Publication Date:
4/30/2019
"Chase just gets
better and better."—Booklist
They'll change each
other's fate...
One fateful night
Bobby Hannigan sustains a gunshot wound that could end his career as a police
officer. If that's taken from him, he doesn't know what he'll do. The only ray
of hope is Teagan Shaughnessy—a kindhearted single mom who understands his
struggles...
Teagan and her young
son have just moved back to the Carolina coast to be near family. When she
meets Bobby, the timing feels wrong, but everything else feels oh-so-right.
Bobby and Teagan each had plans for their own futures. But they're finding that
those plans are meaningless if they can't be together...
Oh, Samantha Chase…
you are amazing. You find just the
right words to pull at my heart while keeping my brain jumping with thoughts on
where this story will take me.
Teagan is
wonderful. She is a single mom who has
experienced so much loss already and is now opening her heart to finding love
and happiness again. I was in awe of
her strength, her carefulness, and her love for her son.
Bobby is just as
amazing but he has different issues to overcome. He is healing from a gunshot wound, trying
to learn how to accept help, and figuring out how to put his reputation behind
him.
The attraction between
Bobby and Teagan is instant, steamy, and so sweet. There is no doubt that they belong together
but it isn’t quite that easy. Between
the two of them they have to find a way to form a family that includes a son, a
huge family, and a history that both of them haven’t figured out how to move
past.
Purchase Links:
The Shaughnessy
Brothers series:
Made for Us (Book 1)
Love Walks In (Book 2)
Always My Girl (Book
3)
This Is Our Song (Book
4)
A Sky Full of Stars
(Book 5)
Holiday Spice (Book 6)
EXCERPT…
That was their pattern
for the next hour. Occasionally Bobby would hit the ball and let Lucas try to
catch it, but after each ball Lucas would ask if he could be the batter again.
Rather than push, he figured it wasn’t a big deal to let him get comfortable
with one skill at a time. Maybe next time they’d work on playing catch.
Next time? Was he seriously
standing here thinking of when he could hang out and play ball again? Sure, he
wasn’t opposed to it and he really was having a great time, plus he really
wanted to get to know Teagan better…
No, he wasn’t going to
use Lucas in an attempt to win over Teagan. It was wrong on so many levels.
What he really wanted was to find a way to see her again in a bit of a
different setting—one that didn’t involve a big family gathering or
babysitting. That shouldn’t be too hard, right? Maybe if he could just—
Whack!
The next thing he
knew, something hit him hard, his eye was stinging like it was on fire, and he
was stumbling back.
“Oh my God!”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!
I’m sorry!”
Eyes slammed shut,
Bobby bent at the waist as he hissed out a breath. It didn’t take long to
realize Lucas was on one side of him and Teagan on the other.
When had she gotten
back?
His eye stung like
a…well, he wanted to let loose a string of curses, but was mindful of the
five-year-old beside him. No doubt if Bobby could get it together, he’d see
Lucas’s big brown eyes looking scared.
Pull it together, Hannigan, he chided himself. You were shot, for crying out loud. This was a plastic ball to the eye!
Man up!
Slowly, he
straightened and let out a long breath, forcing himself to open his eye—which
was now tearing up wildly.
Awesome.
Teagan stepped in
front of him and cupped his cheek in her hand while she looked at his eye.
“We’re going to have to put ice on that. Come on.” She took him gently by the
hand and led him back to the house. Lucas grabbed his other hand and Bobby had
to fight the urge to pull away from them both because they were treating him
like an invalid.
Or maybe he was just
acting like one.
They stepped through
the back door and into the kitchen. Bobby sat down on one of the bar stools
while Teagan prepared an ice pack. Between the pain and the tearing, his vision
was slightly blurred, but not enough that he couldn’t tell that the woman
fussing over him had received a bit of a makeover. She had different makeup on,
her nails were painted a bold, bright pink, and her hair was full of curls that
looked like they had been kissed by the sun. He knew enough about women to know
how to compliment a good haircut and highlights, but this was the first time
he’d been stunned speechless by the sight of them.
She looked younger and
more carefree than he’d seen her before.
Except now she was
frowning at him.
“Here,” she said
softly, lifting the ice pack over his eye. “Hold this on there for a few
minutes. Can I get you something for the pain?”
“No. I’m fine, really.
It looks worse than it feels.”
Even though it felt
pretty painful, he had to remember that he’d been hit by a plastic ball, not another
bullet.
“It’s my fault, Mom,”
Lucas said, his small voice coming from the stool beside Bobby. “I hit the ball
before he asked if I was ready.” Bobby could hear the tremor in his voice and
had a feeling the kid was going to start crying any minute.
Resting one arm on the
counter, Bobby turned and mussed up Lucas’s hair. “It wasn’t your fault, Lucas.
I wasn’t paying attention. You’ve got nothing to be upset about, okay?”
Lucas’s eyes went
wide. “But—but you got hurt and—”
“And that’s what
happens when you don’t pay attention,” Bobby said firmly but gently. “It’s an
important lesson to remember when you’re playing sports. You always need to be
paying attention or you could get hurt.” Then he pointed to his eye and gave a
lopsided grin. “Just like this.”
Lucas studied him and
then looked at his mother before turning his attention back to Bobby.
“So…you’re not mad at me?”
Bobby shook his head.
“Nope.”
“And maybe you still
want to play ball with me?”
“Any time,” he said
with a nod.
“Like right now?”
“Lucas,” Teagan
quickly interrupted. “I think Bobby needs to rest for a little while. Why don’t
you go and read for a bit, okay?”
“But Mom—”
Before Teagan could
respond, Bobby leaned close to Lucas and whispered, loud enough for her to
hear, “This is another important lesson to remember—don’t argue with your mom.”
“Oooh,” Lucas said,
dragging out the word. “Okay.” Then he hopped down and ran to his room.
When they were alone,
Bobby found Teagan looking at him. For the life of him, he wasn’t sure what he
was supposed to say. Should he apologize for interrupting her when she was
talking to her son? Or maybe apologize for teaching the kid how to hit a ball?
Her expression was mild and a little unreadable, and it made him feel sort of
uncomfortable.
“Teagan, listen. I
know I should have—”
She held up a hand to
stop him. “Can I just say something first?” she asked gently, glancing over her
shoulder at the door to Lucas’s room.
He nodded.
“You handled that very
well and I appreciate it. And while I hate that you ended up getting hurt, I’m
very thankful you didn’t take it out on Lucas.”
Placing the ice pack
on the counter, he looked at her like she was crazy. Had someone else done that
to the kid? Had his father been abusive? Was that why they were willing to move
so far away from him? Then another thought hit him—had this unknown, unnamed
man been abusive to Teagan, as well?
Swallowing the rage he
was feeling, Bobby took a minute to gather his thoughts. “First of all, I meant
what I said. I was the one at fault, not Lucas. And yeah, it stung like son of
a—” He stopped when he saw that Lucas’s bedroom door was open. “Anyway, it
hurt. But there was no reason to get mad at anyone except myself.”
Teagan laughed and
gently touched the skin right under his eye. “I don’t think there’s any
permanent damage, but you’ll probably have at least a bit of a bruise there.
Sorry.”
Unable to help
himself, Bobby captured her wrist to keep her hand on his cheek. He heard her
soft gasp, saw the surprised look on her face.
He had so many
questions that he was dying to ask—about her life, about Lucas’s father—but he
couldn’t make himself form the words. Now wasn’t the time. His gaze lingered on
her face. “Your spa day agreed with you. You look beautiful.” And even that
felt awkward coming out of his mouth. Normally, he could sweet-talk his way
around any girl. He was good at it. But right now with Teagan, he felt like a
teenager around his first crush.
She blushed. “Thank
you.”
He swallowed. “It’s
true. Not that you didn’t look beautiful before,” he quickly corrected. “But
right now, you just look…amazing.”
He almost groaned at
how lame he sounded.
Slowly, Teagan pulled
her hand from his and took a step back. “You, um, you should really keep the
ice on your eye for a little longer.”
Praise for Samantha
Chase:
"I
dare you to stop reading until the end."—RACHEL VAN DYKEN, #1
New York Times Bestselling Author for One More Moment
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Oh, I totally needed this today! Thank you so much for the wonderful review!!
ReplyDelete