A Broken Beautiful Beginning Read Online Free PDF Page B

him dripping water all over the patio. She’s oblivious to the tension in the atmosphere. Brent and Hunter watch silently from the steps of the pool. Hunter’s body is tense, eyes fixated on Connor standing near Willow. My mother is watching him from afar with concerned eyes and Anna is checking out his body; I’m pretty sure she’s admiring his ink.
    Connor eyes look down to Willow with a frown but it quickly vanishes as he bends down to her level.
    “I could ask you the same question kiddo.” He says with a smile tapping her nose.
    Willow puts her hands on her hips. “I’m Willow. Did you come to join the party?”
    Connor smiles, “Well Willow, I’m Connor…” he sticks his hand out and Willow shakes it. “And yes…I’m crashing this party.” He winks at her then stands and looks up to me.
    I smile as I make my way over to him; he opens his arms and hugs me tight.
    “I didn’t even know you were back Harley. We looked for you, you know. Caleb was so messed up after you left but I still wanted to hurt him so bad for what he did to you-”
    Willow tugs on the chain that disappears into the back of his denim pocket interrupting him mid-sentence.
    “Willow baby you’re being rude.” I scold her but Connor seems amused by my little girl’s attitude.
    She points her finger at him with a frown on her face, “You won’t hurt my daddy, okay? You can come to the party but you have to be good.”
    “What?” Connor looks at me confused.

    “I’m sure he will be a good boy Willow.” I hear the amusement in Caleb’s voice before I turn to see the smile on his face.
    “Daddy!” she runs and jumps into his arms giggling when he lifts her into the air.
    “ Daddy ?” I hear Connors soft voice beside me.
    I look up to him and grin. “That’s your niece right there.”
    He covers his face as he starts laughing. “I thought she looked familiar! My God, she even does that hand-on-your-hips when you’re trying to give me attitude thing, exactly how you do it. How the hell didn’t I see it, she even has our jet black hair and her father’s big green eyes.” Those who watch the exchange soon join in on the laughs, even Daddy does. Connor’s laughter soon dies down and he pulls me in for another hug, he whispers against my shoulder, “She’s perfect Harlz.”

    “Not saying I don’t dig all the ink and everything you got going on now but what the hell happened to you bro?” Caleb says giving his older brother a tight hug. Willow’s back to playing in the pool with Brent and Hunter and the ladies and my father are chatting away. Holly seems to have disappeared.
    “I stopped trying to live up to father ’s expectations and started doing what I love.” He smiles brightly then playfully punches Caleb in the shoulder.
“Can’t believe you have a kid man; I’m an uncle and I didn’t even know about it!” he sighs looking back at Willow with a smile on his face.
    “Well you have been MIA. We’ve all been trying to contact you and get a hold of you and you just disappeared.” Caleb says.
    Connor scratches the back of his head looking rather nervous. “Yeah I know … that was my bad. I shouldn’t have blown you guys off for shit that didn’t have anything to do with me to begin with. Bygones be bygones right? I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere so I might as well sort my shit out with mom so I don’t miss out on anymore.”
    “She’s in the house.” Caleb says gesturing toward the glass sliding doors. Connor nods and heads for the house.

    I watch from the other side of the table as my father places an arm over Caleb’s shoulders, he murmurs something and they’re start chuckling. Relief floods me and I smile at the picture. I look across the table to see Anna and my mother smiling too.
    “This boy knows a thing or two about bikes.” My father smiles proudly as he pats Caleb’s back…of co urse they have a lot in common.
    Everything between Holly and Connor also looks to be