Bursting With Love (27 page)

THE NEXT NIGHT, after Hugh accepted his award, Savannah and Jack went to meet her family at Treat’s Manhattan apartment. The blue shirt and Jerry Garcia tie Jack had picked out with Siena and his mother was perfect for the fun evening, and Savannah wore her favorite blue minidress, which complemented Jack’s outfit nicely.

“Hugh looked so handsome accepting his award,” Savannah said.

“He looked happy, that’s for sure,” Jack said.

Savannah hung up their coats as they moved toward the voices coming from the living room. She felt like a bundle of nerves. None of her brothers had met Jack, and although she knew they’d love him as much as she did, it had been so long since she’d introduced a man to them that she found herself having flashbacks of dates she’d brought home in high school and her five brothers hunkering over them with threats and harsh stares.

“Are you okay, angel?” Jack touched her cheek as they entered the hall, and she stopped walking to look up at him.

“I’m just nervous. I know they’ll love you, but I never really know what to expect.”

Jack kissed her forehead. “I’m a big boy. I can handle anything. Don’t you worry.”

She remembered her father’s words, and as she looked at the man who had made her the happiest woman in the world, she realized how true they were.
“You can learn all the fancy skills you feel you need, but the strength and ability to survive comes from within.”

He lowered his lips to hers, and Savannah melted into his arms.

“Don’t let your brothers catch you making out before you even say hello.”

Savannah pulled back from Jack and laughed. “Riley, wow. You look radiant.” Josh’s fiancée hugged her; then she took Jack’s hand. “This is Jack.”

“So you’re the man who rocked Savannah’s world. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I think it’s the other way around. She rocked my world. I was just a bump in the road for her,” Jack teased.

Riley led them into the living room. “Look who’s here,” she called out.

Her brothers turned, and she cringed as each one of them ran their eyes up and down Jack, then across their linked hands. The ten seconds of once-overs felt like an hour.

“Jack Remington, survivor man.” Hugh extended his hand and patted Jack on the back. “Man, you have one cool job.”

“Thanks, but it doesn’t compare to yours. Congratulations on your award.” Jack didn’t seem nervous at all, and for that, Savannah was thankful.

Josh hugged Savannah and whispered, “You look happy. So I take it dating Jack is a good thing?”

“A great thing.”

Josh held out a hand to Jack as Riley snuggled against his side. “I’m Josh, Savannah’s younger brother. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Thank you, Josh. I recognize you from the picture in Savannah’s living room. I appreciate you having us over tonight, and I hope we’ll see more of each other since we’ll be neighbors.”

Savannah cringed and noticed that Treat and Dane were eavesdropping. She hadn’t had a chance to mention to her family that they were moving in together.

“Neighbors? Do you live nearby?” Josh asked.

Savannah was about to jump in when she felt a heavy hand grip her shoulder. She turned toward her father, glad for the break in the conversation. His deep tan set off his dark eyes, and Savannah noticed a little more gray in his five-o’clock shadow. He was as handsome as ever. Even at his age, he still had a commanding presence.

“Hi, Dad.”

He hugged her tight. “I’ve missed you, darlin’.”

“Me too. Dad, this is Jack. Jack, this is my father, Hal Braden.” Savannah had called her father and told him about Jack moving in. She wanted to give him a chance to say whatever he felt he needed to in private instead of springing it on him. She’d also told him about Jack’s wife and how difficult her death had been for him. Her father’s response was more than she could have hoped for—and then some.
You mother always knew that you were destined to change someone’s life, and that day you told me about Jack was the day I knew that she’d been right
. She wished she’d known her mother better. She and Jack had talked that morning about families, and Jack wanted to have children as much as she did—only she hadn’t even realized how badly she’d wanted them until she’d seen Jack with Aiden.

She watched Jack offer his hand to her father, and her father opened his arms. “Son, in this family we hug.” He patted Jack on the back and then pulled him out of earshot of her brothers, though Savannah took a step closer to hear what her father had to say.

“That’s my little girl, Jack Remington. She’s stubborn and smart and she’s the light of my life. If you hurt her, I will have no qualms setting those men on you, you hear?”

Savannah froze. She’d never heard her father speak like that to any man she’d dated.

Jack drew his shoulders back and looked right at Savannah as he spoke. “Sir, if I ever hurt her, I’ll sic them on me myself.” Then he looked at her father and said, “I adore Savannah, and I will make you proud that I’m with her.”

Her legs grew weak, and she was thankful for Treat’s arm as it wrapped around her.

“He’s a keeper, huh?” Treat kissed her cheek.

“Definitely,” she said.

Dane appeared by Jack’s side. As the founder of the Brave Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission was to educate and advocate on behalf of sharks, Dane and his girlfriend, Lacy, traveled often and sported year-round tans. Dane spent time researching and tagging sharks, and Lacy worked remotely for World Geographic as an account manager developing marketing plans for nonprofit organizations.

Dane put his arm around Jack’s shoulder, and Savannah loved to see him embracing Jack into the fold of their family.

“I know a secret,” Max said as she sidled up to Savannah’s other side with Lacy in tow. Max’s dark hair had grown just past her shoulders, and it looked much fuller than it had the last time Savannah had seen her.

Lacy handed Max a glass of water and whispered to Savannah, “I know what it is, too.” Lacy’s blond corkscrew curls hung thick and heavy over her sun-kissed, lean shoulder.

“That’s not fair,” Savannah said. She moved in close to Lacy. “Tell me,” she whispered in Lacy’s ear.

Lacy whispered, “No way.”

Max grabbed Savannah’s hand and squealed. “Oh my God. You have an infinity ring? Lacy, look. Riley, you’ve got to see this.”

Savannah felt a flush run up her neck and spread over her cheeks, still thinking about Max and Lacy’s secret. Jack wrapped his arms around Savannah’s waist and kissed her cheek.

“I feel like I’m on display with all of you looking at me.” She put her hands on top of Jack’s, took a deep breath, and said, “I asked Jack to move in with me, and he asked me to marry him.” She couldn’t stop her smile from lifting her cheeks as she added, “And I said yes.” Her brothers’ dark eyes locked on her. Each one more serious than the next.

Max, Riley, and Lacy rushed in and hugged her, laughing and
ooh
ing and
aah
ing over her ring. Savannah gushed while sharing the meaning behind the ring, “Jack said,
Diamonds, so you know how much I value our love, and the infinity symbol because my love for you is endless
.”

The girls squealed, while her brothers turned hot stares at Jack.

Jack rose to his full height. “I know it seems sudden. I have a little sister, too. Siena, she’s twenty-six.”

“Is she hot?” Hugh asked.

Savannah punched him in the arm.

“Yes, actually. She’s one of New York’s top models,” Jack said with a proud smile.

Savannah rolled her eyes at Hugh. “You’re such a pig.”

“What? Just because you’re biting the marriage bullet doesn’t mean that I have to,” Hugh said.

Jack continued. “I know it’s impetuous, and I would worry about any man who moved in with my sister and claimed to love her after such a short time, too. I understand if you’re concerned, and all I can do is tell you the truth.” He took Savannah’s hands in his. “I adore your sister. She’s the most loving woman I’ve ever met, and—”

“We don’t need those juicy details,” Dane said.

Lacy poked him in the side as he put his arm around her.

“Caring—that’s probably a better word. Generous, empathetic, funny. You all know who she is, and I love her for all the same reasons you do.” He shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got.”

Savannah couldn’t believe her brothers weren’t congratulating them and welcoming him into the family as they’d welcomed Riley, Max, and Lacy. She felt her heart deflate, and as she turned to make sure Jack was okay, she wondered why he had a stupid grin on his lips. “Why do you look so happy?” she asked in a harsh whisper.

“Savannah, I’m an older brother, too. Do you really think I’d ask you to marry me without first speaking to each of your brothers?”

She spun around and saw cocky-ass grins on her brothers’ faces.

“And your father?” Jack added.

“You…I don’t understand.” Savannah looked at her brothers’ guilty faces. “Treat?”

Treat threw an arm around Jack’s shoulder. “He’s telling you the truth, Vanny. He called Dad; then Dad gave him our numbers. You have all of our blessings.”

“But? What about those stares you guys gave him? And, Josh, what was that ruse asking about where he lived?”

“We didn’t want to expose his secret. We left that up to him to decide, and we had to play the part,” Josh answered.

She shot a look at her father. “When? How?”

“He called me yesterday afternoon,” her father said. “I’m sorry I didn’t let on when you called earlier, darlin’, but you were so excited. I didn’t want to ruin that for you.”

She turned back to Jack. “You did that?”

He nodded. “After I had lunch with my mom and sister—who, by the way, also gave us their blessing—I knew I wanted to marry you. Hell, I think I knew it when we said goodbye at the plane, but before I went to Tiffany’s, I called your father. I know how much he means to you, and I know how much your brothers do, too. I didn’t want to take a chance that I would come between you and your family.” He ran his finger down her cheek. “So I told each of them about my past, and we talked about my relationship with my family and my career. I have to say, your family is very protective of you. I think they know everything about me, including what year I went through puberty.”

“That was me.” Hugh held up his hand.

“You did that for me?” She couldn’t believe the depth of his consideration of her feelings, and the feelings of her family members.

“There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for you, angel.”

She smiled up at him and touched his cheek, knowing she’d love him even on the days that his hurt returned, because now that she knew the real Jack Remington, she understood the love that her father so desperately held on to, and she, too, was never letting go.

The End

Please enjoy a preview of the next
Love in Bloom
novel

Hearts at Play

The Bradens, Book Six

L
ove in Bloom Series

M
elissa
F
oster

KAT BURST THROUGH the stockroom doors of Old Town Tavern, nearly plowing into Brianna.

“Jeez, Kat. What the hell?” Brianna Heart had been working since noon, and she had another two hours to go before her ten-hour shift was over. She didn’t have the energy for Kat’s drama. Not tonight, when she still had to muster the energy to pick up Layla, her five-year-old daughter, from her mother’s house, get her to bed, and then make invitations for Layla’s birthday party.

“Patrick Dempsey is here. I saw him. He’s sitting at a table in the bar. Oh my God—he is even hotter in person.” Kat flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder and tapped her finger on her lip. “I wonder if he’s looking for a date.”

“Kat.” Brianna shook her head. “You’re crazy. You always think you see famous people. Not a lot of famous people are clamoring to get into Richmond, Virginia.”

“Bree, I’m telling you. I think I need to change my underwear.” She looked at Brianna and furrowed her perfectly manicured brows. “Oh, honey. Here. Let me help you with your hair. You could be the prettiest bartender slash waitress out there and you know it. Well, besides me, of course.” She began fluffing Bree’s straight, shoulder-length brown hair.

Brianna shook her head. “Please. If it is Patrick Dempsey, I’ll be the last person he’s looking at.” She wiped her hands on the little towel she kept looped over her belt at all times—because she didn’t have time to breathe, much less go searching for something to dry her hands on.

“Oh, come on, Bree. Don’t you want to get out of this place? What better way than with a famous sugar daddy?” Kat looked at her reflection in the glass and flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder.

“
Ugh
. No, thank you. The last thing Layla needs is that kind of lifestyle, and the last thing I need is to stand in the stockroom talking about fictitious people. I love you, Kat, but I gotta get out there.” She patted her back pocket. “I need the tips. Layla’s birthday is coming up.”

“I can’t believe she’s going to be six. Gosh, that went quick. What does she want?”

“A puppy, a kitten, a bigger bedroom.” Brianna sighed. “But I think I’m gonna get her a winter jacket. Kill two birds with one stone.” She winked as she headed out of the stockroom and up to the bar. A quick scan told her that Patrick Dempsey was definitely not there. She snagged the empty glasses from the bar and wiped it down.

Mack Greenley, the manager of the bar, sidled up to Brianna. She’d worked for Mack for the past five and a half years, and though she was twenty-eight and he was only thirty-eight, he’d taken her under his wing as if she were his daughter.

“Booth.” Mack was a big man with a mass of brown hair and a thick, powerful neck.

“Got it.” Bree wiped her hands on the towel, grabbed an order pad, and went to the only occupied booth in the small bar. It was Thursday night at seven o’clock. Another half hour and the bar would be packed for Major League Baseball playoffs. Brianna focused on her order pad, thinking about Layla’s birthday and wishing she could afford the time or money to get her a pet, like she wanted. But as a single mother, she couldn’t balance working fifty hours each week with taking care of Layla
and
a pet. It was just too much. She pushed the thought away and feigned a smile.

“Hi, I’m Brianna…Bree. What can I get you?”

The guy in the booth lifted his head in her direction, and Brianna’s breath caught in her throat. She felt her jaw go slack. The man’s thick, windblown dark hair looked as if someone had just run their hands through it.
While kissing his glorious lips and feeling that sexy five-o’clock shadow on her cheek. Jesus, he does look like Patrick Dempsey…on steroids.

“A sidecar and a glass of water, please,” he said.

Brianna couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t even close her damn mouth.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit
.

He cocked his head. “Are you okay?”

Are you kidding me? Does your voice have to be so damn smooth and rich? That’s so unfair
. She cleared her throat. “Yeah, sorry. Long day. One sidecar coming up.” She cursed at herself all the way back to the bar.

Kat grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the sink, their backs to way-sexier-than-Patrick-Dempsey steroid guy. “I told you,” she whispered. “Jesus, you’re lucky. What are you gonna do?”

Brianna looked over her shoulder at the handsome man.
Trouble
. That’s what she saw. She’d known men like him before. Hell, that’s how she ended up with Layla.

“Nothing. He wants a sidecar. You take it to him.” Brianna handed her the pad and went to help the woman she and Kat called Red—a slutty redhead who spent every Thursday night trolling the bar for men.

Brianna focused on making Red her cosmo. The din of the customers fell away. Her mind circled back to the Patrick Dempsey look-alike’s voice. It was so…so…different from any other man’s voice. He didn’t speak as if he were rushed, and he looked at her eyes instead of her breasts, which was also different from most of the male customers at the tavern. She started when Kat touched her shoulder.

“Bree, come on. You do it. I can’t take him from you. He’s probably a big tipper. Look at that jacket.”

Brianna glanced at the brown leather jacket hanging on the end of the booth. “It’s okay. You go. I’m good.” She handed Red a cosmo.

“Do you know who that is?” Red lifted her glass toward the handsome man.

Bree shrugged. “No idea.”
But I’m sure he’ll take you home
.

“I think that’s my date,” Red said.

Isn’t every man?
Brianna watched Kat bring him his drink. Her crimson lips spread with a flash of her sexiest smile. Brianna knew Kat’s next move. The hair flip. Then she’d touch his shoulder and…She watched Kat throw her head back in an exaggerated laugh. Brianna sighed and turned away.
He’s probably an ass
. She’d made it this long without a man dragging her through emotional hell; she wasn’t going to cave now. She pulled her shoulders back and rotated just in time to see Red sliding into the seat across from him.

ALL HUGH BRADEN wanted to do was disappear in the fog of a few drinks, then go back to his house and chill. Instead he was stuck waiting for a blind date, and with a race around the corner, there’d be no drinking for him. A beautiful woman with the most contemplative eyes and the sweetest face he’d ever seen had taken his drink order. At least he could look forward to seeing her when she brought it to him. He had planned on ordering seltzer water, but one look at her and he was unable to remember what he wanted.
Sidecar
came off his lips like he ordered it all the time, and he’d had a sidecar only once—and that was several years ago. Now he’d have to stare at the damn drink all night.

It had been a grueling day. Hugh didn’t know why he’d let his agent talk him into the stupid photo shoot, and just as he’d anticipated, it had been a painful few hours. They’d taken the photos at the track and had scheduled another shoot for Saturday morning. The photographer was cool enough, but fake smiling and posing in positions he’d never stand or sit in made his already sore body ache. Ever since he won the last three Capital Series Grand Prix races, he’d been hounded by the media.
Damn sponsor obligations
. As much as he was thankful for the sponsors, he rued the attention, and he needed another racing magazine cover like he needed another expensive car or another house.

A blond waitress set his drink on the table. “Hi. I’m Kat. Enjoy your sidecar.”

Really? This is definitely not my night
. “Thank you.” He peered around Kat, looking for the dark-haired beauty who had taken his order.
Bree
. He spotted her taking a drink order from a stocky blond man in a flannel shirt. The first thing Hugh had noticed when she’d taken his order was that she looked as if she was thinking about a hundred things and taking his order was white noise to her internal thoughts. In the space of a breath, she’d struck him as interesting, beautiful, and intense in a way that had nothing to do with sexuality— which in and of itself struck him as strange that he’d notice something like that. But he had. And now he was unable to look away as she moved from one customer to the next, focused and efficient and completely oblivious to him.

Hugh had picked the Old Town Tavern to meet the blind date because it was out of the way. A little bar with a smaller restaurant. The last thing he wanted to deal with was another group of sex-craved or money-hungry women eyeing him like they hadn’t eaten in a month and he was a big juicy steak. He’d hoped he could go unnoticed. When Brianna had finally lifted her eyes to his and her jaw dropped open, he’d worried that she’d recognized him. But she’d ditched him and sent Kat as a replacement. Hell, she hadn’t even taken a second look. He might not want to be recognized for who he was, but being noticed as a man rather than a race car driver and then rejected by Brianna was a whole different story. This was definitely not his night.

He’d accepted the damn blind date only because his buddy and crew chief, Art Cullen, had claimed he had the perfect woman for him—smart and beautiful, and best of all, she had no clue who he was. Now, as an overdeveloped redhead slid into the booth across from him, he questioned that decision.

“Hey, sugar. Are you Art’s friend?” The redhead put her glass on the table between them and ran her red fingernail around the rim of the glass. “I’m Tracie. That’s with an
I E
, not a
Y
.”

I’m going to kill Art
. Tracie looked like a dime-store hooker with overprocessed hair and a tight red dress that was three sizes too small across her rounded hips and breasts. Hugh pressed his lips together and forced himself to lift his cheeks into a smile. “Hugh. Nice to meet you.”

“Art said you were handsome, but I never expected you to look like that guy on television. McDreamy? McSteamy?”

She laughed, and Hugh sighed. At least Art had promised not to tell her what he did for a living.
No more fan girls
. Based on the other patrons’ eyes locked on the pre-playoff show on the large-screen televisions, and the lack of attention from any of the guys in the now-packed bar, Hugh assumed he was safe from being identified.
Might as well make the best of it
.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that. Patrick Dempsey,” he answered. He was already bored. He glanced at the group of guys coming into the bar, each one louder than the next as they approached the bar. The blond waitress, Kat, picked up a tip from a table, then headed back in his direction, seating two more people on her way across the floor.

Kat appeared by his side and scowled at Tracie, then flashed a smile at Hugh. “What can I get you, darlin’? Another sidecar?”

If looks could kill
.
One more drink. Then I’m out of here.

“Get us both another one. On me,” Tracie said, fluttering her false eyelashes.

On you? Right.
Women like Tracie were made of hollow offers and a boatload of needs. Not that Hugh needed anyone to buy his drinks. He eyed his untouched beverage.
Not very observant, are you?
“No. I’m good.” He nodded at his full drink, wishing he could escape the booth and sit by himself—or maybe at a table where the cute brunette would take another order he wouldn’t drink.

“My pleasure,” Tracie said.

There’s that sex-hungry stare again.
No way in hell.

“Thank you,” Hugh said, showing the manners his father, Hal Braden, an affluent thoroughbred horse breeder from Weston, Colorado, had instilled in him. With a bigger trust fund than he could ever spend, Hugh didn’t need women buying him drinks, but dealing with the wrath of a woman who felt put off would be worse. He could spare another half hour, have a drink, then politely excuse himself.

He watched Kat return to the bar and whisper to Bree. Even her name was appealing. She wiped the counter with a serious look in her eyes, served up drink after drink, and dodged a guy putting his hand on hers—“Behave, Chip,” she said with a shake of her head—all in a matter of seconds. She didn’t look at any of the men at the bar. In fact, she seemed to be purposely shifting her eyes to the counter every time a guy spoke to her. She was the only person in the bar not smiling—besides him—and Hugh wondered why.

He turned his attention back to Tracie, who was rattling on about
Grey’s Anatomy
. Hugh didn’t watch television, and after Tracie finished her next drink, he looked at his watch with a loud and purposeful groan.

“Well, Tracie, this has been nice, but I’m afraid I have to run. I’ve got an early meeting tomorrow.” He stood and extended his hand. “Thanks for coming out to meet me. I appreciate it.”

She climbed from the booth. “I don’t have my car here. A friend dropped me off. Can you drive me home?”

Are you freaking kidding me?

Kat appeared by his side again. “Leaving already?” She glanced at the fifty-dollar bill he’d left on the table.

“I’m afraid so. It’s getting late,” he said. “Thanks for everything.”

Red wrapped her arm around his, and Hugh noticed Kat’s eyes narrow.

“Right,” Kat said. She snagged the money from the table and stalked back to the bar.

As Hugh pushed the door open for Tracie to pass through, he noticed Kat and Bree watching them leave. He smiled—and this time it wasn’t forced. Kat waved. Bree turned away.

(End of Sneak Peek)

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LOVE IN BLOOM release:

HEARTS AT PLAY, The Bradens, Book Six

Love in Bloom Series
,
Book Nine