“Did you see your mom is here? Working the rotary club tent?” Bowen leans in when Fletcher carts our girl off, probably taking her to get something that will spoil her dinner.
I nod, leaning into him as he begins to massage my shoulders. “We talked for a minute. She was happy to see Molly.”
I’d love to say that my parents and I fixed our relationship, but truthfully, it’s still just as awkward as it was five years ago. Bowen and I don’t speak about my dad, or to him, and he has only met Molly once. From what I can gather, he spends most of his time in Washington, and his marriage to my mother is still there but severely broken.
The light in my mother’s eyes is dimmer than it once was. I almost feel sorry for her, but then I remember how much she aided in my father’s change. How she stood beside him as he morphed into an evil man. She could have left him, over the last five years, and I would have welcomed her with open arms. But she gave up her relationship with her child over her relationship with her husband and being a mother now, I couldn’t imagine ever doing that.
I love Bowen with my whole heart, but Molly is my everything. She takes precedence over all.
“Well, at least she got to see her for a little.” Bowen is trying to change the subject, and I’m appreciative of it. “So, what does my wife want to eat?”
“I’d love a whole plate of funnel cake, but I’m afraid it won’t fit. I’m not even hungry anymore, which is sad. This kid is going to be a bowling ball by the time he comes out.”
“I can’t wait to see him. You think he’ll be another me clone?” He smirks.
I roll my eyes. “Hopefully, my genes will stick on this one. But if he does look exactly like you, we’re in trouble. He’s going to break all the hearts.”
“Nah, he’ll fall in love with one magnificent girl and be hooked on her forever.” Bowen nuzzles my cheek, his fingers working magic on the knots in my back.
“Mm, sounds familiar. Tell me more about this undying love,” I joke as we watch Molly running back toward us.
She crashes into my lap with a thud, jostling her brother in my belly, and begins to climb me to get to her daddy. When she does, she kisses Bowen on the lips, and then plants one on me, too.
This is our family, the one we’ve created out of the ashes of our storied past. And it might have hurt, it might have been incredibly hard, but I’d walk through it all again to get to this place.
The one where we’re in love, united, and raising our babies.
After all was forgiven, what’s left is love. And love with Bowen is all I’ve ever wanted.
Have you read Fleeting? Here is a sneak peek of book one in the Nash Brothers series! Without further ado, the first chapter of Presley and Keaton’s story …
Chapter 1
Presley
“This is probably the most embarrassing doctor’s visit I’ve ever had. And it’s not even for me.”
Looking down at my grandmother’s four-year-old dog, Chance, I try to give him my best stink-eye. It’s a well-trained expression of mine, and it must work, because his big brown eyes, at least, hold some guilt as he drags his butt on the ground.
I have to physically pull him up the brick steps by his leash and onto the porch of the veterinarian’s office, which doesn’t look like an office at all. The building that houses the pet doctor is a Victorian home, with maroon shutters and dark blue whimsical trim that makes it look more like an old-school carousel than a place to treat sick animals.
The bell over the door jingles as I turn the antique brass knob to the front door, and I’m greeted by the smell of fresh cotton and lingering dog hair.
A pretty, older woman with gray hair in floral scrubs sits behind a white-washed desk, her hands flying over a keyboard as she talks to someone on the other end of the phone.
“Dr. Nash has a surgery tomorrow, but he can come up and see the horse on Thursday. Just keep at it with a lot of water, and if you don’t see improvement, you know the after-hours number. All right, you too, Martha. Okay, thanks, see you then.”
She looks up at me after finishing the note on her screen and smiles. A genuine, pearly-white grin … to me, a complete stranger. It’s something I haven’t gotten used to in the three weeks I’ve been living in Fawn Hill, Pennsylvania. The rural niceness of this community is so foreign to my New York City mindset. You can’t pull a girl out of six years of living among urbanites who are rude on arrival and expect her to take genuine caring at face value.
“Hi, there, how can I help you?” She looks down at Chance, the boxer practically frowning at her. “Oh, Chance, dear, we meet again. You must be Presley, Hattie McDaniel’s granddaughter. It’s nice to meet you.”
Her steamrolling of the conversation catches me off guard. That’s the other thing about living in a small town, everyone knows who you are and who you’re related to, even if they’ve never seen your face.
“Uh, hi. Yes, Chance here … he ate something he shouldn’t have, and I think it’s … stuck. I called about twenty minutes ago.” My face heats even though I don’t mention exactly what he swallowed.
“Oh, yes, dear, I forgot! We’ve had such a busy morning. A horse is sick up at the Dennis’ barn, and just this morning Dr. Nash has seen two cats with incontinence issues, and a rabbit with a broken tooth. It sure is a funny farm around here!”
I’m not sure what to say to this, and Chance whimpers where he sits next to me. “So, can the doctor see him?”
The receptionist stands from her desk, still smiling. “Of course, Chance is a frequent flyer. It’ll be another minute or two. I’m Dierdra, by the way. Gosh, I’m sure glad you came to town to help your grandmother. With her sight, it’s a wonder she’s been able to keep the shop going.”
I get the feeling that Dierdra is a bit of a gossip, but a well-meaning one. “Thank you, yes, I’m glad I could move here to help her.”
“Have you eaten at Kip’s Diner, yet? Best pie in this part of the state although it’s a bit of a hidden gem. The whole of Fawn Hill is, really.”
She laughs jovially, and I feel myself warming to her. She might be a bit chatty, but her kindness puts me at ease. And she’s right, because since I’ve been here, I realized I needed a bit of Fawn Hill medicine.
Not that we’d visited a lot growing up, because Dad moved away from his hometown right after high school and didn’t look back. But the two times we’d made the trip from Albany to Grandma’s house for Christmas, I’d marveled at the storybook community she lived in. Fawn Hill was the quintessential small town, a gem of farmhouses and Victorian homes situated on either side of Main Street. The backdrop of the Welsh Mountains dotted the skyline, and the children here still walked to the singular elementary, middle, and high schools the town boasted.
It was picturesque, quiet living, and it wasn’t a mystery what my grandmother loved so much about it. Even if I missed the bustle of the city, I could appreciate Fawn Hill for its charm.
“I haven’t yet, but now I’m going to wrangle my grandma into buying me a slice of apple.” I nod at her.
Chance excites when another owner walks through the door with a small, tan dog. I have to brace myself as he almost pulls my arm out of its socket and barking ensues.
Behind me, a door clicks shut, and Dierdra is talking to someone as I try to rein in Chance.
“Presley, Dr. Nash will see Chance now.”
A lock of my hair is caught in my mouth as I finally turn, breathing hard with the leash looped seven times around my wrist so I can keep my grandmother’s mongrel from friendly attacking the other patients.
“Come on in.”
Holy crap. Why didn’t anyone warn me that Fawn Hill also had the hottest veterinarian I’ve ever seen? Talk about a hidden gem.
A tall drink of water with dirty blond hair, eyes the color of my favorite dark chocolate swirled with caramel, muscled thighs that couldn’t possibly belong to a doctor and a smile that could charm the pants off of Simon Cowell.
Okay, I’
d been watching too much America’s Got Talent.
“You’re Dr. Nash?” My voice held a tone of skeptical rudeness, and I cringed at myself. “You just … look so … young.”
What I’d meant to say was hot … you’re way too hot to be a vet. This guy had sex hair, the kind you grabbed onto while he slowly stoked your fire. He looked straitlaced, a little too good-boy for my taste, but with those chiseled cheekbones and cleft chin, a girl would be blind not to feel that familiar tingle south of the border when he turned those mocha eyes on her.
But instead of the word sexy, I’d said the word young instead, and now he was giving me an amused raised eyebrow.
And then I remembered why I was here.
Oh my God. This gorgeous specimen is going to be responsible for pulling my hot pink lace underwear out of this damn dog’s butt.
Click here to read Fleeting, book one in the Nash Brothers series, now!
About the Author
Author of romance novels such as Red Card and Privileged, Carrie Aarons writes books that are just as swoon-worthy as they are sarcastic. A former journalist, she prefers the stories she dreams up, and the yoga pants dress code, much better.
When she isn’t writing, Carrie is busy binging reality TV, having a love/hate relationship with cardio, and trying not to burn dinner. She lives in the suburbs of New Jersey with her husband, daughter and dog.
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Also by Carrie Aarons
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Read Fleeting, book one in the Nash Brothers series featuring Keaton and Presley!
Standalones:
Down We’ll Come, Baby
The Tenth Girl
You’re the One I Don’t Want
Privileged
Elite
Red Card
As Long As You Hate Me
All the Frogs in Manhattan
Save the Date
Melt
When Stars Burn Out
Ghost in His Eyes
On Thin Ice
Kissed by Reality
The Flipped Series:
Blind Landing
Grasping Air
The Captive Heart Duet:
Lost
Found
The Over the Fence Series:
Pitching to Win
Hitting to Win
Catching to Win
Forgiven: The Nash Brothers, Book Two Page 20