She Will Be Loved (Cupid's Bow Book 6) Read online

  She Will Be Loved

  Cupid’s Bow - The Third Generation - Book 2

  Melissa Storm

  Contents

  Free Gift

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  Also by Melissa Storm

  About the Author

  © 2016, Partridge & Pear Press

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only; it may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

  Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.

  Editor: Stevie Mikayne

  Cover & Graphics Designer: Mallory Rock

  Proofreader: Falcon Storm

  Partridge & Pear Press

  PO Box 72

  Brighton, MI 48116

  To Falcon and Phoenix.

  My greatest loves, always and forever.

  Thank you for picking up your copy of She Will Be Loved. I so hope you love it! As a thank you, I'd like to offer you a free gift. That's right, I've written a short story that's available exclusively to my newsletter subscribers. You'll receive the free story by email as soon as you sign up at www.MelStorm.com/Newsletter. I hope you'll enjoy both stories. Happy reading!

  Melissa

  Chapter 1

  A lot can happen in one day, one hour, one second… Mandy Rockwell had always believed that a single moment could change a person’s whole life, so it was no surprise to her that a couple measly pink lines had just magically transformed her into an unsuspecting mom-to-be.

  Two tiny pink lines, one so faint she almost wasn’t convinced it was even there. One line represented life as she’d known it until this point—not pregnant—and the other stretched out toward her future, a future she could hardly wrap her mind around, much less actually plan for. It’s not as if this had been planned.

  It was—what?—a few weeks back. She and Josh had gotten hot and heavy in the back of his car, like a couple of oversexed high school students. Something about it just felt so deliciously wild she couldn’t resist. And when he’d said their strange positioning in that tiny backseat was uncomfortable enough and that if he used a condom it would basically guarantee he got no enjoyment out of their romp whatsoever… well…

  After all, she was on the pill—and the pill was something like ninety-five percent effective, which might as well be a hundred when you think about it. Except now she realized that it definitely, definitely wasn’t, and she definitely, definitely fell among that tiny percentage of women who got screwed over and pregnant. It all made her head hurt. Perhaps she should have paid better attention in statistics class, after all.

  But she hadn’t thought she’d need statistics in life since her dream involved baking cakes, not crunching numbers. She’d always loved tinkering in the kitchen with her grandma and sister, trying out new combinations of flavors to see what worked and what made them gag. And on her eighteenth birthday, she’d known that she could never be truly happy until she had a bake shop of her own—one that would sell her unique recipes and garner rave reviews from all who stepped through its doors. Everything would be decked out in pink and gold as if the building itself were a delectable treat. It would be perfect.

  That’s what she’d told herself whenever she had to put in yet another double shift at the diner, whenever she couldn’t buy a cute, new pair of shoes or the latest, must-have kitchen gadget because she needed to save the money more than she wanted to spend it. Whenever life had gotten hard, her dream stood waiting in the wings, ready to remind her that some day very soon the hard work would all be worth it.

  She hadn’t planned for these two pink lines. Betrayed by her favorite color, how cruel.

  But now the more she stared at them, the less she saw them. Maybe they weren’t really there, after all. Well, she knew one way to find out…

  Mandy took a deep breath and then leaned in toward the stick on the counter, made a confused face, and snapped a selfie. Before she could lose her nerve, she sent the pic straight over to her sister Charlie, then watched as the notification on her iPhone marked her message as read. Almost as quickly, her phone buzzed to life, blaring the latest Maroon 5 hit at an uncomfortable volume.

  Ugh, her headache just got a million times worse.

  “Mandy!” her big sister shouted into the phone. She couldn’t tell if she was excited, angry, or something else altogether. Heck, she still didn’t know her own thoughts on the matter.

  “Yeah…?” she ventured, waiting to see which direction Charlie would steer this conversation.

  “If this is a joke, it’s not funny.”

  Mandy let out a deep sigh. “You’re telling me.”

  “You’re not actually…?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Now Charlie sighed on the other end of the line. “Did you take the test?”

  The more they talked, the more Mandy knew for sure, felt it in her gut—or rather her womb. “No, I took a selfie with another woman’s pee stick just for fun. Of course, I took the test.”

  But Charlie still seemed unconvinced. “Okay, what brand is it then?”

  Mandy told her the manufacturer and waited as her increasingly pragmatic sister looked up images on Google to help interpret the test’s results.

  Charlie had found her perfect match with accountant Will. She was a crazy dreamer, while he helped keep her feet rooted firmly on the ground. And though Mandy was definitely happy for her sister, she was also insanely jealous. Being the oldest, Charlie had always gotten the best of everything growing up. She was the one who still had memories of their parents who had died before young Mandy could form any concrete memories of them. She was the one who got all her clothes brand new while Mandy was stuck with hand-me-downs. She was the one who had gotten engaged to basically the perfect guy, while Mandy had simply gotten knocked up from her deadbeat on-again, off-again, kind-of, sort-of boyfriend.

  Well, some benefit this was!

  “Yup,” Charlie said after a few agonizing moments. “That test is definitely positive.”

  Neither said anything for a few seconds more.

  “Are you happy, Mandy?” Charlie asked at last.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t know what? Know if you’re happy?”

  “Know any of it. Whether I’m happy. Whether I’ll be good at this. How I can possibly add a baby to my life right now. It’s all a bit much to take in.”

  “Do you think you might…?” Charlie let her question trail off, but right away Mandy knew what she was suggesting—and that thought made her sick to her stomach. Was that morning sickness creeping in, or the first signs that she may actually love the baby she hadn’t even known about a few minutes earlier?

  “No, no, absolutely not! You know I believe everything happens for a reason. I have no idea what reason this might be, but if I’m actually pregnant, then I don’t intend to do anything to change that.”

  Charlie’s voice broke on the other end of the
line. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you shouldn’t have the baby. Really, I just wanted to know what you’re thinking. You haven’t said a lot about it, and I’m kind of worried about you. Can I come over?”

  Mandy groaned and picked up the stick to study it once more. “Maybe later tonight, okay? I have some thinking to do, and then I have some telling the father to do, too.”

  The thought of having this conversation with Josh made her want to run far, far away from her home in Anchorage and never look back. She groaned and threw the used test in the trash.

  Telling Josh was the right thing to do, and who knew? Maybe he would surprise her. Maybe they could form the perfect happy, little family, the one she had never gotten the chance to be a part of growing up. Maybe things would turn out okay in the end.

  Maybe, maybe, maybe… Maybes were all she had for now. Hopefully they would be enough.

  Luke’s knees wouldn’t stop shaking. His hands, either. He took a deep breath and looked up toward the ceiling in an attempt to calm his nerves.

  It didn’t work.

  A moment later the door to his right opened and out stepped a young man with his sleeves rolled up to the elbow. “Dr. Ward, we’re ready for you,” he said with a solemn nod.

  This was it. He’d soon know whether his risky decision had actually cost him everything. Not that he had much more to lose, just his job. But what did a job matter when he had blood on his shaky, shaky hands?

  As he rose to face his morbidity and mortality hearing, he hoped they would find him at fault. He deserved to pay for what he’d done, that much was true. He had attempted to play God. He’d taken a gamble and lost, but it wasn’t he who’d had to pay the price—the ultimate price.

  Regardless of what the board said, he knew he was finished. How could he possibly care for another young child when every well-baby visit, every giggle, every new milestone would remind him of the ones he’d taken away from someone else? How could he walk the same halls that he’d paced while coming to the decision to take the ultimate risk, the risk that hadn’t played out in his favor?

  He needed to find a way to escape it all, and soon.

  “We find you not at fault,” the chairman declared. “After reviewing all the evidence, we’ve concluded that any reasonable professional could have been led to make the same decision on the patient’s behalf.”

  Well, whether or not they found him guilty, he still condemned himself. He would leave of his own accord, rather than being ordered out by the board. It was all the same in the end, wasn’t it? Nothing could bring the little girl back.

  “Thank you.” He bowed his head and left the room, vowing to never look back. Now he needed a new place to set his sights toward. Where could a pediatric specialist find new work not dealing with children, and how could he possibly explain the sudden professional shift? A part of him wanted to retire from medicine for good, but at hardly thirty years old, he just didn’t have enough stashed away for that many rainy days.

  That was when he thought of his old college roommate, Steve. Steve and Luke had chosen divergent paths when it came to specialties—Luke electing to go into a more general practice and somehow getting roped into pediatrics along the way, while Steve had chosen geriatrics. Thinking of Steve, he had to know of someone who was hiring. Maybe such a bold change would prove refreshing.

  He composed an email to his old friend as he rode the subway home, asking—begging—for any leads for a new position, one far away from New York. Steve would probably laugh at him, but at least Luke would know he’d tried.

  That was what made it all the more surprising when the response came back later that night.

  Hey, Luke! Good to hear from you. I actually might have the perfect thing for you. Meet me for coffee tomorrow to discuss?

  And just like that, he’d found the escape hatch he’d so desperately needed. He knew that no matter what Steve offered, he’d take it. After all, there was that whole adage about beggars and choosers, and he definitely didn’t have the strength to choose—not after his last choice had ended so badly for all involved.

  For him, at least, tomorrow would come. Where it would lead him, he didn’t know. Nor did he really care. Away was more than good enough for him.

  Chapter 2

  The muggy heat clung to Mandy like an unwanted second skin; the pavement glistened from a recent rainfall. Summers back home in Anchorage had always been beautifully lush and perfectly temperate, but this was a whole different world, it seemed. Was her body rejecting this new place before she could even settle in? Or would she feel like crap no matter what because of her swelling belly and already far-too-swollen ankles?

  Well, she’d just have to get used to it, because there was no other place she could go. Sure, Charlie had half-heartedly offered to let Mandy move in with her and Will, but Mandy definitely didn’t want to impose, nor did she want to play third wheel to their sickeningly sweet little love duo. Yeah, maybe she was a little—or a lot—jealous. Add to all that the fact she didn’t want to stay an inch closer to that deadbeat Josh than she had to, and her mind had been made up.

  When she’d finally worked up the nerve to tell him about the baby, he’d screeched away so fast she could practically see the skid marks in her driveway. Claimed he’d met somebody else and wanted to see where things would go without adding any unwanted complications to the mix. But they both knew that wasn’t true. Money would be tight on her own, but she’d be much better off without him and his lies.

  Besides, the moment she’d told her grandma Deborah, the old woman had let out a happy gasp and begun to cry on the other end of the phone. Five minutes after that, she had Mandy agreeing to come down to Texas and move in as her roommate in the upscale little retirement village she now called home.

  And now here she was, about to retire, so to speak, at twenty-four. She hadn’t thought twice about quitting her job, backing out of the lease on her apartment, and packing up her entire life to move straight down to the lower forty-eight. If she was being honest with herself though, home wasn’t a place as much as it was a person. And that person was her grandma Deborah, the only mother she’d ever known.

  She wished she could remember her mother Susie, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t bring up a single memory of her own. She’d heard so many stories from both her grandma and her sister though, that their memories had begun to feel real. And since these second-hand tales were all she had, she clung desperately to them. Especially now as she prepared to take on the role of mother herself.

  Oh, gosh, she was so unprepared!

  But being with her grandma would be for the best. Without a partner in this single-parenting journey, she’d definitely need a coach, a teacher, a friend in order to not screw up her child’s life before it could even begin.

  “Is that my Mandy I hear?” her grandmother’s voice rose from inside, drawing closer and closer along with a pair of soft footsteps. Seconds later, Deborah flung the door open and took Mandy into a tight hug.

  “Oh, my little one. Stand back, let me look at you.” Deborah cupped her granddaughter’s cheeks within her palms and then pulled her in to kiss her forehead like she used to do each night before tucking Charlie and Mandy into their beds.

  The old woman’s eyes glistened as if she were just barely holding back tears, and for a moment all she did was stare at the granddaughter she hadn’t seen for months. Why had Mandy waited so long between visits? Guilt began to creep in, but was quickly thrust aside by the onslaught of questions.

  “How was your flight? How do you feel? You sure didn’t pack much, did you? Oh, how is my first great grandchild in there?”

  “Deb! The girl just got here. Give her a moment to catch her breath,” an elderly man called from deeper within the condo.

  “And who might that be?” Mandy quirked an eyebrow at her grandmother. Deborah had always been a bit of a wild thing, but somehow hosting a gentleman caller in the middle of the afternoon seemed far crazier than anything sh
e’d done before.

  Deborah turned beat red as the old man tiptoed over and laced his fingers between hers.

  “Mandy, I’d like you to meet James… My boyfriend.”

  James leaned in to kiss her cheek, then offered his hand to Mandy. “And you must be the granddaughter I’ve been hearing so much about lately. How do you do, Mandy?”

  This all made Mandy wonder: How much had he heard about her, and over how long a period? Normally, she’d play nice until she got her grandmother alone, then demand answers to the crazy number of questions running through her mind, but nothing was normal about this situation—the unfamiliar, old man standing with his arms wrapped around her grandma, the fact that she was moving in to a senior community at twenty-four, the baby growing within her, and the surge of pregnancy hormones that seemed to have a mind of their own these days.

  Besides, what if she was shacking up with this eighty-something Lothario? What then? Mandy would never be able to get a word in edgewise if that were the case. She needed to pry for answers while she had the chance, and now was as good a time as any.

  Turning the full heat of her gaze on Deborah, she demanded, “Since when do you have a boyfriend?” And before she could stop herself, she added, “Aren’t you too old for a boyfriend?”

  Deborah laughed heartily, leaning into James’s chest with a tender familiarity. “I should certainly hope not! Otherwise what’s the point of taking all those pesky pills day in and day out to keep me going? No sir, if I’m too old to have any fun, then I might as well drop dead right now.”

  “Grandma!”

  Deborah’s laughter stopped, and she let go of James’s hand with a slightly embarrassed look spreading across her wrinkled face. “I think I know what this is about. James, would you give us a moment please?”