AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That was the last time I heard from her until the day I was drafted to the Philadelphia Kings, two months later. By then, good oldSports Centerhad already reported that she was married to the Kings owner, John Kingston.
Ashlyn
You did it, Brandon. You’re playing professional football. Congratulations.
Brandon
Thanks. Looks like John Kingston owns both of us now. Hope your happy.
BRANDON
Fifteen years later
“You doing okay, big guy?”
I look down at the teenager, who barely comes up to my chest, and cock a brow, wondering when in the hell she started to look more like a young woman and less like a little kid. “Yeah, shortcake. I’m okay,” I bluff. “Why? Don’t I look it?”
Madeline Kingston—or Lindy, as everyone now calls her—started calling mebig guythe very first time we met. Right around the time my sister, Maddie, married Lindy’smuch olderbrother, Hudson. She was still a little kid back then, but she hopped up on a couch next to me—her strawberry-blonde curls bouncing around her face, looking like her mother’s mini-me—and asked me why I was so quiet. It was the start of a strange little friendship.
Her mother and I have lived with an unspoken rule since my sister married Ashlyn’s stepson, who happens to be a year older than Ashlyn. Neither of us has ever spoken of those weeks.
Not before John Kingston died. And not once since then either.
Doesn’t mean I don’t still think about them on occasion.
Especially when her daughter is sitting next to me. The baby girl she gave birth to a few months after the death of John Kingston.
Lindy shrugs. “You look like you always do.”
“Is that a bad thing? I’ve been told I look pretty good by the ladies,” I tease, and she rolls her eyes.
“You look like you’re expecting something bad to happen. Youalwayslook like you’re expecting something bad to happen, Brandon.” She points over to where my nieces are. “They’re ponies, not tigers. The girls are fine.”
I watch Hudson hold my youngest niece, Aurora, on top of one of the brown and white ponies as it trots around the lake at the back of the yard. Baby girl is happy as can be. Aurora is a squealer. There’s no hiding when she’s happy, and she’s thrilled right now. Her smile could light up the Philadelphia skyline, it’s so damn bright. Still... “She’s little. She could fall off and get hurt.”
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end, and I feel her before she says a word.
“Like you would ever let that happen.” Ashlyn Kingston brings a pink-and-gold-dotted paper straw to her lips and sips her sweet tea. The late afternoon sun gives her a warm golden glow, and it’s impossible to look away.
Even if I should.
I will.
I just need to get my fix first.
This woman has no fucking clue what she still does to me, all these years later. I’ve chosen to keep it that way. Instead, I grunt in response.
“Relax.” She rests her palm on my shoulder, singeing my skin with her touch. “She’s safe.”
Safe.
Not a word I’llevertake for granted.
Not in this lifetime.
“Told ya,” Lindy jumps up from the chair next to me and moves next to Ashlyn. She’s the spitting image of her gorgeous mother. But then that damn devious smile that this kid is always sporting slides across her face. “Mom—Kenzie, Brynlee, and I are going for a walk around the lake. We’ll be back in a little bit.”
Ashlyn runs her hand over Lindy’s hair and shakes her head. “Do you have your cell phone?”
