But considering Amanda told me that Ryan is already back in jail for a probation violation, I doubt that’ll be a hard fight.
“Did you?” I ask Maverick.
“Did I what?”
“Get everything you wanted?”
He kisses my hair, snuggling me in a little closer. “Mostly.”
I turn to face him, confused by his words.
“What didn’t you get? We were only exchanging one gift, and I got you the computer thing you asked for. Was it not the right one?”
He laughs and shakes his head. “No. It was perfect. But I didn’t ask for this present yet, so there’s no way you could’ve gotten it for me.”
Confusion takes over my brain. “Well, then why didn’t you ask for it? I’m sure Santa would have brought it.”
“Because I wanted you to give it to me.”
Now I’m really thrown for a loop. What is this man talking about?
“Grant?”
My son looks up at him, sleep filling his eyes. “Remember where I put your mommy’s extra present?”
Like a shot of adrenaline was just injected into his veins, my son dashes to the other room as Maverick stands up from the couch.
What in the heck is going on?
Grant comes back downstairs carrying a small bag and wearing a shit-eating grin. And just as I’m putting two-and-two together, Maverick gets on one knee, with Grant right next to him.
“Scarlett, I didn’t get everything I wanted for Christmas, because I had to ask you to give this to me. Since you and Grant moved in, you’ve not only made this house a home, but you both have shown me what true love is. I thought I knew it before now, but I didn’t know it at all.”
I’m fighting tears as Maverick takes a small box out of the bag.
“I never thought any happiness could exist here. But you and Grant—you are happiness every day. You are my happiness, and this little baby will only add to that.”
He opens the box to reveal the perfect ring. A simple oval diamond solitaire on a delicate band. I already love it.
“Scarlett Brennan, will you make me even happier than you already do? Will you marry me? Be my wife? Be the mother of my children? Make me the happiest man in the world?”
I nod furiously through the tears as he slips the ring on my finger. I grab his face, kissing him with everything I can.
Grant, not really knowing what’s going on, must feel left out, because he launches himself on us, making us laugh before we bring him in for a group hug and pepper kisses all over his face.
“Buddy, I have one more present for you,” Maverick says, unlatching himself from the group hug to grab one more bag from behind the couch. Grant’s eyes light up because, well, he’s four and he loves presents.
“I think I loved you before I loved your mom,” Maverick begins, and my tears are already flowing again. “As soon as you sat on my lap that first day you came here, you stole a piece of my heart, little man.”
He takes a breath, needing to compose himself. I know that Grant understands very little of this, but I also know it’s important for Maverick.
“Your mommy and I are going to get married, whenever she tells me she’s ready,” he says, smiling up at me. “Which means I’m going to be your stepdad. Is that okay?”
“Dada!” Grant says, eliciting smiles from both of us as Maverick hands him his last present: two tickets to see the monster trucks.
These boys and their trucks.
“That’s right, Grant. Maverick is your daddy,” I say, taking Maverick by surprise. “Maverick, you are his father in every way that counts. You have been a constant. You have shown him unconditional love when you didn’t need to. You will be the best father in the world. To both of our children.”
Maverick reaches up and takes my face between his hands, placing a kiss on my lips that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.
Because it’s the first kiss after we, in our own special way, became a family.
Epilogue
Grant-Five Years Later
“Never have I ever ‘accidentally’ lost a toy that belonged to one of our children?”
My mom, dad, and all of my aunts and uncles laugh before taking a drink of whatever they’re having. I don’t know what it is, but I know I’m not allowed to have it. Though Uncle Kalum says that one day when I’m ready, he’s going to drink it with me first.
I asked him when that would be, but he won’t tell me. I guess it’s a surprise.
I also don’t know what game they’re playing, but every once in a while when my aunts and uncles come over to our house, they decide to play it. They say I’m too young to play.
I love it when everyone comes over, because it means I get to see my cousins. There’s Drew, who is Aunt Annabelle and Uncle Jaxson’s son. Even though he’s only four, he’s still fun to play with. We both love cars and trucks, so that’s pretty cool. And then there are the twins, Lucy and Lincoln, who are three. I love them, but they can be really bad, so they have to go into time out a lot. Mommy and Daddy say it’s because Aunt Tori and Uncle Kalum are their parents and they were in time out a lot when they were kids.
And of course, there’s my brother Evan, who will be starting kindergarten next year, and my baby sister, Allie, who just turned one.
Which is why everyone is over at our house tonight, celebrating my sister’s birthday. I don’t know why they had a party. All she did was get cake all over her face and Mommy opened her presents. Which she can barely play with.
I don’t know where Drew or Evan went, so I decide to go into the kitchen where all the grown-ups are. They will usually let me hang out with them as long as I don’t try to take a sip of their drinks.
When I walk in, my dad smiles and waves me over, picking me up and sitting me on his lap. I know I’m probably too old to sit on my dad’s lap, but he really seems to like it, so I let him. He and my mom are really happy. They are always kissing and touching each other and saying “I love you.” I know that not all parents are happy—at least that’s what some of my friends at school say—so I’m really glad mine are.
My dad still owns his garage, and I love the days when he takes Evan and me to work with him. He says one day, if I want, I can work there and be the boss, just like him. And I want to be just like my dad when I grow up.
My mommy is a nurse at a doctor’s office. It’s always fun when we visit her, because they give us candy. She loves her job and helps sick people get better. She told my whole class about it on career day.
“Are you ready for your exhibit?” my dad asks Aunt Annabelle, who is rubbing her belly because there’s one more cousin on the way.
“As much as I’m going to be. I’m just hoping the baby doesn’t decide to come before it opens.”
“Everything will be fine,” Tori says. “You’ve done a ton of these, so there’s nothing to worry . . . Lucy! What have I told you about hitting your brother? That little shi—sorry, everyone, I’ll be right back.”
Looks like Lucy is headed to time out. Again.
“Remember when these nights used to be at the bar?” Uncle Jaxson asks. “Before we were all married with kids?”
“Ah, those were the days,” Uncle Kalum says, now trying to calm down a crying Lincoln. I don’t blame the kid. Lucy got him good.
“Yeah, what was the name of that place?” my mom asks as she begins to clean up the kitchen.
“Did it have a name?” my dad says, and everyone just shrugs their shoulders. “How did we go to a bar for years and not know the name of it?”
“All I know is that’s where we all met, and it’s why we’re here today. So whatever its name was, I’m glad it existed.”
Leave it to Aunt Annabelle to make everyone cry. She does that a lot.
Aunt Tori is back now, with a crying Lucy in her arms. Somehow, all the cousins have come into the kitchen, sitting with parents, aunts, or uncles. I learned in school that family is who’s related to you, but my parents say tha
t’s not always true. That sometimes family can be friends you love, who you want in your life every day.
I love my family.
As the grown-ups keep talking about the place they all met—none of them able to remember the name—I decide that I’m going to find the name of it. I don’t know where this place is that they’re talking about, but I want to go someday. Maybe, when we are big, all the cousins can go and see this place. It sounds like it’s pretty special.
And if it’s the reason I have this family, as crazy as we are, then it’s the best place on earth.
Bad Boy’s Baby
SOUTH SIDE BOYS SERIES
BOOK 4
A Novel
By
Alexis Winter
How to NOT have a happily ever after...
#1. Get pregnant by your brand new boyfriend.
#2. Don’t tell said boyfriend you’re pregnant.
#3. Oh, and don’t tell him you’re the reason his brother is rotting in prison.
* * *
My job is to put criminals in jail,
Not sleep with the suspect’s brother.
* * *
He’s a walking contradiction.
With that bad boy swagger and enough ink on his body to write a novel,
You’d think he belongs behind bars,
Not a desk at a financial firm.
* * *
It’s his eyes.
Soul piercing eyes.
Eyes that make my panties melt off…
* * *
But the deeper I fall for Ben,
The harder it is to tell the truth.
* * *
While he struggles to right the wrongs of his family’s past.
I’m working hard behind the scenes to keep people like them locked up.
* * *
Getting pregnant by Ben is only the start to this drama,
And now I’m neck-deep, hiding secrets of my own.
* * *
Someone lock me up and throw away the key,
I’m about to serve a life sentence for f*ck up of the century.
Chapter 1
Ben
“Why am I doing this again?”
“Because I’m happy and in love and so are all my other friends… everyone except you,” says Tori, my best, though unexpected, female friend. “It’s now my mission to make you happy and to find your love. I won’t let you become the sad single on my watch. So put this shirt on and let’s get you laid!”
I shake my head, fighting back laughter. “I thought you were trying to find me the love of my life? Not a lay for the night?”
“Quit rhyming. It’s creepy. And whatever happens, happens,” she says with a shrug, examining two shirts. “And change whatever it is you’re wearing. Green looks horrible on you.”
Sometimes I curse the day I met Tori West, formerly Brennan. My life would be so much easier now if I wouldn’t have asked out this beautiful woman.
But who could blame me? I was enthralled with the ballsy girl who gave me her phone number when I ordered a cup of coffee at the cafe she managed. I remember doing an inner fist pump when she gave me the cup with her number written on it.
Instead of it becoming a love to remember, she’s now my best friend and de facto sister. She’s also the biggest pain in the ass in my life.
But I love her. I guess. Even though she’s now making me put on a fourth shirt for the blind date she has set up that I have no desire to go on.
Such a pain in the ass.
But rather than fighting her on this, I take off the green polo and change it to a plaid buttondown. I will never admit to her that it does look better than what I picked out from my closet.
“I’ll still never figure how you hid tattoos from me for all this time,” Tori says, assessing the outfit she’s now decided on. “If I would have known you had ink maybe I would have gone home with you that night.”
I laugh, knowing damn well that her heart was then, and still is now, with her husband, Kalum.
“So you’re saying that my tattoos would have been enough to get you away from the man you just married?”
She thinks about it for a second before shaking her head. “Probably not. That man put some sort of spell on me. Just last night--”
I shake my head and plug my ears. She might be one of my best friends, but I don’t need to hear about her sexual escapades.
“Fine,” I hear her mumble, stopping before painting images that would be burned into my brain forever. “So where are you taking Jacquelyn?”
I roll up my shirt sleeves to my elbows, still hiding the tattoos that the bank I work for would frown upon. “We’re meeting for dinner at Enzo’s.”
She nods. “Italian. Safe bet. Everyone loves Italian. Do you have your moves ready?”
I put my wallet and phone in my pocket, grabbing a jacket as the fall air in Chicago is starting to get crisp at night.
“My moves? It’s a first date Tori, I’m not going to use any moves.”
“What fun is that?”
I guide her out of my bedroom, wondering again when my personal space became invaded by this woman.
Since I became friends with Tori, my dating life has been rather stagnant -- which translates to an epic dry spell. I’ve tried to blame her, which I think is part of the reason why she’s been setting me up on a countless amount of blind dates since she got back from her honeymoon. Every one of them has ended the same way -- me going home alone and down another $75 after dinner and drinks.
It’s not like I’ve had great luck with relationships in the past. I’ve had a few serious girlfriends here and there, but none who made it past the six-month mark. And definitely none who I even considered a longterm future with.
Part of me is hoping that I do hit it off with Jacquelyn tonight, simply to end the drought. The other part of me knows how this is going to go, so I shouldn’t get my hopes up.
I used to be somewhat of a romantic. I couldn’t help it. My dad brings my mom a dozen roses every Friday. He has since their first date and they’ve been married for 32 years. They still slow dance in the kitchen and he cops a feel when he doesn’t think anyone is looking.
I always thought I’d have something like that. But here I am, on my way to pick up a woman I’ve never met who Tori insists is “exactly right for me.”
She said that about the last one she set me up with. And the one before that. And the one she claims she didn’t know who liked to pick her nose at the dinner table. With her fingers. And then not washing her hands.
“Call me and tell me how it goes?” she asks, walking to her car as I head to mine. “I really think you’ll like her.”
“You said that about the last three,” I say, unlocking the door to my Prius.
“This is different. I have a different feeling about this one.”
“How do you know her again?” I think she told me, but for the life of me, I can’t remember.
Tori looks everywhere but me as she climbs into her car.
“Tori!” I say, walking over before she can drive away. “How do you know her again?”
A worried look goes through her eyes, which tells me everything I need to know.
“I met her in one of Annabelle’s art classes,” she says, still not looking me in the eye.
“What’s the catch because I’m failing to see why a woman you met at your best friend’s art classes would lead you to not look me in the eye right now?”
Tori starts her car and takes a deep breath. “Because she might or might not have got so drunk at paint and sip that she turned it into paint and eat.”
She rolls up her window and drives away.
I look at my watch and realize I have 30 minutes before I have to pick up the apparent paint eater.
I’m guessing that the streak isn’t ending tonight.
Chapter 2
Amanda
“A pretty woman like you shouldn’t be sitting here all alone.”
The fac
t that my eyes don’t roll into the back of my head is a shock.
I turn to look at the bro standing next to me doing a horrible job of trying to pick me up. He’s leaning against the bar, trying to pull off a cool, but casual pose. It’s not working. Also, someone should tell him and all men over the age of 30 that it should be illegal to wear ballcaps backward when out in public.
“I want to sit alone.”
I don’t know if it was the tone of my voice or my less than impressed look, but the bro heads back to his friends.
“Scare another one off?” Rick, the bartender, asks me with a laugh as he puts my burger and another beer in front of me.
“Can’t a woman sit by herself at a bar and be left alone?”
“She can. For about five minutes,” he says with a laugh. “You know men see a woman sitting alone at a bar and they get all excited. But I’ll hand it to you, there is no one better than dismissing men as you are. That RBF is a better weapon than your gun.”
I can’t help but smile a bit as I take a drink of my beer. Rick is right. Who needs a gun and a taser when you have a resting bitch face that can scare away all men for miles around?
When I was growing up, people always asked me why I was always mad. I was confused, because I wasn’t. I didn’t understand why they would think that. Just because I wasn’t smiling? Was it a crime to not smile all the time?
When I became an adult I was told I suffered from the condition known as resting bitch face. It didn’t take me long to realize that my curse was in fact a blessing.
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