“Like you’d have a chance of beating me, old man,” I whispered, going up on tiptoe so I could slick my lips over his in a teasing kiss.
Aiden growled, slanting his mouth over mine.
I was still laughing when we walked out of the bathroom, hands intertwined. The man on the treadmill wasn’t on the treadmill anymore, and he definitely didn’t have his headphones on.
He was re-racking some weights nearby the room we’d just exited, his face bright red. He looked up, eyes tracking over my messy hair, then his gaze darted away again.
“Have a great day,” Aiden said smoothly.
He stammered over a, “you too.” And I had to smother my laugh as we left the gym.
“I don’t know,” I said, “I think we’re pretty incredible at honeymooning.”
Aiden wrapped his arm around my shoulder and dropped a kiss to the top of my head. “I think you’re right, Mrs. Hennessy.”
* * *
The End
Whew! What a Ward family binge you’ve been on. I hope you loved these four amazing sisters like I do. If you’re curious how Logan and Paige got their epic start, here’s an excerpt from
The Marriage Effect.
“So you’re like …”
I kept my eyes aimed up when I answered. There was no particular desire to see the look on her face when I told her something I’d managed to keep under the radar for more than two years. “Their legal guardian.”
Paige was quiet for a couple of seconds as she processed. “And he wants to be.”
“Yeah. He and his wife do.”
“And you don’t want them to be,” she clarified.
I dropped my chin so she could see my face again. “Definitely not.”
She cupped her cheeks in her hands and stared at me. “And me saying I was your fianc?e was …”
Was what? I wanted to ask. Because I had a few words I could drop into that particular empty space.
Perfectly timed.
Brilliant.
Crazy.
Fate.
Paige didn’t say any of those things, though. “It was really stupid, wasn’t it?”
I closed my eyes and wiped a hand over my mouth. I didn’t know why I thought Paige would make this easy on me. Why I thought her mind would follow the same path that mine was.
Probably because that path was certifiable, padded cell insanity.
Except it wasn’t. Not at all.
“I just … didn’t think, really. I’m so sorry, Logan. I don’t blame you for being furious.”
I dropped my hand and stared at her.
“Oh my gosh, would you say something? You’re starting to freak me out.”
“I’m not furious,” I told her.
She blinked a few times. “You’re not?”
“Nope.”
Paige sat back and exhaled audibly. “Well, that’s good. I thought you’d flip the hell out on me, tell me I should think things through better, blah, blah. That’s what Allie tells me all the time.”
“Oh,” I interjected, “you should think things through better, but I’m not furious.”
“Well, that’s good.” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why? You’re not exactly Susy Sunshine, if you know what I’m sayin’. I figured you’d be breathing fire right now.”
I leaned forward and plucked her hand from her lap, turned it side to side so I could study the ring. When she sucked in an audible breath, I kept my eyes down because I didn’t want to know what was on her face. The skin of her long, graceful fingers was smooth and soft. No callouses like the ones covering mine. No scars from broken fingers or skin that had been ripped off by an overzealous lineman.
“Nick is an asshole,” I told her as I studied her fingers in mine. “But he’s married. He works a job with normal hours. During the season, I probably work a hundred hours a week. My housekeeper just quit, the third in a year. And under my watch, my sixteen-year-old sister just got in a car accident driving around with her drunk friend, so he’s going to try to take them from me because of it.”
Paige’s chest rose and fell with increasing speed. Her pink lips were full and open slightly as she watched me. The bridge of her nose was covered with light freckles, and it worked. All of her separate pieces, they worked really, really well together.
“He’s better on paper,” she said. “That’s what you’re trying to say?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He checks a lot of boxes that I don’t.”
A blanket of quiet fell between us, and I saw the wheels turn behind the bright blue of her eyes.
“What is it that you need, exactly?” she repeated, slowly pulling her hand out of my own.
Her eyes held mine. Turns out, I didn’t even need to say the words or try to figure out the best way to say it. She finally tore her gaze away, and it landed on the ring.
“Ohhhh,” she drawled. “You need a fianc?e.”
“Actually,” I said slowly, gauging the finely featured face in front of me, “I need a wife.”
Paige’s face stilled, then the last—absolute fucking last—thing I expected to happen happened.
She smiled.
“Perfect,” she breathed.
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***
The Last Ward Wedding
THE LAST WARD WEDDING
If you’ve already read Logan and Paige’s story, I do have one bonus short story that I wrote as an exclusive for the Nightingale Anthology. It’s called The Last Ward Wedding, written from Logan’s POV, and before now, you couldn’t find it anywhere outside of that anthology. I’ve decided to include it here for those of you who missed it when it was published in the limited time only anthology. Enjoy!
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.