Rich Prick – Tijan Page 0,120
inside.
Jade sighed. “God, he’s hot.”
I glanced at her.
Her cheeks reddened. “Not your man—though he’s hot, too.” Her eyes went to his teammate.
Ah-ha. The last time she came to visit, I now realized it hadn’t been an accident that Theo joined us for dinner.
And the night after.
And the night after that.
Why hadn’t I noticed it before? And why hadn’t Blaise told me? I needed to be looped in on this stuff. Jade had been my roommate, then my friend, then my best friend, and now my sister.
My phone buzzed.
Nate: Your man is looking ready to kill someone tonight.
I smiled.
Me: You know it. Probably envisioning your head on his opponent tonight.
Nate: Ha! Your man loves me. We both know it.
He was right.
Nate had started visiting more often, and he and Blaise had become almost joined at the hip. Nate didn’t care about the age difference in the beginning of their budding bromance. He joked that hanging with him kept my brother young, but I always thought he liked Blaise so much because Blaise enjoyed pissing off some of Nate’s friends.
Nate: You’ll be around before you fly out?
Me: Of course.
Nate: Good. Love you. I already texted Blaise good luck, and he gave me a middle finger emoji back.
Me: And then he followed it with a kissing emoji, right?
Nate: How’d you know? Wink emoji.
I laughed.
Me: No clue.
Nate: Game is starting. Stop texting me. I have to start my cheers.
That was another new tradition. My brother liked to watch Blaise’s games in a bar, and he always announced who his brother-in-law was and sent video of the entire bar cheering Blaise on. Most of the videos ended with more than a few patrons mooning the camera as well. Both Nate and Blaise assured me it was their inside joke. I wasn’t privy to it, and I didn’t think I wanted to be.
Either way, I was happy.
My brother was happy.
Blaise was happy.
His family was happy.
I felt a kick in my stomach.
Our little guy/girl was happy too.
And that, right there, was everything I could’ve asked for in life.
Another deafening cheer, and the game started.
Blaise kicked in two goals and assisted on another one.
The Falcons won.
We went to Europe. Blaise played for six more years.
Our little Zeke was followed by Crosston and Sailor—Cross a little boy, and Sailor a little girl. She was the apple of all her boys’ eyes.
No one could blame them.
“Babe.”
I woke to Blaise pressing kisses down my spine, pushing the sheets away.
I stretched, enjoying his type of alarm. It beat wails, screams, beeping sounds, toy cars being rammed into the wall, or just shrieks.
Then giggles split the air. That was the other good alarm.
I heard the little feet stampeding on the floor, and we braced, knowing we had imminent arrival in three…
Two…
The door slammed open, and Sailor appeared.
Her blond hair stuck up in the air. She had red marks around her mouth, probably juice stains, and her father’s eyes were irritated. She crossed her arms over her little chest and puffed up. “Why are you both still in bed?”
Blaise groaned. “Sail—”
“Why, Daddy?!” She clambered onto the bed, crawling to us and settling on his chest, staring down at him. He jerked his head up, mock-glaring right back.
I just waited.
This was almost a tradition now, during the off-season.
This time, Sail broke first. Her face melted, and she started giggling. “You’re funny, Daddy.”
He swept an arm up around her and rolled. She shrieked, and then the tickling started.
I slipped out of bed, making my escape. I was taking advantage. I could do with a long, hot shower by myself. Hearing another shriek/giggle, I glanced back. Blaise had Sailor in the air, pretending she was an airplane, and she was loving it.
I got into the shower, and I was loving that.
A few minutes later an arm slid around my stomach as the water pounded down. Blaise settled his hips up against mine.
“You thought you could just slip away like that?” he growled.
I laughed, noting how similar my giggle sounded to Sailor’s, but then his hand slid between my legs and my head fell back to rest against his shoulder. “The kids?”
“With my mom and Stephen.”
Well, then….
I was going to take advantage of this too.
So we did.
* * *
If you enjoyed Rich Prick, please leave a review!
They truly help so much.
* * *
Blaise and Aspen’s story is done,
but you can read more of them in Always Crew and Nate’s book!
* * *
Letter to the Reader
I’m going to be honest. I’m having a hard time writing this letter.
I tried writing it last week, and even the week before. Both times, nothing. And also, full disclosure that this letter is not going to be edited. This is coming real and raw from me, so that means it’s not going to be smooth, perfect, and all correct-like.
Gah.
This is my absolute last thing that I have to do before finishing this book. After this, I’ll get it formatted and then sent to my agent and then it’s out of my hands. I always struggle at this juncture because it’s no longer my book. It’s yours. And all the love, tears, waking hours, lack of sleep, etc, all that stuff is now put in a book form for people to either love, hate, critique, praise, or ignore.
But wow. Whoa. This book.
This book!! I loved this book on another level like I loved Ryan’s Bed. But different, you know?
That probably makes no sense, but onto the reason I’m even doing this letter in the first place.
I wanted to explain why Blaise didn’t officially confront his mom about why she didn’t tell Stephen about Blaise. I wanted to do that scene. I was planning on doing that scene. I tried to hint at her reason, her even saying a partial reason for it; but the truth is that my gut kept saying no.
I’m a writer that listens to my gut when it comes to books. Every time I don’t, I always think back to how I should’ve so I’ve learned my lessons. And with this book, it kept telling me wait, wait, wait. Then I got to Blaise’s counselor scene and it came out why he kept putting it off. I also kept thinking about the reality is that there are major issues in families that are never talked about. That’s real life.
I trusted my gut.
Blaise was just not ready to open himself to that conversation. Not yet.
All that said, I loved writing Blaise and Aspen.
I really loved writing Blaise, but I can’t promise if I’ll write more Blaise and Aspen-centric novels in the future.
And even though this book is a standalone, I introduced one of the mean guys that’ll be in Always Crew. Blaise and Aspen are in Always Crew as well. But again, who knows what will happen in the future.
I hope hope hope you enjoyed Rich Prick.
I hope you go on to enjoy the rest of the Crew Series, Nate’s book, and so many more of my books that I’ve got coming.
Thank you all so very much!
-Tijan
Acknowledgments
I’ve been wanting to write Aspen’s book for a long time, and I always felt that I needed to write her book before I could write Nate’s so expect her brother’s book soon.
Now, about Blaise.
Blaise was a total surprise to me. He first shows up in Crew Princess. At the beginning of Rich Prick, I had no idea what layers he had in him. And as I went on, I grew more and more intrigued until now when he might be one of my favorites to write.
I truly loved writing Blaise and Aspen’s story, and I hope you did as well.
Thank you to Jessica, Paige, Chris, Rochelle, Crystal, Eileen, Kim, Amy, and Susan! Thank you to Kimberly, Debra Anastasia, Helena Hunting, and Ilsa Madden-Mills. You guys all rock for constantly just putting up with me.
And last, thank you to the readers!!
Also by Tijan