by Taylor Hart
Lu could barely go on. It hurt to even think about it, much less admit how petty she’d been. Turning away from Forest, she admitted, “I let Jeffrey get in between my father and me, and then …”
“Your father died.”
She nodded. “When I caught him cheating with Liz, I just sort of snapped. I couldn’t believe how stupid I’d been, and what I’d missed out on. And I should have been there for my father.” She covered her face and crumpled into a ball. “I didn’t want to tell you because I hate myself for what I did.”
Forest rushed around the island and put his arms around her. “Shh.”
Lu’s crying turned to laughter. “I’m such a mess. I never wanted this. I told Cameron that I couldn’t do this assignment, and now I’m here—falling for the star quarterback of the Storm. That’s …” She pulled free of him, rushing out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the apartment.
Forest was on her heels. “Would you just wait?”
She rushed to her suitcase and threw it open, shoving her clothes inside.
“What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer, still packing her books, her slippers.
Forest grabbed her hand. “Lu, stop.”
“Don’t you see, Forest? I’m a fraud. I’m a fake. I go around pretending I’m fine, that nothing fazes me, that I’m someone who’s qualified to counsel people, that I’m a professional.” She sobbed and yanked her arm away. “But I just slapped my ex. I just slapped the guy who I let drive a wedge between my father and me. I’m coaching you for anger management, and yet I am the one who needs help. Me!”
He let her go.
Lu stuffed the last of her few possessions in her bag. She hesitated, staring up at him. “Forest, the truth is—I can’t do this. Us. I look at you and all you’ve come through, and I am amazed. You give so much to Tricia and Marcus, and you make them okay. Do you realize that?” More tears fell down her cheeks.
“Just listen—”
Lu couldn’t let him talk her out of what she had decided. “And you’re going to take the Storm to victory because you can stand the pressure. Because you were right—you did the right thing protecting yourself from your father. And you didn’t need counseling from me. You didn’t need me at all. But me …” She let out a sardonic laugh. “I mess it all up.”
“No.” Forest tried to reach for her hand.
“I shouldn’t have trusted a guy like Jeffrey. That’s the guy I got close to instead of my father. That guy! And I’ll never get over it.” She shook her head, frenzied and irrational, and all she knew was that she had to leave. “Good luck, Forest. You deserve the best of everything. I’m sorry. I have to go.”
Chapter 20
Forest stood by the door and watched Lu’s car leave the parking lot. He wanted to chase her down, stop her, demand that she stay, but he knew how she felt.
He cursed and turned back to the house, trudging up the stairs and shutting the door behind him. He’d felt the same way when his mother died. Like he should have stopped his mother from taking the drugs. He’d known she had them. He’d watched his father drop them off. But he’d been so tired of it all.
The memory of that day hit him. Her asleep on the couch. He’d been itching to get out the door, but he’d forced himself to hold on a minute and shake her. “Mom,” he’d called out.
Nothing.
He’d checked her pulse and found none. At that point, he’d wigged out, yelling her name over and over and shaking her and checking her pulse again and again. Tricia and Marcus had, of course, freaked out with him.
Ever since that day, whenever he’d allowed himself to think about it, he’d had to build walls around himself, because he could have saved her.
He could have been less selfish, less focused on getting ready for his date. When he’d first thought that she wasn’t okay, he should have done something. That was on him.
When his father had told the whole world about it at the press conference, it had triggered him because it was true. Something as simple as checking on her a few minutes earlier and calling 911 could have saved her life.
Now, as he flopped down on the living room couch, he realized that he was as helpless in this moment as he had been that day. Millionaire, starting quarterback in the playoffs, popular big brother … no one could help you if you didn’t want it. And Lu didn’t want it right now.
Tears filled his eyes. She was such an amazing person, and she was hurting so much.
He sucked in a breath, thinking about the only thing that had gotten him through his dark times: family. Lu had mentioned a sister. A horrible sister, but if the sister was in Denver, maybe there was hope.
He texted Marcus and Tricia. Guys, she’s gone.
Chapter 21
Lu woke the next morning and turned on her side, woozy and disoriented. Her sore muscles were even worse today from the accident than they’d been yesterday.
She heard the sound of crying. Ah, her niece and nephew and sister were still here.
Yesterday, Lu had driven around a long time, even stopping at her office and waiting out some of the day before going to her apartment. She’d thought about just checking into a hotel, but Lorin had told her she wouldn’t leave until they talked. At least Lu had gotten home late enough that there had been no talking. She’d gone through the house without turning on any lights, marched straight into her room, and fallen into bed.
More crying, and then a scream.
“What the heck?” She stared at the clock on the bedside table. Seven a.m. She sat up, noting that her head did feel better, but the muscles from her ribs to her neck felt terrible.
Lorin’s voice echoed down the hall as she spoke sharply to the kids. “Shh, Auntie Lu is sleeping.”
Lu’s heart jumped into her throat. She had never met her niece and nephew and didn’t remember a lot about childhood development from her psych classes, but she was pretty sure eight-month-olds couldn’t talk or know who their aunt was.
After taking the time to shower and pull on casual clothes, she crept out of her room, down the hall, and into the kitchen. To her surprise, the whole place was decorated with Christmas, down to little stockings hanging by the fireplace. She paused to take it in.
“Good morning.” Lorin was behind the stove, making breakfast. She’d tied a Christmas apron around her waist.
The two kids were crawling on the floor. The girl stopped and looked at her, sitting on her bum and pointing.
Lorin said, “Yes, Abi, that’s Auntie. Can you say Auntie?”
The little girl just smiled.
Lu was stunned to see kids here, and she could barely compute how her sister was making herself so much at home. She wanted to smile, but she resisted. “What is going on?”
Lorin scooped a pile of eggs onto a plate and added some bacon. “I told you, we need to talk.” She moved around the kitchen counter and put the plate on the table, where there was a place already set. “Will you sit and eat?”
Lu almost wanted to back away, but where would she go? She couldn’t hide forever. Slowly, she moved to the table and sat by Lorin, picking up her fork.
The babies were playing with Tupperware on the floor, and they were laughing at each other. The moment was so sweet, yet it was foreign to her. She’d always wanted children, but the possibility had always felt off the table.
Lorin noticed she was looking at them. “Abigail and Lorenzo. Abi and Lou.”
“Lou?”
“Mark’s father’s name is Lorenzo, so he’s not named after you.”
Lue took a bite of eggs. Yep, there was her sister. “Good to know.”
Her sister leaned back, clasping her hands together.
Lu studied her. Lorin looked different than she had a year ago at the funeral. She’d cut her hair into a bob, and somehow, her eyes looked softer.
“I’ll just get to it. I’m here because I want to forgive you.”
Lu choked on her eggs and spit them out all over her plate.
/> Lorin put up her hand, and Lu could see her struggling to maintain composure. “But I’m also here to ask for your forgiveness, too.”
Lu was baffled. What were the odds that this would come up, after she and Forest had done a lot of talking on this subject?
“Listen, I shouldn’t have said Dad’s death was your fault.”
“No, you shouldn’t have.”
Lorin’s eyes fluttered and she tapped her head. “Becoming a mother has made me realize a couple of things. One, it’s hard, and two, Dad did a pretty good job.”
Lu frowned. “You said you hated him and he was the worst father ever. You said that I would always be your half- sister, or really … not a sister.”
Her lips flattened into a line. “I was wrong. You know my mom passed a couple of years ago. And Daddy’s gone.” Her eyes misted. “All we have is each other.”
Lu didn’t know how to feel about Lorin’s apology. All of those walls she and Forest had talked about were slipping away. Or had they started slipping away with Forest?
“I was projecting all of my feelings about not being here for Dad onto you.”
Lu wasn’t hungry anymore. For the first time ever, she felt like she and Lorin had something in common. “No, I should have been there for Dad. Jeffrey had me convinced that Dad was evil. It was my fault, though.”
Lorin sighed. “Mark left me three months ago.” She wiped the side of one eye. “He said I’m too mommy-ish now.”
“What the …?” Lu tried to process this.
“It’s fine.” Lorin waved her hand through the air. “I mean, I’m fine.”
Clearly, she wasn’t. For the first time, Lu really looked at Lorin. She had bags beneath her eyes, and she was exhausted. Lu reached for her sister’s hand.
Lorin looked at their joined hands and swallowed. “You know, Dad left us a good trust, but … I just didn’t see it coming.”
“I’m sorry,” Lu offered.
“Me too, but I’m even more sorry about how I’ve acted toward you for so long.”
It meant a lot to hear her say those words.
“I was petty and childish. You and Dad were always so close, and I resented it.” She shrugged. “Now that I have kids, all I can think about was the hell I put Dad through.”
Lu leaned back, letting out a breath.
Lorin kept her hand. “And all these months, since Mark, I just keep thinking … I want my sister back. I want family. A chance to build family and connection.”
Before Lu knew it, she was blubbering. “Me too.”
In sync, they got up from the table and embraced. After pulling back, they stared at each other for a long moment.
“You’re such a baby,” Lu said.
Lorin laughed. “I am.”
Lu moved to one of the actual babies, crouching down. “Hi there. I’m Auntie Lu.”
The baby blew a spit bubble. Lu giggled.
“I have one more thing I think we need to talk about,” Lorin said, just as Lu finished playing with the babies.
“What’s that?”
“Forest Hightower.” Lorin shrugged. “So he called and asked for reinforcements.”
Lu couldn’t believe it. “He did, did he?”
Lorin’s face brightened. “He booked a skybox for us all at Storm Stadium.”
Lu’s heart raced. She didn’t know if she could do it.
“Hey,” Lorin said, picking up baby Abi and putting her on her hip. “I’ll support whatever you want. I’ve got your back. But if you’ll take some sisterly advice, it looks like fourth down, game on the line, and I think you should go for it.”
Lu bent and picked up baby Lou, mimicking Lorin and putting him on her hip. Cameron Cruz’s words rang through her mind, and she grinned. She took baby Lou’s hand and pumped it gently. “It’s time for Auntie Lu to get back in the game.”
Chapter 22
It was crunch time in the Christmas Eve game against the Texas Rebels. The Rebels were up two points, and the Storm weren’t close enough to attempt a field goal. They needed a touchdown, and they needed it now. The game had been tight, and neither team had let up.
For the next play, Forest was going to do his Hail Mary pass. Everyone had been talking about it.
The center hiked the ball and Forest took two steps back, waiting for his wide receiver to get open. The defensive line was closing fast, and Forest had to leave the pocket and roll out to the right. His wide receiver was swarmed by the defense, which he knew would happen, so he checked left, and there was the running back that had slipped out of the backfield.
Forest ducked under a defensive end diving for his head, adjusted his feet, cocked back, and put everything he had behind the ball. Time for fate to take its course.
Bam! His running back caught it, and his arms went up. Touchdown!
The whole stadium went wild and his teammates ran for him, hoisting him up on their shoulders. He roared and took off his helmet, putting a fist into the air. This was one of those precious, perfect snapshots in time. Forest knew it was just a moment, but he loved it.
The center of his chest hurt as a thought hit him: the only thing that would make this moment better was if Lu were there. He remembered meeting her for the first time. She’d been in all black with three-inch heels and glasses, and her red hair had been pulled back into a bun. She’d been gorgeous and fierce.
Then he thought of holding her when she’d cried. Of how vulnerable she’d been.
He hadn’t heard anything from her sister.
Tricia and Marcus had asked a million questions when they’d come back and she was gone. The anger management completion certificate had shown up on Cameron Cruz’s desk, and other than that, it had been radio silence. Forest and his siblings had all come back to Denver and watched superhero movies together last night. Even though it didn’t feel right without her.
The mob of his teammates broke, replaced by reporters.
“Forest! Forest! Did you know he would catch it? How are you so good at Hail Marys?”
Forest shrugged and smiled at the cameras, reminding himself that the fans out there were just like him—people with dreams. “I just had faith, that’s all.” As he said it, he realized it was true. And, he thought with a touch of cockiness, he’d had Lu.
He fielded three more questions and waved to the reporters, hoping they’d take the hint and finish this up.
“Wait, one more question!” Marcus’s voice called out on a megaphone. “Forest!”
Forest gave him a questioning look. What was he doing?
“Forest!” someone said through another megaphone. That was Tricia.
They were up to something, and knowing them, it could be funny, or it could be totally embarrassing.
“Look up at the kiss cam,” they said in unison.
The camera wasn’t on him; it was on a redhead walking through a sea of people. He laughed, seeing Lu wearing her black dress, her hair done up in the butterfly braid. She was coming toward him. His heart pounded.
“Hey, champ,” she said when she reached him.
Forest stared at her as the world shrank to the two of them. “I thought you didn’t come to Storm Stadium?”
She smiled at him, tears in her eyes. “I made an exception for this cocky quarterback I know.”
“Oh yeah?”
She grinned and peeked up at the Jumbotron, where they were framed by the kiss cam. “Pressure’s on. What are you going to do?”
He embraced her. “Only one thing to do in a situation like this. Go for the Hail Mary.”
Lu’s eyes lit up.
Their lips found each other’s. The crowd went wild. Forest kept kissing her, not caring about the thousands of onlookers.
When she pulled back, she kept her arms around his shoulders. The camera had gone to other people celebrating, giving them some relative privacy.
“I want to try this, Forest,” she said. “With you. Even if it’s complicated. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who my f
ather was.”
“You’re forgiven,” he said, loving the feel of her in his arms. “Because you’re Beauty and you end up with the Beast, don’t you know?”
She winked at him. “Good thing that Beast turns into a prince.”
His laughter was silenced when she kissed him again. And that was just fine with him.
Thank you for reading, Her Hidden Falls Doctor Romance!
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Her Protector Billionaire Groom by Taylor Hart
Chapter 1
Parker shivered as he stared at Oceanside Beach from the doorway of his motorcycle shop. How could the beach be so cold? When he’d retired from the FBI six months ago, he hadn’t thought through his decision to call Oceanside home.
He yanked his hoodie from a hook on the wall. He had to get out of here. But he hesitated. Maybe he should get a bit more work done on his current project; he was disassembling a bike for some picky rich guy who kept demanding he use only Harley Davidson original parts and then complaining that it was taking so long.
Parker liked efficiency, order, and deadlines. Since he’d left the Bureau, he’d tried to put aside the OCD part of him. Operative word: tried. Recently, it had been more difficult than ever, after hearing this stupid edict from his father’s will. He would lose his share of his father’s estate—and the charity his father started with each of the boys when they were twelve would go unfunded—if they weren’t married by Christmas.
