Falling for the Forward
Falling for the Forward
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Suki Brennan is broke. After she co-signed several hefty loans for her ex’s business, he fled the country and left her working two jobs to pay his bills.
So when her new boss, a sulky pro hockey player who recently became the guardian of his three nieces, proposes a deal to help him secure permanent custody of the girls, she agrees.
If Suki fake marries Carter Stanton for one year, and pretends to be his doting wife, she’ll get half a million dollars and a clean divorce at the end. Not only will the money pay off all her debts, she’ll be able to help the girls she already adores settle fully into their new lives.
It’s a foolproof plan. At least, it seems like it. As Suki grows closer to Carter and his nieces, though, her feelings for them become very real. But does her brooding boss feel the same?
In this book:
- Hockey Romance 🏒
- Explosive Chemistry 🔥
- Happily Ever After 💕
Intro to Chapter One
Intro to Chapter One
Chapter One
Suki
I open my apartment door, groaning when I see a massive box addressed to “Naughty by Nature” sitting on the ground. After closing the door, I sigh and hang my head, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“More dildos?” my best friend Mara asks absently from the couch.
I sigh heavily and press my back to the door. “I just wanted a relaxing day off. I need to do laundry and I wanted to catch up on Survivor. Now we have to haul another superheavy box to the storage place and I’ll be thinking about how much I hate Tyler the entire time.”
“You do have impeccably bad taste in men.” She closes the law textbook she’s reading and takes off her glasses. “Let’s just get it done. We can pick up Starbies on the way home.”
I nod, knowing not even a vanilla bean Frap with extra caramel and whipped cream will lessen my urge to hunt down my ex-boyfriend. He left the country almost three months ago, ditching not only me but also his debts. That means I--the naive girlfriend who cosigned on a massive loan for his new adult toy business--lost my life savings and now have creditors after me.
Mara helps me drag the box into the apartment. When she pulls a box cutter out of her pocket, I pinch my brows together in a disgruntled look.
“Why waste time opening it? We know it’s yet another one of Tyler’s obnoxious organic sex toys that I’ll spend the rest of my life paying for.”
She shrugs. “We’re going to have to sell this stuff at some point to help get you out of debt. We need to know what we’ve got.”
I flop onto my favorite worn-out recliner, waiting for Mara’s one-woman comedy routine to start. She’s been my greatest ally since I split with Tyler, but sometimes I’m not in the mood to laugh about Naughty by Nature. Today is one of those days.
“Holy hell, that’s a lot of butt plugs!” She reaches into the box and pulls out a large neon-green plug.
“The Alien Invader,” I murmur. “The company told Tyler the materials were on back order and it would take a long time to fulfill it.”
She bursts out laughing. “The Alien Invader? I don’t care what it’s made of, no one wants their bunghole invaded.”
“I told him that.”
She’s still laughing. Mara even does the little snort thing she always does when she’s laughing so hard she’s about to pee.
“Did he seriously think people care whether their dildos and butt plus are nontoxic and BPA-free? It’s not something I’ve ever cared about.”
I don’t respond because we’ve had this conversation several times. I thought Tyler’s Stanford business degree meant he had good business sense. He sold me on his all-natural adult toy business over dinner at a tapas place one night, telling me it had the potential to make us seven figures a year within five years.
Us. That was what really did me in. I’m twenty-six, and when my boyfriend of more than three years started mentioning us and the future, I got heart eyes and lost all sense of reason.
What a fool I was. I can’t even bring myself to tell anyone but Mara about the financial grave I dug for myself. Not even my family knows. I’m working two jobs to keep up with the loan payments and not starve, and even though I’m broke as hell, I’ll keep doing it as long as I have to.
Anything to spare me the humiliation of admitting I didn’t just get dumped by a man I thought was in love with me. But I’m also going to be paying off his debts for the next twenty years while he’s probably wining and dining his next victim.
***
“So you’re still liking the new job?” Mara asks on the drive home from my rented storage bay, where we dumped off the box of Alien Invaders.
“I love it. The girls keep me so busy that ten hours a day feels like about three. And they’ve gotten used to me, I think.” I’m in my third week as a nanny for Carter Stanton, a pro hockey player for the Cleveland Crush. When I signed up at the nanny agency a month ago because I hated my boring office job, I never imagined I’d be hired the next week to take care of three little girls who lost their mother unexpectedly last month.
“Has your boss gotten any friendlier?”
I laugh because “friendly” isn’t a word I’d ever use to describe Carter. He’s gruff, relaying the essential information I’ll need every day before leaving for practice or a game with barely even a goodbye to the girls.
“No, but I don’t see much of him. I just leave when he gets home, like I do when the weekend nanny gets there.”
I usually waitress at a local sports bar on the weekends, but the bar is closed for the owner’s vacation, so I have a rare weekend off.
Mara scowls. “Those poor kids. Their mom died and they got shipped across the country to live with an uncle who brings in strangers to take care of them.”
I shrug. “He can’t help his work schedule. And the agency vets nannies thoroughly. I had to have five references and a background check.”
“I looked him up online. He’s hot, but he seems like an asshole.”
I park my old sedan in our designated spot in our building’s parking lot. “You can’t tell whether someone’s an asshole by looking at their picture.”
Mara scoffs. “I do it on Tinder every day and I haven’t been wrong yet. Also, I’m not just basing it on his picture. I read articles. A reporter saw him smashing a hockey stick in the locker room after a game because he was so pissed about his team losing. It was probably roid rage.”
I shake my head. We’ve been friends since high school, and Mara has always been quick to judge and slow to change her mind. I should be used to it by now.
“I think they test for that.”
“Guess he’s just an asshole then,” she says. “You should definitely accidentally walk into his bathroom when he’s getting out of the shower sometime and see if he’s hung. All the guys with great dicks are assholes. It’s so unfair.”
We both get out of the car, meeting up behind it to walk into the building.
“I’ll pass because, first of all, that’s a disgusting thing to do, and also, it’s a great way to get fired. I can’t keep my alcoholic best friend supplied with wine if I lose my job.”
“I prefer wine enthusiast to alcoholic.”
“Are you studying today?”
She groans as she takes out her key to unlock our door. “Yeah, unfortunately. I’m over studying for the bar every waking minute. I just want to rot and drink.”
I can’t wait for Mara to take the bar exam in a couple of weeks so she’ll stop stressing about failing it. We’ve been roommates since we both graduated from Ohio State four years ago. I planned to use my marketing degree for the business Tyler and I started, but it’s been such a catastrophic failure that I can’t even think about another marketing job. I’ve always loved kids and I now wish I would have gotten a teaching degree instead. So far, nannying doesn’t even feel like work. Olivia, Charlotte and Hallie are sweet girls who are still grieving the loss of their mom and adjusting to their new lives. Getting to help them with those things is more gratifying than any job I’ve ever had.
I didn’t realize how much I needed a fresh start. When I’m with the girls, I don’t feel like a loser who got duped by a con man. We talk and laugh. I still think about them on the weekends and I’m always thrilled to see them again on Mondays.
Once we’re back in the apartment, I walk into the kitchen and grab a can of pizza Pringles, grabbing a stack and then passing the can to Mara as she sits down on the couch. “Are Dex and Harry doing trivia tonight? I might actually be able to go if I get my laundry done.”
She lights up. “I’ll text Dex. I deserve beer and bar nachos for dinner.”
“I’m on a ramen budget, but I’m definitely down for trivia.”
“We’re eating at the bar, and I’m buying. You deserve dinner out after that shipment of The Asshole’s Alien Invaders.”
I remember being skeptical of Tyler’s idea for a butt plug that had the word invader in the name, but as usual, I acquiesced. Trust me, babe, he said.
“How could I have been so stupid?” I ask for at least the hundredth time since he ghosted me.
“Good dick blinds us all, sweetie.”
I sigh softly. “It was marginal dick.”
Mara points at me and practically yells. “Finally, you’re admitting it! I knew it! You said he was good in bed, but you never looked satisfied after a night with him.”
“I’m in no mood for your shit,” I warn.
“Bet I know what you are in the mood for since you haven’t had decent sex in like four years.”
“I will stab you in the eye. You’ll be a pirate attorney with an eye patch.”
“Yo-ho! I’d rock the shit out of an eye patch.”
I laugh at her enthusiasm. My favorite thing about Mara is her relentless determination to be Mara. She always--one hundred percent of the time--has an opinion to offer and a joke to make. Our friends Harry and Dex say they plan to come to court once she works her way into the courtroom. Just to be entertained by watching her have to stay quiet.
I’m not like Mara. I don’t have many crisply defined personality traits. Maybe...punctuality? But that’s not exactly something people flock to. I’m mostly easygoing, not unattractive, and I’m a pretty good cook. Overall, I’m more forgettable than I’d like to be.
“My phone’s in my bag. Can I use yours to text Dex?” Mara asks.
I pass it to her.
“Looks like you got texts from Dex and Carter.”
“Carter?” I take the phone back.
Carter: Hi Suki, it’s Olivia, I borrowed Uncle Carter’s phone to text you. Sorry to bother you on your day off but Hallie really wanted me to show you this picture she drew.
I enlarge the attached photo, which is a crayon drawing of a smiling monster with seven arms and rainbow polka dots. Six-year-old Hallie loves to draw--it’s one of our favorite after-school activities. I text back.
Suki: Hi Olivia! You are never bothering me, I’m so happy you sent this. Please tell Hallie this is very creative and I love her use of color.
I read the text from Dex next.
Dex: Trivia tonight? Mara said you’re off and we need you two in case there are questions about random TV shows or Taylor Swift songs.
Suki: And here I thought you wanted to see us....
Dex: Well, that too...I want to hear all about the hockey hottie you’re working for.
Suki: He’s straight and grouchy.
Dex: Rawr. I don’t want him for me, I want him for you. He’s grouchy and commanding, I hope?
Suki: It’s not happening. I just work for him.
Dex: I recommend you drop something while standing in front of him, then drop to your knees and look up at him while biting your lip. Maybe refer to him as ‘sir’...
Suki: I’m not attracted to him and I can’t lose my job. We’ll see you tonight.
Dex: He’s going to put his puck in your net at some point. I know it, and I love that for you.
Suki: I’m never dating again. Go brush up on questions about presidents, you guys choked last time and that’s your category.
Dex: On it. See you soon, dollface.
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