Juilliard or Else (53 page)
After Skinner was sent away, she didn't have drugs right in the living room like before and I wouldn't go get any for her. I thought maybe she would stop and get clean, but going a couple of weeks being clean, then finally getting that amount you used to shoot up, will shut your eyes forever. And that was my mom; she never got a chance to meet our little Mia. Brad on the other hand went off grid after Rachel died. He got extremely drunk the night of Rachel's funeral and professed his love for the only redheaded girl who would only have his heart. We haven't heard anything from him since then. David even tried to a search to see if he was hauled off to jail or prison, but no such luck. Brad was gone.
David tried every Sunday during dinner to get me to go to college and work at his firm, even offering to pay for it, but I couldn't see myself being a lawyer. Trish would always smack his arm and tell him to mind his own business. Trish hated me at the beginning, but she softened pretty fast. Trish was very thoughtful when it was with Gabs or David. Trish even surprised the two of them by taking them to the cemetery to see Shannon's grave. I kept my distance, holding Mia with Trish at my side as David and Gabs held hands, saying some peaceful words with Shannon's headstone. Gabs and I visited her every Mother's Day.
"You okay?"
I looked up to see Gabs walking over to Mia and me.
"Yeah, just thinking." I smiled.
Gabs leaned down to put on Mia's jacket, but before she could, I cupped her cheeks and kissed her lips tenderly. Her eyes slowly opened as she sighed when our lips parted.
"I love you, Abigail Tucker, for always,"
She beamed the biggest smile. "I love you too, Kyle Tucker. For always."
"What bout me?" little Mia wined at us, pulling on the edge of my leather jacket. I loved our daughter – she was our best mistake. She was just the perfect mix between us; she had Gabs' blonde hair with my blue eyes. She was the most gorgeous little girl; she was going to kill the hearts of boys – if I let any boys come that close to her.
We closed down the studio and took another cab back to the new apartment building. My knee started to bounce with excitement; I couldn't help it, and I loved surprising her with just about anything.
Mia sat in the middle of us coloring and I watched my beautiful wife help her and hold the crayons for her. She looked up at me with a smile as I winked at her .Cupping her cheeks as she nuzzled my hand, she then gave my palm a quick kiss. Gabs reaching in her pink shirt to pull out the snowflake necklace that I had given her on our first Christmas still made me smile when I would catch her sliding it back and forth on the chain, kiss it and go back doing to whatever she was doing. She loved that necklace, and would never take it off.
After Mia was born, Gabs decided that she wanted another tattoo, but told me I could do whatever I wanted, as long as it was "pretty", she said. I drew out a beautiful little Mia face when she was about two sucking on a blue sucker. Blue drool was all over her face, but Mia was in heaven. I decided to place it on the top of her foot. At first she wasn't happy about it being on her foot; Gabs didn't like her feet, but I did. The things that she could do with those feet while dancing turned me on. Giving Gabs that tat took a good five hours; I wanted it to be perfect. When I was done and she looked at what I picked out, she cried for a good three days just staring at it. I also scripted out
Mia Shannon Tucker
underneath it. Now every time Gabs put on her ballet slippers, Mia can watch her dance. I loved tattooing; it was my passion and it paid our bills. We were just happy and with the money I saved, we now had our own place.
When we finally pulled up to the building, Gabs asked, "Where are we?" I shoved money at the driver before he could say anything. Picking Mia up and grabbing Gabs hand, we entered out new building. I was silent the entire way up to the sixth floor to our new place.
"Kyle, what's going on?" I looked over at her to see that her arms were folded across her chest and she was tapping her foot. That's the dancer part in her.
"You'll see," I said, as I tickled Mia.
She shook her head and rested up against me, wrapping her arms around Mia and I. When we made it to the apartment door, I stopped to let Mia down and held up a little copper key in front of Gabs face.
"This is for you, baby girl. Welcome home."
Her eyes widened and started to shimmer over with tears, unlocking the door to make our way inside our new home.
She stopped in the large living room. "We can't afford this, Kyle," she said, shaking her head and placed her hands on her hips.
"Yes, we can; I just put a large down payment on it."
She faced me quickly. "You what?"
"It's ours." And before she could protest, I took her hand to show her around the apartment. I showed her the two bathrooms, the spacious living room, and it even had a little balcony off our bedroom. Of course I mentioned to her that's where we would be having sex, too, and Gabs' face flamed up.
"Or you could plant flowers or something girly like that with Mia," I smiled, and she hit me in the shoulder.
We ended up in Mia's room when I was finished; I knew she loved the place, but was maybe just a little shell shocked that I actually went this far. She walked up to the one window in the room; she looked beautiful with the sun setting in front of her, with her blonde hair glowing. She picked up Mia to whisper something in her ear.
She bit her bottom lip. "I love it, Kyle, but where's the new baby going to sleep?"
My own eyes widened and my body froze as I took in her words,
Whispering, she said, "Tell Daddy, Mia."
My gazed focused on our daughter, "Mamma have baybay in tummy," Mia giggled then wiggled to be let down. She tried to escape the room, but I caught her and hauled her up and went to my wife. I embraced her in a hug and kissed her so deeply with Mia giggling the entire time. I had my gorgeous wife, my beautiful daughter, and now another little unexpected baby on the way. The world finally let us be together and life couldn't get much better than this.
If you or have any friends suffering from Cutting or Bulimia,
or any problems with drugs, please contact:
Remember, you're not alone.
Nichele Reese loves nothing more than to be snuggling up with her husband and little boy.
Occasionally the two furry animals running around her house get some attention too.
When she's not doing that, you can find her on her laptop, phone or reading on her kindle. On the side, she loves to study chemistry for fun….Can you believe it? For fun! Crazy girl. She also puts that into good use working in a Microbiology Lab where stinky bacteria grows. She currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with the freezing cold weather and the beautiful autumn leaves.
This is her first Novel and she hopes you enjoyed it as much as she wrote it.
You can Email Nichele at:
[email protected]
Nichele is currently working on:
'Dearest Gemma'
*New Adult Novel*
Coming Winter 2013
Some may call it fate, some call it a mistake. But I call it, my Dearest Gemma.
Emma Watsen wanted nothing but her college degree in Chemistry Science. Not caring about finding that one true love or being in the most popular sorority house. But James Murdock was the most popular boy, lead Quarter Back, he always got what he wanted and he wanted Emma.
No matter what the cost was. Even when Emma said, no.
One night can change everything in a blink of an eye. That one night will leave nightmares for Emma and everything around her will change.
That pregnancy test really couldn't be positive.
When Emma is faced with a courageous decision, that deals a lot with her future, she has to grow up faster than a regular nineteen year old. Decisions have to be made, but will they be the right ones? Her whole future is in her hands with that important decision.
Also to come in 2014:
Running From Fear- Brad Evan's Story
Hard Love- Alex Blair's Story
I've had so much help from so many great new friends that I have made along this journey. I can't thank them enough for all their kind words and inspirations to help me to keep going, to make my dream come true and finish my story of Tucker and Abigail. No matter how many times I changed my epilogue.
Janessa Osborne. Girl, I would be lost without your words of encouragement every day. No matter how bad of day I am having, I can always count on you to be there for me to make me laugh. I'm so happy to have met you and have you as my friend.
JL Brooks. Thank you so much for helping me with new ideas and always willing to brainstorm with me. I'll swap stories with you any day. Thank you so much for letting me use a quote from Distractions in here. That means so much to me. I love ya girl and I can't forget about Shepard ;)
Megan Hoscholer. What can I say that you don't already know? We pretty much have the same mind in all things. I'm happy to have met you. Thank you so much for reading Juilliard and all your advice. You are truly my sister from another state.
Jaimi Mac, Nacole Stayton, Jenn Cole Bester, and Melanie Dawn. I love you sweet girls as my own sisters. Trusty worthy people are hard to find, I'm lucky to have found you. (((Hugs)))
Erika Taylor. Who always told me to never give up and to keep going.
Other BIG thanks go to, Kim Karr for taking me under her wing and helping me with re-wording, brainstorming and being able to handle my rambunctious phone calls. Also for putting me in the back of her book, Connected, to give me a great start to the writing world. You're amazing!
Nikki Sparks and Amanda Stone. Thank you for reading some of my lines when I was also stuck. You both have helped me improve on my writing and helped me understand a different way to express them. Even if it was just one word that helped me.
Holly Malgieri. What would I do without a Travis in a box? Hehe…You're so amazing, your blog is amazing and I don't know what I would do without you helping me with a blog tour! Thank you for always being there.
Michelle Valentine. I thank you for the Falcon Boys. They're one of my favorite guy bands. Michelle, I value our friendship so much. Thank you for all your advice in this community. I can't express how grateful I am to have met you. Thank you so much for letting me use them in my story. I will always treasure that.
