BLURB
Ben
I know why I lost her. I was too serious. I was too practical. I was grounded when I should’ve been dreaming about forever with Jess.
Over time, this wore on her, all her big exciting ideas and all the ways I shut them down. No wonder she handed me my ring back and left town. No wonder she hadn’t been back in ten years. No wonder she’d married someone else, leaving me with memories of sunsets at the beach and the somedays we planned for the future we’d never live.
So, I built a lift without her. My father and I opened the second division of Sunset Builders in New York, and to my surprise, I stayed busy, almost busy enough not to notice the loneliness.
While I was on a job site, my little sister booked an appointment with a woman who lived on Madison Avenue. A quick bathroom and kitchen remodel, she’d said. I should have asked more questions because when I arrived and the door opened memories came flooding back.
Jessica had returned. If I’d learned anything in her absence it was that anything worth doing was worth being done well, and anything worth having was worth fighting for. Maybe by the time the condo was done, Jessica would give me a second chance.
Jessica
All those years ago, Ben had been right to try to keep me grounded. I should’ve listened. The falls didn’t hurt as bad that way.
Instead, I wanted a bigger life in a bigger place and I never appreciated the beauty of living in a small town with a huge support system. So, I left town without so much as a goodbye chasing a silly dream. I alienated myself, moved to a strange city where I knew no one, and chased after something that took me down a dark path.
I married the man who promised me the sun, moon, and stars, but delivered blinding blows. Sometimes, I thought I’d die before I escaped the nightmare. I knew my only way out would be to run...again. This took more years than I could count. Years of me squirreling away money, and years of me hiding in the dark so that no one would see my bruised face in the light of day.
Then my grandfather died. He left me money and a gorgeous condo in New York. While my husband was away on a month-long trip, my best friend drove me to New York. My plan: to upgrade the condo, sell it, and leave my current life behind.
Little did I know when I had called contractors to get some quotes that Ben would show up on my doorstep. He swore we could make more dreams real, but this time I was the grounded one. This time, I could only see how it would never work. I’d made too many mistakes. Love was terrifying. And I never wanted to tie myself to anyone ever again.
After all, 425 Madison is the perfect place to fall in love.
Chapter 1
Ben
I pulled into Jessica's driveway and checked my pocket for the twentieth time since I had left the house, feeling the outline of the item it held. I swallowed hard and turned up the music, trying to calm my nerves. We both graduated from college yesterday, and we were setting out to celebrate together. I was about to get out of the car and go to the door when the porch light turned on.
The inside door opened, and Jessica came walking down the front steps. She looked amazing, her long blond hair flowing freely behind her, tight jeans that hugged her in all the right places, and a white T-shirt with a matching jean jacket overtop. I watched as she bounced down the stairs and smiled as she waved excitedly at me. Seconds later, she pulled the door open and hopped in, my car filling with the light scent of her jasmine perfume I had gotten her for her birthday a few weeks earlier.
"Hey," I said, leaning over and meeting her lips. "You ready to go?"
"MMMM... yes." She hummed as she kissed my lips. "Exactly what did you have in mind for tonight? Where are we going?" she asked, kissing me one more time before pulling her seatbelt across her.
"Let's go find out, shall we." I winked and reversed out of the driveway.
We drove up the coast, Jessica looking out over the water at the sailboats that were making their way into the harbor. Finally, I turned down an old dirt road and continued driving until we came to a crossroads. I made a left and pulled the car into a makeshift driveway.
"I thought we would come out here, to the site my dad and I have been working on. This way we can have some privacy, and I can show you what we've done to this old place."
"You guys are working on this? I always loved this place. I always wondered who used to live here, what they were like." She undid her seatbelt and slowly climbed out of the car into a field of overgrown grass.
We'd come out here last summer, and she had talked about what it would be like to fix up this old place together. She meandered toward the house, smiling to herself.
Reaching into the backseat of my car, I pulled out the red-checkered blanket and the picnic basket that I'd packed earlier and caught up to her. She was already up near the frame of the recent addition that we added. She looked around, a slight smile on her face.
"You're adding on to it?"
"Yes, it was rather small, so my dad decided it needed to be larger. It's only a frame now, but once the walls go up, it will be so much easier to envision," I said, dropping the blanket and basket down in a grassy area that had been recently cut.
I walked over and began showing her where things would go. "I know it doesn't look like much now, but just wait."
"I'm sure it will be amazing. I always loved this old house the way it was, and I can't wait to see what it looks like once it's finished."
After she had looked around a little more, I grabbed her hand and together we walked over to the blanket I had spread out. "I brought us a picnic."
"That sounds wonderful."
Jessica sat down first and patted the space next to her, looking up at me with her blue eyes. I knelt down, removing the small light from the picnic basket, and turned it on, lighting up the area in which we sat. I pulled out our dinner and opened the lids on the containers. "I hope that roast chicken and potato salad are okay?" I questioned.
"That sounds wonderful. I'm so hungry."
I reached into the basket and pulled out two forks, and we each took turns digging into each dish. We ate, talking about graduation and our plans for the future, as the crickets started their evening song. Once we had finished dinner and we put the containers back in the car, I rolled my jacket up under my head and lay back, staring up at the stars, Jessica cuddling into my side.
"One day, I want to build us a house like this," I whispered, kissing her forehead. "Our master bedroom will have a skylight so we can fall asleep looking up at the stars like we've done since we were kids. I will give you your dream country kitchen that you've been telling me you want. We'll have a second bedroom for when our little ones come along, and in the backyard, I'll build them a tree house, like the one I had in my backyard growing up," I whispered.
"You mean like the one I fell out of when I was ten and broke my arm." Jess laughed into my neck.