I blink, stunned.
Utterly stunned.
“Tonight?” I croak.
Abby cheers. “Say yes, say yes, Katie!”
I laugh, and the sound is chased by sobs, and holy hell, I’m crying.
“Yes, Katie. Tonight. We’re in Vegas. Our friends and family are here. I want you to be my wife, and I want us to be a family, and I don’t want to wait any longer.”
You know what?
He makes the most excellent points.
I fall to my knees, join him on the grass, and wrap my arms around him. “Yes. I say yes. Let’s do it.”
Abby jumps up and down, and we both pull her in for a hug.
Sometime after midnight, we make it to the chapel at The Extravagant with a yawning seven-year-old and the whole crew.
“Told you the pink sparkly sweatshirt was the way to go,” Emerson says with a wink as I walk in wearing a simple white dress.
The sneak.
She’d packed the dress and handed it to me when we returned to the hotel to shuck off my game clothes so I could put on this.
Now, she’s holding a bouquet of tiger lilies. “And these.”
I clutch them close to my heart, then walk down the aisle and pledge to love Harlan Taylor for the rest of my life.
When the justice of the peace turns to the groom, decked out in one of his tailored suits, and asks if he’ll love, cherish, and honor me for the rest of his days, he says, so easily, so happily, “I do.”
He says it with love and passion and trust.
That’s all I could ever want.
Epilogue
Harlan
* * *
More than a year later
* * *
I whip up eggs for my wife. Brew her some coffee. Slice her a peach. Set the goodies on the breakfast plate as she nurses the baby.
What a sight.
Katie looks so good as a mom. Who would have thought?
Well, this guy.
Katie looks good doing pretty much everything.
And she’s aces at doing most stuff too, so she’s mastered parenting already.
“Look at you. Such a pro in no time,” I say when the baby finishes, and Katie burps her on her shoulder.
“Yes, sign me up for five more,” she quips as she pats our daughter’s back.
“Don’t tempt me,” I say drily, then set the plate in front of her. “Gimme Mia. I need some snuggles.” I make grabby hands, and Katie gives me the baby.
Our five-month-old makes the sweetest sigh as I hold her close. “There. Wasn’t that delicious?” I glance at Katie, nodding to her plate. “Now, eat your breakfast, sweetheart. You have a busy day teaching those ballplayers downward dog. Bet they’re not as fun as football players.”
“Of course they aren’t.” She takes a bite of the eggs. Once she swallows, she holds up her fork to make a point. “But I’m also not in love with any of them.”
“Good, let’s keep it that way.”
“I will,” she says, as the rush of Converse-clad feet echoes from upstairs.
“No running indoors, Abby,” I call out.
The sound slows. “Sorry. Just getting ready.”
“Well don’t run the forty-yard dash.”
“She’s excited for school today,” Katie says as she clears her plate. “She and Audrey and Gabriella and Caroline are doing a presentation on why gymnastics rocks. She practiced it with me last night. It’s about three PowerPoint slides long, and it’s awesome.”
I smile. “That does sound awesome. I can’t wait to hear how it goes.”
Once Katie sets the plate in the dishwasher, she moves behind me, plants a soft kiss on my hair, then scurries upstairs to our room to get ready to teach yoga to the San Francisco Dragons.
After that, she’ll make some videos, and then work with Olive and Zachary.
When she rushes downstairs, she calls behind her, “You’ll do great, Abby! Love you.”
“Love you, Katie,” Abby shouts.
Then my wife returns to me, kisses my cheek, and gives Mia a big hug. “Miss you already, sweetie,” she whispers to our little girl.
I walk Katie to the door, hand her her purse and phone, then steal another kiss—a lingering, sweet kiss that makes me think of the dirty things I’ll do to her tonight.
“Mmm. Later, I want to strip you out of those yoga clothes,” I say, eyeing her salaciously.
She leers right back at me. “Do you have any idea what you do to my ovaries when you talk dirty while you hold our baby?”
“I do,” I say. “I definitely do.”
She grabs one more quick kiss. “I love you.”
“And I love you.”
She leaves, and I shut the door behind her. After I clean up, I grab a BabyBjörn, strap it on my chest, and put Mia in it as Abby bounds downstairs.
“I’m ready for school!”
“Let’s do it, little bear.”
Abby grabs her backpack and slings it over her shoulders, and we leave the house like that. With Mia on my chest and Abby holding my hand, I walk my oldest child to school.
And then I’ll spend the day with my youngest.
And the night with the love of my life.
Now that’s winning.
***
Curious about Emerson’s romance with Nolan? Their friends-to-lovers, only-one-bed-in-the-room romance sparks hot with a spicy one-night-stand that complicates everything! Order Shut Up and Kiss Me everywhere and read on for a teaser!
* * *
Eager for Jason’s story? Who is the guy who walked into the gym? Learn more about that spark in the rivals-to-lovers sports romance THE BOYFRIEND COMEBACK! A preview follows.
* * *
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Keep reading to grab Bedroom Deals, your free book as promised, for preordering A WILD CARD KISS!
* * *
And now here is a teaser from Emerson’s romance!
Emerson…
I lift a hand and touch the stiff mask on my face. “Want to do the face mask crack? My friend Jo and I do it when we face mask on FaceTime.”
“That’s a thing? Face masks on FaceTime?”
“It’s so a thing.” I grab the arm of his robe and tug. “C’mon. We have to do it in front of the mirror.”
Nolan swings his legs out of bed, and we take our spots in front of the double sinks, smiling big and crazy so our pink peels can crack.
I laugh. He laughs. We are so fine.
As he scrubs off his mask, I do the same.
When I’m done, I pat my face with a towel and return to the bed. Nolan follows me there and sets a hand on his cheek. “Do I look fabulous?”
“So fierce,” I agree, then we settle in and pick a show to chill out to—That’s What She Said. Quirky rom coms are my jam. His too.
He scoots a little closer to me, maybe to see the screen better. As he inches over, the space between us halves. Wait, quarters. It’s the size of one banana.
You could fit a banana between us. That’s all that separates me from the man in this bed.
What if we closed the distance the rest of the way?
His clean scent fills my head, making me wonder about those what-ifs.
Nolan straightens his shoulders and stares at my face. “Hold on.”
I hit pause on the show, but not my imagination. “What is it?” I ask, breathy at the way his eyes study me so intensely.
“You have a spot here you missed.” He tugs his bathrobe cuff down closer to his wrist, which loosens the belt tie a notch, then raises his arm and scrubs at my cheek with the cloth.
“Almost gone,” he says, then wets the tip of his finger and dusts it along my jawline.
Goose bumps sweep up my skin.
Nolan rubs a little more, stroking my jaw. My breath catches. I swallow around the knot of longing, trying desperately to hide my arousal.
; From the slide of his finger on my face.
From the nearness of his lips.
From the warmth of his touch.
From that exposed skin as my eyes drift down to the V of his chest. I want to put my mouth on his skin, want to bite him and kiss away the ache.
Screw face masks. Forget robes.
I wave the white flag.
“Almost gone,” he whispers, brushing my face, stirring up years of unchecked emotions, lust, desire.
I am overcome.
Lifting my hand, I touch his chest, my palm against his skin igniting a flare of heat in my belly. Slowly, because this is a turning point, I look up, unsure what I’ll see but certain what I want.
I search his face for an answer to my first move. Those hazel eyes shimmer with need.
“Can I kiss you?” Nolan asks.
* * *
Grab Shut Up And Kiss Me!
* * *
You’ve met Jason in A Wild Card Kiss and heard from him in his epilogue. Want the first ever sneak peek of his love interest in THE BOYFRIEND COMEBACK? Here’s Beck…his rival!
* * *
Beck…
I’m not ready for this night to end. “I don’t mind,” I say, and it’s a borderline plea. “You helped me, so it’s the least I can do.”
Jason takes a moment to weigh my offer, then with a friendly smile, he says, “If you insist.”
He opens the dishwasher, and we fall into a rhythm. After I rinse off the plates at the sink, I hand them to him and he lines them up in the rack. We’re a couple feet away — close but not too close.
I want to be closer.
As I near the end of the stack of plates, time starts to tick faster. The night is going to end soon. I’ll need to leave. The pressure to learn if he’s attracted to me mounts. As I hand him the final plate, I let my fingers graze the tips of his.
He flinches in surprise. But the slight hitch in his breath tells me the surprise isn’t a bad one.
Do I keep going?
When Jason closes the dishwasher, another minute has slipped by. I try to figure out how to move this evening to something else.
Something daring.
I can’t stop thinking about his mouth. Or his chest, and the way I might feel if I could touch him.
Jason grabs a Tupperware container from the counter, puts it in the fridge. I reach for another one, slide past him to set it on a shelf. My arm nudges his.
A flash of desire rushes through me from the contact. I close my eyes for a hot second then open them.
When he shuts the fridge, he’s not looking past me, around me, anywhere but me. Fuck. I’m making this worse with my unsophisticated touches. I’m making him uncomfortable now.
I should let this night end. “I should…”
But my head’s so hazy with desire I can’t finish the sentence that way I ought to.
I try again. “I should wash my hands,” I say, to buy some time before I can ask him one more thing.
Jason just nods, then gestures to the sink. “Go for it,” he says.
Those words reverberate. They wrap around me. They drive me on as I walk to his sink, wash my hands, then turn off the tap.
I hunt around for a towel. Jason hands one to me.
His face is unreadable, and it’s clear I need to ask for what I want. He doesn’t know I’m bisexual. He has no way of knowing it. He won’t make a move. I have to be the one to take the chance.
I reach for the towel he’s offering, wipe my hands on it, then set it down on the hook.
I weigh the options. I could chalk this up to one weird night with some flirty tension. Or I could go for it.
But really, I’ve known my choice since I walked in that door, telling myself I was only here to ask for media help. “Jason, remember when you asked if I liked to gamble?” I ask.
“I do,” he says evenly, his thumbs tucked into the pockets of his shorts. His whole demeanor says the ball is in my court.
I toss the ball in the air, and I serve. “I’d like to roll the dice right now. And I have another question for you.”
* * *
You can find THE BOYFRIEND COMEBACK everywhere!
* * *
And now, here is BEDROOM DEALS, your free book as promised, for preordering A WILD CARD KISS!
* * *
Author’s Note: Jason first appeared as a teenager in ALL IN WITH HIM. If you’re keeping track of book time as it unfolds across that title, then THE VIRGIN REPLAY, where Harlan appears, then this book, you may notice the timespan between the majority of events in that title and the beginning of A Wild Card Kiss covers about a year. But this is fiction, and Jason is a great character and he’ll make a fantastic leading man in his book, so by the power vested in me as the creator of this book universe, I have hereby aged him up in soap opera time!!! He’s aged several years in one book year and is now in his late twenties and ready for his love story, which will be told in THE BOYFRIEND COMEBACK!
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