I cry, hard. Oh my God, is this really happening? “You were everything I never expected, and there was no way I couldn’t fall for you, Liam. That’s on you.”
He laughs, and the light, happy sound goes through me. He pulls out a velvet box and opens it. “Will you be my wife, Harper?”
I stare at the incredible kind and sensitive man I’m in love with, a man who trusted me enough to show me who he really was inside, and my heart fills with love.
“There is something you need to know before I answer.”
His face falls, worry lines crinkling his dark eyes. “What?”
I smile, and drop to my knees with him. “You’re my favorite. You were always my favorite.”
He lets loose a bark of laughter and kisses me, and from behind I hear giggles, but I don’t care who’s watching. I’m so grateful to have this man, his family, his friends and mine all here to watch this. I just wish Gavin, Nina, Brandon and Casey were here too, but then I hear Gavin’s voice and I look over my shoulder to see him and Holden licking ice creams and watching with wide eyes. Could my life be any more perfect than it is right now?
“That’s a yes.”
“I come with a son.”
“I want your son, I want to adopt him. I want everything with you. Answer me, Harper. I’m a dying man right now.”
I grin. “I can’t really take all this. I need to work for it.”
“Oh, you’ll be working for it,” he teases with a wink, and I laugh. “Besides, you can’t say no. It’s an engagement gift, so I need you to say—”
“Yes!” I yell, and he cups my cheek and gives me a kiss so steeped in love and promise, all I can do is cry.
“Is Liam going to be my daddy?” Gavin says.
“Yes, Gavin, he is,” I say to him, then turn back to Liam.
He slides the gorgeous diamond onto my finger.
“But first,” I say, lowering my voice for his ears only. “I’m taking you home, because right now, Liam, I need you to be my big daddy!”
Afterword
Thank You!
Thank you so much for reading The Rule Breaker, book one in my Players on Ice series. I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I loved writing it. Please read on for an excerpt of Single Dad Next Door.
Interested in leaving a review? Please do! Reviews help readers connect with books that work for them. I appreciate all reviews, whether positive or negative.
Happy Reading,
Cathryn
Single Dad Next Door Rachel
When my bedroom door flies open and crashes hard against the paint-chipped wall, I groan. “Go away,” I say, my voice muffled by my pillow. Not that my roommates will listen, even if they can hear me. Heck, I could scream at the top of my lungs and it wouldn’t faze them, much less send them running back to their rooms—not when the view outside my window is that hot.
Seriously though, sharing a house with four college freshmen is not my idea of a good time, not when I’m a senior and working my ass off to get into law school. But when I left NYU two months before the start of my fourth year and transferred to Penn State at the last minute, this place was all I could find—and afford. Ultimately, Penn State is where I want to do my law degree after undergrad. I just ended up here sooner, rather than later.
Someone tugs at my pillow and I open one eye to see Becca hovering over me. “Come on, Rach, he just took his shirt off,” she says. “You’re going to want to see this.”
Why oh why did my room have to come with the best view of the hot neighbor’s driveway?
“Thank God for this heat wave.” Sylvie, roommate number two, fans her face with her hand.
I groan and curl up into the fetal position. I just want one more minute in bed without every member of the house in my room. “I. Don’t. Care.” Well, that might be a lie. I like looking at the eye candy next door as well as they do, but after putting in a late night at Pizza Villa—I seriously have to find a new job—I need all the sleep I can get before class.
“Jesus, would you look at him,” Becca says, her voice a breathy whisper as she peers out the window. “Talk about slurpalicious. I could seriously lick that from head to toe, and back up again.”
“Leave,” I say on a yawn.
Ignoring me, Sylvie squeals. “He’s going back into his garage. Damned if he doesn’t look as good going as he does coming.”
“But I’d rather see him…coming,” Becca says, and they start giggling.
“Seriously. Are you both twelve?”
“Shh, he’s back,” Becca says and swats her hand at me, like I’m an annoying fly that needs to be shooed away.
I shift on my bed, not to get a better look outside my window. No, moving has absolutely nothing at all to do with the shirtless mechanic turning my roommates into dim-witted moths. The only reason I’m getting up is to herd these girls from my room, and if I happen to get a glimpse of the hot, tattooed, badass daddy next door, well…then so be it.
I rub the blur from my eyes and toss my pillow at them. “Get away from my window, before he thinks it’s me.” They don’t need to know that the hottie’s bedroom window is also across from mine, and that late one night, he caught me staring into his room as he walked around in nothing but boxer shorts. Heck, if they knew that, they’d camp out for the rest of the school year, and that was so not happening.
“Ohmigod!” Sylvie leaps back. “I think he just saw me.” She puts her hand over her mouth and starts to giggle. Footsteps pound down the hall, announcing the arrival of
