Love Hates: The Change

By Retta Morgan and Kris Morgan

Well Before I could move he was kissing me. I gasped from the suddenness and the shock. I could not believe that he was being so bold. I always thought he was too afraid of my father to do something like that. The feel of his lips wasnt that comfortable but they were really warm. When he did pull away, I did not know what to say. The silence seemed to go on forever.
I am sorry Ellen I wanted to do that yesterday but
Jack, I know that you are trying to make this work, I really do. Its just that I am not ready for a relationship right now. I am not trying to be rude but I would like it a lot better if we could just be friends.
Again he was silent. He would not even look at me. His face turned from a nice blush to a dark crimson. He was very tense. His hands were balled up and the vein in his neck was bulging. His eyes even looked like they were almost closed. And then it happened; he blew up like a balloon.
I CANT BELIEVE YOU! YOU WANT ME TO BELIEVE THAT ALL OF THIS TIME YOU HAVENT HAD ANY FEELING FOR ME! YOURE PLAYING THIS SWEET AND INNOCENT LITTLE GAME AND IM SUPPOSE TO SIT BACK AND WAIT FOR YOU TO COME TO YOUR SENSES? WELL I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU! IM DONE WITH YOU! He left me shaking in fear.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 24, 2011
• ISBN: 9781467039659

Retta Morgan

Retta and Kris Morgan are a mother daughter team that works together to bring you the LOVE HATES SAGA. Kris Morgan is the mom who edits the books, takes the photos, and assists her daughter with acquiring new ideas for future novels. Retta Morgan, the daughter, is the one who writes the stories; both current and future. With the help of a few special friends and a lot of imagination, we hope to be able to bring many more intriguing stories to you.

Book preview

© 2011 Retta and Kris Morgan. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 10/7/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4670-3881-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-3965-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011916869

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Ellen

Ellen–

Surprise Her

Ethan–

Never Looking Back

Ellen–

Life Goes On

Ethan–

I Thought

Ellen–

I Said Yes

Ethan–

Stupid Little Lie

Ellen–

I’m Back

Ethan–

Clean Up The Mess

Ellen–

Truth Teller

Ethan–

Meet Again

Ellen–

Wrong For Once

Ethan–

Can’t Believe

Ellen–

Day Dreamer

Ethan–

Why Me?

Ellen–

Every Little Thing

Ethan–

So It Was True

Ellen–

The Only Thing

That Was Wrong

Ethan–

Last Thing I Expected

About the Authors

A Very Special Thanks

To All My Family Members,

Mom, Dad, Siblings, Papa, Ms. Sharron, Amanda

And my two Favorite Aunts

I love you all

Ellen

It was about eight o’clock in the morning, I knew someone was up because the kitchen door had been slammed a few times and voices came flowing up to me from what sounded like down stairs in the living room. All I could think was please, please, please let me sleep just a little longer. Just my luck, I got another good hour before Dad came in and told me of a surprise waiting for me down stairs. Well, it was not really a surprise but something I had been waiting for him to do for over a year now. I could tell by the way he was acting that today was the day he would pop the question to Kristine.

The thought almost brought tears to my eyes because, not only was this finally happening, but I was going to have a real mom. One hundred and ten percent true blue mom, not one that would try to make me plastic and perfect, to fit in her little world the way she wanted me to. No, Kristine was better than that, much better. Not delaying another minute of this special morning I quickly got moving, brushed my hair, changed clothes, made my bed, and headed down the stairs as I danced my way into the kitchen. Sure enough, as any other morning after she stayed the night, I found her in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

This morning however was not like other mornings, for some strange reason she was mad. Like really mad, she didn’t smile at me as I walked into the kitchen, she didn’t even look at me. She just kept her eyes on her work chopping something I couldn’t see. Seeing her like this made me uneasy to be around her so I focused my attention to the music that was dully playing in the back ground. where could Dad possibly be, he was usually the first one in the kitchen, at that moment, Dad came in the back door of the kitchen with a beautiful arrangement of wild flowers and weeds that were tied together with a red ribbon.

As Dad slipped up behind Kristine he said, Good morning Sweetheart. and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She didn’t move at first except to keep chopping the rest of the stuff and then wiped her hands on her apron. She turned slowly around with a big blue bowl forcing Dad to move aside.

He asked, Honey, are you okay? as he placed the flowers on the counter and quickly gathered her up in his arms.

I felt like something was amiss so I decided to give them some space, I went out the back door of the kitchen as I caught the screen door so it would not bang and gently closed it, then quickly walked down the narrow path to the road.

When I got to the main road I turned and walked down the sidewalk as I thought of what it would be like to go to college this fall. Graduation was a few months away and I planned to enjoy every moment of it with the help of Jack. Without him I would have the cheerleaders on my case constantly. Since I wasn’t a ‘Plastic’ anymore, I realized that being the popular girl wasn’t all that much fun, I’d actually made a lot of better friends. Renee however, was still going out with Mike and wasn’t giving up her popularity status for anything.

Mike hadn’t changed, in fact he had only gotten worse. He and some football buddies did some stupid things and they all were suspended for over a week. He never made any attempts to talk to me, so I did the same in return. I thought the further apart we were, the better for both of us .After he made the big scene at the harvest dance, he has made no attempt to apologize. He just kept his distance and hasn’t said a word about it to anyone, not even Renee.

Ethan on the other hand was long gone, he left the night of the dance and by the time I got home he was already gone. That was eight months ago. For the first four of those long months I cried, moped, and wished nothing more than to crawl into a hole and just die. As for the last few of those months, I was getting over it and learning to live with the heartache. Jack helped a bunch, with my dad’s permission we went to parties together and other fun spontaneous things. That allowed me to get my mind off things and just have some fun. I actually began feeling like myself and before I knew it I was acting like myself again.

Where Ethan was still remained a mystery that even dad couldn’t find out. He tried all the airlines from here to California and still nothing. I don’t know what I would have done if we would have found him anyway. I could explain but he wouldn’t believe me and even if he did, I couldn’t make up for something like that even though it was Mike’s fault anyway. Even thinking about it now brings back the memories.

I came back to the house when my stomach began growling and the smell of bacon and eggs cleared my head. At first I just stopped and listened to make sure that nothing was going on like yelling, or plates hitting the wall. Then I opened the back door very carefully, again I caught the screen door so it wouldn’t hit the frame, and stepped into the sweet scent of breakfast in the kitchen. Kristine was happy again, her face was pink and her once ridged body was swift and moving around the kitchen like a cat. Dad sat at the table with a cup of coffee in one hand and the other gripping something in his fist on the table. I quickly moved to the seat next to him and made a playful effort to remove his hand from its secretive grasp.

He made a grunting sound and held his fingers in place more firmly. He gave me a look that I used to get all the time as a young child that told me ‘no’. He gave a little nod and a smile over toward Kristine who had her back to us as she was pulling something out of the oven. I knew right then what Dad was holding, her engagement ring.

Ellen–

Surprise Her

Kristine had the table filled with bacon, eggs, sausage, omelets, and even French toast. She claimed that she got bored and cooked a few things. Looked like everything she could find. It didn’t matter to my dad but it did to me, only because he might get too used to it. After a few minutes of eating, the doorbell rang, Kristine automatically started to answer it but stopped as dad yelled, Come on in Jack, the door is open.

My eyes went straight to dad’s face as he got another piece of French toast from the never ending stack. He read my expression and said, What? You didn’t think we could eat this all by ourselves did you? It was a strange thing to do because what was left over always was given to dad’s biker friends. They came over every couple days to play in a man cave that dad made out of the den. After a second or two Jack was sitting across from me; he helped himself to a few pieces of bacon and a fat stack of French toast.

Morning guys he said smiling widely at everyone.

So, is there anything new going on around here? Jack began looking at my dad for the answer.

Nope He said back taking a sip of his coffee.

What about you Ellen, he asked his eyes meeting mine. I just shook my head and continued eating. I flashed dad a look that said ‘do it already’. He let out a heavy sigh and set down his coffee.

Kristine, honey… he got cut off by Kristine’s sudden outburst and a smoke alarm going crazy.

Crap, crap, crap, she said running to turn off the oven and alarm. Jack swallowed loudly and then grabbed the broom stick to poke the off button on the alarm on the ceiling. The loud beeping stopped, everyone went silent as Kristine pulled a burnt heap of meat out of the oven and her face went into a pout.

Oh honey, I’m so sorry dad said, pulling her by her waist into a hug. I examined the charcoaled meat until I realized that it was in fact dinner. The big lump was ham and it appeared to be burnt on the outside, some people would have called it Cajun but I knew it was going to be trashed. Kristine would not have served that thing to her worst enemy, let alone people that she cared for.

Wow, I’m so sorry Miss. Kristine that really blows. Jack said, giving a pitiful look as a sign of sympathy for Kristine’s dinner. Dad didn’t really pay the meat any attention just turned Kristine around and gave her a real good look.

Sweet Heart, it will be okay. We can have take-out or…..

Kristine interrupted, No! She blurted out, It’s not okay, I’m supposed to cook for you and be a good example to the kids and I’m screwing it all up. Her faint little tears were soon gone as dad kneeled down on the kitchen floor. Kristine and I both gasped as he pulled out the small black ring box. Jack nearly fell out of his seat as dad began to speak.

I hope you think of me as much more than just your boyfriend. I want to be so much more than that to you, and I hope that you want more than that from me He stopped to open the box that he dropped a couple of times. By the third try, he managed to get the tiny box open and show off a simple gold band with a small princess cut diamond mounted on it. Not something that Emily would have liked at all, but to Kristine it was perfect. At first she was silent, dead silent, and then dad finished in almost a whisper.

Kristine, honey would you marry me?

She looked at the ring, then at me Elli, is it okay? She asked tears still in the rims of her eyes. I nodded speechlessly.

Well snap, we got ourselves a wedding Jack said killing whatever romance that was left in the moment. Kristine laughed as dad slid the ring on her finger, and so it was final, I was going to have the mom I wanted from the very beginning. I continued to stand there completely speechless.

It was almost dinner time when dad and mom came home from their date, dad had made special plans just for this day. I however found it strange to call her mom because I’d gotten so use to calling her Kristine or Miss. Kristine but never mom. It felt good to know that Dad was going to marry a lady that would treat me like her daughter, not a toy to try to impress her friend, and even better to know that it was going to be Kristine. The fact of getting use to calling her mom would be challenging but something I’m was willing to do.

Jack left a little after lunch and made me promise to call him before I went to bed. I made the promise mostly to get him off my back and also because it was just something that we did every night. It really started with me going through many months after Ethan left, after doing it for so long we got into a habit of calling one another. Mom didn’t say much when she came back, just went straight bed, that was a good indication that she had a good time and she was tired. Dad how ever came into the living room and asked me to join him. The request was rather odd since everything was going okay and we didn’t talk in the living room unless something was really the matter.

Hey Dad, what’s up? I asked sitting down on the couch across from him. He looked rather edgy in his biker gear that he wore mostly because Kristine liked it. He had a confused expression on his face and spoke heavily.

So, how did I do?, he asked.

With what?

On popping the question, how did I do?

She said yes, didn’t she?

Well yeah, but did I sound lame?

Of course you sounded lame, she said yes, and that’s all that matters, right?

I felt like I had my foot in my mouth and my head in a bucket!

Well, it was great and I think Kristine really loved it. Where did you get the ring?

Rings, he corrected me holding up his hand and poking out his ring finger showing me the almost same simple ring that he gave Kristine on his finger. This one was gold and a little wider, with a single diamond flush mounted in the middle to insure that it didn’t come out. I inspected it carefully before nodding with a smile.

I got them at a new jewelry shop called ‘Robert’s Jewelry’

My jaw dropped, Robert had always joked about going into business for himself with his very own little shop. I never thought in a million years that it would actually happen, let alone this fast! Dad read my expression and began to explain more.

Yah, he got his income tax refund and decided to try out his dream. I was the first person that he sold something to and that was just about a month ago. You really should go talk to him Elli. You haven’t seen him since….. He broke off there because he knew how sensitive the subject of Him was. I nodded to let him know that I was okay, and then gave him a half smile that he returned. He stood up smiling; he was