Joining July: The President's Daughters, book 7

PROLOGUE

JULY HAVEN

ONE WEEK AGO

I have been running around like a crazy person packing my meager belongings. There is so much I will have to leave behind, but the truth is none of it means anything. It is all void of memories or love.

I did not grow up in a loving home. Heck, I didn’t grow up in a home at all. My mother, Gina, was a wayward mom if you will. My mom grew up believing her body was her best asset and was her ticket to wealth. She says she learned this from looking at the world around her. She says she learned that those that have used what they had to get and those that have not, refuse to use what they have to obtain.. From the time she was sixteen, she was seducing men and using them to get what she wanted until she decided that was no longer enough.

When she was eighteen, she met a man named Lucius. He was a millionaire widower from New York. She has always been good at reading people, and she immediately realized he had no family, and she set out to trap him. She went to a sperm bank, got inseminated and set out to trap the poor man by sleeping with him.

Now, I am not saying my mom is a genius by no means because if she had been, she would have slept with him first and then done that. As it turned out for three months, not realizing the procedure had worked, she tried to seduce him to no success. When she finally figured out she was pregnant with me, she was far enough along that termination was more expensive and would be more painful, so she kept me.

Throughout my childhood, she often left me with old ladies, neighbors, and eventually by myself. The bills were always paid, how I don’t know, and there was always food in the house, but I was alone a lot from a really early age. I survived by reading, writing, and keeping my head down. I studied, made good grades and stayed out of trouble.

Now, here I am, twenty years old, on my way to Hollow’s Hollow, West Virginia where I have taken a job as an assistant for the local law office who in turn is going to pay for me to go to school to be a teacher. Well, I should correct that; I got an almost full ride since I don’t need to live on campus, and luckily, the law office has agreed to pay the rest. I will be living above the only bar in town.

Zipping up the last of my suitcases, I take a moment to look around the bedroom I am going to be saying goodbye to soon and I feel nothing but excitement. Finally, I got to make my own destiny, and the first step was submitting my DNA for a familial match from my mom’s side of her family.

Growing up I had no family besides her. She told me nothing of her parents, or if she had siblings. I would have given anything to have grandparents when I was younger. So, as part of my new life plan, I submitted my DNA to find out who I am and hopefully make the answer another part of my journey. My new beginning. My future. I just hope what I find, wants to be found.

CHAPTER 1

JULY

I am so going to be late. I should have left four hours earlier than I did, made it to the apartment I am going to be staying in and left myself time to look around, but instead I am late and if the jerking of my car is any indication I am going to be even later. “No. No. No. Bertha don’t do this to me.” I smack the wheel when it begins to stop. Banging my head on it, I try to pull over as far as I can, but it’s no use, it stop at a red light in the middle of the street. Well at least I am in a town that is bustling with people and not stranded on the side of the road.

This day was starting off late, but it was still a good day. I woke up hopeful and full of excitement for the upcoming adventure but now, I don’t know what I am going to do. I get out of the car once the last bump happens and then it stops. Now I am looking around this busy place trying to figure out what to do next.

I take a second to look around me and then I see a coffee shop. “Thank goodness. I definitely need a nonfat fro-cap with a caramel drizzle,” I say to myself. Grabbing my purse out of the car and making sure the doors are locked; I start walking toward the shop. I don’t even care that I’m leaving Bertha out in the street right now. Still looking around Charleston, a mere twenty minutes from my destination, I still feel that tingle of giddiness. I am starting a new chapter in my life, and I just know it is going to be amazing. But first, I need coffee, and the number to a mechanic.

“Hi. Welcome to The Coffee Shop. What can I get you?” I gladly tell her my order and add a croissant to it since I forgot to eat this morning.

“Oh do you have a number for a mechanic?” I ask the barrister who is taking the money,

“Maybe. Whatcha looking for?” At the same time that she asks the question, I hear a deep voice to the left of me giving his order and it sends goosebumps down my arms. I am momentarily frozen in place as his voice washes over me. “Hun?” The girl at the register is looking at me like I am crazy. I feel it. What the heck is happening? Trying to gather myself, I swallow and hand her the money, smiling apologetically.

Stepping back to move out of the way I bump into a brick wall and turn to apologize when that voice once again stops me in my tracks. “Did I hear you say you need a mechanic?” Sweet Lord, his voice should be banned from daytime. It is seriously a nighttime in your dreams kind of voice.

“Y-yes. My car is stalled at the light outside.” He smirks.

“Ah. So you’re the one holding up traffic, huh?” Oh crap. Mortification takes seconds to overwhelm me, and I drop my head. Now all I want is to be swallowed up by the floor. “Hey. I was just joking.” He lifts my chin with his finger. “I didn’t mean that. Listen, let’s start over. My name is Boone. What’s yours?” He holds his hand out and I swallow when I place mine in his.

“July. My name is July.” Holy moly. Should my hand be heating up just from touching him?

“I didn’t know hands could be so soft,” he whispers. His thumb is rubbing the top of my hand back and forth and I want him to move it up my arm. I want to feel his incredibly strong fingers touching me but then the moment is broken.

“Order up for July.”

“Order up for Boone.” They call both of our names, and I swear he blushes just like me, before we turn from one another long enough to get our drinks.

“So,” he says, taking a sip. “Why don’t I help you move from in front of the light and then I will give you a lift to…”

“Hollow’s Hollow.” His eyes brighten.

“I live there myself.”

“Really?” I ask, suddenly very perky.