Still not over you, p.1
Still Not Over You, page 1
Still Not Over You
Synopsis
Old flames die hard in these tales of a second chance at love with the ex you’re still not over. Stories by award winning authors Jenny Frame, Carsen Taite, and Ali Vali.
In My Forever Girl by Jenny Frame, when tragedy tore their family apart, Brayden and Faith’s marriage ended in divorce. Four years later, they’re thrown together on a cruise by their friends. Can the spark that refused to die reignite the fire of their love?
In Double Jeopardy by Carsen Taite, Katie James didn’t plan on being a runaway bride. Twice. But when the gorgeous, accomplished, former love of her life, Emma Reed, reappears in her life the week of her wedding, will Katie risk everything for another chance with the woman who might be her soul mate?
In On the Rocks by Ali Vali, whiskey distiller Preston Maxwell still has no idea why her college sweetheart, Hayley Wyatt, disappeared from her life right after collecting her diploma. But when Hayley shows up to work on the advertising campaign that will take her business to the next level, Preston isn’t letting her get away a second time.
Still Not Over You
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Still Not Over You
My Forever Girl © 2020 By Jenny Frame. All Rights Reserved.
Double Jeopardy © 2020 By Carsen Taite. All Rights Reserved.
On the Rocks © 2020 By Ali Vali. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-63555-517-2
This Electronic Original Is Published By
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, NY 12185
First Edition: July 2020
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Credits
Editors: Ruth Sternglantz and Stacia Seaman
Production Design: Stacia Seaman
Cover Design by Jeanine Henning
eBook Design by Toni Whitaker
By Jenny Frame
A Royal Romance
Courting the Countess
Dapper
Royal Rebel
Unexpected
Hunger For You
Charming the Vicar
Royal Court
Wooing the Farmer
Someone to Love
The Duchess and the Dreamer
Wolfgang County Series
Heart of the Pack
Soul of the Pack
Blood of the Pack
By Carsen Taite
Truelesbianlove.com
It Should be a Crime
Do Not Disturb
Nothing but the Truth
The Best Defense
Beyond Innocence
Rush
Courtship
Reasonable Doubt
Without Justice
Sidebar
A More Perfect Union
Love’s Verdict
Pursuit of Happiness
Leading the Witness
Drawn
The Luca Bennett Mystery Series
Slingshot
Battle Axe
Switchblade
Bow and Arrow (novella in Girls with Guns)
Lone Star Law Series
Lay Down the Law
Above the Law
Letter of the Law
Outside the Law
Legal Affairs Romances
Practice Makes Perfect
By Ali Vali
Carly’s Sound
Second Season
Love Match
The Dragon Tree Legacy
The Romance Vote
Girls with Guns
Beneath the Waves
Beauty and the Boss
Blue Skies
Stormy Seas
The Inheritance
Face the Music
Call Series
Calling the Dead
Answering the Call
Forces Series
Balance of Forces: Toujours Ici
Battle of Forces: Sera Toujours
Force of Fire: Toujours a Vous
Vegas Nights
Double-Crossed
Hell Fire (novella in Girls with Guns)
The Cain Casey Saga
The Devil Inside
The Devil Unleashed
Deal with the Devil
The Devil Be Damned
The Devil’s Orchard
The Devil’s Due
Heart of the Devil
My Forever Girl
Jenny Frame
Chapter One
The morning was dark, wet, and gray, typical for an early Scottish morning, and it suited Braydon Murphy’s mood. After a long night shift working as a maintenance electrician at a local bus depot, all she wanted was her bed and the oblivion of sleep, before the whole work cycle started again.
She leaned her head against the window of the bus and tried hard not to fall asleep. The bus edged along slowly through the heavy Glasgow traffic. Braydon looked at her watch. It was half past seven already, and if she didn’t get back home by eight, she wouldn’t get enough sleep before her day job started, but what was new?
Braydon sighed and watched the busy pedestrians walk along the pavements and cross at the lights in front of the bus. There was a time when she wouldn’t have gotten out of bed for what she currently earned in a day from both her jobs, but now was very different.
As the bus crawled through traffic and time marched ever closer to eight o’clock, she knew she wasn’t going to get enough sleep, but Braydon saw this as her purgatory. Punishment for her crimes that she would forever pay for.
Finally, she got to the bus stop near her rented flat and jumped off with her bag of tools over her shoulder. When she turned into her street, she saw a white Audi sports car sitting outside her building. It was her friend Kristen Alexander. They’d been friends since she was sixteen and played football together for the same team. They had gone to their first gay pub together, chased women together, until they both were persuaded by love to settle down, but that was a long time ago.
Kris had gone on to own a successful building company and had asked her more times than she could remember to work for her. Life would be easier if she did, but she had her pride, and after everything that she had lost, pride was about the only thing she had left.
As she approached the block of flats, Kris got out of the car.
“Mornin’—you look tired, mate,” Kris said as she took Braydon’s hand and gave her a hug.
“Yeah, it was a long night.” Braydon didn’t think that there was a time of day when she didn’t look tired. “In you come.”
Braydon buzzed herself in with the keys and led Kris into the building. She was on the first floor so before too long they were inside her flat. It was a small flat—one bedroom, a small living room, and an even smaller kitchen—but it was all Braydon needed.
She dropped her bag of tools and said, “How’s Jan and Dani?”
“Good, keeping me on my toes. She’s really into her football now and coming along with me to my games.”
As lifelong Glasgow Celtic supporters, she and Kris had gone to matches together for years, but that had become too expensive a hobby for Bray since the divorce. She had dreamed of taking her own child to watch the games with her, but sadly, that would never be.
“Cuppa tea?”
“No, I don’t want to keep you up, Bray.”
“Don’t worry, I’m having one anyway,” Bray said.
“Okay, then.”
Bray ignored the dishes piled up in the sink and made the tea. She was hopeless at keeping up with the housework, but since it was just her, living alone, she didn’t care. It wasn’t a home—she’d had a home and lost it. This was just a base to sleep before heading back out to work.
She brought through the tea and a packet of biscuits. When she put down the cups, she headed over to her computer and lifted an envelope with money. She hesitated before handing it over to Kris.
“This is the last one,” Bray said.
Kris gave her a sad smile. “Yeah, I suppose it is.”
Bray sat down and took her mug of tea in her hands. She tried to let the heat of the cup seep into her body, but it wasn’t working. She didn’t know how she would feel today, but now that it was here, she was honestly scared and felt her stomach churn with anxiety.
This debt, which she had been faithfully paying for four years, was the last tether holding her and her ex-wife together, and now she was being cut loose.
“An end of an era,” Kris said. “Maybe you can work less now, start a new life.”
Bray shook her head. “I had a life, a perfect one. I don’t deserve another.”
Kris sighed. “That was such a long time ago. Stop being hard on yourself. You’ve done your time, paid your debts.”
Bray said nothing. She was never going to forgive herself. She still had nightmares about the night she was in a casino and Faith had called her in hysterics.
I should have been there.
“You know there’s always a job for you with Alexander Building Services,” Kris said.
Bray nodded. “You know I can’t.”
“Bray, you’re my best friend. Stop being so proud—my company would be grateful to get someone like you on board.”
Bray rubbed her face with her hands. She’d had her own thriving electrical business, often working alongside Kris’s on big projects, doing well, making good money, giving her and her wife Faith a comfortable quality of life—then she’d fucked it up. She couldn’t go and work alongside some of the guys who she’d had working under her on projects. Plus it would put her just too close to Faith.
Kris’s wife Jan was Faith’s best friend. Too close, too painful. Bray couldn’t bear to hear about Faith’s new life, new lovers—the thought made her feel sick. There had been no one for her since Faith. Faith was her angel—her forever girl, Bray used to call her, the only woman she’d ever loved—and because of Bray’s weakness, she was no longer hers.
“How is Faith?” Bray asked. She couldn’t not ask. After their divorce Faith had retrained as a nursery school teacher. She loved children and it was the perfect job for such a caring person. And you destroyed everything you had together. Guilt was a way of life for Bray, and she embraced that guilt, bathed in it in fact, because she felt she should be punished.
Kris took a drink of tea. “She’s fine and not seeing anyone.”
“I never asked if she was,” Bray said.
“I can see the question in your eyes every time I see you. Why can’t you move on?”
Bray stayed silent and stared into her teacup. She didn’t want to answer that question out loud, but Faith was the first person she thought of in the morning and the last one at night. That and the guilt and pain of what she had lost.
When Bray didn’t reply Kris said, “I’ve got some good news for you.”
“Oh,” Bray said, “what’s that?”
“You know it’s my fortieth next month?”
Bray nodded. It was her own fortieth in December this year. She was dreading it—not because she was worried about her age, but because of what she had expected to have by the time she was forty.
“Well, and this was Jan’s idea, we’re going to take a two week cruise to the Caribbean, and we’re inviting all our friends. The cruise line has its own LGBTQ coordinator who’s going to take care of our party. It’s going to be amazing.”
That was the kind of holiday she and Faith used to take when they had plenty of money. They had seen some amazing places, romantic places.
“I hope you have a great time,” Bray said.
“You’re invited too, Bray.”
“You know I can’t afford to go on a holiday like that.” She was annoyed Kris had even suggested it. Did she want to make her feel worse?
“No, I mean, Jan and I will pay for your tickets.”
“No way, Kris. I’m not taking charity.”
Kris held up her hands. “Hey, hey, calm down. It’s not charity—it’s the simple fact that I want my best friend there to celebrate my birthday, like she always is. Do you remember my twenty-first?”
“Barely. You, me, Faith, and Jan went to that club called…Mandy’s?”
“Yeah, I got absolutely hammered. I don’t know how I managed to pull such a classy lady like Jan, convince her to put up with me—in fact, I’m still wondering. We hadn’t been together long.”
That was how she’d felt about Faith from the moment she met her. Bray was so punching above her weight, and it turned out that Faith had been too good for her.
“Go on your cruise. Have a good time. You can spend one birthday without me.”
“Too late.” Kris pulled a wallet out of her jacket. “The air ticket to Fort Lauderdale and your cruise ticket are already bought, so if you don’t want to waste my money, then you’ll come.”
“What?” Bray stood up angrily. “You just paid for everything without consulting me?”
“Yes, because I knew you’d say no, and I want my best friend with me.”
Bray started to pace anxiously. “I can’t believe you did that.”
She felt trapped. She didn’t want to go on a holiday and pretend to be happy. How could she? Then a thought occurred to her.
“Faith isn’t going, is she?”
Kris hesitated. “Eh, no. She can’t get the time off, no one to cover her at the nursery. So what do you say? I know you have plenty of holiday time up your sleeve because you never take any. Food, drinks, they’re all included, so all you need is some spending money. Please, come. It would mean a lot to me, mate.”
What choice did she have? Kris was her best friend, and if Faith wasn’t going to be there maybe she could handle it. She couldn’t have coped with seeing Faith for two whole weeks. The heartbreak and the pain would be too much. People had always told her that time would ease the heartbreaking pain, but it never had. It got worse, in fact.
She sighed and said, “Fine, okay, but I’m going to pay you back for this. No matter what you say, Kris.”
Kris jumped up and punched her softly on the arm. “This is going to be your holiday of a lifetime. Believe me.”
* * *
“This is the last one.” Jan handed Bray’s envelope to Faith as they sat at her kitchen table enjoying a cuppa.
The tired kitchen of Faith’s old house wasn’t much, but more than she could have hoped for after the divorce. She’d managed to get on her feet, with some help from her parents, who bought this old detached sandstone house at auction for her and refurbished one part to house her private nursery school. The rest of the house was waiting on more money and time to do renovations.
Faith took the envelope and felt a deep sadness. This was the last thing tying her to Bray, and now it was being taken away from her.
“Thanks, I’ll give it to my dad.”
“She’s kept her word, hasn’t she?” Jan said. “I mean, paid off her debts and never misses her meetings, so Kris tells me.”
“So she’s doing all right, with her meetings and handling her addiction?” Faith asked.
Bray was a gambling addict and had brought down their thriving business by borrowing money for her gambling debts and not paying the business’s bills. They’d lost everything—their home, their business, their life together. But when the large family home they’d shared was sold to satisfy some of the debts, Faith’s dad stepped in and paid the rest. Bray had vowed to Faith she would pay off every penny, and she had.
When Bray broke down and told her about her gambling problem, Faith was panicked, then angry, but then understanding. She would have helped Bray through her addiction and rebuilt what they had piece by piece, if Bray had told her everything, but she’d looked her in the eye and lied to her. That was something she’d never expected of Bray and found hard to forgive. Bray knew how important truth was to her after her disastrous first relationship, as a young woman. Bray understood—and still, she lied.
Jan continued, “She’s still working her two jobs and keeping on top of her problems, I think, but doesn’t do much else. Kris says she won’t move on.”
Faith’s instinct was to wrap Bray in her arms and tell her it was all right, but there was too much pain. Too much history wrapped up in their failed relationship. Faith touched the gold locket she always wore around her neck.
“I’m glad she’s okay,” Faith said.
Then out of the blue Jan said, “Karen asked if I thought she should ask you out again.”
Faith took a drink of coffee. “I don’t think so.”
“Why?” asked Jan. “You know she’s had a thing for you since uni. She has a good job, nice looking, what’s wrong with her?”
Inside, Faith knew the answer. No one would ever be Bray, but she and Bray would never be again. “I’m just not interested anymore. I have the nursery to run. It’s my life now.” When their family business was brought down by Bray’s debts, Faith had retrained as a nursery teacher. Since the divorce, her nursery was thriving, and she now had her own staff of five.
“You have plenty of time for the odd date. Or maybe you’re still in love with Bray?” Jan said.
