Out of Mind (29 page)

BOOK: Out of Mind

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I caught her hand and kissed it, right above her wedding ring. I must’ve zoned out. I still did that sometimes. Got lost in thought. “Sorry, Ginger. I was lost in time.”

“What were you thinking about?” she asked, a soft smile on those perfect lips of hers.

“You.” I leaned forward and kissed her, loving the way she tasted, even after all these years. “Always you.”

She closed her hands on my shoulders before pulling back and looking down for a quick second. “You two ready for the angel?”

I looked down at the baby in my arms, smiling with so much fucking happiness I swear my heart would burst. Our red-haired daughter, Susan Marie Coram, fluttered her lashes open and looked up at me with the same blue eyes as her mother. She was only three months old, but already I knew she would own my heart as fully as her mother did.

“We’ve been ready for years,” I said, making my voice higher as I held Susan’s hand. She cooed and closed her tiny little fingers around mine. “She’s so f-f—” I cut myself off. I was trying to cut back on the cursing. “—uh, fetchingly perfect.”

Carrie laughed, picked up the angel, and came over to us, her eyes on me the whole time. “How could she not be? She came from us.” She trailed her fingers over the scar on my forehead, smiling. Then she laid the angel on Susan’s belly. “You’re up, princess.”

I walked up to the tree, lifting Susan above my head. With my help—
aka
I did it myself—we put the angel on top of the tree. Backing up far enough to really see it, I eyed the tree skeptically. We’d gotten better over the years, because it actually looked evenly spread out. Perry Como crowed in the background, and lasagna cooked in the oven.

It was tradition.

No sooner did I nod in satisfaction than the timer dinged. I looked down at Susan. She was fast asleep. Good, it was time for me to have some one-on-one time with her mama. I smiled at Carrie, my heart so full it had to be close to bursting. “You get the lasagna out, and I’ll lay down Susan.”

“Okay.” She walked by me, heading toward the kitchen, her hips swinging with each step she took. She wore a red dress and a pair of red heels. Fucking hot. “Hurry up.”

“Oh, I will.”

After watching her go, I climbed the stairs to Susan’s nursery. I laid her down to rest and snuck into the master bedroom to grab my present for Carrie out of my underwear drawer. I’d gotten her another sun pendant, but this one was white gold with a diamond in the middle of the pendant. She’d love it.

I stopped two steps into the room. Lying in the middle of the bed was my wife, and she didn’t have anything on except a pair of red heels and a seductive smile. “Merry Christmas to me,” I said, shutting the door behind me.

She opened her arms. “Come here, love.”

I crossed the room, climbed onto the king bed, and lowered myself on top of her. She moaned and closed her arms around my neck, arching her back seductively. Trailing my fingers down her side, toward her hip, I kissed her. Her tongue tangled with mine, fighting for control before she gave it to me.

I moaned and deepened the kiss, wedging myself between her legs. Breaking the kiss off, I whispered, “I love you, Ginger.”

She smiled up at me, tracing her fingers over my faded scar. “I love you, too.”

Unable to resist her when she looked so fucking hot, I kissed her again. I never could resist her, and never would be able to for as long as I lived...because she loved me—and
needed
me—just as much as I needed her.

Imagine that.

Read other books by Jen McLaughlin

Dear Reader,

Some of you might have recognized this already, but the epilogue in this book is almost exactly pulled out of Finn’s thoughts in
Out of Time
. When he and Carrie are decorating their first Christmas tree, he thinks to himself:

If Captain Richards asked me where I wanted to be in ten years, I’d have an answer for him. I’d want to be right here, decorating a sloppy tree with Carrie. Maybe with a baby in my arms. That’s where I wanted to be. And I would be, damn it.

Well, Finn got what he wanted, and I hope you all did, as well. I’ve had tons of fun writing Carrie and Finn’s story, and I hope to see you again soon. Even though Finn and Carrie got their happily ever after…Marie, Hernandez, and Riley didn’t.

At least…not yet.

If someone asked me where I saw myself in the next ten years, I’d have an answer too—just like Finn. I’ll be right here, writing stories for you. Thank you for letting me do that for you. I feel so very blessed.

Till next time? The sun is finally shining.

Love,

Jen McLaughlin is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She writes steamy new adult books for the young and young at heart. Her first release, Out of Line, came out September 2013. She also writes bestselling contemporary romance under the pen name Diane Alberts. Since receiving her first contract offer under the pen name Diane Alberts, she has yet to stop writing. She is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.

Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal-clear water. Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal-clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, a cat, and a Senegal parrot. In the rare moments when she’s not writing, she can usually be found hunched over one knitting project or another. Her goal is to write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form of by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes, if done so constitutes a copyright violation.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used.

Manufactured in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-0-9896684-4-6

The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Beauty and the Beast
, CVS,
Downton Abbey
, PBS, Target, Porsche, University of Southern California San Diego, Post-it, Aquafina, Volvo, Bruno Mars, Islands, and Harley-Davidson.

Edited by: Kristin at Coat of Polish Edits

Copy edited by: Hollie Westring

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