The One For Me - January Cove Book 1 (2 page)

"Oh, Mom, I love how you slipped that in there about getting married. You know as well as I do that I'm not the marrying kind."

"Kyle, when you find the right woman one day, you're going to want to get married and have a family of your own. You might not believe it now, mainly because your heart’s been broken one too many times, but one of these days you're going to want to have a wife and a family."

Kyle looked at his mom and smiled. He knew better than to argue with her about anything because she’d always find a way to win. She’d spent the last decade trying to marry him off so that she could get one of her kids to produce that first grandchild. She kept complaining that with five grown kids, she should have some grand babies to spoil by now.

But Kyle was convinced that he wouldn’t be the one to get married. One particularly major heartbreak early in his twenties had caused Kyle to stay away from any kind of committed relationship. Sure, he dated. In fact, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in January Cove. However, he had no interest in settling down with one woman or giving his heart away again. He made that mistake one time, and he wasn't ever going to do it again.

"Well, I'm glad that you aren't upset at me. I'd never want to do anything to leave you in the lurch, but honestly I don't think you need me anymore. Your business is booming, even in this slow real estate market. When things pick up, you're really going to be looking at a lot of business."

"Honey, I'll always need you. If things don't work out with the investment company, you can always come back. But I hope they work out, for your sake. I know you need to do something that's all your own. Every man needs that in his life.”

Leave it to his mother to understand exactly what he needed. She’d always been that way. She was always able to look at each one of her children as individuals and figure out what they needed to succeed in life.

Kyle walked behind the desk as his mother stood up and gave her a hug. Their family had always been close knit, especially after his father died. While some families might have broken apart in the wake of such tragedy, his family banded together and got closer. Each of the five children were very different, but they always had each other’s back. And, at the helm as always was their mother. She was a fighter; she was always willing to do what was needed to make sure that her children succeeded in life and were happy.

As Kyle walked back outside to get in his car, he thought about this new beginning. Even though the investment company had already been doing business for a couple of years, this was the final breaking away from his old life. Now, it was all up to him to make sure that he made enough money to support himself and put away for the future. He also needed to make sure that he did enough to help his two employees that he’d just hired in the last six months. This was make or break time, and Kyle felt like something fantastic was on the horizon.

***

Jenna Davis sat on the patio of her quaint home just outside of January Cove, as she did every morning. With a cup of coffee in one hand and a good romance novel in the other, Jenna tried her best to take her mind off of the terrible turn of events her life had taken recently. While her five-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, was at the local elementary school, Jenna had time to sit and think about what she was going to do next.

Her life had certainly gone in a totally different direction than she’d expected. In high school and early college, she had a boyfriend that meant the world to her. He was everything she'd ever wanted, but her parents didn't approve of him at all. While he was nice and clean-cut, he was quite adventurous and didn't seem to have a firm and direct path for his future. On top of that, he came from a family with a single mother who was always struggling to make ends meet. Her parents didn't feel like that was what Jenna deserved in her life. They wanted her to have someone who had a firm career path and would take care of her. They’d allowed her to see him during high school, but when it became important for her future and they thought he was holding her back, they pushed hard to break them up.

Jenna didn't fight with her parents a whole lot, and she was kind of scared of them. It wasn't that her parents were physically or mentally abusive, but they were very direct in what they wanted out of Jenna. She'd always been a straight A student, and that was mostly because she was afraid of her parents’ reaction if she didn't bring home good grades. When she started dating her boyfriend in high school, her mother was none too pleased. She wanted her to focus on her studies and save dating for her college years, which Jenna always thought was crazy but never verbalized to her parents. They were a critical pair, and Jenna always felt like she cowered in the corner when it came to their constant onslaught of opinions.

Of course, now her parents weren't the ones who were in charge of her situation. Her mother had passed away three years ago and her father was in a nursing home with early-onset Alzheimer's. It was probably a good thing that neither of her parents could see where her life ended up because they’d have a lot to say about it. They would blame her no matter what the situation was. Yes, a lot had changed in Jenna's life over the last few years. In fact, the last decade of her life didn't match up at all to where she thought she'd be.

Jenna had always wanted to be an art teacher, yet now she was waiting tables at a rural diner just outside of town. She’d always wanted to have a big family and a happy marriage, yet here she sat newly divorced in her small home that was about to be foreclosed. She was thankful to be a couple of counties over from her hometown of January Cove because the last thing she wanted was to run into her old boyfriend. She imagined a lot of “I told you so’s” would be spewed if she ever ran into him again.

Part of the reason for her unhappiness had to be because her parents pushed her into a relationship with a man she never really loved. Forcing her to break up with her high school boyfriend, Jenna was shipped off to college halfway across the country. She’d wanted to major in art, but her parents told her that getting a business degree was the better way to go. She’d done that, but she soon realized that she hated working for any kind of business that didn't involve art in some way. Of course, her mother and father had insisted that art was not a “real” career, and she needed to focus on making money and turning herself into “wife material”, as they called it.

While in college, she met Nick, her now ex-husband. He was a premed student planning to go into family medicine, and her mother and father were thrilled that she’d met this man. She didn't really love Nick, but he was nice enough at the time and seemed to have a good career path ahead of him. When she'd come home one summer from college to see her boyfriend, she remembered the painful look in his eyes when she had to explain that she was dating someone else and their five year relationship was now over. Her heart ached as she drove away, leaving him standing in his driveway with that shell shocked look on his beautiful face. And the sad part was that she knew it was a mistake, but she just couldn’t stand up to her parents.

Jenna had given up most of her dreams long ago. The idea of being an artist when she had a daughter to raise on her own was pushed to the back burner. Instead, she worked her fingers to the bone as a waitress for as many hours as she could get each week, which was never enough. Her ex-husband had fought her tooth and nail about paying alimony and even child support. Dragging her through the court system, he’d used every trick in the book to avoid paying anything even though he caused the divorce with his infidelity in the first place.

She just didn’t understand how this man could have a daughter that he rarely saw and then not want to support her financially either. What had she missed in his character and personality that allowed her to make a baby with someone like him?

As with most mornings, Jenna dissolved into tears on her patio, putting her empty coffee cup on the table beside her and throwing her romance novel on the ground. Living life as a single mother with no money was even harder than she’d assumed it would be.

Kyle’s morning had started off good with his mother fully understanding his intentions to build his investment business. Next on his agenda was lunch with his twenty-seven year old brother, Aaron.

Aaron ran another part of Adele’s booming real estate business in January Cove - the RV campground. The property was popular all over the Southeast with people coming from miles around to enjoy the quaint beach and fun family activities.

The campground had grown a lot over the years, especially once Aaron took it over three years ago. Aaron stood out as being different in his family with his white blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. He was also the one that everyone thought would be married by now. After dating Natalie Jenkins for three years, there were plans to wed next summer. Unfortunately, Natalie ended up sleeping with a co-worker and breaking Aaron’s heart.

Aaron had only been two years old when their father died, and he was the one that Kyle worried most about. He seemed to crave love, even though he’d always had plenty from their mother. He was an outdoorsy guy, always involved in hiking some mountain or rafting down some raging river. He loved to be outside, which was why the campground was such a godsend for him. It kept him gainfully employed after he quit college, and it allowed him to enjoy the great outdoors.

But, still, Kyle worried about his baby brother. He’d been pretty angry since his breakup with Natalie just three months ago. He’d developed a real dislike of women and had no interest in dating anyone anytime soon.

As he pulled into the Crystal Cove campground, Kyle noticed Aaron doing some work on the small miniature golf course they’d installed about nine months ago.

“Hey, bro!” Kyle called out to Aaron as he walked toward the third hole on the golf course.

“Hey, man,” Aaron said as he waved his brother over.

“Whatcha doing?” Kyle asked as he shook his brother’s hand.

“We had a little mishap with a sick kid. Trying to clean vomit out of green carpet is not so easy. Or pleasant,” he said with a laugh.

“Don’t you have cleaning guy that does this stuff?”

“Yeah. Paul. But, he’s out of town this week. Lucky me,” Aaron said shaking his head. “Ready for some lunch?”

“I’m starving. Let’s go,” Kyle said as he and Aaron made their way back to the campground’s lodge. Made to resemble a log home from the mountains, the lodge was a popular spot for campers who wanted a good meal and reasonable prices. Aaron had come up with the idea right before he took over from the previous manager, and the lodge had become a money-maker for the business.

The two men ordered their food from Betty Sue, the resident lodge waitress, and relaxed into the oversized log sewn chairs.

“So, what’s been going on with you?” Aaron asked his older brother.

“Well, I told Mom this morning.”

“How’d she take it?”

“Perfect, as we both knew she would,” Kyle said with a smile.

“Yep, we lucked out in the mother department,” Aaron said holding his glass of sweet tea up as if to toast his mother.

“That we did. So, how are things going with you, baby brother?” Kyle asked as he looked outside, careful to avoid eye contact with Aaron.

“Nice try.”

“Seriously, man. I’m worried about you…”

“Well, don’t be. I’m fine. It’s just going to take some time, that’s all.”

“I know you really loved Natalie, Aaron. It’s okay to grieve that loss,” Kyle said looking at his brother.

“She cheated on me, Kyle. Why would I grieve losing a woman like that?”

“Because you dated her for three years and had a future planned with her.”

“Well, it’s over now,” Aaron said shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kyle asked.

“When were you elected the Dr. Phil of our family?” Aaron asked with a wry smile.

“Point taken. But if you want to talk, you know you can always come to me,” Kyle said putting his napkin in his lap as Betty Sue brought their lunch.

***

“I understand that I’m behind, but isn’t there any way to hold off on the foreclosure for another couple of months? I might be able to get enough extra hours… Yes, I understand it’s been five months… So there’s no way that I can get some help to catch things up?”