Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
She smiled and turned to walk away. I gave her ass a hard slap, causing her to let out a scream before she quickly headed back to my bedroom.
Clearing my throat, I made my way to the door. I was going to kill whoever was on the other side. Opening it, I said, “What the hell do you want?”
I froze for the second time when I saw the woman standing there.
“Hey, Braxton.”
It wasn’t the woman I’d slept with last year standing on my porch who threw me for a loop.
It was the baby she held in her arms that made me nearly throw up what little bit of food I had in my stomach.
“Heidi?”
“Do you mind if we come in? It’s cold out here.”
For just a moment, I thought about closing the door. This was a woman from my not-so-distant past. A woman I had spent a night with and walked away from without a second glance. A classic one-night stand. Her boyfriend had just dumped her. She’d been pissed and had wanted revenge sex.
“Braxton?”
I shook my head. “Right, right. Come on in. I’m so sorry.”
Heidi walked in and looked around for a moment before she turned to me. “Do you mind holding him while I take off my coat?”
I pointed to myself and tried not to notice how my hand was shaking. “Me? You want me to hold him?”
She nodded and laughed. “He won’t break.”
Without even waiting for me to respond, she placed the baby in my arms and started to take off her coat.
My mind instantly started adding up the months since I’d last seen Heidi. It had been the summer before. She’d been on a charter with a bunch of other women who’d been there for a girls’ trip. College sorority friends or something like that. She’d flirted with me, I’d flirted back. Later, I’d run into her at the Salty Dog, and we’d had a few drinks. She’d told me her boyfriend had dumped her right before her trip and the next thing I knew, I was in her hotel room.
When had that been? May or June.
Holy fuck.
“Cute place you have here, Braxton.”
Looking toward my bedroom, I held my breath. Harlee would hear a female voice and come out, and the perfect world we were slowly building together would crumble right before my freaking eyes.
I couldn’t lose Harlee again. I wouldn’t lose her again.
“Heidi, can you take the baby back now?”
She’d been standing over at a table in the living room that had pictures of my family spread across it. She turned. “Oh, sorry! Sure.”
Right before she made it to me, I heard Harlee’s voice.
“Who are our guests?”
I froze yet again, and Heidi just kept moving like it wasn’t a big deal for another woman to come into the room and see her taking a baby out of my arms.
Turning to Harlee, she cheerfully said, “Hi, I’m Heidi Thornton.” She then proceeded to take off the baby’s coat.
Harlee raised a brow. “As in the Boston Thornton family?”
Heidi smiled bigger. “Yes! How did you know?”
Harlee looked at me, then back at Heidi. “My father owns the local paper, The Seaside Chronicles. Your family owns the Boston Tribune. You and I met at a conference in Boston a couple years back.”
“I thought you looked familiar! How are you?”
Folding her arms over her chest, Harlee stared at the woman before she answered. “Well, considering we’re all standing in my boyfriend’s living room, and he looks like he’s ready to bolt out the door, and you’re holding a baby, I’m going to say I’m not doing as well as I was five minutes ago.”
Heidi looked at me, then at Harlee, then back to me.
Then she laughed. She actually laughed.
“Oh gosh! No, wait. Such a misunderstanding we have here.”
“Is it?” Harlee and I both said at the same time.
Heidi nodded. “This isn’t your baby, Braxton. He’s almost four months old.”
My mouth fell open, and it felt like the entire house shifted. “You were…you were pregnant when we slept together?”
“I’m going to need some hard liquor,” Harlee said, moving toward the bar cart.
Heidi glanced between us with an apologetic expression. “I didn’t know I was pregnant at the time, I swear, Brax. I would never have done that.”
My legs felt like jelly, and I looked around for something to hold on to. “That doesn’t help.”
“Brax? Whiskey?” Harlee asked.
I nodded. “Make it a double.”
Heidi let out a nervous bubble of laughter. “But it’s only eight in the morning.”
“Heidi, read the room,” Harlee said as she handed me the glass of whiskey. I downed it. “Better?” she asked.
My throat burned, though I managed to get out, “I’ll take another.”
Harlee didn’t move to make me another. Instead, she turned to Heidi. “As fun as this is, you’ve really got me wondering why you’re here.”
“Right. Gosh, I’m making a mess of this. I’m really sorry. The father of my son—his name is Joshua—is being an ass about taking a paternity test. He found out I came to Seaside with my college friends, and even though I showed him the receipt from the bed and breakfast we stayed at, and the dates we were here, he’s still insisting he’s not the father. My own friend—whom he left me for—told him about you. That I slept with you for breakup revenge sex.”