Owen

OWEN THE BOYS OF CASTLEVIEW COVE - BOOK 3 VH NICOLSON CONTENTS Author’s Notes 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 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Epilogue Also by VH Nicolson Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright © 2023 by VH Nicolson All rights reserved. Published by: Kristina Fair Publishing Ltd Owen is a work of fiction. Characters, names, organizations, places, events and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Editing by Sarah Baker, The Word Emporium. Cover image: © Photographer: Ren Saliba For my Forces friends who became family AUTHOR’S NOTES Please note this book comes with a content warning. This book is intended for over 18s. My books all come with the guarantee of a happily ever after but sometimes the journey to get there can be a hard fought one. The main focus of my books is love, romance and happiness. Also, there is lots of humor too. Please keep that in mind. However, just in case you aren’t sure, and if you are a sensitive reader then please proceed with caution, here’s a content warning list. Triggers: Car accident (fatal - happens off the page and not described in detail), plane crash, emotional childhood abuse, runaway groomsman, jilted bride, blackmail, gambling, absent parent, sexual harassment in the workplace. For Content Warnings & Tropes of All My Books, Please Scan the QR Code at the Top of The Author’s Note Page. Please can I ask if any little typos or errors have slipped through the rigorous editing process, to please contact me directly so I can fix these immediately. I pick up every email personally: [email protected] Happy reading… let’s go… CHAPTER ONE Owen “You’ve turned a funny color. Are you okay?” My lifelong friend and best man, Lincoln, straightens my pink silk tie. “It’s too tight.” I’m almost wheezing as I hook my finger inside the neckline of my baby blue dress shirt and arch my neck in an attempt to loosen it. I’m pretty sure it’s self-tightening and trying to strangle me to death. I can’t seem to catch my breath since I put the stupid fucking thing on. Today is my wedding day. Wedding day. Pfft. It’s supposed to be the happiest day of my life, but all I can think about is ripping off this stupid outfit I’ve been forced to wear by my future wife, Evangeline, and my mother, and tell them both where to shove it. They didn’t even let me wear a kilt. I’m a Scotsman. By right, on my wedding day, that’s exactly what I should be wearing. But oh no, a kilt wasn’t good enough for Evangeline. I had to wear a blue and pink embroidered floral suit, made by some designer prick, specially commissioned for daddy’s little princess. Whatever Evangeline wants, Evangeline gets. She never wants me to touch her, so I don’t. She never wants me to kiss her, so I don’t. She flinches when I so much as brush against her by mistake, making everything we do together awkward. If I try to make conversation with her, she chastises me. Mocking me every chance she gets, telling me how stupid I am. Considering I’ve put up with my mother’s verbal attacks since I was a child, you’d think I would be used to them by now, only I’m not and never will be. Each vicious word out of Evangeline’s mouth is like another lash of a whip, opening old emotional wounds, each one cutting deeper than the last. Playing the good boy just as my mother instructed, I’ve put in all the effort, with Evangeline’s family, her friends, even her stupid Persian cat, Angel. Believe me, that cat is no angel. It may be all white fur and innocent faced but once I move into the new house, it is going to claw me to death in my sleep. I bet it’s made a How to Kill Owen Plan. I just know it has. It’s already had me at the doctors after it bit me, giving me an infection. Angel is going to kill me off, limb by fucking limb. Just wait and see. But the killer cat is the least of my problems. I’ve tried to make this ridiculous farce of a relationship work for our families. God, have I tried hard. I even grew my hair longer for her because she said I would look better. Although that’s not what she said, her exact words were, “It’ll distract people from your enormous nose.” What the fuck is wrong with my nose? Oh, I know, absolutely nothing. It’s my entire face she can’t stand looking at. Knowing how much I messed up with Skye, my girlfriend since high school, I don’t want to do that again. I was completely unaware of what a shitty boyfriend I was until Skye informed me. Apparently, I let her down time and time again throughout our fourteen-year, on again, off again relationship. Once I knew though, I made a vow to myself to try harder, do better, and be the man I should be for my soon to be wife. I may have lost Skye and not been the man she needed me to be, but my other best friend, Jacob, knew exactly how to be that man. He stepped up and