by Beth Ehemann
ALSO BY BETH EHEMANN
Cranberry Inn Series
Room for You
Room for More
Room for Just a Little Bit More
Cement Heart
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2016 Beth Ehemann
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503939141
ISBN-10: 1503939146
Cover design by Michael Rehder
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER 1
Andy
“You two better knock that off before I send you both outside to do yard work.”
The stern warning coming from my kids’ nanny, Gloria, made me chuckle as I trotted down the steps and rounded the bottom of the staircase, heading toward the kitchen. I heard Logan quickly retort, “But she threw Froot Loops at me.”
“Well you looked at me!” Becca squealed back.
“Sounds like you guys are starting day one off with a bang, huh?” I laughed, walking through the kitchen door.
My kids were sitting at the table, frowning as Gloria stood in between them with her hands on her hips.
As soon as he saw me, Logan sat straight up in his chair and opened his mouth. “Dad, Becca threw—”
“Ah-ah,” Gloria interrupted, raising one finger in the air.
He looked up at her, crinkling his eyebrows as he continued pleading his case. “But she—”
“Nope,” Gloria said calmly, shaking her head. “Not today. It’s the first day of summer break, and we’re going to have fun. No whining, no fighting, no arguing. Got it?”
Logan huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Got it?” Gloria asked again as she gave his shoulder a slight nudge.
Still scowling, he nodded.
Gloria turned toward Becca. “And what about you?”
Becca stared up at Gloria and smiled sweetly. “Yes, Miss Gloria.” Then she turned her eyes toward me. “Good morning, Daddy.”
Cute little instigator.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Logan roll his eyes as he returned to his blueberry pancakes. I laughed and squatted down next to Becca at the kitchen table. “Good morning, baby girl.” She threw her arms around my neck and squeezed hard, not letting go.
“What’s up, champ?” I greeted Logan, holding my fist out to him behind Becca’s back.
He let go of his nine-year-old attitude slowly and fist-bumped me back while offering up a crooked half smile. “Hey, Dad.”
“What are you guys gonna do today, assuming Gloria doesn’t kill you first?” I joked as I freed myself from Becca’s grasp and walked over to the coffeepot, needing caffeine so desperately I was tempted to forget the mug altogether and chug it straight from the carafe.
“We’re going to the zoo!” Becca announced excitedly.
“Oh yeah?” I answered back as I poured hot, black coffee into the biggest mug I could find. I turned to face them, leaning against the counter.
“Yeah! There will be polar bears and a lion and kangaroos.” She jumped off her chair and started dancing around as she listed off all the animals she was hoping to see. “And tigers and elephants and dinosaurs—”
Logan’s face twisted as he looked up from his breakfast. “There won’t be dinosaurs there.”
Becca stopped dancing and turned toward him. “Uh-huh!” she insisted.
“No, they’re extinct.” He shook his head.
“They don’t stink!” Becca yelled back.
“Okay, okay,” I chuckled. “That’s enough fighting. If you two don’t stop, I’m going to have to give Gloria a raise this summer.”
“You have no idea,” Gloria said playfully as she shot me a wink and walked toward the fridge.
Suddenly Becca gasped and her face lit up. As she opened her mouth to speak, my heart sank. I knew exactly what was coming, and I was dreading it.
“Can you go with us?” she asked, her voice rising with excitement as she stuck her bottom lip out. Logan looked up from his pancakes and raised his eyebrows, hoping my answer would be yes, too.
I took a deep breath through my nose and let it out as slowly, stalling as long as possible. “I can’t, baby. I have to work today. I’m so sorry.”
The strap of her pink pajama top slipped off her shoulder as it slumped in disappointment, and her head dropped toward the floor. “You always have to work.”
I set my mug on the island and walked over to Becca, squatting down to her eye level. “I do always have to work, honey. I’m your dad and it’s my job to take care of you guys and make sure you have everything you need. To buy those things, I need money.”
Her blue eyes lifted to mine but her expression remained sad. “And to make money you have to go to work.”
“Exactly.” I brushed her soft, pale cheek with the backs of my fingers.
“But Mommy pays bills and she doesn’t work?” Her eyebrows lifted up in hopes that she’d just found a loophole.
Actually, Daddy pays Mommy’s bills, too.
I sighed. “I know, baby girl. It’s complicated. Trust me, there’s nothing I wish I could do more than go to the zoo with you guys today.” I stood up, gently kissing her forehead as I passed by. “Being an adult is a trap. Stay little as long as you can, okay?”
She blinked innocently and nodded as she sat back down at the table, shoveling a bite of pancake into her mouth. As she chewed, her eyes fixated on her plate, eventually drifting off. I knew she was sitting there, wishing more than anything that I could spend the day at the zoo with them.
I wished that, too.
To say that my job was demanding was the understatement of the century. Especially lately.
Hockey trades were just about to open and baseball trading was in full swing . . . literally. When you’re a sports agent negotiating multimillion-dollar contracts for some of the nation’s top athletes, you don’t get to call in sick to take your kids to the zoo, unfortunately. A missed phone call or an unanswered e-mail could mean a lost opportunity, and if my clients didn’t make money, I didn’t make money. And I definitely needed to keep the money flowing. Paying to keep two households running wasn’t easy.
>
A couple of years ago, I had a normal life . . . a wife, a home, and two happy little kids. Once I pulled my head out of my ass and realized my wife was a money-hungry vulture who was nasty to every single person on the planet, including her own children, I ended it as fast as I could. Now I’m a mostly single dad to those same two great kids, and I have an ex-wife who I pay an obscene amount of money to every month just so she’ll keep her distance and not screw up our kids any more than she already has. Even when we were married, she was more interested in shopping and getting her hair done than spending time with our kids. Per our agreement, she only gets them one weekend a month, and to be honest, I’d be willing to give her even more money if she would give up that weekend, too. There’s still a very tiny cell in my body, buried way down deep in my core somewhere, clinging to the hope that one day she’ll realize how bad she’s messed up and be a better mom for Logan and Becca’s sake, but that cell is shrinking every day.
There’s no doubt in my mind that one day my kids are going to come to me and ask why their mom only wanted to see them forty-eight hours a month. I’ll have to take a deep breath, swallow my anger, and explain all the ugly things in a way that their pure brains can process them. How could I do that when I didn’t even understand it myself?
“Dad?”
Logan’s voice pulled me from the dark corner in my head where I stored all things Blaire related. I stared at him blankly for just a second before squeezing my eyes tight and shaking my head back to reality. “I’m sorry, buddy.”
“I asked if you were going to come to my baseball game tonight. You worked late last night and missed practice. Can you come to my game?” he asked softly, sounding disappointed as if he anticipated my answer being no. “We play the Mavericks and I’m pitching.”
He was right, I had worked really late the night before. It was their last day of school and instead of being home, kicking off the summer with them, I’d been sitting in my office chugging Red Bull while I hammered through the specifics of a new baseball contract.
“You’re pitching?”
Shit.
He nodded as he chewed on his bottom lip, nervously waiting for my answer.
“Yeah. I’ll be there.” Before I even finished my sentence, a huge grin broke out across his face. “Gloria is going to take you there for warm-ups, but I promise I’ll be there by game time, okay?”
“Mm-hmm,” he chirped happily. The excitement radiated off of his rosy cheeks as he shoveled a bite into his mouth. Even though he was chewing, he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.
“While you guys finish eating, I’m gonna make some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the zoo,” Gloria announced.
“Strawberry jam for me!” Logan hollered.
Becca’s head snapped up from her pancakes. “I want raspberry!”
Gloria froze and turned slowly from the fridge to face them, putting her hand on her hip as she spun. She narrowed her eyes at Logan and Becca but didn’t say a word.
“Please,” they murmured in unison, sinking down into their chairs.
“That’s what I thought.” She winked and turned back to the fridge.
Gloria had been with us since Logan was a baby. She was more of a mother to the kids than Blaire had ever been, and they loved her just as much, if not more, than Blaire.
“Ah, Gloria . . .” I walked over and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, squeezing gently. “I have no idea what the hell we would do without you, and I never want to find out.”
She glanced up at me with her dark brown eyes and smiled as she shook her head.
I turned back to the kids. “Okay, guys. I’m off to work. I love you both. Don’t drive Gloria too crazy today, please.” They waved as I turned toward the door. “Logan”—I whipped back around with an excited smile on my face and pointed to my son—“I’ll see you at six o’clock!”
He nodded and gave me another huge, toothy grin. A grin that I would use as fuel to get through my hectic morning.
CHAPTER 2
Andy
The elevator doors opened, and I stepped out, expecting to walk into a dark, empty office. Instead, the lights were on and the smell of coffee floated in the air. Ellie, my assistant and right-hand woman, was pacing back and forth nervously with her cell phone in her hand.
“Morning, El!” I chimed as the elevator doors closed behind me. “What are you doing here already?”
She jumped at the sound of her name and spun to face me, her eyes bulging. “Morning? What am I doing here already?” she mimicked in a short, panicked tone. “The question is why are you just getting here?”
Completely stumped, I stopped walking and scanned the room for a hint. “Uh . . .”
She looked toward my office door before taking a step closer, whispering loudly, “Vinnie Sotelo is here. There. In your office. You had a meeting with him that was supposed to start”—she checked her watch—“half an hour ago.”
“Shit!” My hand flew up, gently rubbing the stubble on my jaw, thinking about how much I’d just royally screwed up.
“Shit is right. I’ve already talked him out of leaving once, and I called you three times. Why weren’t you answering your cell?” She stole another quick look at the office door. “Thank God I stopped at the bakery this morning and picked up cinnamon rolls for us. I just keep opening the door and throwing food at him. So far it’s working.”
“I completely forgot. Who the hell schedules a meeting this early on a Wednesday anyway?”
Ellie raised an eyebrow at me. “You did.”
“Damn it.” I thought fast about what I could say to smooth over what was likely to be a very ugly situation when I walked through that door. Vinnie Sotelo was one of the best wide receivers in the NFL at the moment, and he just so happened to be looking for a new agent. Rumor had it he’d been turning down meetings left and right, leaving a trail of disappointed agents from coast to coast. We’d talked on the phone a handful of times, and each time he seemed a little more open to representation. Then last week, I got him to agree to fly to Minnesota to meet with me. And now he was sitting in my office . . . alone.
Pull your shit together, Andy.
It was my cockiness that got him here in the first place, and it would have to be my cockiness that would get the deal done. I wasn’t an arrogant asshole by nature, but hopefully I could be one for the next twenty minutes or so.
“What are you going to say?” Ellie’s eyebrows pinched together with worry.
I felt around the pocket on the inside of my suit jacket.
Nothing.
“Damn it.” I scrunched my eyes tight and rubbed them with my hands as I mumbled under my breath, “I must have left it in my car.”
“Huh?”
“My phone—I must have left it in my car all night. That’s why I missed your calls. I was worried about the kids this morning and . . .” I shook my head and looked up. “Never mind. Can I borrow your phone for a minute?”
“My phone? Sure.” She pushed her phone into my hands and started rambling. “What are you gonna do? What are you gonna say? Should I do anything? Maybe get another cinnamon roll?”
I held my hand up, stopping her. “Relax, okay? I got this.”
Pausing as I got to the door, I took a deep breath and strode right in with Ellie’s phone at my ear.
“Yeah, I hear you. Well, between you and me, he’s not that great of a football player in the first place. I can’t make teams want him, he has to perform.” I growled aggressively into phone.
Vinnie Sotelo looked up from the latest ESPN magazine, which had been sitting on the coffee table in front of him. When our eyes met, I nodded and held one finger up to let him know I’d be right with him, then tossed my bag on my chair and turned to the floor-to-ceiling window behind my desk.
“I get that, but unless he’s going to show some balls out on the field, I’m not sure I can continue to represent him. I want leaders at this firm. Men and women who give one hundred and
ten percent every single day and own what they do. I want beasts. I want elite athletes, and if he’s going to be a big pussy and not perform like I know he can, we’ll end the relationship today.” I swirled back around and caught a quick glimpse of Vinnie before looking down at my desk. He was still staring at me, hopefully listening to every word. “Yeah, I hear you. I’ve said what I have to say. Deliver that message for me, and I’ll be in touch later this week. I gotta go.” I pretended to push a button on the phone, sighing as I dropped it on my desk.
“I’m so sorry about the delay, Mr. Sotelo,” I said confidently as I strode across my office, extending my hand to him.
He stood and wiped his palms on his jeans before shaking my hand back. “That’s okay. Sounds like you’ve had a crazy morning already?”
Pointing back toward my desk, I raised my eyebrows at him. “Oh, that? Nah, that’s just business.” I gestured toward the couch. “Please, have a seat. Can I get you anything?”
“Oh, no thanks.” He shook his head, wiping his palms on his jeans again. “Your assistant—Ellen, I think her name was—already hooked me up good.” A bottle of water, a bottle of Gatorade, and a half-eaten cinnamon roll were on the coffee table next to the magazine he’d been reading.
Way to go, Ellie.
I sat in the chair across from him and studied his face as he took another swig of his Gatorade. Sweat had pooled on his upper lip and forehead, and I could hear the soft tap of his foot against the coffee table. He was nervous. I had the upper hand before the negotiations even started, and there was no way I was losing it now.
“I know we’re both busy men, Mr. Sotelo, so let’s cut to the chase. You’re a very sought-after athlete these days, and we’re a very sought-after firm. You’ve seen my client roster; I’ve seen you play football. On paper, we make a great team.” I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees, staring him straight in the eye. “We’ve already spoken on the phone, and you’ve had a chance to talk to your people. What I need to know from you is that you’re in this to make a name for yourself and for me. I need to know that you’re going to keep your head in the game on the field and your ass out of trouble off the field. In return, I’ll protect you like a papa lion protects his cubs. Anyone messes with you, they mess with me. Period.”
