“Love you, Iz.”
“Love you too,” I whispered.
When she hopped off the bed, box clutched to her chest, she looked at mine again. “Are you going to tell Dad about the letter?”
“What letter?” he asked from the doorway.
She looked at me, eyes wide. “Sorry.”
I laughed. “It’s okay.”
Anya scampered off to her room, the pounding of her feet on the stairs had Aiden shaking his head.
As he shut the bedroom door and approached the bed, I studied the way he looked in his button-down shirt and black dress pants.
“I like this look,” I told him.
“Yeah?”
He carefully moved aside the metal box and pushed me back onto the bed. My hands tugged his shirt out of his waistband as he gave me a mind-spinning kiss. Aiden always greeted me like this when we were alone—like he hadn’t seen me in weeks—and I would never, ever get sick of it.
His kisses moved down my neck as I moved under him, unhooking his belt.
“What letter is she talking about?” he asked, tugging the strap of my bra down and placing a sucking kiss over my heart.
“Umm, nothing?”
He lifted his head, spearing me with a look.
“It’s silly,” I told him. “But I wanted her to see what kind of stuff I kept in the lockbox from my nan.”
Aiden rolled to the side, snatching the box with one big hand and tugging it closer to us. “Show me.”
With a burning hot face, I pulled the letter out and handed it to him.
His grin was so pleased, so fricken entertained as he got to the part about the purple dress that he started chuckling.
I covered my face. “Now you know why I literally tripped over nothing when I met you.”
He pulled my hands down and took my mouth again. “I love that you kept it,” he murmured. “Just goes to show you’ve always had great taste.”
I smacked his chest. “Of course you make this about you.”
Aiden settled between my legs as we kissed, his hand smoothing up and down my back, settling on my bottom. Even though we could take it further—Anya knew not to open the door when it was closed—I loved that he seemed just as content to kiss me on our big bed in the middle of the day.
He rolled us, tugging my shirt up so he could reach more of my skin. When I settled onto my back, arching my neck, the crinkle of paper had me freezing.
“What?” he asked.
My hand fumbled on the bed until I found the edge of the envelope. “Something else to show you,” I whispered.
His brows lowered as he took it. My hands smoothed up his arms as he pulled it open, and my heart raced as he saw the edge of what was inside.
“Isabel,” he breathed. His eyes snapped to mine. “Seriously?”
I nodded, eyes watering at the awe I saw in his face. Aiden brushed a knuckle under his eye as he carefully tugged the sonogram picture out of the envelope.
He stared at it, then at me.
“We’re having a baby?” he whispered.
My chin quivered. I couldn’t even nod in affirmation because I’d split wide open into happy, messy tears.
“I know …” I paused when my voice cracked, “I know it’s sooner than we planned, and I wanted to be sure before I told you.”
He wrapped me up in his arms so tight I could hardly breathe. “We’re having a baby,” he repeated, voice uneven.
I clung to him, tears streaming down the side of my face, disappearing into my hairline. His mouth was on mine in the next moment, and when he broke away, his eyes were red-rimmed and so full of happiness.
“Does this mean I get to marry you sooner?”
I laughed. “I’d marry you tomorrow, Aiden Hennessy.”
Resting his forehead against mine, he breathed a shaky exhale. “Of course we’d do this sooner than we planned.”
I kissed him again. “It works for us, I think.”
Aiden cupped the side of my face, stared down at me with so much adoration, I almost started with the messy weeping again.
“Yeah. It does.”
“Should we go tell Anya?”
“In a few minutes,” he said, resuming with the lifting of the shirt. He reverently kissed my belly, then moved up until he’d tugged my shirt off.
“Just a few minutes?” I asked skeptically.
Aiden sat up on his knees, between my legs, and yanked his shirt off. “You doubt me?”
With a soft smile on my face, I pulled him back down for a kiss. “Never,” I whispered against his mouth.
The End
Keep reading for a link to a bonus epilogue for Aiden and Isabel.
But first! If you’re curious how Logan and Paige got their epic start, here’s an excerpt from The Marriage Effect.
* * *
“So you’re like …”
I kept my eyes aimed up when I answered. There was no particular desire to see the look on her face when I told her something I’d managed to keep under the radar for more than two years. “Their legal guardian.”
Paige was quiet for a couple of seconds as she processed. “And he wants to be.”
“Yeah. He and his wife do.”
“And you don’t want them to be,” she clarified.
I dropped my chin so she could see my face again. “Definitely not.”
She cupped her cheeks in her hands and stared at me. “And me saying I was your fiancée was …” Was what? I wanted to ask. Because I had a few words I could drop into that particular empty space.
Perfectly timed.
Brilliant.
Crazy.
Fate.
Paige didn’t say any of those things, though. “It was really stupid, wasn’t it?”
I closed my eyes and wiped a hand over my mouth. I didn’t know why I thought Paige would make this easy on me. Why I thought her mind would follow the same path that mine was.
Probably because that path was certifiable, padded cell insanity.
Except it wasn’t. Not at all.
“I just … didn’t think, really. I’m so sorry, Logan. I don’t blame you for being furious.”
I dropped my hand and stared at her.
“Oh my gosh, would you say something? You’re starting to freak me out.”
“I’m not furious,” I told her.
She blinked a few times. “You’re not?”
“Nope.”
Paige sat back and exhaled audibly. “Well, that’s good. I thought you’d flip the hell out on me, tell me I should think things through better, blah, blah. That’s what Allie tells me all the time.”
“Oh,” I interjected, “you should think things through better, but I’m not furious.”
“Well, that’s good.” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why? You’re not exactly Susy Sunshine, if you know what I’m sayin’. I figured you’d be breathing fire right now.”
I leaned forward and plucked her hand from her lap, turned it side to side so I could study the ring. When she sucked in an audible breath, I kept my eyes down because I didn’t want to know what was on her face. The skin of her long, graceful fingers was smooth and soft. No callouses like the ones covering mine. No scars from broken fingers or skin that had been ripped off by an overzealous lineman.
“Nick is an asshole,” I told her as I studied her fingers in mine. “But he’s married. He works a job with normal hours. During the season, I probably work a hundred hours a week. My housekeeper just quit, the third in a year. And under my watch, my sixteen-year-old sister just got in a car accident driving around with her drunk friend, so he’s going to try to take them from me because of it.”
Paige’s chest rose and fell with increasing speed. Her pink lips were full and open slightly as she watched me. The bridge of her nose was covered with light freckles, and it worked. All of her separate pieces, they worked really, really well together.
“He’s better on paper,” she said. “That’s what you’re trying to s
ay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He checks a lot of boxes that I don’t.”
A blanket of quiet fell between us, and I saw the wheels turn behind the bright blue of her eyes.
“What is it that you need, exactly?” she repeated, slowly pulling her hand out of my own.
Her eyes held mine. Turns out, I didn’t even need to say the words or try to figure out the best way to say it. She finally tore her gaze away, and it landed on the ring.
“Ohhhh,” she drawled. “You need a fiancée.”
“Actually,” I said slowly, gauging the finely featured face in front of me, “I need a wife.”
Paige’s face stilled, then the last—absolute fucking last—thing I expected to happen happened.
She smiled.
“Perfect,” she breathed.
* * *
Keep reading with your KindleUnlimited subscription!
Read the BONUS EPILOGUE for Forbidden >HERE<
* * *
Trust me, you want to see the next glimpse in Aiden and Isabel’s story.
* * *
You can also read the rest of the Ward Sisters series now, free with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.
* * *
Focused (Molly and Noah)
Faked (Claire and Bauer)
Floored (Lia and Jude)
Author’s Note
When I wrote The Bombshell Effect, and the character of Logan Ward made a comment about how he had four sisters, I never imagined where that one line of dialogue would take me. It wasn’t until just before the release of The Marriage Effect that I decided to write their stories, and even then, I couldn’t have anticipated how my readers would respond to the Wards.
Writing these four books changed my life, and I don’t say that lightly. Even when the books were hard (*clears throat* I’m looking at you, Isabel, because she made me WORK FOR IT), I’ve never felt a connection to my characters like I have to this family.
They feel real, don’t they?
Since the release of Focused, you’ve asked me for more. You’ve begged me to create more siblings out of thin air (I wish I’d given Logan more sisters, trust me!) so that I can stay with this family longer.
So … I’ve decided to.
Not create more siblings, but to stay in this world, because I honestly have no desire to leave. Everything I need to be able to do that is already in the books you’ve read. We have an entire generation of the Washington Wolves that deserve to have their stories told. We have Faith and Lydia Pierson. We have Emmett Ward (he’ll probably have a couple of football playing buddies, because you know he’s destined to play for this team). And now, we have Anya Hennessy and the little sibling yet to be born.
And for those who subscribe to my newsletter, I have an exclusive bonus epilogue of Isabel and Aiden, to tide you over until I can get the next story out.
The next series, tentatively titled Washington Wolves: the Next Generation, will kick off with Luke and Allie’s daughter, Faith, who we met in The Bombshell Effect. Look for that book to come out in the fall of 2021.
I hope you’re as excited about this as I am. It’s the greatest gift of a writer, to create a fictional world that doesn’t just feel like home to me, but to you, too.
Because without you, my dear reader, none of this would be possible.
Thank you for loving them as much as I do.
* * *
Karla
Other books by Karla Sorensen
available to read with your KU subscription
The Ward Family Series
Focused
Faked
Floored
Forbidden
Washington Wolves
The Bombshell Effect
The Ex Effect
The Marriage Effect
The Three Little Words Series
By Your Side
Light Me Up
Tell Them Lies
The Bachelors of the Ridge Series
Dylan
Garrett
Cole
Michael
Tristan
Published through Smartypants Romance
Baking Me Crazy
Batter of Wits
Steal my Magnolia
* * *
Stay up to date on Karla’s upcoming releases!
Subscribe to her newsletter
Acknowledgments
This book. Oh goodness, this book. It should not have surprised me that Isabel would be the most difficult sister to write. She did not, in all her stubborn glory, want me to dig around in her fictional head.
And the only way I was able to survive the writing process was the group of author friends who listened to my endless voice messages as I pieced together this story. They get top billing this round, for plotting, feedback, and encouragement the entire way through- Kathryn Andrews, Fiona Cole, Amy Daws, and Brittainy Cherry.
To Kandi Steiner for slipping in as a last minute beta and all around amazing cheerleader.
To Michelle Clay for providing one last set of eyes to make sure I didn’t screw up the story.
To my husband and his endless understanding and support when I ranted and railed about how I’d never get it right, as I locked myself in our bedroom all weekend to write for months.
To Braadyn Penrod for capturing THE MOST PERFECT pictures I could’ve ever imagined for Aiden and Isabel, and Najla Qamber for the stunning cover and continued rock-star status. (And models Anna and Alex for being stunningly gorgeous and REALLY GOOD at posing together.)
To Jenny and Janice for cleaning up the mess of this manuscript.
To Ginelle and Pauline for doing one last read through.
To my reader group and ARC team, for being as excited about this story as anyone in the universe.
* * *
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9
About the Author
Karla Sorensen is an Amazon top 20 bestselling author who refuses to read or write anything without a happily ever after. When she's not devouring historical romance or avoiding the laundry, you can find her watching football (British AND American), HGTV or listening to Enneagram podcasts so she can psychoanalyze everyone in her life, in no particular order of importance. With a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from Grand Valley State University, she made her living in senior healthcare prior to writing full-time. Karla lives in Michigan with her husband, two boys and a big, shaggy rescue dog named Bear.
Forbidden: A Ward Sisters Sisters Novel Page 28