Read Online The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Lori Wilde
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cheerleader renowned for her flashy affairs with famous football players. Later, she’d parlayed the experience into a modeling career, gotten rich, came back home and married Earl, her high school sweetheart. Gram had said that Sarah was too young to hear Raylene’s stories, but whenever she’d come to visit, Sarah had lingered in the hallway trying to eavesdrop on Raylene’s juicy conversations with Gram and their friends.
Then as if thunderstruck, Sarah remembered something disturbing. Raylene Pringle was Travis’s aunt, and Jazzy had just called her Auntie Raylene. Did that mean … ?
She had no time to finish the thought because Father Christmas held up a hand and exclaimed, “I’ve got it. I do know who you are. You’re little Sarah Collier all grown up.”
C HAPTER F OUR
Travis stared into the eyes of the woman who had once professed her undying love for him. Yeah, well, okay, back then she’d been a girl. But her mesmerizing eyes made his pulse pound harder, and the earth tilted crazily on its axis. It felt like some surreal moment from those fairy tale stories Jazzy loved for him to read to her, where the guy kisses the sleeping beauty or scales an ivory tower or slays a couple thousand dragons to get the girl of his dreams.
He thought of his mother, how she used to tell him that when he found the right one, he’d know it, deep in his heart. Then she would make a small fist and lay it over the left side of her chest and stare into his eyes. “The way it is with your father and me. When you find your soul mate, you’ll have no doubts.”
He knew he hadn’t felt it with Crystal. With his ex-wife, it had been about sex, plain and simple. But here, now, looking into Sarah’s eyes, he felt …
gobsmacked.
What in the hell was this feeling? He was cold and hot all at the same time. Achy and euphoric, like he had a high fever.
Her lips were temptingly close, and all he could think about was kissing her. Thank God Jazzy was there, coming between them, chattering nonstop. Or, compelled by a force he couldn’t control and didn’t understand, he might have actually kissed her.
When Sarah had been a teenager, Travis had never thought about her in a romantic way. He’d liked her, sure, and they’d been friends. She’d been curious and inquisitive, intrigued by things he was interested in—nature, animals, fishing—but she’d just been a cool kid.
But she was a kid no more and right now, he sure as shootin’
was
thinking about her in that way.
Little Sarah Collier had grown up very nicely. She was slimmer, but still curvy in all the right places. He liked curvy. Her eyes were sharp and smart and uniquely blue. That’s how he’d finally placed her. Those unusual eyes. Her skin was lily white, as if she never went out in the sun, and her honey brown hair was thicker, longer, plaited in a braid that landed past the middle of her back. She smelled so good, like pie made from tart green apples, unexpectedly homey but with a strong sprinkle of sass. Travis felt all kinds of feelings— surprise, desire, confusion, and, let’s face it, delight. He was delighted to discover that Sarah was Sadie Cool.
And here was the amazing thing.
The look on Sarah’s face told him she was feeling pretty much the same emotions. They stared ateach other, both breathing in short, rapid, tandem breaths.
It was a very strange moment. It wasn’t every day a man discovered his daughter’s favorite author was the girl who’d grown up next door to him. A girl who’d once interrupted his wedding to tell him that he was her destiny.
Destiny, fate, providence. Somehow, it felt precisely as if that’s what this was.
Sarah raised a hand to her cheek. “Why … why are you staring at me like that? Do I have something on my face?”
Yes, an amazing pair of lips.
She made him think about soft mattresses and long winter nights, and for a guy whose mind had been centered almost solely on his daughter for the last four
Then as if thunderstruck, Sarah remembered something disturbing. Raylene Pringle was Travis’s aunt, and Jazzy had just called her Auntie Raylene. Did that mean … ?
She had no time to finish the thought because Father Christmas held up a hand and exclaimed, “I’ve got it. I do know who you are. You’re little Sarah Collier all grown up.”
C HAPTER F OUR
Travis stared into the eyes of the woman who had once professed her undying love for him. Yeah, well, okay, back then she’d been a girl. But her mesmerizing eyes made his pulse pound harder, and the earth tilted crazily on its axis. It felt like some surreal moment from those fairy tale stories Jazzy loved for him to read to her, where the guy kisses the sleeping beauty or scales an ivory tower or slays a couple thousand dragons to get the girl of his dreams.
He thought of his mother, how she used to tell him that when he found the right one, he’d know it, deep in his heart. Then she would make a small fist and lay it over the left side of her chest and stare into his eyes. “The way it is with your father and me. When you find your soul mate, you’ll have no doubts.”
He knew he hadn’t felt it with Crystal. With his ex-wife, it had been about sex, plain and simple. But here, now, looking into Sarah’s eyes, he felt …
gobsmacked.
What in the hell was this feeling? He was cold and hot all at the same time. Achy and euphoric, like he had a high fever.
Her lips were temptingly close, and all he could think about was kissing her. Thank God Jazzy was there, coming between them, chattering nonstop. Or, compelled by a force he couldn’t control and didn’t understand, he might have actually kissed her.
When Sarah had been a teenager, Travis had never thought about her in a romantic way. He’d liked her, sure, and they’d been friends. She’d been curious and inquisitive, intrigued by things he was interested in—nature, animals, fishing—but she’d just been a cool kid.
But she was a kid no more and right now, he sure as shootin’
was
thinking about her in that way.
Little Sarah Collier had grown up very nicely. She was slimmer, but still curvy in all the right places. He liked curvy. Her eyes were sharp and smart and uniquely blue. That’s how he’d finally placed her. Those unusual eyes. Her skin was lily white, as if she never went out in the sun, and her honey brown hair was thicker, longer, plaited in a braid that landed past the middle of her back. She smelled so good, like pie made from tart green apples, unexpectedly homey but with a strong sprinkle of sass. Travis felt all kinds of feelings— surprise, desire, confusion, and, let’s face it, delight. He was delighted to discover that Sarah was Sadie Cool.
And here was the amazing thing.
The look on Sarah’s face told him she was feeling pretty much the same emotions. They stared ateach other, both breathing in short, rapid, tandem breaths.
It was a very strange moment. It wasn’t every day a man discovered his daughter’s favorite author was the girl who’d grown up next door to him. A girl who’d once interrupted his wedding to tell him that he was her destiny.
Destiny, fate, providence. Somehow, it felt precisely as if that’s what this was.
Sarah raised a hand to her cheek. “Why … why are you staring at me like that? Do I have something on my face?”
Yes, an amazing pair of lips.
She made him think about soft mattresses and long winter nights, and for a guy whose mind had been centered almost solely on his daughter for the last four
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