Forever Mine (Paradise Place Book 9) Read online

  Forever Mine

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  Natalie Ann

  Copyright 2021 Natalie Ann

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Also by Natalie Ann

  About the Author

  Blurb

  Prologue

  1. Still Come True

  2. Pay Attention

  3. Some Big Ears

  4. Never Forget Your First

  5. Bright and Big

  6. Get Another Look

  7. Embarrassing and Upsetting

  8. Never Forget Your First

  9. Private and Protective

  10. Testing The Waters

  11. A Handle On Things

  12. Overstepped Herself

  13. At The Core

  14. Stars And Rainbows

  15. Felt Honored

  16. The Boyfriend

  17. Daddy Duties

  18. Giving Thanks

  19. Broken Record

  20. Made Sacrifices

  21. In A Good Place

  22. Made Himself At Home

  23. The Vessel

  24. Wrong Once Again

  25. Look At Him Go

  26. See The Vision

  27. Took Longer

  28. Cast Judgment

  Epilogue

  Because Of You Prologue

  Also by Natalie Ann

  About the Author

  Author’s Note

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Also by Natalie Ann

  The Road Series-See where it all started!!

  Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery

  Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption

  Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality

  Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason

  The All Series

  William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love

  Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing

  Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me

  Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way

  Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want

  Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love

  Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You

  Landon Barber and Kristen Reid- All Of Us

  The Lake Placid Series

  Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance

  Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance

  Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance

  Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance

  Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance

  Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance

  Matt Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance

  Logan Taylor and Kennedy Miles- It’s My Chance

  Justin Cambridge and Taryn Miles – One More Chance

  The Fierce Five Series

  Gavin Fierce and Jolene O’Malley- How Gavin Stole Christmas

  Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody

  Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden

  Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason

  Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade

  Ella Fierce and Travis McKinley- Ella

  Fierce Family

  Sam Fierce and Dani Rhodes- Sam

  Bryce Fierce and Payton Davies - Bryce

  Drake Fierce and Kara Winslow – Drake

  Noah Fierce and Paige Parker - Noah

  Wyatt Fierce and Adriana Lopez – Wyatt

  Jade Fierce and Brock James – Jade

  Ryder Fierce and Marissa McMillan – Ryder

  Fierce Matchmaking

  Devin Andrews and Hope Hall- Devin

  Mick McNamara and Lindsey White- Mick

  Cody McMillian and Raina Davenport – Cody

  Love Collection

  Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love

  Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love

  Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love

  Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love

  Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love

  Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers - Autumn Love

  Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan - Holiday Love

  Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett - Christmas Love

  Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks - Winter Love

  Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love

  Jace Stratton and Lauren Towne - First Love

  Gabe Richards and Leah Morrison - Forever Love

  Blake Wilson and Gemma Anderson – Simply Love

  Brendan St. Nicholas and Holly Lane – Gifts of Love

  Paradise Place

  Josh Turner and Ruby Gentile – Cupid’s Quest

  Harris Walker and Kaelyn Butler – Change Up

  Philip Aire and Blair McKay- Starting Over

  Nathan Randal and Brina Shepard – Eternal

  Ryan Butler and Shannon Wilder – Falling Into Love

  Brian Dawson and Robin Masters – Mistletoe Magic

  Caden Finley and Sarah Walker- Believe In Me

  Evan Butler and Parker Reed – Unexpected Delivery

  Trey Bridges and Whitney Butler – Forever Mine

  Amore Island

  Family Bonds- Hunter and Kayla

  Family Bonds- Drew and Amanda

  Family Bonds – Mac and Sidney

  Family Bonds- Emily & Crew

  Family Bonds- Ava & Seth

  Family Bonds- Eli & Bella

  Family Bonds- Hailey & Rex

  Blossoms

  A Love for Lily – Zane Wolfe and Lily Bloom

  About the Author

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  Blurb

  Will broken hearts and promises hold these two lovers back from finding their second chance?

  Whitney Butler had dreams of a family of her own. Maybe she shouldn’t have voiced them to her high school sweetheart so early, scaring him away. But she found who she thought would be her forever love soon after him. Only he wasn’t. Not even close. Left alone with a broken heart once again, she decides it’s best to focus on being happy rather than planning it all out.

  Trey Bridges was in love as much as any seventeen-year-old could be. But when Whitney started to talk about weddings and babies, he bailed and moved on. Years later, he is a single father trying to make life work when he gets called to an alarm at his high school sweetheart’s home. Flames rekindle, but old memories and insecurities are hard to forget. He realizes he threw the best thing in his life away and hopes to hell he doesn’t do it again.

  Prologue

  Whitney heard the beeping of a horn and got up to look outside her office window. There was Kevin sitting in a black Mercedes convertible.

  She let out a sigh and went outside to see what her husband wanted this time. As if she couldn’t figure it out.

  “You’re out here making enough noise,” she said when she moved to the driver�
��s door. “Testing out another new car?”

  “We got this on the lot a few hours ago. What do you think?”

  “I think it’s something that isn’t practical,” she said.

  “It’s perfect for you,” Kevin said, grinning at her. At one point she’d fallen for that grin. When she was young and impressionable. Stupid even, but she’d never admitted that to anyone in her family.

  “It has two doors and hardly a backseat. Where would we put a car seat?”

  Kevin rolled his eyes. “You’ve got an SUV for that when the time comes. This is for fun. You need fun in your life. You’re too damn uptight.”

  She’d been hearing this for years now. “And you’re irresponsible. Life isn’t all about fun.”

  “Please,” he said. “You used to be a lot of fun. Now you’re a downer all the time. Take a test drive with me. You’ll love it.”

  She wanted to grind her teeth over one more insult he threw her way. It never ended. She couldn’t be good enough for him. At least not in the past several years.

  “I’m working,” she said. “Don’t you need to get to work?”

  “Your family owns the business. You can come and go when you want and you know it. Not sure why you always feel like you owe them so much.”

  He didn’t get it and never would. Butler Construction was her family business and part of her legacy. One she planned on handing down to her kids someday.

  If she ever had a child.

  “Because they’ve done a lot for us.”

  He snorted. “Yeah, right.”

  It’d never been enough for her husband that was six years older than her and wanted the world on a platter without prepping in the kitchen. He sold cars for a living. Yes, he was good at his job. He made a lot of money. But he spent his time schmoozing with the guys and flirting with the women. She knew it. She’d seen it.

  She had the money between them. Or her family did. And Kevin always expected that her parents would hand it over whenever she asked, even though she wouldn’t and didn’t.

  “I’m not going to get into it with you right now,” she said quietly. “The boys are on their way for a meeting and I don’t want another scene.”

  Her brother Ryan had never liked her husband and thought she’d gotten married too soon. Too young.

  Yep, a month before her nineteenth birthday while she was in college was too young for her twenty-five-year-old husband. Everyone said it, but she was in love and saw the future family she’d been dying to have.

  It still hadn’t happened almost ten years later.

  “You always side with them,” Kevin said. “What’s your deal today? You were all pissy when you got up this morning too.”

  “Nothing,” she said. Of course he wouldn’t remember she had to have more tests done today to find out why she couldn’t conceive a child. He hadn’t been to the doctors with her in years and didn’t ask questions when she tried to talk to him about it. It was obvious to her she was the only one interested in starting a family.

  “What, are you on the rag again?” he asked, laughing.

  He never used to be this crude either. “No. I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. They still can’t find anything wrong and don’t know why I can’t get pregnant.”

  “Because you’re so damn uptight. We know it’s not me. You got pregnant once. It’s you. Relax. Come for a ride with me. Maybe we can conceive junior in this.” He was smirking and she wanted to just wipe it off his face.

  Yeah, she got pregnant before they were married. She’d taken a home pregnancy test and told Kevin. He was shocked and not all that happy but said they should get married. They hadn’t been dating long, but she loved him and knew everything she wanted was coming true.

  A week later, she’d gotten her period before she could get into the doctor’s office to have it verified. The doctor said it was normal for that to happen, she was young and wouldn’t have a problem conceiving in the future.

  How wrong they’d all been.

  Kevin had been so sweet during that time and they continued to plan their wedding, her knowing she’d get that family in time.

  Since she was in college, it was decided they’d wait until she finished to try again. It just wasn’t meant, she’d told herself.

  “I’ve got to work. So do you,” she said again.

  “Fine. I want steak for dinner tonight. Stop and get some on your way home.”

  He put it in drive and sped away. Heaven forbid he’d ask what she wanted. Or offer to cook let alone stop at the store to get anything.

  She turned her head and saw Ryan pull in with her cousins Evan and Christian for a meeting.

  “What did that dick want? Doesn’t he have a job?” her brother asked.

  “Nice way to talk about your sister’s husband,” Evan said to Ryan.

  Ryan scowled at Evan, then turned to her. “Let me guess. He wants you to buy him that new toy?”

  She forced a grin. “He said it’d be perfect for me.” She wasn’t going to relay the whole conversation. She never wanted to give Ryan more ammunition to hate her husband.

  “Really?” Ryan said, looking over to the end of the parking lot. “Talking you into that new SUV that he said he could get a good deal on three months ago wasn’t enough?”

  “I don’t need a money manager,” Whitney said. “It’s a nice vehicle and will last me years.”

  “Until Kevin brings home something else,” Evan said, grinning.

  Her cousin Christian shoved his brother, Evan. “Don’t get involved. It’s Whitney’s life.”

  “Thanks, Christian. It is my life and my money, and no, I’m happy with that and I’m not a pushover when my husband wants me to be.”

  She’d put her foot down years ago when the credit card bills started to pile up. The last thing she wanted to do was go to her parents and ask for money so she’d consolidated and paid them off. She cut the plastic up and told Kevin to get his cards in his name. She wasn’t doing this again.

  Of course that was another fight that lasted a solid month, but at least he was paying his own bills off...or so she hoped.

  “Let’s get the meeting going,” Ryan said. “Are you okay? You don’t look good.”

  Under her younger brother’s rough exterior was a caring heart. “I’m fine,” she said, fighting back the tears. “Just a long couple of days.”

  Ryan rubbed his hand on her arm. “Why don’t you go lie down. You had a doctor’s appointment today, right?”

  Even her brother knew and asked and she hadn’t told him. Her mother knew, so she suspected he got the information that way. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  But at the end of the meeting, she had a splitting headache and decided to leave. She ran to the store and got the steak that Kevin wanted for dinner because she wasn’t in the mood for another argument today. He was going to start one about the car, she knew.

  She went into the house that her family had built three years ago for them in Paradise Place. She’d never told Kevin it wasn’t in her name, but her father’s. She couldn’t get the loan because Kevin’s credit was so bad, but she was still making the payments.

  When she went into their walk-in closet to change, she noticed one of Kevin’s shirts on the floor and picked it up to hang. He was such a slob at times. But once the light gray button-down shirt was in her hands, she smelled something floral and brought it to her nose.

  Perfume? No. She didn’t wear any. And though Kevin wore cologne, this wasn’t the scent either.

  She started to go through his side of the closet and found another shirt balled up in the back, and pulled it out. It smelled the same, but this time there was a red stain on the collar. Lipstick.

  She didn’t wear lipstick.

  After taking a deep breath, she started to snoop everywhere on his side of the closet, then went to his home office. She didn’t go in there often; there was no need to. There was now.

  She went through his desk, found his stack of bills to pay.
The ones in his name. The envelope for a credit card bill had been opened, so she pulled it out and tried not to cringe at the balance.

  When she saw the three charges for hotel rooms locally she didn’t burst into tears—she got angry. Ryan wasn’t the only one with a temper and Kevin better damn well be prepared to be served more than steak when he got home.

  1

  Still Come True

  Four years later

  “You look tired,” Ryan said when he walked into her office.

  “Do you talk to your wife like that?” Whitney asked, grinning.

  Ryan laughed. He was one changed man and she knew first hand that love could do that. He was still considered a newlywed, having gotten married two months ago over the summer.

  “Never,” he said. “She is beautiful no matter how much sleep she gets.”

  “Where is Ryan Butler and what have you done to him?”

  “Yeah, I know. I can’t help it. I never thought I’d see this day. Shannon and I brought Jeffrey for his first day of school today. Shannon cried; Jeffrey pleaded with me to get her to stop. It was funny.”