If Forever Comes (32 page)
She was fast asleep, lost in her dreams, that
sweet face relaxed as she rested on her pillow, her hair billowing
out behind her.
I nudged the door farther open, walked to her
side, and brushed my fingers through my daughter’s silky black
hair.
This little girl who had once stopped me in my
tracks with a penetrating gaze and a tiny smile that had undone
something in me. The one who had covered me in awareness, the one
who’d sent love rushing in.
This child, the one who had been mine and
Elizabeth’s breaking point, the one who had also been our start.
The catalyst with her knowing eyes and tender heart.
She was the one who had changed the selfish
person I was.
I’d never stop wishing I could go back and
change it. Getting to experience this with Myles…I’d never really
known just how much I’d missed. And I
missed
it. Wished for
it. That I could hold Lizzie as a baby.
In the depths of sleep, she released a soft
sigh, an emotion that was palpable as it wound with my heart, like
maybe this intuitive child understood.
All I had was today, and I chose to love her
with every second, with every breath.
Leaning down, I swept a small kiss across
Lizzie’s cheek.
She was the most amazing big sister, too, the
way I’d always imagined she’d be. She couldn’t wait for Myles to
get a little older, to hear the first of his laughter, to watch his
first smile grace his face. She couldn’t wait for him to
play.
I hugged my six-week-old son a little closer
to me, willing time to slow. I’d learned to cherish each day, and I
wished none of them away.
He fussed, and a tiny cry gurgled from his
trembling mouth, his toothless gums exposed.
My chest tightened, affection
pressed.
Was it strange I thought it the cutest
thing?
I whispered to Lizzie, “Goodnight, princess,”
then kissed her again before I lifted Myles to the center of my
chest. He curled his legs up under him, tucked into a tiny ball. I
patted his back as I walked back through the house, pressed my lips
to the crown of his head.
I entered back into the muted light and looked
down to where my wife lay. Awake, she was on her side, facing me. A
sleepy smile spread along her gorgeous mouth.
“I thought I heard him crying. Is he
hungry?”
I nodded with a smirk, my palm a caress at the
back of his head. “Apparently this little guy likes you as much as
I do.”
Her smile transformed as a blush crawled
across her face, the sweet innocence that had stolen my heart
hinting at her cheeks. “He does, huh? Well, I kind of like him,
too.”
With our son in my arms, I placed a knee on
the mattress and climbed to the bed. I passed Myles to her, and she
welcomed him into her arms.
Light filled her face. Intense, radiant light.
It shined with love. With joy.
Still lying on her side, she nestled him
against her, lifted her arm over her head as she bunched up her
shirt so Myles could find her breast.
He curled back into that tiny ball, his
fingers fisted in her shirt. He grunted, jerked his head and mouth
as he latched on.
Elizabeth caressed the back of her hand over
his round cheek, looked down at the child who had taught us so many
things—that it was okay to hope again, to love without fear, even
when it might cost us all, to show it every day.
I settled down beside them, our son cocooned
between us.
She glanced up at me, her brown eyes steeped
in emotion. “I didn’t think I’d ever love this much
again.”
I reached across the short space, held her
face in the cup of my hand, and realized I’d never felt closer to
her than I did now.
Her gaze locked with mine, this woman who
loved me with everything and trusted me with all.
My mind rushed through the years of our lives,
what my hopes for the future held.
The footsteps that would clamor over these
wooden floors, the laughter and the play, the days that would pass
as we watched our children grow. I could picture Myles stumbling
across the lawn on unsure feet, the biggest grin on his face,
Lizzie at his side, encouraging him to take one more
step.
The way it would sound when he called me
Daddy.
The way my little girl would slowly turn into
a woman, how it terrified me yet made me insane with pride at the
same time.
How my children would learn. All their
missteps and triumphs, failures and successes.
How one day they would find a love of their
own.
How Elizabeth and I would be allowed to grow
old together.
That we’d love until we’d been given no more
days, and then, somehow, I’d find her again.
This woman, the one who’d stolen my breath
with a passing glance.
This woman, the one who’d changed every piece
of me.
I clutched her face as I kissed
her.
This woman.
My forever.
You’re just pages away from a
special sneak peek of A.L. Jackson’s upcoming New Adult Romance,
Come To Me Quietly!
Connect with A.L.
Jackson
http://www.aljacksonauthor.com/
https://www.facebook.com/aljacksonauthor
The Regret Series by A.L.
Jackson
Lost To You (0.5)
People come into our lives. Some stay, and
many go. Some build us up, while most tear us down. They become our
friends, our enemies, our lovers, our tormentors.
Christian Davison came into mine, and I knew
I’d never be the same.
Take This Regret (1)
There are some mistakes we make that we will
regret for the rest of our lives. For Christian Davison, it was the
day he betrayed Elizabeth Ayers.
If Forever Comes (2)
Their love is intense and their passion only
grows as they set out to rediscover each other. But life is never
easy.
Other books by A.L.
Jackson
Pulled
Will the power that drew them together be
enough to heal the wounds from their past?
When We Collide
William is ready to fight to take back what
had been stolen from him six years before. But he never imagined
what that fight might cost him.
Come To Me Quietly ~
Coming January 7, 2014
From the acclaimed bestselling author of
Lost to You and When We Collide comes a new adult novel of one
woman’s obsession: a man who’s as passionate as he is elusive—and
as tempting as he is trouble.…
Sneak Peek of Come To Me
Quietly ~ Prologue and Chapters 1-3
Prologue
Dashed lines blur until they
become a solid line. My bones vibrate from the thousands of miles
I’ve spent straddling this leather seat, the muscles in my right
arm screaming from the hours my hand has been locked on the
throttle.
But I don’t stop. I can’t, and I
don’t know why. Something in my gut spurs me forward. I plough
ahead.
Hot air blasts my face and my hair
thrashes in uncontrolled chaos.
I bite back a bitter
laugh.
Uncontrolled chaos. That’s exactly
how they described me.
The desert sky goes on forever, an
ocean of the deepest blue. The city rises like a beacon in the
distance. Because I am drawn.
What am I doing?
There is nothing here for me. I
know it. I’ve already destroyed it all. I destroy everything I
touch.
Still, I can do nothing but press
on.
Chapter 1
Aleena
I was propped up on my bed with my sketch pad
balanced on my bent knees. Megan was doing her best not to laugh
from where she sat cross-legged at the end of my bed,
bouncing.
“Hold still,” I commanded, biting my bottom
lip as I attempted to get her mouth just right. The shading was
difficult, and I wanted it perfect. Megan had the most genuine
smile of any person I’d ever met. I refused to mess it
up.
“But I have to pee,” she whined. She bounced a
little harder. She couldn’t hold it in any longer, and she released
this hysterical laugh as she rolled off the edge of my bed. “I’ll
be right back.”
With a groan, I tossed my sketch pad to the
bed. “You’re such a pain in my ass, Megan,” I called after her as
she ran out my door and across the hall to the bathroom. She’d
gotten up to pee at least three times in the last hour. The girl
could not sit still to save her life.
“That’s why you love me so much,” she yelled
back.
The bathroom door slammed behind her, and I
picked the pad back up to study it.
Megan’s striking face stared back at me,
smiling, her normally long blonde hair traced in shades of
charcoal, her normally blue eyes wide and black.
She’d been my best friend since she moved here
from Rhode Island during our sophomore year of high school almost
five years ago. I loved drawing her because she was so different
than the typical model who offered themselves up. She was short,
just shy of the 5’2” mark, wore her curves well, and had the most
unique face. It was somehow both sweet and curious, this constant
expression that made me think of innocence trying to work itself
out.
She still lived with her parents in the same
neighborhood where I’d grown up, just two streets over from my old
house where my parents and younger brother still lived. She hung
out here a lot at the apartment that I’d shared with my older
brother, Christopher, since I graduated from high school two years
ago. Christopher and I both went to ASU, and our apartment was near
the campus. I was going to school to be a nurse, but God, sometimes
I wished I could do something with my art. I knew it was absurd,
that there was little chance that anything would come of it. That
didn’t mean I didn’t want it.
She was grinning when she came back less than
two minutes later.
“Feel better?”
“Oh yeah.” Climbing back onto the bed, she
crawled forward to steal a peek.
I hid the pad against my chest.
“Let me see.” She reached out and tried to
grab it.
I shook my head and held it closer. “You know
the rules.”
“I know, I know.” She sat back. No one ever
got to see. No one except for me.
From the floor, Megan’s phone rang in her
purse. She leaned over to dig it out. When she rose back up,
excitement had transformed her expression. “It’s him,” she mouthed
to me as she accepted the call and brought it to her ear.
“Hello?”
Turning back to my sketch, I tried not to
smile while I listened to her talk to Sam. She’d been chasing that
guy for the last month, ever since she hung out with him at a party
our friend Calista had thrown in May to celebrate the end of last
semester. One kiss and she was hooked. I wasn’t so sure he felt the
same.
“Yeah. . .we can come. . .okay, see you
there.”
She dropped her phone to bed and
squealed.
Oh God.
Megan didn’t squeal. She was in
trouble.
“Sounds like you have a date tonight?” I
muttered, my attention trained on the motion of my hand.
“Not me, we,” she countered. “Sam is having a
party tonight, and he wants us to come. I can’t believe he actually
called,” she said, obviously talking to herself. “Two weeks and no
word from him. I was beginning to think he was going to ditch
me.”
Beginning to?