Touchdown Daddy (163 page)

Owen found her there an hour later. He dropped onto the bench and stared into her broken face. “You played me for a fool, Owen.” Nadine looked at him. His face was ashen, tie askew and his hair a mess.

“I don’t want the ranch or the money, Nadine. This isn’t about that; it’s about this baby and us.” Owen assured her, as she stared silently at him. “That’s all I want.”

“How much are you getting?” Nadine asked, and he gave a ragged sigh.

“There’s a lot, but I don’t want it. The others can split it for all that I care. I love you,” Owen insisted, as he tried to touch her.

“Stop it,” Nadine told him, as she started crying again. She tried to insist on staying there, but Owen made her go back to the house and made sure that she was safe before he left for the night. Nadine wasn’t caving and refused to talk to him as she closed the door to the spare bedroom in his face.

Nadine had an appointment the following day for the baby, and they drove silently together. Nadine would never refuse him the chance to share in his child’s development, but she no longer trusted his motives with her. The technician doing the ultrasound smiled at them as she asked if they wanted to know what they were having since it was already pretty clear. “Yes,” Owen told her, as he tried to take Nadine’s hand. She dropped it, and the girl looked between the two of them with curious eyes.

“It’s not one hundred percent coming from me, but you are having a girl.” The petite brunette showed them and Nadine felt her joy diffuse some of her disappointment at Owen.

They went right back to the house, and Owen left Nadine watching something on television with Cindy. The girl kept looking at her, and Nadine finally stared back at her. “What?”

“They’re wrong about Owen. Tommy and Jacob are wrong. He loves you,” Cindy told her. Nadine frowned. She was so young. How could she know that? “He talks about you a lot. Owen loves you, Nadine. He has never cared about the money more than you.”

“Why didn’t he tell me about it before they did?” Nadine asked her, and Cindy gave her a wide-eyed stare.

“You have to ask me that?” Cindy’s face showed her that the reaction would’ve initially been the same on Nadine’s part, and she knew that Cindy was right.

Nadine’s face fell as she dropped lower onto the couch and stroked her belly gently. There was a bump there now, and she sighed as she felt something move inside of her again. “I just felt the baby. She just moved.”

Marilyn heard her and rushed into the room as a tear slid down Nadine's cheek. “Cindy’s right, you know. That boy loves you more than he’s loved anything else apart from me.”

“I just wish I would’ve heard it from him. I have so much doubt.” Nadine whispered as Marilyn and Cindy pressed against her stomach with soft touches. “I need some time to think about this.”

While she didn’t leave the state, Nadine also kept to herself for the next week or two. Her pain was evident in her face, and Owen finally called a meeting with his brothers to discuss the will. He told them that he wanted to split the money and give them the ranch as long as they set aside some money for Cindy. Owen planned on moving away from the house and starting anew.

Tommy and Jacob stared at him as he dropped his gaze to the floor in the home office. “You’re having a baby, Owen. That gives you everything.”

“I never wanted the money. I only wanted Nadine and our baby, and I don’t even have that. I’ll just take my share and figure something out.” His voice showed the sadness he was feeling, and his brothers shared a long look. “Let’s plan a meeting with the lawyer and get that set up.”

He left the house feeling broken and lost. Owen decides to go to the rodeo even though that’s what had started all of this, but it normally soothed him and distracted him from the things on his mind.

After a few beers, Owen ran into some friends talking about the amateur bull contest  happening in an hour. He decided that it was a perfect distraction. They all went over to the guy running it, and Owen threw his name into the mix. He’d ridden a bull a few times and prided himself in his talent, even asking for one of the wilder animals.

Nadine overheard Tommy and Jacob talking with Marilyn in the kitchen after a nap and walked right into the room. “He’s splitting up the money?” she demanded, and Tommy nodded.

“I don’t even think he wanted that, but fair is fair. He loves you, Nadine. I’ve never seen him like this with a woman before.” Tommy shook his head. “I assumed all wrong, and I’m sorry.”

“Where is he?” Nadine asked as Jacob frowned.

“I heard he’s down at the rodeo acting a fool.”

“Damn it,” Nadine cursed and looked at Marilyn. “Can I use your car? I need to talk to him.”

“Go get your man.” Marilyn smiled as she walked over to get the keys.

Nadine didn’t even freshen up before she left the house in her torn jeans and pale pink t-shirt. She just needed to fix everything. Nadine drove as carefully as she could in the luxurious SUV and parked in the back instead of wasting time finding somewhere closer. She needed to find Owen and tell him that she loved him and that she wanted them to be a family.

Running through the crowd she heard sirens, but Nadine went right to the sounds of cheering to find someone riding a bull. “Nadine? What are you doing here?” She turned to see Cole, who looked stunned to see her.

“Owen James. Where is he?” she demanded as his face fell and he looked around the crowd.

“He just rode and got thrown off. He’s on his way to the hospital,” Cole told her and tilted his head. “Are you with him now?”

“I will be. What hospital?” Nadine asked, and made a mental note to herself as she tore through the crowd to the car. She took a moment to figure out the fancy GPS system before she was on her way through the light traffic as tears slid down her cheeks. Marilyn called as she was driving and Nadine told her what had happened in a flood of tears before she took a sharp right when the robotic voice told her to.

The hospital loomed before her, and Nadine parked quickly and ran inside to a nurse’s station, demanding to know about Owen. The woman told her to calm down as she checked a computer and informed Nadine that Owen was on the second floor of the building, and they could help her up there.

Nadine ran to the elevator and paced as she waited for the car. The baby was moving, and Nadine wondered if she could feel her mother’s stress. At that station, Nadine was joined by Marilyn and her children and they found out that Owen was admitted unconscious with a concussion after a violent ride on the bull. They went to his room, and Marilyn consulted with a doctor while Nadine crept in there to see him alone as she waited for any word.

Owen looked painfully bruised and asleep as she looked at the monitors that he was hooked up to. “Please wake up, Owen. I love you, and we both need you. I know that you weren’t after the money, and I’m so sorry for thinking that and...letting this happen. Please come back to me.” She dropped into the chair and took his hand as she cried against the mattress and prayed for his recovery.

The room slowly filled with family and friends, but nobody moved Nadine from her vigil by his bedside. She could see how loved Owen was by the community, despite his concerns when they had first met. It seemed like days, but Owen opened his eyes only a few hours later and looked around the room before his blurry eyes settled on Nadine at his side. “You’re here.”

“What were you trying to do with that bull? Kill yourself?” Nadine asked him, as Marilyn chuckled and shook his head.

“You took the words right from my mouth,” Marilyn told her, as the rest of the room laughed.

“I wasn’t thinking straight. Am I okay?” he asked, as he clutched her hand tighter.

“You will be, but don’t even think of being that stupid ever again. Our daughter needs you. I need you.” Nadine smiled and cried as he looked at her with wide eyes.

“Does that mean what I think it does?” he cautiously asked her, and she nodded tearfully.

“I love you, Owen,” Nadine pledged in front of the entire room to sounds of gasps and murmurs. “I never want to be without you ever again.”

“Nadine Parson, will you marry me? I want to be a family, and I need you as my wife. I need you by my side forever,” Owen asked her, and she cried and nodded.

“Yes, I want that. I want you.” She gingerly stood to kiss him as he apologized for not having a ring. The witnesses cheered as she smiled and kissed him.

“I don’t care about any of that, Owen James. I am sorry that I doubted you, my love.”

As he kissed her, Nadine knew that she’d found her forever in Texas. Warmth filled her veins.

Texas. Who would’ve ever guessed?

*****

THE END

Bonus Book 35: Heat, Hockey and Two Werewolves

By:
Eliza Moon

Description

A curvy witch who is also an artist PLUS two sexy Werewolves who want her PLUS a hot hockey game!

The only thing Piper Diamond wants to do with hockey is to stop hearing about it so much.

For this witch, gallery owner and artist, the absolute worst time to be in her hometown of Uphoria, Alberta is when the town hosts the Werewolf League games, resulting in hockey permeating every aspect of her life. Even her normally attentive, sexy Werewolf mate, Baxter, loses his head during the hockey season and eats, sleeps and breathes hockey.

But when the hunky center forward of Uphoria's home team, Patrick Giles, wants Piper and Baxter for his
trois amour
, a three-way mating group, Piper's interest in hockey suddenly skyrockets. Even though Patrick is sexy and Baxter is more than willing to have him join them, Piper's not certain that she can commit to a relationship with another Werewolf.

Unfortunately she doesn't have much time to think about her love life. Her gallery is in financial trouble and it's all she can do to keep warlock Thor Wragge from buying it and turning her dreams into cheap reproductions. Things don't get any easier when the gallery becomes a target for vandals and burglars, so Piper has to decide what she really wants from life.

Piper Diamond tried to ignore her mate, Baxter, as he sighed, rubbing his thumbs in small circles at the base of her neck. He always knew just the right way to touch her to ease the tension in her spine. His musky Wolf scent so close to her stirred desire like it always did, but right at this moment, he wasn't after sex.

Instead, his eyes were sad and droopy, his mouth downturned, trying to convince her to do something
far
different. And far less exciting.

"
Please
come to the game with me."

"Baxter, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I have all this work to do," she gestured to the receipts and invoices strewn over her desk. "And because I don't want to. You'll have more fun without me, anyway."

It was the Wolf League playoffs in Uphoria, Alberta. Winter howled outside and the windows rattled as sand-like grains of snow beat against them. And it always led people to bundle up in woolen hats and parkas to brave the frigid temperatures, so that they could sit in a freezing cold hockey arena and watch a bunch of Werewolves skate around on the ice, slapping around a puck with their little sticks.

Hockey season was the worst season in Piper's opinion. Though she could easily summon up a small dragon to keep her hands toasty in the arena, she just didn't see the appeal of the sport. Not a very Canadian attitude, as Baxter repeatedly told her.

When it came to hockey, the only delightful parts of watching a sports game–the rippling muscles of the athletes–were hidden beneath layers of padding and fur. Boring.

What made it even more unbearable was that while the playoffs happened, they were all anybody in Uphoria, especially Baxter, would talk about. Piper couldn't even walk down the street without hearing fights over the finer points of what happened in the last game.

Baxter leaned over her, nibbling at her neck. She tried to ignore the tingle that it created, focusing on her bookkeeping papers.

"You have been pouring over these books for hours," Baxter nipped at her earlobe, his steamy breath in her ear. "If you come with me, I can make it really worth your time…"

Piper swept her blue-and-purple hair out of her eyes and turned to her mate. As a Werewolf, he was able to shift forms at will and either be a man with firm muscles, dark hair, dark eyes, and a Latino complexion, or a humanoid wolf with hairy, clawed feet, hands the size of dinner plates and boundless muscles that rippled under gleaming fur the color of midnight.

"You'll be able to enjoy the game better without me," Piper repeated. "The gallery is in the red again, I'm not sure how I'll make rent. It seems every time I break even, something happens and I'm in debt again."

Baxter caught the arms of her swivel chair, trapping her. "Piper Diamond, you get your delicious ass out of this chair this instant. You need something to distract you, and you know how… desirous I get after we win a game."

"You're insisting, aren't you?"

Baxter nodded, and Piper wrapped her arms around his neck. He rarely insisted on anything, and so she knew that this was very important to him. "Okay. I'll go. On one condition. If we lose, you don't start pouting."

Baxter flicked his tongue across her lips and she opened them readily and moaned.

"I'll get your coat," he whispered, slipping away from her grasp.

Piper smiled at him. She really did not want to go watch hockey, even though she had to admit the sex after Uphoria won a game and Baxter was all hopped up on adrenaline and excitement, was always mind-blowing. But Baxter was right, as he usually was. She needed a distraction and hockey was better than sitting around stressing.

They had been mates since senior prom night. Neither of them had really understood just how permanent Werewolf mating actually was. They had been hormone-fueled teenagers with their heads in the clouds, lost in a night of music and dance.

They hadn't even known each other prior to that night.

Nobody had asked Piper to prom. She was the high school's fat-girl that nobody noticed, except for when she snuck candy into Mr. Breton's oh-so-boring History of Magic in the Americas class. She wasn't the only one eating chocolate while Breton droned on and on, but she was the only one the other students seemed to notice. Back then, Piper hated her body, bouncing from diet to diet, her weight yo-yoed like crazy, making her constantly sick.

She hadn't even wanted to go to prom, but her mother wanted her to go. Her mother had just stopped chemotherapy and so Piper had agreed. During a slow song, Piper was making up an exciting story to tell her mother about how much fun she had when Baxter approached. He complimented one of her art pieces that was displayed in the school hall. Talking lead to kissing, intense and fiery.

Piper was still not entirely certain how or why it happened, but before the end of the night, they were in the backseat of his car, clumsy, awkward, but with no second thoughts.

It had been a mistake.

But it was the best mistake Piper had ever made. Baxter was the sweetest, most attentive mate she could ever hope to find. Even though knowing that she was his mate for life scared the shit out of her at first, it didn't take long for her to truly fall in love with him.

"I love you," she said, leaning against him for warmth as they scampered out to the car.

Baxter kissed the top of her head. "I love you, too."

***

The game, as Piper had predicted, had Baxter jumping from his seat, swearing like a sailor at the referee every few minutes, cheering and stomping his feet every other time. He wasn’t the only one, either.

Piper watched him with a smile, only half paying attention to the game. On the rink, two teams of Werewolves, both in their beast's forms, faced off, snarling and slamming into each other. The Wolf League games were notoriously more violent than the ones humans played and it was common for the ice to stain red.

"There he goes, there he goes!" Baxter screamed, pulling Piper to her feet.

The center forward for the Uphoria team had the puck. Skating so quickly that it was hard to keep her eyes on him, he zig-zagged through the opposing team players. Baxter screamed so loud his voice grew hoarse.

In that instant, as though she had called his name, the center forward looked up. His wolfish face was twisted into a snarl, white teeth flashing in the arena lights. Brown eyes burrowed into hers and he winked with a distinctive nod of his head.

There was a flash of movement and a roar of approval from the crowd. Piper strained to see what had happened. A buzzer went off, announcing the end of the game. Or at least, she hoped it was. Her cheeks were flushed all of a sudden, her pulse quickening.

"We won!" Baxter shouted, jumping up and down. "We won!"

Piper applauded half-heartedly. Her gaze continued to follow the center forward, but he didn't look back at her.

***

The next morning Piper yawned as she flipped the sign in the window of her art gallery from closed to open. After the game had finished, she and Baxter had celebrated with a few beers when they got back to the house her father had given to them as a gift after they graduated from college. The bottles were still sitting on the kitchen table, abandoned when Baxter had begun kissing her.

Winning the game had made Baxter more passionate than normal and he had given her a night that made her forget all about that odd wink at the game–unfortunately, it had also given her only a couple hours of sleep.

Piper walked around her little gallery, admiring the pieces of local art on display. As the host for the Wolf League playoffs, Uphoria always experienced an influx of tourists during the hockey season. This usually also brought in a couple extra thousand dollars and helped offset the unpleasantness of the season.

It had always been a dream to own a big grand gallery in the city, but Baxter was a hometown guy. Even though they tried out the city for a few years while they were in college, Piper could tell he was miserable and willingly came back to Uphoria.

Even with her father's gift of a house to help them get on their feet, Piper had rapidly gone through her savings to open up this small gallery. Though she always managed to break even every month, keeping her business afloat was no easy task.

Nobody appreciates the lovingly painted strokes of a real brush these days. They only want those cheap knockoffs Thor Wragge sells.

Speak of the devil. The tinkling of the bell announced a visitor and even before she saw him, she recognized the slimy, greedy aura of Thor Wragge.

Wragge owned a knockoff art souvenir shop directly across the street from her. He even
dared
to refer to as a gallery! The mindless could find any number of replicas of famous pieces of art over there, from
The Mona Lisa
to kits that would instantly paint any room like the Sistine Chapel.

Wragge had a setup in his basement that constantly put out his rip-offs via magic, but there
technically
wasn't anything illegal about it, as he never claimed to sell the originals. It was just bad taste and lack of originality.

"Can I do something for you, Wragge?"

Piper refused to call him by his first name. Whether it had been him or his parents to arrogantly give him his name, he was no God of Thunder. He was a powerful warlock, yes. He was attractive enough with neat, sandy-brown hair and brown eyes, but he wasn't even of Norse descent.

"I just thought I'd come over and take a look around. I've been getting so many customers lately that I need a nice, quiet place to think." Wragge flashed a smile at her.

Piper bristled. She had seen the steady stream of customers in and out of Wragge's shop. In the last three days, she had had four. But that didn't matter. One of them had bought a thousand-dollar sculpture and that was worth the hours of sitting in the back, working on her own art while listening for the bells announcing a customer's arrival.

"If you're here to offer to buy me out again, forget it." Piper folded her arms across her chest, squashing her breasts down. They were large, like the rest of her and Wragge had a tendency to ogle them.

Piper was glad that Baxter wasn't here–the last time he had faced off with Wragge, he'd nearly attacked the man. Baxter already had a difficult enough time finding a job simply because he was a Werewolf. He didn't need jail time to make it even worse.

"You say that every time," Wragge smiled a toothy grin at her. "It's such a delightful little shop. I could do such wonders with all this. And you. It's a shame all that potential is wasted."

Heat rushed to Piper's face and she glowered. "Get out."

Wragge smirked and left.