Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  But then he saw the sheer, naked pleasure shining in her eyes.

  And everything spontaneously combusted.

  His release detonated through him in shards of scorching hot shrapnel. A loud roar filled his head as firebursts of lights exploded behind his eyelids.

  Never had he come so hard in his life.

  Hand braced against the wall to keep himself upright, he willed his heart rate to slow back down to a near-human pounding. It took a while. But when his ears finally did stop buzzing, his still-recovering brain eventually registered that he was the source of the low, feral sounds of raw, male satisfaction echoing around the bathroom.

  And that the one content, soft little sigh he just heard had come from Tessa.

  *

  SNUGGLED UP ON THE COUCH, making sleepy chitchat, Tessa wondered what normal flingers do when the night was winding down.

  It didn’t seem like Brian had any intention of going anywhere. Weirdly enough. But since they were out of condoms, she honestly didn’t see what more fling-sanctioned activities they could do for the rest of the night.

  And on the tail end of that thought, it occurred to her that she didn’t have the first clue what his normal protocol was in this type of situation because they’d never discussed his rules for flings. A horrible oversight, which, in hindsight, could’ve saved her a lot of research if she’d just let him present his rules first.

  Before she could gear up to broach the topic to him, however, Brian’s attention was snagged by her little memorabilia collection next to the TV. He sat forward, peering at the lunch pails and thermoses and random trinkets on the top shelf in surprise. “Never would’ve pictured you for an old school Saturday morning cartoon collector.”

  Grinning, she shook her head. “I’m not. Those were actually Willow’s old lunch pails and toys that got handed down to me.” She smiled up at the Muppet Babies thermos and old school Strawberry Shortcake pencil case. “But just because I’m not a collector doesn’t mean I’m not a card carrying fan of ‘80s cartoons. Because I am. If you haven’t noticed by my tshirts.”

  “SilverHawks!” he exclaimed then, out of the clear blue sky.

  She chuckled, inordinately pleased with his outburst.

  “That’s your ringtone on your phone, isn’t it? I knew I recognized that music. Man, I used to love that show when I was a kid.”

  “It’s on Cartoon Network. When I used to stay up late to keep an eye on Willow while she was asleep, I’d have myself a little ‘80s cartoon fest. It was actually a lot of fun.”

  He grabbed the remote and pulled her against him on the couch. “Well it’s three a.m. now. Let’s see if there are some good cartoons on before we go to bed.”

  Something warm and fuzzy expanded in her chest then, even as her brain registered that the we in the going-to-bed part was probably a flagrant fling violation for her stupid ‘rules.’

  She sighed and was just about to mention it when he tilted his head at her and asked, “Hey, I meant to ask, since we fell asleep working earlier, did we already break your first fling rule? You’re not pissed are you?”

  Good question. One she should probably know the answer to. “Um…”

  “I mean I know our sleeping right now wouldn’t be a big deal since it’s pretty much morning but last night’s little nap session was definitely during the p.m. hours. I thought I’d better get a clarification.”

  And a clarification you shall get. As soon as she figured it out.

  Geez, she hated these rules.

  Before she could even begin to make up something that would sound like a logical answer, however, the question king fired off another one. “Also, since our date last night was interrupted, if I want to just stay here so I can hang out with you again tonight, that wouldn’t be breaking your consecutive-night rule would it?”

  Another humdinger. “Well…”

  “Do you want to check that ironclad rule book of yours for clarification?” he queried with a broad smile she felt nuzzling against her cheek.

  It was possible the man was on to her.

  “Okay, okay,” she fessed up, “so those aren’t exactly my rules.”

  “You don’t say…” His smile moved up to her temple and turned into a gentle kiss.

  “And perhaps ‘expert’ was a bit of a stretch in terms of my fling repertoire.”

  “Yeah,” he chuckled, sounding pleased, “I kind of got that.”

  She pulled back and gazed into his eyes curiously. “What gave me away?” She’d thought she did pretty a good job during his vetting process.

  “My first clue was all those dvd rentals and notebook. Either you were fibbing just a tiny bit about the flinging, or you were in some sort of player cult and you had a book report due on monday.”

  She felt her cheeks flush bright red. “Then why’d you sign that list and play along?”

  “Because I like you. A lot. And I want to be with you. So if I need to sign my initials next to a bunch of rules I had every intention of breaking anyway, I didn’t see what the big deal was.”

  Her lips twitched to the side. The guy was just too much.

  With no retort for him in sight, she did what she always did when her brain went on the blink—she simply said the first thing that popped into her head. “There’s a good chance I’m going to get attached to you if you’re not careful.”

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “Well then you’ll have good company.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  TESSA TOOK A DEEP BREATH and hit send on the number she’d been staring at for the last five minutes, wondering over her sanity for even going through with this.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Mom.”

  “Tessa?”

  She flinched. It was always a small kick in the shins when she heard that puzzled question mark.

  “Yep. It’s me, Tessa.” The only one I know of who calls you mom. She shoved down that unwelcome-stray-dog feeling and asked brightly, “How’ve you been? How’s the new job?”

  “Oh, it’s going spectacularly. My sales numbers are through the roof.”

  Sales numbers? Ah, so this was a new, new job. “I take it the advertising focus group job was a bust?”

  “Oh that job? That was ages ago. My goodness, when did I talk to you last?”

  “Um…I left you a message around Christmas, then again to wish you a Happy New Year.”

  But you never called back.

  “Well that explains it. Over the past few months, your mother has quickly become one of South Beach Miami’s rising stars in the feminine beauty product sales catalog biz. They’re even going to let me start crossing over to some of the male beauty product lines as well. Isn’t that fabulous?”

  The feat of her mother sticking out a job for a few months was in fact, pretty fabulous. “That’s great, Mom. And you really sound happy about this one.”

  “Oh, I am. This is definitely my calling.”

  One of her many. Her ‘calling’ last summer had been radio commercial acting. And before that, it had been a phone service rep position that she’d deemed perfect because all it had required her to do was read out of a manual. But of course, she’d quit the job three days later because, well, all it had required her to do was read out of a manual.

  The worst of the bunch had been the work-from-home scam from three years ago. That one had ended with Tessa having to wire five thousand dollars to her mother to tide her over until the sports equipment testing job finally panned out.

  This stroll down memory lane was seriously bumming her out. “So, Mom, I met this guy,” she blurted out then, cutting to the chase.

>   “Oh, honey, how wonderful! You haven’t dated in… Wow, when was the last time you dated?”

  That would be never. Thanks for remembering. She sighed. “Anyway, like I was saying, I met a guy. And he’s pretty great.”

  “Give me all the details, sweetie. What’s he do for a living?”

  “He’s a high school business teacher.”

  “Good, good, so he’s not a freeloader. Those are fun to play with for a night, but getting rid of them can be such a pain.”

  As utterly bizarre as this conversation was, this was actually the longest and most engaged conversation Tessa could ever recall them having. Dropping onto her couch, she settled in and tried to wrap her brain around the entire experience.

  “Is he handsome? Does he work out a lot? Ooh, what color are his eyes? I’m always a sucker for sexy eyes.”

  Tessa’s mind did a few more flips before she got her bearings and replied, “Yes, he’s absolutely gorgeous. Errr…I’m assuming he works out a lot because he’s also a football coach at the high school where he works.” Was that a squeal on the other end of the phone line? So surreal. “And his eyes are amazing—an ocean blue most of the time.”

  “Oh, he sounds just yummy. I’m so happy for you, dear.”

  Irrationally, Tessa felt like she was going to start crying. She couldn’t remember the last time her mother had ever been so attentive, so affectionate.

  “His name is Brian, by the way. And he has a fantastic daughter in middle school.”

  A stark pause and then an almost horrified, “A daughter? Oh, Tessa, no.”

  Aaand, they were back. The way her mother said her name never failed to make her feel two inches tall and far more than a dollar short.

  “Tessa, you can’t date a man with a child. You won’t be able to avoid getting serious.”

  She paused a beat before admitting, “What if I’m thinking of getting serious?”

  Her mother gasped. “You can not be thinking of having a long-term relationship with this man, Tessa. It’s just not right. You know as well as I do that this would just end in heartbreak for everyone involved. Especially if he has a daughter. He’s probably looking for…well, someone a little different from you.”

  “He and Skylar both know about my being a dropout. He didn’t think anything of it.”

  “So you’ve told him everything?”

  Tessa remained silent.

  “That’s what I thought. Have a heart. Don’t take this any further. He sounds like a very nice man who deserves better.”

  Better than me.

  “Tessa, you know I love you. And you know I want you to be happy. But not at the expense of someone else. Besides, why are you even looking for something serious anyway? Look at my life. A hot, brand new model every few months to drive around, nothing to tie me down. The world is my oyster. I couldn’t be happier. Take it from me, there is simply no better way to live.”

  Tessa could think of a thousand better ways to live.

  And she could picture Brian in every single scenario.

  “I know you think I’m wrong about this, but I also know that you know I’m right. You should just end it now. Before it’s too late. Let the man be happy.”

  Right, because he’d be miserable with me. She couldn’t take anymore. “Mom, I’ve got to get going. I forgot I need to head over to the care home in a half hour.”

  “Oh, that’s nice. You’re still doing that volunteer work?”

  Everything HD-related was always ‘volunteer work’ to her mother; she simply couldn’t comprehend it in any other context.

  So it didn’t really matter whether she answered her or not.

  “I really got to go. Thanks for chatting with me, Mom.”

  “Alright, well good luck with everything. Remember, it’s always better to just rip the band-aid off. And darling, you know you don’t have to thank me. That’s what I’m here for.”

  Tessa wasn’t going to touch that one.

  “Bye, Mom.”

  *

  BRIAN CAME BACK in from his morning run and knew something was wrong the second he stepped foot in the door.

  He was already racing across the house to Skylar’s bedroom, the muffled sounds of her crying slashing him with blades of paralyzing fear. He practically took the door off its hinges as he burst through, expecting to see a scene not unlike a post-apocalyptic disaster zone.

  “Sky-bug, what’s the matter?” He eased over to her window seat, where she was curled in a tight ball, trying her best to get her crying under control. “Are you hurt?”

  “I c-can’t s-stop,” she stuttered, her breathing heaving in and out uncontrollably.

  Brian ran out to the kitchen and returned with a paper bag. Holding it over her mouth, he squeezed her hand and said in the calmest voice he could, “Just breathe, honey. Keep your eyes on me and just breathe nice and easy, in and out. Don’t think about anything else except for the sound of your breathing.” He nodded encouragingly when her gasping breaths started to slow. Removing the bag, he continued in a soothing murmur, “Okay now we have to do the belly breathing; remember how we used to help mom? Slow deep breath in through your nose, fill your belly up with air…and then out through your mouth. Good, just like that. Just a few more. Take your time.”

  Meanwhile, Brian was on the verge of hyperventilating himself.

  The five minutes it took for Skylar’s breathing to return to normal felt like the longest of his life.

  “How you doing?” he asked gently when her eyes were no longer the size of saucers. “Ready for a glass of water?”

  Skylar nodded, exhausted, and slumped against the wall while he went to get her a drink.

  It took far more restraint than he thought he possessed to remain silent as he watched her ease back out of her panic attack. Remembering how walking used to help Beth, and wanting to give Skylar a change in environment just in case that was the trigger, he held out his hand. “C’mon, let’s get some fresh air in the backyard.”

  By the time they were both seated in the gazebo, she was looking relatively calm.

  “You want to tell me what happened back there?”

  Her gaze dropped to the ground, and she shrugged half-heartedly. “It’s nothing.”

  “That was not nothing, sweetie. Do you need me to call your therapist? Schedule you an emergency appointment?”

  At her smothered cringe, he grew even more confused. “Are you having a problem with Dr. Gibson?” Skylar had been going once a week for over a year now and never had he heard any complaints from either side.

  “No, I just… I’m having a hard time talking to her lately.” She slid her focus over to the orchid plants woven into the far end of the gazebo. “I feel like we talk about the same things every week and…it’s like she can’t hear me, like no one can hear me. Except for Becky. And Tessa.”

  Brian tensed. “So this is about the gene testing again?”

  “Not just the gene testing. It’s all of it.” She shook her head and looked away. “You just don’t get it. None of you get it.” Her voice was starting to sound panicked again.

  “They can’t get it, sweetie,” called out a calm voice approaching them. “Not unless you explain it to them.”

  They both looked up to see Tessa walking across the lawn to join them.

  When did she get here?

  “Skylar texted me while you were on your run,” she explained, at his questioning look. “I got here as quickly as I could and I let myself in. You left the front door ajar.”

  He had?

  Everything had been such a blur. Still wa
s. Skylar had been talking for nearly ten minutes now and he still didn’t have a clue how to help her.

  Tessa sat down on the railing opposite of them and said quietly, “Skylar, it’s not that they don’t want to hear you, it’s that they can’t understand what you’re going through. You need to explain it to your doctors, to your father. I know you think they should get it because they already saw your mom go through it, but I guarantee you, they don’t.” Her eyes landed on his as she continued, “So just start from what you feel like when you wake up every day. Describe it if you can’t explain it. And go from there.”

  Brian watched in horror as tears filled Skylar’s eyes again. How had he not known his little girl was going through so much agony? “I’m listening, honey. And I promise I’ll hear you. Just…talk to me, please.”

  “It’s not every morning,” Skylar whispered as she looked up at Tessa, almost as if reaching for a lifeline before repeating, “It’s not every morning, but some mornings I wake up and I wonder if today’s going to be the day that I’ll know for sure if I have HD or not. And for the five or ten minutes that I sit there and think about it, I feel…almost happy. Like I can finally breathe again.” Her voice dropped a bitter note lower. “But then after that one short breath, it’s like I’m drowning all over again. I go to school and see my friends laughing and talking about stuff like what awesome things they want to do when they grow up… Normal teen stuff. I see them sitting there not worrying about anything really—something I never get to do. And when I see that, I get so jealous and sad and angry. And I just can’t breathe.”

  Brian’s hand gripped the handrail tighter to avoid reaching for her.

  A frustrated strength began vibrating through in her words. “I know everyone thinks it’s better for me not to take the gene test, and I understand why. If it comes back positive, all that tells me is that I’m going to get HD one day, and that’s it; that’s all it’ll tell me. Not when, not how. So I get it. Everyone’s worried that I’m going to get all depressed and give up. Or that I’m going to get all stupid with my life because I think I’m going to die anyway.” A shudder wobbled her voice. “But what everyone doesn’t get is that not knowing makes me feel all of that anyway and more. I feel like I’m not getting to…I dunno, accept it. Or deal with it.”