by Amber Lynn
She saw that pain echoed in his eyes, or at least some of it. She understood the pain he mentioned. She didn’t know if hers reached quite the extreme level he mentioned but hearing her mom’s plans for her that didn’t include Brayden, she’d been close to hyperventilating. She’d never been a huge crier, but at night after Connor went to sleep, she let the tears fall.
“I don’t know if you’ll ever feel that way towards me, but I know you feel it towards Connor. You’re not broken, Willow, even if you feel that way sometimes.”
“I’m not normal.”
Obviously an understatement, but pointing out all the ways she was at least fractured wouldn’t help. A part of her knew it was unfair to pursue whatever Brayden thought they could have together. He deserved to have a woman in his life who wasn’t crazy and didn’t practically need a babysitter.
“No one is, sweetheart. If you think I am, you have a lot to learn about me.”
Her response to that was delayed as he bent down to brush his lips against hers. The brush turned deeper as he opened her mouth with his lips and his tongue dove inside her mouth. The surprise intrusion made her gasp. As she fell into the kiss, her mind tried to remember that she needed to tell him how much she wanted to learn everything he wanted to teach her. After all, with the right teacher, she had a feeling she’d be a very good student.
Epilogue
Brayden looked over at Willow, trying to decide if her grip on his hand was from nervousness or she just liked holding his hand that much. In the two months since they’d officially been dating, she made it clear that his touch soothed her. They’d both needed a lot of soothing as the aftermath of her ordeal and the fights with her family began.
Not surprisingly, the Jamisons disputed Willow’s decision to move to Hedgesville. The guardianship hearing was a waste of everyone’s time, which the judge was nice enough to voice. After the hearing, there hadn’t been any contact between Willow and her family. Even before it, she’d kept them at arm’s length.
Walking in on a discussion in his living room three weeks ago after practice told Brayden how big of a piece of work Pauline Jamison was. She stood in the middle of the room, complaining about how Willow didn’t appreciate her, and Brayden was just using her to get his name in the papers.
Willow responded by telling her mom that she loved Brayden and if she ever said anything else negative about him, she would never speak to her again. Brayden had been ready to give his own response, including escorting the woman out. Hearing Willow say the words for the first time had stopped him in his tracks.
He’d basically told her that he loved her, but neither of them had come out and said the three simple words. He thought it was too soon to expect her to say anything in kind, so he’d shown her every way he could how he felt.
A week after the confrontation, they sat through the guardianship hearing and Brayden thought he’d actually hit a woman. Behind closed doors, Pauline never shed a tear or really tried to comfort Willow, but in the middle of the courtroom, she put on a show. The waterworks were on full blast as she went on and on about how Willow had been brainwashed and needed the support only her parents could provide.
When Willow took the floor, she explained she had a place to stay and was taking college courses to get her degree, while working part-time. If that didn’t make her capable of taking care of herself and Connor, the judge was crazy. Thankfully, the judge found humor in the declaration and called an end to the farce.
They believed that was the end to the drama, but Willow’s life had a few more wrinkles to iron out. Which brought them to the current heavy grip against his hand.
“You know, if you want to do this alone, I can wait outside.” He leaned over and whispered the words in her ear.
They’d been sitting in a conference room at a lawyer’s office for about ten minutes. Chris had accompanied them, as no one really knew what the summons to the office meant. Willow had just received a letter asking her to be there.
“If you leave, I will cut you in your sleep.”
Willow didn’t bother keeping her voice low. Brayden laughed. The response was exactly what he expected.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Chris hummed after his words.
Brayden kissed her cheek and considered teasing her some more, but the door to the conference room opened. A woman in a pantsuit walked in with a large folder in her hand. She stopped when she got a glimpse of the people in the room. Her eyes focused on Chris.
“Lindsay?” Chris said as he stood.
Lindsay Molton? Brayden looked over at Chris and then back to the woman. He supposed it could be the girl they both chased around the playground when they were eight. Lindsay had moved out of Hedgesville during their sophomore year of high school, and Brayden hadn’t kept up with her subsequent moves. Her parents got divorced or something and custody seemed to be an issue if he remembered right.
No one moved for a second, but the woman quickly recovered. Her blue eyes cleared, and she smiled slightly. Brayden recognized the smile and had to think about what a small world it was.
“Chris,” she said with a nod. “I didn’t know you and Brayden would accompany Ms. Jamison.”
“Yeah, and I didn’t know you were Thomas Greenfield. The letter Willow got said we were supposed to meet him.”
Lindsay’s blonde hair bounced as she shook her head again and made her way to the table. Her focus moved from Chris to Willow and her smile grew. She took a seat at the table and reached her hand across the table towards Willow.
“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Jamison. I’m an associate of Mr. Greenfield. He asked me to go over the will and paperwork.”
“Will?” Willow asked. She ignored the hand, like she always did when it came to someone trying to touch her. Lindsay didn’t seem to mind, so maybe she’d been warned.
Brayden had the same question. The letter had given no indication what they were doing there. He assumed it had something to do with her family, especially since they’d been so quiet, but he was fairly certain no one had died.
“Yes, are you sure you want to discuss this with others in the room? I’m not surprised you aren’t aware of your inheritance, given the circumstances, but some of this is quite personal.”
Willow’s free hand moved to cover their attached hand. Brayden didn’t want to leave, but he left all decisions up to Willow.
“I don’t keep anything from Brayden, and it sounds like having my lawyer here is a good idea.”
“Okay, well, you and your son are the sole heirs to Mr. Anderson’s estate. His lawyer in Austin just got everything cleared through probate, which seems surprisingly quick given those circumstances I mentioned. Of course, these are the kind of circumstances you only see in movies.”
Lindsay sighed. A slight smile crossed her face before her eyes moved so Chris became her focus. Brayden watched the split second she looked at his friend before her eyes darted down to the table. Glancing at Chris, he saw his eyes were glued to the woman.
It made him wonder if they’d seen each other since they were kids. He couldn’t see a visible connection between the two of them, but he felt there was something he missed at some point over the years. He and Chris were close. That didn’t mean they knew each other’s every secret.
“But the will is pretty clear cut. He’s got a trust fund set up for Connor when he turns eighteen, totaling,” she said as she opened the folder she sat on the table in front of her, “sixty million dollars. Mr. Anderson’s company and all assets associated with it, along with his five properties, eight cars, a boat and the remaining two hundred million dollars in cash goes to you.”
As she read off the list, Lindsay tapped the paper she read from. Brayden had gotten stuck around the Mr. Anderson part, but the list worked its way through the haze. Willow’s grasp went from crushing to slack as she listened.
They hadn’t said much about her kidnapper since his death. Willow had wanted to put the whole thing behind he
r and move on with her life. She had Connor to think about, which meant she busied herself finding the best way to provide for him. While they lived with Brayden, Willow was big about providing something to the household.
He didn’t try to stop her, even though he made enough money that she didn’t have to worry about it. He didn’t even bother explaining that, because he knew it was a waste of breath. From the sounds of things, money wasn’t something she needed to worry about.
“What?” Chris asked. “Mr. Anderson?” He turned to look at Willow but raised his gaze to Brayden when she sat there frozen. “That’s the guy who kidnapped her, right? Connor’s dad?”
Willow shivered and came awake at the words. Her hands both clutched Brayden’s tightly.
“Brayden is Connor’s dad. He lets Connor call him that. You’re supposed to be working on the paperwork to make it official.”
Her head swiveled to look at Chris, making it impossible for Brayden to see her face. What was she talking about? Paperwork hadn’t been mentioned. Connor had started calling him daddy and Brayden didn’t correct him. The first time he’d said it, Brayden had sat there silent, wondering if he’d heard him wrong.
Willow had quickly affirmed the idea. He had no idea she’d decided to talk to Chris about making it legal in some way.
“I am working on what you asked, but as I told you before, you’ve got to tell Brayden before we can make it official,” Chris responded.
“I told you, he says it’s okay if Connor calls him that.”
And for Willow that was all that mattered. Brayden wanted to let her idea sink in. He figured they’d eventually get married and he’d ask about adopting Connor. Willow being Willow had already tried to put things in motion. Brayden was still getting used to the way she dealt with everyday life. It made each day an adventure.
“And I’m pretty sure that’s a conversation we should go over later,” Chris said.
Brayden wanted to keep on the subject, but Willow moved back to the inheritance she hadn’t been expecting. She didn’t have to tell him that to know everything she’d just heard was a surprise to her.
“He had a boat?”
Keeping his laugh in wasn’t a possibility. His genius of a girlfriend just heard her bank account was about to be millions of dollars richer, along with owning eight cars she didn’t know how to drive. And the part she questioned was whether the jackass who kidnapped her had owned a boat.
Leaning over, Brayden kissed Willow’s temple. His arm snaked across the back of her chair and pulled her closer to him.
“Sweetheart, I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life trying to predict what’s going on in that head of yours. I hope you’re okay with an only semi-rich hockey player as a one-day husband.”
She leaned back, her beautiful eyes looking up at him. They held confusion and surprise. His words held a joking tone, but her reaction made him think she hadn’t picked it up.
“You want to get married?”
Was the idea that hard to believe? He did his best not to crowd her, but he liked to think he’d made it clear he didn’t see what they had as temporary. Even if he constantly told her she had options when it came to her life.
“But I haven’t told you I love you yet. You said to wait until I’m sure and seemed to indicate that should take a while.”
Brayden’s eyebrow cocked up at Willow’s words. So maybe she wasn’t confused about where he saw things going.
“After what you’ve been through, I just don’t want you jumping at the first guy who sweeps you away to his home and tries to protect you.”
Her face scrunched up as if the thought hurt her. Brayden didn’t like thinking about her with someone else, but he didn’t hide the fact she had options. It didn’t matter how many times she told him no one else made her feel the way he did. He knew chances were someone else in the billions of people in the world could make her quiver with light touches and kisses.
“But I do love you. I’ve known since the day you told me you love me, because how you explained that you know. You said to wait, so I have been.”
Brayden sucked in a breath and held it. Did she really just say that? He’d heard her say it to her mom, but that could’ve been just her way to get the woman off Brayden’s back. He’d have to ask her to repeat the words after they finished the kiss he pulled her into. He’d spent weeks getting to know her soft lips and he’d thought he knew every taste. They somehow tasted just a little sweeter hearing those words come from them.
“I love you too, Willow Jamison,” he said as he pulled away. “What do you say we head back to our place and talk about what we want to do for the rest of our lives?”
There was of course more paperwork to go over and things to sign. Brayden really couldn’t be bothered with all that. He was busy thinking about his future wife and son, and the many babies he saw in their future. He probably should be thinking about getting a ring and making it official, but the idea of spending the day with Willow locked in their bedroom while his parents watched Connor seemed like a higher priority.
They had the rest of their lives to figure out what the will meant and what she wanted to do with her newfound company and possessions. For now, all Brayden wanted to do was tell her over and over, with words and body, how much he loved her.
THE END
About the Author
Amber has always had a passion for the written word. Along with that, she’s always had ideas for stories swimming around in her head. It finally got to the point where she couldn’t take it anymore and had to start getting her thoughts down on paper. There are still too many ideas, but she is working to get them out as fast as she can. Her hope is that one day her brain will be hers again.
Other hobbies of Amber’s include: drawing, baking, arts and crafts, motorcycles, hockey and archery. She likes to think she has eclectic tastes where her hobbies are concerned. She loves to laugh and tries to make herself smile at least once a day. With the crazy thoughts going on in her head that usually isn't hard.
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Other books by Amber Lynn:
Love on Thin Ice
Blocked Shot
Neutral Zone
Missed Call
Penalty Kill
Delay of Game
Too Many Men
Splitting the Defense
Five for Fighting
Game Misconduct
Blue Lines
Empty Net
Top Shelf
Dropped Gloves
Simply Enchanting series
Simply Enchanting
Twisted Fates series
The Call
The Pull
Argonauts’ Adventures
The Witch’s Web
The Dragon’s Fire
Daughter of Gaia series
Daughter of Gaia
Queen of Aquima
Nightwalker Saga
The Nightwalker Knocks
The Nightwalker Teaches
The Nightwalker Fights
Unlucky in Love series
Calypso in Love
Nani in Love
Rhea in Love
Hermia in Love
Desma in Love
Avery Clavens series
Not in My Job Description
Just Another Day at the Office
Working through the Weekend
Another Day, Another Dollar
The Harder I Work, the Luckier I Get
All in a Day’s Work
Nyx Slaughter series
Nyx Slaughter: Books 1-7
More Books
Searching for Home
Between Blood
From Earth to Oblivion
The Monster in the Woods
The Gray Side of Eden
Amber Lynn, Rebound (Washington Senators Book 1)