One and Only (Wilder Family, #1)

by Karla Sorensen

She brushed past me, and without thinking, I shot my hand out, wrapping my fingers around her wrist in a firm grip. Her jaw dropped open; her eyes locked where I held her in place. Not because I wanted to hurt her. Not because it was any of my business. Because something in my gut screamed that I shouldn’t be walking away right now. Underneath my fingers, her pulse was wild. “Be careful,” I said urgently. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull off, but no matter what it is, it’s not worth you trusting a stranger with something like this.”

Well shit. Forget poking at a bruise, Beckett was about to melt my heart into a gooey soft puddle.

“Braids tonight, sweet pea?” he asked. Olive nodded, closing her eyes, and I was absolutely destroyed watching his big hands maneuver her hair into two plaits on either side of her head. He pulled two small hair ties out of his front pocket and wrapped them deftly on the ends of her braids.

I had to roll my lips together because this was about the hottest thing I’d ever seen any man do, and I saw a Magic Mike live show in Vegas once upon a time, so that was saying something.

“Not for you. I think Greer is going to eat you up and spit you out, and then I’m going to have to deal with your mopey ass. You’ll stop working as hard, and you won’t catch for shit, and we’ll lose all our games, all because my sister broke your heart.”

“You ever met someone who’s just … a game changer?”

never have before. And I don’t think it has to make sense, or fit into whatever definition of right I held prior to meeting her.” I set my hands on my hips and faced him fully. “I think that’s your sister for me, Parker. She’s a game changer in my life.”

“No family?” I shook my head. “Parents have been gone a long time. No siblings.” I glanced at her. “Just me and Olive.” “And me now,” she added. My chest warmed at the easy way she inserted herself into our family picture. “And you.”

“She’s fearless,” I said. “Some people are too afraid to love that way, undaunted by whatever might come next, which might look like sweetness to some. But I just see a big, brave heart.”

You can give a kid everything they need—food and shelter and clothes, drive them to practices and sign them up for clubs—and you still have every chance not to show them that they’re your world. You can go through the motions, do all the things you’re supposed to, and no one would ever be able to convince me that their little brains can’t tell the difference between that and a parent who’d light the world on fire to take care of them. I would burn everything down for Olive. And I had to believe she could feel that.

“Nothing will keep me from walking down that aisle, Beckett,” she whispered. “I promise.”

There was promise in that sweet kiss, and that was somehow even more alarming.

It was the guy who was sweet and quiet and thought through all the millions of details that I hadn’t.

I know. The thoughtfulness was out of control.

“You may kiss your bride.” Right. Beckett gave me a small, secret smile, and I exhaled a quiet laugh. Like I was something precious and rare, he cupped my face in both hands, eyes unbearably earnest, and then he leaned forward to slide his lips over mine.

As Cameron left us alone, I couldn’t help but stare at the woman who I’d just spoken vows to. She was beautiful—the kind of beautiful I’d probably never quite get used to. And all the energy trapped under her skin, the way she seemed to make the air around her vibrate, it was terrifying.

Earlier that day, I sat in a meeting with our offensive coordinator, discussing plans for the future. How we put in the work now for something we can’t predict down the road. We didn’t know how our games would play out. We didn’t know what injuries might plague our team or whatever circumstances would shift between now and kickoff of any single game in the season. But we made choices that helped us be the best version of whatever we wanted to be. Strangely enough, his pep talk made me think about Greer. Made me think about our unconventional situation. We’d made choices, had conversations that laid the ground work, and now we had to trust we’d done our best to weather whatever came our way. With her dad. With Olive.

I’d only had a handful of nights with a woman who sparked my interest. But those sparks always faded fast. Nothing, and no one, had held my interest past an evening. And I wasn’t a one-night stand guy. I never had been. Sex, without commitment, without loyalty or trust, had never appealed to me. I wanted to be in love with someone again, but no one had lit up that part of my brain. That studied curves under shirts and wondered how they might feel in my hands. That part of my brain where I couldn’t help but study long legs; I wonder how they’d wrap around my waist. And as I watched her roll her head to the side, stretching out her muscles as the silky fall of her hair moved over the back of her neck, oblivious to my study, I knew that Greer was managing exactly that. Instead of a light, it was a warning siren. Danger. Approach with caution. Do not touch the wild creature if it comes near you.

Yet there I sat, wondering what my fake wife would do if I walked up behind her and slid my hands underneath those short shorts. Wondered if she’d make a different sort of noise, with a different arch of her back.

“Do you like it?” she asked. Olive didn’t answer. She let out a shaky exhale, then turned to Greer, throwing her arms around her neck in a tight hug. Then she nodded into Greer’s neck. “You gave me butterflies,” she said. My eyes burned when a tear slid down Greer’s face unchecked. She carefully returned the embrace and let out a huge, shoulder-dropping exhale. “I did.”

A new sort of awareness slid underneath the space in my chest, unfurling warm and slow. It was so much more dangerous than lust. Far more explosive than thoughts about legs and arching backs and short shorts. I’d chosen right, I reminded myself. But one wrong step, with this new awareness, these new thoughts, and everything we were building would come crashing down.

Not my type. Not my type, I reminded myself. It was shockingly hard to remember sometimes.

“No. Not pretty. I can see her nice through her eyes.” My heart lurched, like some great big pulse of joy couldn’t quite push through my veins.

I was officially in the Olive Coleman circle of trust. Be cool.

Beckett brushed out her hair, and the sight of that did things to me at an almost biological level. Have you ever seen a six-five guy with huge biceps brush out his daughter’s hair to make sure it wasn’t tangled when she went to bed? It would do things to you too, no matter what your type was.

“I’m pretty beat, so I think I’ll turn in early.” Beckett glanced at the bed, staring hard for a beat. “I like to sleep closest to the door,” he said. He held my gaze for a long moment, and I finally nodded. “You got it. You can be my body shield if someone breaks in.” “That’s the idea,” he murmured. “Though knowing you, you’d probably have your taser out before I even wake up.” I laughed,

trusted her with this part of me, the overwhelming desire to be the best father that I could, to prove that I was capable of loving Olive in a far more tangible way than I’d ever been shown growing up. Even more, I trusted her with Olive.

“Wife,” he said in greeting. My eyebrows arched slowly. “Husband.”

“Also true. You ever seen what a nail gun can do to someone’s balls?”

“I think I might get in trouble with your dad for that,” I told her. She met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “I’ll stick up for you, Greer.” Well shit.

“I’m not mad,” he said again. His eyes were on fire. “I’m trying very hard not to kiss you right now.”

“You…” She shook her head. “You what?” My blood thrummed fast and furious, I could hardly think from the rush of it through my ears. The way it screamed her name as it raced through my veins.

That she’d risk my anger, risk Josie’s, risk trouble with the school simply because Olive was sad—it was like a battering ram to whatever guard I’d been able to hold up with her.

“I hope you change your mind, Beckett.”

Greer turned, mouth gently hanging in shock. “Did you just … mark your territory?” she whispered, a gleeful smile curving her lips. I clenched my jaw. “No.” She laughed, turning toward me, her hand smoothing down the lapel of my jacket. “Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll have to before the night is over too,” she said. The feel of her hand on my chest had my head spinning. “Some tipsy bridesmaid is going to get one look at you across the room.” She sighed. “And that’ll be it.”

Like I was justified in how proud I was to have her by my side.

“Sorry,” she said. “I can’t help myself when guys act like that. He wouldn’t know what to do with a woman, even if she came with a color-coded map to the clit.”

“Touch her and I’ll break every fucking bone in your hand,”

If there was any place in my life where I couldn’t be selfish, couldn’t dive headfirst into the thing I wanted, it was with him. Because I cared. I cared about him too much. It wasn’t fake, and it wasn’t forced. And if I dared think it, I knew I was falling in love with him, maybe just a little too much.

Oh yes. The bossy tone did things to me. Beckett

And for the first time since this whole thing started, I wasn’t sure that I’d come out of this without a broken heart.

Give in, I thought helplessly.

Powerless because of how much I wanted her and what I might be willing to concede if I could have her, even for a while.

The sight of Greer holding that baby would haunt me for another sleepless night. It was too much.

One by one, he looked us square in the eye. “If anyone else in this family pulls any more of this fake relationship bullshit before I die, I’m cutting you out of my will.”

I could be patient. I could wait this out. Give him time to say what he needed to say, for good or for bad. Except after about five more seconds, I heard myself say, “What are you doing here?” Patience, as it turned out, might be a work in progress for me. When he took a few steps closer, I saw the fire roaring in his gaze. “I’m here to get my wife.”

“You.” I allowed my forehead to rest on hers. “You fight for everything you want. Everything that’s important. And I want to fight for this. For the family we’re building together. Everything felt so empty when you left. And I knew that I’d never fill my life—Olive’s life too—the way I want unless you’re in it.” She

“Start something real with me, Greer Wilder. You’re the only person who I want it with.”

This was real, I thought. No matter how it started, or how I found her. It was real. And it was right.

Greer might have swept into my life like a tornado, but it was exactly the kind of destruction I needed. Because she took down everything I’d constructed before I knew she existed. Before I knew love could feel like this—wild and fierce and fearless.