Partnering in paradise, p.1
Partnering in Paradise, page 1
Partnering in Paradise
Danville Singles, Volume 2
E. M. Sadler
Published by E. M. Sadler, 2019.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
PARTNERING IN PARADISE
First edition. October 9, 2019.
Copyright © 2019 E. M. Sadler.
ISBN: 978-1393233602
Written by E. M. Sadler.
Also by E. M. Sadler
Danville Singles
Divorced in Danville
Partnering in Paradise (Coming Soon)
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Also By E. M. Sadler
Dedication
Prologue – Nate
Chapter 1 – Polly
Chapter 2 - Nate
Chapter 3 – Polly
Chapter 4 – Nate
Chapter 5 – Polly
Chapter 6 – Nate
Chapter 7 – Polly
Chapter 8 – Nate
Chapter 9 – Polly
Chapter 10 – Nate
Chapter 11 – Polly
Chapter 12 – Nate
Chapter 13 – Polly
Chapter 14 – Nate
Chapter 15 – Polly
Chapter 16 – Nate
Chapter 17 – Polly
Chapter 18 – Nate
Chapter 19 – Polly
Chapter 20 – Nate
Chapter 21 – Polly
Chapter 22 – Nate
Chapter 23 – Polly
Chapter 24 – Nate
Chapter 25 – Polly
Chapter 26 – Nate
Chapter 27 – Polly
Chapter 28 – Nate
Chapter 29 – Polly
Chapter 30 – Nate
Chapter 31 – Polly
Chapter 32 – Nate
Chapter 33 – Polly
Chapter 34 – Nate
Chapter 35 - Polly
Chapter 36 – Nate
Chapter 37 – Polly
Chapter 38 – Nate
Chapter 39 - Polly
Chapter 40 – Nate
Chapter 41 – Polly
Chapter 42 – Nate
Chapter 43 – Polly
Chapter 44 – Nate
Chapter 45 – Polly
Chapter 46 – Nate
Chapter 47 – Polly
Chapter 48 – Nate
Chapter 49 – Polly
Chapter 50– Nate
Chapter 51 – Polly
Chapter 52 – Nate
Chapter 53 – Polly
Chapter 54 – Nate
Chapter 55 – Polly
Chapter 56 – Nate
Chapter 57 – Polly
Chapter 58 – Nate
Chapter 59 – Polly
Chapter 60– Nate
Chapter 61 – Polly
Chapter 62 – Nate
Chapter 63 – Polly
About the Author
For Nelson and Ann, two of the best attorneys I have ever known. Thank you for filling my head with confidence.
A special thanks to: Chanel Feemster for creating another fantastic cover. Rachel and Bridget for reading my rough drafts. Your feedback was golden!
Prologue – Nate
TODAY I WAS OFFICIALLY promoted to be a junior partner at my firm... and never saw it coming.
Not only would this promotion come with a significant raise, but I also learned that I was being reassigned to the team that worked closely with the most extensive hospital system in the state. Since it was also the largest division of our firm, my new position would alleviate the stress that often came with trying to meet the billable hours requirement at work each month.
After the senior partners had taken me to lunch to tell me the good news, they decided to sweeten the deal by giving me the rest of the day off. This way, I could celebrate my promotion with my wife.
Wanting to surprise my Sarah with dinner and an overnight trip to New York City to celebrate, I quickly made arrangements for my Mom to take the boys for the weekend. After all, alone time was in short supply when you had two children under the age of six.
Not only was my Mom over the moon about my promotion, but she couldn't wait for me to tell Sarah and call her back with a play-by-play of her reaction. However, Mom may have demanded that I call her with an update, but I had other things planned for the hour following my good news.
For me, telling my Sarah about my promotion involved some hot and sweaty afternoon delight, not a phone call to my mother. Only once I had a chance to give my wife a few orgasms, would I call Mom and give her the rated G play-by-play regarding my wife's reaction.
See my Mom understood how much Sarah had sacrificed to get me to this point in my career, and she was ecstatic knowing that Sarah would finally get a chance to reap the rewards of our hard work.
Several years ago, after I had exhausted my GI Bill halfway through law school, I found myself unable to get approved for enough low-interest student loans to cover my tuition. The day I called the school's financial adviser from my room at Mom's house, I didn't know that she was listening in on my conversation. As soon as my Mom overheard me talking about high-interest loans, she stormed into the room, took the phone from my hands and told the lady on the other end that we were exploring other options and would let them know if we needed their assistance in the future.
Two weeks later, my Mom selflessly sold her house and handed over the equity to supplement my law school costs until I could enter into practice.
I promised her on that day that I would not only repay her, but I would buy her a house as soon as I had two years of working at a firm under my belt. Not only did I follow through with that promise, but just last year, I made the final payment on her new home.
Yes, Sarah and I had needed to scrimp and save while living in an overly small house, but Sarah had known long before we were married how important it was for me to repay my mother for her sacrifice.
Luckily, my wife had graciously understood, and after all of our extended work hours, I had finally made junior partner and could now afford to buy Sarah the home of her dreams. Heck, she could even quit her job tomorrow, which I knew would send her over the moon.
When I arrived home at around 2:30 pm that afternoon, I could hear Sarah rustling around upstairs in our room. Unable to contain my energy, I took the stairs two at a time and barged into the room to find the shock of my life.
Sarah and our neighbor Tom were going at it like rabbits in my bed... very loud and obnoxious rabbits.
They were so caught up in their ecstasy that they didn't even realize I was in the room watching until after their cringe-worthy climax.
Stunned and unable to move, I just stood there.
How could Sarah do this to me? How could Tom do this to Polly?
Tom was the first of the twosome to see me standing in the doorway. Once recognition came over him, he jumped to his feet so that he could grab his jeans. His jeans that were littered on my floor with the rest of their clothes.
At least Tom had the decency to turn away from me as he pulled them on. Of course, this gave me another view of his skinny ass that would forever be stamped into my brain.
After several awkward moments of scrambling, Sarah was the first to speak.
"Nate, I didn't want you to find out this way?" she said, her voice full of emotion, but not shame.
Still, I stared, unable to speak.
"We're getting married!" Tom said abruptly.
Tom, the man who had been one of my closest friends for the past six years, looked at me like I should be offering him some form of congratulations.
Unable to put much strength behind my voice, I croaked, "But you're both already married."
"Not for long," Sarah said, standing to her full height of five foot four. "We both filed for divorce today."
Well, wasn't that peachy?
"We were going to tell you and Polly this evening," Tom said as if he had just informed me that we were taking a joint family vacation to fucking Disney World.
Which we had done before... twice actually.
With that last tidbit of information, I soundlessly turned and started walking away.
"NATE! Say something!" Sarah yelled while chasing me down the stairs with Tom on her heels.
Finally finding my fury, I spun on the landing and said, "What the fuck am I supposed to say to that. I walk in on my wife and close friend having sex in MY bed, and then you fucking tell me that you've filed for divorce and are going to marry FUCKING TOM like you're planning a BBQ and not committing adultery."
"We didn't commit adultery, man. We waited to make love till the paperwork was filed," Tom said calmly.
Are these people for FUCKING REAL?????????
"Well, if you're far enough along in your relationship to propose marriage with someone, you're an adulterer, my friend. Even if it was emotional, it sure counts as adultery if you haven't told your fucking spouses!"
"Listen, Nate! We need to talk this out like adults," Tom said as if I were a petulant child.
"You know what? I can't even look at you. I'm going to go find Polly."
"Yeah, you go find your precious Polly, Nate!" Sarah yelled; her voice now furious instead of desperate.
As I turned on the platform once again, I could see Tom grabbing Sarah around the waist in my periphery as if attempting to stop her from lunging at me.
"Sarah, honey, calm down. We talked about this," Tom cooed in her ear.
"I'm done pretending with him, Tom. Nate, do you think maybe our marriage might have ACTUALLY had a chance if you and Polly hadn't always had your ‘little club?’ This divorce is just as much on you as it is on me," she yelled, throwing her hands into the air and turning to walk away, before adding. "Tom and I already have an apartment and will be out of both houses tomorrow. Please, stay away from this house until then.
“In the meantime, maybe you and Polly can go find a hotel to fuck in."
Ignoring the last part of her tirade, I left the house to find my second oldest friend and break her heart.
Chapter 1 – Polly
TWO YEARS LATER
Polly –
Guess who has her tax return? Woot! Woot!
Nate –
Santa?
Polly –
Nope and Santa is a he, not a her.
Nate –
Mrs. Dalton?
Polly –
Stop! It's ME!
Ready to book our cruise?
Nate –
I already did.
Polly –
Nate, I told you not to do that. I wanted to have the cash in hand before we booked.
Nate –
They were almost full, and we wouldn't have been able to get a room with the connecting side door.
Plus, I knew you were good for it.
POLLY –
I'm wiring you the money through PayPal now!
You suck, btw!
Nate –
Love you toos Polly Wally!
Polly –
:-)~
I COULDN'T BELIEVE I was going on a Love Boat Cruise, or to be more accurate, The Cruise of Love Cruise Line.
After two years of horrible blind dates and dating app fails, Nate and I had finally decided that our dating lives needed a makeover. This was why when my former workout buddy Maggie Wilson suggested The Cruise of Love to me, I felt compelled to bring the idea to Nate's attention a few days later on the way home from one of our Sunday family dinners with our moms.
Once upon a time, Maggie and I used to be pretty close. Well, until I noticed that she was using me to cover up her affair with John, our yoga instructor.
Since I didn't think it was my place to play judge and jury to her infidelity, I avoided including myself in her drama by canceling our plans often enough that Maggie eventually stopped asking me to join her. However, once she lost most of her "friends" after her divorce from Dale was finalized, which started when several of her former friends' chose to make a play for said ex-husband, I had taken pity on her and started replying to her texts again when she needed an ear.
Or I should say when she needed to gloat over something she and John had done that day.
Her presence was going to be the only downside to this cruise.
Her fiancé, John, was now a famous yoga instructor and was being paid a boatload (pun intended) to work for the Cruise of Love Cruise Line exclusively. Since Maggie couldn't bear the idea of him being continuously surrounded by horny single woman, she asked him to convince the line to hire her as his assistant so that they could start this new "adventure" as she put it, together. Chances were, he had taken a hefty pay cut to compensate for her needed wages, but the man was so blinded by love that he would probably have done just about anything to make her happy.
From what Maggie had said to me during our brief conversations, she pretty much just walked around the classes adjusting positions on the females in downward dog so that John could avoid "misunderstandings" when women took his considerate nature and gentle hands as flirtation.
I found it funny how paranoid cheaters were. Even my ex-husband Tom's new wife Sarah lived in constant paranoia to the point that she always made sure to tag along with Tom whenever we were scheduled to exchange our son Tyler for the week.
Hopefully, with Sarah being pregnant with her and Tom's first child, she could finally stop stressing about Tom and me being alone. She honestly had nothing to worry about when it came to Tom and I. Once I had discovered that Tom had filed for divorce and slept with Sarah one day after making love to me and professing how perfect we were together; I would never be able to see Tom as anything other than a cheater.
However, I was pretty sure that even though Sarah paraded Tom around as her soulmate, she secretly knew that he wasn't wholly invested in their relationship.
I knew this because Tom had the nerve to come to me two days before his and Sarah's wedding last year to offer me a second chance at marriage with him. His only condition was that I had to cut all ties with Nate Alexander from that day forward.
Though I may have been more open to limiting my interactions with Nate before Tom cheated on me, especially after learning about how threatened he was by mine and Nate's relationship, it would have been almost impossible to avoid Nate for life no matter how hard I tried.
Besides being my oldest friend, Nate was also my brother's best friend, and our mothers were joined at the hip. In the years before Seth and Nate had shipped off to boot camp when they were 18 years old, the three of us had been inseparable.
The origins of our friendship was partially due to the fact that Seth and I were born only ten months apart and were raised more like twins than regular siblings. Being the protective older brother that Seth was and still is to this day, Seth made a point to tell any children that knocked on our door to play, that we were a package deal.
Sometimes the other kids were accepting of Seth's rules, and other times they were not. Either way, Seth would not relent and adamantly said time and again, "If you won't be friends with my sister, you can't be friends with me." Thus, when Nate moved into our neighborhood back in 1984 and knocked on our front door and immediately asked if we both wanted to play, Seth was won over and I quickly followed suit.
The entire Alexander family was naturally kind and loving, so it only took a few days for them to win over the Wallace clan and within a few short weeks, we all became regular fixtures in each other’s lives from that day forward.
Thirty-five years later, and ten years after both of our fathers had died of lung cancer within a year of each other, Nate and his mom were still members of our extended family and came to every one of our weekly Sunday dinners and holidays.
Even though a lonely and insecure portion of my heart wanted to recover my lost marriage, I ultimately had to tell Tom, no.
Not because I had any interest in Nate, but because Tom was trying to dictate who my family was. And Nate was pretty damn close to being family. Plus, the idea of having to offer Tom constant reassurances for the rest of our existence, seemed too exhausting to fathom when HE was the one that had cheated. Hence, I had turned him away and never mentioned the incident to another person. Not even Nate.
That was about a year ago, and for Sarah's sake, I hoped she never learned about Tom's second proposal to me. For now, they seemed happy, and our joint children seemed to enjoy being siblings.
While Nate and I were on the Cruise of Love, all three of our boys would be accompanying Sarah and Tom to Disney World for a week of fun. Since my Tyler was seven and Nate's sons Calvin and Hunter were six and eight, they all got along reasonably well and thankfully shared similar interests, so I knew that they would have a blast.
It helped that they were naturally an easygoing group, and tended to only argue about LEGOs.
They were so easygoing that the only significant argument that the boys had ever had occurred when Hunter's second-grade class spent a week learning about natural disasters.
Hunter had come home that Friday and declared an "emergency" after ranting about how they needed to ensure that their skyscrapers were prepared for disaster.
When Calvin seemed unaffected even after Tyler had jumped on board with the new "building inspections," Hunter became angered by Calvin's lack of concern. After a ten minute heated discussion, Calvin became so frustrated that he took ahold of the coffee table that one of the skyscrapers was sitting on and shook it violently to prove that it was safe. Unfortunately, the action caused the opposite outcome, and the structure broke in half, and Calvin was forced to admit defeat.
Once their argument had been resolved, Calvin apologized for not heading Hunter and Tyler's warnings, and they then spent the weekend redesigning the base of their buildings.
