Stormy Surrender - By Nicole Andrews Moore Page 0,71

they should be warning Joe.” She was starting to get agitated and it was difficult for her voice to stay even in that situation.

Keely chuckled. “Oh, they are warning Joe, all right. They are warning him to stay away, to not hurt you.”

“Well, maybe I would hurt him!” She crossed her arms over her chest. Keely tipped her head and smirked in obvious disbelief. “Well, I might. I’m tough. I’m smart. And I don’t know what’s going to happen. I do know that right now, I just want to relax and have fun. I want to start taking chances instead of playing it safe. Most of all, I want to make my own decisions and live with the consequences instead of having others decide for me and then I have to live with the results of that.” She tucked her head to her chest. She was silent for a moment before she met Keely’s eyes once more. “Please. Just let me live my life. I’m thirty-five years old and I’ve never really lived.” There was a pleading edge to her voice.

“This means a lot to you?” She asked Marti and watched for the nod. She settled back on her stool and seemed to think a moment. “And I guess that you may have already considered the consequences. You are right. You are an adult. And since you are the one to live with the consequences, you should at least get to make the choices that precede them.” She lowered herself from the stool and walked around the table until she was beside Marti. Then she threw an arm over her shoulders. “I wish you the very best. I will be your friend always.”

Turning on the stool, Marti looked at her with tears in her eyes. “Thank you,” she said simply. “Can you do me one favor?” She wore a shy grin.

“Of course. Anything for a friend.” And she gave Marti one last squeeze before stepping back to hear her out.

“Since you are all so quick to spread the goings on, spread the word that it’s time to let us alone.” She smiled. “I’m ready to live.”

He was no good at sneaking around. He never had been. That’s why he tried to live a life he was comfortable living out in the open. It had never bothered him to bring a different woman to Hope House for Sunday Brunch every week. It never worried him who he was seen with at lunch. And he definitely never cared who came and left at all hours of the night.

While he might seem completely unprincipled to some, he had his ideals. No woman ever slept over. He never saw a woman two nights in a row. He made sure she achieved orgasm before he did. Was there more to consider? No woman was ever given the mistaken impression that what was between them was anything other than what it was. There were two types of girls. There were girls you slept with. Those were his favorite. And there were girls you married. Those he gave a wide berth.

Now there was Marti. She was the marrying kind. Everyone knew it. And he was not the kind to get married. Not after Finn. Before Finn, he had never given marriage much consideration. He had seen what marriage did to his father and that had convinced him he was not the marrying kind. When he met Finn and they started dating, all he could think about was marrying her, keeping her forever. Only, she wasn’t the kind of girl who wanted to be kept. There wasn’t enough drama and excitement in that. While they were together, he had never felt more alive. Then when it ended…when he ended it…he wanted to die.

It seemed like the best option at the time. He couldn’t imagine how he was going to dig himself out of that debt. He couldn’t figure out where he would go. He didn’t know how to make a life. Never much one inclined to pray or believe in prayer, it wasn’t until his hour of need that he found himself crying out for a miracle. He has been carrying the guilt of that ever since. It has weighed heavy on him. Hours after he uttered those words, his father died. It was an aneurism. It was sudden, unexpected, and by all accounts…painless. He suddenly had some place to go, some extra money to get out of debt, and a way to make his life. And so