Epilogue

EPILOGUE

“ That was a beautiful wedding,” Jamie said two weeks later.

“If anyone can pull off stunning in the backyard at night in the Hamptons with the weather not that quite warm, it’s West,” she said.

They were back at the hotel that West had secured for his family for the wedding.

A Friday night wedding before Easter. Laken had told him that West planned it this way so that all the siblings would still be here to celebrate since they didn’t get together often. She’d joke her brother was trying to get on her mother’s good side.

So on Sunday the eight siblings and those with significant others would go to West’s from the hotel for a big dinner and then West’s jet was flying his mother, Elias and Talia back to North Carolina. Rowan would fly back to California on Monday.

There was more family here than he could have thought. Every single one of West’s cousins on both his father's and mother’s side was in attendance. West paying for all the airfare of anyone who wasn’t close enough to fly on his private jet that he’d sent to North Carolina to pick people up.

“It was more than beautiful,” he said. “You looked gorgeous as always.”

Of course Laken was in the wedding. Along with Talia, Lily, and Abby’s sister, Liz, as the Matron of Honor. West wanted all his brothers in the wedding so there was one more groomsman than bridesmaids.

“I’ve got good genes,” she said. “Penelope seemed to have a good time.”

“She’s never been around so many people before,” he said.

He’d been nervous when his daughter was invited but then knew this wedding was going to have security everywhere. Even the date hadn’t been leaked. He’d later found out the hotel they were in was owned by West and he’d made sure the rooms were all secured under different names.

“And she handled it well,” she said. “She’s blossoming.”

“She is,” he said. Janelle was in the room next door with his daughter. He wanted this night with him and Laken alone.

Maybe he wanted to get on Aileen Carlisle’s good side too by doing this now and knowing they could tell her and the rest of the family in person.

He’d even cleared it with West. The big brother who was like a father to his girlfriend. He’d been brought up to do the right thing and he would. Maybe it was old fashioned, but he didn’t care.

“I’m just glad to get out of the dress and relax now. It’s been a long couple of weeks of events. My mother is going to make Easter into a huge production too. She said she’s going to make sure there are eggs hidden for Penelope. She didn’t want her to miss the Easter Bunny.”

“Your mother told me,” he said. He appreciated that his daughter wouldn’t miss that as she was at an age now where those memories and milestones might be important to a child.

“You’re not upset she is taking that from you?” she asked.

“No. I think it’s great your family has accepted us so easily.”

“We are good that way,” she said, flopping into the chair in the suite.

He wasn’t sure why he was fumbling this so much and couldn’t get up and get the damn ring and get it over with.

“I can’t wait another minute,” he said. He opened a drawer and pulled out a ring box. “I’m working myself up trying to get this perfect.”

Her eyes were wide on the box, but she was smiling. “Sometimes you spend too much time doing that when you should just go with your gut.”

“You saying that made me realize that you’re the perfect one and that is all that matters. I love you. I love how you accepted my daughter into your life. That you’ve never once judged me on my past or how I raise my child.”

“Never,” she said. “I never will. And I love Penelope as much as I love you.”

“No reason to wait another day. I just can’t. I want you as my wife. I want to have more children and I want them with you.”

He saw the tears in her eyes. “I want those same things,” she said. “Are you going to ask me or make me keep waiting to get that gorgeous ring on my finger?”

He took the three-carat oval diamond in a thick platinum band out of the box. The ring was simple, the band he had made more complex. Maybe it was a mixing of their pasts and present. Simple to complex, but it seemed to be right in his mind.

“I asked West for permission to marry you,” he said.

This time her jaw dropped. “You did? Why?”

“Because in every sense of the word, he’s been the stand-in Dad for you. It’s the right thing to do.”

“He knows this is happening now?”

“He does,” he said. “Or before Easter. Got to get on your mom’s good side too and make sure she was around for it.”

Laken started to laugh. “Talk about perfect. Now ask me the question. Good lord, I thought you had better delivery than this.”

He laughed and got down on his knee in front of her. “Laken, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said. “Or should I say touchdown?”

Jamie slid the ring on her finger and then lifted her in a hug. “I’d say we both scored tonight!”

The End!

The next in the series, Wishing For Love

Prologue

“What do you mean you can’t get me the shipment next week?” Phoenix Westerly asked. He pushed his fingers through his brown hair, messing it up more than normal. How had life turned out this complicated when he thought everything was going to fall into place?

“Sorry, Phoenix,” Scott said on the line. “I have some staff out sick and other open positions. I can’t get it done on time.”

“Not my problem,” he snapped. “I’ve got a lot of money tied up in this. You signed a contract and you’re going to stick to it.”

“Now, Phoenix,” Scott said. “Don’t be that way.”

Scott was a salesman and trying to lay on the charm, but he’d long since built a solid wall against bullshitters. “It’s my money on the line and a lot of customers I could lose.” If he didn’t lose the online customers then he might lose the contract he’d signed with a department store and that might be the end of what he was just trying to build.

“I know,” Scott said. “But it’s hard to find workers.”

“Again,” he said, “not my problem. I supply you with the materials. All you need to do is make the damn product. I went out on a limb to give you this business when I could have gone elsewhere.”

This was what he got for trying to save a few bucks. Maybe he should have gone with a bigger outfit that charged more, but just getting started over a year ago, he was attempting to maximize his profits.

Guess he didn’t know as much about being a businessman as he thought. He should have stayed in the lab.

“I know,” Scott said. “And I appreciate it.”

“Have people work overtime,” he said firmly. “I’m serious. I’ll get the lawyers involved.”

He hated sounding like a dick, but he was starting to sweat over this. His business couldn’t fail when he’d put everything into it. He’d taken the risk and left his nice stable job when maybe he shouldn’t have.

“That’s your choice,” Scott said. “But it’s not going to solve the problem this week.”

He didn’t need Scott to point that out to him either. It’d be more money he didn’t have to fight this and it still could cost him customers and this contract in the end.

“Scott,” he said. “Get it done and get it done on time. I mean it.” He wasn’t going to add that he was looking elsewhere for future production. That would just make Scott drag his feet more.

“I have other customers too,” Scott said.

“You should be putting me in front of others. Make it a priority. If you don’t get this order done on time then I’m going to lose customers resulting in less work for you. You said I was one of your biggest customers, so think about that.”

There was silence on the other end. “Let me see what I can do and get back to you in a bit.”

“You do that,” he said, slamming his phone down. Guaranteed he’d get a call in an hour or two that Scott worked his magic and got staff to cover shifts and now his shipment would be on time.

It was like this game that happened every few months and he was tired of it.

Phoenix opened a few of his spreadsheets and started to look at the numbers some more. If he could come up with more money upfront, he’d be able to maybe get a different manufacturer. It’d be cheaper if he could get a larger order, but the last thing he wanted was inventory sitting around too.

It shouldn’t be this difficult.

When his phone rang again, he didn’t notice the number and was going to let it go to voicemail but decided to answer instead.

“Hello,” he said.

“Is this Phoenix Westerly?”

“It is,” he said. “Who am I speaking with?”

“This is Jennifer Skye, I’m a coworker of Maryn Stevens. She was just in a car accident on her way to a showing. She called me to take over but then asked if I could call you to get Elsie after school. They were taking her to the hospital and she isn’t sure how long she’ll be there.”

Maryn was his best friend from college. Elsie was Maryn’s five-year-old daughter. He looked at his watch and knew he had several hours before Elsie had to be picked up.

“I’m on my way. Text me the hospital they are sending her to.”

All his work stress had just vanished into thin air. Nothing was as important as this. He grabbed his keys and ran to his car, then tried to call Maryn, but it went to voicemail. That was odd if she was just talking to her coworker.

He got to the hospital twenty minutes later after calling his best friend numerous times with it all going to voicemail.

He parked quickly and ran in. “Maryn Stevens was just brought in. I need to know what is going on.”

“Are you family?” the woman at the desk said.

“To her I am,” he said. “She has no family. I’m her emergency contact. The guardian of her daughter.”

He was throwing out everything he could to get this woman to give him some kind of information.

“Let me see what I can find out if you can take a seat.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Sure.” No reason to get in the woman’s face when she was just doing her job.

Thirty minutes later he was still sitting there waiting. He’d texted his mother what was going on because he needed to talk to someone. Mom always seemed to be his go-to though he had plenty of siblings he could lean on.

They all had lives though.

Another thirty minutes went by and he got up to see if there was anything else to report. He’d seen the woman was swamped and had to wait in line behind a few people.

When he got to her desk, she said, “I’m sorry. I haven’t had a break to get to you, but she’s in surgery right now. Someone said they’d come out and get you when she’s in recovery. You can go back through those doors and the nurses will show you another area where you can wait.”

Phoenix moved through the doors and went to the nurse’s station on autopilot and stood there another twenty minutes before someone was available to talk to him. None of this was making sense to him.

“Hi, I’m looking for information on Maryn Stevens?”

The nurse started to type into her computer and then looked up at him. “I’m sorry, she’s in surgery right now. If you want to take a seat over there, someone will come out when they can with an update.”

“Surgery for what?” he asked impatiently. “Can you at least tell me that?” He looked at his watch. “I’m going to have to pick up Maryn’s daughter in a few hours from school, but I’d like to know what is going on.”

There was some more typing. “She sustained a head wound. It looks as if she lost consciousness in the ambulance. I don’t have any other details.”

“So she’s having surgery on her head ?” Brain surgery? Was that what he was being told?

“I believe they are trying to relieve the pressure,” the nurse said. “It’s common.”

Didn’t sound it to him. “So she’s going to be fine?” he asked, holding his breath.

“I don’t have any other information right now,” the nurse said. “I’m sorry.”

This day was going to hell fast.

When he got a text from Scott forty minutes later saying the product would be done on time, he couldn’t even think about work. It was meaningless and he just replied okay.

His mother was texting him, even his father. Some of his siblings too, as they’d heard about the accident.

What he hated the most in this world was not having answers.

As a scientist, he’d dealt with data and facts and right now he didn’t have them, raising his anxiety levels.

Finally, after almost two hours of waiting in this small room, someone came out to talk to him. “I’m Dr. Charleston. Maryn sustained a head injury in the accident. We relieved the pressure building on her brain and have put her in a medically induced coma while she heals.”

Phoenix shut his eyes to take a deep breath. “But she’s going to be fine?”

“We don’t know just yet,” Dr. Charleston said. “Not until the swelling is down and we try to wake her.”

“How long could that be?” he asked. This had to be a horrible dream he was desperately trying to wake up from.

“Could be hours, could be days. Maybe weeks.”

His head was swimming in a fog, but his mind focused quickly on one thing. “I need to get her daughter,” he said. “She has a five-year-old.”

“Is there someone that can watch her daughter?” Dr. Charleston asked. “I don’t know I’d advise bringing her here right now, but that isn’t my decision.”

“It’s me,” he said. “She’ll stay with me.”

“Your name is in the computer as the next of kin to receive information,” Dr. Charleston said. “We’ll keep you updated, but for now, it’s just a waiting game.”

“Can I see her?” he asked.

“Sure. I’ll have a nurse bring you back.”

When he was brought to Maryn, he didn’t even recognize her. Her face was swollen on one side. One eye was already black and red, there was dressing over her head where they’d shaved a section and drilled into it.

No way he could let Elsie see this. Not until Maryn was awake and could talk to her daughter.

“It’s always something,” he said to Maryn. “You just like to stress me out.”

He reached for Maryn’s hand and held it, but it felt so cold. He refused to let that thought stay.

“I’ve got to go get Elsie. Don’t worry. She’ll be fine with Uncle Nix until you’re on your feet again. Guess it’s a good thing you talked me into buying that house. More room than I need but a place for you both while you recover. I’ll take care of you two.”

Still no response to his words and then machines started to go off sounding as if the building was going to come crashing down. Little did he know it was his world that was going to collapse.

“What’s happening?” he asked when a nurse came rushing in.

“Her heart rate is spiking. I need you to step out now.”

He left the room and let them work on Maryn only because it all but killed him to stand there and stare as multiple people were poking, prodding and then pulling out paddles when one line went flat on the screen. He picked up his phone and called his mother.

“Phoenix, what’s going on?”

“Mom, I need you to come.”

Which might be the hardest thing for him to say for a man who never wanted to ask for help from anyone.

Chapter One

Floating Around In Life

Two Weeks Later

“Why are you looking for another job?”

Crystal Winston sat in the chair in her room. It was easier to talk on the phone to her older sister, Taylor, here and have privacy from her roommates.

“I’m not making enough money where I am,” she said.

Just one more failure in her life. The last thing she wanted was to be judged for all the poor decisions she’d made or things she couldn’t see through or stick out.

“There isn’t a lot of money in childcare,” Taylor said. “Which is funny when I think of how much I’m paying for it.”

She snorted. Her sister had been a single mother for years. But now Taylor was married to the owner of the construction company she went to work for in upstate New York when she relocated years ago. Taylor and Reed had two more kids and her sister seemed to have the perfect life in her eyes.

Most of her siblings did, and here she was the baby of the family floating around like the airhead they’d all said she was.

“The money isn’t there to pay the staff,” she said. “I’ve been picking up some part-time babysitting gigs while I can. I even have my name on this website for it.”

“That helps,” Taylor said. “Being older, I know I’d consider you over a teenager.”

“It does,” she said. “But I do charge more. I find around here they are willing to pay it. But the problem is, I’m working like sixty hours a week between them both and it’s still not enough for me to get my own place.”

That was the ultimate goal. She didn’t think it was anything extravagant and probably silly to most.

Small steps in life were what she’d been trying to do.

“No one said being an adult was easy,” Taylor said.

“I know, I know. I don’t need another lecture. I get enough of them from Mom.”

Maybe she should have applied herself more for years. Or taken things seriously, but she didn’t know what the heck she wanted to do and was more interested in having fun than finding a career.

Traveling had been on the top of her list too, but she landed in Atlanta and loved the area and wasn’t looking to move anymore.

“When was the last time you talked to Mom?” Taylor asked.

She shrugged. “No clue. I try not to talk to her much. We text and that is fine with me.”

Linda Winston had strict opinions about things in life. All six kids heard them plenty and bit their tongues. Crystal could have a piercing from the hole in hers.

“The way of the world,” Taylor said. “Are you depressed that it’s Friday night and you’re home? Not sure why you are. I thought you went out with friends?”

“I do or try to,” she said. “But I’ve got a babysitting gig. I’ve got to be at their house at eight. Kind of kills the social life.”

“Sorry things are going that way,” Taylor said.

Crystal shrugged her shoulders against her headboard where she was sitting with her feet up. “It’s my own fault. I made these choices. I guess I should have buckled down and finished college. Everyone said I’d regret it.”

Taylor sighed on the other end. “College isn’t for everyone.”

“No,” she said. “But I should have had a better plan in life.”

“You’re still young,” Taylor said. “Lots of time to figure it out. You’re making ends meet and that is all you can ask for right now. It’s more than most your age do. At least you aren’t living at home.”

She never asked anyone for money. Not her parents—who wouldn’t give it to her anyway—or any of her siblings.

She didn’t want anyone to ever think she was as much of a failure as she thought of herself.

If it meant she needed to work three jobs, she’d do it. She just had to figure her life out and Taylor would be the one to listen and give the best advice of all her siblings.

“All true,” she said. “Making ends meet only because I’m working like a horse and, again, my choice. I think the bigger issue is I just want my own place and don’t see that happening.”

“What’s going on with your roommates?”

“Sophie always has man drama,” she said. “Every other month it’s someone else. It’s annoying to wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and hear her going at it in her bedroom. If it’s not that, then I’m finding men in the kitchen in the morning.”

“That would be annoying,” Taylor said. “Especially if it’s not a man that you were with. Hope you’re at least dressed. Or don’t men interest you?”

Her sister was laughing. “You know that was only a phase. I didn’t actually have any relationships with a woman. Didn’t even sleep with one. Just because I found women pretty didn’t mean I was sexually attracted to them.”

A few kisses with another woman let her know where she stood in her heart. But if she didn’t try it, she wouldn’t have figured it out.

The story of her life it seemed.

Give it a try so she could at least say she did.

Her heart ended up telling her in the end what she needed and she had to learn to listen to it more.

“That’s your choice,” Taylor said. “As long as you’re happy, that is all I care about.”

“All of you say that, which is nice.”

“It’s because Mom never did,” Taylor said. “So we’ve felt it the same as you. But it’s the truth.”

She knew her sister was trying to be supportive.

“I know. I feel as if I got hit the hardest for being the baby and so scattered. My own fault,” she said, her shoulders drooping some.

“Don’t get so down on yourself,” Taylor said.

“I’m having a pity party and am not sure why. Maybe I’m just hormonal or something. Most times I just shrug it off and move on.” It was probably why she didn’t seem to commit to anything long term.

“You’ll figure it out,” Taylor said.

“I always do.”

Hours later, she was sitting in the living room of the house where she was babysitting for the night. They’d said they would be home by eleven. Sixty bucks for three hours was nice when she got to sit in this nice big house and watch TV.

She pulled her phone out and started to look for jobs and nothing was catching her eye.

She went back to her account where she was hired for this job and was going to up her hourly rate when she noticed a posting for a full-time nanny. Hmmm, she clicked on that and her jaw dropped when she saw that housing was provided.

The pay was salary and more than she’d make anywhere else...with benefits.

Holy cow.

Crystal knew the chances of getting the job were slim to none, but she updated her resume on the site and then hit submit.

Take a chance and throw those dice after you kiss them. It’s what she usually did and there was no reason she couldn’t again.

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