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“I’m fine. I need to be alone. This is the first time in my life I don’t have you, a husband, or even a second husband to keep tabs on. Sometimes being alone is good.”
I’m just about to ask her if it’s so good, how come she looks so sad?
“The kids are getting on well.” Martin smiles as he comes over to join us. Mom mumbles something and then walks away.
“Was it something I said?”
I laugh. “No, nothing. I don’t know… I wish that she would come and live with us.”
“She looks like she could do with the support.”
That’s when Gia comes running over. “Martin, I need to pee. Can you take care of the kids for a minute, please? I’ll be back in a minute.”
He shakes his head. “They’re fine. You don’t need to look over them every second.”
She nods. “Okay, if you say so. I’ll just be a minute.”
I think about how much they’ve changed as she runs into the house. She has one eye on the kids and the other on where she's going.
“Whatever you did to her, I need you to do it to Noah!”
“Why? He’s fine. Don’t be too hard on my friend. Besides, I didn’t do anything to her.”
“Noah said that it had something to do with you telling her she had to check herself or stop receiving checks.”
He winks. “Maybe. And you’re right, Noah has a big mouth.”
He leaves me alone as I watch my family playing together and my man Noah acting as if he’s a great chef. I do hope that one day the two brothers can be reunited, but for now, I know that it’s one step at a time. Especially with Terence out of the picture and mom trying to deal with her broken heart, an empty bank account, and nearly ending up being homeless. She’s living in my old apartment after she told me not to sell it and that they were separating. She said that if I had paid off their apartment, then she would have had to share half of the proceeds in the divorce settlement. Luckily, he won’t be able to touch her money anymore and make her homeless. Besides, it looks as if Noah was right, and he was cheating on mom. Noah found out that he had a couple of brothers and sisters, and one of them is even younger than Richard.
I take out my phone from my back pocket.
I laugh at the message from John saying that I wrote another hit. It just flows out of me. I can’t help myself.
“Hey, sexy, are you just going to stand there all day while I do the cooking, looking after the kids, and serving our guests?” Noah asks as he grabs me from behind. I was too busy laughing at John’s message to notice that he had moved from his place by the barbecue.
“No, besides Richard thinks that he’s the big brother and just tries to fan Natalie all day long. Can you see him?”
“Yes, he’s just playing the role of big brother.”
“He needs to get in the practice.”
“Why?”
“Because we have another one on the way.”
He lifts me up in the air and says, “I’m happy, but you need to slow down so that I can put a ring on that finger.”
“Now, you’re thinking about it.”
Dan runs up to us and says, “Here take this!”
He has taken the ring off a Coke can and he gives it to Noah. I laugh at the idea of it, but Noah’s on one knee asking the magic question—the one that I’ve wanted to hear for so long. “Would you, Kylie Green, be my lawfully wedded wife?”
I sigh. “With this ring, how can I say no?”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes… just one thing. You’d better get me a better ring.”
He laughs as he hugs me. “I love you too much not to think of doing anything else.”
Maybe Martin's right. I do have him trained. I love him with all my heart, and I know that he feels the same way about me.
###The End###
Coming soon!
Single Cowboy
Jason…
I was made to stay on this farm.
There was a term in Grandpa’s will that stopped me leaving.
I didn’t want to paint him in a bad light, so I kept that part from my brother, Noah.
He thinks that I’m greedy, that I’m here for one reason.
I’m here to find a bride; I just don’t know where to start.
Until Grandpa decides that he’ll give me a helping hand.
You'll read more about Noah and Kylie in this novella coming out in June 2017.
Continue scrolling, to get my special gift to you :)
Claimed By Her Billionaire Stepbrother
Preparing to marry a man she doesn’t love, getting kidnapped the night of her engagement party is the last thing Ambra Hathaway expects. She hasn’t seen her stepbrother in three years, since the night Ethan Cartwright turned down her clumsy attempt at seduction. Why has he taken her now? Could it really be because he’s been in love with her all this time and was just waiting for her to be old enough to claim as his? She has two days to find out—and do her best to withstand his anything-but-clumsy seduction attempts.
Chapter One
“Excuse me, Miss Hathaway, but Mr. Cartwright needs you.”
Ambra turned to face the severe butler, unsurprised to see Mr. Gibbons without a smile. In the entire sixteen years she had lived in Philip Cartwright’s house, she’d never seen him smile. “Do you know what he needs? I thought he was about to make the announcement.”
Her stomach surged with nausea when she said the word, instantly forcing her to recall the occasion for which all the people were gathered in the Cartwrights’ large home. She struggled to hide her lack of enthusiasm as she awaited the butler’s response.
“He simply said it was urgent, Miss Hathaway.” Without awaiting further response, he turned on his heel, and Ambra knew she had to keep up, because once Mr. Gibbons had a mission, he fulfilled it. She expected him to lead her into a different part of the house, perhaps the solarium, where her stepfather was prepared to make the announcement of the engagement.
She couldn’t even think the word without her stomach churning, but she reminded herself again what was at stake. It didn’t matter that she didn’t love Perry Statler, and he didn’t love her. All that mattered was maintaining the company and jobs for thousands of employees.
To her surprise, Mr. Gibbons led her to the back of the house, through the kitchen, and out the back door. “What in the world is my stepfather doing out here?” A strange smile flickered across Mr. Gibbons’s face, and the sight was so unusual she flinched at the sign of amusement from the stoic man.
“Mr. Cartwright will be with you shortly.” With a small inclination of his head, he turned and left her in the backyard.
Ambra hugged herself to ward off the chill of the late fall evening, wondering what her father was planning. Technically, he was her stepfather, but had married her mother when Ambra was just five, and she had never met her real father. When her mother died three years later, he’d adopted her with minimal fuss and had honored her request to keep her last name as tribute to her dead parents.
She loved Philip Cartwright just like a father, so she was willing to indulge him in most things, including agreeing to a loveless marriage to cement the company merger. However, as much as she loved her stepfather, she wasn’t about to stand out in the cold air all night.
Ambra moved toward the back door, planning to reenter the kitchen and let her stepfather find her inside, but movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. She froze and glanced the direction from which it had come, letting out a yelp of surprise when strong arms enfolded her.
They held her tightly against them, whoever they were. She opened her mouth to scream, and a large hand clamped over her lips. As the person lifted and carried her, Ambra couldn’t quite grasp she was being kidnapped from her own backyard on the night of her engagement party. It was even more of a surprise to have the abductor shove her into the back of a limousine a second later. What kind of kidnappe
r used a limousine?
The kidnapper had placed her on the floorboard with her face pointed toward the floor, and he didn’t allow her up until the car started moving. Cautiously, her body shaking with fear, she slowly turned.
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell her abductor he was stealing the wrong person if he wanted ransom. The Cartwright fortune had dwindled over the years, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Philip would go crazy trying to rescue her, or meet the kidnapper’s demands, but they simply lacked the funds to do so.
That fled from her mind when she identified who had abducted her. Ambra couldn’t resist the urge to slap his handsome face, though it made her palm sting, and she winced as she pulled away to cradle her hand in her lap “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Ethan Cartwright?” She hadn’t seen her stepbrother in three years, not since that terribly embarrassing night she’d gone to his room, and this was the first contact after all that time? “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you turn around and take me home right now.”
“Sorry, sweet stepsister, but that isn’t in the cards for you tonight.”
She glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest when she abruptly remembered the low cut of her pink evening gown. “What’s going on? Why would you do this? I have to get back before the announcement.”
He arched a brow. “The announcement? Oh, you must mean the great announcement of your engagement to Perry Statler, heir to a toilet paper empire? How appropriate,” he said sardonically.
Her glower deepened, and she refused to allow him to see she’d had the thought herself more than once. “I don’t know why you’re acting so high and mighty, Ethan. You’re heir to a paper goods empire. Your fortune was built on Styrofoam plates and paper napkins.”
