She’s Dangerous
Everyone had warned him about her. “She’ll break your heart,” they said. “She’s lying to you.” “She’s not known to be faithful.”
But blinded by love, he didn’t listen. “Wait,” he heard the doctor mumble as the nurses rushed to cut the baby’s umbilical cord. “Is that a ring?”
Emotions
Joshua’s heart sank as he took in the glittering golden band in the child’s grasp. He stared up at Mindy’s anguished face. Shouldn’t he have been more sympathetic because she’d endured sixteen hours of labor?
Emotions welled within him, a burning surge of surprise and a crippling sense of helplessness. He had to take a step back before he did something rash. He was about to turn around when his girlfriend finally spoke.
His Life
Joshua Livingstone had never been one to believe in love. He’d never been lucky enough to find someone who truly put him in a bind.
A Minnesota native from the small town of Stillwater, his life was usually straightforward. He’d only wanted to find someone to build a life with. He never expected that everything would turn on its head so fast.
A Good Life
Josh ran a plumbing business in his town, helping different folks and businesses with their water and sewerage systems. His company was booming, and Josh couldn’t be prouder.
He’d bought and renovated a fantastic two-story fixer-upper in his community and was living life to the fullest. But although everything was going according to plan, one side of his life was seemingly in shambles.
Making Sacrifices
Despite being in his early thirties, with a beautiful house, car, and a supportive circle of friends, Josh had never found love.
Through his younger years, he’d worked hard to establish his plumbing business and had to cut off other aspects of his life, such as going out to find a girlfriend. Standing inside that delivery room, he wished he had done things differently.
Setting Priorities
Now thirty-two years old, his only goal was finding a woman to build a family with. What was the point of making an empire when there was no one to inherit it?
He started going out with some of his friends who were still bachelors like him, hoping he’d find someone. He had no idea what he was stepping into.
A Perfect Match
Meeting Mindy was so unexpected Josh didn’t think it was real. His goal had always been clear: finding a good woman and settling down.
But Mindy was beyond good. She was not only intelligent and beautiful but had her own career going and still made time to have fun. But that wasn’t what made Josh gravitate toward her.
Her Life
Mindy was twenty-nine but didn’t have a family of her own. After several failed relationships through her twenties, she’d decided to give up completely, working on her flower business instead.
But life does not wait for anyone, and just like Josh, she found out late that everything she was building would wither away after she was gone with no one to enjoy it with. She needed to start a family and fast.
A Simple Conversation
The two connected on this fundamental level. What began as a simple conversation at a bar in the dead of night evolved into movie and dinner dates.
Josh loved how he instantly clicked with Mindy. She told him about her flower business, explaining everything in detail, and he revealed all the ins and outs of the plumbing business. By the end, it was clear that they were meant for each other. Or were they?
Love Does Exist
Josh was slowly considering the idea that love truly exists. But his friends and family were against everything he was doing as long as it involved Mindy.
His mom and sisters talked about how odd it was that such a woman was single. She was pretty and successful, yet without a significant other. Something was off.
She Will Hurt You
His friends warned him, saying, “You never find a good woman at a bar at 3 am.” They painted Mindy as a dangerous woman with hidden motives.
“She will hurt you,” one of them, a close childhood friend, said. “I saw her with another guy last week in town,” another said. Although Josh didn’t want to admit it, all these comments were slowly getting to him.
A Powerful Connection
But being with Mindy was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. They’d been on numerous dates, and in each of them, she’d not failed to make him laugh.
She had a way of getting to him, evoking such strong emotions he couldn’t believe any of it was real. He should have known that she had her own plans with him.
A Partnership
For Josh, a relationship was supposed to be simple. Each party had its role to play in making everything a success. He was okay with being the provider and protector in the relationship if Mindy would be the nurturer and help maintain the peace.
She was to be his quiet place after a long day at work, a refuge for him to lay his head in this chaos that is life. But Josh would soon learn that this wasn’t the case with Mindy.
A Perfect Balance
Mindy was different from your traditional girl who played by the rules. Where Josh had his booming business that would ensure his family never slept out in the cold or with empty stomachs, she had her own that would see her kids through college.
Where Josh was tall and burly, enough to fend off any home invader, she had a black belt in martial arts and would surely do much more damage than him. But that was only half of it.
A Provider And Nurturer
Although Mindy embodied all these qualities usually found in a man, she didn’t wear them like badges on her chest and shoulders. Moreover, she was a peaceful woman who would ask Josh about his day on their dates, offering remedies to his issues.
She seemed to be the perfect woman, a mix of provider and nurturer. Josh decided he needed to have her, not knowing he was playing right into her trap.
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