Mending Hearts (27 page)

After my shower, I return to the kitchen,
and Leah is just finishing making breakfast. We eat together in the
eat-in kitchen and talk over a breakfast of oatmeal, whole-wheat
toast, and fresh strawberries. Leah knows that while she works I’ll
spend the majority of my day training. 

“What are your plans today?” I
ask. 

“I thought I would go to work, then stop by
the store on my way home. I need to get a few things.” 

“I can go to the store after my workout if
you want.” 

“Good, I need an ovulation kit and some
tampons.” She smiles, and I know she is laughing on the
inside. 

I smile, too.
I’m not going to the store
for that kind of stuff.
“Is there anything else you want me to
do today?” 

“After you go to the store?” she
asks.  

“Instead of,” I correct.  

“Don’t want to go to the store?” she
asks. 

“No.” 

“I didn’t think so. I have a shipment of
books and supplies coming in today. Do you want to come over and
help me put those away?” 

“I can do that,” I say as I finish off my
orange juice.  

“Good, it’s going to be a significant
delivery.” Leah stands and takes our empty bowls into the kitchen.
I stand and follow behind her with the juice glass and empty coffee
cups. 

Leah turns around and hugs me. “I need to go
before I’m late. I’ll see you around 6:00 p.m.?” 

“Six it is. I love you, Sweets. Have a good
day at work.” 

“Have a good day at home.” She giggles. “I
love you, Robert.”  

Leah and our parents are the only people who
call me Robert; everyone else calls me Bobby. I kiss her one last
time, inhaling her scent of buttercream and vanilla
.
Since
she owns a bakery, coffee shop, and bookstore combined, her scent
is unique to her. “Be careful, Sweets, and I’ll see you at 6:00,” I
say as I hold the door open for her. 

“Sure you don’t want to pick up my tampons
and ovulation kit for me?” she teases.  

“Positive.” I watch as she gets into the
Tahoe, buckles up, and pulls out of the driveway.  

My phone rings and I’m surprised to see it’s
from my trainer, Gus. 

“Hey, Gus, what’s up?” 

“I have some news.” 

“Did Kennedy accept my challenge?” Abel
Kennedy is the heavyweight champion. 

“Haven’t heard anything back from him, and I
won’t because you’re not a contender yet. Two years ago you were a
contender; now you are opponent. Remember: This is your first fight
in two years. Kennedy will ignore you until you do something
impressive — in more than just one fight — that makes it impossible
for him to ignore you. I’m calling to remind you of the scheduled
fight for Friday, 8:00 p.m., in Chicago, against Bailey — John
Bailey. Not that you need reminding, I should hope.” 

I laugh and say, “He sounds like a
sissy.”  

Laughing, Gus says, “Don’t let his name fool
you. They call him ‘Stone,’ because he hits like a rock. He’s a
good fighter. You still have a reputation, so I was able to get him
to fight you. He is a much better fighter than anyone else you
would get a fight with after such a long layoff. If you can defeat
him, I can get you a better fighter for your next fight. If you
lose, it will be difficult to work yourself up to contender status.
Remember: You lost one of your best fighting years to drugs. Make
that two years: It took another year for you to recover from drug
addiction and to get back into fighting shape.”  

I think back to the year that I lost Jamie.
It was by far the toughest year of my life. Leah and I both fell
into comas after the car accident. When I woke up, I learned my
daughter was dead and her funeral had already passed. Leah was
still in a coma. I remember thinking that she won’t wake up and if
she did wake up, she would blame me for the accident that took our
Jamie from us, forever. I ran away and turned to drug abuse and
addiction that almost killed me. Cheating on my wife was another
huge mistake. I guess almost dying from a drug overdose is what
ultimately saved me and saved my marriage. Well, not the overdose;
what saved me was that Leah found me, with the help of the police,
in the hospital. Luckily for me, Leah loved me unconditionally. She
helped me detox, forgave my infidelity and encouraged me to fight
again, although she hates it.  

“What time do we leave?” 

“We fly out Friday morning at 8:00. Make
sure your dad is going, and I’ll get him a seat.” 

“I’ll call him and get back with you. Leah’s
dad may want to go to.”  

“Meet me at Upper Cut tomorrow morning for
your workout, and do your homework on John Bailey before the fight.
There’re some online videos of him that I want you to
watch.” 

“Sounds good, see ya tomorrow.” 

Note

David Bruce allowed me to
use a few anecdotes from his books. The Josephine and Carl Bruce
anecdotes appear in his book
The Kindest
People: Be Excellent to Each Other (Volume 5)
. It can be downloaded free; search for it on the web. The
Mister Rogers anecdote appears in
The
Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 2
,
which is available for sale. 

Martina Donna Ramone and
David Bruce allowed me to use the story about
playwright and screenwriter Charles MacArthur and his wife,
actress Helen Hayes, and the death of their daughter, Mary, from
polio. It appears in their book
Honey
Badger Goes to Hell — and Heaven
. It can be
downloaded free; search for it on the web. 

By the way, David Bruce wanted me to put
this here: 

“
In January 2015, I, David
Bruce, had over 11,000 free downloads of my books (many are
permanently free) and approximately 100 sales. To whoever bought 50
copies of my books on 11 February 2015, thank you. PS: I love
you.”

I support Indie Authors. If you read this
book, please take the time to go on the purchasing site and give it
a review. Independent authors count on your reviews to get the word
out about our books. Thank you for taking the time to read our
books and taking the extra time to review them. We all appreciate
it very much.

Disclaimer: People and places in this book
have been used fictitiously and without malice. 

Acknowledgments

My husband, Rex: Thank you for supporting me
and for coming with me on this ride. What a year it has been! I
will always love you.

My Children: Carey, John,
Derek, Nikki, Chastidy, Rex, Brittany, Amanda, and Katie: Thank you
for reminding me what is important every single day. I love
you.
 
 

My Grandchildren: Desmond,
Samantha, Autumn, Evan, Derek, Dayquan, Darius, Draden, Alyssa,
Hailey, Lucca, Tanner, Giovanni, Cain, Lelila, Kylie, DeVonte’,
Adrienne, Amaya, Dominic, Damien, Caden, and Gemma: Thank you for
reminding me that I am somebody; I am your grandma and nothing else
matters. I love you all.
 
 

My sisters and brothers: George, Martha,
Rosa, Carla, and Frank: Thank you for your support. I love
you. 

My other brother,
David:
Without you, I wouldn’t have been
able to publish the first book. Thank you for making my ideas
better and for all you do. Editing, proofreading, polishing,
formatting, ideas, articles, and research websites. See, I do pay
attention. Thank you. Thank you for pushing me until I get it
right. Maybe someday, I’ll learn the right place to put the commas.
I love you and I can never thank you enough.

Thank you to my daughters Brittany and
Amanda Kennedy: Thank you for all your help at book signings, and
with the book swag. I couldn’t have done them without you.

Christina Badder, Owner and Operator of CBB
Productions: My P.A., and friend. Thank you for taking care of all
of my promotional needs. The blog tours, author spotlights, book
cover reveals, give-a-ways, Rafflecopters, Thunderclap campaigns,
ARC’s, and everything that I don’t know that you do or things I
forgot to mention. I hope you know how much I appreciate your hard
work and dedication.

Thank you to my Beta readers: Cathy Stotts,
Lorraine McDonald, Natalie Neck, Nichole Taggart, Raelynn Chambers,
Heather Ross-Cicio, Dove King Bailey, Heather Osborne, Heather
Leach Schrader, Heaven Potter, Lou Ann Mohler, Jenni Crawford,
Jessica King, Rhiannon Matthias, Sherry Gainey, Nimia Bradford, and
Melissa Harvey. I appreciate you all, more than you know. I
appreciate your honest opinions and reviews. I love the bond that
we have developed and I appreciate that I can trust you.

Thank you to “Brenda’s Street Talkers,” for
pimping my books, making teasers and banners, and just for the
support I receive from you every day.

Thank you to Beth Maddox at Cover It Up
Designs for the book cover. I love your work and your vision.

Missy MacKenzie Swain, owner of Noodle Noo
Jewelry/Watches. Thank you for making and crafting my professional
book swag. I love your framed charms, bookmarks, and key chains. To
see Missy’s designs, go to Noodle Noo via Facebook. Thank you, and
I look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

Thank you to all the
bloggers who shared in the author’s spotlight and the blog tour
for
Mending Hearts
.
I appreciate you more than you know.

A very special thank you to my fellow author
friends who help me every day, even when you don’t realize you are:
Diane B. Jones, C.M. Hutton, Arden Aoide, David Bruce, ML
Steinbrunn, Savannah Grey, and Layla Stevens for teaching me things
that I am clueless about. I love each of you. 

Raelynn Chambers: Thank you for your endless
support and for having the cutest name ever. You inspired little
Raelynn in my book and I love her and you.

All my family, friends,
internet friends, and the Manatee County Jail nursing and
corrections staff: Thank you all for your support and ideas. I have
used many of your names in
Mending
Hearts
. 

My close family and very
close friends: You may recognize many names and places in
Mending Hearts.
I had so
much fun incorporating family names and some of my favorite places
into this book. You all have definitely helped inspire many of the
characters in this book.
 
 

To my readers: Thank you a million times
over for reading and reviewing my books. Thank you to my loyal
readers who have followed me from the beginning and to those who
are new to my books.

About the Author

When I first started
writing, I wanted to write about real people that others could
relate to with real life problems and real jobs. I love to read
about the billionaire 20-something-year-old, but knew this wasn’t
the kind of story I want to write. When my first trilogy,
The Starting Over Trilogy
,
took form, I was thrilled to be able to make the book as close to
realistic as I could.

I wanted to touch on
real-life problems. Not because I want to show the weakness in my
characters, or to show the disturbing truth, but because I wanted
to show my characters’ strengths.
The
Starting Over
Trilogy
dealt with domestic violence.
A problem all too familiar for too many women and men.

Then came
The Freedom Trilogy,
a
spinoff of
The Starting Over
Trilogy
. My book started off with the
All-American military family and the real problems some face during
deployment. I picked my daughter’s brain and used her real emotions
during the deployment stage. Thank you, Amanda. 

I was also fortunate enough to add another
real crisis in this series: drug abuse and addiction — problems all
too common in the county I reside in and all across the globe. I
had a very dear online friend who opened up and shared her very sad
story with me. I attempted to make Molly’s drug problem as
realistic as I could. I’m not one to judge and much like my
characters in my book, I try to be understanding in realizing that
everyone deals with stress differently. I know that life isn’t fair
and we all are not born equally. I won’t mention any names, for
it’s not my story to tell, but a BIG THANK YOU goes out to my
friend and informant. You know who you are and please take a bow.
You are truly amazing and my hero.

I hope in my future books I am able to
continue to write about problems most of us face while continuing
to give my characters their Happily Ever After. 

One a lighter note:
I moved to sunny Florida in 2006 and never looked
back. I love fresh squeezed lemonade, crushed ice, teacups,
wineglasses, non-franchise restaurants, ice cream cones, boating,
picnics, cookouts, throwing parties, lace, white wine, mojitos,
strawberry margaritas, white linen tablecloths, fresh flowers, and
Pinterest. I also love to read and write and to spend time with my
family. 

My books, thus far, have been inspired by
the things I love and the people who influence me, every single
day, to be a better person. 

You may follow me on:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brenda-Kennedy-Author
 

https://twitter.com/BrendaKennedy_
 

[email protected]
 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard
 

https://www.pinterest.com/brendakennedy06/