"Without trust, we have nothing."
These are the words which have haunted Melanie Erickson for six years. When she walked out of the house Xavier Ross bought as their forever home, she thought she was closing that door permanently, but fate had other plans.
Xavier Ross tried to keep everyone at a distance until Melanie came into his life. The more he tried to fight his feelings for her, the more he fell in love. One rash decision fractured the trust that was essential to their relationship.
Six years later, she is the last person he expects to see walk through his front door. Will Xavier and Mel be able to learn to trust one another again so they can fulfill a dying woman’s wish?
My 5 star Review
Maybe we were never supposed to be forever. Maybe we were supposed to
be a stepping stone to greater things in our lives; the perfect career for her
and my beautiful son for me.
Melanie and Xavier have a past. Once upon a time they were
best of friends and head over heels in love with each other; Looking forward to
spending their forever in a home that he bought for them. Then one night, it
was over. Leaving them both crushed and ruined for any future relationships.
After that heartbreaking night years ago, Melanie finds
herself outside the very house that was supposed to be her future. Her
heartbreak left her determined to finish up school and do what she had always
wanted to do. Become a nurse and help people. Never in a million years did she
imagine that she would be helping her ex and his sick wife. Personal feelings
aside, she being the professional she was would see this through and do her
job, no matter what. You have to love fate. Seeing the man she once loved
brings all her old feelings to the surface but what makes things worse is that
she adores his sick wife and their son. Melanie never expected how hard her job
would be this time around and she wasn’t sure she would survive the grief, the
pain or the loss.
“I need you to promise me you’ll come back and
make sure they’re okay. I want you to take the angel and bring it back with
you. Tell my son that the angel is from me, so he will know I’m still here with
him.”
Xavier is a no nonsense kind of man, a gorgeous man at that
but stubborn and very set in his ways. Never fully recovering from his lost
love, he vowed never to love again. It worked for a little bit, but his now
sick wife had to suffer the wrath and anger that his ex has inflicted upon him.
You know that saying, You don’t
appreciate what you have until it’s gone? Well for Xavier, those words couldn’t
be truer at the moment. What is makes
matters worse is that the once love of his life is now caring for his sick
wife. He was never a great boyfriend nor was he the best husband and he definitely
wasn’t a hands on dad until recently. He regrets it all and all he feels is
guilt.
“It sucks that she’s gone. But maybe there is a reason that Melanie was
the person assigned to take care of her those last months. Do you think anyone
else would have stuck around after the job was done, making sure that your rank
a$$ didn’t do anything stupid? Would another nurse have followed you to North
Carolina or called your son every night to read him bedtime stories?”
I have to say I didn’t like Xavier when I first started
reading this. I found him to be cold and arrogant but as I continued to read,
he slowly made his way into my heart and the next thing I know, I am rooting
for him.
Xavier was put in a tough place, he was lost. His past and
his present have collided. Two women he loves. One of them he has always loved
and the other he grew to love. He already lost one and now he is losing the
other. Thank god for his son, something he never though he wanted but now can’t
imagine his life without. THAT, his son is what keeps his head above the water
and then there is Melanie. He is amazed at how professional she is and how
great she is at her job. He is in awe of her strength and at how much she has
changed since they were last together.
Melanie can see the changes of the once dominant man who
owned her heart. She sees the love he has for his wife and his son. She also
sees how helpless and lost he is.
Together Melanie does her best to make sure that his wife
enjoys the time she has left comfortably, while Xavier struggles with his
regrets while learning to be a better father and husband. In the meantime, his
wife does what she can to prepare her family and keep them together... all of
them.
I fear I cannot do this review justice because what I feel
is so emotional. When one suffers a loss, you can’t help but question the
decisions you have made in your life. WHAT IF?? That is all you can think
about.... Should have, would have, and could have. Regrets surface, guilt surfaces and the
confusion you feel it is unbearable. Lost, you feel lost and life doesn’t make
sense but you somehow find that strength and you keep going no matter how much
you want to get lost in the darkness.
I was really able to
connect with this story in more ways than one. First the loss, I have been
there, I know what it feels like, the guilt, the regrets, the anger, the
sorrow. I BAWLED!! No one can ever understand what it feels like to lose
someone you love, unless you have actually had a personal loss. People may be
able to sympathize with you but they definitely cannot empathize
.
I seriously give
kudos to Melanie, for her being able to be professional, to be able to set all
personal feelings aside. She did her job and she did it well and then some.
Xavier, although he
realized what a jerk he was too little too late, that realization made him a
better man, a better brother and a better father. It was a tough and
heartbreaking lesson he learned.
Alyssa, she like many
I have known, is a tough cookie. She fought tooth and nail not only with Xavier
but with her sickness. She faced it head on and lived with no regrets. In a roundabout
way, she was already an angel and she was able to help two souls find each
other again.
Fate can have a cruel
way of bringing people back into your life but it also has a way of making
things right.
This is a beautiful
and heartbreaking story of a love lost, loss and second chances.
Sloan Johnson
completely won me over with this story. Don’t get me wrong, I adore he other
books but this story is definitely one of my top reads for the year.
Thank you, for a
beautiful story.
Sloan is a Midwestern mom who began writing nearly seven years ago as a way to make money while staying home with her daughter. Now, with two kids in tow and having written more articles on how to assemble various pieces of furniture than she can count, she is reaching to make her dreams come true.
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