CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Brooklyn

I sat at the kitchen table, looking around with a peaceful contentment. Upstairs, I could hear Parker playing with her new Christmas gift. It didn’t seem possible that it was Christmas already, but it was. I couldn’t forget about last time.

“Look at it go!” she called out.

“Yeah! It’s great,” a low male voice replied. Trust Riley to be even more excited about it than she is. The smile lifted the corners of my mouth. I leaned back in the chair and listened to the happy sounds of my house: Parker giggling, birds in the trees. Someone’s footsteps, coming down the stairs.

“Brooks?” the low voice said behind me. I hung my head backwards.

“Yes?”

Riley bent over and planted his lips on my own. I shivered at even that small contact with him.

“There you are,” he said. “I was just looking for you.”

“Mm?” I twisted round so I could look into those stunning dark eyes. The eyes that had got to me from the first day I saw him—if I was honest about it.

“I wanted to ask if you’re sure about our decision.”

I blinked at him. “You mean, the one about the profits? Of course.”

His grin looked relieved. “Good.”

I laughed. “Riley, my dear…it’s your business. I don’t pretend to have any say in what you do with it.”

He sighed. “But sweetheart—you’re the reason it could happen. We’re all equal partners. That’s what I said in the beginning.” It was—when he put up my property as collateral, a year ago. But things have changed so much since then, and he hadn’t known then about Cliff being involved too.

“I know,” I said gently. “Riley, you’re able to pay back the loan with your own share, now. Anything else you do with the money from your business’s your choice.”

“I know.” He bit his lip. “But I feel bad, leaving you out. You’re the main shareholder.”

I laughed. “I didn’t do anything besides let you use my credit rating and my property for your loan. It’s not like I invested…not exactly. Besides,” I added, with a sudden small stab of pride. “Sugar and Spice Cafe is doing well.”

He beamed. “I know.”

I leaned back as his hands stroked my hair. I felt so proud. My cafe—the business I had yearned for all my life—had just started breaking even.

Looking up into his eyes, hearing Parker running her toy car over the floor, I could barely believe that this time last year I hadn’t known about any of this.

Then, I was a miserable woman in a secretarial job that wasn’t rewarding, doing my best to recover from a broken heart; also doing my best to be a mother when I’d lost sight of the most important bits of it—the bits that need tenderness.

Now, I thought with wonder, my life was different. I was the owner of a cafe, set up slowly but exactly the way I wanted it; and I was married. Really married this time.

“Brooklyn?” Riley asked, coming to stand behind my chair with his hands on my shoulders.

“Mm?” I asked.

“Your aunt—is she coming for New Year?”

“Aunt Sheena? Apparently,” I said with a smile. “She’s bringing someone with her—a new boyfriend. Name is Connell. Sounds like a good guy.”

“Your aunt’s dating? Great.”

I smiled. “It is. Good to see her happy.”

He grinned into my eyes as I tipped my head back to look up at him. “You know,” he said. “If it wasn’t for her being away last year…”

I laughed. “You mean we wouldn’t be here, together, like this?”

He nodded, eyes sparkling. “I can tell you—I wouldn’t have had the courage to invite myself to Christmas dinner, or anything else for that matter.”

“Well,” I grinned. “I think I might have invited you anyway. But we’ll never know.”

“Really?” He looked incredulously at me. “I thought you hated me!”

I sighed. “Well, I thought you infuriated me. But really, I think it was just your attractiveness that infuriated me. I didn’t want to find you sexy.”

“What?” he was grinning broadly, those warm brown eyes I loved so much sparkling with mirth. “You thought I was sexy? No way!”

I stood, and, laughing myself now, wrapped my arms around him, drawing him to me. I looked into his eyes, my own body flaring up as I felt his hard body on mine. “Yes way.”

He laughed again. “Well, I have a confession to make—me too.”

“You thought I was sexy?” I asked.

He made wide eyes at me. “How can you not know that? Woman,” he growled as he held me close. “You’re the sexiest thing I ever saw.”

I felt my heart race and I wasn’t sure how steady my voice would be when I spoke. “You flatter me,” I said.

“No,” he insisted. “Really, I don’t.”

He kissed me, his lips soft and tender on mine, tongue lapping softly at the line of my mouth. I leaned back and put my hand on the back of his neck and drew him down toward me. We were pressed so close I could feel the hardness in his trousers and my own body ached to feel him inside.

At that moment, the oven timer went. We looked at each other.

I grinned. “Dammit.”

He chuckled. “Well, we can’t really ignore that, can we?”

I shrugged. He laughed.

“Pudding!” Parker exclaimed, appearing in the kitchen. Her soft hair was tousled and she looked up at us with blue, shiny eyes.

“Okay, okay,” I said, extricating myself gently from Riley’s tender hug. “Let’s check it.”

“It’s ready!” Parker insisted from staring through the oven door as I went to fetch a toothpick to stick in the cake as a tester.

“I hope so,” Riley said, eyes twinkling.

“Oh, Riley,” Parker said, with a long-suffering air. “Of course it is.”

We both looked at her and laughed.

“Well, as it happens, you’re right,” I told her, passing her the toothpick for inspection. “See? No crumbs and things on there, are there?”

“No,” Parker said, satisfied. “Okay. We can eat.”

We all laughed. I took the cake out of the oven to cut it, watching with a lump in my throat as Parker and Riley chatted at table as if they’d known each other always.

“And my car will go faster than Stella’s. Won’t it, Riley?”

“Should do,” Riley nodded. “It’s a lighter design.”

“Uh-huh,” Parker agreed succinctly. “And hers is silly—it only has one battery inside.”

“Well then,” Riley nodded. “There you are.”

“Here we go,” I said, putting full plates before Riley and Parker, then taking mine to the end of the table. “And wishing for a very happy year ahead.”

“It’s not New Year’s yet, Mommy,” Parker pointed out succinctly. “There’s another week.”

I laughed, delighted. “Yes, you’re right. But we can still wish each other good wishes for then.”

“Good wishes!” Parker agreed, lifting her cake fork to carve off a monumental piece.

“Good wishes,” Riley agreed. He was looking at me, his eyes holding my gaze. I blushed. Without having to ask, I knew he shared my thoughts.

If this coming year is anything like the last one, it’s going to be awesome.

I never would have thought there was so much happiness coming my way. All I had to do, it seemed, was to be ready for it; open to it. Sitting in my kitchen with the warmth and friendliness surrounding me, with the sound of Parker and Riley joking together and the scent of spices and baking in my nostrils, I would not ever have imagined my life could be so full, or so happy.

All you have to do, I thought with wonder, is to open your heart to love and happiness. And when you do, they will be sure to arrive.