InHap*pily Ever After (Incidental Happenstance)
Read InHap*pily Ever After (Incidental Happenstance) Online
Authors: Kim DeSalvo
InHap
pily Ever After
Kim DeSalvo
Copyright © Kim De Salvo
All rights reserved
For Mumsy and Pops, who never let me forget that
dreams really can come true.
Acknowledgements
Wow, has this been a different experience. Never in a
million years did I expect that my first novel—self-published by an unknown
author—would experience the success that Incidental Happenstance enjoyed. I’ve
learned a lot since I first started it; first and foremost, that there are a
lot of people in my life who helped to make it all happen. Some were in my
face, some worked behind the scenes, and others came from places I never
expected to help make this book happen. First and foremost, Mumsy and Pops, who
read every word over and over, let me bounce crazy ideas off of them, and were
a constant source of encouragement and support. Next, all of those who read
parts or all of the story and put in way more than two cents—my wonderful
sister Gianna, Dorothy, Amy, and Sue; who kept asking for more pages and helped
me push forward. Thanks to Teri, self-proclaimed InHap junkie turned editor
extraordinaire, for her great suggestions and for helping me get commas in all
the right places. My appreciation to Nathan, for helping get all my legal ducks
in a row, and much love and gratitude to Tyler, for giving up entire days for
photo and video shoots, and for always being willing to lend a hand; even
dropping his own projects to help me with mine.
As always, I am grateful for my wonderful readers. You kept
me motivated, inspired, and upbeat throughout this whole process, and I am
incredibly thankful for you. So many of you feel like dear friends, and your
kind words and support have meant more to me than you will ever know.
About the Cover
I’ll admit; when I published my first book, I was pretty
clueless. It was an overwhelming process, and nothing gave me more difficulty
than designing the cover. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a visual
artist, and have a tremendous respect for those who are. Not too long after the
first book came out, I reconnected with Jennifer Blocker, a dear friend from my
own “pinky-swear-friend-days.” She had been doing some fabulous modeling, and
we started talking about how cool it would be if she could do shot for my
cover. She sent all kinds of pics—and although they were all fabulous, I didn’t
see one that summed it all up. Until I went and stalked her portfolio, that is.
This pic, taken by Tim Hufford of Digital Northern Exposures, jumped out at me
right away. I loved how the moon glowed at the top of the guitar, but what
really struck me was the confident swagger of the woman—a swagger that Tia was
trying so hard to achieve. It captured an essence—a power—and I was thrilled
when they both agreed to allow me to use the photo. Thanks, Jen and Tim, for
helping me give Tia her swag!
Table of Contents
“Oh Dylan, I
can’t believe you’re here. Am I dreaming?” Tia closed her eyes tightly for a
brief second, shook her head, and opened them again, a smile slowly spreading
over her face. “I’ve had this same dream at least a thousand times.”
“No baby, not
a dream.” He pulled her into his lap so that she straddled him and felt his
heart melt at the joy he saw in her eyes. All the worry, all the doubt drifted
away; she’d never stopped loving him either. He was a very lucky man. “This, my
love, is what they call a dream come true.”
“Oh yeah,” she
agreed, tears trailing down her cheeks even as she laughed out loud.
“Definitely a dream come true.” She raised her hands to trace his features;
running her fingers over the shadowy stubble of a beard and through the
carelessly unkempt waves of his hair; streaked lighter from his months in the
sun. Her thumbs traced the curve of full brows shaped over impossibly blue
eyes rimmed in long lashes and down the strong nose to his full lips, curved in
a telling smile. He tucked one hand around her lower back, pulling her in close
before taking her hands into his own, kissing her palms in turn before
returning them to his face.
“Oh, God, I
can’t believe this,” she said, “you really never broke up with me?”
“Not even for
a second.”
“The email was
a fake?”
“Completely.”
“And the
pictures in the tabloids—all forgeries?” Her voice broke as the realization
sunk in.
“Every single
one of them.” Dylan’s lips curled up then; the smile he saved just for her;
the one that crinkled the corners of his eyes and puckered a tiny dimple in his
left cheek. The one that melted her heart every single time she saw it. “Bloody
hell I missed you,” he said with a rasp of raw emotion in his voice. He wrapped
his arms around her tightly and pulled her in; cocooning her in an embrace that
even a few hours ago she believed she’d never feel again. She thought she might
shatter with the pure intensity of it all.
“Oh God,
Dylan, you can’t even imagine how much I missed you, how much I love you…”
“Believe me, I
know exactly how much,” he whispered. He buried his face in her hair and
inhaled deeply, holding his breath for a moment before releasing it on a long
sigh. “I love you so much, Tia. Thinking I lost you was the worst kind of hell.
I’m so sorry that I let you down…”
Tia pulled
back and looked hard into his eyes. “Don’t you apologize—you were going through
the same thing I was. You didn’t do anything wrong, Dylan.”
He pressed his
lips together, his features contorting. He squinted and cocked his head, and
she could read the pain in his eyes. “Yes I did, baby girl.” She opened her
mouth to protest; to tell him that none of it mattered now that they were
together again; but he silenced her with a soft brush of his lips over hers.
“Just let me say this, because I need to for my own peace of mind.” He took her
face in his hands and held her gaze. “I doubted you, love, and I never should
have done that for even a second. I knew there was something off about that
bloody email—I just knew in my gut that it wasn’t you—could never have been
you—but I fell for it anyway. Then I doubted Jessa’s loyalty, and sent her
packing without even giving her a chance to defend herself. Two of the most
important people in my life—two people that I trusted without fail—and
she
managed to break it all apart. I let that bitch get into my head, Tia, and I
can’t stop kicking myself for that.”
“Oh, sweetie,”
she said softly, “I fell for it too. I believed it, even though Lexi said it
reeked of Penelope and couldn’t have been you that wrote it…”
“Yeah, and
then you had the added complication of seeing those damn pictures in the
tabloids,” he growled. “I don’t know if I can forgive myself for not protecting
you from that. I should’ve been more diligent, I should’ve…”
“How could you
have known?” Tia interrupted. “I mean, who would even consider that another
person could do something so...so…heartless?”
“But I knew
what she was after from the start. I should have seen through her bullshit from
the beginning. Why did I even trust her for a minute?” He dropped his eyes and
balled his hands into fists.
“Because
you’re a good person, Dylan,” Tia said, gently unclenching his fingers and
forcing him to meet her gaze. “You want to believe the best about people; look
for the good in them. She knew that, and she used it to her advantage.” She put
her hands on his shoulders and added, “But she didn’t win, baby. We won. We’re
together, and none of the rest of it matters now.”