The Time in Between by Kristen Ashley
And he didn’t.
He didn’t get why they needed to eat a meal in three different places.
What he did get was that the best buzz he could have was the one he was experiencing right there.
“And Cady and Miss Josie and Miss Amy say we’re gonna do this once a month! So when the baby comes, everyone can play with him!”
At Janie’s words, Cady settled back into him but did it still squirting green color into the icing she was beating.
Janie had no problem with a little brother or sister.
No.
Janie could not wait.
“Miss Alyssa says when she’s not on vacation, she and Mr. Junior are gonna be in charge of booze when we have our spread-out parties,” Janie stated authoritatively. “’Cause she says she’s gotta cook for a hundred people every day, so she’s just gonna be about the bevahraige when she’s around.”
“Beverage, baby,” Coert corrected gently.
“Bevahraige,” Janie replied.
He shot her another smile.
She grinned back and returned to her piping.
“Can I talk to you a second?” Coert murmured in Cady’s ear.
She twisted her neck and looked up at him.
After she caught his eyes, she nodded and turned to Janie. “You good for a second, honey?”
“Yeah, Cady,” Janie told her.
She let go of the spoon, grabbed a towel, wiped her hands and then they moved out into the hall.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Just got a call. The entire Board of Governors for unincorporated Derby County have resigned in lieu of criminal charges being lodged for public corruption.”
Coert watched her eyes grow wide. “Really?”
“Yup.”
“All of them?”
“Yup.”
“So this is the super-secret thing you said I’d like a whole lot when it all fell out,” she remarked.
He grinned and repeated, “Yup.”
“They pushed it and Sheriff Coert nailed them,” she whispered, eyes shining.
“And that’s another yup,” he replied, putting his hands to her hips. “They tried to throw Baginski under the bus so she rolled on them. No ‘they said, she said.’ She knew who she was working with and didn’t take chances. So she recorded meetings without their knowledge. They started setting her up as the fall guy, she brought them all tumbling down.”
“So, it’s done?” Cady asked.
“Yup,” he said again. “The injunction stands and the referendum will be back on the ballot for reinstatement of zoning the parkland into Magdalene with the oversight of the City Council come November.”
A huge smile spread on her face. “That’s fabulous.”
“I know you’re up to your ears in icing but you want more?”
The glee remained on her face as she replied, “You can never have enough icing.”
Coert preferred the cake.
Actually, Coert preferred pie.
But with this, he didn’t mind an additional dose of sweet.
“Stone’s house is on the market. Word is that he’s retiring early. Word also is he’s closing on a home in Malibu.”
“Wow,” she whispered.
“Saw the writing on the wall and to top that, he’s persona non grata, not feelin’ the love of Magdalene, but more, not getting the money because no one wants to work with him. So he’s done. And he’s practically Baginski’s only client so word going around is that she took some job at a firm in Florida. In other words, it’s not just done, it’s done. And they’re not just gone, they’re gonna be gone.”
“In other words, we didn’t just win, we won.”
Coert nodded.
Cady started giggling.
Right now, watching and hearing Cady giggle, Coert thought.
She leaned into him and he felt her hand on his chest, their child in her belly resting against him.
No. Right now, with her close, Coert thought.
“I wish I could drink champagne,” she told him.
“We’ll save it up for when she gets here,” he told her.
“I feel it, Coert, and he’s a he,” she replied.
He wrapped his arms around her and pressed her closer. “I feel it, baby, and she’s a she.”
“We’ll see,” she murmured.
They had the ultrasound scheduled for next week and then they would.
She rolled up on her toes and kissed his throat before rolling back and saying, “I better get back to cupcakes.”
“Yeah,” he whispered.
She lifted both hands to give the sides of his neck a squeeze then she pulled away.
He let her go and watched her walk back into the kitchen.
“My bag’s empty, Cady!” Janie exclaimed.
“I’ve got you covered, honey,” Cady replied.
Coert wanted to go watch. In fact he knew he could stand in the doorway for hours and take in the beauty his two girls gave him.
But he needed to give them time together. They hadn’t had much and soon there’d be another girl in the mix.
Or a boy.
He really didn’t care.
As long as he got his green.
So he moved back to the living room and his beer and ballgame.
And in the background, he heard chatter over cupcakes and icing.
Coert folded into the couch, lifted his feet to the coffee table, and settled back into paradise.
Cady
I walked down the aisle carrying the huge bouquet of flowers in front of my very pregnant belly.
I looked to the front and saw Coert standing there smiling at me.
I smiled back and kept going, wanting to run to him, like I always wanted to run to him, but not wanting to ruin the proceedings.
I got close to the first row and it was then I turned my head when I heard, “Mama!”
I looked down and to my left to see Kath sitting in the front row, smiling at me, my baby boy, Dean, in her lap, fidgeting and fussing and trying to get free.
I blew him a kiss, gave Kath a lingering, soft smile, beside myself to see the glow in her face, and turned back to the front where I walked, my eyes now on Elijah, who was standing front and center, also fidgeting, but not fussing, and not paying a lick of attention to me.
His eyes were behind me, looking over a sea of people in white chairs to a sea of tulips toward the lighthouse, a place I just left to take my trek with four other girls trailing me.
The place Verity would be walking out of shortly.
A place where he now lived with my niece, taking care of the lighthouse, taking care of his girl.
“Daddy!” Dean shrieked as I turned to walk across the flower-festooned arch to take my place at the front and await the rest of the wedding party.
My eyes moved to my son and then toward my husband.
Under a tent beyond the male half of the bridal party were two men, one at a shiny grand piano and another behind a cello.
They were playing a musical version of “A Thousand Years.”
It had been the song Coert and I had danced to at our wedding, though that one had words.
The perfect words.
I saw the grin playing at Coert’s mouth and I felt the same happening to mine.
I’d surprised him with the song. He’d never heard it before we’d danced to it. He wasn’t exactly a Twilight fan whereas I had years of Twilight girls on my hands.
But as he’d danced with me, his eyes looking into mine, I knew he’d liked it.
I felt the girls start lining up beside me as I turned and saw Melanie and Ellie, with Janie trailing, walking down the aisle together, junior bridesmaids and the flower girl.
Janie was now a practiced hand at this. And of course she was doing beautifully tossing the creamy petals, most of which floated away on the sea breeze.
My eyes slid from Janie through the crowd and I saw Kim with her boyfriend Josh. They were both smiling at J
In front of them were Alyssa and Junior. Their brood was taking up a whole row. But Alyssa had her attention focused on her man, her head turned, her lips at his ear. Junior was facing forward but the expression on his face shared he was trying very hard not to laugh.
Junior, I’d learned, wore that expression often.
But most of the time, he just let himself laugh.
My gaze drifted, and a row in front of Alyssa and Junior sat Jake and Josie. Ethan sat next to his mom. He looked like he was doing something on his phone. Connor, Jake’s son, was next to Jake and staring down at his fiancée, Sofie’s lap, where their clasped hands were. Their wedding was scheduled for June, at Lavender House, where Jake had married Josie.
Amber couldn’t come that day. She was at school in Paris.
But she’d be there for her brother’s wedding.
Josie had her head on Jake’s shoulder, and I couldn’t see her full face because his chin was dipped down, hiding her, and with the way his head was turned, I could only catch his profile.
Even so, I could see her lips turned up in a soft smile at whatever Jake was saying.
My gaze drifted again and I caught Amy and Mickey two rows behind Alyssa and Junior’s brood. Mick’s son, Cillian, sat next to Amy, but the rest of their kids were away at school. To Amy’s chagrin, but understanding considering they were California kids really just going back home, her son Auden was at USC and her daughter Pippa was at Stanford. Mickey’s eldest, Aisling, had joined Verity at Yale.
For various reasons, including the festivities today, Verity had worked hard to graduate a semester early.
Mostly, she’d wanted tulips.
Amy was twisted almost fully to Mickey, her hand resting on his suit jacket under his shoulder. I only saw the back of her head but I had Mick full face, looking down at her with a gentle expression even if a huge smile was on his mouth.
I felt my hand taken and looked down to see Janie there, her eyes shining up at me almost as brilliant as her smile.
“You did good, baby,” I whispered.
“Thanks, Cady,” she whispered back.
Then she leaned into my legs and turned her attention to the aisle in order to catch Verity.
My eyes moved too, and I saw Walt and Amanda. Rob and Trish. Jackie. Paige. Mike, Pam and Riley, Daly, Shannon and Corbin (Bea was in line in front of the arch beside me).
And of course, the mother of the bride, Kath, sitting at the front (Dexter was amongst the men in Elijah’s line, and yes, as suspected, he too had joined his sister at Yale).
Finally, I looked toward the back, not wanting to miss Verity walking from the lighthouse.
And the time was getting close.
Doing so, my gaze caught on my brother in the last row.
His eyes were on me.
I smiled at him.
His face got soft.
Then Camilla stood up excitedly at his side, Orson popped up on his other side, and Caylen gave me a wry smile before he stood too.
The wry was self-deprecating.
His children appreciated having a huge family, aunts and uncles and cousins.
And even if it came in a delayed fashion, they’d learned the hard way the important things about life, so they appreciated their father more for giving it to them.
I just appreciated having Caylen in my life.
We still weren’t close.
But we were now, finally, a family.
All of them standing could mean only one thing and my attention darted to the lighthouse.
The lace of her gown floating in the breeze, a huge bouquet of flowers in front of her little baby-bump belly (we were wedding twins in more than just using “A Thousand Years,” Verity was five and a half months pregnant), Verity walked next to her dad, a radiant smile beaming from her lips, her veil lifted high with the wind, her focus riveted in the direction of where her feet were carrying her down the path toward her future.
Her forever.
Her Elijah.
The strains of the cello drifted on the breeze, punctuated by the chords of the piano, as the sea crashed against the rocks behind us and the lighthouse stood tall and strong before us.
Verity finally made the first row and my son shouted, “Verry!”
He loved his cousin Verry.
Then again, Dean was as sweet and social as his older sister so he just loved everybody.
Verity’s body shook with a little giggle.
She loved her cousin Dean too.
But she didn’t tear her eyes from Elijah.
Tears hovered in my own.
And it was then I watched something play out that seemed to happen to me forever ago at the same time it was just yesterday, when Patrick Moreland, Jr. gave away a woman he adored to a man he trusted and loved.
I felt the wispy tulle of my strapless taupe dress glide along my legs, the breeze kissing my bare shoulders along with a cool spring sun, the gentle wind making Verity’s veil take flight and the tulips around us wave and bob like they were doing a dance.
And finally my eyes moved back to my husband.
That moment wasn’t lost on him and I knew it by the way he was gazing at me.
“Love you,” I mouthed.
He lifted his chin and mouthed back, “Most.”
Reverend Fletcher started speaking and Coert and I turned our attention to the happy couple.
My mind was on them.
But my mind was also on something else.
Patrick got his wish.
My husband, family and friends, happy and healthy, all of them, Caylen and his children right there, at the lighthouse, with me.
My version of a happy ending.
And I got my wish.
Verity and Elijah happy, getting married, making a family.
And I got my little boy.
Coert also got his wish.
Our Dean had my green eyes.
But Coert was getting another wish too.
The baby I carried was a girl.
I just hoped she had his hazel.
But I wouldn’t care either way.
~ The End ~
Discover the ‘Burg Series
with For You.
Lieutenant Alexander Colton and February Owens were high school sweethearts. Everyone in their small town knew from the moment they met they were meant for each other. But something happened and Feb broke Colt’s heart then she turned wild and tragedy struck. Colt meted out revenge against the man who brought Feb low but even though Colt risked it all for her, Feb turned her back on him and left town.
Fifteen years later, Feb comes back to help run the family bar. But there’s so much water under the bridge separating her and Colt everyone knows they’ll never get back together.
Until someone starts hacking up people in Feb’s life. Colt is still Colt and Feb is still Feb so the town watches as Colt goes all out to find the murderer while trying to keep Feb safe.
As the bodies pile up, The Feds move in and a twisting, turning story unravels exposing a very sick man who has claimed numerous victims along the way, Feb and Colt battle their enduring attraction and the beautiful but lost history that weaves them together.
Turn the page to read the first chapter now!
FOR YOU
Angie
UNTIL THAT DAY, I’D MADE an art out of avoiding Alexander Colton.
All my work would be for nothing, all because of Angie.
Poor, sweet, stupid, dead Angie.
Martin Fink and Christopher Renicki were the first two uniforms who responded to my call. I’d known Marty and Chris for ages. It was good they were partners. Chris was smart; Marty, not so much.
We were out in the alley, Chris doing crime scene stuff, Marty standing by me. A couple of squad cars with their lights silently flashing had pulled in on either side of the dumpster. Other uniforms had been dispatched to hold back the growing crowd and the crime scene tape was secured by the time Alec showed up.
He’d parked elsewhere and didn’t come through the bar like I expected him to. He had keys to the bar, for one. For another, he knew the bar nearly as well as I did and not only because he spent a good deal of time sitting at the end of it, my brother standing inside the bar in front of him, both of them drinking beer and talking about shit I couldn’t hear because I stayed well away.
Another surprise was he also didn’t have his partner Sully with him.
I watched him as he walked up to Marty and me.
The detectives in town, not that there were many of them, wore ill-fitting, inexpensive suits or nice trousers and shirts with ties.
Not Alec.
Jeans, boots, wide leather belt, sports jacket that looked tailored for him (probably a present from Susie Shepherd) and a nice shirt.
Alec was a big guy even when he was a kid, just kept growing and growing. Dad used to say if he didn’t stop his head would touch the clouds. Mom thought Alec and my brother Morrie were best friends because they were both the biggest kids in the class and it just grew from that. Morrie grew out as well as up, however. Alec just grew tall and broad but stayed lean. Alec was tight end to Morrie’s offensive lineman during high school, and in all things life. Morrie did the grunt work and never got the glory. Alec knew how to block and was really good at it but every once in a while he got the chance to shine.
Alec’s dark hair was too long but he’d always worn it too long, even as a kid. But he’d done it then because his mother was such a shit mother. She never remembered to get it cut. My mom finally ended up taking Alec to the barber when she took Morrie. Later he kept it long just because he was Alec. It curled around his ears and neck now and, as with everything Alec, it looked a little wild.
I stood there and watched silently as he made it to me and Marty, his eyes never leaving me. He didn’t even look at Angie.
“Feb,” he said on a short nod.
“Alec,” I replied.
His eyes were a weird color; light brown with a hint of gold. His dad had the same eyes but his dad’s eyes weren’t exactly like Alec’s. Alec’s dad’s eyes were mean.
Those eyes got hard as did his mouth when I called him Alec. They always did. Everyone called him Colt. Everyone. Even my mom and dad started calling him Colt after what happened years ago.