A love so strong, p.1
A Love So Strong, page 1
A Love So Strong
A Jenkins Family Reunion
Sharon C. Cooper
Amaris Publishing LLC
Contents
Acknowledgments
Dear Reader
About the Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Family Reunion Banquet
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Other Titles By Sharon
About the Author
A Love So Strong
By
Sharon C. Cooper
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Copyright © 2023 Sharon C. Cooper
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For permission, contact the author at www.sharoncooper.net
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Amaris Publishing LLC
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Smashwords Edition
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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Disclaimer
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Acknowledgments
Huge shout out to my amazing husband for his constant support and patience. I love you, Al!
A special thanks to my dear friend Brenda S. for being the world’s greatest cheerleader and for always being willing to brainstorm and read rough, rough drafts! Lol. You make this writing journey fun! (((HUGS)))
Carolyn J. you are amazing! Thanks for always coming through for me and having my back. I so appreciate you! And did I mention that you’re amazing?
Dear Reader
In the last few years, many of you have asked if there will be updates on the “Jenkins girls”. Well, I listened. Here’s your chance to catch up with Toni, Jada, Christina, Martina, and Peyton, as well as the loves of their lives. Of course, Gram and Grampa make appearances, and as usual, they are armed with life advice for their granddaughters.
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For those of you who are new to the Jenkins family series, A LOVE SO STRONG can be read as a standalone. However, you might enjoy it even more if you read the first five books in the series.
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Still the Best Woman for the Job (Toni & Craig)
All You’ll Ever Need (Jada & Zack)
Tempting the Artist (Christina & Luke)
Negotiating for Love (Martina & Paul)
Seducing the Boss Lady (Peyton & Michael)
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Enjoy!
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Love, Sharon
About the Story
The Jenkins women are married and back with more love, more laughs, and of course more drama.
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They’ve been tasked with planning the ultimate family reunion, but their lives are a little chaotic at the moment.
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Toni & Craig: Craig is crazy in love with Toni. But can their marriage withstand her obsession to have more kids?
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Jada & Zack: Fashion designer, Jada, is enjoying her new career, but nothing compares to the love she has for Zack. All is well in their marriage until another woman comes on the scene. This person will soon learn that Jada doesn’t share, especially when it comes to her husband.
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Christina & Luke: They’re having a baby! Christina, the world-famous artist, and Luke, one of the top defense attorneys in the country, are living their best lives. But all isn’t as it seems, and Luke’s overprotectiveness isn’t helping. Is he just nervous about becoming a father, or is there another reason why he doesn’t want to let Christina out of his sight?
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Martina & Paul: Martina’s big mouth has gotten her into plenty of jams. Yet, Paul’s love for her has never wavered…until now. She’s gone too far. He’s had enough. Will he leave her for good? Or can she fix her marriage and hold on to the only man she’s ever loved?
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Peyton & Michael: Married to the world’s greatest husband, Peyton never knew she could be so happy. But when one of Michael’s private investigative cases takes a turn for the worse, his number one priority is protecting his family. Even if it means pushing Peyton away.
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Will these couples buckle under the challenges of marriage while planning the much-anticipated Jenkins family reunion? Or is the love they share strong enough to keep their marriages together?
Chapter One
“How do you feel about having sex in a supply closet?”
Craig Logan stared down at his wife, trying to determine if she was serious. Toni Jenkins-Logan was the most beautiful, spontaneous, aggravating woman he’d ever met, and he loved her more than life itself. But there were days, like today, when he wondered if she was losing her mind.
They were standing in the middle of her office, and excitement oozed from her as she grinned up at him. His gaze skittered over her smooth skin that was the color of toasted caramel and her kissable lips that always called to him. Of course, he wanted to touch her, kiss her, and make love to her.
But he wouldn’t. Not now.
His attention gravitated to the mischievous glint in her pretty brown eyes that normally had him bending to her will.
Not today.
Not when he had rescheduled a meeting to get to her. And not when he knew why she wanted to have sex with him on the spur of the moment…in the middle of a workday. In a damn supply closet.
In her defense, they’d had sex in stranger places, but it was the timing of this request that rubbed him the wrong way.
“You left me an urgent message, telling me to get to J&S as soon as possible, and this is the emergency?” Craig seethed, struggling to keep his voice down since they were at her workplace. “You want to jump my bones in a supply closet? Apparently, the last few nights of wild sex weren’t enough for you.”
Toni’s grin dropped. She huffed out a breath and brushed long tendrils of hair out of her face that had fallen from her messy ponytail. “I thought it would be fun. Most men would love for their wives to call them for an afternoon rendezvous. Clearly, I was mistaken.”
Craig moved closer to her, which forced her to crane her head back to look up at him. At six feet tall, he had her by at least seven inches, but what she lacked in height, she made up for in stubbornness. He wanted nothing more than to have sex with her anytime, anywhere, but not like this. Not when he knew she was only using him for one purpose—to get pregnant…again.
He stared into her eyes and reined in his anger while trying to choose his next words carefully. He didn’t know what else he could say to her that he hadn’t said a million times already. Any other time, he’d give her anything she wanted, and he had, but this…he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t keep playing this little game of hers.
“Baby, I love you,” he said, cupping her face between his hands. He needed her to understand what he was saying because he couldn’t keep up this madness that she’d brought into their marriage. “Do you hear me? Do you understand what I’m saying? I. Love. You. I know what you’re up to, but this craziness has to stop. You’re my heart, and you already know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, but having another baby? My answer is still the same. You and Junior are enough for me, and so are Bailey and Kimani,” he said of their biological son and their two foster children.
“And I love you guys too,” Toni said, tears welling in her eyes. “I can’t help it if I want a big family. One adoption already fell through, and we still don’t know if Bailey and Kimani’s adoption will ever happen. I—I want us to be proactive,” she said optimistically despite the tears hanging on her long eyelashes, and the brightness in her eyes from a moment ago returned. “All we have to do is keep—”
“No. I told you after that last miscarriage—I’m not going through that shit again. I almost lost you, Toni!” Craig growled, unable to keep the anguish out of his tone. “You jus
She grabbed his hands to stop him from moving back farther. “I do care, and I do love you,” she hurried to say. “I love you more than anything, and I know you said that you don’t—”
“I would love to have another baby with you, Toni, but not at the expense of your life. That’s why we’re trying to go the adoption route, and we even became foster parents. All so that you can get what you want. But it’s still not enough. Nothing will ever be enough for you.”
Toni released him and huffed out a sigh before moving away from him. She didn’t speak and looked everywhere but at him.
“Yeah, I thought so,” Craig said bitterly.
There was no use trying to get through to her. One thing he had learned early in their relationship was that all the Jenkins women were stubborn. He happened to marry the most stubborn one of them all. Though he was fairly sure the other husbands would disagree with that.
Craig shook his head and pulled his sunglasses from the front collar of his button-down shirt. God knows he loved his wife, but he was standing firm on this. There was nothing she could say or do that would change his mind.
“Let me know when you want to sex me up because you love me. Not because you’re using me to get pregnant again.”
Without another word, Craig slipped on his shades and stormed out of her office. With each step he took, his anger started to subside, but they couldn’t keep going like this. They couldn’t keep having the same old conversation over and over again.
What the hell was it going to take to get through to her?
Hours later, Toni wrangled her two foster children into the back door of her grandparents’ estate.
“All right, you guys. Let’s get downstairs before Grampa starts the movie without you.”
Toni lifted the youngest one, Kimani, into her arms and held on to his sister Bailey’s hand as she escorted them down the stairs to the basement. Toni had hoped that, after leaving daycare, they’d be tired. No such luck. If anything, they had even more energy than usual.
“I want to go with Daddy Craig,” Bailey said. “He—he wants me to go with him a—and Junior,” she said with confidence as they slowly made their way down the stairs. “Can I go? I won’t aks a lot of questions. I pwomise,” she said.
Toni smiled, finding it cute how the little girl’s r’s sounded like a w, and the idea of her not asking questions was ludicrous. Bailey was a social butterfly who talked constantly. She was three going on fifteen and one of the smartest kids Toni had ever met. She was also curious and soaked up information like a sponge. For her, asking questions was comparable to breathing.
Kimani, Bailey’s two-year-old brother, was the opposite. He was more reserved until he warmed up to a person. Most of the time, he wanted Toni to carry him around, while Bailey insisted on exploring her surroundings on her own.
They had come to live with Toni and Craig six months ago after their mother, an alcoholic who struggled to stay sober, was in a car accident. The collision could’ve killed her and the kids, but they all survived. After their mother was arrested and charged with a DUI and child endangerment, the kids had been put in the system. That’s when Toni received the call asking if they could take them in.
The smell of popcorn wafted up the stairs along with kids’ music spilling out of the theater room.
“Well, well, well. Who do we have here?” Steven Jenkins, the patriarch of the family, appeared at the bottom of the stairs, smiling.
Even in his eighties, he was still a big, tall man with a powerful presence. His hair was mostly gray now, but mentally, he was as sharp as ever. He was aging well. His dark skin showed very few wrinkles and reminded Toni of the saying Black don’t crack. But his posture wasn’t as upright as it used to be, and he was relying more on the handcrafted, mahogany walking cane that he kept nearby. Still, he was in amazing physical shape for his age.
Bailey gasped. “Grampa!” she screamed and tried to double-time it down the stairs to get to him. “You’re here,” she said with enthusiasm, as if she hadn’t known they were planning to watch a movie with him.
Toni chuckled, remembering herself at Bailey’s age. Her grandfather had been her favorite person in the world, and still held the title…well, next to Craig. That was the same with Bailey from the first time she met them. Her eyes had lit up when Craig picked her up, and it was the same with Grampa, but then again, Bailey made a friend wherever she went.
“I was starting to think you had changed your mind about coming by,” Grampa said to Toni as he kissed her cheek.
The familiar woodsy scent of his cologne that he’d worn all her life surrounded her, and a sense of calm seeped into Toni’s body. He’d always had the ability to bring peace with his presence, and she wanted to soak it up.
He picked up Bailey, smothering her little brown-skin face with kisses. “She reminds me of you when you were little.”
“Really?” Toni said. “Did I talk as much as she does?”
He chuckled, and the deep rumble made him sound like Santa Claus. He set Bailey on her feet, and they watched as she took off running toward the theater room. “No, you didn’t talk as much as her, but your enthusiasm was like hers. Hey, li’l man. You came to watch a movie with your old grandfather?”
Kimani nodded and reached for Grampa. Seconds after he was in his arms, he wiggled to get down, then went in search of Bailey.
Grampa leveled Toni with a look. “Is everything all right?” he asked.
He was studying her in that knowing way, like he did when they were kids. Like when he knew they were hiding something or had gotten themselves in a bind and needed his help.
“I was surprised when you called to say that you and the little ones were stopping by,” he said.
He was probably surprised because they’d been there the day before for Sunday brunch. Every week, the family came together to eat, laugh, and catch up with each other. It had always been a large production. Especially now that the family was growing, and several generations of Jenkins attended. And since everyone usually showed up, most of the family rarely stopped by on Monday.
“Everything is fine.” Toni tried adding a little lightness in her voice that she didn’t feel. “Craig took Junior to karate lessons,” she said of her and Craig’s biological son. “I figured the little ones and I could hang out with you guys for a while.”
Her grandfather didn’t respond, just looked at her as if expecting her to say more.
“Grampa!” Bailey called from the theater room.
Toni grinned. “You might want to hurry in there before she starts pushing buttons on your theater equipment.”
