Opposites attract when a single dad and an ER nurse take a shot at finding true love in this heartwarming, heartfelt romance. Griffin Sullivan is handling the ultimate balancing act. Between being a single dad to an active six-year-old and the crazy demands of his job as a hockey coach, finding love is not in the cards. But when the team's goalie is rushed to the ER, he's immediately captivated by the gorgeous, sassy nurse on duty... who just happens to be the sister of one his players. Sadie Braddock has always had a big, open heart and a bit of a wild side. But since her dad got sick, she's closed herself off to life and love. Relationships are way too complicated--and so is Griffin. He's also funny and tender and sexy as hell. How can something that feels so right come at the worst time ever? Then again, someone to lean on may be exactly what they each need--if they're only brave enough to take the risk.
Release date:
August 14, 2018
Publisher:
Forever Yours
Print pages:
306
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It’s my birthday. I’m at my favorite bar with a giant group of friends, and my favorite local country band just played the first chords to my favorite old-school country song, so right now—in this exact moment—my life is perfect. My younger sister, Dixie, lets out a loud whoop. And my older sister, Winnie, grabs her boyfriend, Ty, and immediately pulls him onto the dance floor. I jump up and down in my cowboy boots, with the twenty or so friends who came tonight, and raise my beer in the air.
“Before we start belting this out,” says the lead singer, “I hear it’s one of our favorite local’s birthday. Sadie Braddock, get yer butt up here!”
Dixie whoops again and shoves me toward the stage. I’m not a total extrovert like her, but I’m four beers in, and it’s my motherfucking birthday so, yeah, I’m going to get up there and sing “Jolene” so hard Dolly Parton would be proud. I dance my way to the front of the crowd, and the singer pulls me up on stage. My twenty-third year is starting out perfectly.
When it’s over, a pair of big, strong hands reaches up to help me off the stage. They wrap around my waist the way they would wrap around a burrito, they’re that big. I assume it’s the bouncer, Kevin, or one of my friends, but when our eyes connect, I realize it’s not. It’s a tall, dark, and handsome stranger. Just when I thought the night could not get better.
“Happy birthday,” he says as he dips his head so I can hear him over the band.
“Thank you,” I reply with a big, bold grin. “But birthday wishes are always more heartfelt when they come with a beverage.”
He laughs at that. It’s a deep, nice sound. A man’s laugh is essential for me. It’s got to be deep, strong, and sexy, because the right guy for me is someone who will do it a lot. “I was going to offer to buy you another beer, but yours looked full.”
I eye the bottle in my hand, which is only half full, then put it to my lips and down it. When I finish and look up at him, he’s grinning like he just watched porn. “Looks are deceiving.”
He laughs again and takes my hand and leads me to the bar.
Two hours later I’ve hugged and kissed my friends goodbye and now I’m doing the same to my tall, dark stranger—only with a lot tongue. It’s a decent kiss. Not ovary-flipping, though, which is why I’m letting Dixie tug me away from him on the street outside Bourbon and Boots.
“Call me,” he demands huskily.
“Of course,” I call back as Dixie keeps pulling me down the street.
We walk arm in arm toward the subway, with Winnie and Ty trailing behind, stopping every now and then to make out. Dixie makes me tell her everything about him. “List his pros,” Dixie demands. “Besides the obvious hotness.”
“Pro—he’s a digital producer in the film industry, which sounds all techy and smart. And he owns his own condo, so he doesn’t live in his parents’ basement,” I explain, and she laughs but nods her head emphatically.
“Not bad.” Dixie nods. Her blue eyes look up at me inquisitively. “Cons?”
“Con—he’s only a year older than me,” I explain, and she frowns, but I tug on her arm. “You know I like them older. And con—the blond hair. I feel like when I date blonds it looks like I’m dating my brother. No offense, Ty and Winnie.”
I call that last thing over my shoulder to my older sister and her very blond boyfriend, but they’re too busy sucking face again to listen. I roll my eyes and turn back to Dixie. “And he loves hockey. When he asked if I was related to Jude, he was all excited.”
“Always lie and pretend you’ve never heard of Jude,” Dixie says sternly about our older brother, who plays professional hockey for the San Francisco Thunder. “That’s what I’m going to do for my internship with the team. No one is going to know I’m related to him.”
“How you going to manage that?” I ask. Dixie just finished up her degree and snagged an internship with the Thunder in their PR department.
“Same way I got the job. Using my middle name as a last name,” Dixie replies with a bright smile. “Dixie Wynn sounds way better than Braddock anyway. You should lie to people too and use your middle name.”
“Sadie Rae sounds ridiculous to me,” I reply. “Anyway, back to the dude. The kiss was okay but not OMG, which is the only reason I let you drag me away from him.”
“So the fact that I flew home from school just for your stupid birthday isn’t reason enough from keeping you from going home with a stranger?” Dixie asks in mock annoyance. “Wow. You’re such a Jude.”
I laugh so hard I snort. Our older brother is known just as much for being a giant player off the ice as he is for being a talented one on the ice. It’s actually kind of embarrassing for all of us, and we spend as much time as we can teasing him about it.
“I’m honored you came home for my birthday.” I smile at her and give her arm a squeeze. “But I’m not stupid. I think it was a little bit me and a lot about eating Mom’s food, sleeping in my comfy guest room, and using a washing machine for free.”
“That is just icing on the cake.” Dixie grins. She’s been spending the summer at school in New York taking classes so she can graduate earlier. I honestly don’t care why she came home, whether it was my birthday or the free food and laundry. I’m just happy she’s back. My siblings and I are all pretty close, no matter where any of us are living.
“Uh-huh.” I roll my eyes, but I’m smiling. I might not be willing to say it aloud, but I really miss having my whole family in the same city. Jude has been gone since he was eighteen, only coming back in the summer, and even then, he’s usually off doing his own thing, like tonight. He didn’t want to come to the bar with us. And Winnie is madly in love with Ty and spends all her free time with him. I mean, not that I have a lot of free time because I’m an ER nurse in the biggest hospital here in Toronto, but still, I wish we had more time together, so I love when we have weekends like this.
We reach the subway entrance and come to a stop. Winnie is now being carried by Ty piggyback-style, and they look stupidly happy and in love. It makes me smile, because Winnie is such a fantastic human, and before Ty she struggled a lot with self-image and realizing her worth. She jumps off his back, and he turns and grabs her in another romantic kiss, dipping her back like they’re a couple in a 1940s photo.
“Why did you agree to stay at Sadie’s tonight?” Ty groans.
“Because it’s my birthday. You can have sex tomorrow night,” I reply for her. “Or tomorrow afternoon after the family brunch. Just not at the family brunch.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” Winnie jokes back. “Accepted.”
Ty laughs. He kisses her again and then waves goodbye to all of us as he heads down into the subway and we head down the street toward the condo that I just bought.
I’m excited for tomorrow, when Jude and our parents will come over too. Then Dixie, Winnie, and I are going to the spa. It’s the perfect weekend and totally makes up for the doubles I had to pull last week to get three days off in a row. Not that I minded all that much. I love my job. Even the most grueling shift is filled with a feeling of accomplishment. All I’ve ever wanted to do was help people.
We turn the corner onto my street, and Dixie is telling us about some disastrous hookup she had back at school with some guy who made weird noises when they kissed, when I see a shadow pacing in front of my building. I instantly recognize the broad shoulders, blond hair, and the distinct gait. It’s our brother.
“What the hell are you doing here at almost one in the morning?’ I call out, halting Dixie’s story as her eyes turn to see Jude as well.
“Hey! Are you alone?” Dixie asks. “I didn’t think it was humanly possible for you to be out past midnight without some poor, deluded girl pressing her double D’s against your…”
The horrifying realization that Jude is crying hits all of us at the exact same time. It’s like having your heart sucked into the turning engine of a jet plane. Quick, terrifying, and eviscerating.
“What’s wrong?” I demand.
“I need to talk to you,” Jude says. “He’s going to tell you tomorrow, but I found out tonight and I…I can’t.”
“What happened?” Winnie asks, her face contorted in confusion just like Dixie’s and I’m sure mine is.
“I went to see Mom and Dad tonight.” He wipes angrily at his damp cheeks with the back of his hand. I’m confused again. “He went to the doctor.”
“Okay, you mean Dad went to the doctor? So?” I’m beginning to piece things together, and dread fills my chest.
He looks at each of us, slowly, intensely, and I realize he is trying to capture this moment—our soft expressions, our naïveté—because it’s going to leave. We’re never going look so unaffected again. I know this moment, I’ve seen this moment happen before a doctor diagnoses a patient or a patient reveals a diagnosis to a loved one.
I feel my whole body turn to stone and yet every fiber of my being wants to move—to flee. To run away before Jude can open his mouth. I have no idea what he’s about to say, but I know it’s going to change everything. I can feel it.
“The doctor says he has something called Lou Gehrig’s disease. Or ALS.”
Dixie grabs my hand. I hear Winnie’s sharp inhale and then nothing.
“What is that?” Dixie asks.
“What’s the cure? There’s a cure, right? Or a treatment?” Winnie demands.
“It’s not serious, right? I mean it’s manageable?” Dixie questions.
Dixie and Winnie assault him with questions, but he’s ignoring them and looking only at me. He knows I know. He’s looking at my face in desperation, wanting to see something that contradicts his own pained expression. He’s hoping I know some medical information he hasn’t found on Google. Something that will change the outcome he already knows is coming. He’s looking for hope—even a glimmer.
But I don’t have a glimmer of hope. I don’t know any miracle drug or cure or anything. I can’t say anything, can’t do anything. My father is going to die from this. It’s only a matter of when. Tears fall from Jude’s eyes again, and he starts to turn away, but I grab him and pull him into a hug.
“No,” Dixie whimpers, covering her face with her hands, so I reach out and pull her to me as well. Winnie is standing silently, shaking her head repeatedly, as her trembling hands start to dial her phone. She needs Ty. I’m so happy she has him.
Hours later, as the sun rises, we’re all sitting silently in my living room, puffy-eyed, exhausted, and devastated. We’ve scoured every website on the disease, we’ve cursed the universe, we’ve had a colossal pity party, and lastly, we’ve made a pact. We will be there for one another—and for our parents—and do whatever it takes to make his time left on this planet as painless and stress-free and filled with love as humanly possible.
As Jude and Dixie start to doze off on the couch and Winnie disappears into the guest room, I head into my bedroom and change into sweats. Pulling my phone out of the pocket of the dress I was wearing and putting it on the dresser, I notice I have a message from the guy from the bar. It feels like a lifetime ago.
He doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing matters anymore but getting the people I love, and myself, through this. I was born to help people, and now I have to help my family.
It’s the only thing I care about.
1
BOOM! The crashing sound feels like it shakes the whole house. I freeze in front of the mirror with one earring in, drop the other one on the dresser and rush out of my room. Winnie is already charging down the hall of the penthouse apartment we share with our parents.
“I’m okay!” My dad’s voice is angry and abrupt.
We turn the corner into the master suite and find him leaning against the wall next to their bathroom. The large framed family photo that is normally on the wall has crashed to the ground, with chunks of glass scattered across the floor. And Dad doesn’t have socks or shoes on. He tries to lift himself off the wall, and I jump forward.
“Don’t! Stay there for a second, Dad.” I turn to my older sister. “Winnie, get the vacuum.”
She nods and runs back down the hall. My mom is standing half in the bathroom, half out. Her face twisted with worry and frustration. “Randy, I told you to wait until I got your walker.”
“I’m just as bad with the walker as I am on my own now,” he mumbles back. His speech is so slurred, it takes a minute to understand what he’s saying. He has his good moments, usually early morning or late afternoon if he’s had a nap, but gone are the days of regular speech. Forever.
“I’m feeling weaker than normal,” he admits, which is rare for him and shocks me more than the shattered picture frame. “I think maybe I’ll skip the barbecue.”
My heart sinks. “Come on, Dad. It’ll be fun, and you’ll get to see Declan.”
I try to sound casual, but the fact is he has to go. We all have to go. It isn’t just a regular Sunday meal at Jude and Zoey’s place. Usually mentioning his only grandchild gets him to change his mind on anything, but apparently not today. He shakes his head. “I’ll just stay here and rest. Maria can stay with me.”
Maria is his nurse. She comes every day now, because he needs help with everything from bathing to eating. I bend and pick up some of the bigger chunks of glass, carefully placing them in my palm. “We won’t stay long,” I lie.
Winnie returns with the vacuum. “I’ll stay with you, Dad. I don’t feel like getting dressed up for Jude’s backyard anyway.”
Ugh. I glance up at her, my face a mask of frustration. Why can’t this family just follow orders? I want to argue with her, but she starts the vacuum, and anything I have to say would be swallowed by the loud machine. When the glass is cleared from the floor, Mom slips out of the bathroom and takes Dad’s arm, helping him over to the bed. He’s half dressed, in a pair of nice chinos but no shirt. Mom is still in her bathrobe, but her hair and makeup are done.
“I can stay home. I can make us something here and we can watch some TV,” Mom suggests.
“Why don’t we just raincheck the whole thing?” Winnie suggests, and my stress levels take off like a rocket. She turns and lugs the vacuum down the hall. When she’s out of earshot, I pick up the family photo by the frame, carefully place it on top of the dresser, and remove the remaining big shards. “We are all going to the barbecue this evening at Jude’s.”
“Sadie, if your dad isn’t up to it…” I turn and look at my mom.
“It’s not just a barbecue.”
“I know. It’s Zoey’s brother’s birthday. But I’m sure Morgan won’t mind if some of us don’t make it,” my dad says and sighs. “You can still go, and Dixie and Eli will be there.”
I can’t figure out how to make them come and not tell them, but this is supposed to be a surprise. It would have been a great surprise too. My mom would have teared up and Dad would have bellowed with laughter and told Jude he should have seen this coming. Jude has always been the crazy one. But now…the Braddock family doesn’t get surprises. At least not happy ones. Instead we get ones like “Surprise! Your dad has ALS.”
“Jude and Zoey are getting married,” I say, and my parents just blink. “Tonight. In their backyard. So, I’m sorry to ruin the surprise, but you have to go.”
“Oh. Oh, my goodness!” My mom starts to tear up, and I lift my hands in terror.
“Stop! Please! Save the tearful reaction for Jude,” I beg. “We can still keep it from Winnie if you two can keep it under control. Jude really wanted to surprise everyone.”
“Except you?” my mom asks.
I shrug and give her a wink. “Well, someone had to wrangle you people.”
Mom wipes away her tears. Dad is doing nothing but smiling, ear-to-ear, like I haven’t seen in months, and a selfish part of me is glad I get to see it now and have it all to myself. But he has to chill too, and I tell them that. He forces his face to relax. “That kid…always throwing me for a loop. God love him.”
Winnie appears in the doorway again and takes the large pieces of glass from me and puts them in the trash bag she brought with her. Dad sits a little straighter. “I changed my mind. I want to go after all.”
“We’re all going,” my mom adds.
Winnie shrugs and nods. “Okay, I’ll go back to getting ready.”
Crisis averted.
Three hours later, the ceremony is done. My brother is married and everything is perfect. My parents pretended to be as shocked as Dixie, Winnie, and the rest of the guests actually were when we got here. Zoey’s dad, a retired Anglican minister, married them. Now everyone is mingling and grabbing champagne flutes and appetizers from the waiters wandering by.
Jude looks at me from where he’s standing across the yard next to Zoey. Our eyes lock, and we have a moment to ourselves—in a room full of people. I give him the biggest, proudest smile and wipe away a tear. He shakes his head, kisses his wife’s cheek, and walks toward me, giving me a stern look before pulling me into a hug. “None of that.”
“I’m crying for Zoey,” I mutter back against his ear as I squeeze him with all my might. “I’m sad she gave up and settled for you.”
“That’s more like it,” he replies as he lets go of me, and we grin at each other. He grabs his own flute off a passing tray and walks back to Zoey.
After we all feast on a delicious catered meal, a DJ sets up in the corner and starts playing music. Jude and Zoey dance, and I feel the need to cry again. Winnie nudges me. “What’s with the damn water works?”
“This is a beautiful moment, Black Heart,” I snark back at her. “You know this should be making you want to finally tie the knot with Ty.”
I’m kind of joking, but as soon as I say it she looks serious. “Don’t do that. Don’t pressure me. I get enough of that from Ty.”
“I was kidding, Win,” I reply and reach over and grab her hand. She pulls it away and doesn’t look at me. Her eyes are on our dad, who is sitting at one of the small round tables set up around the yard with Declan asleep in his lap and our mom beside him.
“He’s not going to be able to walk us down the aisle,” Winnie whispers hoarsely. “He’s not going to be able to dance with us. He’s not going to see my kids.”
I reach over and wrap an arm around her, and this time she doesn’t push me away. She leans her head on my shoulder. “Jude is lucky. I know. But Win…you could marry Ty tomorrow. You know he would do it. And then Dad could wheel down the aisle with you, and he might not be able to dance with you, but he’d watch you dance and look as proud as he does now. And as for babies…we all know you don’t need a ring on your finger for that. Declan is proof.”
“I could do all of that,” she replies flatly. “But I would be doing it to create memories and they’d be false memories.”
“Why?”
“Because Ty and I aren’t Zoey and Jude,” she says and pulls away from me again. “We’re not soul mates. I want those memories with Dad so bad. I just don’t want them with Ty.”
I’m not surprised she doesn’t think Ty is her soul mate, but I am surprised she’s admitting it out loud. I’m trying to figure out how to respond when she gets up and walks away, rushing across the backyard and into the house. I stand up and start to follow her, but Jude steps in front of me. “Hey, Weepy. Come grab a drink with your legitimately hitched favorite brother.”
“Man, I hope Dixie marries Eli soon so I have better options for this Favorite Brother category,” I quip, and he gets me in a loose headlock as he barks out a fake laugh. “No wrestle mania at your wedding, douchebag.”
He lets me go, but I follow him to the bar in the corner anyway. Winnie needs a little time to herself right now and besides, the conversation I probably need to have with her—about finally calling time of death on her ten-year relationship—shouldn’t happen at Jude’s wedding. At the bar he orders two shots of Fireball, and my eyes grow wide. “Dear God, no.”
“For old times’ sake,” he says with a wicked grin and hands me one of the shots.
My stomach flips as soon as I smell it. “Why . . .
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