Bad Boy Best Friend - Hope Ford Page 0,29
her hands at my waist and looks up at me. “All right, what do I have to do? You don’t have homework now so I can’t do that.”
“Haha, right, I learned my lesson after you did my homework that one time and I got a C. I knew not to have you do that anymore.”
She just smiles and shrugs. “Fine, dish out my punishment. I can take it.”
She’s all smiles and I hope what I’m about to say makes her happy. “Marry me.”
Hope shines in her eyes and then she shakes her head, slapping me on the chest. “Funny.”
My hands go low on her back, holding her to me. “I’m serious. Marry me.”
“Austin, this isn’t funny.” She acts as if I’m playing a joke on her, and maybe I shouldn’t have done this as a game. So I go back to plan A.
I drop my hands from her waist and lower down to my knee. I pull the tiny box out of my pocket, open it, and hold it up to her. “I love you, Laney Gowan. More than anything. Our relationship has changed throughout the years, but every day I fall more and more in love with you. I never want us to be apart again. I want to be by your side always, I want you to have our babies, and I want to grow old with you. Will you please marry me?”
She’s not even looking at the ring. She’s looking right into my eyes and starts to cry. “Yes. God, yes. I love you, Austin.”
I stand up, pulling her into my arms and giving her a soul-searching kiss that holds promise of what’s to come. When we pull apart, I put the ring on her finger and it’s a perfect fit. We’re kissing again when I hear her dad call out, “Let’s keep it PG. We do have neighbors.”
We break apart laughing, and she runs to show her mom the ring. Jerry comes to me and pats me on the back. “Welcome to the family, son.”
I thank him and then my fiancée walks back into my arms, her body snug against mine, right where I want her to be. With me, always.
Epilogue 2
Laney
Eight Years Later
“Hey, Momma! There’s Daddy,” my daughter says, tugging on my arm.
We’re just walking out of the elementary school where I’m a kindergarten teacher and our daughter Ashley is in the first grade. And sure enough, there’s my husband. He’s standing on the sidewalk and a few of the PTA moms seem to have him cornered. Jealousy instantly flares in my belly, but he’s watching me, and I can tell he sees it. He says something to them, but his focus is on me. We walk to meet each other and I try to hid my jealousy from him. “It seems you have a fan club, husband.”
He just laughs, his arms going around me before he bends down and kisses me. “I only have eyes for you, baby.” And even when he says it, I know it’s true.
“What are you doing here, Daddy?” Ashley asks him.
“Yeah, is everything okay?” I echo.
He gets down on one knee and says to our daughter, “You know how we have our daddy/daughter date tomorrow afternoon?”
She nods her head. Of course she remembers; that’s all she’s talked about all week. “Well” Austin starts, “I thought maybe you could go over to Grandma and Grandpa’s tonight so that I could take your momma out for a date tonight?”
Excitement blooms on her face and sure enough, I spot my parents in the parking lot. Ashley is jumping up and down with excitement, and we watch as she runs off to my dad. As soon as he has his hand wrapped around Ashley’s, I turn in my husband’s arms. “What are you up to?”
“I was thinking today that we’ve both been busy lately and I need to reconnect. I’m more centered with you, Laney. You make my world right.” Austin is a man of few words, so when he bares his soul to me, I don’t take it lightly.
I have a little flash of guilt, knowing that I’ve been avoiding talking to him about something.
He takes my bag from me and holds my hand to walk toward home. We bought a house close to the school and Ashley and I walk to and from school every day. We’re quiet for a little while and I try a thousand different ways to tell him what I’ve been thinking, what’s been weighing so heavily on my mind. As soon as we get into the house, I try to shake it off. “So, what were you thinking? Where do you want to go?”
He doesn’t look at me. He pulls me into the living room and into his lap on the couch. I laugh. “What are you doing?”
He shrugs his shoulders. “This seemed to work for me the last time. Now talk to me.”
Instantly, my mind goes back to that day that I tried to end our relationship all those years ago and he wasn’t hearing it. He made me sit in his lap face to face and talk it out.
I struggle to get up, but he holds on to me. “There’s something going on with you, and I want to hear it. Tell me, baby. Are you not happy? Tell me what I need to do. I’ll do anything… but you’re not leaving me.”
His voice is raw and filled with emotion. I gasp. “Leave you? God, I would never leave you. What are you talking about?”
“I’ve felt it, Laney. You’re off, you’re not happy. Talk to me and tell me what’s going on?”
Unable to hold it back any longer, I blurt it out. “I want another baby.”
His eyes go wide and he drops his head against my chest. I stop breathing, worried that I just told him the thing I want and he’s trying to figure out a way to tell me no. We talked about only having one kid, but now I’ve changed my mind.
“Austin, talk to me.”
He lifts his head. “Baby, I thought it was something else. I thought you were unhappy with me. Why didn’t you just say so? I would love to have another baby. I didn’t want to bring it up, though, because you finally got your full-time teaching job and it’s what you’ve always wanted…”
I interrupt him. “You. You’re what I’ve always wanted. And I do, I love teaching, but I want this more. I want one more and God, I know I should want a girl, but I want a little boy, one that is just like you. I’ve pictured him in my mind so many times, Austin. I don’t know what it says about me, but I don’t care about having to take a break from teaching if it means I get to spend more time with you and our family.”
He lifts me up from a seated position and carries me down the hall to the bedroom. “You know I love you, Laney, and I’ll always give you everything you want. I want another baby with you. I want it all… with you.”
And he wraps his arms around me and proves to me just how far he’ll go to keep me happy and satisfied. I don’t know how we’ve made it this far, but my bad boy best friend has turned into the love of my life, and I’m the luckiest woman in the world.
THE END
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About the Author
Bestselling short romance author Hope Ford writes short, steamy, sweet romances. She loves tattooed, alpha men, instant love stories, and ALWAYS happily ever afters. She has over 80 books and they are all available on Amazon.
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