Prince's Secret Baby by Riley Rollins

Author:Riley Rollins [Rollins, Riley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

1

Tess

6 Months Ago

The thick, decadent aroma of chocolate cake wafts from the oven, filling the kitchen. My tummy growls. A Days of Our Lives rerun plays on the TV set in the den, and I half-listen to it as I beat the bowl of buttercream frosting sitting on the counter.

Lazy afternoons always feel the best to me. From my kitchen, the command post of our modest ranch-style house, I can do everything while I wait for my husband Roger to come home from his accounting job in Springville. I can prepare dinner, listen to the TV, watch the sun fall in the sky, and keep an eye on the neighborhood kids playing on the corner.

For the first couple years of our marriage, Roger worked here in Maple Ridge. Then they built the new highway to Springville, 50 miles west, and all the jobs here started disappearing. His included.

I always thought I'd have a high-powered career as a famous chef and restauranteur, but life got in the way after Hunter left during the summer after senior year. Mom was already long gone, and then Dad got sick with cancer too and needed me to take care of him. I knew how much he wanted me to have a secure future, so somewhere along the line I met Roger and completely gave up my foolish fantasy of Hunter ever coming back for me.

"You're being irrational," Dad said to me before he died. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. He told you not to wait, and you shouldn't."

When I was 18, Hunter seemed like my soulmate. But as time passed, that idea faded. I missed him for a long time, but I slowly came to accept that most high school romances really aren't meant to last forever, and that I would meet someone else who made me feel the way he did.

Being a housewife to Roger isn't bad, I guess. He's an accountant. We have a stable home life, even if his salary isn't what it used to be, and even though he isn't able to give me a baby. I can't blame him for that. It's not like it's his fault.

I finish beating the frosting, put a strip of saran wrap over the bowl, and wipe my sticky fingers on the apron that covers my curvy figure. I guess I'm just big-boned, because once I passed 25, I just seemed to develop new curves every day. Men like them, though, I know Roger does. They're healthy curves. I go for a two-mile jog each morning, weights twice a week, and the occasional spin class with my best girlfriend Meg. But a girl can't just eat leafy greens every day. Food is life, food is pleasure.

I suck a stray blob of frosting off my thumb. It's heaven.

All in all, my life here in Maple Ridge could be a lot worse, so I try not to worry too much about dreams that have fallen by the wayside. Instead I try to look at the glass half-full.

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