Beautiful With You Read online

  Jen Andrews

  Copyright © 2015 Jen Andrews

  ISBN: 978-1-941380-06-2

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language, and sexual situations. It is intended for adult readers.

  Author’s Note

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Foreword

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Epilogue

  Author Bio

  This is the third and final book in the Just Say Yes series for characters Zoey and Andy.

  This book contains sexual content, bad language, and physical violence between a man and a woman. This book is not appropriate for persons under the age of 18. Please read with caution.

  Thank you.

  ~Jen

  For Lorrie, Kay, Jessica, Jen, Julie, and Jake.

  I wouldn’t be here without you cheering me on, and telling me daily to get off my lazy ass to get this book done.

  I love you all!

  I have so many people to thank I don’t even know where to begin.

  Lorrie Anson, I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you. You have taught me so much and have been so patient with me, that I am surprised you haven’t put a hit out on me. (Unless you did, and I just don’t know about it yet.)

  Kay Manis and Jessica Guerrero, you are my daily comic relief and I love you. Retirement is just around the corner (I wish) so get ready for the bus. I promise to keep the man candy on hand, at all times. It’s now in writing, so you’d better hold me to it.

  Jen Wildner, you are an awesome person and I can’t believe you were crazy enough to say yes when I asked you to be my PA. Thank you for saying YES! #teamjen

  To the ladies who beta read this book for me, thank you so much for your feedback and support! Anie “Butter” Michaels, Kendra Gaither, Danielle Bolme, and Jessica Guerrero.

  To my Snowflakes: Thank you for all the pimping you do!

  To my Kiwis: Jennie Coull and Sarah Underwood. Thank you for reading this book and making sure I had everything correct regarding New Zealand. Someday, I will make it back there and we’ll get to meet in person and watch our AB’s play some rugby.

  This entire series, I have worked with two amazing artists who brought my books to life visually.

  Thank you, Sarah, at Sprinkles on Top Studios, for designing my gorgeous covers.

  Thank you, Tami, at Integrity Formatting, for the unique and creative formatting inside my books.

  Both of you have put up with my ideas, changes, and creative input more times than I can count, and I appreciate you so much. I look forward to working with you both in the future on new books.

  Thank you to all the bloggers who have shared, pimped, reviewed, and supported me! There are so many of you, it would take pages and pages to list you all. Just know that every blogger I have worked with, I appreciate you!

  Last, but not least. To my IEZ girls, at The Indie Erogenous Zone. You are all talented authors, and I know who to turn to when I am having a bad day and need to vent. Twirl and flourish, ladies!

  To everyone who has read the Just Say Yes series, THANK YOU.

  If I forgot anyone, I am truly sorry!

  ~Jen

  It is said that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or when life knocks you down, get back up. When you fall off the horse, get back on.

  What do you do when life just keeps knocking you down, repeatedly?

  You get your ass up and fight.

  ~ Zoey

  Monday morning came early for my friends and me. We went to sleep late after scheming all night to right the wrongs of one woman. The woman who had kept a baby from Andy—a baby who had died just hours after she was born. My fiancé’s ex-wife was the woman in question.

  That was if I still had a fiancé. He had left me. Did I mention I might be pregnant?

  My life had been turned completely upside down, yet again.

  The ex-wife, Michelle, had refused to speak to Andy about their baby, and he’d given up trying, so we were going to force her hand.

  He’d also given up on us, and our future.

  But I hadn’t. And I wouldn’t.

  After everything I had been through, I was not going down without a fight. I’d worked too hard to get to where I was, just to let my life fall apart again. Sure, it was upside down for the time being, but I would get it right . . . Even if I had to do it on my own.

  The first item on my agenda: To see a doctor.

  After my friends left, I dialed my OB doctor’s office only to find out I would have to wait until the following week for my appointment.

  Sasha and Jess had tried to convince me all night that I needed to do a home pregnancy test, but I still refused. They didn’t understand why I wouldn’t do it, but I just couldn’t take one. If the test were positive, I would stress myself out more because I would worry about genes and DNA. The scary thing was, I already knew what the test results would say. How? I just knew.

  I’d been pregnant before and I knew all the signs. Unfortunately, they were the same as the side effects of my birth control, so I had been stupid and hadn’t put two and two together. Plus, I didn’t need the extra stress on top of what I was already dealing with; I didn’t want to take a test to add to it.

  Only I knew my stress limits, and I was extremely close to reaching that limit. I would simply take good care of myself, and accept the outcome when I had an official answer from my doctor.

  Last night, I’d decided that Google was, once again, my friend, and I had found Michelle working at a very prominent real estate firm in San Francisco. And by prominent, I mean a high-rise portfolio and only catering to people with a shit ton of money. It was also owned by her family.

  My friends and I had big plans to flush out “the bitch” and get her to talk, but first, I needed to make it through a week and a half of work. I needed to stay focused on the goal, and my goal was Andy. I loved him without question, but I was so angry with him.

  It dawned on me sometime during our scheming session the previous night that he had taken my decisions away from me. He had decided that I needed to have kids of my own someday, without even talking to me about it. I was mad that he hadn’t even considered adoption if we found out we couldn’t have children together.

 
With my personal history of being in foster care and being adopted myself, I was more likely than anyone else to adopt a child. How could he overlook that? Why did he have to make such a rash decision and fucking leave me? I knew he was devastated by his loss, but we were supposed to stick by each other when times were tough, not just give up.

  I was not a violent person, but right then, I felt the need to smack the living shit out of him. I wanted to yell and scream and make him listen to me, but no, he had left his freaking cell phone here, and I had no way to contact him.

  He had taken my heart with him when he left and was probably half way back to New Zealand by now. The one thing that kept my hope alive was the possibility that there was a tiny part of him growing inside me.

  It also scared me to death.

  I decided to call his Aunt Sarah to see if she knew where he was and how he was doing. I had a few other questions, and she was the one person who might help me. With the hope that she would be willing to talk to me, I dialed her number.

  “Hello, Maggie!” she chimed a little too merrily when she answered.

  Huh?

  “Hold on one moment please.”

  I heard the distinct click-clack noise of her high heels across the tile floor of her house. Sarah was going up the stairs and then I heard a door shut. “Zoey?” she said finally. “Sorry about that, I didn’t want Hamish and A.J. to know it was you on the phone when I answered. I’m so glad you called. Are you okay?”

  “I’m doing alright, I guess. Pretty angry really, if you want to know the truth.”

  She cleared her throat. “I can only imagine. I really don’t know what A.J.’s thinking. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  I agreed with her. “Is he still leaving?”

  “Yes, he is. I’m so sorry,” she said. “He’s downstairs with Hamish packing boxes to ship to his house in New Zealand.”

  His house in New Zealand?

  “What do you mean his house?” I asked. “How does he have a place to live already?”

  “It’s his parents’ house, Zoey. He inherited everything, including the house, but his friend Tamati and his wife Iria have lived there since he came back to the States. They rent it from him and take care of it for him too. It works out well having someone he knows and trusts living there. I’m sorry, I thought you knew.”

  How nice. “No. I didn’t. Apparently, he didn’t think it was something he could share with me. I didn’t know he owned a house.”

  My voice broke as I spoke, and I hated it, but I would deal with it later. I had information to gather first.

  She started to say something else when there was a knock at her door. I clearly heard Andy ask Sarah if she knew where the packing tape was. I forced the tears back because I could hear the pain in his voice. He was not doing well.

  “Yes A.J., just a minute,” she called back to him. “Zoey, give me a second okay? Do you want me to see if he’ll talk to you?”

  “No, Sarah. Don’t ask him, just hand him the phone. I don’t care at this point if he wants to talk to me or not, I have something to say to him.”

  “Very well then,” she said, her voice was terse. “Good luck.”

  I had a feeling she knew he was about to get an earful.

  For the next few minutes, I heard muffled voices through the phone. I couldn’t tell what Sarah and Andy were saying, but I could tell by the tone, the conversation was heated. He didn’t want to talk to me and it broke my heart.

  After a few seconds of silence, his voice came over the line.

  “Zoey?”

  Hot tears pricked my eyes when I heard his deep voice. I took in a few ragged breaths to calm my thundering heart. Suddenly, I didn’t know what to say.

  “Are you there?” he asked.

  There was so much that I wanted to tell him, but I didn’t know where to begin. I started rambling.

  “I’m here. I’ve always been here, and I always will be. I don’t know why you think it’s okay for you to make decisions about my life for me.”

  He cleared his throat. “Zoey, please—” His voice was barely a whisper.

  “No,” I interrupted him. “You need to listen to me this time. How dare you? How fucking dare you think biological kids are a deal breaker for us? For me? Did you forget where I came from? Because I sure as hell didn’t forget.”

  My voice cracked, and I couldn’t stop myself from crying.

  “Zoey, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think—”

  “No, you didn’t. You didn’t think about me at all did you? You gave up on us. Were we not worth fighting for?”

  He took a breath to speak, but again, I didn’t let him.

  “Don’t answer that question. While you’re running away and avoiding this entire situation, you need to know I’m going to fight for us. Don’t you dare think this is over, because it’s not. Not by a long shot. So go to New Zealand, and do whatever it is you need to do, and just remember your family is here missing you and that you are acting like a coward.”

  He exhaled, his voice faltering as he spoke. “I am a coward. You should hate me.”

  I was still so angry, but I knew his heart was broken far worse than mine was.

  “Andy, I could never hate you. I will only ever love you. There are things going on here you know nothing about . . . go ahead and take the easy way out, and get on that plane. You let me get on a plane months ago to deal with my shit and that is the only reason I am not putting up a fight about you leaving. But while you’re there, you need to remember that I am still here, wearing my beautiful engagement ring, and I don’t intend to take it off. Can you put Sarah back on the phone now, please? I’ve said everything I need to say.”

  Inside, I felt horrible for saying all of that to him, because I never wanted to hurt him, but I needed to make one last attempt to get through—to make him see that he didn’t need to leave me, and that things would work out.

  “Alright, I’m handing the phone back to her.”

  “Andy, wait!” I cried.

  “Yeah, Beautiful?” he said softly.

  He was clearly feeling the weight of the situation on his shoulders and the thought crossed my mind that it might be the very last time I would ever hear him call me that. I could hardly speak as tears rolled down my face and my voice wavered with raw emotion.

  “There’s one more thing I need to say. I love you, don’t ever forget it.”

  “Never,” he whispered.

  Sarah came back on the line. “I don’t know what you said to him, but I think you got his attention.”

  It made me feel a bit better, but I knew he would still leave. “Good. He needed to hear everything I said to him.”

  On a mission, I picked up Andy’s cell phone off my dresser and began scrolling through his contacts.

  “Zoey? Did you call me for a reason or were you calling for A.J.?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry. I have some questions, but a couple of them have already been answered. Now I know where Andy’s going and who he’s staying with.”

  Not wasting any time, I found Tamati and Iria’s phone numbers in his cell. “Can you give me his address in New Zealand, please? I want to mail his birthday present to him.”

  I grabbed a pen and paper and scribbled the address down then repeated it back to her to double-check it. “Thank you Sarah, I appreciate your help.”

  After our call was over, I added Tamati and Iria’s phone numbers to my cell, then connected both mine and Andy’s phones to my laptop and transferred all the pictures from them. Once the photos were transferred, I copied all the photos of us together to a thumb drive. Originally, I was going to get him something different for his birthday, but I needed to be sure he wouldn’t forget what we had together. I hoped the photos would remind him.

  I wasn’t expecting to talk to Andy when I’d called Sarah, so our conversation threw me off balance. Yet because of it, I was even more determined than before to get him back. I would still give him the time he needed to sort himself out, a
s he had for me. I owed him that much.

  Unfortunately, I had to go to work, and later, I had a birthday present to make. I headed to the store first to make sure everything was going well. The morning was moving right along for a Monday, so I went into the office and ordered a few parts and general stock items that we needed.

  Once I was finished at the store, I headed next door to the shop. I refused to look over to where his truck and trailer were usually parked. I stopped dead in my tracks when I walked into the mechanic bays and saw Andy’s rolling toolbox was gone. It hurt like hell to see it was no longer there. Every trace of him had vanished, and I choked back a sob at the sight.

  Noah looked up from the car he was working on in the next bay and stopped what he was doing. He picked up a rag and wiped his hands off as he came over to me.

  “Hey Z,” he said apprehensively. “Jess told me what was going on. I’m sorry about everything. He really left, huh?”

  I nodded, trying not to let my emotions get the best of me. Damn it, I was a fighter and I was not going to lie down and give up this time.

  “She told me about your plan. You let me know if you need anything, or if you need someone with some muscle to help, okay?”

  “I will Noah. Thank you.” I hugged him and glanced over at the rest of my brothers who were watching our exchange. Within the next minute, my four brothers had surrounded me. None of them said a word. After a silent, group hug, we went our separate ways.

  Since the staff had everything covered at work, I left early to go to a camera store that sold everything you could possibly ever need for photography and photo projects. I gave the clerk my thumb drive so he could print all the photos on it for me.

  I had an eight by ten enlargement made of a photo of Andy and me from Jess and Noah’s wedding. Memories from that night flooded my mind as I wandered around the store. He looked so handsome in his tux, and we had sung together for the first and only time, for Jess and Noah’s first dance as a married couple.

  He had almost proposed to me that day, but my big mouth got in the way. Oh God, if I’d only kept my mouth shut. We might not have gone to Sonoma that weekend and run in to Corey. None of this would be happening.