“Now you get here,” he said with a smirk as soon as she was out of the car.
“What do you mean?” she asked, coming around the car, and AJ met her halfway. “I told you I’d be gone a few hours.”
“I changed a loaded diaper again.”
Addison laughed as he leaned in to kiss her. “Oh, man,” she said with a playful frown. “I missed it again.”
“Don’t worry. Your daughter got it all on video.”
Addison laughed even more now. “Oh now she’s my daughter? I see a pattern here. Just like when Chloe loads her diaper and I’m home to take care of it, it’s my daughter that needs to be changed.”
“Exactly. And when Clair kicks ass in her Mathletes competitions or recites one of her flawless speeches, I tell everyone that’ll listen about how brilliant my daughter is.” He pecked her again as he slipped his hand in hers. “You catch on quick.”
They walked in the house together. As soon as they were in the bedroom with the kids, Clair was queuing up her phone. “You have to see this, Mom. It’s hilarious.”
Clair and Addison watched it more than once, laughing hysterically the whole time. Curiously, Harrison didn’t seem to want to watch it even on the phone. He actually stepped out of the room again, and Clair turned to AJ, shaking her head. “The sound of you gagging alone makes him gag.”
AJ sat on the bed, holding his precious Chloe. He kissed her nose and smiled when she smiled at him. Hearing his other two girls still giggling about the video made him smile even bigger. “Does it get any better than this?” he whispered to Chloe.
The giggle fest was interrupted momentarily when Addison got a call. She stepped out of the room because Clair was still blasting the video and laughing.
“Alright, alright,” he said as she finished watching it for the third time. “She saw it. You can delete it now.”
“Are you kidding? This is going on my Instagram. I’ll probably have thousands of likes within hours.”
“You better not!” He laughed nervously, hoping she was kidding, but the wicked smirk she wore as she walked backwards toward the door said otherwise. “Clair?” he said, but she kept walking. “Clair Bear, you better not. I mean it.”
“I’m gonna go check on Harrison. Knowing him, he’s probably in the bathroom, puking.” She shook her head. “Such a weak stomach on that one.”
Before he could further inquire about her plans for that video, she was out the door. AJ glanced down at his cooing baby girl. “You’d never do something like your evil genius sister might, would you?”
She kicked her little legs and made even louder noises. AJ had to wonder if Chloe would be like her sister. His sisters had already established that she was a very vocal baby. Even if it was nothing more than cooing and baby babble, they said she did so a lot more than they remembered their babies doing. Emi’s boy, who was just a month older, wasn’t nearly as vocal. All AJ remembered about Liv’s new baby when he was this age was how he was always either sleeping or eating. It was no wonder her boys were both huge.
Chloe had gotten so loud he almost missed the exchange outside the bedroom door, but he caught one part and he froze. “Mom?” Clair sounded nervous. “Why are you crying?”
Instantly, AJ was on his feet. His heart was already racing. Despite the legalities of Bigsby being airtight and the guy seeming to have completely disappeared from their life—as appreciated—the niggling feeling that he might be back someday remained. His ego would be too big for him to just walk away so empty-handed.
The memory of nearly colliding into Addison way back that very first time he’d seen her this close, in what felt like a lifetime ago, came crashing at him when he almost did again just outside their bedroom. Her eyes were just as startled as that first time. But now they were red and full of tears.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, searching her eyes.
“That was the lawyers,” she said as her brows pinched and her lips trembled. “The adoption is final. You’re legally Clair’s dad now.”
AJ stared at her, stunned, but at the same time overcome with relief and something else. He glanced down at Clair, who brought her hand to her mouth, and her eyes were suddenly overflowing now too.
He handed Chloe to Addison then squatted down in front of Clair. “Does that make you happy, baby girl?”
For a little girl, she so rarely cried, so it choked him up to see her this way as she nodded, unable to speak. He hugged her tightly, and she gripped her little arms around him.
“I love you, Clair,” he whispered in her ear.
“I love you too . . . Daddy.”
He groaned in an attempt to hide the emotion that made him feel, and he stood up, lifting her with him as she clung to him. They shared a family hug for a few silent moments until he finally pulled away and his eyes bounced from Clair’s to Chloe’s to Addison’s.
“I’m the luckiest man alive,” he said, when he was finally able to speak, and then turned to Clair. “And you spoiled me with just the one time. I don’t ever want you to call me anything else but that again.”
“Okay, Daddy,” she said, hugging him again and burying her little face in his neck.
He’d never get tired of hearing his little girl call him that. His eyes met with Addison’s as he felt a tear escape the corner of his eye. She reached over and wiped it away, and he mouthed the words, “I love you so much.”
Even though he knew she would, his heart unbelievably swelled even more when she mouthed the same words right back.
The video of Clair’s dad, “Rage,” changing a loaded diaper? It got well over a thousand likes the first few hours and was shared over a million times within the first week alone.
The End
Coming in 2016
His to Guard
Isaiah Romero’s story
Uninvited
Nathan Romero’s story
Also by Elizabeth Reyes
Seventeen-year old Sarah’s life is turned upside down when her single mom is sent to jail. She’s forced to move, leaving behind everything she’s ever known, including her best friend Sydney. Lost and bitter in a new school, her one goal is to save money and move back home. Then she meets Angel Moreno. Enigmatic but gorgeous, Angel is almost too good to be true. Except for one thing, his archaic belief that guys and girls can never be “just friends”. The problem? Sarah’s best friend Sydney is not a girl. With their unexpected romance intensifying to places neither ever experienced, how long can Sarah keep Angel in the dark about the guy waiting for her back home?
Her entire life Sofia Moreno has dealt with her overprotective brothers. With three overbearing brothers always lurking, no boy would dare reach out to her. Luckily for Sofia the one boy she’s got her heart set on has always been within reach: her brothers best friend Eric. Even though his loyalty to her brothers runs deep, Sofia knows there is only so much he can do before giving in to her.
Two years older than her, Eric Diego has always known there would be hell to pay if he messed with his best friend’s kid sister Sofia. Through the years he watches as she blooms into a beautiful young lady right before his eyes. With teenage hormones raging and Sofia more than willing, Eric agrees to the unthinkable. A forbidden secret romance. Feeling emotions and a feverish passion that’s new to them both, neither is ready for how quickly their romance spins out of control.
Angel Moreno and Sarah Fiero fell in love in Forever Mine, but for a couple of high school sweethearts, forever is a really long time…
Catch up with them and the whole gang in college as past insecurities resurface. As if dealing with her best friend Sydney wasn’t enough, Angel now has two more men to deal with in Sarah’s life. There’s no shortage of edge-of-your-seat, angsty drama, tears¸ and laughter as Angel and Sarah’s love is put to the ultimate test in this addition to the Moreno Brother series.
When her head was screaming “enough,” her hopeful heart continued to whisper “wait.”
It’s the only way Valerie
Zuniga can justify her ongoing addiction to the amazing but ever, elusive Alex Moreno. Mesmerized by the profound connection neither has ever quite understood, Valerie accepts their crazy relationship for what it is—non-exclusive.
That is until the incredible highs no longer numb the sting of the intense lows.
As tasteless and slippery as pride can be, for Alex it’s always been the hardest pill to swallow.
Faced with a final ultimatum, the choice is a no-brainer for Alex. Despite his insanely busy life he’s determined to prove to Valerie, that not only is he ready to commit, it’s what he’s always wanted—to claim Valerie as his exclusively.
But just as it kept him from admitting his real feelings all those years¸ will his obstinate pride once again step in and ruin things just when they’re finally getting it right?
After one heartache too many, Valerie Zuniga vows to never let Alex Moreno hurt her again. A year later, she is forced to reunite with him at a party where one unexpected sizzling kiss tells her she’s far from over him. No way will she allow herself to get sucked back into that torment. She’ll resist him even if that means using the one thing that’ll stop Alex dead in his tracks: another man.
Alex is coming off one of the worst years of his life. He spent so much time wallowing in self-pity, he never realized how much he’d missed Valerie. That is, until that kiss. Now, he’s determined to get her back one way or another, and no other man will stand in his way. Especially after discovering that Valerie may be in danger, a danger he blames himself for.
Prim and proper middle school teacher Isabel Montenegro always runs the opposite direction from men like Ramon Romero. A foul-mouthed, uneducated, loose cannon has no place in her careful plans. But instead of running away, Isabel is completely captivated. The intensity of his nature, while a bit daunting, mesmerizes her in ways she can’t begin to understand. She’s unwilling to walk away—even when her instincts are screaming at her to run.
Romero has no idea what he’s getting himself into when he first kisses Isabel. Shocked at the passion she invokes in him, he believes he can keep his usual short fuse under wraps. Falling fast and hard for someone so flawlessly sweet only makes him more aware that he’s far from perfect. If she is ever witness to his biggest imperfection, he’s sure she’ll bail. But when her meddling sister does the worst thing imaginable—bring other men between him and his Izzy—that fuse is lit and all bets are off.
Can two people who are worlds apart teach each other how to love, or will the reality of their differences drive them apart?
Always in control, the meticulous and professional Salvador Moreno is thrown for a loop when the newly hired bartender Grace Zendejas suddenly invades his family’s restaurant, and infuriatingly, his every thought. For the first time in his life, Sal is fumbling. But after recovering from a few blunders he discovers his feelings for Grace run much deeper.
Things begin to heat up between him and Grace, but then the ever-perfect Sal does something even his brothers never did—screws up royally. Now he’s scrambling to cover up a mistake he knows could cost him dearly. As his relationship with Grace grows even more serious, Sal’s secret is a ticking bomb, threatening to destroy the one thing he now lives and breathes for—his relationship with the love of his life—Grace.
Just when Romero thought he’d conquered his anger issues…
Now that Izzy has earned her credentials to teach at a college level, Romero is doing his best to be supportive. Even after she informs him she won’t be teaching.
She’ll be assisting a professor—a recently divorced professor whom she’ll work with side by side.
Isabel loves being home with her kids, but she’s ready to get back to her career—back to a world where she can enjoy some in-depth political conversations with someone who really gets it. The brilliant Political Science professor she’s assigned to assist seems to be the perfect fit.
But when those conversations get a little personal, Isabel isn’t sure if she’s just being silly or if the professor is sending insidiously veiled messages.
Romero’s knack for picking up on her unease only complicates things, especially because Isabel also has a big Christmas surprise for him. With suspicions awakened, Romero’s interpretation of Isabel’s sneakiness stirs that dormant rage he hasn’t had to deal with in years, and emotions become furiously Tangled.
Veronica Cruz has been through hell and back. After disconnecting with the world two years ago to be at the side of her dying mother, she’s left alone, unemployed, overweight, and feeling a decade older than her twenty-eight years. When her best friend coaxes her into joining the local gym to ditch her depression and rejuvenate her life, she meets Noah. Assigned to help Veronica lose weight, Noah is everything she expected a young trainer to be—perfectly chiseled, supportive and motivating. Add to that, he’s incredibly sexy. He’s everything she’s ever looked for in a man. What she least expected was for him to fall for her, but he has. There’s just one glaring problem: Noah is eight years younger.
Noah Quintanilla has his eye on a boxing title—someday. Down for a few months with an injury, his maintenance-boy pay at 5th Street Gym won’t cut it. He’s finally given the opportunity to train. The catch? His trainee is an out-of-shape woman with a free week pass. Taking on the challenge, Noah stumbles into one of the closest friendships he’s ever known, and before he knows it, he’s in love. But Veronica’s not having it—the age difference is too much. Their platonic relationship means having to watch her date other men—something that would make him crazy. Believing he’s the man for her, Noah sets out to prove that age is but an illusion, and there’s more to him than just a number.
When tragedy strikes in the ring, Giovanni Bravo falls into a deep depression, walking away from his dream of boxing to train instead. He agrees to a two month get-away, helping train Felix Sanchez, his high school buddy and now welterweight champ of the world. Once at Felix’s lavish boxing complex, he’s reunited with Bianca Rubio, someone he remembers only as the girl with the innocent doe eyes back in high school. Her refreshing, cheerful demeanor not only takes Gio’s mind off his troubled conscience, he finds himself falling for her fast and hard. The problem—Bianca is Felix’s girlfriend.
Having a sexy, famous boyfriend has its perks, but they come with a price. Bianca not only has to deal with the ongoing tabloid rumors about her boyfriend’s questionable relationships with other women, but also his constant absence when he is on the road. So now that Felix will be in town for two whole months to train for his next big bout, Bianca is thrilled. He’s even asked her to move into his cabin while he’s there. But when he leaves for days at a time to promote his fight, Bianca spends time getting to know Felix’s gorgeous new trainer and good friend, Gio. Increasingly drawn to his sweet smile and smoldering green eyes, she finds herself saying and doing things she normally wouldn’t.
As it becomes more and more difficult to resist the mutual attraction, Gio crosses the line between them. He hopes that one kiss will alleviate the overwhelming temptation and clear both their systems, but it does just the opposite. Their temptation suddenly becomes an overwhelming longing–a longing that quickly forces Gio to realize this is more than just lust. He’s fallen hard and to his delight so has she. Now he’s forced to make the hardest decision of his life. Risk losing a longtime friend or walk away from the only girl he’s ever loved.
Womanizer—check.
Cocky—check.Dangerous—checkmate.
Staying away from him was indisputably the sensible thing to do. The problem? She wasn’t just drawn to him; she was utterly mesmerized…
Charlotte Brennan is no stranger to heartache and mortification. Her past is full of both. So when amazing and incredibly intense Hector Ayala, literally jumps into Charlee’s life, her walls are immediately up. Letting her guard down and sharing her past and deepest secret is not happening. Charlee is not looking to get her heart crushed once again. However, her willpower proves to be no match for Hector’s
mesmerizing pull.
Guilt is a profound emotion to deal with and no one knows this better than Hector. So when he gets the chance to make up for a past indiscretion that’s been gnawing away at him for months, he takes it. Doing so means he’ll also have to pass up pursuing Charlee, the only girl he’s ever been so fascinated by. But his inability to explain why they could never be has him dealing with a new kind of guilt—the guilt of knowing he is unwillingly breaking her heart.
Coming off the worst divorce in the history of marriages, Nellie Gamboa’s looking to let loose and make up for years of neglect. When months of building sexual tension between her and the young hot boxing stud, Abel Ayala, finally peak, she makes him an offer no man would refuse.
No promises. No demands. Just pure unrestrained passion.
Abel’s training for the biggest fight of his career. He has no time for a social life, much less a relationship. So this arrangement couldn’t be more perfect. A beautiful woman asking him to help her alleviate her neglected desires—no strings attached. What more can he ask for?
As the lines between lust and something much deeper, begin to blur, Abel finds himself in an even bigger fight.
The fight to regain control of his now demanding heart.
They say the only good thing about hitting rock bottom is that it can’t get any worse . . . or can it?
World famous boxing champ, Felix Sanchez, had it all—the fame, the fortune, and all the women any man could ask for. When the hours of partying followed by hours spent in court and in rehab begin to outnumber the hours he spends training, losing his title comes as no surprise to everyone. The world assumes he deserved to lose it.