A Forever Man

by Mary Flinn

He had awakened, jarred by the dream, shuddering in a sweat and unsure whether it were real. Seconds ago, they were making love on a beach, the tide washing warm over their legs. He had been lost in her. Of course, she was so different, awakening new, explosive sensations within him. It would have been the perfect dream, except for one harsh reality; the woman in the dream was not his wife. There are friends and there are lovers; sometimes the line between is thinly drawn. As they approach their tenth wedding anniversary, Kyle and Chelsea Davis have it all; the perfect marriage, charming eight-year-old twin boys, and successful careers. Life couldn't be better for either of them. Enter Elise Masters, a former model, now single mother, who joins Mountaineer Builders as the firm's new interior designer. With eyes like his favorite river, and a spellbinding personality to match, Kyle is soon swept under, despite his attempts to stay in control. A Forever Man takes a deep plunge into marriage and love, exploring the fine line between love and friendship. Can Kyle befriend Elise, and maintain a professional relationship with her, while staying true to the woman he loves? Told alternatively from Kyle and Chelsea's perspectives, this poignant love story takes all three characters to the brink of understanding infidelity and its consequences.

344 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

A native of North Carolina, award-winning author Mary Flinn long ago fell in love with her state’s mountains and its coast, creating the backdrops for her series of novels, The One, Second Time’s a Charm, Three Gifts, and A Forever Man. With degrees from both the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and East Carolina University, Flinn has retired from her first career as a speech pathologist in the NC public schools since 1981. Writing a novel had always been a dream for Flinn, who began crafting the pages of The One, when her younger daughter left for college at Appalachian State University in 2009. The characters in this book have continued to call to her, wanting more of their story told, which bred the next three books in the series.
Flinn has recently been the recipient of the Reviewers’ Choice First Place Award for Romance Novel in the Reader Views 2011 Literary Book Awards, as well as the Pacific Book Review Best Romance Novel of 2011 for Three Gifts. Second Time’s a Charm, also released in 2011, won an Honorable Mention in the Reader Views Reviewers’ Choice Awards. The Nest, a stand-alone from the Kyle and Chelsea series, won a B.R.A.G. Medallion book award in 2015. Breaking Out, Flinn's second stand-alone was published in 2014. A Girl Like That, released in 2015 is the winner of the Reader Views Literary Book Award, as well as the B.R.A.G. Medallion.
Mary Flinn lives with her husband in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she is at work on her next novel. They have two adult daughters.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILERS
Beautiful 34 year old dancer and choreographer Chelsea, was married to handsome architect Kyle, for 10 years. They had 8 year old twin boys.
The couple married for love and they were still crazy about each other.
They were very happy, had the most beautiful life and had great sex life.
Chelsea called Kyle her forever man.

There was a new hire at his firm, a 25 year old designer, Elise. She was exquisitely beautiful, a single mother of a little girl.
Kyle's devotion to Chelsea had always been unshakeable but now he felt a connection and an attraction to Elise and that rattled him but nothing was to happen because he would not allow it.
From the first day Kyle and Elise talk about work but also started chatting about personal matters which is a bad idea considering the feelings his employee evoked on him. He should have stayed as far away as possible. He did the opposite.

At a party Chelsea noticed the way her husband looked at the newcomer as she walked through the door. Introductions were made and Chelsea felt that something was not right, she was aware of the two sharing private looks. She could not but be worried.
Her husband looked spellbound and she knew the two would work together every day, 40 hours a week and that made her sick.

That night at the party Elise asked Kyle to help her the next day to carry a piece of furniture, which he did and that's how he met her little girl.

Chelsea already saw that Kyle felt protective of Elise since she was new and on her own in town.
He told Chelsea as much and he also told her that she reminded him of herself.

Kyle and Chelsea went on a romantic dinner but the whole thing was ruined. At the restaurant Elise and a business associate of Kyle's, Michael, were dining as well.
Kyle looked upset. He told Chelsea that Michael was not right for Elise, he was a player and he was going to break her heart.
Kyle was so distracted, unable to hide his distasteful feelings about Elise and Michael been there together.
Chelsea knew that her husband's fascination with Elise exceeded the usual professional relationship and she found this disturbing.
She knew she had a fight on her hands.

The next day at work Kyle chastised Elise for going out with a player.
He told her she did not need someone like Michael.
She asked what she needed.
"...without thinking, his hand went to her cheek, fingertips brushing it for an instant. ' You need to be kissed ' he thought, sure that the look on her face meant she was reading his mind.
He wondered what it would feel like to kiss her, long and deep and hard, the way she deserved, imagining himself doing it, aware that his eyes were locked with hers.
Realising this had to stop, now, or there would be hell to pay."

Elise's presence had consumed him even though he did not want it to do so.
He had neglected his family with his own distracted thoughts that were wrong, a fantasy, and he could not understand why he was letting this happen.
He knew Chelsea deserved time from him to love and cherish and he wanted that too.

When Elise's little girl got injured at school, Kyle accompanied Elise to the Hospital and stayed with them for the duration.
Chelsea was not happy about that. Her insecurities about Kyle and Elise intensified.

That night Chelsea had a disturbing dream about Kyle and Elise. She woke with a jolt and witnessed Kyle moaning and groaning. He was obviously having a dream.
He woke up and went into the living room.
He had a vivid and pleasant dream. That he and Elise were making love on the beach.
He knew that what he had entertained in his head lately would destroy his family.
Chelsea and his sons were everything to him.
Had he crossed the line already?

Chelsea followed him in the living room and seeing her Kyle thought that the woman on the beach had nothing on his wife.
His wife was the most beautiful woman.
He knew he had to put an end to his need to help Elise in her personal life.
No more.

Kyle and Chelsea made love that night, an intimacy and feeling he had with her and no one else.
Chelsea asked him to show her that it was her he wanted.
"Of course it's you. It's always been you. "
Chelsea knew then that she had brought him back where he belonged.
Her forever man.

Kyle felt the need to confide to someone and he chose his uncle Tyson.
"...there's a connection between us from the get go, and an attraction.
Who wouldn't be, she is gorgeous. I am married not dead. I am not in love with her, l don't know what l am with her. She needs my help every so often and I give it, even though it takes time from me and my family. She is seeing Michael and l know he is going to hurt her. She needs protecting.
I know that nothing's ever going to happen, but l feel l've already done something and l don't feel in control of my feelings when it comes to her.
I am fine when I'm home with Chelsea but then l get to work and there she is, and I'm gone.
I'd never do anything to hurt Chelsea. I'm still crazy about her. I will never destroy my family. "

This is his uncle's response.
"So you are attracted but look at the woman you have. Chelsea's as phenomenal as a woman gets.
Whatever you think you're going to do with this girl is never going to be worth screwing up what you already have.
You say you want to protect this girl from Michael. So if she hangs with you, she'll be safe?
It's okay if you're the one who breaks her heart?
You are not that girl's father, or boyfriend, so you need to drop her like a hot rock.
You make this whole thing over.
You are playing with fire. And losing Chelsea is not an option for you.
You lose Chelsea, you lose it all."

Kyle knew that one thing could ruin it all and for him it would have to be a very long fall.
Kyle decided to draw a line in the sand at work on Monday, but Elise seemed fixated on him.

On the 4th of July company outing at the park he did his best to rebuff Elise and did everything he could to reassure Chelsea about their relationship.
He knew Chelsea considered Elise her rival but he knew her reaction to Elise was now unfounded but they never talk about Elise.
He did not want Chelsea's imagination to runaway.

That is until Elise called him for help once again while they were entairtaning friends at home.
Elise and her daughter got ran off the road and into a ditch.
Chelsea got quite irritated, their evening plans ruined, and just why Kyle had to always be Elise's knight in shining armour?
Angry Kyle told her "Elise's been sitting there for 20 minutes and no one's stopped. The little girl is freaking out. Wouldn't you want someone to come and help you if it were you?"

Later that night he told Chelsea "Flowers are beautiful, but l prefer pink roses by far over the rest.
You are my pink rose Chelsea. "
He asked her to trust him.

One night a frantic Elise called again. She surprised an intruder at her apartment.
On his way out the intruder punched Elise and knocked her down.
So here we have Kyle rushing out the door again.

After that incident Kyle rebuffed all Elise's invitations. That's how you stay in control, he thought.
He was making good on his promise to himself to turn off his feelings towards Elise.

One day at the office he heard Elise crying. He comforted her. She'd found Michael with another woman the night before when she unexpectedly visited him.
Kyle promptly went to confront Michael.
So here he was again. In Elise's business when he should have been minding his own.

From that day on, Kyle set the tone. He stopped talking to Elise about private matters.
He figured that his was the way they were supposed to interact, finally as a professional in the office, nothing more.

After Elise worked at the firm for the better part of a year, she submitted her resignation.
Shocked Kyle asked her the reason.
She said she fell in love with him and she couldn't work with him any more.
He asked "Did l do anything?"
"Yes, you did everything. You were just being you and you are just everything l want. But l can't have you. I want devotion from someone like you. I want a forever man, but it can't be you. You belong to Chelsea and always will. That day at the office when l thought you were going to kiss me, that totally did me in. You felt it too."
"Yes. There was a time when l was caught up in you too. I have to admit it. I was wrong and l knew it, and l backed off,"

When Kyle got home he told Chelsea about Elise's resignation.
"She is in love with you, isn't she?"
"You knew?"
"Of course l knew but l thought she could handle it. You were handling it."
"Chelsea, you know l love you. You know it's us and the boys. This will all be for the best."

[boogenhagen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this one on the premise of the blurb - it was going to be an in-depth probing of the boundaries of marriage and the temptation of infidelity.

That is not what I got, and for an e-book that is not a big name author backed by a major publisher and costs ten bucks, such disillusionment leads to extreme disappointment in this story.

Apparently this part of a series, but I was told it could be read as a stand alone and so that is how I am reviewing it.

Kyle and Chelsea appear to have a good marriage on the surface, Kyle seems a bit perturbed about Chelsea's independence in managing their home and kids, but he thinks he loves his wife so all is going well. Then he hires a new employee, Elise, for his company and because she has the right qualifications and is also a single parent with a special needs kid, he feels a lot of compassion for her.

Elise begins to insinuate herself into his life and Kyle is very attracted on multiple levels. He makes no effort to curb her pleas for assistance, instead he just tells his wife he is "helping a poor woman out" when he leaves family events to unload her furniture, take her child to the hospital, rescue her on the road from a car accident and warns a man off she had been dating when he becomes inappropriate. In fact Kyle acts like a jealous lover over Elise for 90% of the book, even when friends warn him to back off and colleagues and clients start wondering what is going on. Kyle insists that he is just a helpful guy and there is no need to worry, he has it all handled.

Chelsea, on the other hand, is very worried - but apparently too scared Kyle is going to cheat to make an issue of anything. So she buries her head in the sand - even to the point of being a willing receptacle of Kyle's lust after an erotic dream of Elise. The advice given to Chelsea from another character is that affairs don't mean anything, she shouldn't think her marriage is about to fall apart. Granted that is one attitude to take, but since Kyle and Chelsea never talk about the situation, we don't know that an affair won't break up their home.

Kyle seems to have a rescuer personality and according to the 'affairs don't mean anything' character, a quick consolation shag or six shouldn't destroy a marriage. Chelsea can't quite reconcile that advice to her own perspective, but instead of insisting that if Kyle wants to rescue something he should try the local animal shelter or nearest teen mentoring program, she just buries her head further and demands some more sex.

Eventually Kyle realizes that his feelings are getting out of hand, so instead of backing off, he informs Elise that he loves his wife and proceeds to demonstrate how wonderful he is to Elise even more. It has the effect of my cats taunting the neighbor's dog by flaunting themselves on the fence. The dog goes nuts cause he can't get to them and I have to get the water bottle to make them stop. Kyle turns from a lust filled, yearning bag of longing to an arrogant tease, and it is a remarkably cruel thing to do to a woman, especially coming from a man who supposedly is a "nice guy and likes to help people out".

Yet I don't think the author really meant for Kyle to be perceived this way, there is obviously a lot of affection for this character present in the writing. Maybe too much, I think the writer's affection prevented a real delving into the reasons behind Kyle's infatuation, and by never exploring the feelings and reasons in depth, what could have been a compelling work on the complexities of attraction and loyalty within marriage becomes a surface skim on a shallow pond. It makes Kyle extremely unlikable as a character and Chelsea just seems sadly resigned to ride out the vagaries of come what may.

Elise herself was not an overtly bad person either, she was a needy homewrecker and I was surprised that no one thought to offer a woman's abuse service and maybe a therapist to help her with all her problems. Elise wanted a daddy/lover figure and couldn't seem to realize that her problems mostly began and ended with herself and her inner demons. Elise does leave the company in the end, but Kyle's patronizing and condescending parting speech left me cringing for her, I don't see her getting help anytime soon -- but still Kyle is such a helpful guy. Right.

I finished this book with a deep sense of depression. Kyle and Chelsea have an isolating and non-communicative marriage that will ultimately prove to be a lonely place to be. Kyle never recognizes that there can and should be boundaries between helping people and obsessing about them. He feels he did nothing wrong, and sadly Chelsea refuses to acknowledge that she should be setting boundaries for the marriage as well. Kyle went over the line of helping and firmly into betrayal country during the course of the story, but because neither character admits it or discusses it, no solution is found and no boundaries are set.

I can only wonder what happens the next time Kyle runs into an attractive helpless waif of a woman and maybe things aren't going so well at home with Chelsea. He is a very vulnerable man to a certain type of woman, and since there are no brakes on his behavior, indeed he is utterly innocent in his own eyes, he is just one short fall away from stumbling and inserting body parts while he was just "helping the poor woman out".

[Raffaella · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hero has an emotional affair with his new employee, a woman who’s younger than him and his wife and who’s beautiful. He feels a connection, as he describes it, and he acts like a besotted fool. The sad thing is that his marriage is or should be happy. He had the woman of his dreams, they have twins, she’s amazing and they’re in love. But still, he feels more than attraction to his coworker. Thankfully he fights this attraction and he never acts on it physically but his wife realizes what’s going on and it was painful. I don think I would have been so understanding as she was, she stayed and tried to wait until this thing ended, hoping he was not cheating on her. After some weeks he realizes he has to stop but since he’s such a wonderful and helpful guy, generous and ready to help anyone, he meddles in this woman’s life time and again, telling her not to date a man who’s a know player, helping her whenever she is in some kind of difficult situation, dropping his wife and children to do it, and I admit I hated him, I prefer a man who’s grumpy and selfish with anyone but me, thanks but no thanks I don’t like men with hero complex. The heroine, though, does, and this is what she reaps, a man who runs when his charming employee calls him just because. In the end the woman leaves her job because she admits she’s fallen in love with the hero, while the hero is already over her. But I hated that the heroine had to go through it since they seemed so happy and strong. I would have asked him to leave as soon as I realized he had feelings for this other woman. But I’m a nasty bitch and not a sensible woman ah,

[Lidia's Romance · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

In short, he knows that she knows that he knows that she knows...that he's got the hots for his new employee. But they don't talk about it. *Sigh* For heroines in these types of books, it's easier to bury their heads in the sand than to actually communicate. He doesn't cheat on her, physically, but he certainly did, emotionally. He had to try very hard to fight the temptation. He crossed the line more than once. He had a dream where he was having sex with the OW, a dream he thought he would never forget. The emotional cheating was angsty, I admit, but it gets bogged down by all the filler in the book, and the fact that the h hardly confronts him about his OBVIOUS attraction to the OW. He eventually overcomes his obsession with the OW but did he really? She ends up resigning because she falls in love with him and can't work with him. He doesn't want her to leave. Doesn't he see how inappropriate that would be, for her to stay? Or how unfair that would be for his wife? No, he's dumb and selfish. In the long run, I believe he would cheat if she stayed. It's not like he says he's not attracted to her or that he doesn't feel a strong connection to her anymore. He simply suppresses his feelings. The h even confirms this when she says the following right before the end:

"I'm sorry, Kyle. I didn't think Elise would let her feelings interfere with her work. She was strong that way."
"You knew?"
"Of course I knew. She couldn't hide the way she felt from me. I'm used to looking for this sort of thing, you know? But I thought she could handle it. YOU were handling it."

WTF, handling it??? How reassuring. This was not a very satisfying or comforting HEA.

There's no epilogue but the last chapter has a time jump (3 years later) and it's about the OW. Was I suppose to root for her, or even care?

(Amazon purchase - $2.99)

[Cc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is hard to rate bc the "Hero" never, and I mean never, redeems himself. I'm a person that would take emotional cheating much harder than physical cheating. It's more intimate than just bumpin' uglies (for me). So while the emotion is here, its treated as if "well he never slept with her, so it's ok". No, no it's not. I need a cheating theme romance to have redemption of the cheater, and it just doesn't happen here. Gutted me, yes, but I never got put back together again as Humpty Dumpty would say.

I always wonder if an author is too close to her characters and knows their hearts so well she thinks her readers will too. I really think that's the case here. If he'd shown regret, apologized or something ~ I would have really enjoyed it. Well written (and thought provoking) by the way, which is why my rating is a 3, so I'm definitely reading another one of her books.

[Stephanie S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, and No

I enjoyed the book, and the characters.
My only problem, is with his character.
He crossed a line, numerous times, that a married, or committed man, shouldn't cross.
(Spoiler)
I got the feeling that, if the other woman had been more aggressive, or if their sex life at home had hit a snag, that he would have happily cheated.
His character never, even after numerous warnings from other people, never sees, or is remorseful for how close he came to destroying his marriage, and family. He's even upset when the other woman walks away.
If she had stayed... He would have cheated.

[Beeg Panda · Rating 2 out of 5]

🎶We don't talk about Bruno, no, no, no!🎶 🎵We don't talk about Bruno...🎤🎼
“Bruno”, in this case, being the object of his desire, the ow.
This book is about the ow and his fixation on her, BUT THE H AND HIS WIFE DO NO VERBALISE HIS OBSESSION. I’ve never read the likes of it to this extent before.
She’s given so much on-page time, I quite expected him to leave his wife for her. I’m quite bummed about that, actually. *huff* But his wife represents family so he stuck around. Plus, the ow doesn’t choose him anyway, so 🤷‍♀️ he might as well stay with his wife and kids.

[Bobbi Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!!