Forever Mine by Natalie Ann

Because Of You Prologue

“I’m going with you,” Zoe Milton said to her older sister, Shannon.

“What?” Shannon asked.

“You heard me. You are determined to do this and you shouldn’t go alone. I’m going with you.”

Shannon’s eyes started to fill. At just twenty-seven years old her sister was a widow with two small children. She was a partner in a digital media company her late husband, Tyler, had started with his best friend, John. Zoe knew staying here was too emotional for her sister. The memories were swallowing her whole.

“I don’t want you to uproot your life like that.”

“What life? I’ve got one dead-end job after another in retail. This wasn’t the glamorous job in marketing I thought I’d have.”

She’d been out of college for over two years now, just turned twenty-five last week, and was still working odd hours in a retail store as an assistant manager. It was killing her inside to be doing that.

“Tyler would have hired you in a heartbeat if you would have let him,” Shannon argued.

“I don’t want a charity job. I’m sure I can find a retail one in this place you are going,” she said. “Paradise Place, right? Maybe I’ll get lucky there.”

Shannon rolled her eyes. “It would be nice to have someone there the kids and I know. And the house is massive. That basement is unused space. I’ll put an apartment in for you. Or will that bother you if I help you do that? Give you a place to stay?”

Everyone always said she never took anything serious in life; she was out for fun, and wanted to bring the crowd with her. But damn it all, she didn’t want to depend on anyone else either.

“I want to say no,” Zoe said. “But I know that would be stupid. You could probably use the help with the kids too, bringing them back and forth to school, and it’d be smart for me to be close by.”

“Exactly. I’ll make a call to the builders. It shouldn’t be that hard to sit down and talk to them about the design in the basement for you. How about you be the nanny?” Shannon asked.

Zoe started to laugh. “You’re joking, right?”

“I’m serious. I’d have to hire one. You know that. I’ll need the help. I thought maybe I could find a person to come in and out of the house daily, but now that you’ll be there, you can do it. You can work for me.”

“Get that smirk off your face,” she said with a big grin. “You’ve been bossing me around for years.”

“I have not. You’re the bossy one,” Shannon said.

“Only when it’s to get you to loosen up. You got married so young. Started your family, your business. Everything. You never had much of a chance to enjoy life.”

“I wasn’t complaining about it,” Shannon said.

“I know you weren’t. And now life flashed the big middle finger at you. It’s time for you to do it back. You can with my help too. We’ll get you out there smiling again.”

“I’m not looking to go to parties,” Shannon said. “I want to start our life over and push past these memories. I need something fresh and this is how I’m doing it. I think Tyler would approve. John is happy for me even though he’s sad to see me move across the country. Maybe Mom and Dad will chill some knowing you are going with me.”

“See, another point in my favor,” she said.

“So, you’ll do it? You’ll be the nanny?”

“I only know how to be the favorite aunt,” she said.

“You aren’t giving yourself enough credit. The kids love you. Jeffrey will be in school, Maddie pre-school. You’ll have time to meet people and go out. It won’t tie you down.”

“I guess I could. For a short period of time,” Zoe said. “Until I can figure out what I want to do.”

“I thought it was marketing,” Shannon said.

“It is, but not in the capacity I’m in. For now, I’ll be a nanny and if I can find something part-time on the side to do on my own to get experience, then I’ll try my hand at that.”

“That’s the spirit,” Shannon said. “I can help—”

“No. I can figure it out on my own when I’m ready. I don’t know if I’m the business-owning type. I meant it more to get experience to work for someone else. But social media is a huge part of marketing, so maybe I can build a brand there. I don’t know. It will happen when it happens. It always works out that way.”

“That’s your problem,” Shannon argued. “You don’t plan. You let the cards fall where they land after you toss them in the air and do your version of a rain dance under them.”

“And you stack the cards neatly in order before you put them back in the box and it looks to me we are both going to be in the same place,” she said.

“Wiseguy,” Shannon said. “But point taken. Here’s to us. Let’s take New York on by storm.”

“I’ll be the storm, you’re the umbrella. We know it.”

Shannon frowned. “You make me sound old and boring.”

“If the shoe—umbrella—fits, then it does,” she said. “But I’ll bring on the rainbows when the storm passes.”

“You always do, Zoe.”

Chapter One

Her Sexy Savior

18 months later

“What’s wrong, Aunt Zoe?”

Zoe pulled to the side of the road when the tire light came on. Dang it all. The car was only six months old. The one that was towed attached to the moving truck last year didn’t do so well in the snow driving the kids back and forth last winter. She didn’t feel safe in her car by herself, let alone transporting the kids.

“I might have a flat tire. Stay in the car while I check.”

“I can fix it,” Jeffrey said. “Ryan has taught me how to fix everything.”

She fought back the roll of her eyes. Shannon’s soon-to-be husband in less than a month had taken Jeffrey and Maddie in like his own. She’d never felt like the odd one out, but now it was making her believe she was the redheaded stepsister that was locked in the basement and came out to do the chores no one else wanted.

Of course that was stupid to say because her basement apartment was nicer than most people’s homes. Let alone the home it was attached to, which was on the high end of Paradise Place. The home Ryan Butler, her future brother-in-law, built.

“Not this,” she said to her nephew. He was six going on twenty-six. “You’re not quite strong enough yet. I’m not sure I’m strong enough.”

“I’ll be seven in a few months,” Jeffrey said.

“That doesn’t mean you’re strong,” Maddie said. “Not like Ryan is strong. You should call Ryan.”

“Stay in the car, kids, while I see what is going on. If it’s flat, then I’ll call Ryan.” She hated to do that, but really had no choice. Strong was one thing, knowing how to do it was another. And she had no clue how to change a tire.

She’d made sure to pull over on a part of the road that had wider lanes so that she was out of the way of traffic but not on the grass either. There was a little gravel spot here for some reason. Call it her lucky day, but it was going to be where she could safely park for the moment.

She looked at the tires on the driver’s side and didn’t see an issue. Then went to the passenger side and noticed the rear tire was losing air fast. Fast enough that she actually heard it. Dang it all. There was no way she was going to be able to make it the two miles home. The way the air was coming out, she’d be on the rim before she could hang the phone up.

She tapped on the back window for Jeffrey to open the door so she could tell him what was going on. “Do you need me to fix it, Aunt Zoe?”

He was too cute at times. “No. It’s flat. I’m going to call Ryan now. You two sit tight and I’ll be back in to wait with you.”

She pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her shorts where she’d stuck it when she got out of the car. Before she could hit the green button to call, a State Trooper car pulled behind her, so she stopped.

The man got out and all she could think was, holy shit, it sure was her lucky day, flat tire and all. Damn it, talk about smoking hot coming to the rescue.

“Problem here?” he asked. Even his voice was deep and sending tingles from her fingertips to her toes.

“I’ve got a flat,” she said. “It happened fast.”

He moved around to where she was standing, his dark aviator glasses shielding his eyes, the hat on his head casting shadows and making him more appealing in a mysterious kind of way.

“Looks like you ran over a piece of metal. Got a spare in the trunk?”

“I think so,” she said. “I know that makes me sound like an idiot. I was just going to call my brother-in-law to come change it.”

“I’ll take care of it if you want. Shouldn’t be an issue. Pop the trunk.”

“What?” she asked. “Seriously? You don’t have to go chase down a bad guy or something?”

He cracked the barest of grins and she wanted to ask him to remove his glasses so she could see his eyes. “Unless I get a call, it’s the least I can do for you and your kids.”

Her shoulders dropped. He thought she was a mother and was helping her out. And because she said she was calling her brother-in-law and not her husband he probably felt sorry for her being a single mom. Yeah, rotten luck there, telling her the lucky day thoughts were blowing away in the breeze.

And though she could correct him, flirting with her sexy savior wasn’t the best thing to do while he was at work and the kids were in the car.

“Thanks,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”

She went and popped the trunk like he’d asked, then stood off to the side and watched him. When Jeffrey’s door opened again and he leaned out to look, she said, “Jeffrey, stay in the car, please.”

“Cool,” Jeffrey said. “Look how fast he’s doing that. I bet Ryan could do it faster though. I can’t wait to tell him when we get home.”

She let out a sigh, especially when the hot trooper turned to look at her and grinned. “Maybe I should move faster than.”

“Jeffrey, back in the car, please.”

Ten minutes later, the trooper was shutting the trunk and saying, “You’re all set. Have a great day.”

“Thank you again,” she said and watched him strut back to his car, wishing she could have corrected his assumption. Two years ago, she would have.

Now, she’d like to say she matured enough to know the time and place to do that and it wasn’t while she was on nanny duty bringing the kids home from school.

Five minutes later she was walking in the door behind the kids while Maddie ran to the front of the house yelling, “An officer helped save us.”

“What?!” Shannon screeched, coming out of her office and looking at her children, feeling Maddie up and down to see if she was fine.

“We got a flat,” Jeffrey said, “And an officer fixed it for us.”

Shannon put her hand to her heart. “My God. Maddie, that is a far cry from saving you. Why didn’t you call Ryan, Zoe?”

“I was about to when the trooper pulled in behind me. He offered to fix it. Jeffrey all but insulted him saying Ryan could do it faster, killing my mojo or any chance I might have had.”

Shannon let out a sigh. “Children, go do your homework and then you can go out and play.”

Both of them took off and she moved into Shannon’s office. “He was seriously smoking but thought the kids were mine and he was helping out poor old single mother on the side of the road.”

“That was nice of him. He could be taken and doing his job though. Think of it that way.”

“I’m trying to. I wanted to correct his assumption but then figured why bother? I’ll probably never see him again anyway. And I didn’t have to bother Ryan either. So bonus. Though I do need to go buy a new tire. I’ll do that tomorrow after I drop the kids off at school.”

“I’ll pay for it,” Shannon said.

“Nonsense.”

“You got the flat driving the kids around.”

“And I could have gotten it anywhere. I don’t need you to pay for my spare tire any more than I needed you to buy a car for me to use.”

“I don’t want to get into that argument again,” Shannon said. “I would have done that for anyone else. And you know it.”

Zoe narrowed her eyes. “You are already paying me and I hate it. I look at it like I’m helping my sister out. I can handle the car payment and the gas. Get over yourself. I’ve been able to put a lot of money away in the past year and I’m very thankful for that. It allowed me to invest in starting my little marketing gig on the side.”

“Which I’m super proud of you doing,” Shannon said. “And you know, I’ll help you any way I can. Ryan’s family will too.”

She let out a sigh. She really didn’t want what she felt was a handout, but she knew it’d go a long way if she could get the Butlers’ business and add it to her list of clients. “I told Whitney that I would work with her on a few things for free. I don’t want them to feel obligated if they hated what I did.”

“That is good business practice on your part to get it done,” Shannon said.

Whitney Butler was Ryan’s sister and she ran the offices and did most of the client relations and marketing. She’d said she could use a hand on things she didn’t have time for and one of those things was the website that Zoe was learning her way around slowly.

“I’ve learned a thing or two from my older sister,” she said, winking. The one that was a multi-millionaire after selling Tyler’s share of the business back to John but staying on and overseeing the finances remotely. “Have you learned anything from me?”

Shannon squinted one eye at her. “You know I have. I’ve learned to loosen up and found love a second time. I would have never moved forward with Ryan without your pushing me.”

“That’s what sisters do. They push each other,” she said.

“And they support them too. So I’m paying for your darn tire. No arguments.”

She’d heard that tone too many times in her life to know when she’d lose. Sometimes it was best to cave and this was one of them. “Fine, but you’re not cooking and I’m going to get takeout for us all. No arguing.”

Shannon opened her mouth, then closed it. “I’d love Mexican tonight. I’ll text Ryan and get his order.”

“See, not so hard to compromise after all.”

It was easy to say but not always easy to believe when she was hoping to figure out her future.

Checkout the next Paradise Place Because of You.