The Heart Series: Complete Boxed Set (62 page)

“Psychic sense?” I repeated back, while Joel rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Well actually, you were right to call as we may need your services soon.”

“Services?”

“Joel popped the question.” I quickly held the phone away as Elijah proceeded to squeal like a banshee.

“I take it he still wants the job then?”

“Oh my god, when are you back? Oh, there is so much to do! I need to ring Karen at the vintage bridal shop, and the cake, oh my god, the cake! And the bridesmaids and flowers . . .”

I scrunched my nose up already regretting mentioning it. “And so it begins . . .”

Joel quickly spotted my look of horror and grabbed my mobile, throwing it into the drawer beside us, quickly closing it as I sat there in shock.

“Joel.”

“Iz, I can guarantee he won’t notice.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Elijah would be gabbing away for England, without drawing breath.

“Now do you want to make this day more memorable?” Joel asked, raising his eyebrows in such a teasing way every part of me clenched in delight.

“Do you even need to ask?”

That’s my girl. Try to keep it down though we have other people in the room.”

I laughed as he rolled me onto my back. “I love you, Joel,” I breathed.

“I love you more.”

In that moment there were no other words needed.

I Treasure Your Heart

C.M. King

Graduation.

It was finally here, everything I had worked hard for in the last three years had come to an end. There was a mixture of emotion; sadness over friends I had become so fond of would be no longer a part of my day to day to life. College that had been my routine was now becoming part of my past. The thought of what lay ahead scared me, finally being sent out into the big bad world. What if I never got a job offer? We were told the grim reality of auditioning leading to nothing and only the small percentage would go on to achieve great things with their lives. But I was optimistic, I had to be. Going into this I knew the chances of success would be slim, but I hadn’t worked hard the last three years for it to be all for nothing. Elijah was his usual over optimistic self. I couldn’t fault him in his self-belief, though I wished I were so self-assured about it all. But this was about our achievements, we deserved to have this day to mark all the back breaking work we’d put in to reach our goal, and I was determined to enjoy every moment. My dad had flown in to sit stage front and see me presented with my graduation certificate. My mother and Mike would be there too, along with Joel, of course, dressed up in a shirt and tie. He knew what that did to me, but I guessed he wouldn’t be too against the mauling that I would give him after the ceremony.

We had come a long way over the last year, despite Joel asking me to marry him, in the end, we hadn’t jumped in straight away, but that wasn’t because Joel didn’t want to. After telling both my parents I received different reactions, my mother had gone ballistic ranting about how I was far too young, that I should experience the world before tying myself down to another man. That really didn’t go down well with me, in fact we didn’t talk for over a week. I was just too angry she would question my love for Joel, but she carefully explained her reaction and I got to see that she was just doing her job as a mother trying not to let their child rush into something so huge. In the end, I relented that I’d wait a year and have a long engagement, which did not go down well with either Joel or Elijah.

Joel took it hard, like a form of rejection of using my mother as an excuse. That part hurt. After all we’d been through, he still didn’t get how much I wanted to be with him. I guess his past was always set to make an unwelcome arrival when doubt filled his head, and he went to that dark place once again. Years of being told he was worthless by his dad and growing up without his mother were always going to leave a lasting impression, and no matter how many times I reassured him of my love for him, there were times my words just weren’t enough. He had sulked for a couple of days, pushing me away, he even went on a drunken spree, which was usually his coping mechanism when things got too much to handle. Mike had found him passed out at the football grounds where they played every Sunday. He was beyond intoxicated and, we had second thoughts to take him to the hospital, but in the end, we relented. I spent the whole night sitting in a chair watching his every movement as he slowly slept. My heart ached for him to be feeling this low to use drink once again as a way to escape his problems. But there was a part of me that was angry that despite how far we’d come he’d still resorted to this tried and tested solution rather than being an adult, sitting down and telling me how he felt.

The next day he woke with a humdinger of a hangover but I didn’t pander to him, I was too pissed to start and fuss over him. Once I saw he was up and about, I left him to it. That evening I had arrived back to a complete and different Joel. When I walked in, he’d surprised me by cooking my favourite meal. My jaw almost hit the floor at the transformation after I had left him looking less than human earlier on in the morning. He served the food, and we fell into a silence just concentrating on what was in front of us. After finishing dessert, I had made my excuses and left to go to bed but he stopped me mid-step, wrapping his arms around me, whispering words of forgiveness that I knew truly came from the heart. He had hurt me bad and owning up to that admission had be the one reason I had relented so quick. I wanted my Joel back, the fun loving, big hearted beautiful guy that stole my heart. He showed me over and over how much he was sorry in the best way he knew how, and I was only too happy to let him. Those past few days we reconnected and became even stronger. After reinforcing into him that drink was not the answer, I told him I would not put up with that kind of behaviour and that when he experienced those dark moments to come to me, to seek solace through me. I didn’t ever want to see him in that state ever again.

Elijah was far angrier, acting like a complete child that all of his plans he’d been busy putting into action had now ground to a complete halt. But after many days of slowly trying to win him back round, I relented and let him discuss plans for the future wedding. I kept it to a minimum telling him our final year was my priority, then we could go all out with the wedding.

My leg had finally got back to full strength after the accident. It had not been as straight forward as first thought. It had taken a lot of hard work and physio to slowly bring it back up to how it was. I had low days where I just got so emotional over the fact I had been the one to put myself in that position, to gamble my future over a moment of madness. Joel had taken the brunt at times as I selfishly blamed him for his part, and he apologised over and over. Then I would have the guilt trip from hell and spend my time telling him that none of this was his fault. It felt like we were going around in circles at times, but we finally broke the cycle. Joel and Elijah were the ones I leaned on the most and became my support system to get me through that traumatic period.

Mike surprised me most of all by changing his philandering ways and finally settling down with a frank but sweet blonde-haired, pixie-like girl called Kara. We were all in complete shock when he announced it to us all, but I was finally proud that he was hanging up his player shoes and becoming the brother I always wanted him to be. I think losing Joel as a sparring partner had taken some of the shine for going out and after a near miss being wrongly accused of impregnating one of his many skank ladies had shaken him up at the prospect of being a dad. Thankfully, the girl in question came clean, assuring him that he’d only been brought into the whole mess by wanting to teach her ex-boyfriend a lesson. He was the dad and quickly stepped up to his ways, just happy to see Mike out of the picture. So after a long lecture from both my parents, my dad did his rant about being so reckless via Skype, much to our surprise he stopped going out and getting hammered. Within a month he brought home Kara and they had been together ever since.

My relationship with Mike was still a little strained. I think there would always be something there despite our best attempts to move on. He and Joel had fallen back effortlessly into their friend role. Joel didn’t have any grievance over Mike and just wanted things to go back to normal. They hung out, went to football and played Xbox, but Mike made Joel swear to never mention me in any kind of sexual capacity. He was my brother and could not bear to hear anything about me in that way. I had to agree I was happy for him and Kara, but I did not need to hear anything like that coming from her lips either.

As promised all three of us had visited Australia, I’d never travelled that far before and the plane ride was a complete killer. Joel tried his best to keep me sane and if it hadn’t been from my Kindle, I would never have made it through. But the grueling journey was worth the wait. During our month stay, we were shown the delights of Sydney, taking photographs of every single landmark to add to the digital frame when we got home. My dad took great pleasure in showing us around, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was our first port of call followed by the Sydney Opera House. I stood in complete amazement and awe at a sight I had seen so many times on TV now before me; it was an experience I never thought I’d get to do. Over the next few weeks, my dad took time off to show us the rest of Sydney and all it had to offer. The weather was just perfect, and I especially enjoyed watching Joel in his shorts, those legs of his always had me drooling. I finally got my wish to hold a koala, which was absolutely adorable till it grabbed my hair causing me to shriek and all hell to break loose. Joel quickly took control so I was able to admire it from arm’s length. I was slowly beginning to get some colour in my skin, though Joel still mocked me calling me Casper, I cursed him from having the kind of skin that tanned so easily. He would show off his body to perfection at night, and I would stare in awe at the bronzed god lying beside me. We were given the bedroom farthest away, but we still had to try to keep it to a bare minimum out of respect for my dad. Joel, at one point, shoved the pillow over my face during one amazing orgasm, he apologized afterwards but I was just glad he spared me my blushes the next day.

The year that had passed between us had made us stronger. Our relationship had gone from strength to strength. Sure, we had argued, and I had thrown a strop, but we learned balance and how to communicate better. Joel had become a manager at the pub and was playing small gigs with his band the odd evening. I had kept true to my word and became his biggest groupie. They attracted attention every pub they played at, but Joel made it quite apparent that he was not available in that capacity no matter how much attention the ladies threw his way. Singing helped to build his confidence, and I couldn’t help admire watching the man I loved come alive on stage. He poured his heart and soul into all his lyrics, leaving me breathless with each song he sang. I was his muse, and I could hear it in his music, all the love and emotion he was overwhelmed with. It was everything I had ever hoped to be loved so passionately. I was just grateful that right now we had our happy ending.

This takes me back to graduation.

“Isabelle Adams.”

I cringed just wanting to die rather than face the crowds of people, but Elijah gave me a quick shove and before I knew it, I was shaking hands with the Dean. I heard a loud cheer, and I sneaked a look over to see everyone grinning away, clapping. I tried to keep my focus to not trip over the gown and end up sprawled out on stage. My eyes flicked over to my proud parents and fiancé who beamed with delight mouthing the words ‘I love you.’ I nodded back in reply; it was all I could manage.

Elijah soon followed and he squealed the moment he met back up with me, which sent a few disapproving glares our way.

“O-m-g Iz, we’ve actually graduated, amazing things are ahead for us, I can just feel it,” he all but screamed. He had no volume control what so ever.

“I know, but I think I need a lie down after this, just a few weeks to recuperate.” I was seriously exhausted, who knew graduations were so tiring. I was dreading all the planning that would go into the wedding.

“Ahh see Sam has surprised me with an amazing trip to the Caribbean.” He grinned in delight.

Show off.

“Errr jealous.” I couldn’t lie, I was green with envy. Being sprawled out on a beach seemed pretty perfect right now.

“So you should be, I am going to come back a bronzed goddess,” he replied rather too smugly.

“I’m sure you will.” I rolled my eyes at how amazing he’d look.

“Now, now, Casper, don’t be jealous.” He snorted.

“You know that joke wasn’t funny the first time ’round.” I snapped. I was so over all the Casper jokes, it seemed like everyone was in on it.

“It so was, never mind I could pay for you a spray tan.”

Oh he was taking the piss now.

“I’m fine the way I am.” I huffed. If I was pale, then so be it.

“That you are but a little colour would do you the world of good.”

“Err I have some colour from Australia,” I protested. I had actually changed several shades to give my skin the glow it needed.

“Did you even see the sun while you were there?”

I pursed my lips and glared not offering him a reply, but my attention was soon averted elsewhere when my dad approached me smiling hard.

“There’s my baby girl, god, I’m so proud seeing you up there. You’re going to do great things, I can just tell,” he gushed.

“Thanks, Dad.” I blushed slightly at his words but he was my dad after all, it was a given that he would be biased in that way.

“I’m so happy I could be here to see this, I’ve missed you all since you left.” His admission made me sad. The distance definitely was a killer.

I nodded in agreement. “I know and we’ve missed you, where’s Mum?” My eyes scanned the room for her whereabouts.

“Oh she was busy chatting to the lady beside her, hang on, there she is.” He pointed over to a fast approaching mum.

“Izzy, I’m so proud, all your hard work finally paid off.” She encased me in a hug before I even had time to respond.

“Thanks, Mum,” I mumbled into her jacket. I caught Joel smirking in the background, and I gave him the evil eye. He would pay for this later. After pulling back, I managed to draw breath.

Mike and Kara headed over all smiles. “Proud of you, little sis, though I was waiting for you to trip mid-ceremony.” He winked, and I was surprised I hadn’t too.

“Mike, don’t be so mean,” my mother chided, batting him playfully. Joel curled his arm around my back and kissed my hair silently telling me not to rise to his teasing.

“Don’t listen to this idiot, you looked good up there. You’re going to go onto amazing things. Make sure I get free tickets.” Kara winked her green eyes twinkled with humour and I grinned.