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  Jaxon is a blurred vision and I wish I could clearly see his gorgeous face when I finally speak. “Yes, Jaxon. I’ll marry you in a heartbeat,” I respond while throwing myself at him, forgetting about his wounded shoulder once again, but quickly reminded when he grunts out in pain.

  “Shit, I’m so freaking sorry. My first promise to you: I’ll work on being less clumsy,” I offer with a laugh.

  “I love you, Emery, for eternity.”

  “I love you, Officer Dickhead,” I respond jokingly. “Just kidding. I love you, Jaxon Kavanaugh, for eternity.”

  * * *

  The End

  About T.R. Cupak

  T.R. Cupak is a romance author known for "Shattering hearts and piecing them back together one story at a time". When she's not busy adulting, you can find her speeding through the backroads with her husband in their weekend fun car or cuddling with her goofy Shih Tzu Harley.

  * * *

  Five fun facts:

  She will do anything for her family and friends. They are her life.

  She’s currently on car number 33. What can she say? Daddy made her a car fanatic.

  She’s a self-proclaimed wine enthusiast; that is until the party gets to bottle number three or more, and the taste buds just don’t care anymore.

  She also loves a good Scotch, but when you’re a country girl whiskey is a requirement.

  Binge watching the Hallmark Channels is a must.

  * * *

  Connect with T.R. Cupak:

  Website/Newsletter: http://authortrcupak.com

  LOVE RELAODED | Kat T. Masen

  Chapter One

  Addison

  2006

  It was the end of an era. The end of a time that had brought so much trepidation, so much angst, yet we would hold onto the memories we’d made for a lifetime.

  High school.

  Graduation was imminent, and just around the corner we had five different colleges waiting for us—another big milestone that seemed overwhelming.

  “I can’t believe it took me a whole year to grow out my bangs.”

  Kimberley stares at her compact, analyzing her hair and face as she did multiple times a day. For her birthday, as a joke, I had given her one with a light, a gag gift that turned into one she used and thanked me for repeatedly. Her bangs had grown out, and now her hair was tied back into a tight ponytail away from her face. She’d recently put some foils in it to make her skin tone look light. The girl was hot, but my god she was obsessed with her looks.

  “I can’t believe you’re going to study medicine. I mean, you love fashion and hair.”

  She had placed her compact away. “Dentistry. I love teeth.”

  Her obsession with teeth was borderline creepy. She had a great set thanks to an expensive pair of braces she wore for years.

  Jonah laughs with a mouthful of something he snagged from one of waiters walking past.

  “It’s so wild, Kimmy, you and dentistry. Fifty bucks says you’ll be knocked up in a year and Griff will be working at In-N-Out to support the twins you pop out.”

  I burst out laughing. Jonah never held back his thoughts. He was a free-spirited soul, a straight shooter with those he felt comfortable. People called him the geek, partly due to his thick-rimmed glasses and long ginger hair that fell past his shoulders. He only ever dressed in heavy-metal shirts and jeans that hung way too low, showcasing his checkered boxers. He’d recently gone through a stage of painting his nails black, much to the disgust of Griffin and Chase.

  “I’m in,” Chase says, encouraging Jonah.

  I followed instantly. “Me too.”

  “Right?” Jonah laughs waiting for Kimberley to add her two cents.

  Kimberley lifts her head away from Griffin’s shoulder, still clutching onto his hand with a loving hold. She momentarily ignores us to adjust the straps of the red satin dress she wore.

  “Just because me and Griffin have been dating for three years doesn’t mean we’re getting married, unless he, like, proposed tonight.”

  Griffin was never one to express his thoughts. He offered his smartass quips, feeding off Chase, who was known to be obnoxious. Between Kimberley’s stunning good looks and Griffins masculine build and his boy-band hair, they made a great couple. This bet wasn’t so far-fetched.

  And a marriage proposal wouldn’t have surprised me. Out of all the couples in our senior class, they had been the most steady.

  My arm was wrapped around Chase’s, and I leaned on him for much-needed support as the pumps I had on would be the death of me. My dress—long and flowing well past my ankles—is a major trip hazard. I had learned that when Mom and Dad had attempted to take a photo when I was standing at the top of the stairs. Thank God I only stumbled down one step.

  “You guys are so in love. The bet is on. It just takes one slip-up then BAM…hello, baby Sloan.”

  Griffin’s eyes shifted towards me, his head cocking slightly with a sly smile playing on his lips.

  “Well, Addy, I better make sure it doesn’t happen just so you don’t win the bet.”

  “Dude, you can’t control that little dick of yours. I’m in. Jones, you keeping tabs on this? I needed a fuckin’ drink.”

  Chase searched around us, watching the teachers and chaperones before sneaking his flask out of his suit pocket and throwing back something toxic. He liked his booze, perhaps a bit too much for my liking. But the pressure was mounting for all of us. The fun would soon be over and decisions needed to be made—the right ones.

  It doesn’t take long for his shoulders to relax and his mood to change. When Chase was anxious, sex was usually his answer. I’m surprised he hasn’t whisked me away to the janitor’s closet for a quickie. I wouldn’t have objected, to be honest. Chase and I had been dating for two years and the guy still knew how to keep it sexy in that area. It helped that Chase was gorgeous. Girls loved him and his chestnut brown hair, which fell past the side of his eye with a slight flick he was known for doing. His flirtatious smile made girls shake at their knees. I blamed the dimple; it was like some sort of force that drew you in no matter how angry you got at him.

  Jonah wasn’t fond of the drink but Griffin eagerly took a swig, eying me dubiously like I had said something wrong.

  There wasn’t much time to hide the flask when Coach Sanders appeared out of nowhere.

  “Are we not familiar with school protocol?”

  “Aw, c’mon, sir, it’s our last night.”

  Coach Sanders had a soft spot for Chase, his leading quarterback and star player senior year.

  “Perhaps you kids should finish your night elsewhere. I’m walking to the other side of the room now and when I come back, I don’t want to see you here. Matthews, tomorrow at seven a.m.—no excuses.”

  The boys happily fist pump, while at the same time Kimberley and I roll our eyes at each other. Despite them being our boyfriends, they lack maturity in certain areas. I often wonder if college boys were more mature than these guys but knew that I would soon find out.

  Griffin motions for us to leave at the same moment Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved” ends. I grab Chase’s hand and follow Griffin, Kimberley, and Jonah out the side exit. We run towards the field until we’re out of breath and out of sight.

  “Freedom!” Jonah yells, arms in the air and spinning around. “I can’t wait to fucking leave this place. Goodbye, fuckers! The geek is leaving the building.”

  “Fuck, yeah. I’m done with this place too. Can’t wait for college.” Chase whistles, eyeing Griffith on the sly.

  I’m slightly hurt. In preparation for our imminent departure, Chase and I had made the commitment to try to stick it out. We would be an eight-hour drive apart. I had many sleepless nights over this and trusting Chase wasn’t easy. Not when girls threw themselves at him on a daily basis.

  I try to bite my tongue but the words spray out in a series of emotional disarray. “Nice. Clearly, being miles apart has no effect on you whatsoever. Why don’t you just come out
and say you can’t wait for the frat parties and endless pussy in your face!”

  Kimberley drops Griffin’s hand, moving to stand by my side. It was this girl thing we had, she read I was upset and knew that Chase had a side of him that didn’t sit well with me. I hated that all of us would be so far away from each other. Each one of them standing around me were my best friends—my family. What would I do without them?

  He pushes Kimberley away from me, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me into him. His body presses against mine, his lips grazing my earlobe as he softly whispers, “Just you, baby, always just you.”

  The gentle touch of his hand against my neck is enough to calm me down. I loved Chase Matthews, and perhaps, if he proposed right now, I would say yes. I didn’t want to be with anyone else. I wanted him and only him.

  My hands caress his cheeks, pulling him down to me until we kiss. I pull away reluctantly, aware of the audience, though they had seen this a million times before. On my left, Griffin had his arm wrapped around Kimberley as they gaze towards the stars. I noticed him tilt his head and look my way. There’s something unusual in his unwanted stare, an expression I hadn’t seen before. I’m sure, like the rest of us, he was overwhelmed with the future that lies ahead.

  “Beautiful night,” Jonah says, calmly.

  I pull him beside me, clutching onto both Chase and Jonah.

  “Perfect,” Kimberley follows, a tear falling down her cheek.

  “Enough, guys.” Chase breaks the somber mood. “This isn’t the end, okay? It’s just the beginning. Ten years from now we’ll be having a laugh over this moment. Kimmy will be knocked up with five kids, Griff will be slugging it at Walmart paying for his careless dick, and Jones, you’ll be some billionaire who invented some high-tech geek device and swims in a pool of hot pussy.”

  “And me?”

  He pulls me into a possessive embrace. “You’ll be on the sideline, watching your husband as star quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.”

  “Great, I’m a trophy wife.”

  We all laugh. No matter how much life got to us, we always stuck together. We were just that crew, everyone loved to hate us, everyone wanted to be us.

  “We gotta make a pact, here, just us. Friends for life, okay?” Jonah begins, then stalls. “Can’t let the bullshit get in our way.”

  I could hear the desperation in Jonah’s voice. He said what we were all thinking. We needed to stay together no matter what life threw at us. And although we all had individual reasons for being part of this group, I knew that we were all Jonah had.

  Letting go of Chase, I move closer to Jonah with Kimberley following. Each one of us takes a side, resting our heads on his shoulders.

  “Friends for life,” Kimberley whispers, though it echoes in the empty field.

  Chase places an arm around Griffin and his other around Kimberley. “No, family for life.”

  We stood there, the five of us, staring at the stars above. I vowed to always remember this moment, always remember the emotions that tattooed their way onto my heart.

  This was our perfect moment, and nothing, no matter how big or small, could tear our crew apart. We were stuck together for life.

  Distance was nothing but a car, train, or plane ride away.

  And these guys, all four of them, were worth the journey.

  Chapter Two

  Kimberley

  “Mom, I need some money. NOW.”

  The coffee hadn’t even sunk in. These early hours were becoming increasingly difficult to manage. For the first time in three years, I had landed myself a full-time job as a dental assistant. I’d spent countless hours of studying, driving the girls back-and-forth to school and gymnastics while he focused on his own career and barely stepped a foot in this door.

  “Mom, are you even listening to me?”

  Sophia had walked into the kitchen, her pre-teen huff the dead giveaway. For a ten-year-old, this girl had more attitude than some of the girls I had known in high school.

  “I’m listening. Sophia. I just started this job. Payday is this Friday. I’ll give you ten dollars but that’s all I can afford.”

  “Ten dollars! Argh, I hate you!”

  In the blink of an eye, she storms out and with much disappointment, I choose not to follow. This attitude had been ongoing of late and I just didn’t know what to do with her. She needed a full-time dad—plain and simple. A man who stepped up and raised a daughter because I was always playing bad cop.

  “Mommy.” The smaller, timid voice, enters the kitchen.

  “Good morning, honey.”

  I lean in, kissing the top of Emily’s forehead then pull her onto my lap. At least this one still loved me. At the age of five, she still thought of me as her entire world. I would lap it up for as long as I could.

  “Jeremy Hobbs said that my daddy is a crackhead. What’s a crackhead?”

  I force a smile, ignoring my anger towards this Jeremy kid whose mouth had just earned him top place on my list of Kids I Want to Kick list.

  “It’s not a nice word, okay? We just don’t use it.”

  “He also said you were a whore.”

  Did I say kick? I meant kill. I jump slightly in anger, and Emily slides off my lap from the imbalance. “I will talk to your teacher today. Please do not repeat the nasty comments Jeremy makes.”

  Emily doesn’t say another word. She moves onto her own chair and eats her cereal quietly. This parenting gig was hard. Two kids and I hadn’t even clicked over to thirty. I loved them, but at times, I wish I wasn’t so obsessed with this whole mommy gig. Raising them on my own, trying to study and hold down a job was just too hard, a non-stop battle fighting exhaustion.

  Now I had one more item on my list of things to do today: put Jeremy in his place and get him to stop calling me a whore. The slur was so far from the truth as to be laughable since I couldn’t even recall the last time I’d had sex.

  “Mom!” The voice is back, barrelling through the living room until she’s standing in the kitchen wearing a midriff top and a tiny scrap of material disguising itself as a skirt. “I need my pink sweater. You said you washed it?”

  “Check the laundry.”

  “I did.” Her hip flicked out with her all-too-common attitude. “It’s wet in the washing machine. I needed it today. God, Mom, why can’t you just be normal like all the other moms?”

  Defeated, and the day hadn’t even begun, I try to block out the noise of Sophia telling me why I’m the worst mother in the world and Emily repeating the word whore. My body temperature rises, and inside, my tears are ready to explode from the overwhelming emotion of feeling alone.

  “Ow! Mommy, Sophia just pulled my hair!”

  “Emily tried to spit cereal onto me!”

  One. Two. Three.

  Breathe.

  On the table, my cell flashes. Hoping to distract myself, I pick it up and open a text from an unknown number.

  This is Jonah’s mother, Catherine. It is with sadness that we inform you that Jonah passed away last night. The funeral will be held this Friday at the Sand Oaks Memorial.

  My breath catches in the back of my throat as my cell slips out of my hand and onto the floor. The noise that had dominated my personal space only moments ago fades away. Jonah had passed away.

  “Just shut up, okay? Just shut up,” I cry, battling the stream of tears that had fallen so carelessly down my cheek.

  Sophia bends down to pick up my cell and hands it to me.

  I want to smile, I want to say I’m sorry for being a terrible mother but instead, I dial the unknown number praying to God this was some sick joke.

  * * *

  GRIFFIN

  * * *

  “We have a ten-fifty-three, corner of 7th and 31st. All units nearby, dispatch.”

  I slam my foot on the gas, sirens blazing as I make my way through the usual grind of traffic.

  “Look at this fucker trying to overtake us,” Keller shouts through the glass.

&nbs
p; Keller had his moments, and being his partner for the past six months had taught me a lot about him. He was impatient, sometimes thinking with his mouth before his head. He often complained that he needed to retire since his passion for law enforcement had dwindled since a stray bullet scraped him at the knee.

  It takes us five minutes to reach the destination, and in five minutes—everything could change. I’d learned that the hard way.

  I loved my job. Protecting our city and the people in it is what I was born to do. But like anything that brought me joy, there was always a flip side.

  We arrive at the scene and park our car on the sidewalk to block the onlookers. A cyclist had been involved in a crash and a fatality was imminent.

  “Jesus fucking Christ, I think the kid is gone.”

  We’re the first ones to arrive; the sirens of an ambulance howling near us. Keller shoves the crowd away, yelling for everyone to step back and allow the emergency crew to work. A doctor who happened to be walking past is lying beside the body, which is wedged underneath a yellow cab.

  “I’m a first-year resident. We need the fire brigade here now. The victim is male, perhaps mid to late twenties. He’s in and out of consciousness with severe burns to his upper body from the car.”

  What happened next is a blur. It always is when the adrenaline kicks in. The ambulance arrived though limited to removing the body. The fire brigade worked urgently to remove the cab. Another two units arrived, assisting with crowd and traffic control.

  The cab driver, a foreign man who had been driving for the last year only, suffered no injuries.

  “Sir, you will need to escort us to the police station,” Keller asks.