Grady Judd (Heartbreakers & Heroes Book 1)

by Ciana Stone

  It was Grady.

  She purposely let it right twice more and tried to sound uneager as she answered. “Hey you.”

  “Hey, gorgeous. Miss me?”

  “Umm, maybe a little.”

  “I missed you. A lot.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Are you free right now?”

  “I am.”

  “I need a favor. It’s important.”

  Something in his voice had her sitting up from where she reclined in the porch swing. “What?”

  “There’s a private airfield between Cotton Creek and Taylorsville. The Legacy family uses it. I’ll have a private plane there in an hour. I need you to get on that plane.”

  “And go where?”

  “To me. In Kentucky.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ll explain when you get here. Please, Charli.”

  “Okay. See you soon.”

  “Thank you. I’ll be waiting when you land.”

  Charli rose and went inside to change.

  Five minutes later, she was out the door. By the time she reached the airstrip, she’d run through every scenario she could think of as to why he’d called and what their reunion would be like.

  She gnawed on those scenarios for a good two hours in the air. When the plane landed, she had no more than gotten out before a truck pulled up on the tarmac and Grady got out.

  God almighty, would it forever take her breath to see him walking toward her? Hunger swept through her like the sudden demand of addiction. The only thing that tempered it, keeping it from being strictly lascivious, was the swell of emotion that competed for dominance.

  There he was. The man she loved. If he wasn’t making her weak with desire, he was stealing her strength with love.

  “Hey, gorgeous.” He stopped inches from her, raised both hands to cup her face and delivered a long slow kiss that was powerful enough to stop time. Charli didn’t move, didn’t touch him or made a sound. She just took what he had to give and when he pulled back, she felt like a planet whose orbit had moved it away from the sun.

  “Why am I here?“

  “I need to show you something, to talk to you.”

  “About what?”

  “Just be patient a little while longer, okay?”

  Charli wondered if this was some elaborate ruse to dump her. It didn’t feel that way, but it also made no sense. Grady seemed nervous and that was as out of the ordinary as it got. But she nodded, got in his truck, and endured the silent half-hour drive.

  When he parked on a sidewalk in a small town, she was even more baffled. He got out, circled around the back, opened her door for her, and gestured to a metal gate.

  “A cemetery?” Now she was more confused. “Grady, why are we here?”

  “Please.” He offered his hand and after a second, she took it.

  In silence, they walked. When they stopped beneath the shade of a stately oak, she looked at him to find him looking down. Her gaze went to the two tombstones under the tree and time seemed to freeze in place.

  “They were the sun in my sky, the reason I lived. A drunk driver took that away from me. I was on a mission and didn’t know for nearly two weeks. By the time I found out, they were already here. My wife and my daughter.”

  Charli knelt and looked at the gravestones. “They were so young.” She looked up at him. “You lost so much. I’m sorry, Grady.”

  She stood and he took her hands. “It was after that I moved to Cotton Creek. My grandfather was still alive and I couldn’t be here in anymore, not in the place where we grew up and fell in love and had a life and a child. I couldn’t be here.

  “And I couldn’t let myself care after that. I wanted to be close, but all I could deal with was sex and a good time. If someone cared, it scared me. I couldn’t ever let myself be in the position to be hurt like that again. Losing them almost ended me. I wasn’t willing to risk that kind of pain again.”

  He gave her hands a squeeze. “Then you showed up and changed everything. When I came home to hear that you’d been abducted, it felt like it was happening all over again. I nearly lost it, Charli.

  “When I walked into that basement and saw you, I wanted to fall to my knees and cry like a baby. I was scared and not ashamed to admit it. And then before you could give your statement, I got that call. I’m sorry. I wanted to stay with you.”

  “I handled it.”

  “I never doubted that you would. Still, I’m sorry. I guess I could have waited until you were done and I could have explained, but to be completely honest, when I got the call all I could think was I had to go.”

  “Go where?”

  Grady pulled his phone from his pocket, accessed his photos, and showed her an image. It was of a man in probably his mid-thirties with a beautiful young woman who was very pregnant.

  “One of my team, Johnny and his wife. He…he died and left his wife Belinda and baby daughter behind. He and his wife named me godfather to their daughter, Josie. That night, the call was from a hospital in Kentucky. Belinda was t-boned in her car coming back from a doctor’s appointment for Josie. She didn’t make it.

  “Josie had a concussion and they kept her for three days just to make sure everything was okay. During that time, I contacted Johnny and Belinda’s parents. Johnny’s folks are divorced. His mom is remarried and lives in New York. She didn’t want the baby. Nor did his father.

  “Belinda’s father is deceased and her mother’s health isn’t good, so she didn’t want the baby. And as it turns out when they read the wills Johnny and Belinda had on file with their attorney, they wanted me to raise Josie.”

  Of all the things Charli had imagined, this was not one of them. “So, what now?”

  “Now is that moment that scares the living shit out of me.” He placed a call. “We’re here. Yes, okay.”

  Grady gestured to one side and Charli saw a tall black man walking down the sidewalk toward them. It looked like he was carrying a baby.

  When he reached them, he smiled at her and handed the child to Grady.

  Grady nodded. “Thanks, Mike, I owe you.”

  “Anytime, Captain. Johnny would be happy to know his baby girl will have a good daddy.” With that, Mike turned and walked away.

  Grady looked at Charli. “Charli, meet Josie. As of this morning, she’s officially my daughter.”

  One look at the baby and Charli’s heart melted. “Oh my God, she’s beautiful, Grady. But how are you going to raise her? I mean, with what you do and the way you can get called away and—“

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I was thinking that maybe it’s time for me to quit.”

  “The SEALs? Are you serious? What would you do?”

  “Get married and raise a daughter?”

  Charli felt her mouth fall open, felt her entire body react in shock. “I—wha— I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean, marry me, Charli. Please. I love you and I want to be with you. I want to raise this little girl with you, have a half dozen of our own, and grow old with you.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life. I know what it means to love and to lose and I don’t want to lose you. What I had before, it was my first love and I’ll never forget it and I’ll never stop loving them.

  “But you? There’s no doubt in my mind that you’re the epic love of my life, the one who will make me whole, make me happy. So, what do you say, Charli? Will you marry me?”

  Charli reached over and placed her hand on the baby’s head, feeling the downy soft hair and watching the little smile that came on Josie’s face. Then she looked at Grady.

  “This morning I woke thinking that everything I’d heard about you was right. That you were nothing more than a heartbreaker and I was nothing more than the latest in your string of broken hearts.”

  “And now?”

  “Now, I know that you can be, but you’re far more hero than heartbreaker, and I think I�
�ve been hanging on for hero for a long time.”

  “Honey, I’d love nothing more than to be your hero for life.”

  “Then let’s get married, Grady and have those half-dozen kids and grow old together. Let’s see if happily-ever-after can be our tale.”

  “God, I love you.” Grady used his free hand to pull her close. When their lips met, Charli knew that whatever hell she’d suffered and whatever hells he had endured, it had led them to right now. The moment when love conquered all and dreams came true.

  An excerpt from

  Copyright 2017, Ciana Stone

  Chapter One

  Savannah pulled her iPad from her oversized bag and checked to make sure no one was paying attention before opening her email and choosing the address of her best friend, Stacy Briggs.

  Hey girl,

  I sure wish you were here right now, or at least in the country so I could pick up the phone and call. I don’t even know how to start to tell you what I’m feeling right now so let’s start with the mundane – the “what’s going on” things.

  First, the house I’m renting from Charli Judd is so perfect I made her an offer on it. I mean, it’s a little smaller than what I’d consider ideal, but I found this really great contractor, so I could easily add on. But the point is, I love the place and I hope when you get back to the States you can find some time to come visit.

  Cotton Creek is, and isn’t, exactly what I expected. When Analise invited me to come here, I was thrilled. She and I have been talking about doing an anthology for a year or so, but never got around to it. Now that I’ve finished the Hunted trilogy, I have time and I really want to do this project with her.

  This place is the quintessential small Texas town. The people are friendly, decent and honest and of course, everyone knows everyone. If you’re a newcomer you definitely stand out, but for the most part people are quite accepting and make you feel right at home.

  But then I’ve told you all this, haven’t I? A dozen times or so in the three months I’ve been here? Yeah, I’m avoiding diving into what prompted this email. Okay, bear with me. I’ll get there.

  So, you remember me telling you all about this huge oil field thing that went bust? Well, it didn’t go bust. It was a fracking site and when there was one issue and fear of water contamination, the owners, Legacy, ordered the whole thing to come to a stop.

  I have to give them credit. They could have made billions, and yet they let environmental concerns take precedent. Picture me giving them high fives and cheering. They redid everything and now are pumping millions of gallons of natural gas and have retasked some of the land for windmill farms. They’re employing a lot of people and this and other surrounding counties are flourishing because of it.

  Someone even opened a dance studio in town. You know, learn to ballroom dance, and Cha Cha and Salsa and all that jazz? A friend I’ve made here talked me into signing up. I went once and… well, I went once and we’ll get back to that.

  Right now, I’m sitting in the local high school auditorium, watching rehearsal for a musical the local theatre group is doing. Get this. There will be dancing and they will try to make it dirty. Yep, you guessed it. Every woman over the age of 40s “big sigh” film. I know, I know. No one can ever do justice to Johnny, right?

  W R O N G. And I mean O M G wrong.

  Which brings me back to what prompted this email and why I only went to one dance class.

  Mason James.

  Stacy, I swear to god I’ve never seen a man like him before. Well, maybe I have. And maybe it’s not his looks, although he is F I N E (in huge font). But what makes him so lethal is that he is playing the part of Johnny and my god.

  HE CAN MOVE.

  I mean mesmerize you, turn you into a vibrating pile of female need, make you daydream about all kind of “dirty”. Honestly, I can’t even blink when I’m watching him. How can a man move that… sexy?

  My friend has been bugging me to go back to the dance lessons but I can’t. I don’t just have two left feet around him, I have two left feet in combat boots. With glue on the bottom. Or mud. Thick, suck your feet to the bottom of the muck, mud.

  Okay, I can see you. I know that expression and I know what you’re thinking. Why am I getting so worked up over some dude who works in a dance studio? In Bumfuck, Texas, no less. I’m a bestselling writer now with hundreds of thousands of fans. Movies have been made from my books. I’ve met big stars who played the characters I created.

  What’s the big deal?

  The big deal is… Mason James makes me want to rip his clothes off and lick him all over.

  There, I’ve said it. Ms. I-Don’t-Need-a-Man-and-Never-Get- Horny vanished the day she saw him dance and now sex is all I can think about. And damn it all, for a man who doesn’t even know I exist.

  How pathetic is that? Help!!!

  Your pitiful friend in Cotton Creek,

  Savannah

  Savannah’s finger was poised over the button, ready to hit send, but she paused, stared at the screen for a few moments and then deleted the email. Writing the confession would have to be catharsis enough, there was no way she was actually going to let anyone read it.

  So rather than hit send, her finger moved the cursor to the trash symbol to delete the email. Just then the music changed. She looked up and damn if she wasn’t frozen, unable to do anything but watch as Mason the stage.

  When he finished his routine, every woman there clapped and cheered, and all the younger ones ran up to him, touching him as much as they could.

  Savannah watched and felt her self-esteem plummet. What was she doing there? She wasn’t a twenty-something nymphet who could do a backbend and gyrate like a top. She wasn’t a dancer or performer, she couldn’t sing and couldn’t even paint backgrounds.

  So why was she there? Was it really for research for a book? For a moment she considered it, then shook her head, crammed her iPad in her bag and stood. Her readers were interested in adventure, action, danger and chemistry between characters that lit a fire and led to the kind of passion every woman dreams of.

  Not the sad tale of a woman who lusted for a man way out of her league.

  Chapter Two

  Jayce Weathers held up his hand as Mason entered the diner. Mason saw him, smiled and made his way to the table. It took a bit longer than he’d like, but there were a good many of his female students in the diner and it seemed that they all wanted to say good-morning.

  “Sorry,” he apologized to Jayce as he took at seat across from him.

  “Man, you’ve got every woman in town headed for the beauty shop and spa twice a week to get curled, dyed, plucked, waxed and polished.”

  Mason rolled his eyes then looked up at the waitress who approached their table with a big smile on her face. “Morning, gentlemen. Mason what’re you having to drink, hon?”

  “Coffee.” He looked at Jayce. “Have you ordered?”

  “Yeah, but told them to hold off ‘till you got here.””

  “I appreciate that.” He turned his attention back to the waitress. “Steak, medium rare, two eggs boiled and a sweet potato if you have it.”

  “You know we do. Be right back with your coffee.”

  “Thanks, Sandy. You’re the best.”

  After she hurried away, Mason turned his attention back to Jayce. “So, did you have a look at the place?”

  “I did.”

  “And?”

  “And it’s gonna take a bit of work to get it back up to snuff, buddy. The place has been empty for what – five years?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Well, places that sit for that long start to develop problems.”

  “Problems that can’t be fixed?”

  “Oh no, they can be fixed.”

  “Okay, I get it. It’s not going to be cheap. Ball park it for me.”

  “Fifteen thousand.”

  Mason leaned back in his chair. He’d been back in Cotton Creek for almost four months, and was sick and ti
red of living in town. He’d rented the bottom floor of Nellie Mae Baker’s house but that wasn’t working too well. That woman couldn’t keep her nose out of other people’s business, or herself out of his room.

  He needed to get the old homestead livable, but had hoped not to have to put that much into it. After paying the lease on the dance studio and renting a space for the leather shop, he’d spent half of everything he’d saved.

  But he had to have a home and his parent’s old place would be perfect. It was small, but on the lake, outside of town where it was quiet. There was a small paddock, a four-stall barn and twenty acres, so he could have a horse if he wanted, and he did.

  “Fine. Let’s do it.”

  “Let me get you a contract.”

  “A handshake will do.” Mason extended his hand across the table to Jayce. “I’ll have half the money for you this afternoon, if that’s enough to get you started.”

  “More than enough. I’m gonna need to consult you on particulars.”

  “You know where to find me.”

  “You mean dancing dirty in the high school auditorium?”

  Mason knew Jayce was poking fun and wasn’t offended. Hell, he understood. He and Jayce had grown up together, gone to school together and hung out. When Mason won a local two-step dance contest senior year, no one had expected a scout to show up and offer him a modeling contract.

  Mason was the most surprised of all, but at the time it seemed like a whole lot of money, and a whole of chances to be around hot women and live somewhere besides Cotton Creek.

  He never stopped to think that a modeling career might be short lived, but lucky for him, his agent did. She put him in dance lessons, all kind of fitness programs and fortune decided to steer him to Broadway. At least for a while.

  Mason turned his thoughts away from the past. “Hey, don’t point the finger at me. I suggested about five other musicals, but those gals were dead set on that one.”

  “Yeah, I guess they all secretly dreamed of being Baby.”

  “I guess, but whatever the case, it’s what we’re doing and if we’re really lucky it will only suck.”