Wait for Always, page 20
“This is insane,” Marina said when she finally got into the building later that day.
Her office was only two blocks over. Anytime I was in town, I’d only be around the corner from her. I liked that a lot.
“Isn’t it?”
She hugged me and then picked up a maroon dress. “Is this my color?”
“Girl, every color is your color.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she said. “But yellow and orange are not flattering on me.”
I laughed. “Noted. I bet you rock all the fall colors though.”
“I do,” she said with no shame.
She tried on half of the stuff in the store already, but still, she made a purchase and walked out with a skip in her step. Anything to help opening numbers. Which were already looking to be record-breaking. The only day bigger was St. Patrick’s Day, and really, would anything compare to that level of insanity? Maybe a college football Saturday when I got up the nerve to continue my empire.
We were near to close. All the new cashiers were wide-eyed and excited to see so much business. It wouldn’t always be like this. There would be slow days, like any retail establishment, but today, it was perfect.
Right before close, the bell over the door chimed one more time, and I looked up to find Nolan Holden in my boutique.
I smirked at him and sauntered over. “Well, hello there.”
“Amelia,” he said with a smile. “I wanted to come and see the new place. Pleased to see your success.”
“Why, thank you. Having regrets?”
“A little,” he admitted with a cheeky wink. “But I can see this is probably better for you anyway.”
“I think so too.”
“Well, welcome to Charleston. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”
“Thanks, Nolan. It means a lot.”
He smiled and nodded before departing. He’d made the right choice for him, and this was undoubtedly the right choice for me. If the first day was any indication, my clothes were going to do just fine in this city.
Finally, the last person paid, and I turned the sign from Open to Closed. Sasha cheered, and the final cashier flopped down on the couch in the corner. We still had to close out the register, but it was official. I was here in Charleston. And I wasn’t leaving anytime soon.
A knock on the door pulled me from our celebrations, and I found Ash Talmadge stepping inside.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said with a smile.
I rushed to him, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him full on the mouth. “I had the best day.”
“I like to hear that.”
“Nolan showed up.”
He chuckled. “Really? Did you rub your success in?”
“A little.”
“As you should. He’s going to wish he’d gotten you into his space when he could.”
I grinned and pushed him slightly. “Nah, he’s a good businessman. I’m glad he stopped by to see it for himself.”
“That’s how he gets you,” he said with a laugh. “I know you have to finish up, but could I steal you before the party tonight?”
“That’s not for two hours.”
My family had cleared out the Hartage Boating building for the night and was throwing a huge celebratory party for the store.
“Go on, you two lovebirds,” Sasha called. “You put me in charge. I can handle it here.”
“You’re sure?” I asked.
“Positive. Get out of here.”
I held my hands up. I wouldn’t argue with her if that was what she wanted. So, I let Ash draw me out of my new boutique with the big white sign that read Ballentine in all caps. I sighed with pleasure at the sight of it.
“Where are we going?” I asked him.
“Oh, not too far from here.”
He took my hand, and we strolled down King Street as the sun fell lower on the horizon. Even though I’d spent all summer back and forth between Savannah and Charleston, I felt like our relationship was stronger than ever. Before I knew it, six months had passed. It was as if it had always been this incredible. As if we’d always been meant to be together.
Ash turned toward a more residential area, and I gave him a suspicious look.
“What is this?”
He shrugged, and we kept walking closer and closer toward the water. Then, finally, he stopped in front of a pink house. The siding was all baby pink with white trim and a white picket fence around the whole thing. It needed some love, but I could see under it all that the bones were good. Not too big, but not too small. In a perfect location.
It had a For Sale sign in the front lawn.
My suspicion grew stronger. “Ash?”
“Well, what do you think?”
“What do I think of what?”
“The house.”
“I think … it’s a house. Why are we looking at it?”
He pushed open the fence and led me up the walk. He pulled up an app on his phone and then input a code into the box at the front. The lock turned, and he pushed open the front door.
“Ash?” I repeated with slight panic in my voice. “Tell me you didn’t buy a house.”
“Okay. I didn’t buy a house.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and entered the house. It was … stunning on the inside. Maybe needed a little renovation, but the hardwood was original, and the fireplace was massive. The whole place felt like home.
“Yet,” he added.
I whipped around. “What?”
He smirked. “I mean, I haven’t bought it yet. You think I’d do that before making sure you loved it?”
I gaped at him. “But … your job is in Savannah. We don’t need a Charleston house.”
“No, we need a Charleston house,” he told me. “For when we come up for business all the time and when we come to see your family and when we want to get away from Savannah. Then, we have our own place.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “You’re serious.”
“I remember coming up to Charleston with you every summer as kids. I have all these fond memories of the place. I’d love to be able to give us that again. To give … our kids that someday,” he said, his voice going soft.
Tears came to my eyes at that admission. “I’ve always wanted that too.”
“So, let’s make it happen. Walk around. See if you like it. Because I want a life with you, Mia. I want this to only be the first step of a long list.”
“You have a list?” I teased as I stepped up to him.
“With you? I want everything.”
Then, he kissed me. The world slipped away in what would be our Charleston house. The place I’d stay when I had to work for the business. The place he’d stay when he came to see me when I got bogged down in work. The place we’d stay when we came up with the kids for the summer.
Because that was the ultimate goal.
Waiting for always was so worth it.
Epilogue
Christmas Eve, Four Years Later
It was a mild Christmas Eve, and the store was closing early.
“Go home,” I told Jessica, the new Savannah store manager. “I’ll lock up.”
“Okay,” she said excitedly. “I was supposed to meet my boyfriend anyway.”
I waved her off and finished up. I had a missed call from Ash, but we’d agreed to meet at Leopold’s when I was done. The office was closed on Christmas Eve, so he’d had the kids all day. I was certain he was dying for me to get there.
I locked the door up and then strolled down Broughton Street toward the ice cream parlor we’d been going to all our lives. I was almost to the door when I recognized faces. Marley, Josie … and Cole Davis. My heart sped up. Oh dear, I knew what that meant.
I picked up my pace, nearly running right into Lila Greer. I didn’t falter or miss a step or say a word to her. Though Lila clearly saw me and smiled softly. I hurried past and straight into Leopold’s. Ash stood with our two kids, James and Katie.
“Sorry I’m late,” I said in a rush as I threw myself into his arms.
“Glad you made it.”
“Mommy!” James cried.
I gave him a big kiss and then lifted little Katie into my arms. James was the mirror image of his father. Even named James Asheford Talmadge V. In the end, we’d gone with tradition.
“Happy birthday, beautiful boy!” I called. “How does it feel to be three?”
“Excellent,” he said with a cheeky smile that was so like his father.
“Mommy, when am I three?” Katie asked.
She was my mini me. Just two years old and already talking more than James ever had at that age. A girl was so different than a boy, and I loved having one of each. Just like me and Derek.
“You’ll be three next year.”
Katie stuck out her bottom lip. “I want to be three today too.”
I laughed. “That’s not how birthdays work. But you both get ice cream. What flavor are you picking out?”
We all grabbed our cones. Mine butter pecan and pistachio, of course. Ash had gone for chocolate chip. James and Katie fought over the various versions of chocolate before deciding on the standard flavor. Katie would do anything to get what James was eating. Or anything James was doing ever.
I waited until we had the kids safely at an outdoor table before looking to Ash. “Well, how was that?”
“How was what?”
“I saw Lila walk out of here and Cole Davis on the street with Mars and Josie.”
“It was fine,” he admitted. Then, he reached for my hand and kissed my fingers. “It was nothing at all actually. We talked about the kids and said good-bye.”
Relief flooded through me. “Good. I like to hear that.”
It wasn’t the first time we’d seen Lila since being together, but it was the first time we’d all been that close together. The town was too small to completely avoid them. I knew that he was over her, but it was good to know that it was all really over. Just me and Ash against the world.
Ash had proposed a few months after the Charleston boutique had opened, and we were married at the start of the next year. We had gotten pregnant with James almost immediately, and it was the best moment of my entire life when Ash held our child for the first time.
“James, don’t get ice cream on your suit,” Ash said, leaning forward to wipe chocolate off of his suit coat.
The little man was already dressed for Mass, where we’d meet our respective families.
Ash’s father had recently passed from a second massive heart attack. Ash had inherited the entire company and fallen into the CEO position, as he’d always been groomed to do. We missed having his father around, but his mom was already dating again. I was happy for her, but Ash thought it was a lot.
“Are you ready for church?” I asked the kids.
They both groaned. Katie liked the singing, but James was too fidgety to sit through most of it. We wouldn’t have been going at all if we could have helped it, but I wanted them to grow up just like we had. With Charleston summers, Holy Cross and St. Catherine’s schools, and a lifetime of good memories.
I’d opened a store a year the first couple of years after my Charleston location took off. I was already in negotiations to open stores nationwide. That would happen soon enough, but in the meantime, I was focusing on my family.
Ash took my hand, he held James’s hand, and I reached for Katie. We walked down Broughton together toward the cathedral. James had a stain on his suit. Katie kept trying to bound ahead and run into traffic like the little Tasmanian devil she was. But it was perfect in its own way.
Our little family.
The dream I’d been following for all these years.
The one that actually came true.
Thank you so much for reading WAIT FOR ALWAYS! I hope you enjoyed the Ash & Amelia’s story.
Next up is: CRUEL KING a stand alone fake fiancé romance set on the Upper East Side.
“When Gavin King asks me to be his fake girlfriend for his cousin’s wedding, I refuse. I’m a bad girlfriend. Point blank. But maybe…I’d make a good fake fiancé. What could go wrong?”
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Cruel King
Chapter 1 — Whitley
I negotiated lavender hair into my contract.
Well, not just lavender. All the colors of the rainbow. I’d gotten used to wearing my hair however I wanted it in California. I intended to continue to do so now that I was coming back to New York City.
If I was honest, I might have been looking for a way to get out of the contract. Something that would make my boss roll his eyes and tell me I’d gone too far. This hadn’t been the reason. Even if he’d hated agreeing to it. I was one of the best practicing plastic surgeons in the country. He was paying me a small fortune to move back to the city for him after I made an even bigger name for myself in LA.
But I’d left New York for a damn good reason.
And I had to face that reason tonight.
I was swabbing more mascara onto my already long lashes when my phone rang on the bathroom counter. I pressed the video button and my best friend, Anna English, appeared on the screen.
“Where the hell are you?” English asked.
She looked frantic, and my friend never looked frantic. She was a celebrity publicist and could handle drugged out rockstars like it was her job, which admittedly it was. It was another thing to have to manage her future mother-in-law.
“Leaving now.”
“Oh my god, are you still at the hotel?”
I grabbed my overflowing Chanel bag and headed toward the exit. “I’m like three blocks away from the Plaza.”
“You’re living on California time now,” English grumbled. “Three blocks will make you late.”
“You’re actually from California, girlfriend.” I snatched up a fuzzy white fur coat and exited my suite to the elevator. “Take a Xanax or something. I can handle monster-in-law when I get there.”
“Wait, what the fuck is that in your hand?”
“A coat?” I deadpanned.
English huffed, but I saw a smile creep out. “I told you to wear something sensible.”
“Oh, I heard you. Loud and clear.”
“You’re going to show up in something outrageous, aren’t you?”
“No one will be worried about you when I walk in like a trainwreck now, will they?”
English laughed this time. It was a beautiful sound. “Fuck, I missed you. You’re going to be the best-worst maid of honor there ever was.”
“At your service,” I said, stepping on to the elevator. I blew her a kiss. “See you in ten.”
“Fine. Hurry. I love you.”
I hung up and dropped the phone into my bag. Then I slid the over-the-top fur coat on over the slinky silver dress that I’d worn clubbing with my ex-girlfriend back in LA. She’d said it was the sluttiest thing in my closet, but I really thought that was underselling it. I’d paired it with strappy silver high heels that one of my clients had gifted to me as a thank you for a nose job well done.
As I exited the elevator, I slipped on a pair of shiny aviators and sauntered through the overly bright lobby of Percy Tower.
A group of businessmen were laughing outside of the restaurant off to my left. Every single one of them turned to gape at me. A smile hit my lips. I still had it. Three years in California had made my pale skin, a perfect sunkissed tan. I’d had a personal trainer, since I abjectly refused to work out unless someone forced me, and my body was toned in all the best ways. I liked a little appreciation from the peanut gallery to prove it had all been worth it.
Then my smile slipped as I recognized one of the men.
In fact, the very man that I’d been hoping to avoid as long as possible.
Gavin King.
His look of interest turned to shock when he realized that the girl in the fur coat and lavender hair was me.
It had been three years since I’d laid eyes on Gavin King. Memory did not do him justice. His suit was black as night tailored to his powerful build. He was somewhere in the six and a half feet range with burnished red-brown hair styled with gel out of those emerald-green eyes. He held himself like the wealthy Upper East Sider he was. Old oil money mixed with a Harvard education made him practically drip with arrogance.
But when our eyes met, I saw that underneath the charismatic playboy, he was haunted at the sight of me. I’d cracked the veneer of his mask, and he wasn’t fast enough to get it together.
I wanted to scurry away. To pack up my shit and walk away like I had three years ago when things got too complicated. But I was back. I was back, which meant I was going to have to face Gavin one way or another. I’d just wanted to do it on my terms.
Oh well.
When life gives you lemons, add a little vodka and soda.
I wasn’t ready for this confrontation. Not by a long shot. If he hadn’t seen me, I would have found a way to avoid this, but he had seen me. We had an audience and it wasn’t like we could get into it here in front of all of his friends. I didn’t want to get into it at all. Three years wasn’t long enough for me to be ready for this conversation. Maybe I’d never be ready to talk about it. And certainly not here in this moment.
Which meant that I needed to let the outrageous, wild Whitley Bowen that he was all too familiar with off her leash.
My hips swayed seductively as I made for the group of businessmen. My eyes were only for Gavin King. One of his friends nudged him and laughed. Gavin didn’t look back at him as I approached. He couldn’t look away from me as if I’d put a spell on him in my too short skirt and too high heels and too purple hair.
