Forever My Love: A Christian Romance (The McKinleys Book 2) Read online

  Forever My Love

  By

  Kimberly Rae Jordan

  Copyright ©2015

  Kimberly Rae Jordan

  A man, a woman & their God.

  Three Strand Press publishes Christian Romance stories

  that intertwine love, faith and family.

  Always clean. Always heartwarming. Always uplifting.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations being used in reviews or articles about the book.

  This is a work of fiction. The situations, characters, names and places are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to locales, events, actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment and may not be re-sold or transferred via any method to any other individual. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please respect the hard work of the author who has spent many hours creating this story for your enjoyment and purchase your own copy of this eBook. Please do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials by illegally downloading or sharing this eBook. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Scripture taken from the New King James Version, Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

  Available Titles

  By Kimberly Rae Jordan

  (Christian Romances)

  ~*~ The McKinleys ~*~

  This Time with Love

  Forever My Love

  When There Is Love

  ~*~ Home to Collingsworth ~*~

  Home Is Where the Heart Is

  Home Away From Home

  Love Makes a House a Home

  The Long Road Home

  Her Heart, His Home

  Coming Home

  ~*~ Those Karlsson Boys ~*~

  Waiting for Rachel

  Worth the Wait

  The Waiting Heart

  Marrying Kate

  Faith, Hope & Love

  A Little Bit of Love:

  A Collection of Christian Romance Short Stories

  For the latest news on releases and sales for Kimberly Rae Jordan’s books, please sign up for her newsletter.

  http://eepurl.com/WFhYr

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  CHAPTER ONE

  BROOKE McKinley glanced over at her son, watching as he very precisely measured the batter into the paper-lined muffin tins. A lock of his hair, a few shades darker than hers, slipped down across his brow.

  Setting the dirty measuring cups into the warm water in the sink, Brooke said, “When these are done, we’ll take some across to Mrs. Davis. Do you think she’ll like them?”

  “Yep. She loves blueberry muffins.”

  “I think she’ll be particularly pleased when you tell her that you made them.” Brooke rinsed the measuring cups and set them in the dish drainer to dry. She wiped down the counter with a wet rag, glancing up when the doorbell rang. Using the edge of her apron, she wiped the sweat from her forehead then lifted the strap over her head. “Finish filling the tins but don’t put them in the oven until I get back.”

  She dropped the apron on the counter and headed for the front door. Moving away from the kitchen did nothing to cool her off. They’d picked one hot day to do their baking. She hoped it wasn’t anyone too important at the door because she was answering it in her shorts and tank top. If they didn’t like it, too bad. It was just too hot to be wearing anything else.

  Whoever had pushed the doorbell wasn’t standing directly in front of the screen door. She’d left the inner door open earlier in hopes of getting a good cross breeze through the house. Hadn’t really worked, she thought as she reached out to unlock the screen door and push it open.

  When her gaze landed on the man standing on her porch, Brooke wondered momentarily if by opening the door she’d opened a rift to another universe. Perhaps the heat was messing with her. Or maybe it was just that it had been ten years since she’d last seen him. All Brooke knew for certain was that the man in front of her was the last person she’d expected to be standing on her porch any day, let alone a boiling hot Saturday afternoon.

  The guy looked like Lincoln Hamilton and yet… didn’t. The Lincoln Hamilton she’d known would never have been caught dead in pressed slacks, a cotton button-up shirt and loafers. And that haircut. Way too conservative and precise for Lincoln Hamilton. Clearly ten years had changed him in ways she could never have imagined.

  Whatever the reason he had for standing on her front porch, she wasn’t going to give him the pleasure of thinking she recognized him after all this time, especially since he really didn’t look the same. “Can I help you?”

  The man pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head. Familiar blue eyes set in a face of sharp angles and planes regarded her seriously. “Brooke McKinley?”

  Okay, so they were both going to play the I don’t recognize you game. “Yes, that’s me.”

  “My name is Lucas Hamilton.” The man held out his hand. “I’m wondering if I could talk to you for a few minutes.”

  Lucas Hamilton? Brooke automatically shook his hand, her mind scrambling for an explanation. Lincoln had never mentioned having a brother. Especially not one that looked so much like him. She stepped out onto the porch, letting the screen door close behind her.

  “I’m here about my brother, Lincoln.”

  Brooke crossed her arms, resisting the urge to glance over her shoulder into the house. “He’s not here.”

  The man—Lucas—nodded. “Yes, I know.” He cleared his throat. “I am here because you and your son were mentioned in my brother’s will.”

  Brooke’s eyes widened. Lincoln actually knew about Danny? And this visit was regarding his will? “What’s happened to Lincoln?”

  Lucas glanced away from her, but not before she saw grief in his eyes. “The plane he was in went down. No survivors.”

  The air whooshed from Brooke’s lungs. It had been years since she’d seen the man. In that time, she’d gone from affection—she would never say she had loved Lincoln Hamilton—to hate to anger and then simply…nothing. But it still wasn’t easy to hear that her son’s father was gone. She had always hoped for his sake that Lincoln would come around and at least try to be a father to their son. Now that would never happen.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Brooke said. Though she had no feeling of grief for Lincoln’s death, she knew it had to be difficult to lose a sibling.

  Lucas looked back at her, his gaze now devoid of emotion. He reached into his hip pocket and pulled out a folded paper. “Lincoln had this with his will.”

  When he held it out, Brooke just stared at the envelope. She recognized it. Ten years later and still she recognized it. It was the letter she’d sent to Lincoln to let him know he w
as going to be a father. She’d sent it to the apartment where he’d been staying while they’d been dating.

  She’d never received a response, so she’d just assumed he hadn’t gotten the letter. Now she knew he had. He’d just chosen to not acknowledge it. Or his son.

  Anger burned in her gut. What right did he have to mess up their lives now? If he wouldn’t claim Danny in life, he didn’t get to claim him in death either.

  “I don’t understand why you’re here. Lincoln wasn’t a father to my son.”

  Lucas seemed to realize she had no intention of taking the letter from him, so he shoved it back into his pocket. “I know he wasn’t the father he should have been to Danny, but with his death, Lincoln has made sure that he—and you—are taken care of.”

  “I don’t want anything from him,” Brooke said, pulling her shoulders back. “Danny and I are just fine on our own.” She didn’t miss his glance at the house and then the neighborhood. “Money isn’t everything.”

  Lucas lifted a brow at that remark. “I know my brother wasn’t the man he should have been when it came to his son, but there’s no need to reject what he’s offering for him now. It could change Danny’s life for the better.”

  As he said the words, Brooke realized it wasn’t the money she was rejecting. There was just something about this man that had her wanting to avoid him having any say in her life. At least Lincoln had understood her. Had understood her desire to live without anyone controlling her life. Back then she had lived for the adventure and the fun. In fact, that’s how he had lived his life, too. Brooke didn’t think for a minute that Lincoln had died in a plane crash on his way to a business meeting. He’d probably been flying somewhere to watch a volcano erupt. Or maybe to swim with sharks. Or to catch the biggest wave ever. The man had been an adrenaline junkie. And she’d loved living that life with him for four short months. She’d asked him a couple of times why he didn’t need to work and yet seemed to have an abundance of money. He’d said he did work but that his family was also financially well off.

  “Mommy?”

  Jerked from her journey down memory lane, Brooke turned to see Danny standing on the other side of the screen door. She glanced at Lucas and saw his gaze was pinned there, probably trying to get a clear look at his nephew. His dead brother’s son. She was at a point of no return because once Lucas got a look at Danny, he’d know without a doubt—if he even had any—that the boy was Lincoln’s son.

  With a sigh and fervent hope she was doing the right thing, Brooke turned toward the door and opened it. Looking back at Lucas, she said, “Would you like to come in?”

  Without hesitation, Lucas nodded and followed her into the entryway of her small home. Danny had moved to the side to let them in. Brooke went to him and slipped an arm around his shoulders. With a quick movement, he swiped at the errant curl that once again tumbled across his forehead.

  “Sweetie, this is Lucas Hamilton.”

  Danny shot her a startled look. He knew the last name. It was on his birth certificate. It was part of his last name. Daniel Lincoln McKinley-Hamilton. A mouthful for sure, but Brooke had wanted him to have her name as well.

  “Hello, Danny,” Lucas said.

  Brooke felt a spark of sympathy for this man who was clearly still grieving his brother’s death. She had no doubt he felt as if he were looking at his brother. Danny was Lincoln’s mini-me in every way but personality.

  “Hello.” Danny shook the hand Lucas extended to him. “Who are you? You look like my dad and have his last name.”

  “Your dad was my twin brother.”

  Twins? Well, that explained the similarity in appearance.

  Always one to pick up on subtleties in a manner that went far beyond his years, Danny said, “Was? He was your twin brother?”

  “Why don’t we go sit down?” Brooke suggested. Though she’d never hidden the identity of Danny’s father from him, she wondered then if she shouldn’t have been a little less open about the man. But that was the decision she’d made, so now her son was going to have to grieve a father who’d never taken the time to meet him, let alone be a regular presence in his life.

  Once seated on the couch, Brooke kept her arm around Danny’s shoulders. She pressed a kiss to his hair, trying to figure out the best way to break the news to him. Some might say she shouldn’t tell him, but she’d never held back before. She’d always encouraged him to experience the full range of emotions in his life. To appreciate the beauty. To laugh at the funny. To cry at the sad. And to grieve for a loss.

  “Lucas came today to let me know that Lincoln has passed away.” Brooke felt the jerk of her son’s body right to the very core of her heart.

  He bent his head, no doubt to keep his tears from spilling in front of this stranger. Brooke pulled him tight to her side and wrapped her other arm around him.

  Resting her cheek on his hair, she said, “Go ahead and cry, sweetie.”

  Though he’d never met the man, Danny knew a lot about him. Every question he’d ever asked about Lincoln, Brooke had done her best to answer. Lincoln’s picture was in a frame on the nightstand beside his bed. But now feeling her son’s shoulders shake silently, Brooke wished she’d been less forthcoming with the information about the man. Her answers and the stories she’d told Danny about Lincoln had made him very real to the little boy. And she knew he harbored a hope that one day his father might come to meet him. Now he’d have to grieve that man in a way he might not have had he not known so much about him.

  “You told him about Lincoln?”

  Brooke looked up to find Lucas watching Danny. She sensed his emotions were close to the surface as he observed his nephew’s grief. “Yes. I didn’t think it was fair to lie to him. He deserved to know about the man who played a part in bringing him into this world. Lincoln became very real to Danny because of that.”

  “I didn’t realize,” Lucas said, his brow furrowing. “I’m afraid we knew nothing about Danny until after Lincoln’s death. If we had…”

  “Danny was Lincoln’s responsibility, and it was his decision whether or not to be part of his life. Of course, I wish he’d made a different choice, but the fact that he didn’t doesn’t mean that Danny shouldn’t know about him.”

  Lucas continued to stare at Danny, his gaze full of emotion then he said, “Would you let him meet my mother?”

  “Your mother?” Brooke was taken off-guard by the question. In truth, she’d thought very little about Lincoln’s family. Of course, he would have had parents, but Brooke hadn’t spent much time thinking about them. If he couldn’t be bothered getting to know his son, she wasn’t going to waste time wondering about the grandparents or aunts and uncles Danny might have on the Hamilton side.

  “Yes. She’s been totally broken by Lincoln’s death. Seeing Danny would go a long way to helping her heal, I think.”

  “Let me talk with Danny about that first, please.” Brooke wasn’t going to agree to anything until she and Danny had a chance to discuss a few things first.

  A frustrated look crossed Lucas’s face, and for a moment, Brooke thought he was going to argue with her. She sensed he was the type of man who was used to getting his way. Well, he was in for a rude awakening in dealing with her. She wasn’t going to just say yes to everything he suggested. If it wasn’t best for Danny, she would be saying no.

  When he gave a quick nod, Brooke returned her attention to her son. She rocked her body back and forth as she held him close. Her world had been ripped apart when she’d been a little younger than Danny was now, and confusion and fear had ruled her life. She hadn’t understood her family’s rapid departure from their home in Africa. Hadn’t understood the reason for the underlying emotional turmoil as they’d tried to adjust to a new life in the cold temperatures of Minnesota. Because of those experiences, she’d determined that if she were ever a mother, she wouldn’t hide difficult things from her children. That she would help them to understand as best they could for their age. And she’d done tha
t with Danny.

  But right then she was questioning her decision. If Lincoln had remained a shadowy figure in Danny’s mind, his grief would have been less intense. Less real. Instead, he mourned a man who had become very tangible to him through the memories Brooke had shared over the years.

  The only consolation was that once he had grieved his loss, Danny could move forward without having the constant wondering if his father might one day show up and claim him. Of course, now she’d have to contend with another Hamilton man—one very different from the one she’d known ten years ago.

  CHAPTER TWO

  LUCAS watched the woman and boy sitting across from him on a faded fabric couch. He hadn’t been sure what to expect when he’d showed up at the house earlier. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure why he’d even come at all. The lawyers could have handled the initial contact.

  But something had propelled him out of the house on a Saturday afternoon to find them. And so he sat in an easy chair that was anything but easy on his behind. At least one spring poked through the covering of the chair, and the temperature in the cracker box size house was likely only a degree or two cooler than hell.

  Trying to distract himself from his discomfort, Lucas focused again on Brooke and Danny. Watching her with his nephew, he had no doubt the boy was well loved even if his home environment wasn’t the best. The house was in an old neighborhood and apparently had non-functioning air conditioning. This very maternal display by Brooke seemed to be at odds with the women Linc usually spent his time with. Those women had been as eager to jump out of planes, rappel down sheer rock surfaces and race fast cars as he had. Brooke McKinley didn’t immediately strike him as that sort of woman.

  Maybe it had been her looks that had drawn Lincoln in. Lucas would have had to turn in his membership card to the red-blooded man club if he didn’t notice her appearance. The white shorts she wore showed off legs that seemed to go on forever. And like her arms, they were lightly tanned. The dark blue tank top left her shoulders bare, and he could see a smattering of freckles on them. Her light auburn hair was pulled back in a braid and from the looks of it was crazy long. Most the women he interacted with wore their hair styled, never just…long. Her make-up free face revealed a few more freckles across her nose and cheeks.