Look After You (42 page)
Authors: Elena Matthews
“
And whatever Ashton is doing, tell him to keep it up.” He pauses for a brief moment. “I didn’t like Ashton at first...I thought he was just trying to take advantage of you, but I was wrong, and I am so glad he came into your life when he did, because not only did he save this little one’s life,” he says, smiling down at Lily, before returning his attention back to me, “but he saved your life too, and for that I will always be thankful.”
I feel a little teary, but luckily I mana
ge to swallow the emotion down. “I’m so lucky to have him, but I wish my personal gain wasn’t Sebastian’s misery. I hate what I did to him.”
“
You need to let that go, Ava...”
“
I know, and I’m getting there, but he’s Lily-Mai’s father, I still care for him...I hate how he can’t even stand to be near me.”
He looks me
in the eye with determination. “Well answer me this one question? The past eight months, minus the kidnap, the depression and the early arrival of this one,” he says pointing down to Lily, “If you had a chance to turn back time, would you change what happened between you and Ashton, if it meant not hurting Sebastian?”
I allow the past eight months to rewind inside my head, and I want to say yes, but the idea of not having Ashton in my life is too hard to comprehend. He’s the one. I cannot imagine spending my life
with anybody other than Ashton. “No,” I answer, taking a painful swallow.
“That’s what I thought. If you and Sebastian were meant to be, then you
’d still be together. End of. You need to start forgiving yourself. You’re finally in a place where you’re happy, and that’s where I want to you stay.”
I still hate the way I treated him, but Caleb is right, I need to let it go, with eve
rything else and begin a fresh. I just hope that one day, Sebastian can forgive me.
“You’re right but do you think he will ever be okay?”
He purses his lips together in thought. “Yes, he just needs to find his true love…like you found Ashton. And he will, I’m sure of it.”
Lily starts to get a little fussy, so I take her out of her cute little denim jacket and settle her onto her back on the Minnie Mouse play gym that is placed in the middle of the living room, and she instantly becomes fascinat
ed with the overhead detailing. I kneel down beside her on the floor, and sitting back on my heels I look over to Caleb who is now making himself comfortable on the sofa.
“Talking of true love, isn’t it about time you let somebody into your life…” The small smirk that curls up at the side his m
outh lets me on into a secret.
“You have?” I ask, almost jumping on the
spot with ecstatic enthusiasm.
“Yeah, but it isn’t anything serious, it’s just a guy I’ve been on a few dates with.”
I ignore the burning pressure of disappointment that rises up my chest at only just hearing about a new guy in Caleb’s life. I’m his best friend, he should have told me straight away but then again, I haven’t exactly been focused on anybody else but myself lately.
“Is he hot?” I ask on a smile.
“Hell yeah…but he’s no Doctor Bailey though.” He winks which gets a laugh out of me. His light smile turns serious for a moment, and he quickly turns the attention back to me. “That boy loves you something fierce and seeing first hand how protective he is of you, I know without a doubt he would take a bullet for you. Just promise me you will keep a tight hold of him, okay? He’s one in a million.”
I smile dreamily as I look up to a photo on the wall of Ashton and his two
brothers, concentrating solely on Ashton. “I will, I promise. I’m never letting him go.”
And when Ashton comes home waking me blissfully in the middle of the night, I do just that. He climbs under the sheets, and he is m
et with the warmth of my arms.
“Hey, baby, I was hoping you were going to be in our bed.” He snuggles into my neck, and I can’t resist clutching harder against his naked chest when he says
the words, ‘our bed’. Since before I moved in, after the incident, this is the first time I will be sleeping in the same bed as him. I always opted for sleeping with Lily in the spare room, but from today that’s going to change.
“I fe
lt like trying something new.”
“Well I approve because I’ve missed you like crazy today and I’ve been dreaming of coming home to you all day, and this is just an added bonus,” he whispers into my neck, and it is a sensation that brings me out in delightful goose pimples. A comfortable silence covers us, and I embrace the tranquility it brings. It’s the first time in
nearly twenty-nine years that I finally feel the peace I have desperately been trying to search for my entire life.
“I love you so much, I am never letting you go, ever
,” I say, sighing over the pattering sound of his heartbeat against my ear.
“But what if I need to pee?”
I bury my head into his chest on a burst of laughter. “I kind of meant in the forever sense,” I say looking up at him.
“Oh...good because you’re stuck with me, baby…you’re not going anywher
e.”
“I wasn’t planning on it but will you shut up and finally kiss me?” I can’t see it, but I can definitely feel the smile radia
ting through the moonlit room.
“Yes, m
a’am, it would be my pleasure.” He leans down and from the very instant he presses the gentlest of kisses against my lips, I lose myself within the essence that is all Ashton. I inwardly thank for the Lord above for bringing him into my life when I needed him the most. Not only did he look after me at my most vulnerable moment, he gave me back a piece of myself that I thought had disappeared forever.
Even after a lifetime of darkness, Ashton is the very proof that there will always be that one person who will look after you and have the ability to pull you away from the brink of no return
, when nobody else can.
Today is the day I start following my sister’s advice. I am going to grasp life with both hands and cherish it. I am going to live the life my sister didn’t get the
chance to live, and I’m going to experience it with my beautiful daughter and my beautiful man by my side. And I might just make good use of the list of things Fran told me to do. Starting with number one...although, unlike Fran, and her four-year-old self, I’m only going to marry the one prince, my prince, Doctor Ashton Bailey.
The Disney princes have
nothing on my guy...
Get married, have children, travel the world, walk every step of the empire state building, get a tattoo, swim with dolphins, free fall from a plane, go skinny dipping. Anything. Everything. Just go, and live your life, grasp it with both hands and cherish it, please.
Francesca Jacobson, 2013
The end
I would like to thank everybody who bought and read Look After You. I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Thank you to my friends and family
, which includes my Scottish family too. They have been extremely supportive since the moment I told them I was writing a book, especially my mum. She couldn’t wait to start reading it after I’d written the first chapter. To say she is my biggest fan, would be putting it mildly.
I want to say a big thank you to Helen Stothard at Kinky Book Klub. She’s been there since the moment I hit ‘publish’ on my Facebook page and she’s helped with the promoting, formatting and any author related questions that I
’ve had.
Also, thank you to Tiffany Clark at Tiffany’s Book Hangover, she became a friend and a fan in
the matter of a day, and she is the first person to share anything I post on my Facebook page.
Thank you to neonatal nurse Helen Furness, who works at St Mary’s Hospital in Greater Manchester. She is the reason
for the accurate description of the NICU and she helped me tremendously with the hospital lingo, and medical technicalities
Another thank you to my beta readers and proofreaders, Vicky Johnson, Jennifer O'neill-Pantis, Amanda Jo James, Catherine Snelson, David Smith, Tara Louise Sharland at Beg me for beta and again, thank you to Helen Stothard and Tiffany Clark. Thank you for giving my story a chance and helping me turn it from a manuscript to a novel.
Now on to the woman who really makes magic happen; Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations. From the moment I set eyes on one of her book covers, I knew she had to design my book cover. In my eyes, nobody comes close enough to her art, and knowing the perfectionist that I am, I wouldn’t be happy unless she designed my book cover. And oh boy, what a book cover she did design.
Finally, I would like to thank every single person who shared my Facebook and Twitter page
and supported me, and my writing. It means the world to me.
Love,
Elena Xx
Independent author Elena Matthews was born in Manchester, United Kingdom, where she lives with her other half, but even after eight wonderful years, she is still waiting for that
epic
proposal. Elena enjoys spending quality time with her friends and family, especially her four-year-old niece, Caitlin, who is the apple of her eye (She’s a little monkey too!). Elena is positive Caitlin is the love child of Jekyll and Hyde. Thankfully, the joys of being an auntie, means she can hand Caitlin back over to her mum and dad when she’s all tired out!
Elena spent three years of her life at Salford University studying media production, to decide at the end of her degree she no longer wanted to pursue a career in the media. Instead, it took her another two and half years to realise her calling. Writing. Now she lives and breathes her writing. She even had to tell her colleagues at work whenever she is found daydreaming at her desk, it’s because she is conversing with her characters.
Coming soon
Look After Me – Sebastian’s story
(Look After You series)
Look After Us – Ava & Ashton’s Novella (Look After You series)
Connect with Elena
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/authorelenamatthews
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/authorelenamatt
Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com/authorelenamatthews
If you or somebody you know has been affected by sexual abuse, or needs information, please contact (USA)
www.rainn.org
or call
1.800.656.HOPE. (UK)
www.rapecrisis.co.uk
or call 0800 802 9999.
For suicide hotlines, please contact (USA)
www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
or call 1-800-273-8255. (UK)
www.samaritans.org
or call 08457 909090.
For neonatal information, please visit
www.bliss.org.uk