Thursdays (The Wait Book 1)

  Thursdays

  The Wait, Book 1

  by Harper Bentley

  Check out other titles by Harper Bentley:

  The Powers That Be series:

  Gable (The Powers That Be Book 1)

  Zeke (The Powers That Be Book 2)

  Loch (The Powers That Be Book 3)

  Ryker (The Powers That Be Book 4)

  CEP series:

  Being Chased (CEP #1)

  Unbreakable Hearts (CEP #2)

  Under the Gun (CEP #3)

  The High Rise series

  The Fighter

  Serenity Point series:

  Bigger Than the Sky (Serenity Point Book 1)

  Always and Forever (Serenity Point Book 2)

  True Love series:

  Discovering Us (True Love #1)

  Finding Us (True Love #2)

  Finally Us (True Love Book 3)

  True Love: The Trilogy: The Complete Boxed Set

  http://harperbentleywrites.com/

  Copyright © 2016 Harper Bentley

  Digital Edition: November 2016

  Editors: Franca, Mel & Sam

  Cover image licensed by Shutterstock

  Cover Photo design by Jada D’Lee Designs

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locations is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior express, written consent of the author

  Dedication

  To all the broken hearts

  You’re just proof that

  love is real…

  Acknowledgments

  To Kane Caldwell, aka Oscar, A bazillion-kabillion thanks for helping me get through another one! I’m still shocked that we made it…and that the FBI hasn’t shown up at my door…which means they’re on their way to your house first. P.S. DTMHTLML ;)

  To Franca, Mel & Sam, I keep thanking you over & over & it just doesn’t seem to get the job done. But from the very bottom of my heart, thank you! You make this so much easier on me! You guys are the best EVER & I love you!

  To the Harlots & Hellbenders, Oh, how you lovelies just never cease to amaze me! Thank you for your endless support & promoting my books! You guys rock my friggin’ world! <3 you hard!

  Anne Mercier, Your friendship means the world to me! You are the most generous and sweetest person ever! I’m so glad you’re around because my world would be so boring without you in it. Love you, toots! Xo

  TC Matson, Thank you for always being there to cheer me on! You know, ‘cause I can be a bit pessimistic at times. Yep. You’re shocked, I know. Lobe you & I’ll be returning the cheer favor soon!

  Erin Spencer, Thank you for always hooking me up at the last minute. I’m thinking you’re starting to figure out my MO now so I’m past the shocking you stage. <3 you more!

  To the many bloggers who’ve spread the word about my books, thank you x a kajillion. Know that you are appreciated GOBS!

  And to the readers, this is all for you. Thank you for making my dreams come true <3

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Chapter 1—Birdie

  Chapter 2—Beck

  Chapter 3—Birdie

  Chapter 4—Beck

  Chapter 5—Birdie

  Chapter 6—Beck

  Chapter 7—Birdie

  Chapter 8—Beck

  Chapter 9—Birdie

  Chapter 10—Beck

  Chapter 11—Birdie

  Chapter 12—Beck

  Chapter 13—Birdie

  Chapter 14—Beck

  Chapter 15—Birdie

  Chapter 16—Beck

  Chapter 17—Birdie

  Chapter 18—Beck

  Chapter 19—Birdie

  Chapter 20—Beck

  Chapter 21—Birdie

  Chapter 22—Beck

  Chapter 23—Birdie

  Chapter 24—Beck

  Chapter 25—Birdie

  Chapter 26—Beck

  Chapter 27—Birdie

  Chapter 28—Beck

  Chapter 29—Birdie

  Chapter 30—Beck

  Chapter 31—Birdie

  About the Author

  Sneak Peek-Blurred Edges

  Prologue

  We always know how it will end.

  Always.

  If you think I’m wrong, stop fooling yourself.

  And I can tell you exactly how it ends.

  It’ll be the one thing about the person that made you fall in love with them in the first place that eventually becomes what you hate most about them in the end.

  With Beck it was his rational side.

  At first I loved that he was so pragmatic and practical. Logical.

  So of course, I now hate that about him.

  We were twenty-four.

  We fell in love.

  We promised we’d make it no matter what.

  I haven’t talked to him in two years.

  So much for fucking promises.

  How do you live with yourself when the woman you promised to love forever is dying yet you find the goddamned time to connect with another?

  That was my life.

  I don’t expect you to feel sorry for me. It was my fault.

  But there was something about Birdie that drew me to her.

  Made me want her.

  Even as my own wife lay waiting to live again.

  Christ.

  But things have a way of working out in the end, even if we fucking hate everything about it.

  I haven’t talked to Birdie in two years. I miss her. I still want her.

  I just can’t seem to justify it in my head to have what I want.

  Chapter 1—Birdie

  I always thought that when you found “the one,” life somehow became easier. But I soon discovered that’s not always the case.

  I met Mason Chapman when we were sophomores in high school, and, dang, was he charming. Handsome. Popular. His sun-bronzed brown hair seemed to do whatever the heck he wanted it to with little effort—usually hanging somewhat long on the back of his neck—which was just hot. He had soulful brown eyes that I believed could make even the hardest heart melt. Finish the whole thing off with that athletic body of his—I was pretty sure the school could’ve sold tickets to all us giddy girls so we could view him during track season when he removed his shirt in practice—and, holy crap, he was just something else. He’d caught my sixteen-year-old eye immediately. Of course, he’d caught the eye of every other girl in school too, he was that cute.

  And the fight was on.

  Well, not literally, but I did fight for him and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. I mean, imagine a seventeen-year-old boy surrounded daily by swoony teenage girls all vying for one second of his attention as he fended them off like he was some boy band hottie and they were contending to be his number one groupie.

  Yep. I’m rolling my eyes too.

  I soon grew tired of trying to garner his attention and became the one who played it cool, and that somehow worked. I guess because I wasn’t one of the gazillions trying to catch his eye, I got the guy.

/>   And I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

  Oh, he’d informed me that it was my long brown hair and green eyes that had captured his attention, not to mention my “tight, round ass,” but I knew my aloof attitude was what really reeled him in. Whatever it was, I was glad and from day one I was thoroughly and completely hooked on Mason Chapman.

  We dated throughout high school with only one blip at the end of our senior year: Allison Mannis, or The Menace, as my friends and I called her.

  Allison wasn’t happy unless every guy in school was drooling after her. She already had a college-aged boyfriend, but that wasn’t enough for her. Nope, she hadn’t been content until every guy from ninth grade up had “Liked” the Instagram pictures she’d posted of herself in a very tiny bikini, her campaigning ultimately leading to tons of jacking-off fodder for the boys, I was sure.

  That had caused a two-week breakup between Mason and me because through snooping, I’d found out that he, along with the rest of the male population at Fairview High School, had liked all her pictures, which had thrown me into a tizzy and I’d told him to get lost. It only makes me laugh now. Hell, if I’d been a teenage guy and had seen those pictures, I’d probably have done the same. They were pretty hot. Oh, and now since Allison is married, has had two kids and lost that bikini body, I can be even more forgiving. So, I’m a bitch. Whatever.

  Anyway, Mason and I made up—after he sent a shit ton of flowers to my house which had had my mom begging me to get back with him. I think what made me forgive him, though, were the cards included with the bouquets saying things such as, “I’ll never like another picture again,” “You’re the only one for me,” “I’m miserable without you,” and “You’re so much hotter in a bikini.” But the clincher— “Your pics are the only ones I want to masturbate to”—had me laughing hard and I’d called him, declaring that all was forgiven.

  After high school, I went on to attend NYU majoring in accounting while he was accepted into Columbia going the business route, wanting to become an investment banker like his dad. After our freshman year, we moved into a small apartment together and life became pretty hectic with school and jobs. Mason worked as a runner on Wall Street which led to an internship as a junior investment banker for his dad’s firm, and I worked in the office of my dad’s sub sandwich restaurant balancing the books.

  While most of our nights were spent studying, we had each other and that was all we needed.

  Fast forwarding to two weeks after our college graduations, I’d just returned home from taking the second part of the CPA exam and I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was eat a pint of Half Baked—while scarfing down gummy bears—and veg, watching mindless television. I’d pulled on a pair of Mason’s gray sweatpants, pulling the string tie as tightly as I could which kept them from just slipping down my hips. Then ridding myself of my bra, I’d donned one of his tank top tees and managed to put my hair up in a messy bun.

  I looked fabulous.

  On his way home from his third internship with a well-known financial holding company, Mason had called.

  “Babe, just making sure you’re there.”

  “Yeah. I am. And I’m exhausted. If I have to answer one more pension-plan question, I’ll scream,” I stated from where I sat cross-legged on the couch.

  He laughed. “I’ll be sure to keep my retirement details to myself then.”

  “Good.”

  “I’ll be home in ten. Can’t wait to see you,” he said before ringing off.

  Yeah. I was sure he couldn’t wait, because I so looked the part of someone he’d want to see right then.

  And, damn it, isn’t stress a bitch? Before I could change the channel, I was suddenly shedding tears after watching one of those mistreated animal commercials while one of the saddest songs ever recorded in the history of humankind played in the background. So sobbing into my ice cream carton—having finished off half of it during the ad itself, ugh—I heard Mason come in.

  “Honey, I’m home!” he called goofily.

  Through my tears, I called back, “I’m in here.” Sniff. “And I’m eating junk food that’ll make my hips huge and you won’t want me anymore!” Choked sob.

  “Oh, sweetheart, you always know how to turn me on!” he hollered in return.

  I snorted out a weepy chuckle at how comfortable our relationship was.

  When he came into the living room, I saw the side of his mouth curl up. “You watched one of those commercials again, didn’t you?”

  I nodded tearfully and sniffled as I set my ice cream on the end table.

  “Babe. You’ve gotta stop doing that.” He shook his head as he looked at me all, What am I going to do with you?

  My breath hitched when I explained, “They’re just so…sad. And I didn’t grab the remote in time.” I held the controller up, waving it at him as I said this.

  “So, how was the test?”

  His question made me suck in another sniveling breath as I let out a groan.

  “That rough, huh?”

  I nodded, lamenting, “Just long.”

  “I’ll show you something long,” he answered with a twinkle in his eye.

  This made me giggle as I wiped my fingers under my eyes. “Oh, I know you can.”

  “So,” he drawled, canting his head to the side and looking at me with mock concern. “You gonna be okay?”

  I huffed out a breath and rolled my eyes. “I think so. God, I’m such a baby.”

  “But you’re my baby.” He bent to kiss me, then without further ado, knelt in front of me in one of only three business suits he owned which made me frown.

  “Mase! What’re you doing? You’ll ruin the knee!” I cried watching as he reached inside the suit jacket and pulled out a small box opening it and producing a gorgeous diamond ring.

  Annnd cue more waterworks on my part.

  “Birdie, I love you with damn near my whole heart.” He smirked.

  Through my tears, I smacked his arm and laughed.

  “No, seriously, baby, you have it all.” He smiled at me so sweetly, so lovingly, I choked on another sob. “So, with that all being said, Bernadette Elizabeth Winchester, would you do me the very high honor of becoming my wife?”

  Pretty sure I fainted.

  Chapter 2—Beck

  I remember thinking the first time I laid eyes on Sonya that she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

  We’d met in early October at the Sor-Frat Bash senior year at Penn State. My roommate Paul and I were baseball players not frat boys, but the Bash was always a huge party, so we went every year for the free booze and to watch drunk girls make out with each other.

  Yeah, yeah. I’m a guy. That shit’s hot. Get over it.

  Now, I’d dated my fair share of pretty girls in my life—dated being the equivalent of fucked—and a few I’d even considered to be girlfriends. But not one of them had made me even contemplate getting serious.

  Until I met Sonya.

  Seeing her up on that picnic table dancing so seductively to “Change (In the House of Flies)” by the Deftones, the smile on her face so wide and beautiful, as she slowly waved her arms above her head, her hands and fingers doing some weird rolling motion like she was summoning fairies or some shit, had me mesmerized.

  But here was the thing—and had I not been so captivated by her, I regret to say this probably would’ve been a deal breaker to my shallow twenty-two-year-old self. Sonya wasn’t beautiful in the traditional sense of the word. She carried probably an extra ten or fifteen pounds on her medium frame, different from the typical “fit” girls I usually dated. She had long, black hair, which again was different from the blondes I was normally attracted to. And she was tall. I tended to date more petite girls.

  So what was it about her that caught my eye?

  She was so free in that moment, so happy, and I wanted that for myself.

  I wanted her.

  I’d gone to the table and held my hand out for her to take. When she noticed me
, she shot that gorgeous smile down at me then took my hand allowing me to help her down.

  “Thanks, handsome,” she’d said with a laugh then she’d twirled holding my hand above her head as if it’d been I who’d spun her.

  Her long peasant skirt flitted up at the bottom with her revolution and she’d thrown her head back to laugh, which I’d thought made her the most stunning woman I’d ever seen.

  And I was hooked.

  I’d convinced her to go to Merrill’s for coffee and pie with me, where we’d talked until the sun had come up, learning each other. I’d found out that from age seventeen, she’d lived with her aunt and uncle after her mother, father and brother were killed when their car had spun out of control on the ice and slammed into a tree on their drive back from a ski trip in the mountains. She explained that she hadn’t gone because she’d had a job interview at an ice cream parlor which was when she confided she only ate ice cream when she was sad.

  Hearing all this had my protective instincts roaring, and it was as if I subconsciously vowed from that moment on to try to keep her safe always.

  After that, we barely spent an hour apart. I’d been set to graduate with my master’s degree in December, having doubled up on classes the past two years and then taking several summer classes to push things along. I’d sustained a baseball hit to the head the previous season, and when the doctors wouldn’t release me to play again, I’d said, fuck it, and taken all the classes I could. Just before graduating, I’d consequently gotten a job as an industrial engineer in New York City with a major pharmaceutical company. Since Sonya hadn’t completed her degree in sociology—with which she’d planned on becoming a social worker—I’d asked her to go with me, she’d agreed, and we’d decided she’d finish her education after the move.

  Just after Christmas and right before New Year’s, we’d driven the almost three hours to New York City one weekend and found a loft apartment to rent. As a surprise, I’d booked us a room at the Ritz-Carlton at which she’d screamed in glee making me chuckle at her enthusiasm.