All I Ever Wanted
Page 33
“No.” I barked the word and I didn’t know if it shocked me or my father more.
Harvey forced an awkward laugh. “Oh, he’s not ready to think about children just yet.”
“Take your time,” Grant said. “Trust me. Nothing’s better than those days as a single young man.”
“No,” I repeated, gentler this time. “I appreciate your faith in me, but I’m not going to be coming back to Abbott Springs after graduation. I won’t be taking the position as vice president of Hale Construction, Dad, and I’m not interested in being mayor. Not right now at least. Maybe when I’m much older, but I need to live my own life first.”
My father forced a laugh. “We’ll talk about this another time, son.”
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t want to disappoint you, but this isn’t what I want for my life. I love football and I want to give a career as a pro a try.”
My father sputtered. “But you’re not even a draft prospect.”
“No one at Waskeegee Tech is a draft prospect. And I might fail,” I said with a shrug. “Or maybe I can work my ass off and earn a chance at my dream.”
“That’s amazing, Kennedy,” Harvey said. “You’re a talented young man. I had no idea you were interested in pursuing professional football. I’m pleased to hear this.”
Grant clapped his hands together. “An Abbott Springs native playing in the NFL. I like the sound of that.”
My father’s jaw was tight and I could see the frustration in his eyes. “Pipe dreams are a waste of time. Kennedy’s just feeling idealistic after a weekend with his friends. We have a legacy.”
I tucked my hands in my pockets. I thought this would be the hardest thing I’d ever done, but instead of feeling weighed down by my confession, I felt weightless. “This is something I have to do.”
“Grant, Harvey, excuse me while I talk to my son?”
“I’m sorry, Dad. I can’t talk now. I have a plane to catch.”
“A plane?”
I nodded. “I can’t let the girl I love move to Paris without telling her how I feel.” When I turned to the door, Mom was staring at me with wide eyes.
She grabbed me into a hug. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered. “You go after that life you want, Kennedy.”
I squeezed her hard in return. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Get Bree and bring her back here. You know as well as I do that she doesn’t want to be in Paris.”
“I know,” I said softly, swallowing.
“Does she love you too?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, Mom. But I’d rather take the risk and fail than never have a chance with her.”
She wiped a tear from her cheek and nodded. “Tell me if you need anything.”
After another hug, I ran back to the house, snow crunching under my feet the whole way. I wouldn’t make it to the airport in time to catch her plane but I would be right behind her. I’d find her in Paris and I would tell her how I felt.
My chest burned at the thought of what she might say, all the reasons she might turn me down. Again. But it was a risk worth taking.
When I got home, I took the stairs two at a time to my bedroom, but when I stepped in, I froze. Bree was sitting on the edge of my bed in a gray sweater and jeans that hugged her long legs, her hands folded in her lap, and I was so damn happy to see her. I just wanted to draw her into my arms and throw all my fear and longing and hope into kissing her. The moment I unfroze and took a step forward, she put up her hand to stop me.
“Back in October,” she began, and my heart sank, “I should have done it like this. I should have come to you and told you how I felt. I never should have expected you to be ready to leap when you didn’t even know there was a reason to try.”
“No, I shouldn’t have—”
She put up her hand again. “This is hard for me, Kennedy. Please let me finish?”
My chest sagged as I exhaled. “Okay.”
“You’re right about me. I take chances on people who are going to let me down. I set myself up for failure again and again. Because what if I take a chance on someone who can be trusted and even they let me down? At that point, I have to acknowledge that it’s not them. It’s me. I sabotage life by betting on the wrong things. I know that. But you have to understand that being let down by the wrong people is less painful than being let down by the right ones.”
I sat next to her on the bed and took her hand, but I stayed quiet. She needed to do this.
“I couldn’t bring myself to take a chance on you because since my mom moved away, you’ve been the best part of my life. I was afraid that if I told you how I felt—if I did it the right way—you’d reject me.”
“So you did it the wrong way,” I said quietly.
She nodded. “Impulsiveness is a scapegoat. If I hadn’t shown up naked in your bed. If I’d just told you that I’ve been in love with you since I was fifteen. If I’d told you that no matter where I’ve lived, my relationship with you has been the best part of my life. If I told you that the only place I’ve ever felt safe was in your arms. If I’d said all that and you’d still turned me down…”
Her eyes filled, and I couldn’t handle it anymore. I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her.
Aubree
One second I was spilling my heart onto the floor, and the next, he was kissing me.
He pressed his mouth against mine as his hand cupped my jaw, and I just sat there stupidly. Not pushing him away but too scared to kiss him back. Slowly he shifted our bodies so he was lowering me onto the bed. He parted my thighs with one of his.
Then he whispered my name against my lips and suddenly the fantasy was real. Hands in his hair, I slipped my tongue into his mouth and tasted him. He tasted like hot coffee and smelled like the boy I loved.
“I feel like I’ve spent half my life talking myself out of kissing you,” he whispered.
I pushed onto my elbows and narrowed my eyes at him. “You could have fooled me.”
He grinned and that little dimple appeared. If he hadn’t already turned every bone in my body to goo, that dimple would have made my knees weak. “I was a teenage boy with a sexy chick sleeping on the other side of his bedroom wall. If you knew how many fantasies your proximity fueled, you’d file a restraining order.”
I bit my lip. It was stupid how much I wanted to hear that. Needed to.
“Then sometimes you’d crawl into bed with me, and all I could do was hold you when I wanted to do so much more.”
“You could have done more,” I whispered, settling back onto his pillow. “I wouldn’t have crawled in if I hadn’t wanted you to.”
“I needed you too much, Bree. You’re the only one who ever really understood me, and I wasn’t going to lose that.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I’m still afraid of losing that, and I panicked yesterday. But today I told Dad and two city council members I was going to try for the NFL.”
“Kennedy.” Something squeezed in my chest. “I know you can do this.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe I’ll fall on my ass. But this wise chick I know was right. I have to try now.” He smoothed his thumb over my cheek. “Some decisions don’t need to be analyzed. They’re just right. I love you, Aubree Baxter. Don’t leave me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” As quickly as the words slipped from my lips, his mouth returned to mine. I loved the taste of him, the weight of his body on mine, the feel of his heat against my skin.
When he broke the kiss, he nuzzled my neck, his beard scraping the tender skin there. “You almost left too soon again,” he murmured against my neck.
“Again?” I asked, my mind fuzzy from his kiss and the feel of his body on mine.
“You left too soon back in October. If we could have talked… I’ve always wanted you, Bree. More than anyone.”
Now it was my turn to kiss him.
One kiss turned into another, and his hands in my hair became his hands under my shirt, and before long it was hours later a
nd we were naked in his bedroom, holding each other as we listened to his parents argue downstairs.
“You never asked him what he wanted,” his mom was saying.
“Of course I did.” His father’s voice boomed through the house. “Why would I do all this if he didn’t want it?”
“Because you want it,” his mom said. “You ever stop to listen to your daughter Gracie when she talks about wanting to be mayor? Or Joy when she talks about working for the company? Your son isn’t the beginning and end of your legacy.”
“Gracie wants to be mayor?” I asked Kennedy.
He shrugged and pulled me closer, the inch of air that had come between us apparently too much. “She’d be good at it. Bossy little shit.”
I grinned then sighed into his touch.
My phone buzzed on his nightstand, and Kennedy grabbed it before I could.
“It’s a text from Maya,” he said. “It says, ‘Hope you had a nice flight. We’ll miss you at the bridge tonight.’ Should I tell her you’re not moving to Paris?”
“Hmm, I guess we should get dressed and go. We can tell them then.” I climbed out of bed and grabbed my clothes. When Kennedy groaned in protest instead of following, I added, “Come on, sexy. I’ll buy you dinner at Juke’s after we go to the bridge.”
“And after that?” he asked, skimming his eyes over me as he sat up in bed.
“Oh, I think I’ll just keep you on your toes,” I whispered. “Not everything needs to be planned.”
He grabbed me around the waist and drew me forward, pressing his open mouth against my belly. “As long as it involves you, it’s plan enough.”
THE END
Marilyn Brant is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of eight novels to date, writing in the genres of contemporary women's fiction, romantic comedy, and new adult/mystery. Recently, the Illinois Association of Teachers of English selected her as their 2013 Author of the Year. As a former teacher, library staff member, freelance magazine writer, and national book reviewer, Marilyn has spent much of her life lost in literature. Her books have been featured by the Doubleday Book Club, Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Guild, BOMC2, and Rhapsody Book Club, and they've won awards such as the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart, the Booksellers' Best, and the Aspen Gold Reader's Choice. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her family, reads a lot of Jane Austen, and loves chocolate, old movies, and road trips with music blaring and the windows rolled down. Please visit her online at www.marilynbrant.com or find her on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/marilyn.brant and Twitter @marilynbrant
Some of Marilyn’s Recent Romantic Novels
On Any Given Sundae
Double Dipping
Holiday Man
Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Match
The Road to You
Caisey Quinn lives in a suburb outside of Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, daughter, and other assorted animals. She wears cowgirl boots most of the time, even to church. She is the bestselling author of the Kylie Ryans series and writes New and Young Adult books about country girls finding love in unexpected places. She can be found online at www.caiseyquinnwrites.com or on Twitter as @CaiseyQuinn where she spends entirely too much time chatting with readers, writers, and anyone who’s willing.
Other Titles by Caisey
The Kylie Ryans Series
Girl With Guitar
Girl On Tour
Girl In Love (coming in 2014)
Keep Me Still
Keep Me Still
Hold Us Close
Rhonda Helms started writing novels several years ago and loves teen and New Adult romance. She has a Master's degree in English and a Bachelor's degree in Creative Writing. She also freelance edits (visit rhondaedits.com to learn more about her services). When she isn't writing, she likes to do amateur photography, dig her toes into the sand, read for hours at a time, and eat way too much cheese. Rhonda lives in Northeast Ohio with her family, dog, and a very loud cat. Visit her at rhondahelmsbooks.com for details about her and her books. You can also find her on twitter @rhelmsbooks or Facebook at facebook.com/rhondahelmsbooks.
Coming Soon from Rhonda
Scratch, coming from Kensington Books, October 2014
A New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author, Lexi Ryan considers herself the luckiest chick she knows. Her books have been described as intense, emotional, and wickedly sexy. Lexi herself has only been described using two of those adjectives (feel free to guess but she’s not telling). When not writing, she enjoys watching football, perfecting her chocolate martini, and reading her way to the title of Biggest Romance Fangirl Evah. A former college professor, her biggest fears include faculty meetings and large stacks of ungraded freshman composition papers. She now writes full-time from her home in Indiana, where she lives with her husband and two children and their neurotic dog. You can visit Lexi at her website www.lexiryan.com or find her on Twitter @writerlexiryan or Facebook at facebook.com/lexiryanauthor.
Other Titles by Lexi Ryan
New Hope Series
Unbreak Me
Stolen Wishes: A Prequel Novella
Wish I May
Hot Contemporary Romance
Text Appeal
Invisible
Accidental Sex Goddess
Stiletto Girls Novels
Stilettos, Inc.
Invisible
Flirting with Fate
Decadence Creek Stories and Novellas
Just One Night
Invisible
Just the Way You Are
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
About this Book
All About Us
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
All I Need
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
All for Love
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
All or Nothing
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
About Marilyn Brant
About Caisey Quinn
About Rhonda Helms
About Lexi Ryan
About the Book Designer