by Abby Knox
I watch my wife’s fine ass wiggle while she tries to show Molly some of her moves. I feel a tightening in my pants, and make a mental note to ask Delilah to bust out her spanky pants later tonight.
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s not even close to how anyone expected things to turn out, and I’m damn thankful for it.”
THE END
About the Author
Abby Knox lives a dual life. Fantasy Abby would love to live on a farm with goats, bees, chickens, donkeys and alpaca, making her own soap, yarn, honey and cheese. Reality Abby has no desire to do actual farm work. So, the ever-pragmatic Reality Abby keeps Fantasy Abby happy by putting her into adorable little works of romantic fiction with her pretend hobbies. Both Abbies hope you enjoy her sweet, sexy — sometimes a little over the top and weird — storytelling.
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Also by Abby Knox
The Halloween Bet
The Greenbridge Academy series
Swim Coach (book one)
Grumpy Dad (book two)
Benefactor (book three)
Headmistress (book four)
Queen Bee (Book five, Ridley’s story! Coming soon! … formerly titled Prom Queen. I changed it, because I can.)
Coming in December … Manhattan Miracle! Get ready for a super sweet, romantic, sappy, over the top, tear-jerker holiday story!
Need more?
From the Small-Town Bachelor Romance Series
(each can be read as a stand-alone, but if you want to read in order … this is the order)
Take Me Home
Game Face
Written in the Stars, a special Christmas edition
Walk With Me
Stay the Night
I’ve Got You
Come And Get It
The Windy City Holiday Duet
Pumpkin and Spice
Comfort and Joy
Beach Avenue Babes
His Vinyl Vixen (a stand alone for the rock ’n’ roll nerd in all of us)
Her Hi-Fi Hunk (Dusty and Jed from His Vinyl Vixen)
Stand alone short reads and novellas
Fencing Her In (A bad neighbors to lovers story. With a lot of dogs. You need this in your life.)
One Good Woman (a stand-alone mistaken identity/conspiracy/political drama)
Naughty Irish Heart (a time-hopping Saint Patrick’s Day Romance — two couples and two HEAs in one book! Part of a four-author themed collection!)
Sweet Jane
(An over-the-top amnesia story about being lost, and then found.)
The Christmas Pickup (a holiday short read full of feels, quirky characters and one damn hot tow truck driver!)
Saved for Me
(a special Holidays with Alexa Riley story)
Matched for Me (A Valentine’s Day story with Fletcher from Saved for Me)
Off-Season Stud (a fun and sexy vacation trope with an OTT ending!)
The Sisters of Enchantment series (a paranormal collection of stories about … yes … witches. I know you want more of these … they’re coming!)
Some Basic Witch
Witch, Please!
An excerpt from Queen Bee
Book five in the Greenbridge Academy series!
Ridley
Mother has run amok with her blue and copper theme for the holidays this year, because, as she says, “an influencer must always be forward thinking.”
I’m just here to be the dutiful daughter, another Christmas ornament decorating her home for her party guests and Instagram followers. Usually over the holidays, it’s either Mother and I or dad and I jetting off to one exclusive Rushmore resort or another.
But Dad is acting hella strange and talking all about me developing a work ethic and earning my own vacations abroad from now on. And Mother has decided she wants me home get to know my “new family.”
She’s so obsessed with her gold digging yoga instructor fiance, she’s actually invited him here. To our house. Him, and her super nerd son who plays video games for a living. Or something. I’m not sure.
Either way, whether I’m to spend the holiday with Dad or Mother, this is not where I thought I would be at Christmas.
Last year it was Vale.
The year before that it was a cabin in the Alps.
Texting and venting with my best friend Hadley, I round the corner into the library and hit a brick wall.
My phone skids across the marble hallway.
I lunge for it, but a big, masculine hand already has it.
“Whoa! Sorry! Excuse me, are you OK?”
I pop up and run my eyes over the brick wall standing before me and holding my phone out to me.
The realization clicks that this must be my new future stepdad. If it is, this is going to be one awkward holiday because he is a snack and a half.
The large hand with its long, tanned fingers makes my phone look miniature. My eyes travel up his arms to take in the view of his biceps that stretch the short sleeves of his tee shirt. He has the shoulders and neck of someone who either works out a lot or is in the military. And his face. Oh, my god. He looks like a young David Beckham. Not that I would complain about having to stare at an older David Beckham. His hair, though, is too long and unkempt on top with curls everywhere. Still, the big, gray green eyes and unforgivably long lashes draw me in like catnip.
I put my hand out to take my phone and he turns his hand over and places it in my palm. I rein in my ogling and smile as if I’m totally unfazed. I’d better be unfazed. Mother’s new fiancé is a total bae, and if one of us thinks the other is hitting on them, this week is going to turn into a hillbilly holiday extravaganza.
“I’m fine. Totally. Fine,” I say.
When I take the phone, I feel the brush of a finger. It’s almost undetectable but I definitely felt the heat of one finger pad against the meat of my palm.
Our eyes meet and neither of us say anything for a few seconds. I casually glance down to the chest that I just bounced off of a few seconds earlier. That’s when I notice his worn out olive green tee shirt has a diagram of a spaceship on it with the word “Serenity.” This stupid shirt makes me mad. It looks like the ultimate geek boy tee shirt, evoking the image of poor hygiene and people who spend all day in basements commenting about super hero movies. Not to mention the gamer geeks at my school who think they’re smarter than everyone.
And then it hits me.
Oh shit. This is not Neil, my mom’s fiancé. This is Crosby. Neil’s son.
The dorky game designer, or something, soon-to-be step brother.
He is gorgeous. So gorgeous I want to share him on Snapchat him right away with everyone I know. And yet, I don’t. Something about him makes me want to keep him to myself. I can already imagine Hadley with her drool emojis. No, I don’t want her to see this man.
“You must be the game designer or whatever,” I say, making it look like I’m smirking at his stupid tee shirt when really I’m ogling his jacked pecs that are right in my face.
God, even his chuckle is sexy. What’s he laughing at, anyway? He holds out his hand. “Crosby.”
Cute name, I suppose.
“Nice to meet you,” I reply, trying my best to look disinterested while I let him squeeze my hand in his. His handshake is warm, with a hunk of metal in the middle. I look down at our joined hands and I see he wears a weird skull ring on his right hand.
“Interesting ring,” I say, meaning it to sound snobby but the sound that escapes me is more earnest than I intended.
“Thanks,” Crosby says. “I got it to commemorate the day I met my idol at this con I went to a few years ago … you might know him, he was in that movie...”
I pretend to listen as he talks about some guy I have no clue about, and just stare at his eyes. Memorizing the color. Are they more gray or more green? Maybe this makes me shallow, but I cannot pretend to be interested in super hero movies, n
o matter how hot the guy is who’s currently talking about them.
Oh yes. This is definitely going to be an interesting Christmas. If only I can figure out a way to make his jaw stop flapping about science fiction.
If only.
Ridley and Crosby’s story is coming to you in DECEMBER 2019!