My Heart Lingers (A Hearts of Misty Mesa Story): BWWM Interracial Romance (9 page)
Read My Heart Lingers (A Hearts of Misty Mesa Story): BWWM Interracial Romance Online
Authors: Brandi Boddie
Tags: #A Hearts of Misty Mesa Story BWWM Interracial Romance
“She’s not kidding,” Cole said. “You’ll find I’m not joking, either, if you ever put your hand on me again.”
Mike looked around Cole’s shoulder to peer at Kyra. “So you’re helping him? I don’t get you, Kyra. What is this, some twisted way of making up for aborting his kid?”
Kyra recoiled as though she’d taken a punch to the stomach. She witnessed Cole making his hands into fists. “Cole, don’t.” She touched his arm. It was hard with clenched muscle.
“Better listen to your easy girlfriend, cowboy,” Mike taunted. “Hit me and I’ll sue.”
“And you’d lose. You shoved him first.” The police officer climbed the stairs. “I’m no lawyer, but he’d be operating in self-defense if he took a swing at you. You need to run along and think about things before you get yourself into trouble.” The officer touched the pair of handcuffs at his belt.
He stood beside Mike until Mike relented and backed away from Cole. Kyra realized her hands were shaking. Cole looked at her and touched her. “Let’s get out of here.”
She said nothing as she allowed him to walk with her down the city hall steps.
***
Kyra watched Cole from the passenger seat of his Ford as he came away from the food vendor truck on the street corner, carrying a water bottle in his hand. He gave it to her through the window. “Here. Drink this.”
She unscrewed the cap and took two gulps of the icy cold water, grateful to quench her parched throat. Her mouth had gone dry the moment Mike said those horrific words to her in front of Cole. Her hands were still shaking from nerves.
Cole climbed inside the truck. He touched her forehead with the back of his hand. “Your skin doesn’t feel clammy anymore. For a moment, I thought you were going to pass out.”
“I’m alright, but thanks for the water. I could use a refresher from the heat.”
Cole’s blue irises expanded in the shaded interior of the truck. “Kyra, about what Mike said. He’s a fool. You were very young when you got pregnant with our baby. To some extent, I understand how you may have been scared and felt alone. It hurts me that you made choices without telling me, but I forgave you a long time ago. I’m not angry. In fact, these past ten years, I kept thinking of you.”
A confusing mixture of sadness and relief came over Kyra. She slowly placed the water bottle in one of the truck’s cupholders. “There’s something you should know. I never had an abortion. I lost the baby in the first trimester.”
Cole turned his upper body towards her and leaned forward. His brows formed a single line as he frowned in perplexity. “You had a miscarriage?”
Kyra nodded. “The tales about me having an abortion and not telling you were nothing but ugly rumors.”
She gauged Cole’s reaction. His lips parted slightly. Then he closed them and rubbed the stubble on his chin. “I feel like I’ve missed so much information. Can you start at the beginning for me? When did you first learn you were pregnant?”
“I was at the high school graduation ceremony. I had to go to the bathroom because I felt sick. I thought I was nervous about walking across the stage, but it was actually morning sickness. One of the girls from our graduating class saw me in the bathroom. She figured it out. I asked her not to say anything to you or anyone, but word eventually got out a few weeks after you left to go to college.”
“Did you visit the doctor?”
Kyra shook her head. “I took a couple home pregnancy tests, but I was in denial for weeks. I wouldn’t say anything to my parents or my friends. That’s why I made excuses not to go out with you, and why I eventually stopped returning your calls. I was so scared. I may have technically been an adult at eighteen, but I still had the mind of an adolescent. I didn’t know what to do or where to turn.” Kyra wiped at a corner of her eye. “I hate to say it, but at the time, I didn’t want to be pregnant. I was certain my life would be over.”
Cole took her hand. “What you felt was normal. Please go on.” He stroked her hair. “How did the abortion rumors get started?”
Kyra swallowed a lump in her throat. This was the hardest part. She tried to steady her voice. “About a week after you left, I lost the baby. It happened fast, but it was painful. I thought I was dying. That’s how my mother found out. She suffered a miscarriage before she became pregnant with me. She knew what was happening.” A couple tears trickled down. Cole wiped them before she could. She smiled thankfully at him through blurred vision. “Another three weeks passed, then two months. People figured since I wasn’t showing, I must have done something to terminate the pregnancy. My high school reputation led them to think the worst of me.”
“Kyra, I’m so sorry you had to go through that without me. If I had known, I would have been there for you. We would have faced it together.”
“I can see you would now, but at the time, I felt so much pain and guilt. I believed it was my punishment for not wanting the baby.”
“You carried guilt with you all this time? Kyra, there was no reason to.” He cupped the side of her face and wiped another tear. “You couldn’t help what happened.”
“That’s what the doctor told me when my mother took me to see her. She said things can happen in the early stages of pregnancy. So much has to line up correctly, and most of it is beyond our control.”
“The doctor was right.”
“Yes, but it still didn’t help with how I felt. I couldn’t just get over it and move on. I don’t think I ever will. I’ll always carry the memory of our child with me.” Kyra looked up and saw the moisture in Cole’s eyes.
“I will, too,” he said. “We suffered a loss. It doesn’t matter how long ago it happened.”
Kyra studied the tears forming in his eyes. “I never thought I’d be saying this to you. I thought I blew my chance to tell you ten years ago.”
“I tried to reach you after I left home. You closed your email account and my letters were always returned to me unopened. When I called your house, your father said you left town, but he wouldn’t tell me where.”
“My parents didn’t know where I was. I ran away to Dallas in the fall of that year. I didn’t speak to my parents for months, and when I did, I never gave them any information they could use to find me. I made it clear I had no intention of ever stepping foot in Misty Mesa again. Of course, we know how well I kept that promise.”
Cole planted a kiss on her forehead. “I’m glad you were eventually able to talk to your parents again and come home.”
Kyra reached for her water. “I should’ve talked to someone, maybe gotten grief counseling, but I thought I was strong enough to handle it by myself. If it weren’t for female friends I met in college and law school who went through the same thing, I think I would’ve fallen apart.”
“I now understand why you left the ranch the other day after I showed you the letter from my mother. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I believed it was what you needed to see because you told me before how you thought my parents disliked you. Please forgive me, Kyra.”
She nodded. “Don’t think any more about it. I should’ve said something to you then instead of running off. I’m sorry. Old habits die hard.”
“I’m not done asking for your forgiveness.”
She blinked through her tears and gazed at him, confused. “What else is there? You didn’t know I was pregnant until after I lost the baby.”
“Yes, but even though I tried to reach you for two years after the fact, I chose to believe the abortion rumors because they were all I had to go on.”
He looked for her for two years after she left, even though he was thousands of miles away. Kyra considered how their lives would have been if they could have somehow closed the gap, but it wasn’t meant to be during that previous time. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t say anything to combat the rumors and I made it hard for you to find me.”
Cole shook his head. “It doesn’t excuse how I acted. I was immature for believing gossip and thinking the worst of you.”
“I forgive you.” Immediately, a weight lifted from Kyra’s shoulders. She didn’t realize until it left how heavy a load she carried for so long.
Cole took her face in both of his hands. “I love you, Kyra. I never stopped.” He brushed his lips over hers. “I’ve been waiting forever to tell you and I thought I’d never get the chance. Now let me prove it. Say you’ll stay in Misty Mesa for a little while longer. Don’t make me have to say goodbye after I just found you again.”
Kyra shut her eyes and touched her lips to his. “I love you, too, Cole. Yes, I’ll stay.”
One month later
Kyra stretched out on the picnic blanket beneath a shade tree overlooking the pond on Cole’s ranch. She took in the peaceful midsummer scene of waterfowl swimming and pastel wildflowers moving gently in the breeze. A dragonfly touched down to skim the surface of the pond. Feeling calm and relaxed, Kyra closed her eyes. She smiled as the sun filtered through the tree leaves and kissed her face with its golden warmth.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look this relaxed and peaceful.”
Kyra opened one eye to see Cole’s handsome face smiling down on her. “I’m happy. Things are working out.”
“Are you talking about your parents’ house?”
“The new owners move in this Wednesday, but I’m happy for other reasons, too. Your center got accredited, Mike left town to focus on his other properties, and I started working at Amy’s new firm. Now I get to spend Sunday afternoon with you.” She kicked off her sandals and moved her feet from the blanket to wiggle them in the plush grass. She hadn’t done such a thing since she was a teenager. It was one of the little pleasures Kyra enjoyed while living in Misty Mesa. The small town’s calm pace allowed her to let her hair down and balance work and leisure. Although the pay would be less than what she earned in Chicago, her life would be filled with peace and a real sense of belonging, things money and status symbols could never bring.
Cole settled beside her, propping his chin with his hand. “Have I told you how happy I am that you decided to take a permanent job in town?”
Kyra smirked teasingly. “Is it because it means you‘ll always have a trusted attorney down the road?”
A spark of mischief appeared in his eyes when he tickled the bridge of her nose. “That’s number ninety-nine on my list of reasons.”
“Oh? Do we have time to hear the other ninety-eight?”
Cole raised his eyes skyward. “Sunset will be here in a few hours. How about I summarize by giving you the number one reason?” He sat up and reached in his pocket, withdrawing a small black velvet box. “I’m glad you decided to stay in Misty Mesa because I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. But I would never try to persuade you to stay with me if it wasn’t what you wanted.” He opened the box to reveal a ring with a sparkling diamond in the center.
“Cole,” Kyra whispered.
“I want to do things right this time.” His face was awash in deep emotion. His chest expanded with a deep breath. “My love for you hasn’t changed, not even after ten years and a thousand miles of separation. Kyra Grayson, if you say you’ll marry me, you’d make me the happiest man in the world.”
Kyra felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. “Cole, I’m not sure if I’m able to have children. I know how much you love kids.”
“I want you, whether or not we have another child. I’m satisfied with the life I have teaching and mentoring at the youth center. My life is good, but it would be a blessing if I could call you my wife.”
Kyra dried her eyes. Love for him coursed through her. “In that case, yes, Cole. I’ll marry you.”
Cole slid the ring on her finger. He watched as it refracted the sunlight in tiny patterns across the blanket. “The ring has been in my family for generations. It looks like it was made for you. Welcome home, the soon-to-be Mrs. McCrea.”
Kyra drew him down for a kiss. It was good to be home.
Thank you for reading
My Heart Lingers
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Brandi Boddie writes historical and contemporary romance. She resides in Texas, where she loves spending time with her husband and dogs, a cocker spaniel and a schnauzer who both aspire to be food critics. She holds a juris doctorate from Howard University School of Law and a BA in political science from Youngstown State University. She has worked for the Office of the Attorney General in Washington DC and traveled extensively across the country as a military wife. When she isn't writing, Brandi enjoys fencing and swing dancing.
Other Titles in the
Hearts of Misty Mesa
series
My Heart Dances
–Coming Soon
My Heart Sings
–Coming Soon
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