It Was Always You
Fate has given them a second chance.
Adam Sherbrooke does the only thing he can when he finds himself the guardian of his six-and-half-month-old goddaughter, contact Elite Nanny Company, and request they send their best nanny. He never imagined they’d send the woman he’d been hours away from proposing to when she walked out of his life thirteen years ago.
When Evie Caldwell knocks on the door of a potential employer, she gets the shock of her life. Instead of meeting a stranger who shares the name of someone she once knew, she finds herself face to face with the man she left years ago but never stopped loving.Falling in love with each other again wasn’t in the plan.
However, the more time they spend together, the harder it is for them to ignore their feelings. But will the same thing that drove Evie away thirteen years ago come between them again?
Read an excerpt from It Was Always You
Adam wasn’t sure which was driving him crazier, the smudge of flour on her cheek or the hair that had escaped her ponytail. Although not what he wanted to taste, he popped the cookie into his mouth. “Tastes great to me. What did you do differently?”
“I added anise instead of vanilla to the dough.”
Before his brain registered what his feet were doing, he moved closer.
Reaching out, he brushed away the flour on her cheek. In response, Evie swallowed, and she glanced at his mouth before meeting his eyes again.
“You had flour on your face.” He should lower his hand and put some space between them again. But now that he’d touched her, something he’d been dreaming about doing every night since Adam opened the front door and found her standing there, he didn’t want to stop.
Evie stepped closer as he skimmed his fingers across her cheek. No longer entirely in control, he slowly lowered his mouth toward hers. Rather than tell him to stop or move away from him, she closed the remaining space between them and rested her hand on his shoulder.
The rational part of his brain that should tell him to retreat switched off as the need to kiss Evie consumed him.
Home.
The thought, as well as a wave of need like he’d never experienced, ripped through him the moment his lips touched hers. A brief kiss wasn’t enough.
Adam moved his mouth over Evie’s, unable to get enough of her. And when she slipped her arms around his neck and traced his bottom lip with her tongue, the blood coursing through his veins became molten lava scorching him from the inside out.
God, he’d missed her.
The most annoying sound broke the silence and slowly penetrated the fog filling his head. But before he figured out what it was, Evie pulled away and turned toward the oven.
He’d never hated an appliance more than now as he watched Evie turn off the timer and pull out the cookies.
“Evie —” Reagan’s crying erupted from the baby monitor on the counter before he could continue.
Talk about lousy timing, kiddo.
“I need to check on her, but I’ll be right back.”
Evie nodded but didn’t look at him as she transferred the cookies to the cooling rack. “Okay.”
Only silence came from Reagan’s bedroom when he reached the door. Should he go inside and check on her or assume she’d fallen asleep and return downstairs? If she was sleeping, the last thing he wanted to do was wake her, especially right now. While he’d dreamed about kissing Evie, he’d honestly dreamed of the two of them doing a hell of a lot more. That being said, he never expected anything to happen between them. But now that they’d kissed, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go without her again. Unfortunately, a lot of crap stood between them.
Although the silence continued, Adam opened the door and entered the room. The light from the hallway allowed him to see well enough to cross to the crib and not walk into anything. Like the last time he’d been in the room, Reagan was asleep, her breathing steady. Evie had told him he shouldn’t rush into the room every time Reagan made a sound during the night. It looked like she was right. And from now on, he’d try not to go in the minute Reagan cried. But it wouldn’t be easy. He hated hearing her cry.
When he entered the kitchen, Evie was leaning against the counter and eating a cookie. “Is Reagan okay?”
“She was back to sleep by the time I got up there.”
“That’s good. Maybe she’ll sleep through the night for you tonight.”
That would be nice, but he wouldn’t hold his breath. But for now, Reagan’s sleeping habits weren’t foremost in his thoughts.
He’d never been able to stay away from her when Evie was in the same room with him. Now wasn’t any different. “Evie —”
This time it wasn’t Reagan’s cries that interrupted him. “Don’t apologize. I could’ve stopped you earlier, and I didn’t. What happened was just as much on me as it was on you.”
An apology had been the farthest thing from his mind. “I didn’t intend to.”
It might be a good idea to keep as much distance between them as possible right now, but he’d already shown he couldn’t make a good decision tonight. So why start now? He moved closer, stopping when she was less than an arm’s length away.
“Ever since you showed up here three weeks ago, I’ve wanted to kiss you.” He might be incapable of making a good decision right now, but he could be honest. “And knowing you’re down the hall from me has kept me up at night more than Reagan has.”
Adam figured he might as well lay it all out there.
Evie looked toward the ceiling as if she’d find answers there as she took a deep breath. Slowly, she exhaled before looking at him again. “Trust me, the feeling is mutual. So where does that leave us?”