Damaged Heart (A San Diegan Novel Book 3)

by S. M. Soto

  “I think you mean I’m the lucky one,” she whispers with a happy sparkle in her eyes.

  Just as I’m about to open my mouth and refute her claims, Natalia tosses her arms around our shoulders with a wide grin on her face.

  “Are you ladies ready to party?”

  Aliza and I grin in response, ready to celebrate the union of a strong couple that is no doubt going to last a lifetime.

  The ocean water splashes against the glass of the Marine Room, and I shift in my seat for the hundredth time, eyeing the bottle of champagne being shared around the table. I narrow my eyes at Natalia and Aliza, who are drinking from their champagne flutes with happy and carefree grins on their faces.

  “Can you guys be any less asshole-ish? Pregnant lady here,” I say, pointing down to my huge belly, “with hormones through the roof and cravings for champagne.”

  “Sorry, not sorry. I did always tell you to use condoms,” Natalia says with tsk, tsk.

  I glare daggers at her, half tempted to slap her. Alex chuckles, wrapping his arm around my waist, pulling me into his side.

  “Just one more month, baby,” he whispers in my ear. His breath tickles my neck and sends shivers down my spine.

  “Don’t let her make you feel so bad, Sam,” Luke says from across the table. “Natalia and I haven’t used condoms since—”

  “Luke!” Natalia screeches in horror. Her eyes are wide, and her face flushes an indecent shade of red, making me howl with laughter.

  “Look who’s talking, Baldoni,” I chide with an impish grin on my face. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head, dismissing me.

  Alex pats my thigh, prompting me to crane my neck back to look at him. A slow, sensual smile spreads across his face, making my brows furrow.

  “C’mon, let’s go dance,” he says with that sexy smirk, gesturing to the open area that is being used as a dance floor.

  My face goes slack and I give him a look that says, “Are you kidding?” My eyes drift down to my belly, and as if on cue, my feet start throbbing from the shoes I’ve been wearing all day.

  God, I feel like such a cow.

  “I’m huge. How the hell do you expect me to dance out there?”

  Alex tosses his head back and laughs. I narrow my eyes at him and thankfully, he stops laughing at my expense. Tucking a stray auburn lock of hair behind my ear, he stares at me lovingly.

  “We’ll make it work. We always do,” he says with a wink, and I relent.

  Just as I’m placing my palm in his hand and standing to my feet, I get the weirdest sensation between my legs.

  Then it happens.

  Like a bag of water being popped, a gush of liquid falls from between my legs, and no matter how hard I try to stop the flow, it keeps going.

  “Holy fuck.”

  “Is that…?”

  “Yes, Alex. My damn water just broke,” I snap loudly and everyone in the room turns their attention to us.

  “WHAT?” Natalia and Aliza shout in unison.

  I roll my eyes at everyone’s theatrics. It’s not like we haven’t already been through this before.

  “Someone pull the car around,” I say calmly. “Natalia and Luke, please watch Jethro like we discussed. Alex will keep you all updated.”

  “I thought we were supposed to watch him?” Aliza says, with sadness lining her voice.

  “Ohio, you just got married no more than four hours ago, I’m not going to make you watch Jethro on your wedding night. Think of this as another wedding gift.”

  She pouts, but doesn’t refute my words. CJ wraps his arm around her shoulders and whispers something in her ear that makes her smile. When no one moves from their places, my hackles rise.

  “Move it, people!” I yell, clapping my hands together for effect, making everyone scramble into motion.

  I stare down at my daughter, and for the second time in my life, I understand the term “love at first sight.” She’s the spitting image of Alex, just like her older brother, only my sweet girl has auburn hair, just like her momma. I stare down at my beautiful girl with a contented sigh. I couldn’t have asked for a better-looking family, even if I tried. Her cute little button nose is my favorite part, so far. She’s absolutely perfect.

  Gazing at her right now, a fierce sense of protectiveness overwhelms me. I want to guard this sweet and innocent baby girl with my life. I can’t ever imagine abandoning her like my mother did to me when I was a child. I want to give my kids everything I never had as a child. I want to give my babies the entire world.

  Margaret and I are in a much better place now. She comes to visit for holidays and we make extra trips down to Boston, so Jethro can get to know the only grandparent interested in being in his life.

  After Victoriana heard the news about my pregnancy, she made Alex choose: his family or me. He couldn’t have both. So he chose our family, the one we were building. Each year that passes, I can’t help but feel bad for Jethro and Alex. They’re the ones that suffer the most. I know Alex has to miss his family, it’s impossible not to, but he hasn’t tried to reach out, not since Jethro was born. The only person Alex keeps in touch with is his sister, Izzy.

  We’ve managed to repair our relationship after our horrid first encounter. I’m so happy we did, because Izabelle is the sister I’ve never had. She’s amazing with Jethro and loves her brother to pieces. That’s all a girl can ask for.

  Taking a small break from my staring at my precious little girl, I look up, finding Aliza staring at baby Elle with tears in her eyes. I was so caught up in my daughter, I didn’t even hear her come in.

  “Do you want to hold her?”

  “Yes,” she whispers. Gently, I place my daughter in my best friend’s arms and watch slowly as her composure breaks. Tears slide down her cheeks, and it makes my own burn.

  “I’m sorry, Aliza. I know this can’t be easy.”

  “No, it most certainly is not, but she’s so beautiful.” She softly runs a finger over Elle’s brow in a smooth, caressing motion. Suddenly, she looks up at me with red-rimmed eyes.

  “Cherish these moments. Don’t take any of them for granted, Sam, because one day you’re going to look back and wonder where the time went.”

  I swallow thickly, and nod my head ever so slightly. “I won’t. I promise.”

  The veil of sadness leaves her eyes and she manages a smile. “She is absolutely stunning. Congratulations, Mommy.”

  I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. “She is, isn’t she? Guess we should be thanking Alex. Those two are going to be twins, just like Jethro.”

  “I see a lot of you in her too, Sammy,” she says with a warm smile on her face.

  “You do?”

  “She has your eyes.”

  I suck my bottom lip into my mouth and bite down, too afraid to open my mouth and burst out crying.

  At the perfect time, Alex and CJ stroll into the room. Alex’s eyes immediately seek out his daughter then drift to mine. A wide smile spreads across his face.

  “How are you doing, firecracker?”

  My mouth quirks into a smile at the use of the nickname. I lift a shoulder and drift my gaze toward my daughter. My heart flutters happily.

  “I’m good. A little tired, but good.”

  Alex leans down, placing a warm kiss on my mouth. Pulling away, he runs a soft hand over my cheek.

  “How’s Jethro?” I ask, thinking about our little troublemaker. Alex chuckles with a shake of his head.

  “Luke said he was doing fine. When I called earlier, I heard him doing his battle cry in the background. Natalia is dying to see Elle. She keeps texting every two minutes. I’m not even kidding.”

  “Tell her to come up. Chase and I will trade places,” Aliza says, giving baby Elle one last, longing look before planting a kiss on my forehead, then Elle’s. “Congratulations, Mama,” she whispers, smiling at me.

  “Congratulations to you, too, you ol’ ball and chain.”

  Aliza grins widely and shifts her g
aze to CJ, who’s staring at her with fire in his eyes.

  Yup, they’re totally doing the nasty tonight.

  After the room empties out, Alex walks to the side of the bed and stares down at me and Elle with so much happiness, it makes my eyes water.

  “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but if every single one had to happen to ensure I was right here, right now, with you and our family…I’d keep making those same mistakes time and time again, because here? With you? Its everything,” I whisper hoarsely, with tears in my eyes.

  Alex clenches his eyes shut and blows out a gruff breath. His hand wraps in my hair, tugging my mouth to his in a heated kiss that leaves me breathless. It’s a kiss that preserves our past, and a kiss that’s a promise of our future.

  “Marry me,” he whispers, honey eyes searching mine.

  A smile spreads across my face, so wide, it makes my cheeks hurt.

  “I thought you’d never ask,” I say with a saccharine grin, pulling his mouth down to mine to seal the deal.

  Alexander Clark is my very own knight in shining armor, slayer of my demons, and the man who stole my entire heart. It didn’t matter that I thought my broken, damaged heart was irreparable. Alex healed me, just like he always does. He’s so much more than I deserve in this life, but he makes me feel worthy. It didn’t matter what life threw at us, because time and time again, Alex has shown me that we’re stronger together, and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt that we’d always be okay.

  My name is Samantha Faye Paisley and even though I was categorized with the ninety-nine-percenters my whole life, I’ve finally made it. I have risen above every statistic, and here I am, with my happy, healthy family, in a place I can finally call home.

  THE END

  “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”—Victor Hugo

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First off, I want to start off by thanking you, the readers. If you’ve made it this far, that means you don’t totally want to kill me for all the emotional trauma I put you through with this book baby.

  I am so, so, grateful for all the support you’ve shown me. This is only my third book, but it feels like I’ve been doing this forever, and I have you all to thank for that. Telling these stories is an absolute dream come true and I couldn’t be happier that you are all just as invested in these characters as I am.

  I also want to thank my family, for putting up with me and my shitty attitudes while dealing with these characters (mainly Samantha). The journey writing this book hasn’t been easy. There were a lot of long nights and on several occasions I wanted to rip my hair out with how frustrated these characters made me (again, mainly Samantha).

  Huge, HUGE shout out to my beta’s who helped make this story the best it could possibly be: Annette Brignac, Jennifer Moore, Michelle Clay, Zellie Holtzhausen.

  Zellie, babe, thank you for forcing me to dig deeper with these characters, you’ve been on this journey with me from day one, and I appreciate you so much more than words can ever describe.

  To the team at InkSpell, thank you for making this such an amazing experience. Melissa, thank you for believing in this story – Sam and Alex wouldn’t be here without you. <3

  Blogger babes, thank you for taking a chance on a new writer like me. Your support – every post, every like/share, every bookstagram picture means the absolute world to me. I love you all so, so, much!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  S.M. Soto was born and raised in Northern California where she currently resides with her son. Her love for reading began when she was just a young girl, and has only continued to grow into adulthood. S.M. lives for reading books in the romance genre and writing novels with relatable characters. She refers to herself as a bit of a romance junkie with a dark, and at times, depraved mind. S.M. loves to connect with readers and eat copious of donuts that will surely lead to her demise (carbs are life).

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  Stay tuned for a brand new series from S.M. Soto!

  Deception and Chaos

  Coming OCTOBER 2018

  CHECK OUT ANOTHER SAN DIEGAN NOVEL

  Luke Caldwell has three abhorrent qualities to him:

  1) He’s a pig-headed jock.

  2) He’s a grade A asshole with the biggest, overbearing ego.

  3) He’s a manwhore.

  These three qualities alone should’ve had me running for the hills. I tried to steer clear of him, I really did, but it was an impossible feat. Luke Caldwell was nothing if not persistent, and the way he bulldozed through my life, not taking no for an answer is proof of it.

  I tried to stay away from him.

  I wanted to hate him. But I couldn’t.

  Luke was nothing like the idiot jock I pegged him out to be. He became a friend, a confidant, and after one unforgettable night, he became so much more.

  Whatever this is between us, it’s impossible to ignore. I just hope when all is said and done, I won’t be burned by the college bad boy.

  Praise of the book:

  “This book is a page turner for all the college romance lovers out there, I read this book in one sitting and would highly suggest it. S.M Soto brings the perfect amount of angst with sweet.” - USA Today Best Selling Author T.L Smith

  “The best sports romance I've read this past year!" - Holly S. Roberts author of the USA TODAY Best-Selling novel "Play"

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