All She Ever Wanted (Cedar Valley Novel Book 1) Read online

  All She Ever Wanted

  A Cedar Valley Novel

  Christina Butrum

  Contents

  Also by Christina Butrum

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Untitled

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Also by Christina Butrum

  FAIRSHORE SERIES

  Second Chances

  Unexpected Chances

  Fair Chances

  CEDAR VALLEY SERIES

  All She Ever Wanted

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All She Ever Wanted - A Cedar Valley Novel

  Copyright © 2017 by Christina Butrum

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by: Dragonfly Editing

  Cover by: White Rabbit Book Design

  Created with Vellum

  Acknowledgments

  Here’s the part where I attempt to say thanks to everyone who played a huge part in helping me write this book. The thing is, there are not enough words to express my gratitude for you all, nor are there enough words to describe exactly how I feel.

  Writing this book had a lot of ups and downs, but it also involved lots of love, including late night writing sessions and tears.

  Through it all, All She Ever Wanted is here! Say what you will, but remember, if it wasn’t for the amazing author community, my beta readers, my editor, and my cover artist, this book wouldn’t be in the most important hands today—my readers! And let’s not forget, if it wasn’t for my readers, I wouldn’t have anyone to tell my stories to, and it would be almost impossible to love writing as much as I do!

  Thank you all so much for everything! You have no idea how much it means to me! I hope you all enjoy this story as much, if not more, than I enjoyed writing it!

  1

  “How am I supposed to breathe in this thing?”

  Leah struggled to adjust the skin-tight dress with a sexy slit up to her hip that her best friend had insisted she wear tonight to their ten year high school reunion.

  “I’m going to be impressed if this slit doesn’t split out by the time I get this on,” Leah hollered to Rachel, who was in the bathroom across the way, preparing for what she hoped to be an incredible night. “I told you I have a bit more curve appeal than you do!”

  “Just squeeze into it!” Rachel hollered, over the noise of the hair dryer.

  Leah hopped up and down and blew out an exhausted breath, followed by a deep grunt. She flopped onto the bed and yelled, “That’s easier said than done!”

  She stood and gripped at the edges in an attempt to get it off. “Great,” Leah said with a winded sigh. “Now it’s stuck.”

  “Stuck? How can it be stuck?” Rachel appeared in the doorway. She looked stunning. Her wavy beach-blonde hair fell past her shoulders, and her bright blue eyes were complemented by the bold makeup worn around them.

  Leah stood in front of the mirror that hung on the wall next to her closet. Her tall, curvy reflection stared back at her. The dress clung tightly against her skin and made it hard to breathe. Leah sighed and rolled her eyes. She pointed to her sides where she squeezed her fat rolls and pointed to her not so bony hips. “See these? And these?”

  “So what? You have a little cushion on your bones. What’s the big deal?”

  Leah was exhausted from squeezing into the one-size-too-small dress. “I’m not going,” she stated, as she flopped down on the bed and crossed her arms in a last attempt to make her point.

  “Come on, let’s find something else to wear,” Rachel said as she dug through Leah’s closet.

  “Good luck finding something in there,” Leah said. “I have nothing to wear that’s decent enough.”

  Leah pouted on the edge of her bed while Rachel tossed clothes out of her way. “And besides, if I do decide to go, I’ll just remind everyone of my nerdy years.”

  Rachel had been the popular one in school, whereas Leah had been labeled a nerd—and nothing had really changed since then. She had referred to herself as too-smart-for-her-own-good. She had no idea how she and Rachel had become such good friends.

  Rachel snorted. “Ha! There’s no if about it, you are going. Now get over here and help me find you something to wear.”

  With her shoulders drooped from the lost battle, Leah stood silently behind Rachel as she flipped through the clothes, and finally found the next best thing to wear. “So what if my clothes don’t fit you, you have a gorgeous body and you’ll look amazing in this!”

  She pulled out Leah’s ten year old dress. The dress she had worn to their senior homecoming dance. The ten year old black dress that still had all of its perfectly embedded sequins that lined the dress in all the right places. A thick streak of silver followed the seam from the breasts down the right side, where it continued down the slit to the bottom. It was the perfect length—not too long and not too short. Leah protested with the same excuses she had tried to use with Rachel’s dress, but none of them worked. She had the dress thrown at her and Rachel demanded she get it on.

  “Okay, okay,” Leah said, as she slid into the dress. She had actually forgotten about this dress, which had hung in the back of the closet smashed against the wall for the last decade. “I’m not guaranteeing it’ll fit.”

  “Shh… Just get it on,” Rachel said, with a pointed finger and a furrowed brow. “While you’re doing that, I’m going to finish getting ready.”

  “You aren’t ready?” Leah asked, because from where she was standing, Rachel appeared to be completely done and ready to go. She looked sharp in the red dress that sparkled with bling all over. Leah hated the color red, but Rachel made it look good.

  Rachel snorted once again. “I’m not even close to being done. I still have to do my hair.”

  With a flip of a hand through her amazing hair, Rachel left the room. “Well, to me it looks good as it is!” Leah hollered after Rachel. As she slid the dress up over her waist, she was impressed that it actually fit—perfectly. It fit well in areas it hadn’t years ago. She paraded in front of the mirror and confirmed that the dress looked amazing on her.

  “I need some help in here!” She called out to Rachel, who came teetering into the room with her shiny red high-heels on. “There’s no place like home, huh?”

  “Shut up, these are my favorite heels.” She zipped Leah’s dress. “There, I told you that you’d look amazing in this, didn’t I?”

  Leah smiled hesitant
ly, and nodded. “Yes, you were right, for once.”

  Rachel snorted and clapped her hands. “Okay, let’s find you some high heels to wear.”

  She wandered to the closet and bent down to pick up a pair Leah had only worn once in her lifetime, they were the black pair with sequins, to match Leah’s dress. “These are perfect.”

  Grunting, Leah grabbed the heels from her friend’s hands and sat on the edge of the bed. “You know I haven’t worn these in forever. This could be disastrous.”

  “You sure are full of it tonight, aren’t you,” Rachel said, as she helped Leah to her feet. “Careful, the carpet makes it tricky to walk on with these dang things. Don’t need you to roll an ankle before we get to celebrate.”

  “I couldn’t get that lucky,” Leah said with a sigh, as she reached for her matching sequined purse. She was not the type of person to get all fancy. Her normal wear was a pair of denim jeans, a tank top, and her favorite cowgirl boots. Her best friend, on the other hand, still had the most popular vote—and appearance—to go right along with it.

  “Are you ready to have a good time, yet?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Leah said, as she shut their apartment door and turned the key. Checking the knob to make sure it was locked, she inhaled a nervous deep breath and said, “Let’s get this over with.”

  2

  “What’s the place where we’re meeting?” Leah asked.

  “Levy’s,” Rachel said, as they headed to an unfamiliar town. “I’ve never been here before.”

  “Neither have I, but the view is beautiful,” Leah said, gazing out the window.

  There were mountains in the distance, shaded admirably by thousands of trees. The sun cast its presence passionately in the background, as the day slowly surrendered to the night.

  “This makes me crave the country life more than I already do,” Leah said. Ever since she was a little girl, she had wanted to live in the country—with gravel roads and horses, and a million other things to be thankful for every day.

  Their car continued on towards the sunset on the vastly open winding roads. The fresh mountain air poured in through the windows. Leah inhaled a deep breath and exhaled with a smile. Rachel shook her head, but kept her focus on the road.

  A sign surrounded by beautiful landscape welcomed them to Cedar Valley.

  “Ooh, I love that!” Leah couldn’t hide her excitement. Just minutes before, she had dreaded the thought of coming to this unknown place to meet up with her high school classmates, but now…

  Rachel guided the car around the last curve before the town came into view. Houses lined the outskirts of the small town—neatly placed just far enough from their neighbors. Pickett fences, dogs barking, kids playing—everything she missed by living in the busy city.

  Ma and Pa businesses crowded the main street of Cedar Valley. “This place has to be one of a kind, Rach.”

  Rachel agreed with a nod, and drove on as the GPS yelled at them to turn left at the next stop sign. Leah reached over and shut it off. They had plenty of time to get to the party. Right now, she wanted to look around.

  “Look at this place,” Leah said, pointing out different stores that lined the street. “Thrift stores, a grocery store and a restaurant, which I’m guessing are all family owned? I’m in love.”

  Rachel shook her head. “It’s too bad you can’t live here, right?”

  Leah shrugged. “Never know; I might live somewhere like this one day.”

  Friendly strangers waved as they drove past. It was such a welcoming town. A white painted church sat kitty-corner from their destination—a two story bar with a bright neon sign hanging out front that announced they had arrived at Levy’s.

  Rachel turned the car in to a small parking lot by the bar. “Looks like we’re here.”

  “From the looks of it, we might be the only ones here,” Leah said, as she scoped out the parking lot, which held only a few cars. “I’m kind of nervous.”

  “Nervous? Why are you nervous?” Rachel asked, lighting a cigarette and blowing the smoke out the cracked window. She had picked up the habit recently, when her husband had filed for divorce. She had come knocking on Leah’s door long after midnight one night, with a few suitcases packed full beside her. Leah had offered to let her stay just long enough to get on her feet. A few months later, Rachel was still there.

  “There’s nothing to be nervous about. We’re going to see our old friends.”

  Leah caught the sarcasm in her voice. What friends they did have had moved away after they had been accepted into the expensive rich-kid kind of universities in nearby cities, and some were even located miles across the United States from their hometown.

  A pit formed in Leah’s stomach. “What if Jake’s here?”

  “Jake?” Rachel asked, as she exhaled the last drag of her Marlboro Light and flicked it out the window. “Don’t worry about him. Just have fun tonight.”

  A tap on the window startled them. Leah shrieked and Rachel almost jumped into her lap.

  “Is that you, Rachel Elliot?” the tall blonde woman asked, as she bent down to get a closer look. “And Leah Adams?”

  Rachel opened the car door and attempted to step out, but Leah grabbed her arm and said, “We still have time to leave.”

  Rachel snorted and said, “Come on, let’s go.”

  Leah pulled the handle to open the door and stepped out. She gently pressed her hands down the length of the dress in an attempt to straighten the wrinkles. She glanced at her reflection in the car window. It was good enough. It wasn’t as if she was here to get a date or impress anyone.

  “Oh, my gosh, girls! Come here!” the tall blonde rushed to them and shoved them together in a hug. “How the heck have you two been? I see you’re still best friends.”

  The woman was nearly shouting in Leah’s ear. She took a step back, but the overly obnoxious woman hugged her tighter.

  “I’m sorry,” Leah said, as she broke free from the woman’s suffocating hug. “Who are you?”

  Rachel damned near pissed herself laughing. The tall blonde was in shock, and must have been taken aback by the question. Leah laughed. She couldn’t give two shits less about this woman who appeared to have more plastic in her face than Barbie.

  “You don’t recognize me?” the offended blonde asked.

  Leah glanced at Rachel with a does-she-want-an-honest-answer look. Rachel shrugged her shoulders, chuckling uncontrollably.

  “I’m sorry, no, actually, I don’t recognize you at all,” Leah said, while keeping a tight lid on what she really wanted to say.

  “I’m Elizabeth Hudson,” the woman said, in a state of importance. “Everyone calls me Lizzy.”

  Leah nodded. “Okay, now I kind of recognize you.”

  “On that note, I think we should make our way inside,” Rachel said, as she looped an arm through Leah’s and dragged her to Levy’s entrance. “Nice seeing you—um—Lizzy,” she hollered over her shoulder.

  “Did I say something wrong?” Leah asked with a snicker. “I hope I didn’t offend her.”

  “Come on, girl,” Rachel said, as she tugged Leah through the crowded entrance.

  For a small town bar, the place was crowded. Leah wondered where everyone had parked their cars. From the look of the parking lot, she had only expected a few people to be in here, no more than twenty at most.

  “Leah? Is that you?”

  Leah turned her attention toward the voice she recognized from school. “Some people’s voices never change,” she mumbled to Rachel, who had wandered off, leaving her alone to defend herself against unwanted attention. Leah smiled widely as Melody wrapped her arms around her. “How have you been?”

  A school-girl giggle escaped Melody. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

  Leah’s fake laugh cut through the awkwardness. It hadn’t done much good. “Well, same ol’ same ol’. Just working every day and trying to manage my hectic schedule,” she said, finishing with a nervous laugh. Sh
e hated to talk about her life. It was so boring and not as fun as she had always dreamed it would be.

  Melody stood in front of her now with a straight face—a bored look—while she stirred her drink with a straw.

  “I know, boring, right? What about you?”

  Melody smiled and shook her head. “Oh, you know, just keeping busy.”

  “Well, I suppose I should get a drink,” Leah said, pointing towards the bar.

  With a nervous laugh, Melody nodded and said, “Okay, maybe I’ll catch up with you later, then?”

  With a quick nod, she turned and scanned the crowd. Why had she decided to come tonight? She wasn’t cut out for this. She loved get-togethers, but not with people she hadn’t heard a word from in the last ten years. They were complete strangers and this was a waste of time.

  “Hey!” Rachel hollered out to her as she walked to the bar. “Come over here!”

  Leah smiled and held up a finger. “One minute! I gotta get a drink first!”

  Giving a thumbs up, Rachel went back to dancing around some guy Leah didn’t recognize. Of course she didn’t recognize him. She had trouble recognizing everyone. Ten years proved that people do change—some for the better, others not so much.

  “Hey, Lee!”

  With a fake smile, she acknowledged the pretty woman who was once a nerd and who was now waving frantically at her. Trying not to be so negative, she waved back. There really wasn’t a reason to be mean, just because she was dreading the thought of seeing Jake at any moment.