Out in the driveway, she saw the pick-up truck. It had parked behind her car, and whoever was in it was now by her door—wanting in.
Part I
One week later
Cocoa Beach, Florida
I hid my face between my hands. I was sitting up in bed, looking down at Matt on the floor. He was kneeling while holding up the ring, an insecure smile on his lips. On my stomach slept Angelina—or Angel as we called her—our newborn. She was only three weeks old and still so small and fragile it seemed impossible she’d ever become as big as my other three children. I had just finished nursing her, and now she was sound asleep, acting like she hadn’t awakened me every two hours all night.
“So, what do you say?” Matt asked, his voice shivering.
I stared down at him, then reached out my hand and touched his cheek. “I thought you’d never ask. Yes, I’ll marry you, Matt.”
He smiled, then rose to his feet and put the ring on my finger, or tried to, but my finger was still quite swollen from the extra pregnancy weight, and it didn’t fit. This was disappointing to Matt. I could tell by the look on his face.
“Put it on the pinky instead,” I said. “For now.”
He did, and it barely fit, but I didn’t care. I was just so happy finally to hear the words coming from his mouth. And to be honest, I couldn’t have imagined a better or more romantic situation. Just the three of us together. The past weeks had been so intense, so incredibly wonderful; I could barely contain it—so much love, also between my older children and their little sister. The only one who seemed to struggle slightly with the newcomer was Matt’s son, Elijah. I couldn’t blame him. He had lost his mother and just recently connected with Matt as he came to live with him. It was easy for him to believe he might be forgotten with a newborn in the way.
We were all living in my small four-bedroom house, and my mom, who had lived with us until recently, had finally gotten herself a condo on the beach. I missed her since I had gotten used to having her around, but it was the right decision. We were a family now, and it was as it should be. Except Alex and Elijah had to share a room, and they weren’t exactly excited about that. We had talked about finding something bigger, but I found it hard to leave my little home that I had gotten acquainted with after my ex-husband left me and later was killed.
It felt like home.
Plus, I wasn’t sure we could even afford to buy something bigger with the upcoming wedding and everything.
Matt kissed me, and I felt tears run down my cheeks. I was so happy at this very moment; it seemed like a dream.
“I love you,” I whispered. “It was always you; you know that, right?”
He nodded and placed his forehead gently against mine. “There was never anyone else for me.”
I sniffled and wiped my eyes with my hand. I felt so extremely emotional these past few weeks, and I cried at even the smallest things. But today, it was okay to cry. I had waited for so long for Matt to pop the question, and finally, he had. Nothing could spoil this perfect moment—nothing.
“Mom?”
I looked up toward the doorway. “Christine? What are you doing home? School started two hours ago.”
She hesitated in the doorway. I was about to tell her that Matt had proposed, but I sensed it wasn’t the right time. Something was going on with her.
“What’s up, sweetie?”
“I…I kind of need your help. And it kind of has to be quick. Now.”
“Let me take Angel,” Matt said and grabbed the baby. He held her tight to his body and walked to her crib, then put her down gently. Christine came closer, and I swung my legs out over the edge. She sat down next to me, and our eyes met.
“It’s Amy,” she said, her big eyes tearing up when talking about her friend. “I don’t know what to do.”
Chapter 1
THEN:
“I just don’t understand why he doesn’t hug me when I cry—when that is all I need from him.”
Lynn Parks looked up at the woman, Joanna Harry, on the couch in front of her. Next to her sat her boyfriend, Jeffrey Johnson, in his two-thousand-dollar pinstriped suit. They had held hands on their first visits to Lynn’s office. They had been coming for three months, and now, they weren’t holding hands anymore.
Lynn wrote on her notepad, then lifted her gaze to meet Jeff’s again. “And what do you say to that, Jeff? Why do you think that is?”
He threw out his hands. “I don’t know. I mean, she’s…sometimes she seems like she wants me to leave her alone when she’s upset. Maybe she could tell me when she wants me to hug her and when she doesn’t because I don’t know.”
Lynn nodded. Her eyes stayed locked with Jeff’s for a few seconds longer, just to make sure he didn’t have anything else to add. Then, she looked at Joanna. “Is that something you might be able to do? Tell Jeff when you need him to affirm you and when he doesn’t? Sort of guiding him along the way?”
Joanna sighed and rolled her eyes. “But shouldn’t he know these things by now?”
Lynn closed her eyes briefly and hoped they didn’t see. It wasn’t her job to judge, but she often felt that Joanna demanded a lot from Jeff.
“We’ve been dating less than a year,” Jeff said. He had a little smirk on his lip that always made Lynn smile. His blue eyes lingered on her a lot during their conversations, and they had come to learn during their sessions that it was a pattern in his life—flirting with women to feel superior to them. It was one of the reasons his girlfriend had wanted them to seek counseling. They were planning on marrying within the next year, but she wanted to make sure they were suitable and hopefully have him stop looking at other women. That’s how she had put it during their first session. She wanted them to be close, but Jeff wasn’t doing enough.
“I’m trying my best here,” he added and leaned back on the couch, stretching out his arms behind his girlfriend, struggling to kill the smirk.
“Trying your best?” she squealed. “It sure doesn’t feel like it. Last weekend at the bar, you were flirting with that woman, remember? The blonde one?”
“I was just talking to her. Her boyfriend was right there next to her. I wasn’t flirting at all.”
Joanna’s shoulders slumped, and she turned away from him. “You see what I have to put up with here? I don’t want to end up like some suburban housewife who doesn’t know where her husband is or who he is doing.”
“At some point, you’ll just have to trust him, Joanna,” Lynn said. “We all have to trust the ones we choose to marry.”
“Yeah, you totally have trust issues,” Jeff said, leaning forward.
Lynn didn’t know much about him except that he was an investment banker and made a lot of money. She couldn’t blame Joanna for being nervous since he was a very handsome guy, tall and blond with the bluest eyes Lynn had ever seen.
Lynn looked at the clock on the wall next to her. She had let them go over time without noticing it.
“I’m afraid our time is up for today. Let’s continue where we left off next time, okay?”