Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(115)

I paused. She was absolutely right. So why was I worrying? We had this in the bag.

Relaxing, I laced our fingers together and squeezed her hand warmly. “I love you,” I said, not sure what I’d do without her.

Her grin turned playful. “Not as much as I love you.”

I laughed and kissed her full on the mouth before saying, “Not even possible.”

Her free hand crept between us and headed down. I liked where this was going and quirked an interested eyebrow, just as someone knocked on her bedroom door.

“JuJu?” Tyla called. “Can I borrow your black ankle boots?”

I met Julianna’s gaze and her shoulders fell as she removed her hand from my pants. “Yes,” she called back, quietly groaning and dropping her face to my shoulder. “Just a second.”

Dammit. With a sigh, I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling to control my hormones. “Rain check?” I guessed.

Juli stroked a couple fingers down my cheek. “Yes, I’m sorry. Tyla deserves some extra attention this morning. We kind of crashed her break-up party last night when my dad showed up.”

“Right.” I exhaled a bolstering breath. “To be continued, then.” I needed to get going to shower and change at home, anyway.

“Don’t worry, baby, I’ll see you soon enough again in philosophy class.” And then she proceeded to give me a very nice kiss goodbye.





When I made it home and slipped inside the back door, the smell of bacon greeted me. Instantly alert, I lifted my nose toward the source only to find Aspen at the stove, flipping fried eggs.

I stopped and stared at her, unable to move in fear she’d stop cooking if I did something wrong. I hadn’t seen her cook anything in nearly three months.

She grinned at me. “Good morning. Have you eaten breakfast yet? I can put some more bacon and eggs on for you.”

Oh, hell yes, please.

“Okay,” I said. “That’d be great. Thank you.”

Beau sat at the table, happily swinging his feet as he drank from a glass of orange juice. “Mama’s cooking breakfast,” he announced.

“So I see.” Pointing toward the opening of the hall, I said, “I’m just going to jump into the shower real quick. Be right back.”

“Okay,” Aspen answered, smiling congenially over her shoulder at me.

I touched her back as I passed, thanking her for…well, everything. Then I ruffled Beau’s hair and hurried from the room until I reached the nursery where I found Noel changing Lucy O’s diaper.

“Aspen’s making breakfast,” I told him, curious if he was aware of this phenomenon. She’d gone shopping yesterday with Caroline and the kids, and today she was cooking. It was almost like she was the Aspen of before.

“Shh,” he hissed meaningfully at me. “Don’t jinx it.”

I grinned as I crossed my arms over my chest before resting my back against the doorframe. “She’s really been improving lately, huh?”

My brother lifted his daughter into his arms and held her against his chest as he turned to me, his eyes full of hope and joy. “Yeah, she has. She’s been amazing. She actually asked to keep the kiddos home from the sitter today so she could watch them but…”

When he hesitated uncertainly, I nodded. “Yeah, a couple more days to let her adjust without them will be good for her.”

His shoulders relaxed as if he’d needed to hear my support to know he’d made the right decision. “I just…I’m almost afraid to believe it, but I think our Aspen might really be coming back to us.”

“About damn time,” I murmured approvingly.

He nodded. “Hell yeah.”

When Aspen called that breakfast was ready, Noel and I separated so he could go eat and I could take my shower.

Within the hour, I was clean and changed and fed and ready to start the day, feeling upbeat and positive about everything ahead of me.

With Aspen getting better, it seemed like anything was possible, like maybe I could even convince Julianna’s dad to not just approve of me being with her, but maybe even like me too.

I sped through my first class, sipping from my favorite nicked-from-Julianna to-go mug, and grew eager as I walked to philosophy the next hour, ready to see her.

Reaching the lecture hall before she did, I found a seat with plenty of open spots around it to save one for her, but she still hadn’t arrived by the time Dr. Taris showed up and began to drone on about how the thoughts of some dead guy from over a thousand years ago were relevant in today’s culture.

I glanced at the time. Geesh, Tyla must’ve been particularly needy this morning. Poor woman. By the time fifteen minutes had passed and Julianna still hadn’t arrived to class, I decided that she’d taken off for a friend-pampering day.

So I shot her a text, simply typing:





I hoped she’d at least message something back because even a few words on a screen from her were better than nothing.

Yeah, I was that far gone. Pull out the switch; I was whipped.

Once class let out, I tried to call her but the call rang through until her voice mail picked up. Frowning, I shoved my phone back into my pocket just as it rang.

“About time,” I announced, relieved she was calling back, only to realize it wasn’t Julianna. It was from home.