I typed back Yep.
HOLY SHIT.
I know.
I can’t believe she didn’t tell us. That happened yesterday her time.
“Finally,” Connor said, and I glanced up at him in a silent question. He shrugged at me. “They’ve been in love with each other for forever. It was bound to happen.”
I nodded. “I guess so.”
Just as I began to type another message to Piper, Connor grabbed my phone out of my hand.
“Hey!”
He held it out of my grasp. “You can talk to her all day tomorrow. I want to go to bed. Maybe do some more praying.”
I couldn’t keep a straight face. “Is that your version of sweet talk?”
“You should know by now I’m not a big talker,” he said, working on lifting up the bottom of my shirt. I didn’t fight him and raised my arms, the flimsy old T-shirt slipping easily over my head. He kissed my throat and collarbone, and my legs wobbled as I melted under his hands. As always.
He caught me around the waist, holding me up as he leaned his head away from mine, his gaze raking slowly over me. Even in my cutoff sweats and used-to-be-white bra, I felt sexy. But after everything we’d gone through, I knew I’d always feel this way with him, no matter what.
I was wanted, desired, loved.
He kissed me sweetly on the lips before pulling me close. He wrapped his arms around my middle, forcing my arms around his neck, our hearts beating against one another, in time with each other.
With his mouth against my ear, he said, “Just so you know, I haven’t ignored your not-so-subtle hints. I’ve just been enjoying seeing you turn yourself inside out to make it look like you aren’t desperate to be my wife.”
I backed away from him with a gasp, anger bursting through my fingertips as I squeezed his biceps. “I am not desperate.”
But I dropped my eyes to the floor, my first and immediate response quickly leaving me, replaced by embarrassment. Truth be told, I was kind of desperate. He was it for me. I already practically lived here, waking up next to Connor and his open windows and spending our evenings arguing over the right way to fold the towels at least four nights every week. I didn’t need a ring or a piece of paper; I only wanted to be with him in every way I could.
A wicked smile crawled across his face as he held his thumb and index finger together. “Just a little bit. But don’t worry, I’ll whisk you away one of these days and make an honest woman out of you.”
“Oh yeah? And until this mysterious day comes?”
He tossed me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “We pray.”
I squealed out in laughter. “I hate you, McGuire.”
He lightly smacked my butt. “Love, hate, it’s all the same, Gibb.”
More from the Author
Trouble Brewing
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© BRIGHTON WALSH
SUZANNE BALTSAR writes romance novels, manages a small cinema, and has her own film company, for which she wrote and directed a narrative feature in 2014. She writes and lives her happily-ever-afters in Pennsylvania with a Mr. Brawny look-alike and a couple of children, some furry, some not.
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Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Suzanne-Baltsar
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Trouble Brewing
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Gallery Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Suzanne Baltsar
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First Gallery Books trade paperback edition August 2019
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Interior design by Michelle Marchese
Cover by Connie Gabbert
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baltsar, Suzanne, author.
Title: Sidelined / Suzanne Baltsar.
Description: First Gallery Books trade paperback edition. | New York : Gallery Books, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018038305 (print) | LCCN 2018052041 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501188343 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501188336 (trade paper : alk. paper)
Classification: LCC PS3602.A6295 (ebook) | LCC PS3602.A6295 S53 2019 (print) | DDC 813/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038305
ISBN 978-1-5011-8833-6
ISBN 978-1-5011-8834-3 (ebook)
Sidelined Page 23