“I’ll take you!” screamed a woman in the audience, eliciting a laugh from the crowd and a dimpled smile from Colt.
He continued, “The most amazing thing about marrying Sarah was how that night, after she said she loved me, it all came back. Every song I’d forgotten, every note. But I realized she changed me with her passion and bravery. I didn’t want to go back to singing that music and being Colton Young. I just wanted her. And I just wanted to do it being myself: Colt. So tonight, I’m going to be a real man, who isn’t hiding behind a façade, and play you music from my heart.” He smiled. “So Sarah, this is for you. I hope you’ll stay and listen. Because I love you. And I’m very sorry for fucking up your life.”
Sarah’s eyes began to water like crazy and her heart swelled with emotion.
“Sarah!” Taylor appeared with Bennett, who had baby Colt in his arms. “There you are.”
Sarah couldn’t take her eyes off the stage.
“I don’t blame you,” Taylor said. “He really is pretty amazing.”
Sarah nodded, feeling five thousand different emotions.
“You okay, sweetie?” Tay asked.
“I’m afraid,” Sarah replied.
“Of what? He loves you, Sarah. And I mean, look at the guy. What a piece of hotness.”
“Hey,” interjected Bennett.
Taylor rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You totally know that no one is hotter than you.”
“That’s better.” Bennett returned to rocking the baby.
Tay leaned in to whisper in Sarah’s ear, “They’re totally tied.”
Colt began strumming on his acoustic guitar. It was different from anything Sarah had ever heard him play. It kind of had a fun polka rhythm to it. As he began to sing, Sarah realized that this was the song he’d wanted to play the night they married:
Some people say that size doesn’t matter
But I say they’re wrong
The bigger, the better. The larger, the stronger
It gets my blood flowing. And makes me sweat
Some people say that size doesn’t matter
But it’s why I love her the best
The crowd laughed and cheered. Sarah crinkled her brows. What the hell? Was he really singing a song that made it sound like “she” had a dong?
Colt raised his hands in the air and began clapping. The crowd followed along.
My woman’s got a big, big heart
My woman’s got a big, big heart
It keeps me honest and warm at night
It beats with a truth I cannot fight
Sarah bobbed her head. Okeydokey. So Colt, the real Colt, wanted to sing sappy comedic tunes? Oh, dear Lord. He’s going to sing the naked judge song again, isn’t he?
“Well, this is certainly different,” Taylor said with a grin. “I think I like it. I mean, the baddass Colt in leather pants was great, too, but this is…”
Sarah gave Taylor a don’t-fuck-with-me look.
“What?” Tay objected. “He’s funny. And look at the crowd. They’re all smiling. I mean, he’s kind of got a Weird Al vibe, but without the crazy hair and with the body of an underwear model.”
Colt finished the song, and the guests cheered and applauded wildly. Sarah simply didn’t know what to make of it all. Was he making a joke out of her and out of them or trying to make her laugh? She didn’t know.
Sarah turned to leave.
“Hey, where are you going?” Tay said.
“I’m…I’m not sure. I need to think.” Sarah marched off toward the driveway, where the shuttles transported guests back and forth from the big dirt lot down the road.
She took one more look over her shoulder at the tall, magnificent man smiling, singing, and having the time of his life on that stage. After everything he’d been through, it gave her heart peace to see him happy again. She simply didn’t know if she could let go of the past and start something new. Especially when looking at him reminded her of what she’d lost.
Think, Sarah. If Colt hadn’t taken you to Vegas that night, what choices would you have made? Would you have chosen him or your bench? Because from the beginning, she always understood the two would never go together.
She got onto the shuttle.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
“Luci? Have you seen Sarah?” Taylor asked. Colt had finished his set and come looking for Sarah, but no one knew where she’d gone.
Luci’s brown eyes held a deep sadness. “I have not, mija. I’m sorry.” She pulled out a few sheets of paper and waved the next couple over.
“Shit. She must’ve left.” Taylor pivoted on her heel, hoping to locate Sarah, but knowing in her heart she wouldn’t. “It wasn’t supposed to work out like this, Luci.”
Luci made a deep sigh and pushed some forms across the little table toward the happy couple who’d just stepped up. “Trust me, this is not how I envisioned ending things either.”
“What do you mean ‘ending things’?”
“Tonight is it, my dear. I am hanging up the apron.”
“What? You can’t do that.”
“Taylor, I am old. And I almost ruined your friend’s life because I wasn’t on my toes.”
Taylor didn’t know what Luci meant by that, but what did it matter? Luci was…she was…something truly good in this world. She was the sort of woman who made people believe in magic and the possibilities of true love. She was an institution, like Santa or the Easter Bunny. Or chocolate.
“You can’t close your doors, Luci. Think about all of the people you’ve helped, the families you’ve created.”
Luci rubbed her forehead and made a little grumble. “People have been falling in love and having babies long before I arrived to this Earth. They will continue to do so without me. I am tired, my dear. I want to rest and live my remaining days in peace, watching my grandchildren grow, and there is no one to take my place.”
Before Taylor even realized what she was saying, the words, “I’ll do it. Teach me, and I’ll do it,” came out of her mouth.
Luci raised two silvery brows. “You?”
What the hell am I doing? Why did I say that? But something deep inside her wanted it.
“Why not?” Taylor wished everyone could have the kind of love she had with Bennett. It was special and life changing and nothing shy of a miracle to be loved so completely by another. She never understood how it had all happened for her and Bennet, but she knew that Luci had played a part.
Luci stood and pulled Taylor aside. “Taylor, dear, I appreciate the gesture, but what I do is not easy. It takes a great amount of dedication and effort.”
“I don’t care. The world needs the Happy Pants Café. It needs your cookies. It needs more love. Please?”
Luci placed her hands on her waist and stared down at her petite yellow flats. “And what will your Bennett say about this?”
“He’ll love it. He sold his company to dedicate the rest of his life to charity work.”
Luci crinkled her nose and wiggled her puckered lips from side to side.
“Please? Give me a chance, Luci. One year. I’ll run the bakery. I’ll take on a project. If you don’t like what you see, then you can shut everything down. Okay?”
Luci whooshed out a breath and pointed her finger at Taylor. “I will give you six months. Six months to prove you can carry on my work.”
Taylor clapped and made a little jump. “Deal! Thank you.”
“You must pick your first project. There’s no time to waste.”
Taylor gave it exactly two seconds of thought. “I pick Jack, my brother.” He’d had his heart decimated by his ex-wife. Almost two years later, he still couldn’t look at another woman.
“Are you certain you want to take on such a difficult project?”
“When do we get started?”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
After the performance, Colt’s head spun with so many new ideas for songs that his brain felt overheated. I’m on creative fire! A giant weight had been lifted,
and despite having a long road ahead to reshape his life and forgive—not forget, but forgive—his brother, the light at the end of the tunnel shone bright. And that baby was filled with possibilities. Tonight, he’d shown his true self and made people laugh. They had a good time and sang, and he couldn’t have been happier. Not that people weren’t happy when he’d played his rock songs, but it had never completely fulfilled him. Tonight was everything he’d hope for save one: Sarah had left. And without her, he wasn’t so sure if the rest mattered.
I don’t know what the hell I expected. Would Sarah really be waiting for him at the side of the stage like some horny groupie, proclaiming her love and forgiveness?
Of course not. Sarah couldn’t be won over with a few songs and a speech, albeit a heartfelt one.
He needed to accept that it was over. Over. He would never get her back. And, frankly, if the tables had been turned and she’d tanked his career, well, maybe he’d be pissed, too.
Colt said goodbye to Luci, thanked his band, and called for his limo.
Ten minutes later, the driver showed up.
Irritated, Colt looked at his watch. The parking lot couldn’t be more than a minute away.
The limo driver got out and scrambled to the back of the vehicle.
“What took you so long?” Colt grumbled. “I hope you weren’t smoking out or something.” This was not his usual driver, and many times these younger chauffeurs thought that driving a musician around meant a night with the three Bs: bongs, boobs, and booze.
“No, sir,” said the driver. “There was a crazy woman blocking the car back in the lot.”
Crazy woman? “I hope you called the police.”
“No, sir. She’s inside.”
“Inside what?” Colt asked.
“Your limo, sir.”
Colt pulled out his phone and started to dial 9-1-1, thinking he had another Mary on his hands, but the driver opened the door. Colt spotted a pair of shapely legs inside.
Sarah.
Colt looked at the driver. “Thank you.”
“Very good, sir.” The driver smiled.
Colt slid inside next to Sarah, but looked ahead. His pulse rate was out of control, and his heart felt like it was sitting on the edge of a cliff. He needed to know. “Are you staying, or are you leaving?”
If this was goodbye, he couldn’t be anywhere near her. He couldn’t take it.
“That depends,” she said.
“On what?” He kept his eyes ahead.
“If you promise to never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever do anything like drunk marry me again, and…”
Colt smiled. She’s staying. Thank God, she’s staying. He turned his head and found those wide blue eyes he ached for. “And what?”
“If you’ll sing my favorite song.”
“Which is?” Please say the Sarah song. It would mean she accepted him—the real him.
“The Sarah song, of course.”
Yes! He grinned even wider. Oh, he’d sing it to her all right. He’d sing it every day until she was pulling out her hair.
“Does this mean you’ve forgiven me?” he asked, unable to stop grinning.
“I’m working on it.” One corner of her mouth curled up into an adorable smile. “But while I’m figuring out how to do that, I thought we could have hot, wild animal sex and maybe you could teach me more about having fun—Colt-style.”
Yes and yes!
He looked ahead at the driver, who awaited instructions. “Take us to my hotel.” Colt had his usual room booked at the Fairmont. “Wait. Scratch that. Take us home.”
“To LA, sir?”
“A six-hour drive sounds about right.” Colt looked at Sarah’s face. Her cheeks were flushed and she had a perma-grin glued to her mouth. My feelings exactly. “Or seven? I can ask him to drive slower.”
Sarah nodded. “I think I’d like that. The slower the better.”
Colt raised the divider and bent his head to kiss her.
Sarah hadn’t planned for this to happen. Not really. She’d intended to go home, which was now Holly’s aunt’s place, and think about what she really wanted.
After Colt gave that little speech on stage, it became more about whether she could honestly put her anger behind her. She knew Colt wasn’t a bad person. She knew he had done what he had out of love. But if she couldn’t forgive him, truly forgive him, she had to let him go. He deserved a woman who loved him freely and wholly and didn’t see him as a man with a complicated past who’d ruined her future.
So as she’d sat in the parking lot, her windows down so she could enjoy the late night summer breeze, she overheard the limo driver parked next to her. “Of course I will, honey. I’ll get Colt’s autograph for you, I promise.”
The driver went on to say how much he loved this woman—likely his wife—and that being on the road all the time wasn’t easy, but she kept him going.
It made her think of Colt. It made her think of how much he’d sacrificed for his career. It made her think of how awful it would be to spend so much time apart if they were a couple.
Maybe that was what really scared her—being in love with a man who was gone all the time and having to share him with the world. Hell, having to give up her life because his was so…complicated. And busy. But I don’t have to be scared. I could have my own practice and be with him when he tours. We could make it work and both be happy.
It was strange to think like that, but her question had been answered. If Colt had not pulled that stunt and taken her to Vegas, she would’ve chosen him anyway. She would’ve found a way to make her career work, too. She loved helping people. She wanted to make sure families weren’t destroyed because of shitty lawyers or gaps in the legal system. Career-wise, that was what mattered most to her, not the bench.
So when the limo driver told his woman he needed to go and get Colt, Sarah jumped out of her car. “Let me in.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m his wife.” So strange to say that.
He didn’t believe her. Then she convinced the guy to look at a few dozen pics of the two of them on the Internet. The driver buckled.
Now that she and Colt were together in the limo, his kisses hotter than a bonfire, she wanted to say so many things: Thank you. I love you. Don’t ever leave me.
But what she ended up saying was, “Fuck me.”
Colt’s pupils widened with lust. “I love you, Sarah. I really love you.”
She smiled. It felt so good to hear, but it felt even better to say it back without reserve. “I love you, too.”
She twisted her body and straddled his lap, threading her fingers beneath his silky soft ponytail. She imagined how good his hair would feel on her bare nipples or sliding against her thigh as he licked her c-spot.
“Is this part of your forgiveness process?” he asked. “If yes, I might have to be bad all the time so you’ll forgive me a lot.” He gripped her hips.
“See, I always knew you were a bad boy at heart.” She grinned and wiggled her hand between them, searching for the button of his pants. She popped it open and slid down the zipper. She worked her hand into his pants and found his hot, thick cock. He was rock hard.
Colt stuttered, “I thi-think you’re the bad one, Your Honor.”
“Yep.” She took the head of his cock between her fingers, dipped it into her wetness, and circled it over her c-spot. He felt so warm, so good. “Because, as you can tell, Mr. Young, I seem to have lost my panties.”
“Such a tragedy. Can I help—”
Sarah dipped the tip of his cock inside her, and Colt threw back his head, wincing.
“You like that, don’t you, you naughty, naughty man?”
She lowered herself an inch, allowing him to penetrate her a bit further.
He nodded eagerly and his hands tightened on her hips.
“I thought so.” She lowered herself and savored the sensation of his thickness sliding inside her, filling her, stretching her to her limit. Bracing her hands behind h
is neck, she rose up again and dropped her body, allowing her weight to drive him deep.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “You feel so fucking good.” He ground his pelvis against her entrance.
Sarah’s breasts ached, her skin turned to goose bumps, and her core throbbed with delicious tension, moving her one step further to ecstasy.
Colt ripped down the front of her dress and sucked and lapped at her nipples, igniting every sinful nerve inside her.
“God, Colt. You feel so good.” She cupped his head to her chest.
“You taste better than I remember, though I do miss the cookie crumbs.”
“Holy shit.” She’d completely forgotten about that. She froze and looked at him. “I ate the cookie.”
“Huh?”
“I ate the cookie. So did you!”
Colt blinked. “Uh…mind telling me what you’re talking about later because we’re sorta in the middle of something.”
She pushed her fingers into his soft hair. “Sure, sweetie.” On second thought, maybe she’d keep it to herself. I’m sure it was just a coincidence anyway. She’d eaten Luci’s cookie and ran into Colt five minutes later. Then he’d gotten to enjoy a few crumbs from her cleavage. But it wasn’t a cookie that got them here to this moment. Nope. Uh-uh.
It was love. Plain and simple.
She looked into his eyes, feeling so happy, words fell short. Except for, “I love you.” She returned to kissing him, enjoying the fullness of his lips and unusually smooth jaw. She would never get tired of this, of him.
She rose to her knees again, almost letting him leave her completely before sinking onto him.
She repeated the movements, riding him hard, savoring every velvety hot inch. It was a question of seconds, not minutes, before she orgasmed.
“I’m going to come, Sarah,” Colt panted.
“Me too,” she panted back.