BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (52 page)

Chapter
52

Tyler

The next day, we arrived back at Ashley’s
father’s house and I had to admit that I was fucking nervous.

I knew that Ashley was pretty nervous too,
just from the way that she squeezed my hand as we made our way down the beach,
but she kept her spirits up.

The night before she was somewhat sad, but
in a way, she seemed pleased that she was finally going to get this whole mess
rectified; or at the very least, there should be some damn closure.

When her father answered the door, he
seemed gracious and welcoming to both of us. I thought that was an improvement
from the last time we had met.

At
least he didn’t try to take a fucking swing at me…
I thought as we walked into the house that was supposed to be our home, but had
changed into representing something that was so much worse than that for all of
us.

The eerie chill of the air was annoying as
shit, but I made do, considering I knew I was there for Ashley.
I
was there strictly for support. If everything went well, I planned to keep my
damn mouth shut. That was not something that came easy to me, but for the sake
of fucking compromise, I supposed I would give it a try.

Still, even with everything that went on,
I was kind of surprised, not only that I kept my promise to keep my mouth shut,
but also because for the first time, probably ever, Ashley and her father had a
good conversation without giving one another shit.

I didn’t really listen to the whole thing,
since it was none of my damn business, but from what I heard of it, the two of
them seemed to be working things out. There was no yelling and I would even go
as far as to say the two of them actually listened to one another.

If I was into that kind of sentimental
shit, it might have been beautiful, but my ass was just bored; which, I
guessed, all things considered, was a good thing.

At one point, Ashley got up and hugged her
father, which I took as a cue that things were getting patched up and we could
probably leave soon, which made me happy.

However, just as I was beginning to be
assured that things were winding down, I heard a familiar voice that I was sure
was going to fuck up everything.

“Oh, so you are siding with them, are
you?” My mother’s voice called as jealousy oozed from her pores.

I rolled my eyes and stood up, realizing
that this was now my cross to bear. “Yes, Mom. I’m siding with them. You made
your choice and I made mine.”

“Well, fuck you then!” she screamed as her
face screwed up into a scowl, before she spat on the floor. She looked past me
toward Ashley’s father and screamed, “Here’s your divorce papers, you dick! Now
you and your little whore can live happily fucking after with my son.”

This made me completely irate. “Shut the
fuck up!” I screamed, moving up to her, close enough so I towered over her. “I
will not stand for you talking about Ashley, or to her father that way.” She
cowered away from me as I added, “You need to leave, now!” At that, I snatched
the divorce papers out of her hands as I said, “I will take care of this. Don’t
worry, you will get divorced, but you sure as hell won’t get anything else.”

“You’re just like your father!” she
screamed with the same venom attacking her words as she spoke.

“Good!” I exclaimed. “Because I am sure as
hell not anything like you.”

At this, my mother’s mouth dropped opened
and she stomped away from the three of us, hopefully leaving us for good.

When I turned around, I was met by Ashley,
who ran into my arms and thanked me, before she immersed me in a long, passionate
kiss.

And for once, her father didn’t even
fucking mind.

Epilogue

Ashley

A year later, I sat across from my father
and my boyfriend, having dinner while another glorious summer came to a close.

After the divorce from Tyler’s mother, no
one had seen her, but that wasn’t such a bad thing.

Tyler had kept his word and had taken care
of all the proceedings, representing his mother, so that my father would not
have to give up everything he owned. In fact, Tyler had even exposed the court
system to what his mother was doing, which caused them to be very leery of her.

He seemed to have settled into our family
quite nicely. He was happy to be able to be a part of the traditions that my
father had resurrected once again, in memory of my mother. And because of that,
along with my father’s slow, yet steady re-emergence back into the way he acted
before my mother died, the beach house, as well as the house that he owned on
the mainland, was beginning to feel a lot more like a home.

Tonight, however, we were taking it easy.
The three of us gazed out over the ocean and enjoyed the view.

I sighed and looked between my father and
Tyler and realized, with some regret, that we would not be able to squeeze many
more nights like this out of the summer.

After all, I prepared to go back to school
for another year and Tyler was going back on his strong man tour. He had gotten
a sponsor in his trip around the country last year and this year, he was
beginning to make a good living doing exactly what he loved.

Even though I had only known him a year, I
knew that this was the happiest he had ever been. He had opened up a lot more
to me over the course of the year and I was starting to truly understand what
he was all about.

I felt as though I could tell him
anything, but what was better, I also felt as though he knew he could tell me
anything.

The bond that we had forged and the
relationship that we were building, I felt, was a strong one and I was fairly
certain that Tyler felt the same way.

“Hey, Ashley,” Tyler said, putting his
hand over my own, breaking me from my thoughts and forcing me back completely
into the present.

“Yes?” I answered casually, smiling at him
with ease.

“I uh…This seems like a good time,” he
said as he glanced over at my father, who nodded his head toward him and
smiled.

“A good time for what?” It was now that I
could feel Tyler’s hand trembling as it grasped tightly onto my own.

“Ha!” Tyler barked a laugh as I gazed
deeply into his eyes. “Oh fuck…” he stated carefully, before he gave another
nervous chuckle. “Shit…Forget I said that….Damn, I suck at this…”

My amused expression heightened, but I
couldn’t help the feeling of confusion that washed over me. I stared at him
with a hard, strange look in my eye, while my head automatically bent to the
side.

“What is it?” I asked, reaching out for
him.

He quickly caught my hand inside of his,
as though I had set off some kind of nervous reflex.

I gave a quick, quiet giggle as my eyes
passed over to my father, who I could see was also making very weird faces. It
was almost as though the two men were sharing a secret that I had no knowledge
of.

I narrowed my eyes before I passed another
glance between them and said, “Um. Dad…Tyler…What is going on?”

“I believe Tyler can answer that for you…”
my father said before I felt him nudge him underneath the table.

I looked at Tyler just as his eyes, like
laser pointers singed into my father, before he hissed something about throwing
him under the fucking bus.

My
prince charming…
I thought, amusing myself.

Then, after a sigh, Tyler grasped my one
hand with his and moved closer to me. At this, he looked deeply into my eyes
before he said, “I know I curse a lot…And I know that I have had a really,
really fucked up past.” He winced then, as though he didn’t mean to say it that
way, but continued. “I am not the best man. I have my faults, but you have
shown me how wonderful life truly can be. I love my life with you and you…you
are truly the best thing that has ever happened to me. I need you in my life
and I am ready to take the next step in order to ensure that I am always
standing by your side…”

“Oh my God…” I gasped under my breath as I
realized what was going on, while Tyler slid onto one knee. Instinctively, I
pulled my hand back from him and covered my mouth with my hands, which gave him
a moment to pull the tiny square box out of his pocket.

He looked up at me, just as he opened it
and exclaimed, “Ashley, will you marry me?”

“Oh my God, yes!” I screamed, reaching
down to kiss him as he came up to meet my lips.

As our lips touched, I heard my father
laugh in a happy, satisfied way, while a smile spread across Tyler’s lips as
well. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in closer.

By this point, my heart was beating so
fast while my mind was running a million miles a minute and all I could think
was,
I can’t believe this is happening.
But when we pulled away for a moment and my mouth opened, the words that came
out were, “I love you, Tyler, with all my heart.”

His beam widened as he squeezed me
tightly, looked deep into my eyes and answered, “Damn, Ashley, you know I love
you too!”

The
End

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STEPBROTHER
BESTIE

By
Alycia Taylor

Copyright
2016. All rights reserved.

Chapter
1

Valerie

Wow…He
really went through with it…
I thought as I eyed my
stepbrother. He was already home and packing his car, just as he had told us he
would when he had stormed away from the dinner table the night before.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

“What is it?” my boyfriend, Zachary asked
me before his eyes crossed between my gaze and down the street to where Shawn
was loading his car.

Looking back at him, I shook my head
again. “Oh, just Shawn…He’s in a rebellious stage.”

I supposed that was the best way to
describe it to him, without going through every grievance my stepbrother had.

Since turning eighteen, life for me had
gone from good to great. My mother and stepfather had given me the freedom that
I needed to flourish and I was taking advantage of it…responsibly, of course.
After all, I still had the rest of the year’s worth of good grades to earn
before going off to college.

I had big ambitions, and everything seemed
to be falling into place.

“What is he doing?” Zachary asked as we
both stopped to observe my stepbrother trying to shove the remainder of the
boxes into his car while my mother helped him.

I stared at the two of them for a while
before I answered.

Life for Shawn wasn’t as great as my own
was turning out to be. So for the past few years, he was bitter.

It was a shame that bitterness had caused
us to grow apart pretty drastically.
 
Before my parents, well, his father and my mother, got married, we were
friends. I had known Shawn since Kindergarten and we were best friends until
about ninth grade.

When our parents first started officially
dating about a year before, after years of flirting with one another, we had
thought that everything was going to fall right into place. Shawn would finally
have an official mother figure and I would have an official father.

Yet, our grand ideas quickly dissipated
after the wedding. As it turns out, living together under the same roof as
brother and sister didn’t go so well for us. Our friendship quickly turned to
rivalry and that dissolved the relationship we once had to almost nothing.

We still cared for one another, but not in
the way that we thought we always would.
 
I knew there was still a friendship there somewhere, but it was buried
under the regret and poison that had worked against it for the past three
years.

Of course, that was far too strange a
story to explain to Zachary, since I didn’t quite understand it all myself.

Therefore, I just answered, finally, “He’s
moving out…Going to live with his mom.”

Zachary stared at me with a hinged jaw and
a confused expression. “Doesn’t his mother ignore his very existence?”

I nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. I doubt she
could be very happy with actually having to take care of anyone but herself,
but she agreed to have him stay there.” I shrugged, not too sure about my
stepbrother’s mother.

I didn’t particularly like her, because I
saw what she had done to Shawn. Growing up, all he wanted was a relationship.
She would tell him that she wanted to see him and basically lie to him about
how much she missed him. But when he asked her when he was going to see her,
she would dodge the question, with an excuse at the ready, almost every time.