by Aria Cole
He bent down to her level, whispered something in her ear before her smile shot wide and she zipped across the beach and stopped in front of the makeshift ice cream truck.
I shook my head, walking closer to my husband. “Nice bribe, daddy.”
“Got to choose your battles, besides she already had two hot dogs.” He shrugged, taking Jason from my arms.
“Hey, little man.” He crooned at our seven month old. “You ready to hit the water yet?”
His toothless little grin grew wide.
“Where's my godson?” Selma breezed up to both of us, swiping my son into her arms and covering him in kisses. “Auntie Selma is on babysitting duty tonight. You’d better save the dirty diapers for when your daddy gets home in the morning, right, little guy?”
“Good luck with that.” Thorn huffed and pulled me into his arms.
“Thank you for taking them tonight, Selma.”
“Girl, you and the old man haven’t had a night to yourselves in a year, I’m happy to do it.”
Thorn shook his head at her dig. They were always fucking with each other, and I swear some days if it wasn’t for me they’d tear their eyes out.
“I’m kind of digging the salt and pepper in the beard though.” Selma winked at me. “Bet that beard feels amazing downtown, huh?”
“Selma!” I covered my son’s ears.
“Don’t be a prude, he’s too little.”
“Momma,” Courtney appeared at my hip. “Why would daddy’s beard feel amazing downtown?”
“Oh, for god’s sake. Ask Aunt Selma.”
Selma’s eyes widened before she broke into a hardy laugh. “I’ll tell you all about it when we get home, Courtney. Can you help me round up the kids?”
“I can’t believe you trust that woman with our kids,” Thorn grumbled, in ear shot of Selma.
“Hey, if it weren’t for me you wouldn’t have any of this buddy, don’t forget that.”
“What the hell is she talking about?” Thorn pulled me a little closer.
“Carly wouldn’t get off her ass to even go on a date.If it wasn’t for me putting her picture up on that dating app—”
“Wait a fucking minute, Selma put up your picture?” Thorn turned to me.
My cheeks flamed and I nailed Selma with a glare. “I was busy studying.”
“And drying up while you were at it.” Selma shot over her shoulder before draping an arm around the shoulder of my daughter. “Y’all should be thanking me for making this happen.”
“She’s ridiculous.” Thorn rolled his eyes.
“She’s hilarious.” I laughed. “And right.”
“I don’t know anything about Selma being right, but I know I’m goddamn glad you swiped right on me. Changed my life.”
“See, told ya!” Selma blew us both a kiss.
“She’s insane. If that’s the only woman we could find to watch our holy terrors—“
“Selma begged me for auntie time, I was just waiting until Cole was old enough.”
“Well, I’m damn glad to have you to myself.” Thorn hummed at my ear.
He snagged my hand in his and we took off down the beach, towards the little cottage that Thorn had rented for us for the weekend.
We weren’t far from home, and the kids would be over first thing in the morning for pancakes, but at least tonight Thorn and I would have the place to ourselves.
It was a blessing, and just in time, because I had a little surprise in store.
“Looks like there’s a storm coming in off the lake.” Thorn mused as we reached our dock, turning me in his arms and cradling my face as he placed soft kisses on my face.
The wind picked up, sand dusting over our toes as we stood together.
“I’m proud of you. Chief of Staff is such an accomplishment, Doctor.”
A soft smile turned his lips. “Being your husband is my favorite accomplishment. And being a dad.”
I nodded, tears plucking at my eyelids as his warm embrace shielded me from the chilly air.
“Good, I’m glad.” I murmured, the next words teasing on the tip of my tongue. “Because…”
Thorn heard the tone in my voice, holding me a few inches away from his face so he could nail my eyes. “Carly…?”
“Because pretty soon we’re going to be a family of six.”
Thorn’s eyes grew the size of dinner plates. “Well, no shit.”
He swiped away happy tears, his lips covering my mouth in a salty kiss.
“Loving you has been the honor of my life, Carly.”
I pushed my hands under his shirt, connecting with the hard slab of muscle, drawing my strength from him. “Love you, Thorn.”
“I love you too, baby. I can’t wait for the next adventure.” He hoisted me in his arms, the time for talk over as he carried me up the dock, kicking the door of the cottage in and laying me over the couch. He took his time, hands caressing my skin like I was the altar he prayed at, lips murmuring sweet words as he buried his face between my thighs. His tongue worked against my soaked pussy, that beard driving me to the edge of reason and back again, before his teeth nipped at my clit and stars split behind my eyes.
“Love you a little more every day.” His words burned a trail to my heart as he slid inside me, my body stretching to take him in. “I'm so glad Selma made you swipe right.”
“Thorn!” I half-chastised, half-moaned.
A cocky grin tipped his lips as he stroked deeper. “Love you too, Nurse Cartwright.”
THE END
Turn the page for a preview of His Girl, a second-chance romance with a sweet surprise ending! ;) Aria
HIS GIRL
ARIA COLE
Hawk Larson left small-town Indiana to become one of the most famous quarterbacks on the planet, throwing winning passes for the Bears and living the dream. Life looked picture-perfect from the outside, but after five years, he still can't shake the memory of the one thing he left behind...the girl who owned his heart and crushed it one fateful night.
After an injury benches Hawk for good, he returns to the town he left, confronting the past and running headfirst into an unexpected future.
Life hasn't been easy in the five years since he left, and Morgan Quinn isn't the same girl she once was, her luscious hourglass curves and stubborn streak the only reminders of everything he left behind. She still rattles him to the core and leaves him craving more, but Morgan has a secret. A secret that may change the game for good.
Warning: When Hawk finally sees his Morgan again, he isn't sure if it's love or hate he's feeling, until fireworks fly at first touch and passion overcomes reason, leaving Hawk with the realization that he must protect his girl at all costs.
ONE
Morgan
“Look how high you are!”
Emerson shrieked as I gave her another push on the swing.
“Higher! I want to go as high as the clouds!”
“Not that high.” I giggled at the sweet little four-year-old. “I might lose you way up there!”
“Higher! Higher!”
“No, it’s time you come back down to earth. We should get back home for lunch.”
“Can we have mac and cheese?” The swing slowed, and Emerson peered up at me with her big brown eyes. This little girl never failed to steal my heart.
“Anything you want, honey.” I lifted her off the swing and looped our fingers, walking across the crisp green grass of the park. Emerson and I went to the park most days, mostly because it was only two blocks from our house.
“Can we go to the park after lunch too?”
“No, not today. I have to work for a few hours tonight. Mrs. Frisk is going to stay with you.”
“But she smells like old hot dogs. And she always gives me a goodnight kiss, and her breath smells.”
I couldn’t help the smile that turned my lips. The things that came out of this kid’s mouth.
“Hey! Look at that doggy!” Emerson dropped my hand and darted off to a squatty little b
ulldog puppy, gnawing on the leash his owner held in one hand.
“Emerson!” I called, running after. “Ask if it’s okay to pet the dog first!” My eyes landed on the owner of the dog just as I said the words.
And my heart stopped.
This couldn’t be happening.
It wasn’t possible.
Why was he back?
And what the hell do I say?
“Morgan?”
Shit. Too late.
“Hawk.” I hadn’t breathed that name in nearly half a decade. “Why are you here?”
His dark eyes fell on me, penetrating to my very soul, just like they always had.
My mind fell back to all the times we’d had together. The laughs, the touches, the first kiss, the first…
Hawk Larson was my first everything, and now he was standing right in front of me after all this time.
“Not exactly a nice way to welcome a guy home.” His words were clipped, as if he were irritated by the very sight of me. Well, got news for you, buddy. Seeing you in my park isn’t exactly what I would call a good day either.
“You’re home?” I uttered, one hand reaching out for Emerson and pulling her to my side. I don’t know why I felt the need to shield her because it only brought attention to her little cherubic face. The inquisitive eyes.
“I’m Emerson.” She thrust out a hand. “What’s your name?”
Hawk’s eyes held hers, oxygen sucked out of the air between the three of us. His eyes slid from hers to mine, narrowing with anger before landing on hers again. “I’m Hawk.”
He shook her hand, and every cell in my body begged to disappear. Just melt into the dirt at my feet.
“Mommy is making mac and cheese for lunch. Do you like mac and cheese?” Her wide eyes were carefree and sparkling. I had to get us out of here. Standing toe to toe with Hawk left a pounding in my head, stole all the breath from my lungs, and damn that stubborn part of me that wanted to wrap him in a hug.
“I happen to love mac and cheese. It’s nice to meet you, Emerson.”
My gaze hung suspended on his, something in me urging me to pepper him with kisses just like I used to do when we were teenagers.
But those days were gone, and time had certainly changed both of us.
His broad shoulders, chiseled waist, the corded arms that had always danced just at the edges of my memory…but not even my memory could do him justice. I’d known him as a lean college quarterback, taut with sinewy muscle. The day he left for the NFL was the last time I’d seen him. For the first two years, Dad would turn on every game, beg me to watch with him, but I couldn’t stand to see Hawk’s face. Couldn't stand to see the happiness radiating across it. I knew this man. I’d known him from the time he was a boy throwing his first football. I’d cheered for him on the sidelines when he’d thrown the winning pass at homecoming. I’d been there with him through it all.
But not this.
Not now.
He was different.
Changed.
Older.
The jawline had grown sharper, now smattered with a dark five-o'clock shadow that had me itching to run my fingers across it.
Hawk’s eyes trained on mine then, anger and confusion swirling.
“It was good to see you, Morgan.” He said my name like a curse word.
He still hated me.
Jesus, this couldn’t be any worse.
Everything I’d done, I’d done for him. He was my heart—he always had been my heart. Why didn’t he see that?
“Next time, ask your mom to add some bacon to the mac and cheese. Makes it ten times better.” He winked at my daughter. Hawk Larson just winked at my daughter. I can’t believe this is happening.
“Oh, she does! It’s the bestest!”
Hawk’s eyes cut into me, jaws crushed together. “She does, does she? Wonder where she learned that?”
“It’s bacon, Hawk. It’s not like you have a patent on bacon mac and cheese.” I couldn't help the sarcasm. Why did it feel like five years had hardly passed and we were falling right back into old familiar habits?
“What’s your dog’s name?” Emerson bent to pet the puppy on the head again.
Hawk waited long moments before answering, bending down to place a hand on the dog’s head and meet my daughter at eye level. “His name is Milo.”
The air swooped from my lungs with that one word.
He’d named his dog after the kitten we’d found and raised together in high school?
The one my dad wouldn’t let me keep, so Hawk had snuck it into his bedroom every night, hiding it under the covers while he slept. His mom had found out eventually and forced him to find a home for it. I’d cried like a baby the day we’d taken Milo to the farm outside of town to his new home. It was silly, we’d only had the kitten a few weeks, but I loved him. Somehow it felt like the first thing Hawk and I had together, a piece of both of us because we’d raised it. Hawk had held me in his arms, letting me cry out the tears.
Maybe I was preparing myself for him to leave then.
“You named him Milo?”
“Mommy used to have a cat named Milo!” Emerson smiled up innocently.
A tear burned behind my eyelid before I pulled her up to standing again. “We should get going, honey. I have to work tonight. Mrs. Frisk will be wondering where we are.”
I stepped around Hawk, still hunched and petting his dog, eyes averted from mine.
So many words choking my throat.
Why hadn’t he told me he was coming back?
Why hadn’t I heard it before now? Usually, gossip tore around our little town like wildfire.
“Bye, Milo! Bye, Hawk!” Emerson waved enthusiastically as we walked away.
I could feel his eyes on us every step.
Every goddamn step, Hawk’s eyes were on me, just like they always had been.
It used to make warmth curl up inside my belly. Hawk took care of me like no one in my life ever had, which was why the anger he’d directed at me just now was like an iron dagger twisting in my back.
Hopefully, Hawk’s visit to Greenville would be short-lived, then Emerson and my life could go back to normal. Hawk was anything but normal, and I’d loved him for it at one time. But now, every time I thought about him, my chest hurt like an oncoming heart attack.
I’d done my best to keep my head down and mind my own business the last five years, and that wasn’t about to change, even if Hawk Larson was back in town.
TWO
Hawk
My head fucking pounded.
My chest ached.
My teeth goddamn hurt from clenching my jaw so much.
I really had to work at controlling my anger better. I rubbed a hand across my face as I finished walking Milo around the park.
Of all the people to run into my first week back in town, and it was her.
And she had a kid.
Morgan had a fucking kid, and that kid wasn't mine. I’d been gone for too long for that kid to be mine, and that meant she’d fucking cheated on me.
Well, it wasn’t exactly cheating when she ripped my fucking heart out and left me bleeding on the floor.
No, that was a definite breakup.
But I guess, for me, it never had been. I’d been thinking about her nonstop. I couldn't get the soft touch of her lips against mine out of my head. The feel of her underneath me when I was sliding into her like a drug I was constantly chasing. The memory of the breathy sighs on her lips when I made her come. Morgan and I fit like puzzle pieces, a perfect set.
That was why I’d been so out of my mind when she’d left me.
I may have been the one to move out of state, but I would have married her, taken her with me, provided everything she needed. We could have lived the adventure together.
But instead, she told me she never wanted to see me again, and I believed her.
Instead of living life on the road with me, she stayed here, shacked up with someone else, and had the asshole’s baby.
I hated her.
Nothing good could come out of seeing her again, and suddenly the decision to move back home after I permanently injured my rotator cuff seemed like the worst decision yet.
“Fuck, Milo, we should have run the other way when we saw her coming. Trouble. Women are nothing but trouble,” I rambled to the pup. He turned, plopped on his ass, and hung his tongue out.
“Right. Glad we agree.” I shook my head. “Let’s go home, buddy. This has been too much crazy for one day.”
He wagged his tail and jumped to his feet.
“I’ve got shit to do anyway. Those fan letters won’t answer themselves, right?” I’d just received a huge box from my manager, fan mail, mostly from kids, that needed my reply. I had at least a few hours of signing photos and writing messages ahead of me.
I loved my fans; they're what kept me strong when two surgeries had failed to fix the problem. My pro career had been cut short, but truth be told, I was fine with that. Life on the road wasn’t for me. I was a simple guy; I liked to be at home. Crowds and team trips weren’t enjoyable. But I would always miss the fans. The look on the kids’ faces when they looked up at you, believing all of their dreams could come true. Hell, mine had. Every single dream I had had become a reality, except for maybe the most important one. Her.
Morgan Quinn had been haunting me since the day I walked away.
***
I stretched my hands before placing the last personalized letter on the top of the stack. My stomach chose that moment to rumble. There wasn’t an ounce of food in this house unless I wanted peanut butter and jelly again, which I didn’t. This place was only temporary until my new house was move-in ready. Five bedrooms, six baths, a pool, and a gated yard. All the privacy I could ever want and room to expand long-term. Even when I’d left for the NFL, I’d known I would be back one day.
Greenville, Indiana had always been my home. The slower pace and quiet atmosphere called to me.
