Blurb
Mavis always assumed that she would be in a hospital with the good drugs when her time came. Not in the middle of the road, with no one around but the damn town mechanic that hated her.
But there she was, having a rock star’s baby, with no one to rely on but the one that let it be known around every turn that she was a horrible person.
From the time that she met Murphy and became best friends with him at the age of eight, she knew he was destined for greatness.
But then her grandmother fired Murphy’s mom, forcing them to live on the streets, and making Murphy to realize that maybe they weren’t best friends after all.
Murphy loved Mavis.
At least, he had when he was younger, before she betrayed him.
From that moment forward, Murphy goes out of his way to stay the hell away from her, and always makes sure to never get too close. Even though everything inside of him screams to make contact.
When he moves back to town after being gone for five years, he tries his best to stay away.
But there she is at his CrossFit gym. Then having a baby on the side of the road. Oh, and breaking him a little more with each step she takes away.
Eventually, they find their way back to each other. The only problem is, by the time that Mavis makes her way back into his heart, it breaks. And not in a rhetorical way. In the ‘he only has days to live’ kind of way.
PROLOGUE
Sorry for the mean, accurate, awful things I said.
-Alessio Murphy Romano’s secret thoughts
ALESSIO MURPHY ROMANO
I liked the girl.
A lot.
I wasn’t sure why, because she was a girl after all, but she was pretty fun to play with considering.
“Come to my favorite spot tomorrow,” Mavis ordered.
I wasn’t about to tell her no, even though I should. Mavis was my favorite person in the world. Sweet, funny, caring and considerate—she was the complete package. Even at thirteen years old, I knew that Mavis was something special. Something unusual that most kids her age weren’t, especially when you considered who her grandmother was.
“I’ll be there.”
And I was.
That next day, when I came to Mavis’s favorite spot, the old crone that employed my mother saw me.
And guess who wasn’t there? Mavis. It was as if she’d done this on purpose—this invitation to her favorite spot, which just so happened to be smack dab in the middle of her grandmother’s favorite garden on the estate.
I should’ve known in the beginning that this couldn’t be our ‘spot’ because of whose spot it actually was.
At first, I didn’t realize that.
Two hours later, my mom and I were kicked out. She lost her job and the included housing. We had nothing but our clothes, a few sentimental items and our car, and I learned the true meaning of being homeless.
PROLOGUE II
Bosshole-a person that turns into an asshole ten seconds after turning into the boss.
-Mavis to Fran
MAVIS
“Only you, Mavis Jean Pope.”
I looked at my grandmother and felt the anger rise, but I didn’t take the bait.
“Grandmother, it’s not like she knew that her birth control, as well as the double protection of a condom, wouldn’t be effective,” Fran, my baby sister, argued. “You seriously think that she would’ve done that if she knew? Because, I can guaran-damn-tee you that she wouldn’t have. Not when she’s getting close to finishing school.”
I was in the downhill half of school. And my sister was right. I wouldn’t have experienced that crazy night if I’d known that it would interfere with my plans.
But, seriously, that night I’d let loose. I might have done it anyway with how I’d been feeling thanks to my sister’s freak out in the middle of a store.
Which got me to thinking.
My grandmother really knew how to fuck people over.
Pearl Pope, the most prestigious woman deep in the heart of Texas. Mrs. Yamboree Queen. Mrs. Well-to-do. Mrs. Kick people out when they’re hurting the most.
“Why are you such a horrible person?” I asked with a snap, my temper fraying right along with my patience. “For one second, let’s not think about how this will affect your stupid self, and let’s consider how this will affect me.” I paused. “I’m in year four of my nurse anesthetist degree. That means clinicals. That means schooling out the ass. That means little to no time to be pregnant. So no, I of course wouldn’t choose this, for Christ’s sake. I would’ve waited. But, unlike you, I’m going to treat this like the miracle that it is, and thank God that I got pregnant and I’ll have a baby at the end of this. Then I’ll think about the fact that you won’t be there to be a part of his or her life.”
I was taken back to another time where my grandmother had been an awful person to a little boy that lived on our property with his mother. His mother was a maid at my grandmother’s estate. She lived in her own little small house at the back of the property, and every once in a while, I would see Alessio, her son, running around the back part of our property.
Until my grandmother asked them to leave because Alessio’s mother ‘couldn’t control her son.’
My grandmother snorted. “The moment that you need money, you’ll be singing a different tune.”
I might.
Or I might not.
Technically, I was a nurse. I made a hundred grand a year as it was. With my new degree that I would have at the end of this year, that would put me closer to the higher end of the hundreds. So no, I probably wouldn’t need this woman ever again.
But, like my grandfather said, burned bridges didn’t allow you to turn around and go a different way. Burned bridges were for people that were resolute in their path.
Was I resolute in my path? Probably not.
But this was the moment in time that I needed to make a decision.
“You can’t speak to me the way you’re speaking to me,” I finally said. “You may be my blood, but blood doesn’t make you family. Acting like a decent human being is obviously not your strong suit, so I guess that now’s the time to tell you that I want nothing more to do with you.”
My grandmother’s eyes blazed.
“Mavis…” Fran tried, but I was done.
“I’m pregnant. With a baby that is half a man’s that doesn’t want him. Now, I would appreciate it if you got out of my house,” I ordered.
“This house was bought and paid for by your grandfather,” she snapped. “I…”
“It’s in my name,” I said. “Because Granddad wanted to make sure that we both had something when he passed away. There’s nothing you can do about it now.”
Her eyes lit with an inner fire. “Well you can kiss your trust fund goodbye.”
“You can keep it from me right now since I got pregnant out of wedlock, but you can’t keep it from me forever. It will be mine eventually. And even if you were able to find some random loophole, you couldn’t keep it from me.” I rolled my eyes.
She hissed out a breath.
She hadn’t known that I knew that.
Which was funny as fuck because it’d been her husband that told me.