Ella's Love

Copyright © Jasmine Lee 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes only. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and the story lines are created by the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.

Cover Photography: Tabitha Patterson

Cover Model: Donna Kitchens

Cover Design: Sheri McGathy

Editor: Adrian J. Smith

Formatting: Champagne Formats

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Praise for Ella’s Love

Note to Reader

Playlist

Epigraph

Prologue

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

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Stalk Jasmine Lee

Emily (Skipping Stones: Book 1) ~ Unedited

To my beautiful kids who are just as excited about this book as me.

To my friend Lori Ann, who left this world far too soon. In school she always encouraged me to go for it and write. This is me going for it, finally!

Thank you to everyone who has helped me get my book to where it is now.

What readers are saying:

Ella’s Love brought you into an emotional roller coaster and even a day or so after I finished it, I still feel like I’m on that roller coaster. And that is hard for authors to do sometimes.

You’ll feel the love, the heartbreak and most of all you’ll feel the appreciation of love and life in your own life.

This book takes you through so many emotions, you go from happiness too heartbreak and then total devastation.

Note to Reader:

The following story is fiction, purely from my imagination. Some events and reactions in the story are based on me and my husband. Such as the first date, wedding, Marcus’ reaction to certain news he receives. So please be aware, even though it is fiction some of it is based on actual events from my life. Also the female main character (Ella) deals with something in the story; I wrote her emotions and reasons and reactions of how I dealt with it and am still dealing with it. So please know when you read, I’m not writing it to add to the story. It’s something I do have a lot of knowledge on because I’m living with it now. Hope you enjoy!

Jasmine Lee

Playlist:

Wicked Games – The Weekend

All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor

Let Her Go - Passenger

Glitter In the Air - Pink

I Won’t Give Up – Jason Mraz

Skin – Alexz Johnson

Time To Be Your 21 – Alexz Johnson

Alive – Jennifer Lopez

Just A Dream - Nelly

Legendary Lovers – Katy Perry

Unconditionally – Katy Perry

Dark Horse – Katy Perry

Notbroken – Goo Goo Dolls

Nothing Is Real – Goo Goo Dolls

Where Does It Hurt – Alexz Johnson

I Don’t Know If I Should Stay – Alexz Johnson

Don’t You Dare – Alexz Johnson

Over And Over - Nelly

Possibility – Lykke Li

A Thousand Years – Christina Perri

Dream – Aerosmith

Angel – Aerosmith

Dust In The Wind - Kansas

When I’m Gone – Joey + Rory

Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran

I Don’t Dance – Lee Brice

In the darkest times I keep my head up with my feet on the ground, I ain’t running away

Eric F.

I could tell you everyone gets their own form of happily ever after in the end, but let’s face it, that’s a HUGE lie. Not everyone gets one, or they get a part of one only to have it ripped away from them in the end. Leaving them more broken than they ever believed they could be in their lives.

I thought I had it all: the fame, the happiness, and most importantly, the love.

What a load of bullshit!

I definitely didn’t have love. She wanted me for nothing more than my fame and money in the end. So after nine years together—four of those years spent married—we ended up getting the big D. Thankfully, there were no children in the mix, otherwise I would have to deal with the royal bitch for the rest of my life.

But this isn’t mine and the royal bitch’s story. Nope, this is Ella’s and my story; the story of how we came to be. True, we had more going in the end than we realized at the time, but I wouldn’t change one thing about our time together.

Not one thing.

9 years ago

After being up all day and going to classes, the last thing I want to do was to go to a party, but as my eyes roam around the house full of bodies, I feel more annoyed than anything. Why did I come to this party again? Oh, right, Adam, my best friend and right hand man. We’ve been friends for the past three years. I figure I can make the best of it until I can come up with a legitimate excuse to leave. As my eyes scan the crowd, I keep finding myself going back to the tall, blonde, model type, who is currently standing about ten feet from me talking to her friends. Damn, she’s hot! She’s tall, at least five eight, long blonde hair, green eyes and wearing a blue jean skirt and black see-through tank that leaves little to my imagination. I can’t help but grin at her when I catch her eye.

I’m about to head over when somebody falls into me, and I don’t mean just a little nudge. I mean falls into me, knocking me back into the wall behind me. I land with a thud and a sharp pain to my shoulder. Ugh…are you kidding me?

Oh! I’m so, so sorry. I was trying to catch myself before I hit you, but I lost my balance. You’re not hurt are you? Please, say you’re not, a female voice resounds in front of me as small hands push against me so she can stand.

I raise my eyes to see my attacker, and I’m surprised to find a short curvy girl who is no more than sixteen or eighteen at the most standing in front me. She looks so upset with her eyes as big as saucers and wandering all over me that I find it hard not to laugh. Instead, I shake my head. No, I’m fine. Trust me, you didn’t hurt me.

She visibly relaxes, her shoulders dropping and the tightness in her face melting away. Her eyes finally lock with mine, and they’re so light in color they’re almost clear. Ice blue is how I’d describe them, big and round on a rather small face surrounded by light red hair that stops an inch or two below her ears. This girl has to be like maybe five feet at most. I stand at least a foot taller than her. Cute but not hot.

Definitely not my type.

I stand and brush my hands down my shirt as I let my eyes travel up and down her body. She’s wearing faded blue jeans and a turquoise tank, and her skin has a light tan. Damn, she has a nice body; the classic hourglass figure most women would kill for. I finally raise my eyes to hers and realize she’s staring down at the floor.

Hey, don’t worry about it. Seriously, no harm done. I say as I reach out and tap her arm lightly.

Finally lifting her gaze to mine, she nods. Again, I’m so sorry.

I shrug and laugh it off as I hold my hand out. I’m Marcus, by the way.

She smiles as she takes my hand Ella. Nice to meet ya.

I detect a southern accent, but can’t quite place it. We continue to stare at each other until some guy comes over picks her up, spinning her around in circles.

Baby girl, you are a sight for sore eyes. How I’ve missed you.

I watch as Ella’s face switches to a mask of confusion as she frowns and narrows her eyes at the man in front of her. Um…yeah, sure. You too, she says.

I’m about to ask if she knows who this guy is when he bursts out laughing and looks at someone behind him.

Yo, I win. Told you she’d act like she knew me!

I return my attention back to Ella as she stands there, trying to figure out what is going on when the guy’s buddy steps closer and grins at her. I watch as her face transforms from confusion to complete happiness as a huge smile overtakes her face. Eric! she hollers and runs up to him, throwing herself into his arms.

Hey, baby girl. Miss me?

Okay, now I’m fucking confused because it sure as shit doesn’t make sense to me. Instead of sticking around to ask, shaking my head I turn and walk away, figuring it isn’t my business so why worry about it in the end.

I continue through the crowd of bodies, some sweaty and smelly, and not in a good way. As I hit the kitchen, I find Adam leaning up against a counter talking to Caleb, another of my good friends and bandmates. Our band is called Blackout. Adam plays drums, Caleb plays bass and Clint is the guitarist while I do vocals. They both have women they’re ignoring draped all over them. We’re in a successful heavy metal band so we’re use to women hanging on us. Well, successful in the college crowds so far; plus, it helps that we mix rock in with it. Eventually the women all blur into one, and we quit caring to even ask for their names. We call all of them babe, sweetheart or some other lovey dovey nickname to keep from calling out the wrong name in the end. We’ve all made that mistake a couple times before we learned.

Adam turns to see me and raises his chin at me in greeting as Caleb swings around facing me.

Hey, man, Caleb says.

Hey. I openly admire, the two women who are pressing up against them. See you guys found yourself some company for the night.

They both wink. Something like that, Adam says as he rubs his hands down to the woman’s ass.

Two arms wrap around my waist from behind. I raise my left arm and look behind me, coming face to face with the blonde I had been checking out before. Hey, I say as I wrap