Boone shut up.
“She was right.”
“Sorry?” Boone asked.
“Ryn. She was right about Angie. I knew it even before all that came out with you, catching her pulling her shit.” He huffed out a breath and kept at it. “When she got pregnant, she was thrilled. I was freaked. The minute she started having morning sickness, definitely when she started showing, it all dawned on her and things got real, I knew. We had Portia, all she wanted to do was dump her on Mom, Brenda, Ryn and go do something. Hang with friends. Weekends in Vegas. Just something. I mean, we got a newborn, I was barely making any money back then, and she wants to go to Vegas?”
Brian looked a combo of horrified and mystified, which was what Boone was feeling.
Yeah.
Jesus.
Boone said nothing.
“I fucked up, man, getting her pregnant. I fucked up again, doing it again. I thought she was on the pill. Nope.”
He thought she was on the pill, but nope?
Jesus.
Brian kept going.
“‘Get ’em outta the way,’ she said. I was all, ‘Uh, shouldn’t we have discussed that?’ She was all, ‘I want two. Now we’ll have two. And then we’ll be done.’ And she said it, swear to fuck, like she could just push Jethro out and her work was over.”
“Fuck, bud,” Boone said low.
“Yeah. And I was not gonna be my dad. I was not gonna act like I didn’t make a family until it suited me, or I remembered they existed. I was gonna hang in there. I was gonna look after them. But to do that, I needed a little…help to get me through.”
Brian pushed out another chuff of breath.
Boone stayed silent.
“Help,” Brian muttered, shook his head, and then kept on. “So I knew before Ryn found it out. And I was embarrassed. Embarrassed for Angie. Embarrassed myself. Worried about my kids. Worried about where all that was gonna go. Worried Ang wasn’t growin’ up. Worried about every-fuckin’-thing, man. Hit the booze, you feel better, for about a minute. But you do feel better. Though then, you need more booze. Downward spiral. Vicious circle. Constant whiplash. Best way to dull the pain of whiplash? Yeah, you guessed it. More booze.”
He fell silent.
Boone didn’t fill it.
“Took it out on Ryn,” he whispered. “She could take it, my sis. Strong as steel, our Kathryn. Fucked up so huge, Ryn figured it out, I got mad at her for figuring it out.”
“You need to be tellin’ her this,” Boone shared.
Brian looked at him. “You know no way in fuck she’s gonna let me lay this on her, man. If it hurts me, to take the pain away, she’s gonna act like it’s all cool. Go to her own pains to do it, so I don’t feel that.”
Yup.
Boone knew that.
“Then you need to make her listen, Brian, because you need to give that to her, and she needs to hear it. She also needs to learn she can’t stop everyone’s pain. Trust me, bud, you do it, you’ll be doin’ her a favor.”
Brian’s gaze wandered back to his sister.
It took a bit.
But then he said, “I’ll find a time.”
“You know it from her, but I’ll say it just so you know it from me too, we’re in this with you, Brian. Your sobriety. Lookin’ after those kids. You need us, we’re there.”
That got him Brian’s attention again. “You two are new.”
“I’m in love with your sister, she’s in love with those kids, and you own a piece of her soul. So she’s in, Brian. And so am I.”
Brian stared at him then shook his head, his lips twitching.
“I really didn’t wanna like you because you’re killer with a goddamn comeback and you’re too good-lookin’. Puts a man ill at ease, his sister’s got her equal. She needs an ugly guy who’ll worship the ground she walks on.”
“Well, you’re gonna have to put up with a good-lookin’ guy who does it.”
Brian’s head jerked.
Then he busted out laughing.
Boone grinned at him and took a sip from his pop, his eyes going to Ryn.
She was standing across the yard, hands on her hips over those cutoff shorts he liked so much, smiling at them.
Jethro was reeling their way, shouting, “What’s funny, Daddy?”
“Boone’s funny, kiddo,” Brian said, setting his pop aside and reaching out to grab his son, and when he had him, he started tickling him.
Jethro shrieked with laughter even though he was squirming so much, his father could barely find purchase.
Then Boone suddenly had to swing wide with his can of pop and catch a seven-year-old before she landed on his junk and made taking care of business with her aunt an impossibility for a week.
Once settled in his lap, Portia turned Ryn’s blue eyes up at him and asked, “Can we have your mac and cheese tonight, Booney?”
He’d become “Booney” the second time she’d been around him.
That being the first time Brian brought the kids over so he could go to a meeting and Boone made them his smoked mac and cheese.
The time he found out that Portia was a flirt.
He’d take any girl with those blue eyes flirting with him, so even though he’d intended to make burgers, he said, “Yeah.”
“Yippee!” she cried.
“But now we gotta go to the grocery store, and it’s getting late, so we should go,” he decreed, pushing up, swinging her up with him, then under his arm, all while she squealed.
“Who’s going with Daddy and who’s going with me and…Booney?” Ryn, who’d walked up to them, asked.
Boone gave her a look.
She sent him a kissy face.
Totally getting a spanking for all that.
“Me!” Portia cried as Boone walked them to the French doors with her dangling under his arm.
“Me!” Jethro yelled, racing ahead to open the doors.
“No one wants to hang with their dad?” Brian asked.
“Me! I’ll hang with you, Daddy!” Portia cried from under Boone’s arm.
“Me too!” Jethro shouted.
Brian won, the kids piling in his double cab truck, while Boone and Ryn got in Boone’s Charger.
“We won’t be spending so much time with them forever, Boone,” Ryn said when they were on their way. “I know you like our Sundays to be laidback days, but—”
“Sweetheart, did I say dick?” he cut her off to ask.
“No.”
“Okay then.”
She shut up.
He drove.
She didn’t say anything.
So he did.
“It’s all good, Rynnie.”
“It is, Boone. It’s all good,” she said in a voice that made him glance her way.
Her face was soft.
“Babe?” he called.
She looked to him.
When he had to look back at the road, she came to him, stretching across and kissing the side of his neck.
Before she returned to her seat, she whispered, “Love you,” in his ear.
His fingers tightened so hard on the steering wheel, it was a wonder they didn’t leave a permanent imprint.
With all that had gone down, she’d never said it.
Neither had he.
“Booney,” she finished.
And Boone didn’t get his chance to return the words.
Because he busted out laughing.
* * *
That night, Ryn was naked, chest to chest on top of him in their bed, and she was counting it down.
“Mom’s got Monday and Thursday. Brenda’s got Wednesday, Friday and next Sunday. We’re on when I’m off at Smithie’s, Tuesday and Saturday.”
“’Kay,” he murmured, thinking he hadn’t fucked her hard enough if she was this jazzed, because he came hard and he was not yet recovered.
“You sure?” She was studying him closely.
“Yeah.”
“’Kay,” she said. Then, “I think on my days, I’m
going to ask Brian if I can take them out of their summer day camp and they can hang with me at the house while we work. I think Chaos would love them.”
He knew Chaos would love them. That Club was all about family, and if anyone was in any doubt about that, a little history about how they’d put their asses on the line and bled for it would take that away.
But he didn’t pay a lot of mind to that.
It was hitting him why Ryn was so jazzed.
She was in her element.
She had her kids back. She had her brother back. Work was happening on her house.
She was happy.
This was Ryn.
Fuck.
Working hard and taking care of her people, that was what did it for his girl.
Fuck.
“Love you too, Rynnie,” he whispered.
She did a slow blink.
Then she asked, “What?”
He rolled them so he was on top, got in her face, and said, “You made me laugh before I could say it to you in the car. So I’m sayin’ it now.” He dropped his face closer. “I love you, Kathryn Rose Jansen. Best woman I ever met. Best daughter I ever saw. Best sister there could be. Best aunt in the world.” He grinned. “And by far the best fuck I’ve ever had.”
He was damned pleased with himself that he’d returned the favor when he watched her explode with laughter.
He was smiling at her when she sobered and caught his head in both hands.
“I love it. We’re gushy, but we’re edgy gushy,” she declared.
“Something wrong with gushy?” he asked.
“Only if it isn’t edgy gushy. I’m a tough chick. I got a rep to uphold.”
It was him laughing at that.
He kissed her while doing it, and when he lifted his head, he told her, “Best be gettin’ on getting me my plaque.”
She looked confused.
And yeah.
Even that was hot on her.
“Your what?”
“My plaque, sweetheart. Mag and Evie became a thing, she got him a plaque. It’s got his name and says ‘Number One Boyfriend.’ Sits at his station at work next to the new one she got him. ‘Number One Fiancé.’”
She started giggling.
Actually giggling.
It was cute.
And it was hot too.
“Now that is gushy,” she stated.
It totally was.
She got serious and whispered, “What were you and Brian talking about?”
He got serious too. “Baby, don’t ask that.”
“Boone—”
“He had some truths to hand to me, Ryn, and I let him do that. He’ll have some for you and you’re gonna have to let him do that too.”
She was not ready to let that lie, he could tell by the expression on her face as well as her mouth starting to open.
So he gave her more. “If you got any worries left that he and me are past that shit in the hospital, that he’s actually doing the work to repair what means something to him, just to say, you can let them go.”
She shut her mouth.
Boone kept talking.
“And you can also quit asking me if it’s okay we got the kids. Portia and Jethro are great. I like bein’ around them. I like more, watchin’ you around them. Maybe most of all, though, is having them means givin’ your brother one less thing to worry about as he gets his shit together, so it means you having your brother back. So I’ll tell you what I told him. I’m in. I’m in for what he needs from us. I’m in for what you need from me. I’m in for what those kids need so they can have some healthy in their lives. And I’ll finish this by saying, it’s not a sacrifice, because again, I dig Portia and Jethro. They’re great.”
Her eyes got a little dewy, but his Ryn, for whatever reason (and he had to let her be who she was, though only if it wasn’t harming her), unless it got the better of her, she worked to hold back the waterworks.
So she got a handle on it.
Still, when she did, she had a look on her face he couldn’t decipher.
Though he knew he liked it.
But it made him whisper, “What?”
Her expression grew soft and she whispered back, “Nothing.”
Then she lifted her head, pushing off on her foot, taking him to his back, all this while kissing him.
Time to see if he could work that jazzed out of her.
Boone put effort into it.
And in the end, he succeeded.
* * *
It was that next Friday when Boone was at his workstation that Elvira, Hawk’s office manager, came out of her office, shouting, “Mail call!”
All the men at their stations (though there were only three, Boone, Zane and Auggie) looked to her as she started up the steps at the side holding something in her hand.
Boone didn’t have to look at the other guys to know all of them were like him, perplexed, seeing as none of them ever got any mail at the office.
But it was when he noticed what she had in her hand, and that she was on her way to him, that he started laughing.
“This keeps happening,” she said, halfway down the row to him, “gonna have to get me my own. One that says ‘Slayer’ or ‘Long Suffering Diva’ or one I can turn around at the appropriate moments that says, ‘Take Your Alpha Self Outta My Office, You’re Doin’ My Head In.’”
With that, she slammed the aluminum plaque on his desk with the blue plate in front that was engraved with white letters.
“Happy for you,” she stated, “but surprised at Ryn ’cause, yeesh, that right there is corny.”
She sashayed away.
Boone stared at the plaque, smiling.
Because it said:
BOONE ANDREW SADLER
“MY HERO”
Discover Your Next Great Read
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The Dream Team continues with
Hattie and Axl–don’t miss their
heart-wrenching love story!
Available Summer 2021
See what’s cooking in Dream Bites: Cooking with the Commandos.
Available November 2020
You’re invited into the kitchens of Hawk Delgado’s commandos: Daniel “Mag” Magnusson, Boone Sadler, Axl Pantera, and Augustus “Auggie” Hero as they share with you some of the goodness they whip up for their women.
Not only will you get to spend time with the commandos, but the Dream Team also makes an appearance with their men, and there are a number of special guest stars. You’ll also find some bonus recipes from a surprise source who doesn’t like to be left out.
So strap in for a trip to Denver, a few short stories, some reminiscing, and a lot of great food.
Half of the proceeds of this cookbook go to the Rock Chick Nation Charities. You can learn more at KristenAshley.net.
About the Author
Kristen Ashley is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of over seventy romance novels, including the Rock Chick, Colorado Mountain, Dream Man, Chaos, and Fantasyland series. Her books have been translated into fourteen languages, with over three million copies sold.
Born in Gary and raised in Brownsburg, Indiana, Kristen was a fourth-generation graduate of Purdue University. Since, she has lived in Denver, the West Country of England, and she now resides in Phoenix. She worked as a charity executive for eighteen years prior to beginning her independent publishing career. She now writes full time.
Because friendship, family, and a strong sisterhood are prevailing themes through all of Kristen’s novels, Kristen has created the Rock Chick Nation, a series of programs designed to give back to her readers and promote a strong female community. Its programs include Rock Chick Rewards, which raises funds for reader-nominated nonprofit women’s organizations and has donated over $146,000.
You can learn more at:
KristenAshley.net
Twitter @Kristen
Ashley68
Facebook.com/KristenAshleyBooks
Instagram @KristenAshleyBooks
PRAISE FOR KRISTEN ASHLEY
“Kristen Ashley’s books are addicting!”
—Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author
“I adore Kristen Ashley’s books!”
—Maya Banks, New York Times bestselling author
“A unique, not-to-be-missed voice in romance.”
—Carly Phillips, New York Times bestselling author
“I don’t know how Kristen Ashley does it; I just read the damn [Dream Man series] and happily get lost in her world.”
—Frolic
“[Kristen] Ashley captivates.”
—Publishers Weekly
“When you pick up an Ashley book, you know you’re in for plenty of gut-punching emotion, elaborate family drama and sizzling sex.”
—RT Book Reviews
Dream Maker
“The excellent first romance in Ashley’s Dream Team series features the alpha heroes and high-octane suspense her fans expect, but balances the testosterone and adrenaline with moments of cozy domesticity. . . .Those who like a dash of sweetness in their suspense will be delighted.”
—Publishers Weekly
Also by Kristen Ashley
The Dream Man Series
Mystery Man
Wild Man
Law Man
Motorcycle Man
The Colorado Mountain Series
The Gamble
Sweet Dreams
Lady Luck
Breathe
Jagged
Kaleidoscope
The Chaos Series
Own the Wind
Fire Inside
Ride Steady
Walk Through Fire
The Dream Team Series
Dream Maker
Dream Chaser - SETTING Page 38