Epilogue
EPILOGUE
S ix Weeks Later
“Are you ready for your massage?” Sloane asked when she walked up front to see Dane standing there for his appointment.
He had both Tyler and Tiffani with him and Shiloh was in her office. She knew Tiffani was coming for a pedicure and Shiloh was going to get one too. The two girls would get it side by side and then hang out in her office while Dane got his monthly hour massage.
“I am,” he said. “Thanks for doing this with the kids. I guess I must have messed up my schedule.”
“Not a problem,” she said. He’d never done that before, but she didn’t think anything of it. It seemed they were always running wild and stuff happened.
The kids all got along great .
If Thanksgiving was exciting for Shiloh, Christmas has been an eye-opener.
Dane didn’t have his kids on Christmas Eve and didn’t get them until eleven on Christmas morning. In a way she was happy about that because she knew that she wanted to spend Shiloh’s first Christmas at home.
Dane stayed with her and she had to admit it was a Christmas of her dreams.
Putting all of Santa’s gifts under the tree right before bed. Then letting Shiloh wake her up and rush down the stairs to see what was left for her.
She and Dane watched while Shiloh acted like a normal five-year-old opening up clothes and toys and so thankful for it all that she cried and hugged them both.
Dane left to get his kids and she let him have his time with them to open gifts while Shiloh played with her stuff. Then they all went to Chloe’s house for dinner.
New Year’s Eve, she’d stayed at Dane’s and they had all the kids as Mel had plans with Ethan and asked to have the night with no kids. Dane and his ex didn’t have the same relationship they always did. They weren’t as close, but they were making it work for the kids.
Sloane wasn’t jealous over any of it. She knew Dane loved her and no one else.
It was the family she always wanted in her life and never even knew.
“Are you going to stay as I get undressed?” Dane asked when they were in her room.
“You know I like to,” she said, winking. “Or I can go check on the kids quickly. Poor Tyler.”
“He’ll be happy playing his video games,” he said as he unbuttoned his shirt and hung it up. He’d come from work .
When Dane was naked and on the bed, she started his massage like she always did.
They talked through it all. About their days. The kids. Anything and everything.
When he was done, he sat up and got dressed.
She went to open the door, but he stopped her. “I’ve got to give you your tip,” he said.
She rolled her eyes. It always bothered her when he did that, but she stopped arguing over it.
“Sure,” she said.
She put her hand out but rather than cash going in it, he dropped to one knee. “I’ve got something better than money today.”
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I know what I want to do, but by the look on your face I might have misjudged it.”
“Oh no,” she said. “You didn’t. It’s just...this is soon.”
He laughed. “I’m getting older. I want more kids. You do too.”
“I do,” she said. They’d talked about it. She wanted at least one of her own.
“Well then,” he said. “Let me continue. “Six months ago today we went on our first date after my second massage.”
“Oh my God,” she said. “You remembered that.”
“I remember everything,” he said. “When it’s important. Just like you are. I love you. I love the way you love my kids. I love that my kids love you the way I do. I want us to be a family permanently. Not running back and forth. I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?”
“I will,” she said. “Because I want all the same things you do.”
He slid the ring on her finger, then stood up and kissed her. “I really didn’t forget I had the kids today. But I wanted today to be the day.”
“You’re sneaky,” she said.
“Not in a bad way. Should we go tell the kids?” he asked.
“Do they know?” she asked. Maybe doing this here wasn’t a good thing. Maybe his kids wouldn’t be happy about it.
“They do. I told them yesterday. I didn’t want them to tell Mel so I waited until the last minute. I told Tiffani if she didn’t say a word to you today she could have monthly pedicures for six months. Tyler got a new game he’s playing.”
“See, sneaky,” she said. “But I love it.”
She knew he’d tell Mel himself but was glad this was between them.
They left to go to her office knowing the kids would all be there.
“Did you do it, Dad?” Tiffani asked, jumping around.
“I did,” he said. “She said yes.”
Tiffani charged her and hugged her waist, then pulled Shiloh over too and said, “We’re going to be sisters. Dad and Sloane are getting married.”
There was no reason to correct the kids on what their relationship would be.
Dane winked at her. “Told you it was all good.”
“You were right, once again. Now I’ve got a call to make.”
“Hello,” Diane said when she answered. She had Sloane’s Spa saved in her contacts but didn’t know why she was getting a call.
“Hi, Diane. This is Sloane. I don’t suppose you can get Carolyn on the call with you right now? ”
“She’s here with me,” she said. “She just walked in the door. It’s Sloane.”
“Hi, Sloane,” Carolyn said.
“I just wanted to let you both know that...ready, everyone?”
Diane had no idea what was going on.
“You were right!” a chorus of voices yelled.
“We were?” she asked. “About what?”
“Daddy’s getting married.”
“Oh my God,” Carolyn screeched. Good thing they were on speaker or it might have blown Sloane’s eardrums out. “Is that Tiffani?”
“It is,” Sloane said. “With Shiloh, Dane and Tyler.”
“Dane asked Sloane to marry him,” a quieter voice said. “And she said yes.”
“That’s wonderful,” she said, looking at Carolyn and giving a thumbs up. “I told you that we knew what we were doing.”
“Well, you did say he was a great guy, but we know you didn’t have anything to do with this.”
She rolled her eyes. “Maybe not as much as we would have liked. Do your parents know, Dane?”
“We just told them,” Dane said. She looked down and saw the call coming in on her phone from a number she didn’t recognize. “That would be my mother calling you right now to tell you the good news. You can all argue who had a bigger hand in it. Have a good night.”
Just like that, the phone disconnected and she answered the other call. “Hello?”
“Diane, this is Doreen Grey. I’m sure you heard the good news.”
“We did,” she said. “I’ve got Carolyn here with me. ”
“Perfect,” Doreen said. “I’ll only say this once. I don’t believe in matchmaking, but maybe it can work.”
All three women laughed.
“It’s all about the couples,” Carolyn said. “And the mothers. We just have to keep that part to ourselves.”
To Be Continued...for Zander Conway
She starts as his neighbor, but she’ll end up being the woman who steals his heart that he must protect at all costs!
Zander Conway is better off working alone. He follows the rules when he wants to and will always get the job done. Like the new woman renting the office next to his. She catches his eye fast and furious and nothing can shift them away. He's going to win her over because he refuses to fail.
Dr. Regan Philes only cares about helping her patients through any means necessary, even if some of those ways are risky. She has focused so much on her career that her personal life took a backseat. When her new office ends up next door to a sexy private investigator, she learns that she can't always be the one calling the shots and making the plans.
When Regan takes one risk too many, Zander must see through the honeymoon phase of love and put his foot down to save her, even if she doesn't think she needs it.
Prologue
“Regan, Kellen, both of you come into the living room, please,” Regan’s mother said from the bottom of the stairs.
She and her brother were upstairs doing their homework like they always did after school.
The good girl, she’d always been told. That was what she was trying to be at sixteen.
Most of her friends were playing sports and hanging out after school. Not her.
Thankfully she’d always been confident enough in her life to do her own thing.
“What do you think Mom wants?” Kellen asked when he came out of his room.
“No clue,” she said. Her brother was four years younger than her. If he had his way, her brother would always be with his friends.
But there were rules in their house and they followed them.
“Guess we’ll find out,” Kellen said. “Maybe it’s a family vacation.”
“Could be,” she said. Her parents often called these little family meetings to talk about a trip or a party. Family coming to visit.
“Can’t you say more than two words?” Kellen asked, bumping into her going down the stairs.
She sighed. She heard that a lot too.
She talked plenty in her mind. But she listened more. She observed.
She found that you learned more that way.
“I’ll say more than two when I’ve got something to say,” she said. “Just like that sentence was more.”
“Brat,” Kellen said.
Considering most younger brothers were pains in her eyes, she had to say they got along well.
They got to the living room, her father sitting in his recliner still in his suit and tie from work.
Her mother walked in and sat in the other recliner next to her father’s. Her parents always sat like that, like a couple.
She and Kellen sat on the couch.
“Your father and I are getting divorced,” her mother said calmly as if she was announcing there would be rice with dinner.
Regan just stared at the words her mother said. Kellen started to laugh. “Yeah, right,” he said. “What is going on?”
“Your mother is correct,” her father said. “We’ve been talking about it for months and it’s time to separate. I’ll be moving out this weekend. I’ve got an apartment for now. We just wanted to tell you two together.”
Her eyes shifted back and forth and she almost wondered if there was a camera hidden somewhere.
Kellen turned and looked at her. “Say something.”
“This is really happening?” she asked.
“Yes,” her mother said, nodding her head.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why what?” her father asked.
“Why are you divorcing when I don’t even know the last time you two fought?” she said.
“Never,” Kellen said. “That’s when you have fought. I’ve never seen you fight. How can you be getting a divorce if you don’t even fight? Last month you were laughing and giggling in the kitchen when I walked in and it was gross. I told you it was gross when you kissed Mom.”
Regan was thinking the same thing.
This wasn’t just coming out of left field; it was a whole different ballpark in another state.
“Kellen is right,” she said. “What happened? Don’t you think we should know?”
Her parents looked at each other. Her mother said, “It’s time. I don’t think we love each other anymore.”
“You don’t think ?” she asked. This was just too confusing to her.
“Regan,” her mother said. “Your father and I have made up our minds. It’s between us. I know you’re surprised.”
“That’s the understatement of the year,” she said.
Kellen was starting to cry next to her. She felt the need to shed some tears too but was going to try to be strong for him.
Right now, she just wanted to understand.
“For now, your mother will live in the house with you. She’s home more and has more traditional hours. None of those things will change. My apartment is a mile away. I’ll still be at all your school functions and events like always.”
“You’re just not going to be living here?” she asked. “Like you’ll be friends instead? You want us to believe that you’ve been married almost twenty years and now are just going to part ways with no issues?”
“That is exactly right,” her mother said. “Now if you don’t have any more questions, I’ll get dinner on the table.”
“Dad’s staying for dinner?” Kellen asked.
“I am,” her father said. “Your mother made my favorite. I’m going to go change and then will help set the table.”
Kellen got up and ran upstairs; Regan went after him.
“Tell me that was a joke,” her younger brother said. “Pinch me right now.”
Her brother pinched his own arm and yelped.
“It’s not,” she said. “I don’t know what is going on. Everyone always said Mom and Dad were the perfect couple. They don’t fight. They are always together for everything for us. They weren’t even upset or mad just now.”
“No,” Kellen said. “Something isn’t right. Or are they that cold and calculating?”
“I don’t know anything,” she said. She wiped her hand under her nose.
She didn’t understand how her parents could just come to this decision as if it were what kind of fruit to buy this week. Then just casually tell their children it was time to try kiwis rather than apples.
Because Kellen was right. Her parents always appeared...perfect.
Everyone said it.
They didn’t fight.
They were always together.
They weren’t even acting upset now.
What the hell was she missing and why did it feel as if nothing in her world would ever make sense again?
Chapter One
No One Was Perfect
Eighteen Years Later
“How long do we have to talk?” Katelyn asked Dr. Regan Philes. Her patient looked nervous and was twisting her hands together in her lap.
“You scheduled a thirty-minute session with me,” Regan reminded Katelyn. “At your last session with Zachery, you both agreed it’d be a good idea for you to talk to me alone. Do you not want to do that?”
She’d been seeing Katelyn and Zachery for a month now. Four sessions and Zachery did the bulk of the talking and Katelyn only nodded her head.
Regan had been the one to offer a one-on-one session to see if she could figure out what Katelyn wanted without feeling the pressure from her husband.
“I do,” Katelyn said. “But it feels like whatever I say doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” she said. “This is your time. You’re free to say what you want.”
“You won’t tell Zachery?” Katelyn asked.
“Not if you don’t want me to. You’ve been coming to therapy for a month. I know Zachery wants to work it out. But I’m not sure what you want.”
People could try all they wanted, but if a couple wasn’t on the same page, they weren’t going to get the end results anyone was looking for.
To this day, she still has no idea why her parents never once tried to work out whatever differences they had.
Heck, she didn’t think there were any differences.
They didn’t talk about what was bothering them. They just made a decision, agreed it was for the best, and threw away over twenty years together—and messed up their son in the process.
Kellen was better now, but boy, her brother struggled for years, getting into trouble with drugs and alcohol. Wanting attention and hoping it’d bring their parents back together.
It didn’t and they were both remarried now and she had to listen again to how perfectly happy her parents both seemed to be.
She wouldn’t fall for that crap again.
Never.
No one was perfect.
No one was ever happy all the time.
And everyone got mad at their significant other at some point.
Life just wasn’t that tidy and it was her mission to help people open their mouths and let their voices be heard. If for no other reason than to feel better and let all that toxic crap go that was bottled up.
“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” Katelyn said.
“Do what?” she asked.
She wanted to be clear. Her computer was recording like it always was and she’d type her notes up later. She kept those recordings in a cloud and would go back and listen to them again at some point if she had to, but she liked to review them before her notes were compiled and this allowed her to talk freely without the distractions of paper or typing.
“My marriage,” Katelyn said. “I don’t feel as if I have any say in anything. It’s so hard.”
“Have you told Zachery that?” she asked.
“That I don’t want to be married anymore?” Katelyn asked.
“Yes. And that you don’t feel as if you are being heard.”
“Both,” Katelyn said. “But he talks around me and the next thing I know, I’m agreeing.”
“Because it’s easier to agree than to speak up?” she asked.
“Yes,” Katelyn said. “I guess in the end I always lose, so why bother?”
“You agreed to come to counseling and it’s my job to get him to see your side of things at the same time for you to understand why he’s the way he is.”
“I know why Zachery is the way he is,” Katelyn said.
She listened to Katelyn repeat Zachery’s history of moving around so much in his life and never feeling as if he had any control. When he was old enough to make his own decisions in life, he pretty much did it all.
It wasn’t right or wrong and not for Regan to judge.
Some women liked to be taken care of like that.
Katelyn didn’t appear to be one of those women. It was her job to urge her client to say that.
“Let me ask you this,” she said. “If after the next three sessions, your opinion hasn’t changed, do you still want to have a trial separation from Zachery?”
“I want a divorce,” Katelyn said. “I’m afraid if I do a trial separation then he will talk me into staying and I can’t lose any more of myself. I don’t like who I am anymore. I never used to be this way. I don’t have friends that Zachery doesn’t know and has to meet.”
She hadn’t known that. “Does Zachery not let you go out with friends?”
“He does,” Katelyn said. “At times. But he wants to know who they are and what we are doing. I’ve never given him any reason not to trust me.”
“Have you had that conversation with him?” she asked.
“I’ve tried. But he won’t listen to me,” Katelyn said.
“We can talk about it today if you like,” she said.
“Sure,” Katelyn said.
Which was her client giving in. “But you’d rather not?” she asked. Katelyn shrugged. “Do you want to have a divorce and not continue with these sessions? It’s okay to say that. You’re here to talk these things out. People come to couples therapy for a number of reasons. Most times to save a relationship, but other times it’s to ease into a separation and the best way to maneuver it.”
“Really?” Katelyn asked.
“Yes. I urged this one-on-one session because I need to know what you want. This is the first you are speaking up. I can help you get that point across, but I need you to say it. I’ll be facilitating it, but it has to come from you.”
Katelyn took a deep breath. “Okay. I can’t do this anymore. I’m dreading these sessions with him. I just need to be away. I need to move on. I’m ill all the time waiting for him to come home and smother me. I just don’t love him anymore.”
She let Katelyn cry a little in her office, then they talked about the best way to approach it when Zachery showed up for their couple’s session.
But thirty minutes later, Katelyn wasn’t saying a word and Zachery was doing all the talking like always.
“I made reservations at Katelyn’s favorite restaurant for tomorrow night. I know she’s been working hard and deserves a break,” Zachery said.
She looked at Katelyn. “How do you feel hearing that?” she asked.
Katelyn forced a smile. “It sounds great.”
It went like this for another fifteen minutes without her client standing up for herself. It wasn’t her job to tell Zachery what Katelyn had said to her in confidence and she’d explained that prior to Zachery showing up.
When the session was done, Katelyn left with Zachery, him grabbing her hand and threading their fingers together. “Thanks so much, Dr. Regan,” Zachery said. “I think we are making so much progress.”
She forced a smile and nodded. Katelyn mouthed “sorry” to her and they left.
There was no reason Regan needed the apology other than her client would come here next week and either say the same things in private but then keep quiet with her husband, or change her tune.
Her job was to listen and point out what she saw.
“I’ll be back, Miles,” she said to her assistant.
“You didn’t get anywhere, did you?” Miles asked. He was flamboyantly chipper as he laughed and waved his hands around.
Miles and his ex-boyfriend had been a client of hers last year, and though the relationship hadn’t lasted, Miles had been so mature about the breakup. A joy to work with and someone she truly enjoyed spending time with.
When he lost his job, and her business was growing to the point she needed help, then a better location, she’d asked if he’d be interested in running her office and doing her billing.
They’d been a great team ever since.
“I thought I was,” she said. “And now where I’m going is to the vending machine for a soda. I should talk to the Fierces. I wonder what the chances are of getting a wine vending machine in the building. Beer? I’d settle for that in a pinch after that session.”
“I’ve got a bottle of whiskey in my drawer,” Miles said. “Never been opened, but you know I said I’d keep it here.”
She smiled. “I might take you up on it one day but not today.”
She looked at the slim gold watch on her wrist. She had twenty minutes before her next client and walked out into the hallway, saw her clients off to the side bickering and told herself not to intervene. No one seemed in danger and Zachery’s smile was gone.
Katelyn pulled her arm away and walked into Davenport Law.
She stood there a minute debating if she should find out what was going on and then decided it might be better not to when Zachery turned to go toward the elevator.
They were on the second floor and she was going to take the stairs and turned in that direction and heard a throat clear.
There was Zander Conway watching her.
He had an office right next to hers. Private investigator.
They’d talked a few times in the two months she’d been here. She’d even referred a client to him who needed their spouse looked into for an affair.
She didn’t only do couples therapy, but that was the basis of her business recently.
“Good afternoon,” she said to Zander.
“Your clients came out of there hand in hand smiling and then next thing I know the woman is talking about a divorce.”
She held her grin in. At least Katelyn spoke up.
“Looks can be deceiving,” she said.
“I got nervous for a second that the guy was going to blow up. His face got red and he nudged her to the side. I politely offered that there was a law office right there that could handle any divorce.”
She started to laugh. Maybe she needed that right now.
“Did that make it better or worse?”
“Calmed the guy down fast, but the woman’s eyes lit right up and you saw what I did. She marched right in there. Hope I didn’t ruin any of the work you’ve been doing.”
Regan looked him over. He was over six feet of a yummy specimen.
She wasn’t sure the last time she looked at a man and thought that, but whenever she saw Zander Conway, her mind went to all sorts of things it never had in the past.
His hair was dark and a little messy right now. He had on jeans and sneakers, a black T-shirt and his phone was vibrating in his pocket. Loud enough for her to hear and her eyes to drop down to the front of his jeans by his crotch.
Once she realized what she was doing, she yanked them up fast and heard him laugh.
Caught.
“You didn’t ruin anything,” she said. “I guide and they choose their own paths.”
“I guided them right to an attorney. It was better than me breaking his fingers if he landed a hand on her.”
She let out a little laugh. This was making her day better than a drink could.
“I’m sure they both appreciate that,” she said.
“Good to see you, Doc,” he said, then took his call and went into his office, so she turned back into hers.
“Oh boy,” Miles said. “Sexy PI and you were having a conversation. I saw it and heard some of it.”
“How did you hear it?” she asked.
“That deep voice of his just sends all sorts of tingles in my body. I might have jumped up and sat in that chair with my ear against the wall.”
“You’re horrible,” she said.
“No,” Miles said. “Just honest. If only he was interested in my type, but he’s not. He has eyes for you though.”
“Please,” she said. “I’m not his type any more than you are.”
“She’s sassy,” Miles said, snapping his fingers in front of his face. “You want him to be interested in you.”
“I didn’t say that,” she rushed out.
“But you meant it. Regan has a crush,” Miles said doing his best runway strut back to his desk.
“Hardly a crush,” she snorted. “I’m not a teen.”
“Did you get your drink?” Miles asked.
“What?”
“You were going to get a drink but didn’t make it downstairs. Maybe because tall dark and sexy distracted you.”
She felt her face fill with heat. “I’ve got water here,” she said, rushing to her office as Miles laughed at her.
Maybe she did have a crush. Just a tiny one.
BUY NOW! To Be Continued...for Zander Conway