A year ago, I had a niece and no prospect of children. Now, I had three babies that were my world, with a wonderful man that made my knees weak.
A year ago, I was convinced I’d never find love. Now, I knew that if Rhys ever took his love away from me, I wouldn’t be the same person that I was before him.
Rhys had changed me irreversibly, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What’s Next?
How About No
Wade and Landry’s book
Prologue I
Before you do anything stupid this weekend, just remember it’s a 3-day weekend and the judge won’t be in until Tuesday. Just sayin’.
-Wade’s secret thoughts
Wade
Five years ago
I saw her enter the classroom from across the room.
She was wearing tight blue jeans, a white t-shirt that fit her so tight I could make out every single curve, and a pair of white flip-flops that showed off her cute pink toenails.
I was teaching a criminal justice class for a friend, and I’d never been more excited than I was right then to tell my fellow cop and MC brother no, I wasn’t taking over the class for him.
Why, you ask?
Because I knew that girl was about to be mine.
The moment we were out of this classroom, I was going to ask her out on a date, and I couldn’t do that if I was her teacher for this semester. The moment I saw those beautiful brown eyes of hers lift and take me in, I knew that I was lost.
So. Fucking. Lost.
And then there was the fact that she’d expressly violated the dress code for the class. Not that I wanted to object or anything, but she was supposed to be dressed in closed-toed footwear and have her hair up and away from her face.
The entire class was filled with mostly men, and honestly was a course that I wasn’t sure that she belonged in at all.
I wasn’t sure why she was there, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Then again, I could likely teach the class seeing as she would probably stay in here for one class and one class only once she found out what it was about.
My watched beeped, signaling that it was eight exactly, and I stood up and walked to the door, shutting it and locking it.
I hated latecomers, and if anyone came to the door after I’d closed it, well, they’d be making a spectacle of themselves.
I made sure to pass directly in front of the desk that the girl—woman—had taken near the middle of the room, and nearly groaned when I smelled peaches.
I felt things inside of me start to tighten, and I was thankful that there was a podium at the front of the room to conceal my dick since I could already feel it getting hard.
Once I was up there, I pulled out the class roster and started to read off last names.
When I got to Hill, the woman’s soft voice answered my harsh call.
“Here,” she murmured.
My eyes sliced to hers, and I saw her cheeks fill with color.
Well, imagine that.
Smirking, I finished off the rest of the roster and then tossed it onto the shelf beside me before taking a look around the room.
“I’m not your normal teacher,” I started without preamble. “I’m taking over for my partner who’s sick today. He has the flu, so be thankful that he’s not the one here teaching you today.”
A lot of masculine laughs filled the room, but they couldn’t overpower the soft giggle that came from the girl.
Baker.
Our eyes met again, and goddamn it felt like a freight train had slammed straight into my chest when I saw the smile on her face.
I licked my lips and looked away, trying to find purchase where there wasn’t any to be had.
“Anyway, this class is going to be fun this year,” I paused. “At least it was when I took it five years ago. There’s no telling if Cass will continue to make it fun, or if he’s turned into the asshole he is the rest of the time I’m working with him.”
The girl gasped, and I felt my lip quirk up at that.
Had she not heard cursing before?
“This class will teach you about hands-on tactics that you’ll use during the police procedure such as when you’re arresting a suspect, performing a traffic stop, or collecting evidence that you’ll need to use during a traffic stop.” I paused. “This is also something that you’ll learn during the police academy, but more in depth and widespread. In the police department you choose to work at, they’ll also have their own police procedures…”
I nearly laughed when I saw the woman’s eyes go glazed as she took in all that I had to say.
No, this was definitely not the class for her…
An hour later, once I was done going over all that would be touched on this year, I sent the students on their way thirty minutes early.
Everybody got up and left, a few lingering to talk, except for one.
That one stayed at her desk with her head bowed as she stared at the course syllabus and tapped her fingers restlessly.
I found myself grinning as I walked up to her.
Stopping at the end of her desk, I waited for her to notice that I was there.
When she finally did look up, I couldn’t help myself.
“You know that you were taking this class?” I asked conversationally.
She shook her head animatedly, the brown hair of hers falling into her eyes as she did.
I wanted nothing more than to reach up and push it away from her face.
“The counselor that signed me up for classes said that a lot of students took a criminal justice class when they needed to get full credit hours. So, I thought, why not? I’m not sure they take this one, though,” she admitted. “I’m thinking that counselor was new or something, because it seems like this is a more advanced class, and you have to build on stuff you learned in previous classes to perform well in this one.”
I shrugged. “Yes and no,” I admitted. “Yes, it helps to have those other laws and rules to fall back on, but really this is more of a hands-on what to do in certain types of situations lab. It’s not required to take the other classes to take this one, which is likely why the computer system allowed her to put you into it in the first place. It is, however, a more advanced class. Not really something you’ll be able to use in life if you’re not planning on going criminal justice for a major.”
She laughed. “Uh, no. I’m not doing criminal justice. I’m doing website design/computer programming.”
“No,” I laughed out loud. “I don’t think you’ll need this course, but you’re more than welcome to stay if you want.”
She shrugged. “I might give it one more class, but honestly, it seems kind of advanced, and I’m not sure that I want to take it. I’m more of a sit on my butt and watch the world around me type of person.”
My lips twitched. “Nothing wrong with that, darlin’.”
Her cheeks flushed again. “Well, I guess I better go. I have an hour until my next class, and I’m hungry.”
I felt my heart leap. “You want to grab a bite to eat with me? I swear, I’m not a serial killer or anything.”
Her laugh surprised both her and me. “No, I wouldn’t think that a cop could do both, but for some reason I trust you. As long as you’re not doing sushi for lunch, I’m down.”
I’d never eat my favorite food again if it got her to go with me.
“No sushi,” I promised.
Her smile was captivating. “Then that’s a yes.”
It was a yes for a whole lot of other things, too.
A day after our lunch, she said yes to a second date. Two weeks after our first date, she said yes to being my girlfriend. Eight months after our first date, she said yes to being my fiancée. And six months after that, she said yes to being my wife.
An excerpt
from Tyler’s book, Too Bad So Sad
Chapter 1
Never run with a set of bagpipes. You c
ould fall and poke your eye out, or even worse, get kilt.
-Text from Reagan to her dad
Reagan
I looked over at my friend.
“You want me to what?” I asked in surprise.
“Go on a blind date,” she said. “I want to set you up with someone I know you’ll adore.”
I highly doubted I’d adore anyone.
I never did.
I was, by definition, a very shy person.
Until someone pissed me off, then not so much.
But I didn’t think that a blind date would accomplish getting me pissed off—it took a lot for that to happen.
I snorted and turned to face Janie fully. “I don’t have time to go on a blind date with anyone. Besides, what if he’s a serial killer?”
Janie gave me a droll look. “He’s not a serial killer. In fact, he’s a cop.”
Like that was any better?
I winced. “I’m not dating a cop.”
I refused.
That was a big fat no. I would not, under any circumstance, date a cop.
It’s not that I had anything against them. My dad was a cop, after all. However, cops had certain personalities that tended to clash with my wild and free soul.
I was a quiet person. I was a scholar. I was a pain in the ass and on occasion, I did some not so legal things that might get a cop in trouble if they knew about it and didn’t arrest me.
No, I didn’t do drugs. And no, those things weren’t all that bad.
It’s just that sometimes I got myself in hot water while quenching my thirst for knowledge.
You see, I’m a botanist.
My current job is working for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department investigating the nuisance aquatic plant, hydrilla verticillata. The hydrilla was starting to take over Texas lakes and was proving to be very harmful to the habitat.
I didn’t necessarily perform anything illegal for the state, but I did sometimes get caught up in my own investigations and trespass. I get caught up in my brain and forget to pay attention. OK, I did that often. But it was on my own time when I was researching my own things—such as a type of moss that grew on the trees near the lake that belonged to the state.
Not intentionally, though.
“Are you even listening to me?” Janie asked, sounding exasperated.
I looked at my friend and sighed. She knew precisely when I was listening—and when I wasn’t.
She’d been my friend since I was a young girl. I couldn’t recall a time when she wasn’t around—well, until lately, that is, since she moved to this town and promptly started luring the rest of the kids that’d grown up with us this way.
“No.” I didn’t even bother trying to lie. “I don’t want to go out on a date. I want to go watch some Sam and Dean on Netflix. If I go out on a date, that’s possibly three episodes that I wouldn’t get to watch.”
“Okay,” she said. “Say it with me now. Sam and Dean from Supernatural are not real.”
I flipped her off. “I know it’s not real, Janie. I just like to watch them and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
She narrowed her eyes. “If you don’t come, I’ll make you regret it.”
I sighed again.
“Fine.” I crossed my arms. “When?”
She smiled brightly. “Six. At the Taco Shop. We’re bringing Cora, June, Johnny and a couple other people…maybe our husbands if we can get them to say yes.”
I looked over at Kayla, Janie’s best friend for forever and snorted.
Kayla was asleep on the couch, her mouth hanging half open as drool started to leak out of it.
“You should probably capture this moment,” I said. “That’d make a good profile picture.”
Janie reached for her phone and snapped a few, then looked at me expectantly.
I waved at her. “Fine.”
That’d give me six hours to get some work done. My upcoming master’s thesis would be perfect…I just needed a little more information.
***
I was ankle deep in mud—on someone’s property, perilously close to that someone’s home—and I was on my haunches looking at the moss that was growing on the trunk of a tree.
I’d just scraped off a sample of it into a petri dish and taped it up when I heard a male clearing his throat behind me.
I looked over my shoulder to see a very sexy man, his arms crossed, standing at the foot of his dock.
And when I say sexy, I meant the kind of sexy that gave a girl a full body quiver causing her to forget to breathe for a second. Yeah, that kind of sexy.
He was tall, built, and tattooed.
He had longer brown/black hair and a trimmed beard covering the lower half of his face, but I could definitely see that he had an angular jaw and beautiful lips.
His legs were braced apart, encased in a pair of tight blue jeans that left very little to the imagination—such as he let his junk lean to the left and his thighs were muscular.
The t-shirt that he wore was stretched like a second skin over a taut chest that looked like it’d been honed inside of the gym during what were obviously frequent and vigorous workouts.
He had bright blue eyes lined by long, dark eyelashes that I would need several coats of mascara and possibly the addition of fake lashes, to have any hope of achieving that length.
And his foot was tapping in his muck boots as he looked at me incredulously.
How had he gotten all the way down to the dock without me hearing him coming?
I waved.
He scowled.
“This is private property,” he said.
I stood up and winced when my knees popped.
When I was a young girl, I’d started playing softball.
I was good, too.
I’d even made the Olympic team.
I hadn’t gone, though. Why you ask, would a person turn down an Olympic team begging for you to play for them?
Well, it wasn’t by choice. My choice, anyway.
My boyfriend at the time had begged and pleaded with me not to accept their offer. He didn’t like that I’d be in Arizona for at least six months training with the team.
When I’d told him I was going anyway, he got angry and purposely crashed the car that we were in and shattered every single one of my dreams in the process.
My knee had suffered the most damage and at the age of twenty-one, my softball career had officially ended.
Four years later and I was still trying to figure out a way for my knee not to hate me when the weather changed or I overdid the exercise.
I started trudging out of the woods without another word, slinging my backpack onto my shoulders as I did.
If I hurried, I might make it to the blind date on time. I had about a half-mile walk back down to the public access boat ramp and from there, it was about a mile and a half down the road to the property that I was renting for the spring and summer.
“You do realize that the entire five acres that you’ll be walking through to get to the main road is someone else’s property, correct?” the man asked, interrupting my thoughts.
I shrugged.
Yeah, I knew.
Although, if I had been on the outer five feet of this particular section of land, I wouldn’t be on that person’s property…but, unfortunately, that was currently under water from all the rain we’d been getting, so, yes, I was trespassing, again.
“You do know how to use big girl words, don’t you?”
Alrighty then. The sexy man was also a dick.
I turned and gave him my eyes.
I didn’t say anything, but I did give him the stink eye.
His lips twitched in amusement.
He found my anger funny?
Nice.
I turned around and continued to walk, but his voice stopped me once again.
“Did you steal something?” he asked.
This time, though, he wasn’t
by the dock where he had been standing. He was on the ground, in the mud right along with me.
I looked at him over my shoulder and said, “No.”
“I saw you put something in your bag,” he pushed.
I dropped my backpack off one shoulder and then reached into the pocket with the moss that I’d put in a petri dish and showed it to him.
He took the dish out of my hands and before I could reach for it, he had the thing open.
Once he’d taken my moss, he handed the dish back.
“Next time, don’t steal.” He paused. “Or possibly ask permission to be on someone’s property.”
I narrowed my eyes to dangerous slits that clearly relayed my unhappiness.
But, he was right.
I was on his property.
But dammit! I’d have to come back later on tonight to get that moss, because I needed it for my thesis.
I had a few tests I wanted to run on it and currently his trees were the only ones I could reach from my house since the damn lake was so flooded.
I stomped a little harder than I should have and felt the mud slosh up the side of my boots and start leaking down inside.
God. Dammit.
I turned around and was going to glare at the man and possibly ask for belated permission, but he was gone.
I halted, tempted to turn around and snatch some more moss, but as soon as I had my foot turned in the opposite direction, his voice stopped me.
“Don’t even think about it,” he growled.
That came from in front of me.
I jumped, whirled and lost my footing, ending up ass first in the cool mud.
I breathed through clenched teeth and looked up at the smiling man.
Was throat punching illegal?
I should probably move off of his property before I did that though since it wouldn’t look good for me if I was arrested.
And my dad would be pissed. Again.
Not to mention, I might get a criminal record and then I’d lose my scholarship.
I stood up—without the bastard’s help—and started on my way again.
This time I didn’t stop at his taunts. I just kept walking until I reached the boat ramp.
Listen Pitch Page 19
