Winning the Right Brother
She liked safe…and there was nothing safe about Alex…Practical single mum Holly had her feet firmly on the ground. Except when it came to Alex. Fifteen years ago he’d stirred her passion. But she’d been too afraid to trust her future to him. Now Alex was back, coaching her son’s football team and tempting Holly to forget how wrong they were for each other…Even when she dated his stepbrother, Holly always had Alex’s heart. And fifteen years apart had only made him want her more… So he’d just have to show her that not only was he right for her now – he was the right man forever!
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“How do you want to feel?”
Holly propped her chin on her hand as she thought about the question. “I don’t know. I guess I was hoping for … magic.”
Magic, Alex thought, remembering how his body had reacted when Holly had hugged him.
“What would magic feel like?”
She looked down at the table. “Well … goose bumps. Shivers. Your heart beating faster, your knees feeling weak. But I think I’m expecting too much.”
She looked so vulnerable as she said that, her expression a little embarrassed, her cheeks turning pink. He wanted to tilt her chin up so she was looking right at him, he wanted to lean in close and—
I could make your knees feel weak, he thought.
About the Author
ABIGAIL STROM started writing stories at the age of seven and has never been able to stop. She’s thrilled to be publishing her first book. She works full-time as a human resources professional and lives in New England with her family, who are incredibly supportive of the hours she spends hunched over her computer.
Dear Reader,
Sometimes we’re our own worst enemies when it comes to love. The more self-reliant you are, the scarier falling in love can be.
It’s certainly a frightening prospect for single mom Holly Stanton. She’s been on her own for fifteen years, and the last thing she wants is to fall for Alex McKenna, her son’s new coach and her old high school nemesis. Alex isn’t ready for his feelings, either. But after spending time with the woman he once had a crush on and the boy his stepbrother abandoned, he starts to wonder if love might be worth the risk after all.
It’s with great pleasure that I introduce you to Holly and Alex. They nagged me unmercifully until I put their story on paper, a story that became my first published book. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.
My very best wishes,
Abigail
For Tara Gorvine, who made me do it.
And for Susan Litman, who made a dream come true with one phone call.
Chapter One
“Mom! Hey, Mom!”
“Up here, Will,” Holly Stanton called out. Her son came up the stairs two at a time and stood in the doorway, tossing a football from hand to hand while she finished maneuvering her new mattress onto the box spring. She’d just spent a breathless ten minutes getting it in the house and up to her bedroom.
“Geez, Mom. Why didn’t you wait till I got home? I could’ve helped you.”
Holly grinned at her fifteen-year-old son. His auburn hair and green eyes were so like hers, but he was ten inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier.
“I didn’t need any help, Squirt. I got it up here, didn’t I? Hardly broke a sweat.”
Will shook his head, but he was grinning back at her. “Someone I know says you were always like this. Never letting anybody help you. Stubborn as a mule.”
Holly flipped one end of a freshly laundered sheet in his direction. “Here, if you’re so eager to be useful. And who’s this anonymous source of yours? Weston is my hometown, you know. I thought I knew who all my old friends and enemies were.”
Will tucked the bottom corner of the fitted sheet under the mattress. “Believe it or not, it’s our new coach. He actually knows you, Mom. He remembers you from high school.”
Holly looked skeptical. “The guy you’ve been talking about nonstop for the last two weeks? How is it that you haven’t mentioned this little fact before?”
“Because I only found out today,” he said as he helped his mom lay out the top sheet and smooth out the wrinkles.
“All right, what’s his name? All you ever call him is Coach.”
“His name is Alex. Alex McKenna.”
Holly froze. She’d been stuffing one of her bed pillows into a case, and now she stood perfectly still, clutching the pillow to her chest like a security blanket.
“Alex … McKenna?”
Will nodded. “Yeah. Do you remember him? I don’t think he meant to say anything about knowing you. He kind of let it slip when I was talking about you today after practice, about how you won’t let me get a job to help out with bills or anything, and how you made me choose between football and basketball, because you wanted me to spend at least part of the year thinking about classes—”
“I know, I’m just crazy like that,” Holly said, but her mind was far away. Of all the memories she didn’t want to revisit …
“Well, anyhow, that’s when he said you’d always been stubborn. I asked how he knew you, and he said you’d gone to high school together, and you never let anyone help you back then, either. Then he kind of brushed it off and we went back to talking about football. Do you remember him?”
“Yes,” Holly said.
Alex McKenna. Out of all the people she would have been happy never to hear from again, he was right at the top of the list. “I haven’t seen him since we graduated. He went to college on a football scholarship, and played professionally after that. I know he quit the NFL to go into coaching, but that was the last I heard of him.” She took a deep breath, looking across the bed at her son. Odds were he’d find out the rest one of these days. Better he hear it from her. “He’s … related to your father.”
