by RJ Scott
“You look a world away,” Seb said as he walked up behind me on bare feet. I leaned back into his arms, turning my head for a soft kiss.
“I’m not sure I want to leave here,” I confessed, reaching up to push my fingers into his damp hair. He smelled shower fresh. I let my gaze move from him back to the yard as my body settled into his embrace. “We have a birthday party to attend in two days.”
“I know.” He spoke into the side of my neck. “I’ll be there with you.”
“If they act badly, we’re leaving and never going back.”
“Don’t make vows that you may wish you’d not made later. They’re coming around.”
“Hmm.” That was all I was going to say about that. Coming around yes, maybe. We’d see at my mother’s birthday party. For now, I wanted to simply linger in his arms and enjoy the sun warming the green lawns of the town I now considered my second home. “Can we come back here every summer?”
“If you so wish it, then it shall be so,” he teased, nipping my earlobe while hugging me just a bit more tightly. Oh yes, I wished it. I wished it and many other things, but for now, summers in the Cotswolds, winters in Tucson, and watching the day begin in this man’s arms was more than enough.
Arizona was just as hot, dry, and dusty as it had ever been. Breathing in that air made my restless soul feel a bit more settled. My house was still empty. Ryker was flatly refusing to leave his man and that Minnesota farm until the last whistle blew. He had about ten days. We were at the end of August, and training camp was set to begin September ninth. Sebastian and I had gone round and round all summer about living arrangements. Well, I’d gone round. He’d been his usual properly cool British self, saying that whatever I wished would be. Tut-tut and cheerios and pass the digestives, which was no help at all.
I was still wavering. Moving in with him would be a loud statement, one that I wasn’t sure I was ready to make. My family situation was still ugly, so perhaps just sitting still and sharing this house with Ryker and Henry, who was to be discharged in three weeks, might be the most practical thing. Or would it? Ugh.
I gave Seb, seated beside me, a long look after I’d pulled off halfway to San Luis for gas. “I think I should live with Ryker and Henry.”
“Okay.” He unbuckled his belt, slid out of the Jeep, stretched, and went inside the Gas & Go-Go. I pumped gas, my sight on the roadrunner staring at me from the edge of the highway.
“Beep-beep,” I called to the bird. It just stood there, staring. “Okay, so is this some sort of Mayans MC thing where an animal appears and has some significant meaning to the episode?” The bird blinked birdy eyes at me. “Like, am I going to run into a wall that some stupid coyote painted to look like a tunnel? Is an Acme anvil going to fall on my head?”
“Are you conversing with that bird?” Seb asked, appearing at my side with two cold cans of soda and a bag of Limón chips. I’d turned him onto those, and the man was addicted to them.
“It’s a roadrunner.” I placed the nozzle back in the holder and turned to fasten my gas cap tightly.
“Ah, beep-beep and all that.” He smiled at me, the wind pushing his hair off his brow.
“I love you. I think I should move in with you.”
“Okay.” He gave me a quick peck on the cheek, then climbed in and buckled his belt. I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt.
“Why are you not giving me any advice on where to live?” I asked when I climbed back into my Jeep. He’d already opened the bag of chips and was munching on them.
“Well.” He paused to wipe his salty fingers on a wad of napkins crammed under his leg. “It’s not my place to make major life decisions for you. Chip?” He held the bag out to me. I shoved my hand in, grumbling, grabbed a bunch, and crammed them into my mouth. “Also, for your information, I got a text from an Adler Lockhart asking me if I knew of any homes for sale near Henry’s rehab center. Dare I ask who Adler Lockhart is?”
“Really? Wow, um, he’s one of the Railers. Richer than sin. Why is he buying Henry a house when he has one we’re all sharing?”
“Seems Henry’s leg wasn’t healing as they’d wished, so they’re going back in to do another surgery, pins and grafts and such, nasty by the sounds. So he cannot live in a house with steps, which yours has. Also, there is some worry about his eye. His vision isn’t returning as quickly as it should be so…”
“Damn it. I wish I would have had ten minutes alone with Aarni. Ese hijueputa con cara de rata!”
“I understood rat and son of a bitch,” Seb stated, handing me a cold drink.
“Yeah, that’s all you need to understand to get the gist. So, if Henry’s not staying with us, who will take care of him?” This turn of events sucked.
“Well, until Lockhart can secure a housekeeper/cook/personal assistant, it will be Henry’s mother,” he replied, lifting his chin in the direction of the road. “We should pull away. There’s a car behind us.”
I threw the guy waiting on my bumper a fast look and a mouthed “Sorry!” before I started the engine. When I hit the highway, the roadrunner was gone. I hoped he didn’t run into any suspicious mounds of birdseed.
“That’s not going to be cool. Henry said he and his folks don’t always get along.” I set the cruise control and leaned back, the wind whipping my face as Romeo Santos serenaded us.
“Life is seldom fair,” he reminded me gently. True enough.
The ride home was spent trying to teach Sebastian how to greet my mother and father in Spanish, eating chips, and drinking soda that made us both belch. We’d not even pulled up and parked outside my parents’ home when Elizabeth ran out of the side door and threw herself at me. Laughing madly, I held her close and swung her in a wide circle, her joyous laughs music to my ears. When her tiny bare feet touched the sidewalk, she was off again, pulling on Sebastian and me until we were tripping over our own feet into the kitchen. There sat my grandmother, my parents, and Dwayne, the young man who my sister had been dating since he had served as her main chambelán.
My gaze skittered from Abuela smiling at us to my parents. We lingered in the doorway, my hand seeking his and finding it. I jerked my chin up. My father stood. Our sights locked.
“Bienvenido a casa, hijo.” He offered me his hand. I shook it. Then he extended his hand to Sebastian. “Welcome back. Thank you for taking care of our son overseas.”
“Gracias por invitarme a su fiesta, es un placer verlo de nuevo,” Sebastian said, his gaze going from my father to my mother, then to my grandmother.
My grandmother reached up to pinch me on the butt. I snickered, bent down, and pressed a kiss to her weathered cheek.
“I missed you, Abuela.”
“El amor te queda, mi niño,” she whispered as Dwayne rose and joined Elizabeth in the search for more kitchen chairs. I stared over my mother’s head as she fell into a conversation about the royals with Sebastian. He gave me a sly wink on the side when she asked if he knew Prince Harry, whom she liked a great deal since he had married an American woman of color.
Yeah, I guess love maybe did look good on me, hard to say, but I did know that it felt great. As did sitting at this table with Sebastian at my side. Maybe I would move in with him after all. Time would tell. One thing was for sure. No matter where our mail went, our hearts were forever joined.
The End
Next for the Raptors
Shadows and Light (Raptors #3)
Is it easier to fall into the shadows than hold on to the light?
Injured in a horrific car accident by a man who made him feel like nothing, Henry was left with life-threatening injuries, his career as a hockey player on hold, and nightmares that chase him in his sleep. He’s struggling to walk, and as much as people tell him to have hope because he’s young and fit, his vision is compromised, and he’s spiraling into despair. He’s finally been allowed home to the house he shares with Ryker and Alex, but his mom is caring for him, and her resolution that he will never see a rink again is driving him insane.
She wants him to move home and join the family’s realty company, but the thought of that is terrifying. Hockey gave him freedom, and now it’s all been taken away.
Drugs work to take the edge off, but it’s only risky experimental surgery that will fix his eye. On the one hand, if the invasive operation is successful, he could one day get back on the ice, but on the other, if it fails, he could be left permanently blind. Sending his mom away gives Henry back the illusion of control, but loneliness kills him one day at a time until Apollo arrives at his house and tells him that they’re moving. With his sunny smile and infectious optimism, along with his no-nonsense rules, Apollo slowly becomes an integral part of Henry’s life. But one day, when Henry is better, Apollo will leave, and what happens then? Has Henry really fallen for the dark-eyed man, or is it all just smoke and mirrors?
If there is one thing that Apollo Vasquez knows all about, it’s helping others and living with quirky athletes. After all, he’s spent most of his adult life tending to one of the richest hockey-playing heirs in America. His days have been filled with friendship, laughter, and the knowledge that he’s needed. Or he used to be. Over the past year, Apollo’s best friend, Adler Lockhart, has been slipping away, his time spent with his boyfriend, on the ice, or traveling the world with the man he loves. This leaves Apollo feeling like a clunky third wheel or all alone in a luxurious apartment with no one to fuss over.
Knowing that his life is at a crossroads, his loving nature leads him far away from his childhood friend to the dry desert town of Tucson, where he signs on to care for Henry Greenaway as the young Raptor recovers both mentally and physically from a near-fatal car crash. Henry is also facing a new life, one that might lead him from the sport he has loved for so long. Cooking, cleaning, and providing moral support is just what the doctor ordered for Apollo, and he soon finds that he’s not only rediscovering himself and a new life he adores but also falling for the sweet, lost, injured man who’s slowly capturing his heart one timid smile at a time.
Hockey from Scott & Locey
Harrisburg Railers
Changing Lines (Book #1) | First Season (Book #2) | Deep Edge (Book #3) | Poke Check (Book #4) | Last Defense (Book #5) | Goal Line (Book #6) | Neutral Zone - A Christmas Novella (Book #7) | Hat Trick - A Stan/Erik Novella (Book #8) | Save the Date - A Wedding Novella (Book 9) |
Owatonna U
Ryker (Book #1) | Scott (Book #2) | Benoit (Book #3) |
Arizona Raptors
Coast To Coast | Across The Pond | Shadows and Light
Authors Note
If you enjoyed Across the Pond…
…we would be incredibly grateful if you could leave a review somewhere on a retailers site, or Goodreads, or on your personal social media platforms.
Reviews are the reason someone else might pick up this book – or start at the beginning of the series.
Thank you.
Hugs and kisses,
RJ & V.L. xx
MM Hockey Romance
For up to date news and information on the Railers series, the next Railers book, a new series based on the Arizona Raptors, free short reads from your favorite characters, and lots of other hockey stuff, go here:
www.mmhockeyromance.com
Also by V.L. Locey
Lost In Indigo
Mathieu Beresford was so close to seeing his dream come true.
The thirty-eight-year-old captain of the Buffalo Surge had led his team to the final round of the playoffs with his aggressive defensive play and leadership. During the first game of the championship series, he was taken down, and his leg snapped upon impact with the boards. From his hospital bed, Mathieu watched his team go on to win it all.
Adrift in anger, resentment, and the new direction of his life, he returns to his mansion along the St. Lawrence River. Alone and sulking, Mathieu is not prepared for Indigo Neu to enter his life. The genderflux twenty-year-old botany major signs on to play nursemaid, confidant, and groundskeeper over the summer and slowly leads Mathieu out of his confusion––one tender smile and touch at a time.
The deeper Mathieu falls, the more he wonders if being lost might not be so bad after all.
The Colors of Love Series
The Point Shot series – MM Hockey Romance
Now, you can have the books that introduced Victor Kalinski to the world in one reasonably priced boxed set! With over 350 Goodreads reviews and ratings combined, the romance of Vic Kalinski and Dan Arou is one that once read, will never be forgotten. In this three-book set, you’ll get to experience all the passion, sarcasm, hockey action, and romance that reviewers have called “Beautifully Written”, “Surprisingly Heartfelt”, and “Hot! Hot! Hot!”
“The writing in this is snappy and awesome, the story moves at a great pace and oh it’s HOT AS EVER-LOVING HELL. There’s romance that never veers into a too-sappy place, it’s FUNNY and full of great lines right and left, and so engaging that I couldn’t stop reading it. The ending is satisfying, with our characters not becoming perfect people but becoming better together than they are apart, and that’s just about as romantic as it gets.” Avon Gale – Author of the Scoring Chances series.
The Point Shot Series
Also by RJ Scott
Single Dads | Bodyguards Inc | Heroes | Sanctuary
| Texas | Legacy | Montana | Ellery Mountain
And others - more details here
Meet V.L. Locey
V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee.
(Not necessarily in that order.)
She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a flock of assorted domestic fowl, and two Jersey steers.
When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in hand.
vllocey.com
[email protected]
Meet RJ Scott
RJ is the author of the over one hundred published novels and discovered romance in books at a very young age. She realized that if there wasn’t romance on the page, she could create it in her head, and is a lifelong writer.
She lives and works out of her home in the beautiful English countryside, spends her spare time reading, watching films, and enjoying time with her family.
The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn't like it one little bit and has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.
www.rjscott.co.uk | [email protected]
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