I grab his hands and pull him onto his feet and kiss him on the cheek. I point at the door on the far side of the living room.
“That goes downstairs,” I explain. “There are guest bedrooms. And Jack helped me convert some of the space into a recording studio. You have everything you need to work from here.”
His brows lift. “You did that for me?”
“I did that for us. Our entire life, everything we love, all is here. We don’t ever have to leave the mountain unless we want to.”
I pull him with me to the wall of glass and his eyes widen even more as he looks out.
“This house is us, Neil,” I say. “It’s you. It’s me. It’s where I want to raise Kaley.”
“Chrissie, what did it cost?”
I ignore the question.
I point to the left. “Over there is a trail to Devil’s Playground. And look, there is Judgement Rock, the edge of the earth, and we can see it from our living room. We can hike there every day once I’m able to go uphill again. And there, you can see the beach. And I can see Hope Ranch and the islands and downtown. From every room we can see the Pacific. Everything we love is right there out our back window for both of us to see every day. It’s us, Neil. Perfect. I walked into this house and I never wanted to leave.”
He turns me, taking me in his arms and his lips start moving on my flesh. “It definitely has everything. Does it have a bedroom?”
I laugh. Between kisses and touches I start pulling him through the kitchen toward the master suite.
“Neil, we have everything. It couldn’t be more perfect if we had it custom-made.”
~~The End~~
For all my current and future releases visit my website: http://susanwardbooks.com
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Continue the Half Shell Series with the final book, The Girl in the Comfortable Quiet (June 2015), and read more of the Parker Saga with the first book of the Sand and Fog Series, Broken Crown (June 2015).
Enjoy one of my current contemporary romance releases:
The Girl on the Half Shell
The Girl of Tokens and Tears
The Girl of Diamonds and Rust
The Signature
Rewind
One Last Kiss
One More Kiss
One Long Kiss (Releasing May 2015)
Or you might enjoy one of my historical romance releases:
When the Perfect Comes
Face to Face
Love’s Patient Fury
Love me Forever (Releasing Summer of 2015)
PREVIEW: THE GIRL IN THE COMFORTABLE QUIET
Releasing June 2015
I can’t stop shaking. God, I wish my body would be still. But nothing in my life could have prepared me for this. Maybe there are some shocks so severe that they reverberate through you, and you can’t do anything except wait until they quiet on their own.
I stare down into my wine. This is definitely one of those shocks.
Rene sinks to sit on her knees across the coffee table. She just stares and I can see this has leveled her as much as me. She doesn’t know what to say. It is as if this crisis is so enormous she’s afraid to speak. A Rene first.
My eyes fix on her, stricken and wounded. “I can’t believe this. How could it be true? Shouldn’t I have known? How could I not know? I’m married to the man.”
Rene flushes, something flashes in her eyes and then she looks away.
Oh my God.
“You knew!” I accuse harshly. “You knew and you didn’t tell me. How could you do that, Rene? How could you do that to me?”
“No, no, no. I didn’t know, Chrissie. I swear. I had suspicions and you were so certain about Neil. I ended up thinking I was wrong. Crazy. I thought I was wrong so I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? What kind of friend are you?”
She eases forward in a posture simultaneously aggressive and defensive. “I did try to tell you, Chrissie. When we lived together in Berkeley. I told you I didn’t like Neil. I told you there was something about him I didn’t like. You just didn’t hear me.”
Flashing snippets of old memories soar through my head. Oh God, she did tell me. I just didn’t understand. I refused to see what Rene could see, but deep down, I think I always knew.
I jump to my feet and run to the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Everything is running loose and frantic in me and I can’t bear to look at Rene, not for another moment. I haven’t gotten a single thing in my life right. Every decision I’ve made hasn’t been right or left turns. It’s been right or wrong turns, and the wrong path is the one I invariably take.
I let Alan go, over and over again, and he’s the only man I’ve ever truly loved. That is the truth. Why do I hide from it?
I married Neil and I shouldn’t have. That is the truth and I hid from that as well. That nagging voice deep inside me told me not to do it, I ignored it, and I refused to listen. My life is in shambles, I have no one to blame but me, and I don’t know how to fix any of it
PREVIEW: BROKEN CROWN
Releasing June 2015
I shut off the shower deciding not to call Chrissie. I dress for an excursion on my bike. Traveling the rural splendor of the United States on a Harley is one of the few things left in my life I still enjoy. The decision this time has nothing to do with savoring the scenery. The days it will take to travel from New York to California will give me a chance to back out if sanity decides to return. The call ahead of time will do neither of us any good if I decide not to see her.
I sink down onto my bed to make two phone calls. I tell my assistant to clear my calendar for the next month. I hang up as she bellows every reason why that isn’t possible. Then I call the garage to get my bike ready.
I tuck into a backpack only what I need for the journey to Los Angeles. I almost leave the bedroom when I recall the lump in my sheets. Tucking the bracelet into my pocket, I reach out a hand and shake the body in my bed. “You need to get dressed and get the hell out of here, love. I’m going to California. If you’re a whore, I’d like to pay you first. If you’re a nice girl, leave me your number.”
The brown-eyed beauty sits up, pulling with her the blankets to cover her naked flesh. Morning after modesty, another farce since my memory isn’t so dim that I forgot what we did last night. Those pouting red lips smile.
Ah, Boston bred. The girl isn’t ruffled by any of it.
Smoothly charming, she says, “I’ll bill you. Though it’s often considered a blurry difference, I’m not a whore. I’m your attorney. One of your divorce attorneys. I brought the finalized settlement contracts, and though you missed our meeting, I waited ten hours in this apartment for you to return to sign them since your ex-wife has an irritating proclivity to change her mind. I thought it best we jump on the offer and settle it fast since you didn’t have a pre-nuptial agreement. When I tried to explain, you jumped on me. I thought what the hell, it’s been a slow day and I’m earning five hundred bucks an hour for this. Why shouldn’t my job have an occasional perk? You have been interesting. I’ve never been laid by a man who holds an infinity band while he fucks me. I think it’s better I don’t tell you the things you mumbled. I’ll only warn you that you should be relieved it’s covered under attorney/client privilege since my meter ticks until you sign those documents. The contracts are on the dresser. Please sign them so I can shower, dress and go. It’s Saturday, in case you don’t know what day it is, and I play racquetball at six. That I didn’t expect you to know. It was a subtle attempt to speed you up in the signing.”