A Summer To Remember (Seasons of Love & Lust Book 1) (21 page)

Epilogue

It was autumn and we were getting ready to attend the wedding of one of my best friends. Since she lived back east we had to fly, and our son, Paul Eric Peterson-Branson, did not appreciate the flight even if we’d been in first class. Paul had spent almost the flight walking eight-week old Eric, as we called him, up and down the halls of the plane.

Suffice to say, we were happy to have the new edition in our lives. I was officially seventeen weeks pregnant and out of the danger zone according to my doctor. Now that we had a son, Paul was secretly hoping for a little girl, although I had a feeling our second child would be yet another boy. His ex-girlfriend, movie star Kendall Lawson, had also recently given birth to a little boy so he was zero for one in that department as far as a daughter was concerned.

Although Eric was not our biological son, we had fallen in love with him immediately. He’d been born to his Creole mother white as snow and even now at eight weeks, his skin was still pink. His hair was dark and silky and he possessed the most intriguing gray eyes.

His birth mother had stayed on for a while until I could find a milk bank that sold pasteurized breast milk. He was the healthiest and happiest baby alive except when he was on a flight thirty thousand feet in the air.

Paul and I settled in at the Waldorf Astoria even though Jude was kind enough to offer us use of the loft. It was a good idea in theory, but we were our own little family unit and didn’t want to be disturbed.

I settled on the bed and propped up my feet while Paul took care of Eric. After a soothing bath and a bottle of pasteurized breast milk, our little one was out like a light.

My thoughts drifted over the past few months and how they’d been sweet and amazing. I had found the perfect spot for my art gallery and it would be up and running before December. Paul had found working with a bunch of rock stars much easier than any client at CDG Investments. Yes, he traveled often since there were times he had to see them and they were still on the road touring. Sometimes Eric and I went with him and sometimes we didn’t.

I finally had met a group of friends through my Pilates class, and though they would never take the place of my best friends, I was content and happy with my new life.

My story was far from over because what was once me has now become “we” and I no longer am that cynical young woman who doesn’t believe in love, miracles, or fairytales.

Paul walked into the room and lay down beside me as soon as he’d undressed and stripped down to his boxers. One of his favorite activities was spooning me and wrapping an arm around my growing stomach.

“Have I told you how much I love you lately?” he asked in a voice filled with warmth and affection.

“Yes, but I will take as much as I can get before I’m too big and too many,” I said and we laughed together.

“I need to make an honest woman out of you. Mother is bothering me constantly about it. She wants us to meet her on Sunday with your parents and my father. We are to talk about a summer wedding.”

“Sounds perfect to me,” I said. I touched his face then I kissed him passionately on the mouth. “And next summer will be the one we will never forget because we will finally become husband and wife.”

Paul started to undress me as we kissed, fondled, and caressed one another before a long evening session of lovemaking. I had only one thought and it repeated in my head over and over again.

He’s the one for me because we both love each other and can accept the other for who we are with complete honesty, open hearts, and undeniable trust.

It would not only be our theme at our wedding, but our saying too. I’d finally found the one for me and not only was he simply amazing but we were madly in love. Although we weren’t perfect, we didn’t have to be, and that was the beauty of our emotions.

We could have knock-down, drag-out passionate disagreements, yet the next minute cuddle up and ask for each other’s forgiveness. Beautiful, perfect, and flawless never entered the picture but we didn’t have to be any of those things. Each of us was a puzzle piece completed by the other and that was my idea of perfection. Our life was just beginning and I knew I would enjoy the ride as much as the destination in all of its glorious imperfection.

The End

*SNEAk peek*

Autumn’s Scandal

Excerpt from the next novel in

Seasons of Love and Lust

Book 2

Prologue

I have always lived a charmed life. How could I not when my parents could never say no thanks to a Scandinavian nanny who reared me from infancy to adolescence? They made no mistake about letting me know their marriage would always come first, even over my own well-being. I suppose I should be glad I was an only child.

I was the popular girl, the manipulative one, and the mean girl all rolled into one gorgeous blonde, blue-eyed package. I never had a problem with the guys. Hell, I didn’t even have to try to get one to like me. They just did. Lucky for me I guess.

I know now that I never really grew up until I attended Vassar and met the three women that would be my best friends for life. They vowed to stick by me through thick and thin.

I can’t honestly say that I looked at any of them as competition except for Talia.

Jerrica did what she wanted to do but it was almost like we had a secret pact that we would never get in the way of each other. To this day, that pact has never been broken.

Savannah was a wallflower with good breeding and would no doubt end up with some limp-dick society boy her mommy and daddy picked out for her. She was the ugly duckling of our little foursome. Hey, every group of friends has to have one. Not that she was ugly per se. There was nothing mysterious about her and she didn’t possess an ounce of
je ne sais quoi
. She was just
there
, a pitiful shoulder to cry on and someone who you could have a Ben & Jerry’s night with while watching stupid romantic movies that secretly made me want to vomit. Not even
Titanic
or
The Notebook
had any effect on me. Leo DiCaprio and Ryan Gosling have aged nicely but they aren’t all
that
.

So why was Talia such competition? She was too much like me. She was girly, though not overly so. Neither of us felt sorry for ourselves when relationships ended, and the bottom line was we placed no one before ourselves.

We were too damn much alike.

That’s why when Jerrica invited us all out to her lovely home in Vegas for a get together, I was packed before my lover could say a word.

I called my boyfriend on the plane to let him know I was getting away for a girl’s weekend. My job allowed me that kind of freedom.

I was my own person and if I planned to have fun with the girls then it was a must no men be around to mess everything up.

That was our Vassar rule, and we stuck to it brilliantly.

Chapter One

I wasn’t a believer in fate but there was no way it was a coincidence one of the biggest stars in the world had pick-up duty for moi at McCarran International Airport.

I knew all about her ongoing drama, and how she’d stolen back the group taken from her in the first place. Her first love was a guitarist in Winter’s Regret now, but she was the lead singer and had taken the band to heights only dreamed of by most hard rock acts. She knew everyone and everyone knew her, plus she wasn’t afraid to skirt the law.

Talia had never been squeaky clean and she never would be. It wasn’t just in her blood, but her character, her heart, and her soul. The woman was a born sinner like me.

I hopped into the back of the limousine and greeted her with an embrace and air kisses. She smelled delicious, a mixture of Dior’s Pure Poison and a man’s cologne, 3 AM by Sean Jean had blended into her hair. Most likely from a gorgeous hot male that had tattoos and genital piercings.

“You look fantastic,” I said.

She smiled and busied herself opening up a bottle of Cristal Rose champagne. The cork popped and she poured a generous helping in a fluted glass for me while she only poured herself half a glass and set the bottle back on ice.

“It’s not every day I get to see my best friends, except Jerrica since we live in the same city. Even then, we have to pencil each other in for some face time. It’s ridiculous how much our lives have changed! What has it been now? Three years since our summer bash in the Hamptons, Martha’s Vineyard, and Miami? None of us have any excuse for waiting so long to see each other. We’re not destitute for Christ’s sake.”

I glanced into her pale green eyes that were darting around everywhere, trying to avoid looking at me.

“Something like that,” I replied. “Time goes by quickly, doesn’t it? Both you and Jerrica have babies! She and Paul, well, they don’t surprise me, but what is a popular lead singer of a rock band doin’ with a kid?”

“It’s a long complicated story, Autumn, and I refuse to discuss it with you when I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“Don’t give me that shit, Talia. You have always sidelined me to take care of poor, fragile Jerrica but I know you.”

“I didn’t sideline you but you and I, we’re exactly alike. Sometimes looking at you makes me want to bash your face in and other times…I admire your resilience, your tenacity, and the fact that you never let a man rule one decision about your life.” Talia swigged from her glass and refilled it.

Meanwhile, I swallowed mine in a couple of swallows. “Jesus, a five hundred dollar bottle of champagne? It’s good but it’s still just fucking grapes.”

Talia briefly met my gaze as I refilled my.

“Mmm, well, now let’s see,” Talia said. “You’re dating Sean Edward Smith. It would seem like you’d be used to all this luxury. His father is the governor of New York, after all.”

“Ha! Those fucking Mayflower families hoard their riches like kids from the wrong part of town are just going to march in and start looting their homes one day. I have never been so glad to call myself third generation American on my mother’s side and second generation American on my dad’s.” I sighed loudly and set my glass in its holder. “Do you mind if I smoke?”

Talia shook her head. “Not in the slightest. My crowd’s changed a bit so I’m surrounded by it all day.”

“You don’t smell like it.”

“That’s my secret. So spill about the Smith family. Is his mother as uptight as she seems on the news? Bitch looks like she’s got a fucking fire poker jammed up her ass. The father seems nice and approachable.”

I lit a cigarette and inhaled the poison into my lungs, exhaling up and away from Talia. “I wasn’t kidding when I talked about inbred families. Elizabeth Cambridge-Smith is the product of two, second cousins. She’s not crazy but let’s just say she isn’t well. Carlton Smith, Sean’s father, is supposed to be the child of Genevieve and Robert Smith but his mother couldn’t have children. She made him have sex with the mulatto maid so they could produce a child.”

“You are
so
lying to me right now, Autumn. I don’t believe you.” Talia drained her glass and took my cigarette, dragged from it, then handed it back. “You are such a bad influence. I’m supposed to be vaping now.”

“It’s true.”

“And what? Did Sean tell all of this to you after mind blowing sex and very proper pillow talk afterwards?”

“God no. He’s the most WASPish man I have ever met in my life. No way would you think he was anything
but
Anglo.”

“Then who told you?”

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed, changing the subject. “Is that Jerrica and Paul’s house?”

“It is indeed. Raul is going to drop us off. He’ll pick us up a little later. Well, that depends if you want to stay out in Lake Las Vegas with me or if you prefer the Summerlin mansion filled with a perfect family and babies.”

My eyes grew as big as saucers, as if Talia had asked me to take a swim in a pool of dog shit. There was absolutely no competition. I loved Jerrica but I didn’t want to deal with babies, as in plural. One was okay, and it was obvious Talia had a nanny because she didn’t bring her son with her. Two or more and I would go postal within a few hours. I just couldn’t stand the little creatures with their dirty fingers and mouths, their slobber, and how everything they did was so “adorable” and “cute,” even if they just farted.

“No, I’m staying with you and your rock star crew. I know you have been dating Jaden, I can’t wait to meet him.”

“Listen,” Talia said as we stepped out of the limousine. “About that—”

“OMG! It’s my besties!” Jerrica exclaimed as she opened her front double doors holding her oldest on her hip.

The horror
, I thought, as I watched that creature kick out and would surely send what was a five-figure black and white hound’s-tooth Chanel suit to the cleaners. She seemed oblivious, even though she wore Louboutin heels, her blonde hair up in a chignon, and perfect makeup that she would ruin everything she had on just by holding that creature in her arms.

“Come on in, you two,” she said after embracing Talia. I opted for air kisses and complimented that she hadn’t let herself go. She was still in perfect shape, and now I knew why as I spotted a nanny and Paul, who held creature number two. He kissed his wife’s lips and grabbed creature number one from her delicate fingers.

“You girls have fun! I’m taking the kids to Disneyland with the nanny and this will be an official all girls’ weekend.”

Both Talia and I had gave him a warm hug after he stuck the snot-nosed little creatures into a one hundred thousand plus midnight blue Range Rover.

“It was nice to see you, Paul.” I smiled but the scent of baby lotion and baby sunblock wafting off him was worse than if he had smelled of baby shit.

“Nice to see you again, Autumn.”

The nanny climbed into the back seat with the children while Paul got into the driver’s seat and they were off on a nightmare vacation known as Disneyland.

Talia and I settled in outside in Jerrica’s backyard that had a full swimming pool and a hot tub, both gated, of course. Thank God she hadn’t changed that much. She had a whole host of goodies waiting for us including several bottles of pinot gris, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, and Riesling, along with a plate of finger foods including sushi, foie gras finger sandwiches, mini Mexican taco rolls with steak and chicken, and my favorite: mini crab cakes with a dish of rémoulade sauce on the side.

“When did you have time to do all this while raising two children, taking care of your husband,
and
owning an art gallery?” I blurted, taking a seat in one of the most comfortable chaise lounges I had ever known to be used outside in the elements.

Jerrica laughed out loud. “Nice to see you haven’t changed. I use the same catering company at all the art gallery showings, and they were more than happy to whip something up for me on short notice. Only item I couldn’t get were Savannah’s corn, chicken, and avocado egg rolls. She’s fallen in love with them now that she’s living in Austin. There just wasn’t the time to call in another dish after I’d initially placed the order.”

“God, I hope she hasn’t dyed her hair blonde and spritzed it up sky high, not to mention look like a future handbag for the Hermès Texan skin collection debuting in autumn of 2020.”

Talia and Jerrica both burst out laughing. Jerrica opened a bottle of pinot gris and poured us all a glass.

“Why is she always late? My God, she lives closer than I do. I swear, she’s going to be late for her own funeral.”

Talia glanced at Jerrica, who gazed back at her, and then they both stared at me.

“Jerrica and I have been watching your story with Sean and the whole Smith family closely, especially since…”

“Since what?” I stuffed a mini crab cake into my mouth. “It’s no big deal.”

“Who told you about Carlton Smith’s family history?” Talia asked, reaching for a foie gras mini sandwich.

“I know you two are the only ones who think make mistakes but I’m just as fallible. You want to know the truth? I’m sleeping with Carlton while I am dating his son. Sean is bisexual, and he swings into his ‘gay side’ for weeks, sometimes months on end, and he won’t even sleep in the same bed with me. Carlton hasn’t had sex with his wife since the Reagan administration. The man is handsome, worldly, hot, and electricity in bed.”

I took a breath and another swig from my wine. “Anyway, I suppose I am a perfect fit because Sean is going to propose to me. His mommy and daddy approve. Mine are just happy I am about to be engaged to someone in our class status, and to a governor’s son no less.”

Both of my friends looked at me as if I had some sort of stain on my nine-hundred-dollar Versace dress.

“So you didn’t hear the news?” Jerrica’s heated blue eyes never left my face.

“Oh my God! Save the sanctimonious crap for Savannah!”

“That’s not what she’s talking about.” Talia set her wine glass down. “Governor Smith announced it this morning. He’s running for president of the United States on the Republican ticket. If you don’t keep up with politics, that would be for next year, in 2016.”

My mouth dropped open. “I didn’t…I was flying and I only bothered to check my Facebook, Instagram and UConnect accounts.” I felt flustered and my mouth was dry as cotton.

This was so embarrassing. Not only had I admitted to cheating with a married man while I dated a guy who I would eventually end up in a sham marriage with but they knew something I didn’t.

It was one thing to screw a governor—hell, there were fifty of them—but a whole other bag to pull an “Olivia Pope” and have the president of the free world at your beck and call.

“What…what have I done?”

I was never apologetic or felt bad about any sin I committed but this one weighed heavily on my conscience.

Jerrica banged her fist down on the table. “Break it off. As soon as possible.”

One lone, deceptive tear slipped down my cheek. “I don’t think I can. I’m in too deep.”

The sound of high heels shuffling through Jerrica’s house were heard then a brunette head popped out. Savannah waved and we all did the hugs and air kisses. My mind was going one hundred miles a minute. I couldn’t concentrate on her. Not right now.

She sat down next to me. “Guess what? I’m engaged!”

I turned towards her, choking on my own dirty little secrets. “So what’d I miss?”

Jerrica smiled at Savannah. “Nothing much. How about I get us some more wine from the cellar? I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”