Treat You Better (The Family Stone Book 3) Read online

  Treat

  You

  Better

  By:

  Brooke St. James

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the author.

  Copyright © 2018

  Brooke St. James

  All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  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

  Epilogue

  Other titles available from Brooke St. James:

  Another Shot:

  (A Modern-Day Ruth and Boaz Story)

  When Lightning Strikes

  Something of a Storm (All in Good Time #1)

  Someone Someday (All in Good Time #2)

  Finally My Forever (Meant for Me #1)

  Finally My Heart's Desire (Meant for Me #2)

  Finally My Happy Ending (Meant for Me #3)

  Shot by Cupid's Arrow

  Dreams of Us

  Meet Me in Myrtle Beach (Hunt Family #1)

  Kiss Me in Carolina (Hunt Family #2)

  California's Calling (Hunt Family #3)

  Back to the Beach (Hunt Family #4)

  It's About Time (Hunt Family #5)

  Loved Bayou (Martin Family #1)

  Dear California (Martin Family #2)

  My One Regret (Martin Family #3)

  Broken and Beautiful (Martin Family #4)

  Back to the Bayou (Martin Family #5)

  Almost Christmas

  JFK to Dublin (Shower & Shelter Artist Collective #1)

  Not Your Average Joe (Shower & Shelter Artist Collective #2)

  So Much for Boundaries (Shower & Shelter Artist Collective #3)

  Suddenly Starstruck (Shower & Shelter Artist Collective #4)

  Love Stung (Shower & Shelter Artist Collective #5)

  My American Angel (Shower & Shelter Artist Collective #6)

  Summer of '65 (Bishop Family #1)

  Jesse's Girl (Bishop Family #2)

  Maybe Memphis (Bishop Family #3)

  So Happy Together (Bishop Family #4)

  My Little Gypsy (Bishop Family #5)

  Malibu by Moonlight (Bishop Family #6)

  The Harder They Fall (Bishop Family #7)

  Come Friday (Bishop Family #8)

  So This is Love (Miami Stories #1)

  All In (Miami Stories #2)

  Something Precious (Miami Stories #3)

  The Suite Life (The Family Stone #1)

  Feels Like Forever (The Family Stone #2)

  Chapter 1

  My parents got married today.

  Remarried, I should say.

  After twenty years of separation, Alec and Kim Stone were now back together.

  We all flew to Montana for the occasion.

  There were about forty of us in total, and my parents held the ceremony in a picturesque lodge in the mountains.

  To be honest, it was a little surreal.

  My whole life had been a little surreal lately.

  For the longest time, I was the only one in my immediate family who was in a stable, secure relationship. My mom and dad were divorced, and my two sisters (one older and one younger) seemed to have no interest at all in settling down.

  My parents had been apart for so long that I had no memories of them living under the same roof. They had been in the same place at the same time over the years, but I had been too young when they separated to remember us living together as a family.

  I did remember vague elements of their very public divorce. I had one of those myself recently, and while mine was more humiliating than my parents', it was a lot less public. My father was unable to escape publicity because he happened to be the lead singer and front man for a slightly famous band called The Kicks.

  Dad had a career that spanned decades.

  He was one of the most beloved musicians of all time—a rock icon—an American music legend.

  My mother had been ever-present by his side during the early parts of his career. She was a down-to-earth woman who had somehow managed to be adored by Dad's female fans rather envied by them.

  They were like Elvis and Pricilla—America's king and first lady of rock and roll. (Only Dad came around later than Elvis and was more of a bad boy type.)

  Everyone assumed Alec and Kim Stone had a dream life and wonderful marriage until Dad's infidelity issues ultimately resulted in their divorce.

  Dad had been in several relationships since then, but none of them were serious, and he never mentioned marrying anyone.

  Mom never mentioned remarrying, either. I had no idea what was going on when I was a child, but as I got older, I was able to appreciate that she knew she would never love someone as much as she had once loved my father, so she didn’t even bother trying.

  Us three girls saw my father quite a bit growing up, but our mom had primary custody of us, and she raised us in a quiet home near her parents in Ventura, which was about an hour-and-a-half from my dad's place in Los Angeles.

  Considering that we were the daughters of Alec Stone, we had managed to stay mostly out of the media spotlight.

  My older sister, Vi, had pursued her dreams of being an actress and she now got recognized all the time, but my baby sister, Blue, and I were able to live completely normal lives where we did things like go to the grocery store and out to eat without being hassled.

  Our parents had been divorced all these years, and neither of my sisters seemed interested in having a long-term relationship. For years, I had been the only one who settled down.

  That had completely flip-flopped now.

  One-by-one, both of my sisters found their perfect matches, and while that was happening, our parents fell in love again.

  Somehow, unbelievably, in the midst of all this can you feel the love tonight, my own love story—the one that had been steady all along—came to an end. It wasn't just a fizzle-out ending, either. It was a terrible, hurtful, embarrassing, devastating, train-wreck of an ending.

  To make matters worse, my ex-husband and I had a young son. Leo was a wonderful boy, and I had no regrets about bringing him into the world, but I hated that he had to grow up with parental drama. It weighed heavy on my heart that Leo wouldn't be raised under normal circumstances.

  My family had done a good job of reminding me that the situation was out of my control, though, and ultimately, I knew I had to trust that everything would be fine. My sisters told me time and time again that us girls had gone through the same thing, and we had turned out okay. What they were saying was the truth, but frankly, I didn't want to end up like Mom. I would never tell her that, but I didn’t want to accept the fact that I might spend the next twenty years of my life pining over my ex-husband and raising Leo as a single parent.

  I was frustrated beyond words at my ex for the way things had turned out. I had always been the marrying type. All I wanted out of life was to have a normal, happy family.

  Money wasn't an issue, thankfully. Dad had a trust set up for me, and I knew I had the resources to live comfortably. If I managed it properly and trusted the right people, I could even make my money multiply a little.

  I knew how fortunate I was, and I had no desire to go around
wanting things that weren't mine, but goodness, I just wanted a family. I would have loved nothing more than to have a comfortable, content life with my husband—one that was free of covetousness or unfaithfulness.

  It didn't turn out that way for me, though.

  Kai and I got a divorce, and everyone else in my family simultaneously found love.

  Like I said, everything had flip-flopped.

  Kai was now remarried and had a baby with the other woman. She was eight months pregnant at the time of our divorce. Kai never attempted to deny that the baby was his. He was devastated that his secret had come out, but he never tried to deny it. The whole split had been full of yelling, begging, and tears. It was a painful and regretful season of my life.

  Kai begged me to take him back before it was final, and I almost did. More drama with the other woman happened at that point, and we ended up splitting up for good.

  It had been nearly a year since all that went down, and I still replayed moments of it in my mind. I also had a bad habit of making up future awkward scenarios involving interactions with Kai and his new family. They were scenarios that would probably never come to pass.

  It hadn't been all bad, though.

  I had been doing better and better recently.

  It took me about six months to come to terms with the fact that I needed to move on with my life, but since then, I had been making a conscious effort to do just that. In the past, my life had been focused on nothing other than being a good wife and mother—so much so that I didn't even really know who I was or what types of things I enjoyed doing.

  I still did my best to be a great mother to Leo, but I had been making a little time for myself lately, which was new and exciting for me.

  "Indie, did you hear me?"

  "Yeah," I said absentmindedly.

  My sister, Blue, was sitting next to me. We were sprawled out on one of the couches. Everyone traveling with us, including Mom and Dad, were staying at the same place. It was a beautiful, rustic lodge in the mountains. There were twenty bedrooms, along with who knows how many bathrooms.

  The first floor had a gigantic kitchen in the center with dining areas on each side and two grand living rooms on opposite ends. The house was beautiful, and the view was unbelievable. We saw mountains, woods, and snow, and we enjoyed amazing, picturesque sunsets.

  Mom and Dad were married that afternoon, and we would all spend one more night in the house together before heading back home the following morning. It was a short, two-night trip, but I had been having fun catching up with some of my family that I hadn't seen in a while.

  It was late evening on our second and final night in the house. I had already put Leo to bed, and I was sitting with Blue and Taylor in one of the living rooms. It was only family and extremely close friends, so we were all comfortable, just sitting there lounging around at the end of a long day.

  "If you heard me, then why aren't you answering?" Blue asked, staring at me like I was missing something.

  "What'd you say?" I asked, having no idea what she was talking about.

  "You just said you heard me," she said.

  "Well, I didn't. I was zoning out. I'm getting tired."

  Blue nudged her chin toward the dining room. "I think Aunt Kelly needs you for something," she said.

  Blue was sitting next to her husband, Taylor, but she was leaning so far onto him that she might as well have been on his lap. She had already taken her shower, and she was dressed in flannel pajamas and striped wool socks. I had on the exact same outfit.

  Our mother had bought the warm pajama/sock combination for all three of us girls since none of us had anything warm enough for Montana in December. She even bought herself a white "bride's" version of it. They were all the same except for the color—flannel pajamas with a discreet pattern of tiny bunnies.

  Violet's set was violet, Blue's was blue, and my own set was indigo. It had taken us no time at all to realize what Mom had done with matching our names to our corresponding colors. We were used to it by now. Our rainbow-themed names had gotten us plenty of clothing and accessory stereotyping during our lifetimes. We were given color-themed gifts quite a bit. And not just from Mom, but from other people as well.

  We didn't mind.

  There were worse things in life that could have happened to me than being represented by a dark, blueish-purple color. I quite liked and identified with indigo as my name and as a color. It was much better than being called mustard-yellow, burnt-orange, or army-green. Of all the color names in the world, I was happy I had ended up Indigo.

  I wondered if other people with colors for names got gifts and clothing that matched their names. I wondered if guys named Grey ever had people buy them grey things, or girls named Amber or Rose received amber or rose-colored gifts. I thought maybe my sisters and I had a more extreme case since all three of our names were colors.

  Either way, I had on indigo pajamas.

  Blue's set was light blue.

  She looked so comfortable sitting there, leaning against her husband. He hadn't had a shower and was still dressed in jeans and a sweater. I wished I was still the one who had someone to lean against. I tried not to give them a longing expression when I noticed how cozy they looked.

  Instead, I turned to focus on Aunt Kelly, our mom's sister, the one Blue said wanted to get my attention. She was sitting at one of the dining tables with my cousin, Mark. The rooms were huge, but they were open, and I could tell, even from a distance, that she was looking straight at me. She waved me over, and I stood from the couch and headed that way.

  Aunt Kelly was sitting at the corner of the long dining table, talking to her son, Mark. She was my mom's only sibling, and she had lived in Seattle for a long time. My cousins were raised up there, and three out of four of them still lived in Washington near their parents.

  I loved that side of our family and I had always been close to my cousins. I enjoyed it when our families had the chance to get together. I had a long, meaningful conversation earlier that day with my cousin Molly, and Mark had been there for part of it.

  I smiled at him as I drew closer. I could see that he and Aunt Kelly were working on a jigsaw puzzle. Some of the edges were coming together and there were pieces spread all over the table in groups.

  "Mark was telling me you and Molly had the chance to catch up earlier," Aunt Kelly said.

  I sat in the chair on the other corner, smiling at them before glancing down at the puzzle. "We did," I said, nodding. "She was telling me about that owl she rescued."

  Aunt Kelly nodded. "Wasn't that amazing?"

  I was tired, and I was comfortable around Aunt Kelly and Mark, so I found myself spacing out and staring at the puzzle pieces to see if I could make a match. It seemed to be an underwater theme, but I knew by their disinterest and the fact that there were so many pieces left that the puzzle probably wouldn't get finished—not on this visit, anyway.

  "I have to say, I'm surprised and impressed by your father."

  I glanced at Aunt Kelly, and she smiled at me before looking around as if making sure that no one else was around before she continued.

  "I didn't want to see Kim get hurt, so I was one of the people whispering in her ear about being careful—making your daddy wait. But I have to say, he surprised me today. I didn't expect him to say all that at the ceremony. He was really sincere. It made me cry. I think he really loves her."

  "He does," I said, nodding thoughtfully.

  I found two pieces of a clownfish that looked like they went together, and I smiled when I realized they were a match.

  "It's amazing how things worked out," she continued. "I never would have dreamed they'd end up together again."

  It honestly didn't seem unnatural to me that my parents were back together—the more unbelievable thing was that I was now the only person in the family who didn’t have someone. These were the types of thoughts that had uncontrollably crossed my mind for the last year. I didn't acknowledge my feelings in any way. I just
smiled and nodded at Aunt Kelly's statement.

  "It's cool, though," Mark said.

  I gave him a smile and nod. "I know. I'm thankful."

  "Your mom said you got another letter from your ex-husband," Aunt Kelly said, out of nowhere.

  "Mom!" Mark said, whisper-yelling at his mother for being so bold.

  I wouldn't expect anything less from Aunt Kelly.

  "He did write me," I said. "Last week."

  "He just can't handle that you're making a name for yourself now," she said, "…getting a little famous."

  I couldn't stop a little laugh from escaping my lips when she said those words. I thought she had been joking, but she hadn't. "Are you talking about singing?" I asked.

  She nodded.

  "I'm definitely not famous," I said. "And there's no way Kai would even know about it. I'm using a fake name. The whole thing's just a persona I made up. I'm just doing it for fun."

  Chapter 2

  "Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know," Aunt Kelly said. "I didn't even know you were doing that until Mark told me just now. He said you were telling him and Molly about singing some jazz music. That's why I called you over here. I couldn't believe it. I had to hear it from the horse's mouth."

  I glanced at Mark who wore a slightly regretful expression as he shook his head at his mother.

  "I asked Mom not to mention it to anyone," I said. "I didn't really mean you. I was more concerned with her telling one of her friends in L.A. and word getting out that I was doing it. I don't want people to come see me just because I'm Alec Stone's daughter. I just wanted to sing a few songs in a voice I made up like an old-school jazz singer. I'm just having fun. I like it that there's almost no one in the audience."

  "Mark asked Violet about it earlier, and she said that there were twice as many people in the audience the last time she saw you than there were the first time."

  I laughed again and then shrugged, feeling shy. "Maybe there were sixteen when there had been eight before," I said.