He thought about taking Peyton around and showing her the complex and introducing her to his coworkers, but the purple smudges under her eyes stopped him. She needed to rest. Ethan parked in the lot behind the apartment complex and Noah helped her out.
“Noah, Noah!”
He turned to see Kai Costa racing towards him at breakneck speed. Kai was the son of Dante and Taylor Costa. Dante, a fellow former SEAL, was one of the first hires when Luke Colton and Logan Bradley created the company. He oversaw training and fitness. Before a person became an agent or was allowed back in the field after an injury, Dante had to approve them. At ten years old, his son Kai was an agent in training, having already saved two girls’ lives including his now-stepsister. He skidded to a halt in front of them and smiled sweetly.
Noah narrowed his eyes. “What’s up Little C?”
“Can’t a guy just stop by to say hi?” He blinked innocently. “I missed you while you were gone.”
“Aw, I missed you, too.” Noah ruffled his hair and chuckled when Kai tried to bat his hands away.
“Hey, what about me?” Ethan protested. “Didn’t you miss me?”
Kai dismissed him with flick of his fingers. “You were gone for like two hours.” He turned to Peyton and thrust out his hand. “I’m a big fan, Ms. Durant,” he gushed. “I watched all your races the last Olympics. You were like Water Wonder Woman. My name’s Kai.”
“Thank you and it’s very nice to meet you, Kai. Please, call me Peyton.”
“Okay. Peyton, do you know where zombies go swimming?”
Noah shared an amused glance with Ethan. Besides saving young damsels in distress, Kai’s specialty was making people laugh. He didn’t like for anyone to be sad, so he memorized jokes to cheer them up. He no doubt heard about Peyton’s ordeal and wanted to make her smile.
“No, where do zombies go swimming,” she asked, neatly falling into his trap.
“The dead sea!”
They all laughed and the pure happiness on Peyton’s face caused his heart to flutter. He wanted that look on her permanently.
Kai held up a hand to stop the chuckles. “Where do ghosts like to swim?”
Wiping tears from her eyes, Peyton asked, “Where?”
“Lake Eerie!”
Noah wanted to hug Kai for making Peyton happy after all she’d been through the last week, so he did.
“Hey, put me down,” he groused when Noah wrapped him in a bear hug and lifted him off his feet. When Noah didn’t release him, he kept going. “Peyton, do you know why the elephants were kicked out of the pool?”
She shook her head, the unabashed grin making Noah squeeze Kai harder.
“Ungh,” he grunted. “Because they kept dropping their trunks!” Kai reveled in their chortles. “I’ve got a million of them. What did the—”
“Kai.”
“Shitakes, that’s my dad,” Kai fretted as Noah lowered him to the ground. “I was supposed to be helping clean the equipment but then I saw you and I couldn’t let my friends come home without a warm welcome, right?” He held out his arms in a pleading gesture.
God, Noah loved this kid. They all did. “Right.”
“It was nice to meet you, Peyton. Maybe we can go swimming together later.”
“I’d love that and nice to meet you, too, Kai.”
“For my final act, I’m going to do my impression of the ocean and wave,” he quipped with a back and forth swish of his fingers.
“Kai!”
He shot a panicked glance over his shoulder. “Eek.” Curving a hand around his mouth, he shouted, “Coming Father.” He turned back to them. “Okay, I gotta make like a bread truck and haul buns. Laters.”
“I’m in love,” Peyton sighed as they watched Kai leap over obstacles in his path on the way to the workout center. “He’s adorable.”
“He is that,” Noah agreed.
“Wait until you hear his story. You won’t believe what that little guy is capable of,” Ethan promised.
“I can’t wait.” Peyton placed a palm on Noah’s forearm and the skin sizzled, as it did every time she touched him. “He’s the one you meant when you said Jamal would get along with Kai.”
“Yeah, two peas on a pod,” he agreed. Maybe he could arrange for Jamal to visit this summer. It would make Peyton happy to see her student again and Declan, too, if he decided to sign on with COBRA Securities.
Leading Peyton to their apartment, he opened the door and immediately noticed something was wrong. He shot Ethan a questioning look. “Where’s all of your stuff?”
“I moved to one of the single apartments. Didn’t want to be a third wheel.”
“Oh no, Ethan, I don’t want you moving out of your home for me,” Peyton protested.
“It’s temporary until my house is finished.”
“Oh, you’re building a house?”
“Actually, we both are,” Noah said, taking the opportunity to tell her about his plans. “Not together,” he corrected. “Next to each other. Do you want to see the lot?”
“I’d love to.”
“You two kids have fun,” Ethan said as he walked to the door.
“Ethan?”
He turned and Peyton threw her good arm around him. “Thank you for everything.”
He hugged her back. “You’re welcome, but I’m sorry you were hurt.” Releasing her, he smiled softly. “Welcome home.”
Damn his brother for causing a lump to lodge in his throat. She was home. He grabbed the blueprints and guided her outside to a golf cart. He avoided the areas being repaired and headed to the residential section of the compound.
“This place is amazing,” she said, gazing at the incredible houses and the expansive view of the lake.
“It is.” He came to a stop on a piece of land with soaring trees and an unobstructed view of the lake.
“This is yours?”
“Yes. Ethan’s plot is over there.” He pointed to the adjoining lot. They’d both purchased the land early and were able to pick the spots they wanted before his coworkers started snapping up land like Pac Man gobbling dots. There were enough trees to separate the houses, providing privacy.
“Wow, this is an incredible piece of property.”
It warmed his insides that she liked it as much as he did. He unfurled the blueprints and showed her the plans for the house and yard. “The pool will be the same size as the Benton’s and enclosed so you can swim year around. There’s still room for a dog…or kids to play.”
Her eyes shot to his. “Kids?”
“Marry me, Peyton. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I want to love you and hold you and take care of you. Forever.” So much for waiting for her to grieve.
She nodded, tears glistening in her beautiful blue eyes. “Yes, Noah, I’ll marry you.”
He kissed her, feeling very much like he’d won his very own gold medal, only better. He’d won the Golden Girl.
# # #
Notes
I hope you enjoyed Golden Girl, the sixteenth book in the COBRA Securities series. Several characters from previous books made appearances in Golden Girl. If you would like to read their stories, you can find them here:
Logan Bradley from The Fan
Dorian and Kendall Demarchis from Trust No One
Maggie and Carter McQueen from Saving Santa
Kai Costa from Hide and Seek and Kidnapped
Olivia Larrson and Alex Mylonas from Vigilante
About the Author
Velvet Vaughn is the author of The List, The Fan, Committed, Violets are Blue, Trust No One, Hide and Seek, Killer Cuisine, Vigilante, Face the Music, Tough as Nails, Total Surrender, Hunted, Say Goodbye to Melody, Last Dance, The Viper, and Golden Girl, the first sixteen books in the COBRA Securities series, as well as Saving Santa, and Kidnapped, COBRA Securities Short Stories. In addition, two novellas: A Christmas Miracle and Flying High Christmas are available as stand-alone books or in the anthologies All I Want For Christmas and Yuletide Treasures, r
espectively. The seventeenth book in the COBRA Securities series, Fatal Dreams, will be published soon.
Connect With Velvet
Website: www.velvetvaughn.com
Facebook Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/authorvelvetvaughn
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/velvetvaughn/
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Email: [email protected]
From Velvet
Thank you so much for purchasing Golden Girl. I hope you enjoyed Noah and Peyton’s story. If you did, I would appreciate you leaving feedback at Amazon.com or Goodreads. Thank you!
The seventeenth book in the COBRA Securities series will be out this summer. Fatal Dreams is former Navy SEAL and current COBRA Securities agent Ethan Addison and enchanting entrepreneur Esmerelda Jovanovich’s story.
If you would like to read the story of one of the characters from my books, let me know. You can reach me through the contact page on my website or my Facebook Fanpage. I'd love to hear from you. And be sure to like my Fanpage so you can take part in giveaways.
Thank you again for your support!
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