“Why are you moving so slowly? Let’s
move it already,” she urged him.
Josiah’s laughter invoked a scowl on her
face as she leveled her gaze on him. “They’ve only been there a short time. That
baby isn’t coming any time soon, so there’s no rush,” he assured her.
Nonetheless, Susan grabbed his arm when
he sauntered up next to her and pulled him along at a much faster pace. Twenty
minutes later, they were standing outside Madison’s hospital room waiting to
hear news from Rowan. Susan stood next to Tessa on the opposite wall from
Josiah and Cade and she couldn’t pull her gaze from him. She’d been in such a
rush to get to the hospital that she’d not even taken the time to notice much
of anything until now. Josiah stood with his shoulders pressed to the wall with
his arms crossed over his chest, laughing it up with Cade. The smile he sported
lit up not only his face, but those beautiful cocoa eyes she’d come to adore. His
dark hair was a little longer than when she’d first met him, the natural curl
of it more prominent the longer it grew and hung almost to his shoulders now. He
didn’t don the normal jeans and t-shirt he liked to wear and she loved to see
him in. Today, he wore a pair of khaki slacks and a navy blue button up, his
office attire. He was almost as sexy in this as he was in his jeans.
Almost
.
She licked her lips at the sight before her and almost bit her tongue when
Tessa gave a nudge with her elbow.
“You’re staring,” Tessa said loud enough
for anyone within earshot to hear.
“Damn right I am,” she responded just as
Josiah’s eyes shot to hers. The edges of his mouth tilted upward into a slow
sexy grin and he punctuated it with a wink.
Just when they had all decided to take a
walk down to the cafeteria, sure that this day could possibly drag on depending
how long the little bundle decided to take, the first cry from little Maggie
reached their ears. Less than five minutes later, Rowan peeked his head out of
Madison’s room and informed them that they did indeed have a daughter. Susan unsuccessfully
tried to stifle her laughter when Tessa offered up her two cents in the form of
“no shit genius.”
Josiah shrugged his shoulders as if to
brush off the fact that he’d been wrong about Maggie’s entrance. Susan stepped
in the embrace that Josiah offered and placed a kiss on his jaw. “No rush,
huh?”
Josiah pressed a soft kiss to her
forehead. “I guess Maggie was more than ready to join our little family.”
Susan buried her face into Josiah’s
chest at the words he spoke. This truly was her family. No matter where her
relationship with Josiah led, she knew that they’d always have a place for each
other in their lives and that Tessa along with Cade, Rowan and Madison would
always be a part of her life. As Rowan opened the door to usher the group in to
meet the newest member of their family, Josiah cupped her face, brushed his
thumbs against her cheeks, and pressed a lingering kiss to her lips.
“Let’s go meet little Maggie,” he
whispered in her ear.
About the Author
Ava Riley was born on Kessler Air Force Base in
Biloxi, Mississippi. She lived in Mississippi until she was 11 years old, at
which time she moved to Missouri with her family. She is the youngest in a
mixed family with seven children. Even at a young age, in the midst of such a
big family, Ava found herself “daydreaming” or as she likes to call it, writing
in her mind.
Ava now resides in Central New Mexico, with her
incredibly supportive husband, two children, two cats, and a very clumsy German
Shepherd. Along with a very busy family, and writing, Ava attends the
University of New Mexico where she is double majoring in Creative Writing and
History. She will be graduating with a BA in December of 2013, at which time
she is hoping to continue her writing career full-time.
Ava has always had a love for the written word,
whether writing it or reading and believes that words are a powerful tool to
take us away from our everyday lives, whisking us into worlds we would never
journey outside the pages of a beautiful book. Writing has always been an
outlet for her, finding serenity and balance in her life because of it.
For more information about Ava you can visit her
author website at
www.avariley.webs.com
or her blog site at
http://avarileyromance.wordpress.com/
and also find her on Twitter at @AvaRileyRomance.