Page 2 of Jake

He hands me a worn shoebox with drawings all over it. There are hearts and lipstick kisses on it, and it says,Lea & Jake 4everinside the hearts all around the box. I know it’s something that she wrote on and has clearly opened a hundred times. I’ll treasure it and remember every day that I had her love, but will she still love me when I come back for her?

Why did he give this to me?

Lea

The day my heart broke.

I stand on the sidewalk, watching as a car pulls out of the neighbors’ driveway. My heart crumbles to pieces as the passenger in the backseat stares at me with a promise in his eyes. I replay the words he told me on my tenth birthday in my head. “You’re my girl, and I’ll love you for the rest of my days, Lea.”

Jake’s aunt is hauling him away to live in another state with the entire family we had no idea he had. That damn evil wench was stealing him away after all these years. They should never have brought him in the first place, dumping him on his father’s doorstep and into my path, only to rip him from me. Granted, it was his mother who did it before she died, but still, it’s not fair.

I’d fallen in love with the boy next door, and now he’s gone to live a different life and will obviously find someone else to give his heart and body to. We’ve only shared the tiniest peck on the cheek, but he promised one day I’d be his wife. He’d sworn that to me on my tenth birthday when he declared that I was his.

I thought he was silly back then. Now, my heart knows that he was just waiting for me to grow up. Tears fill my eyes, but I can’t let anyone see that my heart’s broken. No, I push them away and storm back inside our amazing home where my wonderful family lives—our perfect family where everyone and everything is just effortlessly put together—but my heart is in pieces.

The boy I’ve loved since before I even knew what it meant has been taken from me to live somewhere else. Drying my face, I hide in my room until there’s a knock at my door. “Sweetheart, can we come in?” my mother asks.

“I’m not in the mood to talk,” I grumble through my pillow, wanting them to just leave me alone.

“Then we just want you to listen,” my father says. I don’t want to speak to him or hear what he has to say most of all. This is his fault. All of this is his fault. He’s the reason Jake is gone and living away from me and he did it on purpose, and my heart can’t reconcile that right now no matter what excuse my father has. It was all my fault after he found my shoebox full of Jake trinkets and notes I wrote to him but never sent. I’ve kept them over the years and have read them many times, wondering if he really felt the same.

“No, thanks.” I ignored my parents for a few minutes, and then they finally walked away after a moment.

Chapter One

Jake

Present Day

“How was your first case?” I’ve taken on corporate law with my uncle and his firm at the ripe age of twenty-two, because nepotism is one hell of a thing and I’m a gifted bastard on a mission. Having graduated law school just six months ago, I’m a genius with only one thing on my mind, and that is achieving success so that I can get back to my true heart’s desire,Lea Black.

“Great. I’ve gotten the bastard nailed to the wall, and I’ll be seeing a large cut of the money from the fees so I consider it a huge win.”

As the heir to my mother’s family fortune, I’ve been slowly creating a life for Lea and me over the past six years since I was pulled from her side. It was a day that nearly broke me, but I knew I’d find my way back to her. I have every intention of doing so very soon, and the wait is nearly over.

“Good. Now, how is that other matter that you’ve been working on?” He nudges me with his elbow, and I’m completely confused.

“What matter?” I ask, wondering what my uncle is talking about. He and my aunt took me in when my grandparents died a year after I moved to New York. It was then that I learned that I inherited pretty much the entire family estate, making me insanely wealthy, but I couldn’t claim it until I was twenty-one. I didn’t need my career as a lawyer, but I still had a lot to prove to Black when it came to his daughter.

“The part of your life you don’t talk about no matter how much your aunt and I try to get you to open up about?” Oh, now I understand where he’s going with this bullshit. I roll my eyes and do my best to remain calm because he’s been good to me all these years. Every month or so, he brings up my dating life and I remind him that I’m not interested in dating anyone. He insists I date one woman in particular, but I refuse to have anything to do with the woman—or any woman, for that matter.

“Don’t start. I’m not going to date anyone, let alone Rachael. I don’t care if she’s the boss’shotdaughter that all the other associates want. I’m not interested.” I use the word “hot” mockingly because she’s no different than any other overly plastic, makeup-wearing woman around. The guys fall at her feet, but I don’t give her any notice, and it’s probably why she wants me even more.

I’ve worked day in and day out to prove myself worthy to my family and earn the inheritance that I was given. I graduated from law school years in advance only for them to push a woman who will never be the love of my life on to me. I haven’t forgotten my queen—the only woman who has owned my heart and the only woman who will be in my bed. Soon, Lea will be mine, and I will have her.

I’ve loved Lea so long that I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have her in my heart. I can still remember the time when her brother Anderson laid me out in their backyard and she came to my side to tend the wound. It was then that I knew she’d be a wonderful wife and mother.

Nothing like the mother I never knew and everything like the mother she’d known and loved. She had amazing parents, even if they wanted nothing to do with a kid like me hovering around their little angelic princess. Frankly, looking back at it, I couldn’t blame them.

I’ll never forget the look in her father’s eyes the day I left; it wasn’t one of joy like I thought it would be. He never liked it when I was around his little girl and made it clear that he hated my father and even purposely sent him away. It was his fault that my family had been called in to get me before I ended up in the system. A part of me knew I owed him, and yet, I still resented him for what he did. He took me away from Lea, leaving her available for other boys to steal her heart.

I’ve lost the love of my life, and who knows if she’ll ever want me after all this time. Will she even remember me? Does her heart beat for someone else? She was fourteen when I left, and although my love was cemented in stone, hers was only beginning.

“Just think it through.” There’s nothing to consider. My uncle and I have been through this numerous times. “Rachael would be a great wife and mother. Not to mention, she’d be excellent for photo ops.”

“It’s a law firm, not Hollywood. Besides, I have already thought it through, and it’s a hell no.” I stand up and stare at the man, my will ten times stronger than his. He sees there’s no moving me and backs away.

“Well, don’t forget about the gala tonight.” I give him a curious stare, wondering what he has up his sleeve. He continues. “You’re representing the firm and our family, so you’ll have to remain professional.” That’s easy because that is all I ever am.

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