And Ever (The Forever Duet #2)

Chapter 1

Kai

The rich, smoky aroma immediately invades my senses, causing my mouth to water. I take a seat at one of the rustic wooden tables with a checkered tablecloth. Today is my twenty-seventh birthday. Kevin and I have been wanting to try out a new place called Smokin’ BBQ, so this is the perfect time.

“Hi, Dad.” I look over my shoulder and see Amari with a present in her hands. Her beautiful brown eyes that she got from her mother sparkle with excitement as she lifts the present.

I pull her into a hug and kiss her on the cheek.

“Happy birthday!” she says.

“Thank you, sweetie.”

“Happy birthday, Kai.”

I twist my entire body and catch sight of Blakely standing there, wearing a broad smile. She’s still the most beautiful person to me. Even after all these years, she still takes my breath away—just like the first time I saw her…

I glance over my shoulder for a quick second, but as I turn back, I pause mid-motion and look again.

The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen walks in.

The natural light shining through the doors cast a glow around her.

Her long, dark brown hair frames her face as if she’s in a portrait.

All the chatter from the group of guys I’m with turns into words I can’t comprehend.

I notice the girl she’s with says something and lifts her chin toward me.

The dark haired beauty looks around, trying to catch who her friend is talking about.

The closer she gets, the more she catches on that it’s me who’s staring at her.

Her cheeks turn red. She bites her bottom lip, all cute and innocent, the second she passes me.

Her eyes hold a sparkle, captivating my attention even more.

I watch her walk away with a natural sway to her hips.

Before she turns the corner, she looks over her shoulder, and I wink at her.

"Hey, let’s walk around,” I say to the guys.

Because I want to see her again before she disappears.

I’m trying to keep up with the conversation while looking around for her.

We round the corner, and I don’t see her up ahead.

Damn it, she must have gone into a store.

But which one? I look at the first door to my right.

A long-haired girl stands in front of a jewelry stand with her back to me.

That’s her. I slow my pace, hoping she turns around.

She shifts a little and lifts her gaze to me.

My lips turn upward in a big grin. She waves at me, just as shy as she was when she caught me staring at her.

I keep walking until she’s out of my sight, but I can’t shake the feeling of needing to know her name.

I don’t want to bring all these guys around her.

All they care about is getting laid. They’re a little older than me.

I met them through my older brother. Why do I even hang out with them?

“I’ll catch up with you guys. I’m going to head to the bathroom,” I say, turning back around.

I hear a few of them in the distance say, “Okay.”

I look up at the store sign that says Wet Seal.

My brows furry at the name. Who the hell names a store Wet Seal?

Do they mean seal as in the animal? Weird.

I walk to the same spot she was at, but she’s not there.

I wander the store, looking around aimlessly for her.

She’s nowhere to be found. She couldn’t have left that fast. Once I exit the store, I look around, but she’s still nowhere in sight.

The food court is in front of me. Could she be over there?

After wandering the food courts for what feels like hours, I still can’t find her.

Shit.

I lost my chance.

I decide to look for the guys, and hopefully I’ll see her again.

I was so bummed out going home without finding her. I let it go, thinking I’d never see her again.

It’s the first day of my senior year. I’m standing in the hallway upstairs, talking to some guys I met at some stupid orientation my counselor set up for me since I’m new to the school. He asked a few guys to come show me around the school before the first day.

Someone familiar catches my eye in the corner.

I scan through the crowd of people walking up the stairs, trying to find what my peripheral vision saw.

Then my heart skips a beat, a feeling that has never happened to me before.

That mysterious girl I saw at the mall last week is headed my way.

Her long brown hair bounces with every step she takes.

I look away before she sees me. I don’t want to make her embarrassed again—especially in front of all these people.

I keep my peripheral vision on her. As I notice her stopping on the stairs, I turn my head a little to see what’s going on.

Her friend has her hand in hers, pulling her up the stairs.

She must have seen me, and she’s already being shy.

That’s cute. I’ve never met a girl so shy before.

A lot of girls I meet usually throw themselves at me, and it turns me off.

The beautiful girl walks right past me, biting her bottom lip.

Is she going to say hi? I swoop my hair out of my face as I watch her continue on.

The sway in her hips is mesmerizing. The second I get my hair out of my face, I see her smiling at me.

A rush of warmth spreads through my cheeks as I smile back at her.

It’s almost as if time has slowed down and everyone else has faded away.

It’s in this moment I know: I’m going to make her my girlfriend.

With a wide smile, I stand from my chair and wrap one arm around Blakely.

“Thank you. Are you staying?”

“No. Liam is waiting for me at home.”

My smile fades from the sound of that name.

Every time I hear that name, my stomach sinks, and my heart stings.

Blakely has been dating this guy for about a year now.

Don’t get me wrong—he’s a good guy. He treats Amari as if she were his own, and Blakely seems happy with him.

There really isn’t much more I can ask for. The only problem is…

I love her.

I want her.

I need her.

And soon…I will have her.

“Hey, man. Happy birthday,” my brother Kevin says, patting me on the back.

“Thanks.”

“Hey, B,” he says, before reaching in and giving B a hug. He looks over my shoulder to where Amari is standing behind me. “Where’s my favorite niece in the whole wide world?”

“Uncle Kevin,” Amari says in a high-pitched voice. She runs into his arms, and Kevin lifts her up and gives her a big squeeze. Kevin spoils Amari rotten. She has him wrapped around her finger. Actually, she has us all wrapped around her finger.

He sets Amari back down on the floor. “Are you staying, B?” he asks.

“No, I’m going to head out.” She walks over to Amari and gives her a hug. Amari leans into her. “Do you need me to pick her back up after?”

“Do you want to spend the night with me or go back home with your mom?” I ask Amari.

"Umm, I’ll stay with dad.”

“Okay. Call me before you go to bed. And don’t stay up too late.” She narrows her gaze at me, meaning she’s telling me not to keep her up too late.

“We won’t,” I say, placing my hand behind my back and crossing my fingers. Amari softly giggles.

“I know what you’re doing.” B rolls her eyes at me. “I’ll see you later, Amari. I love you.”

“I love you too, mom.”

I watch as her hips sway with each step she takes.

My heart twitches from how much I miss her.

It took me a while to realize what I had.

Actually, I didn’t realize it until she was gone.

I was young, dumb, and hurting. I hurt her and broke her down until she felt like she had no other choice but to leave.

When she left me, Amari was only seven months old.

I had too much pride to show that I cared.

I hurt her more than ever. And being the stupid kid that I was, I still went out and drank until I passed out.

Not only was I numbing my pain from my dad’s passing, but I was also numbing the pain of her leaving.

I broke my family apart.

Our forever and ever.

I ruined a lot of relationships during that time.

Kevin tried so hard to get me to see what I was doing.

But all I cared about was my next drink—so I didn’t have to feel or think about the pain.

The pain of my dad leaving me. The pain of watching my mom crumble over his death.

The pain of losing my family. Kevin ended up getting sick of my shit and kicked me out.

That was when Kevin and Amari formed a bond.

He stepped up more and helped Blakely out with Amari.

I wasn’t a total deadbeat, though. When Blakely moved out, I told her to go back to the apartment and I would still pay the rent and everything else she and Amari needed.

She refused and would tell me she didn’t feel right living in a place that I was paying for when we weren’t together.

So instead, the money that would have paid for the rent to the apartment was used as child support.

B was going to school and working. I would go see Amari every day after work so B could go to school.

Going to Amari’s grandma’s house was so uncomfortable; the tension was so thick in the air some days.

Of course, my dumbass would always party during the weekends, so I rarely saw Amari on the weekends.

Kevin nudges my shoulder. "Dude, if you stare any harder, your eyes are going to pop out of their sockets.”

“Fuck off.”

“You owe me a dollar,” Amari says.

Kevin chuckles while all three of us sit around the table.

When Amari was learning how to talk, she also learned how to pick up on our swear words.

Blakely hated it, so every time we swear, we give Amari money to help stop us from swearing in front of her.

First, it was a quarter. It’s gone up each year, and now it’s a dollar.

“Here,” I say, handing Amari a dollar. I always keep dollars on hand now.

“Thanks.” She folds it up and puts it in her front pocket, giving me a wink.

After a couple of hours, we head back to my apartment. I take a sniff at the lingering vanilla smell. A woman’s perfume. I glance around the living room, and everything seems in order.

"Dad, don’t come into the kitchen,” Amari says. She takes a few steps in front of me, stops, and turns around. “Close your eyes.” She comes over, grabs my hands, and helps me to sit on the couch.

“What are you doing?”

“Close your eyes.” She grabs my hands and pulls them up to my eyes.

“Okay.” I close my eyes and keep my hands over them, wondering what she’s up to.

I hear whispers in the background. Followed by, “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday…”

I open my eyes to Kevin and Amari holding a blue-and-white cake with twenty-seven candles lit.

“Make a wish, Dad.”

I close my eyes and wish for what I have been wishing for the past eight years, and then I inhale and blow the candles out.

“Yay. Now let’s cut it,” Amari says. They both go back into the kitchen, and I follow behind them.

“Thanks for the cake,” I say out loud for them both to hear me.

“Thank Mom,” Amari says, grabbing paper plates.

My eyes narrow at her. “What do you mean?” I look over at Kevin. He shrugs his shoulders as he cuts into the cake.

“I didn’t get it.”

“Mom bought it for you,” she says, and licks the frosting off her finger.

“When did she bring it over?”

“While we were eating.” She takes a bite of the cake that Kevin places in front of her. "Mmmm, I love ice cream cake.”

That must have been the smell when I walked in. It was her.

Blakely has always set her feelings aside and does things like this, claiming it’s from Amari. She’s done it since day one, and it’s never stopped. Even when times were hard between us, she always went out of her way for me, so Amari had something to give me on my birthday or holidays.

“You fucked up,” Kevin whispers.

“Do you have to keep reminding me?” Kevin has always known that I made a mistake, and he always reminds me of it.

After we split and I set my pride aside, I tried to win Blakely back.

Even my drunk self would call her up late at night, begging her to give me another chance.

I did this for a couple of years. She told me I needed to work on myself.

I finally listened. Here I am, eight years later, with a successful welding business called KBA Steel.

I always wanted to start this business to give my family everything they deserve.

KBA are my family’s initials. B has said nothing about the name.

I’m not even sure if she’s caught onto it.

When I finally put my mind to building my company, the late-night binge drinking weekends faded away.

My health started getting back on track.

I could think clearer and make better choices.

Because of all the long hours and heavy lifting, I have gained some pretty good muscle mass.

The dark bags around my eyes cleared up, and I started seeing my old self again.

The old me that I hadn’t seen in so long.

After years of working on myself, it’s finally time to win her back. The one I’ve loved since I was seventeen. The mother to my child. The one I let go. The only problem is…

Her boyfriend.

Liam Davis.