Fireworks: A Holiday Bad Boy Romance (29 page)

"Oh, Cora. Why didn't you just say
something? Your father simply thought you were being timid about coming to work
because you're so unsure of yourself with all this legal stuff. Remember last
summer when you helped us out and you were scared like hell you were going to
mess something up?" she laughed softly.

"Yeah. Who wouldn't be scared? Dad
fired some poor guy the first five minutes I was there." I reached for a
napkin in my glove-box and wiped at my nose. "I just don't want to let you
guys down, but I really like this guy, Mom. I need more time. More time to
spend with him, to make sure he's the one before I do something stupid."

"Then take it, baby. I'll talk to
your dad about all of it when he wakes up."

"He's going to be upset. I don't want
him taking that out on you." I sniffled and got out of the car as the
darkness started to give way to daylight. The sunrise was sure to be beautiful
and seeing that I was never up this early, I didn't want to miss it.

I walked down to the pier and let my eyes
move across the lake as my mom's voice filled my ear.

"Get mad at me?" she laughed.
"That wouldn't happen in a million years. You only see the demanding side
of your father, baby, but he treats me like a queen when no one is around.
We're just old school. I love him and would follow him anywhere. If I could
have more time at the lake when we were younger, I'd have upset my parents and
his, too, without thinking about it." She laughed again.

"Really?" I crossed my arm over
my chest.

"Absolutely. Stay out there and we'll
tape everything for you. We support you and your decisions, too, Cora. You just
need to start making more of them with your future in mind. The future you
want." She sighed. "I love you, baby. Call me later, and we'll chat
some more."

"Okay, Mom. I love you, too." I
slid my phone into my back pocket as realization washed over me. I'd completely
seen what I wanted to with my mom and dad. He was demanding and seemed to
always be in charge where she or any of us were concerned, but to hear it from
her...she liked it that way.

"Cora." Brody's voice was thick
and full of emotion.

I turned and smiled, walking toward him
and sinking into his embrace. "Hey, baby."

"Why did you leave?" He leaned
down and touched the side of my face. "Was it something I did? Something I
didn't say?"

He was so precious in his navigating our
relationship. I needed to keep that in mind as we moved forward.

"No. It was me needing to think
through what I wanted most for my future." I lifted to my toes and brushed
my lips by his. "My parents are good with me staying the rest of the
summer. I told them I might have a chance at something really great and I
wanted to explore it more."

"Oh, yeah?" A smile broke out on
his face that would rival the beauty of the sun rising across the lake just
behind me.

"Absolutely. Let's figure this
out." I squeezed him tightly to me.

"You figure it out for yourself. I
already know that I wanna try this thing between us. I want to see if forever
is really what they say it is." He brushed my hair back and gave me a
cheeky grin as my heart melted in my chest. "You know what?"

I smiled and watched him closely.
"What, baby? Tell me."

"We are totally a chick-flick right
now."

"Or a horror movie?" I laughed
as his expression changed.

"Never. Not in a million years."
He picked me up and pressed his lips to mine. Even though I was scared to death
to take another risk, a larger part of me was far too afraid not to.

It seemed to right. Too good. Like so much
more than a summer fling.

Epilogue

One
Year Later

Cora

"To us." Clay lifted his beer in
the air and smiled around the table as we all sat on the patio of the
restaurant we'd gathered at.

"To us." We all called out and
lifted our beers to hit them against one another.

It'd been a year since we all met on Lake
Havasu. A long year. A great year.

Brody wrapped an arm around my shoulders
and leaned down to kiss me. I lifted up to meet him halfway, pressing myself
against his side and deepening the kiss until we got the usual catcalls. I
moved back and smiled at everyone.

"Why are we back here at the lake
eating at a restaurant instead of having our own personal chef whip us up
something good?" I glanced over at Cindy, who was sitting in Derek's lap.
They'd gotten engaged a few months back, much to all of our surprise. Their
plans of expanding Derek's parent’s ranch and starting a small restaurant at
the front of the property had panned out over the last year, and they were
great together.

Clay and Emily had moved in together and
were looking at rings, but nothing had been planned just yet. Emily was
extremely particular about the idea of what her wedding should look like, which
shocked the shit out of all of us, seeing that she was the least likely to act
like a bridezilla. They were sitting side by side, reading something on the
beer bottle Clay held between them as I glanced their way.

Dedra was already off to dance with a
handsome football type, and Daniel wasn't able to join us due to something
related to his schooling. He had already started to pull away from the group,
but the guys almost seemed to expect it.

I'd taken on the burden of the apartment
myself, but I was rarely alone, seeing that the junior high football coach down
the road seemed to like the idea of rocking my bed most nights of the week. I
glanced up at him to find him watching me like a hawk.

"What?" I smiled and took a
quick sip of my beer.

"You. You're what." He glanced
around as his smile widened. "This place brings back so many fucking memories.
I can't imagine my life without last summer...without you."

He was a different man. One completely
committed to me, and if my mom thought my father treated her like a queen, she
hadn't seen anything yet. Brody was at my beck and call, no matter what was
going on in his own life. We supported each other in a way that made my other
friends jealous and left me breathless when I thought about it.

We hadn't talked much about marriage and
kids, though I knew our turn was coming up sooner rather than later. It was
just the natural progression of things.

"What's for dinner?" Clay stood
up and stretched. "You guys wanna order a big platter of ribs and chicken
and go out on the patio?"

"Sounds good to me." Derek stood
up and wrapped his arm back around Cindy. There was rarely any space between
the two of them when they were together. They'd have kids on the way before any
of the rest of us, no doubt.

The thought of kids caused my pulse to
race. It was a subject that I would be bringing up soon just to figure out
exactly what my handsome boyfriend thought of it.

"The baked potato casserole is stupid
good, too." Brody picked up a menu and glanced down at it. "And the
green beans. Let's just get a family style platter thing and eat until we're
stuffed.”

"And then, we can go back to mine and
Derek's cabin. I made a few desserts this afternoon before coming up
here." Cindy smiled at us, looking far too cute for her own good. She'd
put on a few pounds, which actually made her even more attractive.

"Come dance with me." Brody
tugged at my arm and I turned, following him onto the dance floor. I wrapped my
arms around his waist and smiled up at him.

"I'm glad we get these two weeks. I
need it." I pressed a kiss to his chest and snuggled against him as he
moved us around the room.

"We can come out here any time you
want to, baby. I've been thinking that once you get your license, we could look
at building a house out here. A log cabin like we both want." He brushed
his lips by the top of my head just before I moved back and looked up at him.

"I would love that. The commute would
be a bitch, but I'm thinking we could work something out with my parents to
stay with them when we were in the city for cases and meeting with
clients."

A though brushed by my mind.

"Wait. What about your job? You love
what you do with those kids." I ran my hands over his strong back and
forced myself not to squeeze his butt, though I wanted to so damn bad.

"There are schools out here, too. Did
you see that one on the left just before we pulled into town? They're going to
have an opening in the fall. I want to apply for it. If you're down with moving
out here with me."

"Are you asking me to move in with
you? To build a house with you?" Warmth flooded me as my heart skipped a
beat in my chest.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm
asking." He stopped moving and cupped my face. "I'm so scattered.
Building a house together is a little out of order, hmm?"

He turned and winked at someone, catching
my attention. I gazed to my right to find Clay walking toward the DJ booth.

"What are you guys doing?" I
turned back to find Brody on one knee in the middle of the floor. Our friends
crowded around us, and I realized that the trip to the lake hadn't been Clay's
doing, but Brody's. The handsome man on his knee before me and pulled everyone
together and set everything up for this moment.

"I never in a million years thought
that I would find someone powerful enough to make me want to give up my wanton
ways and settle down. The moment I laid eyes on you a year ago, I knew without
a doubt that you were her. I'd never been so damn scared in my life. Well,
except now."

Everyone chuckled as I tried to catch my
breath.

"I love you more than words can
express, Cora Ross. Marry me and make me the happiest man in the world. You're
that woman, baby. The only one I see anymore." His eyes were filled with
unshed tears, and I let out a soft sob as I took the ring and shook my head.

"I wouldn't be with anyone
else," I mumbled.

He stood up and pulled me into a tight
hug. "Good. I'd hate to have to kick some dude’s ass."

We laughed, and he spun me around before
letting me slide down his hard body.

"I love you, Cora." He pressed
his lips to mine, swallowing my response and overwhelming me completely. He
moved back and smiled.

"I love you, too. Only you.
Forever."

Click here to continue to my next book.

GAMED
BOX SET

By
Claire Adams

This
book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are
products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not
to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual
events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
© 2015 Claire Adams

PART 1

CHAPTER
ONE

Quinn

His
face on the magazine
cover kept eclipsing my textbook. I recognized him from high school, junior
high school actually, and the thrill of seeing him again was more exciting than
gross anatomy. I tried to tell myself it was the magazine that was grabbing my
attention. I had obsessed over the new hit multi-player online game
Dark Flag
since it came out. Owen Redd
was rising to dominance as the game's first clan leader. He was a star in the
gamer community.

And
my sister's boyfriend
, I reminded myself.

I never understood
how he put up with Sienna. She had wanted to change him from the moment they
met. My perfect sister, with her stellar G.P.A. and her driving ambition to be
a surgeon, wanted her boyfriend to be more than a gamer. I always suspected she
started dating him as a challenge. Sienna was always trying to improve,
perfect, and control the world around her. Owen struck me as another project
she took on – change the school's most popular rebel into the prom king. She
kept a framed picture of their prom court on the desk in her dorm. Owen's crown
was crooked, but he and Sienna were still together.

I wondered if she
knew he was on the cover of a magazine. Sienna would not be impressed, but it
really was a big deal. I reached for my phone.

"The studying
going well?" my roommate asked.

"Can you
believe the professor gives us a quiz at the start of every class? Seems
cruel," I said.

Darla shook her
head and laughed. "I heard he charts the quiz scores on a board."

I groaned. My
sister's name was on the top of that board and I could not help but look at it
every time I sat down to struggle through another quiz.

Darla gave my long
hair a sympathetic tug. "Have you ever considered changing your major? I
know nursing is a noble profession, but as far as I can see, you don't like
anything about it."

"I like
it," I said. "It’s just a lot of memorizing and papers and sitting
around studying new research. There's not a lot of, I don't know, action to
it."

"Well, if
you're looking for action, I heard there's a
Dark Flag
party over in the basement of the Mathematics lab,"
Darla said.

My roommate was
the opposite of me in many ways – an art major with a concentration in textiles
– but she was also a gamer. I stood up to lead the way out the door.

"Wait, you
forgot your phone," Darla stopped me. "Ugh, I think your advisor is
calling."

I looked at the
caller ID and bit my lip. Alice Bonton had a sixth sense about when I was going
to do something fun instead of study. There was no reason I couldn’t let the
call go to voicemail, except my father's nagging motto: never put off for
tomorrow what you can deal with right now.

"Ms. Alice,
how is your evening?" I asked. Darla shrugged her shoulders and left
without me.

"Quinn, I'm
glad I caught you. I mean, I'm not glad, I'm just grateful you answered your
phone," my advisor said.

"If this is
about skipping class last week, its sounds much worse than it was. I was
actually volunteering my time down at the blood drive. I just forgot to get a
volunteer form signed," I said.

"Skipping
class again? That's the fourth time this month. That's once a week. Quinn, I'm
concerned. I know this isn't the time to discuss it, but–" her voice
cracked. "I'm not sure how to do this."

"I can make
up all the work, I promise. I'm studying right now. Literally, the book is open
in front of me. I love nursing, I really do. I've just been distracted
lately." I stopped myself before I started talking about the new game. My
college advisor would not be impressed to hear how dedicated I was to a new online
game.

"When was the
last time you went home? Spent any time with your family?"

"I don't
know, fall break? So, well, I guess about a month," I said. "But I'm
going home for Thanksgiving. Sienna wants to stay on campus, but I agreed to go
home. I'm in charge of making the gravy. Sienna makes the best stuffing, but
she's only staying on campus to get a head start on studying for finals. She's
pre-med and wants to be a surgeon."

There was silence
on the other end of the line. Finally, when I had held my breath long enough to
see a few stars creeping around the edges of my vision, my advisor said,
"I know you look up to your sister, but I hope you have considered finding
your own path."

I could feel dread
hanging over the conversation. Ms. Alice's words were heavy and she struggled
to speak. The same weight settled over me. "Am I getting kicked out of the
nursing program?"

"What?"
my advisor asked. "No. I mean, I don't know, the skipping class is getting
out of hand. I just think now is a good time for you to consider what you
really want to do. You shouldn't stick with a major just because of family
expectations. Instead of following in your sister's footsteps–"

"Ms. Alice,
are you alright? Maybe I should make an appointment during your office
hours," I said. "I'm going online right now to put in the request. I
don't want to take up any more of your time this evening."

"Wait, Quinn,
I'm calling late for a reason," my advisor said. She cleared her throat
and paused again.

"Oh no!
You're right. I didn't know how late it was! I promised a friend I would cover
his shift at the front desk of our dorm. I gotta go, Ms. Alice. I'm sorry.
Thanks for your concern. We'll talk soon!" I hung up the phone and put it
down as if it burned my hand.

I was never rude
and I never lied, but I had been both to Ms. Alice for no discernible reason.
Something in her heavy tone and her pauses made me nervous. I looked at the
clock. It was past ten o'clock on a weeknight. My stomach twisted. Why would my
college advisor be calling so late?