Unplanned Love

by Sharon C. Cooper

  No. She would never love another the way she had loved…still loved Liam.

  “I’m not putting myself out there like that again. So let’s just drop it.”

  “Fine. Let’s discuss your father instead. I’ve always been straight with you, Char, so don’t take this the wrong way. But I agree a little with what he said about you being too impulsive.”

  “What? How can you say that?” she shouted.

  The baby startled awake, and Charlee cursed under her breath. She started back rocking him until he drifted off again.

  “I take my career very seriously and have never done anything that would jeopardize or embarrass the company.”

  “Here, let me take him. I’ll lay him in the bassinet.”

  Charlee silently fumed as Rayne walked away, heading to the family room that could be seen easily from the kitchen.

  How could her best friend side with her father?

  “I’ve always been careful when it comes to the company,” Charlee said when Rayne returned to the kitchen.

  “I didn’t say you weren’t careful. I said you were impulsive. You’re adventurous, and sometimes it spills into your professional life.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with being adventurous. That’s the problem with people, they’re too uptight. It’s okay to have fun sometimes, even in business.”

  “Like that time when you went skinny dipping on a dare in Brazil?”

  “That was different,” Charlee grumbled, hating that she had shared the story with Rayne. She had run into the guy at the beach, a distance away from the hotel that she’d been staying at. She had no idea that he was the buyer for the company that she was meeting with the next day.

  “Or what about that time you danced on top of a bar during a birthday party, not knowing the birthday boy was someone Kingslee was in negotiations with? Your father was livid when he found out.”

  “Maybe he was, but he got over it real quick when it resulted in a six-figure sale. And why are you bringing up those instances? That was a long time ago. I’m not that person anymore.” Charlee pouted, recalling a few other less than stellar moments over the years.

  Maybe they were right about her being too impulsive, but she had never done anything reckless that reflected negatively on the company. At least not intentionally. What was most important was that the revenue she brought in and the processes that she had implemented had taken the company to the next level.

  “You’re supposed to be on my side,” she said to Rayne.

  “I am on your side. Always. How are you going to change your father’s mind?”

  Frustration lodged in Charlee’s chest as she ran her fingers through her curly mane. “Why bother since he thinks I’m unfit to run the company.”

  Rayne swatted her arm. “Knock it off. You know good and well that’s not the case. I bet he just wants you to have a life outside of work.”

  “Maybe.” Charlee sighed, deciding her next steps. “I’m going to work my tail off and prove without a doubt that I’m the best person for the position. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to go out and find some poor sap and beg him to marry me.”

  Chapter Four

  Liam climbed out of his Chevy Camero, a little surprised to see Charlee’s car parked in front of his cousin’s house. What were the chances that they’d run into each other twice in one day? She was the last person he wanted to see. Not because she wasn’t nice to look at. No, that definitely wasn’t it. The problem was that each time he saw her, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

  Had he not promised Jerry that he’d help with the addition to Stormy’s swing set, Liam would climb back into his car and get as far away from there as possible.

  But that would be a punk move, and he wasn’t a punk.

  His cell phone vibrated in his pocket just as he started up the front walk. He glanced at the screen and read the text from Jerry.

  I’m in the backyard.

  Instead of going through the front door, Liam redirected his steps. He walked around the side of the house and through the gate that put him in the backyard. Jerry was carrying a step ladder toward the swing set that was on the other side of the spacious yard.

  “What’s up, man?” Liam said.

  Jerry turned to him, wiping his forehead with his arm. “Hey. I didn’t know you were already here. I guess you got my text, huh?”

  “Yep.”

  “I figured you might prefer a detour from going directly into the house since your woman is here.”

  Liam leveled him with a hard look, only making his cousin burst out laughing.

  “She’s not my woman. And keep it up, you’re gonna mess around and not have any help out here.”

  He glanced at the large wood swing set that he and Jerry built for Stormy when they first moved into the home. Instead of buying a ready-made one, he and Jerry had customized the structure. It included a clubhouse-like fort up top with a window and pink awning, as well as a slide, acrobat bar, and a swing with room for two additional swings.

  “Well, let’s get to work. The sooner we get done, the sooner I can get your cranky ass away from my house.”

  For the next hour, Liam helped him add a baby seat to the swing set, but his mind was on the pretty redhead inside the house.

  “You’re quieter than usual. Does this have anything to do with Charlee being here?” Jerry asked, securing the last bolt that was holding up the swing. He climbed down off the step ladder and placed the wrench he’d been using back into the toolbox.

  Liam said nothing. Seeing Charlee’s fine ass twice in one day was too much. Fate was screwing with his peace of mind. Out of sight, out of mind had worked for him for a while, but now that she was back, he didn’t know what to do with the warring feelings that lingered within him.

  But if he were honest, he’d have to admit that each time he ran into his ex, the sight of her chipped away at the anger he had harbored toward her over the last couple of years. He was still pissed that she had chosen her career over him, but something inside of him had shifted.

  “Do you remember when I first told you about the feelings I had for Rayne?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  They’d been at their cousin Nate’s wedding reception. At first, Liam had thought Jerry was kidding. As a serial dater for as long as he could remember, Jerry loved women. Period. And he had vowed on more than one occasion he would never marry.

  So when he confessed to being in love with a woman who wouldn’t even go on a date with him, Liam hadn’t taken him seriously. But months later, after pursuing her relentlessly, Jerry got the woman he claimed he couldn’t live without as well as her cutie-pie daughter.

  “That night, you said something about the Jenkins’ men myth. How the men in our family know immediately when they have found the one. At first, I thought it was a load of shit,” he said, but then grimaced and glanced around, probably looking for Stormy. He’d been trying to clean up his language since his daughter started repeating some of his bad words.

  “I’m convinced that it’s not a myth. It happened with me, Nick and Nate,” he said of their twin cousins. “And my dad said it was the same with him and some of his brothers.”

  “Why are you bringing this up now? That was over a year ago.”

  “Just hear me out.” Jerry took a swig of water from the bottle that had been leaning against the toolbox. “I’ve seen the way you look at Char—”

  “Jay, don’t start this mess.”

  Liam regretted ever telling him about his and Charlee’s past relationship. It was a secret he had planned to take to his grave, especially since the situation made him look like a loser. And knowing Charlee hadn’t shared the details of what went down between them with anyone, he had kept quiet.

  But after Jerry married Charlee’s best friend, causing them all to spend more time with each other, Liam had come clean with his cousin about everything, swearing him to secrecy. Despite them dating for a few months, and then bein
g engaged for a few weeks, he’d had his reasons for keeping their relationship quiet.

  Now, the last thing he wanted was for anyone in his family to know, especially his cousin Martina. She used juicy gossip about family members like dogs used chew toys, and she never let up until she humiliated them to no end.

  “I know Charlee screwed up in the past, but you still have feelings for—”

  “Uncle Liam!” Stormy screamed as she and her dog, Sunshine, bolted out of the house, the screen door slamming behind them. They ran towards them.

  It always brought a smile to his face when she acted like she was happy to see him and added “uncle” to his name. Technically, they were now cousins, but shortly after her mother and Jerry married, Stormy started calling him Uncle Liam.

  “What’s up, squirt?” He tugged on one of her long ponytails that hung down her back and then kissed her cheek, eliciting a giggle from her.

  It was impossible to be near the little sweetheart without smiling. She had an infectious grin, along with smooth brown skin, crazy-long eyelashes, and light-brown eyes that twinkled when she smiled, which was often.

  “I have a new name,” she announced, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet as if she was on a trampoline and had ingested too much sugar. “Wanna know what my name is?”

  Liam glanced at Jerry. He hadn’t mentioned anything about a name change. His cousin’s attention was on his step-daughter, the little girl he claimed as his own. Jerry had been smitten with Stormy from the moment he’d met her.

  “What’s your new name?” Liam asked. Her puppy, Sunshine, was sitting, staring up at Stormy, and Liam reached down and scratched the dog behind the ears.

  “It’s Stormy Violet Jenkins. I have my nana’s name,” she said of Jerry’s mother and grinned harder.

  She wrapped her little arms around Jerry’s leg before he lifted her into his arms. He hugged her, peppering kisses on her face while she giggled and squirmed in his arms.

  Jerry had started adoption procedures shortly after he and Rayne had gotten married. They thought the process would be simple since Stormy’s biological father was deceased, but they ran into several delays.

  “Is that right? You have your grandmother’s name.” Liam looked from her to Jerry, who looked like a proud father. “So it’s official, huh?”

  “It’s official. Stormy is mine,” Jerry said proudly.

  “Daddy, can me and Sunshine get wet?” Stormy asked, giving Jerry that look that had wrapped him around her little finger early on.

  Liam shook his head, smiling. His cousin didn’t stand a chance against the kid’s cuteness. God help him when she became a teenager. Actually, God help the little boys. Her future admirers wouldn’t be able to get close to her. Jerry was fiercely protective of his wife, and that same behavior spilled over to his daughter.

  He set Stormy on her feet. “Yeah, let me turn on the hose.” He strolled across the yard with Stormy and her dog by his side. Liam watched as his cousin set up the kid-friendly water sprinkler on the other side of the yard. He barely got out the way before it started squirting water all over the area. Stormy and Sunshine ran through it. She was squealing with excitement, and her dog was barking with just as much enthusiasm.

  “Now, getting back to what we were discussing,” Jerry said when he returned. “When you gon’ stop messing around with Abby…Autumn, or whatever your girl’s name is?”

  “It’s Amber,” Liam ground out, pissed that Jerry acted as if he didn’t know the woman’s name.

  “Testy, testy are we? But anyway, seeing the way you be stealing glances at Charlee is all the proof I need to know that you’re still in love with her. Which means, Amber is not the woman you truly want. What I don’t understand is why you’re wasting time with her when the one you really want is in my house hanging out with my woman?”

  “Jay…it’s complicated,” Liam said under his breath, not wanting to discuss anything that included his ex. He bent down and started reorganizing the tools in the box in order to close it.

  “I suggest you hurry and decide if you want Charlee back. Otherwise, it’ll be too late.”

  Liam’s hand froze on the lid, and he stood slowly. “What do you mean?”

  “Your sister wants to set Charlee up with one of Zack’s NFL friends.”

  Liam’s sister, Jada Jenkins-Anderson, was married to a former NFL superstar. His brother-in-law had retired from football years ago but still kept in touch with many of his teammates. The last thing Liam wanted was for Charlee to hook up with some jock, but then again, she wasn’t his anymore. She could do whatever she wanted. Yet, there was a part of him, the jealous-I-don’t-want-anyone-else-near-her part of him, that didn’t like the sound of this new development.

  “Wait. Jada doesn’t know Charlee, except for maybe seeing her once or twice here,” he countered.

  “She doesn’t know her as your ex-fiancée, but thanks to my wife, they’ve met a few times outside of family gatherings. And Jada is trying to talk Charlee into being in her fashion show in a few months. I think Labor Day weekend or sometime around then.”

  With the help of a famous designer, his sister had recently started working on her own line of clothing. Liam knew about the fashion show, but he hadn’t heard anything about her trying to recruit Charlee to be one of the models.

  And a fine ass model she would be, he thought, as he rubbed the back of his neck.

  “If JJ introduces her to some dude, you already know how that’s going to go. One look at your woman and the guy is—”

  “She’s not my woman!”

  “Oh, so you don’t care if some chump pushes up on her? Man, she’s a good-lookin’ lady, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

  As if conjuring her up, Charlee stepped out of the house and something too intense to identify flared through Liam’s body. His heart jolted, and his pulse amped up at the sight of her.

  Man, this woman. The effect she had on him was unnatural, like nothing he had ever experienced before…except for the very first time he’d seen her at Fenlon Manufacturing. Like then, he couldn’t explain his reaction.

  She continued standing near the back door, her long, auburn curls whipping around her face as the gentle breeze picked up. She pushed a few strands behind her ear and glanced around the yard. After tossing him and Jerry a quick glance, she directed her attention toward where Stormy and the puppy played.

  But all Liam saw was Charlee.

  His gaze slid from her hair to her face to her long graceful neck and slamming body. It was no wonder his sister wanted to feature her in the fashion show. The woman was gorgeous. She had the type of presence, the kind of exquisiteness that commanded attention. Any man with a pulse would take notice of her magnificence.

  Her hands rested on her hips, causing the sheer, beige blouse to stretch over full breasts, sending all types of indecent thoughts through his mind.

  His eyes went lower, taking in the tan slacks that hugged her slim, but shapely figure. On her feet were her customary high heels that she favored since she was only 5’5”. Liam’s gaze did a slow crawl back up her frame, and his heartbeat sped up as memories of her naked body sprawled out on his bed flashed through his mind. He knew the treasures hidden beneath the over-priced designer clothes and what he wouldn’t give to see them again.

  “Auntie Charlee, get wet with me,” Stormy called out, bouncing around the sprinkler.

  Charlee hesitated for a hot second, but then kicked off her shoes and ran toward her goddaughter.

  Liam continued to watch. She was uninhibited, spontaneous, and an all-around good-time girl. She made a friend wherever she went and was the type of woman to leap first, then consider the consequences later.

  Basically, she was everything he wasn’t.

  Playing in water, fully dressed, wasn’t a big deal to her.

  “See, that’s the look.” Jerry thumped Liam on the shoulder, effectively pulling him out of his trance. “She’s the one you want,
and there’s nothing you can say to make me think otherwise.”

  At that moment, Charlee and Stormy started screaming and laughing uncontrollably, snagging Liam and Jerry’s attention. Sunshine shook water off her fur, sending Charlee and Stormy into a fit of giggles as they moved away from the dog, who followed right behind them.

  Liam couldn’t take his gaze off of the woman. Soaking wet, water dripped from her hair as she pushed the tresses away from her face. His attention went lower, and his dick twitched, pressing hard and uncomfortably against the zipper of his pants. It was impossible to miss the way her nipples pebbled behind the thin blouse, sending more impure thoughts racing through his mind.

  Damn this woman.

  No matter how he tried to fight his attraction, she still had an effect on him. Hell, it wasn’t just her hot body that made him yearn for her, but it was everything. He missed her. He missed what they once had, and it was getting harder and harder to deny.

  “Go get Charlee a couple of towels,” he said, barely sparing Jerry a glance.

  “Okay, but not until you admit that you can’t live without her,” Jerry taunted.

  “Jay…go get the damn towels!”

  A burst of laughter trailed behind his cousin as he headed into the house. Sometimes the jerk was just as much of a pain in the butt as he used to be when they were kids, but Jerry was right about one thing. Liam needed to deal with his feelings for her.

  But how?

  Chapter Five

  “Come here, Ladybug,” Jerry said from near the back door, holding a towel for Stormy. She ran over with Sunshine right on her heels.

  Charlee tugged on the front of her blouse, pulling it away from her wet skin before shaking it. What the heck had she been thinking, running into the water in her clothes, in her Chanel blouse at that? At least she’d had sense enough to kick off her shoes first.

  Each time she moved her head, wet curls slapped back and forth over her face. Gripping the ends of her hair, she squeezed the long strands, forcing some of the water out as she moved toward the back door.