The Wright Boss

by K. A. Linde

  We’d gotten rid of my tree house and her apartment, and we’d bought a house by the golf course. Emery had moved in with Jensen the same weekend.

  Best friends and brothers. Who would have guessed?

  Once I was changed, I found Heidi leaning back against the Jeep I’d gotten after taking over my new position at Wright Golf Club. It’d felt more permanent once I had my own car here. No more borrowing Jensen’s Mercedes. She was in cutoff jean shorts and a cropped tank top with sandals, and I wanted to eat her right up. Damn surprise.

  “Where are we heading, firecracker?” I asked, swinging the keys around on my finger.

  She held her hand out. “Hand them over.”

  “You’re not driving my car.”

  “Watch me,” she countered.

  I laughed, knowing which buttons to push, and tossed her the keys. We piled into the Jeep, and she drove me to the north side of town. I couldn’t figure out where we were headed until she actually pulled into the parking lot.

  “You’re kidding,” I said with a look of disbelief.

  “It’ll be fun!”

  I stared up at the sign for miniature golf and burst out laughing. “You are so ridiculous.”

  “Yeah, you love it.”

  “True.”

  When we walked into the outdoor putt-putt course, I acted as surprised as I’d promised I would be. My entire family was there, waiting for us. Jensen and Emery were bent over, talking to Colton. Austin and Patrick were trying to figure out how to juggle the golf balls. Morgan was shaking her head at the pair of them and talking animatedly to Julia. Sutton was chasing after a two-year-old Jason, who was toddling along ahead of her.

  Heidi cleared her throat, and they all turned to look at us. “We made it!”

  Everyone cheered and congratulated me on my first tournament back, and it was truly amazing to have my wacky, damaged, incredible family all in one place. Then, as the excitement wore off, everyone moved to pick up their equipment.

  “I’m blue!” Morgan called.

  “I call hot pink!” Patrick said in a pretty good imitation of Morgan’s voice.

  She slapped him on the arm. Hard.

  “This putter is way too short,” Jensen said, holding up a crappy putter. He shrugged, taking it with him anyway.

  “I’m going first!” Colton yelled.

  Heidi and I moved up to the putt-putt station last. I claimed a mustard-yellow ball that no one else had wanted, and she grabbed a magenta-colored one.

  “You do realize, I’m going to win, right?” I asked with a cocky grin.

  Heidi rolled her eyes. “No way. I am kick-ass at mini golf.”

  “This is my job, firecracker.”

  “Well, listen here. I’m very competitive.”

  I laughed and kissed her. “We’ll see.”

  “No, you’ll see!”

  When I lined up my first shot, Heidi leaned in behind me and kept trying to sneak in kisses.

  “Distraction is not working.”

  “Oh, yeah?” she asked.

  Her head darted back and forth, and as I was about to putt, she lifted her shirt and flashed me. I whiffed, knocking the ball down the green without a single ounce of precision.

  “Told you.”

  I smacked her ass with my putter as I passed to try to finish the horrible job I’d done. “You’ll pay for that later.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I sank my second putt. “You can put me down for a birdie, love.”

  She wrote down my score and then wrapped her arms around my waist. “Love?” she whispered.

  “Hmm?”

  “I think I’m ready.”

  “I hope so. It’s your turn.”

  “For a baby,” she whispered.

  I froze and stared down into her face. She was suddenly serious, even with her cute, scared smile. But I couldn’t stop my giant smile.

  This was what I’d wanted for so long. A life and a family with the girl of my dreams, and here she was, offering it on a platter.

  “Think we should get married first, or do you want to start here?”

  “Not right here.” She laughed. “I was thinking we’d get married the weekend after the Championship.”

  “That’s six weeks away,” I reminded her.

  “Guess we have some planning to do then, huh?”

  “I guess we do. And you’re sure about this?”

  She stood on her tiptoes and gently kissed me. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”

  “What about your dad?”

  She shook her head. “I love him, but I won’t put my life on hold for him. He understands. I talked to him about it. I want to be with you. I want to be your wife and have your children. I’m ready.”

  I picked her up and swung her around in a circle. Our game forgotten. Everything else falling away. Just me and the woman I loved with the entire world ahead of us, ready for the taking.

  The End

  LOOK FOR THE NEW STAND-ALONE CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE FROM USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR K.A. LINDE…

  The

  Wright

  Mistake

  I ALWAYS WANTED A NICE NORMAL BOYFRIEND. THE KIND YOU COULD BRING HOME TO YOUR PARENTS. INSTEAD, I FELL FOR AUSTIN WRIGHT. WE TRIED THIS ONCE AND FAILED. HARD. I SWORE, THE BAD BOY WRIGHT WHO SET MY BODY ON FIRE WOULD NEVER GET A SECOND CHANCE BECAUSE OUR LOVE IS HEROIN-LACED GASOLINE—ADDICTING AND DESTINED TO GO UP IN FLAMES.

  COMING AUGUST 8TH!

  PREORDER EVERYWHERE NOW:

  WWW.KALINDE.COM/BOOK/THE-WRIGHT-MISTAKE

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  CHAPTER ONE!

  The Wright Mistake

  K.A. Linde

  One

  Julia

  “I’m really…so sorry,” I said with a sad smile. “I don’t think this is going to work out.”

  Trevor stared back at me his face a mask of hurt and shock. We’d been together almost a year. A year in two days actually. Which made it all that much worse.

  “You’re…you’re breaking up with me?” Trevor asked. “But Julia…”

  “I know. I know.”

  “It’s been a year. I had this whole,” he breathed in deeply and looked away from me, “this whole thing planned for you for our anniversary.”

  I winced. Of course, he did. Because Trevor was this perfect, normal, nice guy. He was the guy who came over to your place to do your laundry while you were with your friends and filled up your gas tank when he noticed you were running low and called your mom to chat every Thursday. Or he would have done that last one…if he’d thought my parents were alive.

  “I’m sorry,” I repeated.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  He gave me a disbelieving look. “Why would you do this? There has to be a reason.”

  “Oh. I…don’t think we’re compatible.”

  “We’ve been together for a year. Don’t you think you would have noticed that before now?”

  I had. I couldn’t say that. Not to him. But I’d definitely known it. Trevor was…safe. He made me complacent.

  And he was trying to get too close.

  Much too close for his own good.

  “Yeah.”

  “You can’t handle commitment, can you?” he asked. “You can’t let anyone in. You won’t let anyone know the real you.”

  I didn’t say anything in my defense. That all was truer than he would ever know. I had let someone in, and it had fucking backfired like nothing else. It wasn’t that I was commitment phobic; it was just when I got to the point of admitting everything that had happened in my life, I always realized it was too fucked up to continue. So, I ended it. Perfect normal Trevor couldn’t handle the real Julia Banner.

  “You should go,” I told him, crossing my arms over my chest.

  He looked like he was going to plead with me, fall to his knees and beg. But he shook his head, turned, and walked out of my one bedroom apartment.

 
I sank into the couch and put my head in my hands. Why did I keep doing this to myself? Was this anyway to live?

  My phone buzzed on the table and Heidi’s name flashed on the screen. Heidi and I had met day one when I’d started working at Wright Construction as the head of HR almost two years ago. I loved her to pieces.

  I picked up the phone. “Hey.”

  “Did you do it?” she asked.

  I sighed. “Yeah. He hates me.”

  “Psh. Trevor from accounting couldn’t hate a fly. He’s hurt. He’ll get over it.”

  “Yeah. I guess.”

  “Want to get fucked up to feel better about it?”

  “I want to get fucked to feel better about it.”

  Heidi laughed. “That’s my girl.”

  “Flips?”

  It was the local bar that we always went to. By anyone else’s standards, it was kind of a dump. But Heidi adored the place.

  “Actually…we’re all heading to Ransom Canyon for Memorial Day weekend. Lake, boats, barbeque—the trifecta. You in?”

  “And how exactly am I going to get laid out of this plan?”

  “Well, there will be a lot of alcohol,” Heidi hedged.

  “And?”

  “And…a lot of hot eligible men.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Like who?”

  “The Wrights all invited a bunch of people to come hang out. I know your…issues with Austin, so I didn’t mention it before. But I don’t think that should stop you now.”

  I groaned. “Austin Wright is the biggest alcoholic jackass on this side of the planet! You know how he treated me when we were together.”

  “True,” she added. “But…that was a year and a half ago. And since you slapped the shit out of him last fall, he’s kind of avoided you like the plague. Which means you should be fine.”

  “Heidi!”

  “Get your ass over here and bring a bathing suit. I want to see those tattoos you’re sporting. I won’t take no for an answer.”

  And then she unceremoniously hung up on me. I glanced down at it with a sigh. Maybe Heidi was right, and I needed some girl time to get over this break up.

  I stripped out of my work attire and into a pair of cut off jean shorts and a black Queen tank top. I piled my dark red hair up into a messy bun on the top of my head and admired the recently shaved undercut. I filled up my travel tote with enough clothes for a week away from home. Now, I just needed my favorite olive green bomber jacket. Not that May in Lubbock, Texas was cold by any stretch of the imagination, but the dusty, windy, and flat place I had called home for almost two years now, got cool on summer nights. But the jacket was nowhere to be found. I tore my apartment apart looking for it. I swore I’d left it hanging in my closet, but nope. No luck. Must have left it at work or in the car or something.

  I finally added a black Beatles sweatshirt I’d picked up at a thrift store and headed over to Heidi’s place, where she lived with Landon Wright, the middle sibling in the Wright family dynasty. They’d gotten together last year and were totally crazy in love. They’d gotten engaged practically right away and now lived together in a brand new house that they’d had built on a golf course. Country clubbers, man.

  When I pulled up in my oversized black Tahoe, Landon was packing up his Jeep. He waved as I parked.

  “Hey Julia. I’m glad to see that Heidi convinced you to come with us.”

  I hopped out of the car and moved my bag into the trunk. “Yeah. She’s persuasive all right. Told me to get my ass over here and hung up on me.”

  Landon laughed congenially. He had the goddamn Wright good looks—dark hair, dark penetrating eyes, perfect smile, and so tall you could climb the fuckers.

  “This sounds like my fiancée.”

  “I swear you say it just because you like the sound of it.”

  He grinned not at all sheepish. “Can’t blame me.”

  “Not in the least.”

  Heidi appeared then in tiny white cut offs and a pink bathing suit top. She had a huge floppy hat on her head, her long blonde hair falling to her waist, and sunglasses to cover her entire face. “I’m so fucking ready!”

  She clobbered me on sight, planting a kiss on my cheek.

  “You’re insane,” I told her.

  “And you are wearing too many clothes.”

  “Don’t say that around Emery,” I said about her best friend. “She might get jealous.”

  “Can I watch?” Landon asked from where he was standing with his arms crossed, eyeing us appraisingly.

  “You can join in,” Heidi said with a wink. Then she smacked my ass and hopped into the front seat. I climbed into the back, and once Landon was in the driver’s seat, we were off and away.

  It was only a twenty-minute drive to Ransom Canyon, and Heidi kept me from brooding too much about my recent break up. Not that I was actually upset about leaving Trevor. I was more upset that he had been right. I liked uncomplicated fun. Preferably with a lot of mind-blowing sex.

  “So, who all did you say would be here?” I asked again.

  “Um…” Heidi trailed off.

  Landon shot her a look of frustration. “My family mostly.”

  “Mostly?”

  “Heidi and Emery and her sister Kimber and her husband Noah and their two kids will also be there.”

  “And?” I added.

  “And Patrick,” Landon said as an afterthought.

  “What happened to all the hot eligible bachelors, Heidi?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip and her big blue eyes searched my face. “About that…”

  “Oh, you’re such a bitch.”

  Great. I was going to be the only single girl here who wasn’t related to the Wright family. And the two single guys here—Austin and Patrick—were totally off limits. Just perfect.

  Heidi laughed and shrugged. Clearly this had been all part of her evil plan. The little witch.

  Landon parked his Jeep next to a giant truck, which I vaguely recalled belonged to his oldest brother, Jensen, and then we all hopped out. Landon waved us off when we tried to help. “Go on and check out the lake. I’ve got this.”

  Heidi kissed his cheek, grabbed my hand, and dashed down the hill to the dock below. Ransom Canyon was a town of only about a thousand people, but the lake filled up all summer. It was craziest on Memorial Day and Fourth of July. As in…today. There were boats everywhere on the lake, and I could see parties happening all up and down the lake. Maybe I wouldn’t be at such a loss after all.

  We skipped to a stop when we got to the end of the dock and Heidi laughed before peeling her shorts off.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Taking a swim. Come with me, lover.”

  “Uh, no. I do not have a swimsuit on.”

  “That’s no fun.” She handed me her floppy hat, tied up her blonde hair, and then cannonballed into the water as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  I laughed as she splashed water on me and took a step back. “You’re crazy!”

  “Oh my God, get in! The water is divine!”

  “No chance in hell. I need to change first.”

  Heidi pouted as she treaded water. “You’re missing out. Emery would do it.”

  “Don’t care. You can’t goad me into this.”

  “I want you to have some fun. Since you finally ditched Mr. Boring.”

  “He was not boring.”

  Heidi rolled her eyes and ducked under water. “He was so boring,” she said, when she came up for air. “My girl is fire and passion and tattoos and top-shelf whiskey.”

  “You must be thinking of someone else,” I teased.

  “Come on. Show me those tattoos!”

  “Later! When I have a freaking swimsuit on. Unless you are just dying to see my thong.”

  Heidi raised an eyebrow. “I bet everyone here would die to see your thong.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  “Would you rather talk about Trevor?”

  I shook my head.
“Let’s go back to my thong.”

  “Did someone say thong?” a voice called from behind me on the deck.

  I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and then exhaled slowly. Exactly what I didn’t want to deal with. I turned and came face-to-face with Austin fucking Wright.

  He looked…fucking gorgeous. His almost black hair was sharp on the sides but longer in the front. He had dark haunted eyes and a smile like a razor blade. His cheekbones were hollowed and jawline chiseled out of marble. And he was fucking shirtless.

  His swim trunks rode low on his hips revealing the carefully maintained six pack beneath and the sexy V. I didn’t know how he managed it with the amount of alcohol in his system, but he was cut as fuck. Bulging biceps and ripped pecs with a half sleeve bleeding into his chest. Ink that I had touched every inch of.

  I shook myself out of my reverie. Fuck.

  “Shocking that you showed up right when we were talking about my underwear.”

  “Good to see you too, babe,” Austin said with a grin.

  “Wish I could say the same.”

  His best friend Patrick trailed behind him with a dopey smile on his face. They both looked loaded. But Austin always held his alcohol better than everyone else. Probably because his tolerance was through the roof considering he drank all the time.

  “What’s up, Julia?” Patrick said.

  I nodded my head at Patrick.

  “Y’all coming in?” Heidi called from the water.

  “Hell yes!” Patrick ran and jumped into the water next to Heidi. She giggled and splashed him back when he surfaced. “Austin, man, we need something to float our beer!”

  “Oh, you’re drunk already and still drinking,” I snarled. “How shocking!”

  Austin set his dark eyes on me and he smiled wickedly. “Heard you broke up with that tool you were seeing.”

  “Not that it’s any of your fucking business.”

  “Just trying to figure out why you’re still acting like this.”

  “Like what?” I demanded even though I knew it was a bad idea.