PROLOGUE
Twenty Years Earlier...
The ocean waves crashed to the shore, and her heart pounded. She’d never kissed a boy before, and certainly not one this good looking. Every girl in school wanted him, and he’d chosen her.
She climbed gingerly up the rock, hoping like heck she didn’t slip and look like a fool. Her parents would kill her if they knew where she was right now. They didn’t like him. He was too adventurous, too wild, too loud. And his mother was single. She would never understand why that mattered at all, but to her parents that was like a Scarlet letter painted across his chest.
“Are you cold?” he asked. He was always making sure she was okay. He carried her books to class for her. He held her hand when she gave blood at school last week. And yet he hadn’t kissed her. Did he even want to?
“No, I’m fine. It’s beautiful out here today,” she said, trying to hide the anxiety in her voice. Most of her friends had kissed a boy by now. She was almost fifteen years old, after all. Sissy Crawford had kissed three boys already. One was ugly, but she still kissed him trying to improve her odds of finding Mr. Right. Of course, Sissy was no catch herself.
Lucy Williams had kissed Todd Oliver last week, and then she had sex with him. There was no way she was going that far. She wanted to save that for the man she would marry one day. Wasn’t that what the honeymoon was for? Her friends thought the idea was nuts, but she thought it was romantic. She wanted to save that “gift” for her husband.
He snuggled up against her and they lay back against the rock, looking up at the cloudless, blue sky. It was early spring, and the ocean breeze was crisp and cool. Not many people were on Emerald Cove Beach today, and that’s just the way she wanted it.
“Do you think Mrs. Gill will notice we’re gone?” she asked, with a hint of anxiety in her voice.
“Nah. She’s so focused on teaching Spanish, she probably won’t even realize we’re not there.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have skipped,” she said.
“I couldn’t help it,” he whispered in her ear. The heat of his breath made her feel tingly all over. “I had to spend some time with you alone. Seeing you in the hall at school isn’t cutting it anymore.”
She looked over at him and smiled.
“I wanted to be alone with you, too,” she said softly. “And my parents won’t ever leave us alone when you come to my house.”
“I guess that’s what parents do,” he said. Her parents were going above and beyond in their efforts to “protect” their only daughter and her virtue. Sitting with your mother and father while you watch a movie with your new boyfriend was not her idea of fun.
They sat a few moments longer, and she closed her eyes. Listening to the waves was always calming to her. The seagulls squawked overhead, and maybe that’s why she didn’t hear him at first.
He leaned in and wrapped his arm around her waist as his mouth came down on hers. The warmth of his lips wrapped around her heart like a warm glove. At first awkward, she joined in the kiss allowing her lips to part and enjoy the moment.
And just then, Jenna Davis knew. She knew that Kyle Parker, popular jock and class clown, would be in her heart forever. She just didn’t know how long and winding that journey would end up being for them both.
Chapter 1
Kyle Parker pulled into the driveway of his mother’s real estate company and sat in his car, staring at the front of the brick building. For a moment, he was transported back in time, thinking of all those moments when he was a small child running around in the hallways of the large, stately brick office in the square of January Cove.
Living on the coast of Georgia had provided an idyllic childhood in most respects, but it hadn’t always been easy for his family. Widowed at thirty-five years old, Adele Parker had raised five kids on her own. Kyle was the second oldest child, just after his brother, Jackson. Not having a father had certainly made him closer to his mother, but it had also penned him in, somewhat.
Feeling like his mother needed him to help her run the real estate company, Kyle knew that he’d stayed too long already. His dreams weren’t housed in the old brick building, full of files and paperwork. His dreams were more about lumber and brick and mortar. As the owner of his new real estate investment company, Kyle had already bought and sold three homes in the last year, renovating each one for a profit.
He knew that it was time to break away from the “family business” and go out on his own. Adele wouldn’t be mad at him, quite the opposite, actually. Instead, she would do what she always did and wish him well. She’d always wanted only the best for her kids, and she’d go out of her way to make sure they were happy.
Losing his father when he was only ten years old had been hard on Kyle. When his Dad was killed in a car accident, the whole family changed. His mother had to take over as the sole breadwinner while he and his older brother became fathers to three smaller children.
After working with his mother in the real estate company for the last decade, Kyle had decided it was finally time to venture out on his own. Although he’d started his real estate investment company less than two years ago, he was very successful already. In fact, he was becoming quite well known in January Cove as the person to go to if you were in trouble. People who had suffered through job loss or other economic situations often called on Kyle to buy their house out of foreclosure. He worked with many different kinds of real estate situations from pre-foreclosures to short sales, and he was known as being someone who was fair and honest.
Of course, Kyle would do anything that would make money because he had a huge entrepreneurial spirit. He’d always been the adventurous one of the bunch, but he definitely focused himself when it came to business. Making sure that he never had to suffer again through economic hardship like his mother did when they were children, Kyle always made sure to protect his family and give money to his mom when and if she needed it.
But Adele Parker was not one who would ever ask for a handout. After her husband died, she pulled herself together within the first year and got her real estate license. Building the company from scratch with only a high school education, Adele became well-known in January Cove and the surrounding areas as being one of the best businesswomen around. She’d won awards and mentored other young women, which had always been inspirational to all of her kids.
As Kyle got out of the car and made the short walk into the brick building, he thought about how his mother might react when she found out that he was finally leaving the company for good and striking out on his own. He hoped that she wouldn't be too disappointed in him for leaving the company, but in his heart he knew that she'd be proud of him for doing something on his own.
The three-story brick building had been standing in January Cove since the late 1800s. Adele had gotten a great deal on it when she bought it out of foreclosure, almost twenty-five years ago. Thankfully, their father had a small life insurance policy from his employer when he’d passed away. Because of this, Adele was able to take care of the children without any income for the first year after his death. She was also able to put a small down payment on the building, which she’d finally paid off about ten years after purchasing it.
"Good morning, Kyle," said Jayna, the receptionist at the front desk. She was the perkiest receptionist they’d had at the real estate company in the last few years, and many of the men around town often came into the office just to see her. However, she was quite demure and humble for someone with such great looks. Kyle had made a decision long ago never to date anyone in the office, especially since he was one of the company owners. But, she was fun to look at.
"Good morning, Jayna," Kyle said with a smile. She smiled back, which always let him know that she was interested in him, but he tried not to let it go any further than that after dating one of the former receptionists early on in his career. He quickly learned that feelings and office matters didn't mix very well.
After picking up his mail downstairs, Kyle went up the spiral staircase in the back corner of the building as he usually did. There was another staircase, but Kyle enjoyed going up the old spiral staircase because it was so unique. He loved these kinds of architectural details, which was probably one of the reasons why he got into rehabbing houses in the first place. The idea of turning a fixer-upper house into a real home for a new family was both daunting and exciting at the same time.
As he made his way up to the second floor, he walked to his mother's office, which was on the far end of the building. She’d splurged a few years ago and made her office into exactly what she’d wanted, ornate and gaudy. Adele Parker was quite a character, and her style choices were all her own.
When he walked into Adele's office, he found her sitting behind the desk as she usually was, going over a multitude of contracts. As the head broker, she was at the helm of about twenty agents who worked in January Cove. These agents had been with her for a long time, and they were a force to be reckoned with. Adele was a strong trainer when it came to real estate, and she’d taught all of her agents the right way to market themselves to attract more clients for the company.
"Hey, Mom," Kyle said as he walked behind the desk and kissed his mother on the cheek. She smiled up at him as usual, with her perky blonde hair and bright blue eyes lit up by the sunlight piercing through the plantation shutters on a nearby window.
"Good morning, son," Adele said. "To what do I owe this pleasure? I thought you were taking the day off."
"Well, I had something I wanted to talk to you about, and I figured it’d be better to go ahead and get it over with now."
"That doesn't sound good," she said with a smile.
"It's not bad news, and I think you know it's coming. Look, Mom, I’ve had a wonderful time working with you here for the last ten years, but you know that my investment company is taking up more and more of my time…"
"I know exactly what you're talking about, Kyle. You don't have to worry about it. I know that you want to strike out on your own and build your new company. It's okay, son, you don't have to feel guilty about it. I knew this day was coming. And, I'm so proud of you for doing something on your own and building a business. You're going to want that one day when you get married.”
"Oh, Mom, I love how you slipped that in there about getting married. You know as well as I do that I'm not the marrying kind."
"Kyle, when you find the right woman one day, you're going to want to get married and have a family of your own. You might not believe it now, mainly because your heart’s been broken one too many times, but one of these days you're going to want to have a wife and a family."
Kyle looked at his mom and smiled. He knew better than to argue with her about anything because she’d always find a way to win. She’d spent the last decade trying to marry him off so that she could get one of her kids to produce that first coveted grandchild. She kept complaining that with five grown kids, she should have some grand babies to spoil by now.
But Kyle was convinced that he wouldn’t be the one to get married. One major heartbreak in particular, early in his twenties, had caused Kyle to stay away from any kind of committed relationship. Sure, he dated. In fact, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in January Cove. However, he had no interest in settling down with one woman or giving his heart away again. He made that mistake one time, and he wasn't ever going to repeat it.
"Well, I'm glad that you aren't upset at me. I'd never want to do anything to leave you in the lurch, but honestly I don't think you need me anymore. Your business is booming, even in this slow real estate market. When things pick up, you're really going to be looking at a lot of business coming in.”
"Honey, I'll always need you. If things don't work out with the investment company, you can always come back. But I hope they work out, for your sake. I know you need to do something that's all your own. Every man needs that in his life.”
Leave it to his mother to understand exactly what he needed. She’d always been that way. She was always able to look at each one of her children as individuals and figure out what they needed to succeed in life.
Kyle walked behind the desk as his mother stood up and gave her a hug. Their family had always been close-knit, especially after his father died. While some families might have broken apart in the wake of such tragedy, his family banded together and gotten closer. Each of the five children was very different, but they always had each other’s back. And, at the helm, as always, was their mother. She was a fighter and someone they all looked up to.
As Kyle walked back outside to get in his car, he thought about this new beginning. Even though the investment company had already been doing business for a couple of years, this was the final breaking away from his old life. Now, it was all up to him to make sure that he made enough money to support himself and put away for the future. He also needed to make sure that he did enough to help his two employees that he’d just hired in the last six months. This was make-or-break time, and Kyle felt like something fantastic was on the horizon.
Jenna Davis sat on the patio of her quaint home just outside of January Cove, as she did every morning. With a cup of coffee in one hand and a good romance novel in the other, Jenna tried her best to take her mind off of the terrible turn of events her life had taken recently. While her five-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, was at the local elementary school, Jenna had time to sit and think about what she was going to do next.
Her life had certainly gone in a totally different direction than she’d expected. In high school and early college, she had a boyfriend that meant the world to her. He was everything she'd ever wanted, but her parents didn't approve of him at all. While he was nice and clean-cut, he was quite adventurous and didn't seem to have a firm and direct path for his future. On top of that, he came from a family with a single mother who was always struggling to make ends meet. Her parents didn't feel like that was what Jenna deserved in her life. They wanted her to have someone who had a real career path and would take care of her. They’d allowed her to see him during high school, but when it became important for her future and they thought he was holding her back, they pushed hard to break them up.
Jenna didn't fight with her parents a whole lot, and she was kind of scared of them. It wasn't that her parents were physically or mentally abusive, but they were very direct in what they wanted out of Jenna. She'd always been a straight-A student, and that was mostly because she was afraid of her parents’ reaction if she didn't bring home good grades. When she started dating her boyfriend in high school, her mother was none too pleased. She wanted her to focus on her studies and save dating for her college years, which Jenna always thought was crazy but never verbalized to her parents. They were a critical pair, and she always felt like she cowered in the corner when it came to their constant onslaught of opinions.
Of course, now her parents weren't the ones who were in charge of her situation. Her mother had passed away three years ago and her father was in a nursing home with early-onset Alzheimer's. It was probably a good thing that neither of her parents could see where her life ended up because they’d have a lot to say about it. They would blame her no matter what the situation was. Yes, a lot had changed in Jenna's life over the last few years. In fact, the last decade of her life didn't match up at all to where she thought she'd be.
Jenna had always wanted to be an art teacher, yet now she was waiting tables at a rural diner just outside of town. She’d always wanted to have a big family and a happy marriage, yet here she sat, newly divorced in her small home that was about to be foreclosed upon. She was thankful to be a couple of counties over from her hometown of January Cove because the last thing she wanted was to run into her old boyfriend. She imagined a lot of, “I told you so’s” would be spewed if she ever saw him again.
Part of the reason for her unhappiness had to be because her parents pushed her into a relationship with a man she never really loved. Forcing her to break up with her high school boyfriend, Jenna was shipped off to college halfway across the country. She’d wanted to major in art, but her parents told her that getting a business degree was the better way to go. She’d done that, but she soon realized that she hated working for any kind of business that didn't involve art in some way. Of course, her mother and father had insisted that art was not a “real” career, and she needed to focus on making money and turning herself into “wife material,” as they called it.
While in college, she met Nick, her now ex-husband. He was a premed student planning to go into family medicine, and her mother and father were thrilled that she’d found this man. She didn't really love Nick, but he was nice enough at the time and seemed to have a good career path ahead of him. When she'd come home one summer from college to see her boyfriend, she remembered the painful look in his eyes when she had to explain that she was dating someone else and their five-year relationship was now over. Her heart ached as she drove away, leaving him standing in his driveway with that shell-shocked look on his beautiful face. And the sad part was that she knew it was a mistake, but she just couldn’t stand up to her parents.
Jenna had given up most of her dreams long ago. The idea of being an artist when she had a daughter to raise on her own was pushed to the back burner. Instead, she worked her fingers to the bone as a waitress for as many hours as she could get each week, which was never enough. Her ex-husband had fought her tooth and nail about paying alimony and even child support. Dragging her through the court system, he’d used every trick in the book to avoid paying anything even though he caused the divorce with his infidelity in the first place.
She just didn’t understand how this man could have a daughter that he rarely saw and then not want to support her financially either. What had she missed in his character and personality that allowed her to make a baby with someone like him?
As with most mornings, Jenna dissolved into tears on her patio, putting her empty coffee cup on the table beside her and throwing her romance novel on the ground. Living life as a single mother with little money was even harder than she’d ever imagined it would be.
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
