade, it wouldn’t have been authentic. We like our characters to talk to us as we explore them, almost like they’re telling us who they are. So, although we LOVE the enemies-to-lovers trope, that wasn’t Cade and Presley’s story. Don’t worry, it’s someone else’s. ;)
Once again, thank you to our tremendous team!
Danielle Sanchez and the entire Wildfire Marketing Solutions team.
Cassie from Joy Editing for line edits.
Ellie from My Brother’s Editor for line edits.
Shawna from Behind the Writer for proofreading.
Hang Le for the cover and branding for the entire series.
Wander Aguiar for his awesome job of photographing our Cade and Presley.
Bloggers who consistently carve out time to read, review and/or promote us.
Piper Rayne Unicorns who made The Baileys so popular and love our characters like we do.
Readers who took the time to read our story when there’s so many choices out there.
Adam’s up next and yeah, we left you on a pretty heavy cliffy there for their story, leaving the question, “Why did Lucy walk out on Adam in the first place?” Good thing you don’t have too long to wait! ;)
Lastly, we want to thank you for coming on this journey with us and being open to loving a new family. We know it takes trust in us to deliver a family you loved as much as the Baileys. So we hope this is a promising start! <3
We’d love for you to let us know who’s story you’re looking forward to in this family. Feel free to reach out to us on social media or via email.
We love hearing from readers!
Xo,
Piper & Rayne
About Piper & Rayne
Piper Rayne is a USA Today Bestselling Author duo who write “heartwarming humor with a side of sizzle” about families, whether that be blood or found. They both have e-readers full of one-clickable books, they're married to husbands who drive them to drink, and they're both chauffeurs to their kids. Most of all, they love hot heroes and quirky heroines who make them laugh, and they hope you do, too!
Also by Piper Rayne
The Greenes
My Beautiful Neighbor
My Almost Ex
My Vegas Groom
The Baileys
Lessons from a One-Night Stand
Advice from a Jilted Bride
Birth of a Baby Daddy
Operation Bailey Wedding (Novella)
Falling for My Brother’s Best Friend
Demise of a Self-Centered Playboy
Confessions of a Naughty Nanny
Operation Bailey Babies (Novella)
Secrets of the World’s Worst Matchmaker
Winning My Best Friend’s Girl
Rules for Dating your Ex
Operation Bailey Birthday (Novella)
The Modern Love World
Charmed by the Bartender
Hooked by the Boxer
Mad about the Banker
The Single Dad’s Club
Real Deal
Dirty Talker
Sexy Beast
Hollywood Hearts
Mister Mom
Animal Attraction
Domestic Bliss
Bedroom Games
Cold as Ice
On Thin Ice
Break the Ice
Box Set
Charity Case
Manic Monday
Afternoon Delight
Happy Hour
Blue Collar Brothers
Flirting with Fire
Crushing on the Cop
Engaged to the EMT
White Collar Brothers
Sexy Filthy Boss
Dirty Flirty Enemy
Wild Steamy Hook-up
The Rooftop Crew
My Bestie’s Ex
A Royal Mistake
The Rival Roomies
Our Star-Crossed Kiss
The Do-Over
A Co-Workers Crush
Hockey Hotties
My Lucky #13
The Trouble with #9
Faking it with #41