Not overly concerned about this, she went back to practicing her air raspberries.
Joshed pushed himself back onto his knees, pulled Lily’s koala T-shirt up (one of a million gifts my parents had sent her), and blew a raspberry on her belly.
What’s her second favorite thing to blowing raspberries? Daddy blowing them on her stomach. She giggled and reached up to him.
She really was Daddy’s little girl.
Just as her T-shirt proclaimed.
He kissed her forehead. “I’m all yucky, but as soon as I finish my shower I’ll pick you up. Deal?”
Lily cooed in reply.
She and I played while he showered, my heart suddenly pounding in my chest—like the countdown clock on New Year’s Eve.
Ten. Nine. Eight…
Only in this case, it taunted me with the reminder that nine a.m. was rapidly approaching.
There would be no spectacular firework show once the clock struck midnight.
But on the bright side, Lily’s crib wouldn’t be turned into a pumpkin either.
For the past few weeks, rumors had been circulating about which teams were showing an interest in him, but while Josh chose not to talk about them, Trent had pointed out they were exactly that—rumors.
And because I didn’t want to stress out about where Josh could be moving to next, I avoided anything where I might glimpse a knock-me-on-my-arse rumor.
And that included telling my colleagues that under no circumstances, whatsoever, were they allowed to mention hockey in my presence.
To do so would not be pretty.
Naturally, I saved this announcement while holding one of Lily’s dirty diapers, so that might’ve had something to do with their total cooperation.
“If we’re lucky, San Jose will sign Daddy,” I told Lily.
But luck had nothing to do with it.
Nor did wishing on a shooting star.
But in case it did, I might have tried it. Once or twice.
Okay, thrice.
But you know what they say about three times the charm…
“And I’ve heard Vancouver’s really nice,” I told her—in case he signed with another Canadian team.
Please, please, please, if he has to join a Canadian team, make it Vancouver. Not only was it closer to San Francisco, it was the one Canadian city that didn’t suffer from brutal winters.
Maybe I should’ve also wished for that when it came to the shooting stars—as Plan B.
As Josh stepped from the bathroom, his phone rang from the kitchen table. He briefly glanced in my direction and I could’ve sworn I stopped breathing.
I could hear him talking to whoever was on the other end but was unable to hear what he was saying. I couldn’t even tell if it was good news or not.
After what felt like a hundred and twenty years, the phone call ended. Josh walked toward Lily’s room—his expression giving nothing away.
“Was that your agent?” I asked. Seven. Six. Five…
He shook his head and I released a shaky breath. “It was the Rock. They were calling me to tell me I got the internship.”
“Internship?”
“I didn’t say anything to you in case it didn’t pan out, but I’ve decided to retire from hockey.”
“You have? But I thought you weren’t ready to give it up yet.” I couldn’t believe I was actually trying to talk him out of it—what was I thinking?
I was thinking that I didn’t want him to give up on his dream, his goal, because of Lily and me. I didn’t want him to one day regret this.
He sat on the rug. “I know, but I’ve been talking to a few players who recently retired. I decided this is the right time to do it. For me. For us.” He brushed his lips against mine. “And I was talking about it to someone I know in the marketing department. They have an internship position, and because of my experience with the team and my marketing minor in college, they offered it to me. I don’t know if it will result in a permanent position, but the experience will be worth it.”
“But you’re sure this is what you want?”
“Yes, this is what I want. Of course, my agent wasn’t thrilled with the idea.”
“I bet.” Not when Josh had been making four million dollars a year.
“But since my agent isn’t the one I’m marrying and my agent isn’t the one I plan to spend the rest of my life growing old with, he doesn’t have a lot of say in my decision.”
Josh lowered his head to mine, this time giving me a deeper, longer lasting kiss than the last one.
And those fireworks? The ones that lit up the night sky at the end of the New Year’s countdown?
They had nothing on the ones going off in my body.
After a few minutes, Josh ended the kiss, resting his forehead against mine. “That was definitely worth ending my hockey career for. You’re worth ending it for.”
And for the first time since Josh proposed to me, I could finally fully breathe—knowing the man I loved would always be there, by my side.
Knowing that each night I went to sleep and each morning when I woke up, he would be there. Always.
Knowing Josh wouldn’t be sacrificing what he loved to make Lily and me happy.
He was doing what was right for him and what was right for us.
As a family.
Epilogue
Josh
Five and a Half Months Later
Whoever said Christmas was for kids was wrong. Because when you were a ten-month-old baby, Christmas was totally for the parents.
That’s right, Lily was almost a year old. And today she would be experiencing Santa for the first time. She had already seen him at the mall a few times but had no idea of his significance. She had been more excited with the pretty, shiny Christmas tree decorations.
Had she already joined the throngs of kids waiting to see Santa at the mall? Nope—we wanted her first experience with the guy to be less traumatic.
Don’t believe me that Santa could cause PTSD? The next time you see him at the mall, grab some popcorn and watch. Mothers love to get photos of their kids sitting on the big guy’s lap. But babies and young kids don’t always share the sentiment. The instant the baby realizes he’s on a stranger’s lap, he starts bawling. And that is the wonderful photo now gracing the family’s Christmas cards.
Plus we didn’t want to risk Lily ending up with an overheated guy in a red suit who couldn’t stand kids. He was only doing it to earn some “easy” cash during the holidays. We wanted someone who was excited to play the role, and we wanted to avoid the stressed-out craziness.
But most of all—we wanted Lily’s first Christmas to be special.
So that brought us to why we were here at Trent’s sister’s house. Erin and her husband were having a Christmas party for their fourteen-month-old daughter and her toddler friends. Their house looked like Christmas had exploded all over the place, in the most awesome way.
I placed Lily on the floor. As soon as her knees touched the carpet, she was crawling toward the tree—and to one glittery decoration in particular. Good luck to her future fiancé. If this was any indication, she’d be wanting a large sparkly engagement ring.
Speaking of engagement rings—I made my way over to Trent, who was by the wingback chair near the window. He didn’t see me approach. He was too busy staring at his girlfriend, who was talking to Holly.
Kelsey glanced in our direction, and from the way she suddenly blushed, she too hadn’t missed the heat in his eyes. She quickly looked away and answered whatever Holly had just asked her. Did I care what Holly had said? No—I was preoccupied with fantasizing about what I wanted to do to her tonight, once our daughter was asleep.
“Did you get it?” I asked Trent, keeping my voice low.
He nodded, knowing exactly what it I was referring to.
Trent had decided that he didn’t need to date Kelsey for several years to know he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. The “it”? An engagement ring.
&nb
sp; “Have you seen Travis yet?” I asked, still keeping my voice low so the kids didn’t overhear me.
“He’s getting changed now.”
Who was playing Santa’s helper? The image of Holly in a sexy red-and-white dress and thigh-high boots popped into my head. Yep, this was my new sexual fantasy for the next two weeks.
Hey, what did you expect? When it came to Holly, I was horny 24-7. Only now I didn’t have to suffer while on road trips. I got to come home to my living fantasy every night.
Yes—life was great.
Except for one thing.
Holly hadn’t settled on a date yet for our wedding, even though we’d been engaged for seven months. That wasn’t to say her mother and my grandmother hadn’t hinted loudly that we should decide on one soon.
Holly scooped up our daughter, and the two of them and Kelsey joined Trent and me.
Kelsey wrapped her arms around Trent’s neck and gave him a kid-friendly kiss. “Having fun yet?”
He leaned down, his mouth close to her ear, presumably to tell her something. Whatever it might’ve been was not kid-friendly, if Kelsey’s new round of blushing was any indication.
“Da da da da,” Lily said and gave me a toothless grin.
Don’t get too excited. She also liked to call me “ma ma.”
“Can you keep an eye on her while I help Santa?” Holly asked me, then handed the little princess off and kissed my cheek.
“Da da,” Lily said to Holly.
“I’m hoping Santa’s helper will do a lot more to me later than just kiss me on the cheek,” I told Holly, not worrying about scarring Lily for life with that comment.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a lot more planned for later.” She kissed the top of Lily’s head. “Once we get this one to bed.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
Lily giggled. “Ma ma ma.”
“Okay, sweetie,” Holly said to her. “I’ll be back in a few minutes with Santa.” She looked between us. “You think you two can keep out of trouble while I’m gone?”
“Define keeping out of trouble,” I said with a smirk.
She rolled her eyes and disappeared into the hallway with Kelsey.
Kelsey returned a few minutes later with her camera. “Okay, boys and girls,” she said to the five toddlers dancing in the center of the living room to the kids’ Christmas music. “Are you ready to see Santa?”
The toddlers stopped moving, mostly because Erin had turned off the music. They looked at Kelsey with their adorably clueless expressions. None of them knew who Santa was.
The best thing about that age? It didn’t take much to get them excited. Their parents cheered as if this was the best news they’d ever heard, and the kids jumped up and down in excitement.
So. Fucking. Cute.
Holly walked in with Travis close behind. And no—she wasn’t wearing a sexy Santa’s helper outfit. She had on her navy wraparound dress and a bright red elf hat with white trim. But either way, she still looked hot as hell.
On the other hand, I had to choke back a laugh when it came to Travis. Clearly his Santa’s outfit had been designed for someone who wasn’t six-three. And the beard didn’t look too comfy, especially for a guy who never even bothered growing a playoff beard. The extra stuffing around his middle was pretty amusing too, given his muscular build.
But if his size intimidated the toddlers, they didn’t show it. They just stared at him, unsure what to do next. If anything, Travis was the one who seemed a little nervous. Amazing how a rowdy bunch of toddlers could have that effect on a man.
Travis sat on the wingback chair, and one by one the toddlers visited with him.
Finally it was Lily’s turn. Holly placed our daughter on Santa’s lap.
Lily reached up and managed to tangle her small fingers in his beard, then yanked the white strands. “Da da da.”
“I think she’s saying her daddy needs to grow a beard,” Travis said and threw in a few “Ho ho hos” for added effect.
Holly laughed. “That’s okay. I’m perfectly happy with him the way he is.”
I pulled her against me and murmured in her ear. “Perfectly happy with me enough to finally pick a wedding date? Because I want to spend every day of my life with you, and I’m more than ready to make it official.” My voice turned husky for the next part. “And I’m ready to spend our honeymoon with me fucking you so much, you won’t have the energy or desire to leave our room. That, Hot Stuff, is a promise.”
The tremor of her body? Yep—I was definitely getting to her.
“Oh, you are, are you?” she murmured back, a smile in her voice. “You make a very interesting proposition. I’ll take your promise under advisement.”
What did I crave? To put my hand on her sweet ass and pull her to me, then tell her in excruciating detail what I planned to do to her during our honeymoon.
But there were two reasons as to why I couldn’t do exactly that. One—this was a kids’ party…so having my hands on her ass was not permitted. Two—Lily’s attention span when it came to Santa would only go so far.
Santa handed Lily a present and I removed her from his lap. With her clutching the small gift, we returned to Holly.
“What do you say, sweetheart?” I said to our daughter. “You ready to convince Mummy to pick a date for our wedding?”
“Ma ma ma. Da da da.”
I chuckled. “See? Even Lily is ready for us to get married.”
Was I worried that Holly didn’t really want to marry me, and that was why she hadn’t set a date yet? No—not at all.
So why the delay? It was the idea of organizing it that had her putting it off. It wasn’t like we were just dealing with friends and family who lived in the U.S. We were dealing with two continents on the opposite side of the world from each other. Which meant it would be a nightmare to plan.
And guess where her mother was pushing for us to have the ceremony and reception.
“You know, we don’t have to have a big ceremony,” I suggested. “We can have a small one in San Francisco for our close friends and immediate family. Then we can have one reception here and one in Australia.”
Her eyes lit up. “You would be okay with that?”
“I would be okay if it was just the three of us at the justice of the peace, with Trent and Kelsey witnessing it. I just want to marry you, Holly. The rest of it isn’t important.”
She pressed her lips lightly against mine. “I love you, you know that?”
I smiled. “So I’ve heard.”
“So in that case, are you doing anything Saturday, May sixth? Because if you’re available, I would love to make it official, and let the world know how much I love you. And I definitely appreciate your way of thinking as to how we’ll spend our honeymoon.” She winked at me.
All of that got a huge grin out of me. “May sixth works for me. I can’t wait.”
Then she gave me a not-so-kid-friendly kiss.
And life? It couldn’t have been any better. Why? Because while our start as a couple hadn’t been typical, what we had between us was damn great…and it was about to get a whole lot better and keep getting better.
And that was a promise.
Other Books in By The Bay Series
Decidedly Off Limits
Best Friend Rule #1: never want the guy’s sister.
Oops.
Trent Salway is one of San Francisco’s hot up-and-coming-under-thirty bachelors. A highly successful mutual fund portfolio manager, a workaholic, and a ladies’ man, he’s got everything he could possibly want…except one thing.
Physical therapist Kelsey Quaid dumped her ex-fiancé six months ago because she was tired of not even being a distant second to his career. Which is why despite secretly crushing on her big brother’s best friend for as long as she can remember, there’s no way Kelsey can go there. One workaholic in her life is more than enough, thank you very much.
Before Kelsey’s brother leaves on his Navy SEAL mission, he asks Trent
one simple request: make sure Kelsey isn’t dating any assholes while he’s away. As Trent does his best to do just this, he and Kelsey spend more and more time together. Sparks fly, as do a few items of clothing, and the next thing they know things are getting physical between them. Now, Trent has to decide what to do about the woman he’s falling for—the one whose brother would take him down faster than he takes down the enemy. And Kelsey will have to decide if Trent is just another workaholic or if he’s decidedly off limits.
Now available
Decidedly With Love
Fake boyfriend Rule #1: never fall for your fake girlfriend.
Oops.
Emma Lovejoy runs Aphrodite’s Boutique, a store that specializes in all things love-related. A store that she adores with all her heart, and which is at risk of being shut down and replaced with a condo development.
Playboy Travis Hamilton was raised by his feisty, well-meaning grandmother, who is determined to help her grandson find The One. But when most women he meets tend to be puck bunnies or women only interested in his hockey-player income—and let’s not forget the nutcase of an ex-girlfriend—why bother?
Travis realizes only a fake girlfriend will deter his grandmother’s matchmaking scheme. Too bad the one woman who can help him is the sexy redhead who wants to assist him as much as she wants her eyeballs to be dunked in hot sauce and barbecued. To convince her, he promises to help her with her own dilemma. But sometimes fire and ice really do mix. Now Travis has to decide if love is in the air—and if together he and Emma make something hotter. Something stronger. Something real.
Available January 15, 2018
Acknowledgments
First, I want to say a big thanks to everyone who fell in love with Trent and Kelsey from Decidedly Off Limits and were excited to read Decidedly With Baby. Your enthusiasm for this book is heartwarming. This was especially true when it came to the members of my Facebook reader group (Stina’s Sweethearts). You guys are the best!
As everyone who has experienced exploding ovaries at the sight of the cover for Decidedly With Baby will agree, Okay Creations did an amazing job with designing it. I can’t thank Sarah enough for it. I also want to thank my editor Bev, as well as Hope and Jessica from Flat Earth Editing for the copyediting and proofreading. All three individuals helped make this book sparkle. Naturally, I can’t forget Brenda St. John Brown who shared her own brilliant suggestions and wisdom when it came to this book and beyond. And hugs and kisses to my wonderful publicist Nina Bocci and all the bloggers and reviewers who have fallen in love with the By the Bay series.
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