Crush

In between rooting for my favorite football team and changing diapers, I was still hell-bent on working in some sort of capacity, but I’d come to realize I wanted to work not so much because I needed to make my own money, but because I wanted to make a difference. Pairing that desire with my obsession for dance . . . well, the dance studio was the result. The knowledge that one day I could possibly influence a young girl the way Madame Fontaine had influenced me felt like it was the cherry on top of a very fulfilling sundae.

“Go, Uncle Jude,” LJ said, careful not to shout with A

“Here, buddy,” I said, reaching for her. “Let me take her so you can get up and bounce and scream for Uncle Jude. You know he can hear you out there, right?”

“I know,” LJ said importantly, letting me take A

“Come here, sweet girl. Let’s cheer for your daddy.” Kissing A

Jude didn’t even fake a pass; he just cradled that ball against himself and sprinted for the end zone.

I held my breath as everyone around the arena exploded. When he’d hit the ten I let myself exhale. He was going to do it.

When his foot landed in the end zone, the roof felt like it was going to blow off the place from the noise. I just stood there and gri

Dropping the ball, he turned and jogged down the sidelines.

He high-fived a few of his teammates in passing, but he couldn’t be stopped. Coming to a pause in front of us, he gri

“That one was for my girls,” he said, sliding his helmet off.

“And consider your girls sufficiently impressed,” I shouted, leaning forward. A

“Come here, baby girl,” he said, lifting his arms. I surrendered her to his strong hands. “You want to see the best seat in the house?”

A

“Okay, okay.” He laughed, tucking her close to him. “But first I got to get a little something-something from your mama.”

Smiling that smile of his that made my stomach drop, he tilted his head up at me.

Leaning down, I kissed him and, no different from the first time we’d done this, the rest of the world faded away. It was just Jude and me and our little girl.

It was what you’d call something of a full-circle moment.

“Love you, Luce,” he said, after A

“Love you, Jude.”

Turning around, Jude carried A

As I watched them, I felt the same thing. We were in our own bubble, and it was a good one. My life wasn’t how I pla

It was a thousand times better.

Sybill had been right: The few things I’d sacrificed, or put on hold, to be with my husband and baby were worth it. That broken boy on the beach seemed like a lifetime ago. Years had passed, college and the NFL, marriage and a baby, but every once in a while, when Jude looked over at me and gave me that slow, knowing smile of his, I was that girl in a black string bikini all over again, longing for a boy I never thought could be mine.

About the Author

Nicole Williams, author of Crash, Clash, Crush, The Eden Trilogy, and The Patrick Chronicles, is a wife, a mom, and a writer who believes in true love, kindred spirits, and happy endings. Nicole currently lives with her family in Spokane, Washington. You can visit her online at http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com.

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Credits

Cover art © 2013 by plainpicture/Hollandse Hoogte/Rutger van der Bent

Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Crush

Copyright © 2013 by Nicole Williams

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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Library of Congress catalog card number: 2013934073

ISBN 978-0-06-226717-7 (pbk.)

EPub Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN: 9780062267184

13 14 15 16 17 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FIRST EDITION

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