MAXINE
Chapter 1: My Forever Came Today
Chapter 2: Now Comes the Hard Part
TAYLOR
Chapter 3: The Bed You Make
Chapter 4: No Turning Back
MAXINE
Chapter 5: Every Beat of My Heart
QUINN
Chapter 6: Things Fall Apart
Chapter 7: Canât Let Go
Chapter 8: If Only You Knew
MAXINE
Chapter 9: Revelations
TAYLOR
Chapter 10: Only Time Will Tell
Chapter 11: Nowhere to Run
MAXINE
Chapter 12: Over The Rainbow
QUINN
Chapter 13: The Road Back
MAXINE
Chapter 14: Trying To Make It Right
QUINN
Chapter 15: My Turn Now
TAYLOR, MAXINE, QUINN
Epilogue: All In Good Time
Chapter 1
My Forever Came Today
I chased sleep all last night, doing my own version of the dead manâs float on land. Not moving, stifling my sobs, I dared not toss or turn though my heart raced and my brain churned.
Taylor, my man, my loverâs, gentle, enflaming touch unnerved me instead of igniting my heart. He wanted to make love to meâinside out. I knew what he needed, what he wanted, but something inside me shut down. And I was scared. Scared of what it meant.
âTell me whatâs wrong, Baby. Talk to me,â heâd said when I mumbled some incoherent excuse about not feeling up to it. Never in our three year relationship could we keep our hands off each other, right from the very beginning. Did he know I was lying?
Even as still as I remained, as hard as I worked at keeping my treacherous thoughts sealed shut, commanding my heart to stop that thudding noise, Taylor still worried about me. âMax? Whatâs wrong, Baby?â He stroked my hair. âWant me to get you something?â He began to massage my neck, my back, releasing the knots of tension. Thatâs the way he wasâsensitive and in tune with my needs, my feelings. He always listened to me, really listened, and that made all the difference in the world. Taylor was always more than my man. He was my friend.
From the day we met, it was as if weâd known each other all our lives. There was an easiness about Taylor that just made it to simple to open up to him and not to be afraid of what he might see. From the beginning it drew me to him like a magnetâthe need to be cared about totally and completely without having to fight for it.
I wanted to turn into his arms last night, pour out my heart and my darkest fears, bury them in the strength and security of his embrace, but for the first time in the three glorious years that weâd been together I couldnât. So I did the first thing that came to my mind, did something Iâd sworn Iâd never do. I lied. I lied to keep from hurting him with the truth.
âMmm. Nothinâ, Babe, really. Just thinking about some things at work. Sorry if Iâm keepinâ you up.â I eased out of the bed, nude as usualâTaylor liked thatâand slipped on the short, peach silk robe that I kept at the foot of the four-poster bed. âMaybe some warm milk would help.â I leaned down and kissed his temple, there on that salt and pepper spot that I sometimes teased him about but secretly thought only added to his ruggedly handsome looks.
âIâll sit with you,â he mumbled, his voice a cross between Isaac Hayesâs seductive timbre and tires running over gravel. That made me smile.
âDonât even think about it, Ty. Go back to sleep, Babe.â
Still emotionally rattled, I tiptoed out of the room, walked down the short hallway, and peeked in at the partially open bedroom door. Something inside of me filled, just as it always did whenever I looked at my son, hunched up like a lump of sugar beneath his Spider-Man sheets. My blessing.
I stood for a moment in the doorway, watching Jamel breathe in and out and the battlefield of action heroes spread out across the sheets, some having fallen onto the navy blue-carpeted floor.
My throat clenched. Three years ago, with one simple phone call, one sentence, this all could be so differentâthis life I had worked to buildâbut that was then.
Inhaling my reality, I let it settle in the unlit place inside myself and headed downstairs to think.
That was nearly four hours and three cups of coffee ago. Everything was still out of focus. The only thing that was a bit clear was the view of the Golden Gate Bridge that was slowly materializing beyond my little window on the world.
The beacons of sun streaming into the kitchen window were warm as always for eight a.m., even if they were filtered by the everpresent fog that hung over San Francisco like gauze drapes used to keep mosquitoes out. Music, coming from the little clock radio on the sink, slow and bluesyâthe kind that slips through your pores and seeps into your soulâfloated around the squared-off yellow room, bringing its own brand of âjust sit back and relax.â But I couldnât.