by Aubrey Irons
“Oh, yeah, don’t get that one.”
I freeze.
“That one’s no good. Not if you’re trying to make guacamole. Or at least, that’s what I hear.”
I swallow the lump in my throat as I slowly turn slowly. The bag drops to my feet, scattering veggies and whole-wheat English muffins, and my hand flies to my mouth at the sight of them.
Both of them.
“Hi, Serena,” Emily says shyly, biting her lip and smiling at me from her dad’s side.
“Hi, Emily.” I grin at her before dragging my eyes higher, until they lock on his.
Landon.
“We just flew here!” Emily chirps.
Landon and I just lock eyes, not even blinking, and not saying a thing until I somehow start to open my mouth and make sounds.
“What are you-”
“Well, here’s the deal. We had this awesome taco night planned, but the guac situation was garbage. Right?”
He nudges Emily, who quickly nods her head. “Oh, yeah, it was garbage,” she parrots.
I glance back up at him, seeing that grin barely creeping at the corners of his lips, those eyes twinkling at me. “You know anywhere around here we could get some decent stuff? I hear Texas makes it pretty good.”
He levels his eyes at me, and I’m instantly caught up in them.
“Landon, what are you-”
“I think we’ve been over this. Decent guac. Honestly, it’s terrible up there in Denver.” He nods at the avocado in my hand. “But like I was saying, you don’t want that one.”
I raise a brow. “Oh?”
“Yeah, no, that one’s no good.”
I hold his eye, my cheeks pulling my lips into a half-smile as I cross my arms over my chest. “And why’s that?”
“I just don’t think that avocado has what’s best for you in mind.”
I laugh. “Oh really?”
“Not at all. You see, that avocado just feels right at the moment, because it’s familiar. You’ve seen it at this farmer’s market a couple dozen times, and even though I know you know it’s not the one for you, I can tell you’re thinking about just playing it safe and going with it. Because it’s familiar.”
“I see.” I heft the fruit in my hand, eyeing him. “And do you have a better one?”
“Yeah, I do,” he says quietly, stepping closer to me. “See, I’ve got one for you that sees you for exactly who you are. I’ve got one that accepts every gorgeous smile and every graceful step, right along with every broken past and every scar. Mine is a little different, and it comes with its own baggage and history and scars, and it doesn’t actually live here.”
I start to grin.
“But my avocado really doesn’t want you to take off again without it. Mine really wants you to stay, and give it a second chance.” He sighs, his eyes searching my face.
“Mine never saw you coming, Serena,” he says softly. His hand finds mine, fingers interlacing. “And I can promise you, it never wants to see you leave. Not ever.”
I can feel my heart thumping in my chest, my breath coming quick and deep. My eyes dart over his face, finding his eyes and locking there.
Green on green.
Green like mine.
Green that looks right into me and sees me.
“You came a really long way to talk to me about avocados, you know.”
“I have very strong opinions where they’re concerned,” he whispers as he yanks me close. I let the avocado in my hand drop.
“Serena, I came here to tell you that I’m sorry. I came here to tell you that you’re like nothing I’ve ever known before, and even though I never saw you coming, now that you’re here, I literally can’t imagine a day without you in my life.” He glances down at Emily, her big brown eyes shining up at the two of us.
“Both of our lives, actually,” he murmurs.
“Landon-”
“Look, I know you probably at least half hate me for keeping all that from you. And I know you probably want nothing to do with Denver, or me, or any of this, but the problem is, I don’t know how to quit. And I don’t know how to let you walk away without putting up a fight. Because somehow, you got through every single barricade I put up. You got past every single wall I built, and saw past every single excuse. You made me break every single rule I have.”
“Landon, I never wanted you to-”
“No, Serena.” He pulls me tight against him. “You make me want to break every single rule I have. You make me want to break them a hundred times, just so I can keep on breaking them for you.”
His hand moves to my cheek, his eyes searching mine.
“I’m tired of the rules, Serena. I’m tired of running from the light, and I am done pretending you’re not the best thing that’s happened to me - to us - in a very, very long time.”
I blink, slowly shaking my head. My lips are moving, but no words are coming as I gape at his breath against my lips and his eyes burning into mine as I start to nod.
“I made you break all your rules, huh?”
“Well, almost.”
I grin. “Anything I missed?”
“Yeah, I love you. And you missed this.”
I gasp as his lips sear like fire across my own, crushing mine, tasting me, dipping me slightly as he kisses the breath from my lungs. Beside us, Emily cheers, giggling and jumping around as I lose myself entirely in that kiss. Slowly, his lips pull from mine as he pulls me up.
“That answer your question?” he asks as he grins down at his daughter.
She beams, nodding her head up and down.
“Oh, and there’s something else.”
My brow shoots up, my cheeks still flush and my breath still gone from my lungs. “You’re going to top that?”
“Oh, watch me.”
He pulls an envelope from his back pocket and hands me the folded legal-looking document from inside of it.
“What’s this?”
“This is a formal vote with the full weight of your twenty-four and a half shares to block the sale of the Denver Rattlesnakes. All you need to do is sign it.”
I blink up at him, my brow furrowing. “But what about the board?“
“I retained my board shares. Which means your twenty-four and a half shares, and my twenty-four and a half shares, plus the extra five-”
“Puts us at a majority,” I finish, suddenly more breathless than I was a second ago.
Landon nods. “It means what we says goes, and it means…” he glances at the date on his wristwatch. “Huh.”
“What?”
“It means that in eight hours at midnight tonight, you’re going to be worth an obscene amount of money, Serena.”
My hand flies to my mouth as I stare at him, shaking my head. “No, this is insane! I shouldn’t- I mean, I can’t-!”
“No, you should, and you can. You’re just not used to good things happening to you even though you deserve every damn one of them.”
“Dad. Swears?”
“Sorry,” he grins at me before glancing at his daughter.
“Are you coming back to Denver with us?” Emily says, her eyes darting to me.
I bite my lip, looking down at her. “Well.” Her face falls, but I grin. “I do have this dinner tonight I’m supposed to go to at my friend’s house, and I think we’re having tacos.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun,” she says slowly, eyeing me.
“I could probably use some help with the guac.”
She grins.
Landon’s hand finds mine again. “Serena, I want to tell you that you can do what you want, and that you can stay here, and that we can figure this whole thing out apart.”
His other hand moves to my cheek, cupping my jaw.
“But that’s a lie,” he whispers, his eyes searching mine. “The truth is, I need you. The truth is, going home isn’t going to feel like it much if you aren’t there. Come back with me. Come back with us.”
I could say there’s a moment of hesitation. I
could say everything slows, and that there’s this slow dawning realization, and that a million thoughts go through my head.
But that’s not at all what happens, and there’s only one thought in my head.
I’m saying yes before he can even finish his sentence. I’m screaming it, actually, as I leap into his arms, throwing mine around his neck, and kiss him with everything I have.
“Yes,” I whisper into his lips, kissing him again and again. Emily’s arms go around us both, and I reach down to hug her too.
“Yes.”
Epilogue
Serena
“Can you feel it?”
Emily goes absolutely still, holding her breath. There’s a tender kick, barely a hiccup, but her eyes suddenly go wide as they dart up to mine.
“I felt her!”
I grin, wagging my brows at her. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“Can she hear us?”
“Maybe? Do you want to tell her something now, and then later after she’s born, we can ask her if she remembers?”
Emily rolls her eyes. “Serena, that’s not how it works.”
“Well excuse me, Miss know-it-all.” I stick my tongue out at her and she giggles.
Sometimes things happen for a reason. Sometimes, we find things we were never looking for in places we never thought we’d find them. And sometimes - sometimes - the impossible becomes real.
Me getting pregnant on our honeymoon would be a textbook example.
At seven o’clock at night, on the day of the farmer’s market in Houston, I knocked on London’s door with Landon and Emily in tow.
At seven-o-one, Landon and Holden locked eyes and had this big macho moment of glaring at each other and sizing each other up before my friend elbowed her fiancé in the ribs and told him to be good.
By seven-o-nine, Landon and Holden were better friends than I think they’d ever have imagined.
At seven-thirty, Emily helped me mash up avocados, limes, onions, and cilantro, and at seven forty-five, we all sat down for tacos.
At midnight, with Emily asleep in the guest bed upstairs, we popped a bottle of champagne for Landon and I, cans of orange-ginger seltzer for my pregnant friend and her non-drinking beau, and cheered to Landon and I’s voting shares suddenly turning into owner shares.
A combined fifty-four million dollars of owner shares, to be exact.
At one in the morning, with Emily sleeping upstairs, London and Holden crashed in their own wing of the house, and with whispered shushes on our lips, Landon and I tore each other’s clothes off and made love twice on the living room floor.
…And once more in the pool house.
I did end up moving to Denver with them, because I had the same thought he’d had: home just isn’t home if it’s not with the family you’ve found. My adoptive friend-family in Houston understood, and honestly, it all made sense with the turning of the pages our lives were taking. London and Holden had their baby boy, and Archie started seeing a nice woman - way nicer than his first two wives - who’s twenty-one-year-old son was some sort of social marketing wiz-kid.
The sit down with Archie about me leaving went about exactly as I could imagine it.
“You’re fired.”
London snorts, shooting Archie an admonishing look. “Dad!”
He grins at me, and I grin right back. “She knows I’m kidding.” He frowns. “You do know I’m kidding, right?”
“I know.”
“Man, playing for the enemy, huh?”
“Moving IN WITH the enemy, actually,” London ribs, wagging her brows at me.
“We’re gonna miss you, kid.”
“I’m going to be visiting so much, you’re going to wish you HAD fired me.”
It was later at dinner that he took me aside and wiped a tear away, letting me know that his shotgun was always loaded, and that if “this pretty-boy character” laid a “mean hand” on me, he and his Remington would personally be coming to Denver to “blow his nuts to kingdom-come.”
Believe me, that’s the highest form of sentimentality in Archie Jacobs’ lingo.
Back in Houston, we cleaned house.
Big time.
The entire Rattlesnakes board got the boot, which may seem harsh, but any feelings of soreness on the subject went right out the window when certain emails were leaked by one of the departing board members - emails showing a pretty damning collusion between Don, a few of the other board seats, and the potential buyer.
In the end, three of them were invited back. The organization is in the process of suing Don.
More importantly though, we made peace with Sam. My father, I guess.
Sam is not my dad, though. I’ve made that clear, and I’m pretty sure he understands. Instead, I’m choosing to look at him as a sort of distant uncle figure that I can slowly get to know on my own terms.
We ended up reinstating him as an owning partner, too. For all his crap and all the reasons I should hate him, it is after all his team and the legacy he built that he’d wanted to give to the two of us when he thought he was done for.
It’s not making up for everything, but it’s a start.
We’ve talked, and more and more, I’m at least starting to see that he tried to have a place in my life, early on. It was my mother, guilted by her indiscretions that wanted him gone.
But like I said, I’m getting to know him on my own terms.
“He’s here!”
The tumbling sound of Emily barreling down the stairs chases her into the kitchen where I’m sipping tea.
“My dad’s home!”
So, today at a checkup that Landon was furious for having to miss because of some sort of dust up in the coach’s office, I got a question I wasn’t quite ready to hear.
“Do you want to know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
I’d blinked, and Emily, who I’d brought along and was sitting in the swivel chair to the side of me, had gone wide-eyed.
Part of me thought to wait, and come back for the news with my husband. But it was seeing that look of wonder on my stepdaughter’s face that’d brought the whole thing into clarity.
This was, after all, her half-sibling. This was another new thing linking her to me.
And this was important.
“Yeah, we want to know.”
“Do you think he’s going to be surprised?” Emily grins mischievously at me as we hear the sound of Landon’s car pulling up in the driveway.
To find out he’s having another daughter and a house full of girls?
I grin at Emily. “Oh yeah, he’s going to be surprised.” I smile at her as I stand. “Do you want to tell him?”
Emily shakes her head. “You do it.”
“What if we do it - together?”
She nods, grinning widely. “That sounds good.”
The front door opens.
The man I love steps through.
The words leave my mouth and hers at the same time, and the look on his face is one I’ll never forget.
Love.
A perfect moment.
His arms go around us both - well, all three of us - pulling us into a hug.
“I love you so damn much,” he whispers into my ear.
“I love you, too.”
Like I said, sometimes we find things we were never looking for in places we never thought we’d find them.
First we were rivals.
Then we were a one-night stand.
Then we were strangers, and then enemies, and then friends of a sort, I guess.
Then we were fooling ourselves, because after that, we fell in love.
And now? Now after all those twists and turns and stops along the way?
Now we’re a family.
And nothing’s going to change that.
The End
Heat: A Second Chance Romance
Soldiers Of Fortune Book 1
Five years ago, that cocky, egotistical a**hole played me like a fool and broke my heart.
Hudson Bank
s; the dominant, tattooed ex-Marine-turned-billionaire who runs God-knows-what at my late father’s company.
Oh, and he’s sexy as all f**k, and he damn well knows it.
He’s like a gasoline fire - a scorchingly hot disaster, and if I’m not careful, I’m going to get burned.
I’m on track to be the youngest New York State Senator ever elected - the gutsy good-girl media darling. Except my campaign funding just went dry, and it looks like the only solution is coming from the last person on Earth I’d ever want to take anything from.
It’s not fair that he’s even hotter now than he was back then. It’s not fair that those smoldering, arrogant eyes and that cocky, panty-melting grin still make me warm in places they shouldn’t.
It’s definitely not fair that five years later, I still can’t get him out of my head.
So it looks like I’ve got two races on my hands: the one for election, and the one against the fire threatening to tear us both apart. But on the sprint to the finish line, what happens when the man who has everything comes up against the one thing he can’t have?
Copyright © 2015 Aubrey Irons
Cover Photo: FXQuadro/DepositPhoto
Cover Design: Aubrey Irons
Editing: Sennah Tate
Proofreading: Cassie Dean
Formatting: Vellum
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, organizations, actual events or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademark status of products referred to in this book and acknowledges that trademarks have been used without permission.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used for review purposes.
This book is intended for mature, adult audiences only. It contains sexually explicit and graphic scenes and language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please do not continue reading this book of you are under the age of 18 or are offended by content of this nature.
