Here's to Forever Read online

  HERE'S TO FOREVER

  Teagan Hunter

  Copyright © 2016 Teagan Hunter

  KINDLE EDITION

  Cover Designer: Najla Qamber Designs

  Photography: Lindee Robinson Photography

  Models: Kelly Kirstein and Travis Robert Bendall

  Editor: Murphy Rae of Indie Solutions by Murphy Rae

  Formatter: Wendi Temporado of Ready, Set, Edit

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy

  To Will Cooper.

  You’ll always be my number one.

  #SorryNotSorryLake #BethWho

  Hudson

  “You want to do what to my daughter?”

  The man speaking to me right now like I’ve lost my mind is none other than Ted Kamden, AKA, my girlfriend’s father. He’s looking at me like I’m absolutely insane. He may be right.

  Looking Ted right in the eye, I say, “Marry her, sir. I’d like to marry Rae.”

  Ted stares me down. Squinting his eyes and cocking his head, he says, “Why, son?”

  Not what I was expecting.

  I clear my throat. “Why, sir?”

  “Yes. Why do you want to marry her? That’s quite a commitment and you’re both still young. Never mind the fact that you haven’t even been together a year yet.”

  His words are true. We haven’t been together that long, but for some reason it feels like an eternity that we’ve known one another.

  A little less than a year ago, the brightest, snarkiest, and most beautiful woman I’ve ever known walked confidently into my shop. She won my heart over almost instantly with her smart mouth and captivating forest green eyes. Our connection was easy, seamless, uncomplicated. It took a while for me to work up the courage to tell her about Joey, my now eight-year-old daughter, but once she got over the initial shock, Rae accepted us both with open arms. We became inseparable, in love, and infinitely happy.

  Then life happened.

  It turned out our intense connection came from the fact that we had already sort of known one another in the past, me having rescued her from drowning at the tender age of six. It wasn’t until I took her to the beach for her birthday last year that we realized it. Being near the sea caused Rae to have a disturbing flashback where she discovered that her deep-seated fear of being a mother came from having her own stand and watch as she drowned.

  The bigger, more present issue was Joey. As Rae came to her realization, my daughter waded into the ocean a little too far and got swept away in the angry waves. Joey nearly drowned.

  It was two weeks before I spoke to Rae again.

  Once I finally did, we decided that in the end, despite what had happened with Joey, we survived it. And that meant more to us than anything else.

  Since then, we’ve managed to make our relationship more solid than ever. Together, we moved on and our once deep connection dug a hole even deeper.

  Several weeks ago, Rae moved in with me and Joey, and so far things have been incredible.

  Until life happened, again.

  Life, the fickle thing, is a small reason as to why I’m here.

  Trying to calm my nerves, I rub my palms together and sit forward. After taking a few moments to work some sentences through in my mind, I give the speech of a lifetime to Rae’s father.

  “To put it simply: I love your daughter. But if you’re looking for the long version, here it is: She absolutely completes me. Last year when I met Rae, I was resigned to a life of single fatherhood. I had Joey and she was all I needed. Or at least that’s what I thought at the time. But then this incredibly beautiful woman stepped foot into my shop and opened my eyes to what I was missing—her. Rae’s wild. She’s a little crazy, sarcastic as hell, a fighter, tough, and sweet all wrapped into one. Everything about her is amazing, even her flaws. Yes, she has them. Everyone does. And she’s fantastic with Joey. Holy hell is she amazing with her. There’s nothing that makes my heart more erratic than seeing them together,” I tell Ted honestly. “I want to spend the rest of time with her because she’s the most real thing I’ve ever had in my life.”

  Ted doesn’t say anything; he only continues to stare at me. I start getting a little uncomfortable under his stare, but I don’t back down. After another moment passes, I tell it to him straight.

  “With all due respect, sir, nothing you say here today will deter me from asking your daughter to marry me. Nothing. And if she says ‘yes,’ I am going to marry her. Our love doesn’t need the stamp of approval from someone who will never understand it like we do. This is all a formality.”

  A slow, almost sinister grin stretches across his face. “Brave. You’re very brave, Hudson.” He’s looking at me like the fucking Cheshire Cat, and I’m man enough to admit I’m nervous as hell right now.

  “And determined,” Ted continues, sitting forward and mirroring my position. He’s about a foot from me, holding my stare with a fierce one of his own. “Whether or not you need it, you have my blessing. I just wanted to hear you say that you loved my daughter enough to not let anyone tell you otherwise.”

  I expel a relieved breath and Rae’s dad starts laughing. “Dammit, Mr. Kamden. You had me scared for a second.”

  “Couldn’t resist screwing with you, son. And for the love of all holy things, call me Ted. I’ve already told you a million times.”

  “Sorry, sir. Shit. I mean Ted.”

  Ted gives a hearty laugh as he gets up to walk into the kitchen. “You want a beer?”

  “No, thank you. I’m driving.”

  “Good answer.”

  I sink into the couch as he disappears to the other room. He said yes. Fuck. Yeah.

  Now I just have to find the perfect way to propose. Low-key or large event? Simple or over the top? Audience or in private? How in the hell do people do this shit?

  I’ll be honest. I didn’t really think this whole thing through. I only know that I want to marry Rae. Now. Tomorrow. Next month. Next year. Any damn day. I want her. I want forever with her.

  We lost someone last month. The brother of my best friend was taken away in an unexpected accident. While we technically lost two people since Tucker is on the road, one of them still has the option to return. Tanner doesn’t. While neither one of us was much a fan of him in life, his death has still taken a toll on us. So much so that we’ve spent the last several weeks discussing what would happen to Joey if I died, how we’d handle an emergency situation, and loss in general.

  We’re both accustomed to it—loss, that is. Rae’s mother committed suicide when she was only seven, the same day Rae almost drowned, and my father passed away three years ago. Both of them were sudden. Each left everyone completely unprepared for the future without them. Neither one of us wants that for Joey.

  I’ve never been one for legalities, but now, I want them. I want to know my future is bound
to hers by a fancy contract. I want to know I’m as legally hers as she is mine. And Joey. I definitely want the legalities for her.

  Other than that, I don’t really need them. In the deepest depths of my soul, I know. Rae is my forever. My tomorrow. My everything.

  “I can hear the wheels spinning from the other room. Relax. You’ll know when it’s the right moment,” Ted says as he walks back into the room, cold beer in hand. “Want to know how I proposed to Rae’s mom?”

  Ted must see the sadness in my eyes before I can hide it because he shakes his head. “It’s okay, Hudson. We had many good years together before everything happened. I have some fond memories of Erin.”

  He takes a heavy, calming breath before starting his story. “We were young but wildly in love. We’d been together for two years and some change when we found out we were pregnant. You think we’d have been nervous since we were still living at home with our parents and barely scraping by, but we weren’t. Our love was enough.”

  Rae’s father sits back in his chair, eyes closed and chin tucked into his chest. I have this odd feeling he’s realizing that in the end, their love wasn’t enough. And it’s breaking his heart all over again.

  When he speaks, he stays in the same position, like he’s trying to remember every last detail of what happened. “I had this whole huge night planned. We had just told her parents about the pregnancy, and they were surprisingly supportive of it. We went to dinner to celebrate—the fanciest restaurant I could afford. I had my timing perfected and everything was going according to plan. But then it wasn’t. In the middle of our romantic dinner, she broke down in tears. And I mean sobbing. ‘What are we going to do, Teddy?’ she asked over and over again. I kept quiet and held her until her tears subsided, paid our bill, and walked her to the car. We drove down to Lake Quannapowitt and walked to the shore, skipping stones for several minutes in silence. It was our thing. After about twenty minutes, she apologized for her breakdown, obviously embarrassed by what had happened. I knew it was all just the baby hormones. I was a kid, but I wasn’t stupid. I understood how that stuff worked.”

  A small grin plays at Ted’s lips, like he’s watching a movie play in his head, detailing his happy memories with the woman who still owns his heart.

  “I didn’t respond to her apology right away. You want to guess what happened next?”

  “I’m clueless, Ted. Knowing Rae, she’d probably start throwing stones at me. I have no idea if she has Erin’s…spirit, but that’d be my guess.”

  Ted barks out a laugh, slapping his knee. “Damn. My baby girl is much more like her mother than she’s ever realized.”

  “Nailed it, huh?”

  “Oh, yes. That’s exactly what she did. After I finally got her calmed down, I grabbed her face between my hands and kissed her senseless. I said, ‘Erin, you’re insane. You make me insane. But I love you all the same. We’ll be fine. We’ll make it fine. We have to. It’s what we do. Now, put your crazy away for a minute, okay? I have something important to ask you.’ And that was it. I asked her. Nothing fancy. It was just my heart, Hudson. I laid it out there plain and simple for her. Just follow your heart, kid. It’s always right.”

  “Hudson? Is that you?”

  “Hey, babe!” I shout, walking through the front door, following the sound of Rae’s sweet voice to the kitchen.

  Flour. That’s all I can see. It looks like winter blew through and we left all the windows open. Mounds and mounds of snow-like powder sit on the floor and every square inch of counter space. I can already tell this isn’t going to turn out how she planned.

  “Um, what are you doing?” I ask as she’s elbow deep in dough.

  “Making chocolate chip cookies,” she says, not breaking eye contact with what her hands are doing. She’s concentrating so hard her tongue is poking out and her brows are furrowed. “There’s a batch over there and one in the oven. I just need to make one more after this and I’m done.”

  “Mind if I try one?”

  She nods. “Go for it.”

  I barely contain my laughter when I stop in front of her plate of cookies. Pointing to the cookies, I ask, “These them?”

  Rae glances up to see where I’m pointing. “Yep. They look a little flat. Not sure what happened, but they still look edible. The kids will never know.”

  A little flat would be an understatement. They are completely flat. And I have this feeling the cookies are not “edible.”

  I gingerly bring a cookie up to my nose, sniffing it just in case I can smell something off about them from the start. Fine. Cautiously, I take a bite. And then I promptly spit it right back out.

  “Ugh! What is that?” I toss the atrocity back down on the plate, scraping at my tongue.

  “What? What do you mean?” Rae hollers, rushing over to the table and pushing me out of the way. “They look fine! Flat, but fine.” She lifts my abandoned cookie and takes a huge bite. That too finds its way back onto the table. “Gross!”

  Rae rushes to the sink, gulping water straight from the faucet. She wipes her mouth and runs over to her cookbook, scanning the page with her finger to find where she messed up.

  “Shit!” she huffs, slamming the book closed and tossing it across the counter. “I forgot the baking soda.”

  I cringe. “That’s kind of important.”

  “And I put too much flour in there,” she mumbles, crossing her arms over chest. She’s pouting. My adult girlfriend is legit pouting. But I can’t blame her. I’d be pouting too if I had just spent the last several hours making cookies only to find out they taste like complete shit.

  Wait. Why is she doing this again? She can’t cook for shit, so I’m curious as to why she even tried baking in the first place.

  “Why did you say you were making cookies?”

  “For Joey’s bake sale for her summer softball league. Since it’s not school sponsored, they could be homemade, so I decided to try making them. But clearly I suck. I’m terrible at this domestic stuff, Hudson!”

  I can’t help it—I laugh. Hard. “Why are you doing this the hard way, then? Break and bake, babe. Break and bake. That’s how I do it.”

  She throws her hands up in defeat. “See? Even you’re better than I am and you suck too! I quit. Let’s just order a pizza and pretend I made that from scratch too.”

  “Deal. Now go get the broom. We’ve got some cleaning up to do.”

  Rae marches away, muttering to herself the whole time. A very tiny part of me feels bad for her, but this is just too rich. She looked so proud of herself and so sure, only to forget the most important ingredient. Poor Rae.

  “Here. You sweep, I’ll swipe,” she says, handing me the broom. “How’d everything go at the shop?”

  The shop? I wasn’t at the shop.

  “I wasn’t…” I start, barely catching myself and nearly blowing my cover. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever get out of there.”

  “Sucks you had to go in, but I’m glad I’ve got you back now. It seems every week you’re piled with paperwork. Guess that just means more cash flow and more money for us to spend on not-so-home-cooked meals.”

  I give her a distracted laugh and continue sweeping up her mess, the guilt of my lie pressing down on my shoulders like a damn boulder.

  Yes, I’ve been lying to Rae. For weeks now, actually. Hell, even months.

  You see, after Rae found out her father had been lying to her about her mother’s condition and what really happened out in that blustery ocean when she was seven, she halted all communication with her father. On one hand, I understand it all. On the other, it breaks my heart. I’m certain it doesn’t break mine as much as it does Rae’s, considering she was extremely close with Ted, but it still hurts. It hurts to see Rae lose such a strong relationship with her dad, and it hurts to see the sadness lurking behind her eyes when someone mentions him.

  While my heart may be sad for Rae, it hurts even more for Ted. Being a father myself, I understand exactly why he did what he did. And it�
��s not like he outright lied; he just allowed Rae to believe whatever was going to make her feel safe. I’d do the same for Joey in a heartbeat.

  So, yes, watching the woman I love live in such emotional pain is tough. Watching her father lose not only his wife, but also his daughter who he fought so hard to keep alive, is even worse.

  To make up for the love Rae is incapable of showing her father right now, once a week I visit with him in her place. We talk, catch some of whatever game is on, and most importantly, we laugh together. Vital because Ted is lacking in that department since his big lie blew up in his face.

  Let’s just hope when the time comes to tell Rae what I’ve been doing, mine doesn’t do the same thing.

  I give her a wink and reply, “Someone’s gotta pay for the food you burn.”

  “One time, Hudson! One time.”

  “Today, maybe.”

  Did you know flour tastes like shit? It’s true. How do I know? I’m tasting it right now because Rae just blew a whole pile straight into my face.

  Wiping off the disgusting powder, I launch at her, tackling her to the ground instantly. I roll over until she’s pinned under me, kicking and screaming the entire time. Trapping her arms above her head with one hand, I run my fingertips down her overly ticklish sides. Her giggles and squirms are instant.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rae pants, attempting to hold down her laughter.

  “Nope, not good enough.”

  “I love you?”

  “Closer…” I say, dropping my head next to hers and grazing my lips along her ear. Her giggles turn to soft moans and her squirms turn into more concentrated movements, her body rubbing against mine in sinful ways.

  “You’re the most amazing man in the whole wide world?”

  “I know, darlin’, I know,” I tease. “Flattery will get you everywhere with me.” I give her a quick peck directly below her earlobe before whispering, “But that’s not what I want to hear.”