Page 65 of Kiss Me

Her blue eyes sparkle with mischief. “See, that’s how they get you. Looking so cute, you don’t know how to resist just having another one.”

She clucks her tongue and shakes her head, then looks across the room. I follow her gaze to see she’s looking at her husband, Robert Townsend. He’s as handsome as the rest of the men in the room, especially with his pepper and gray hair.

“Cute babies aren’t the only reason you ended up with four sons,” someone says, making the table of women, including Deborah Townsend, crack up.

My laughter has me glancing around the room as well. My eyes collides with Taehyun’s. For some reason, I’m not at all surprised to find his gaze on me. A weird mix of pride and elation flows through me to know that without even trying I can capture his attention.

But it’s not this knowledge that steals my breath.

It’s the intense glint in his eyes as he watches me. His eyes slowly move from me to the baby still in my arms. I get the sense that he’s saying something without words.

I’m too frightened to even guess what that look means.

Taehyun and I haven’t discussed what, if anything, comes after this week. For my part, I’ve been too damn happy enjoying my favorite time of the year with someone completely unexpected.

I didn’t want to dream of asking for more.

Yet, as he watches me from across the room …

“Okay, let’s get this party started,” someone with a microphone says, breaking into my thoughts.

Riley’s husband, Kyle, eventually makes his way over, taking his daughter from me, just like his wife predicted.

A longing I've never felt before begins to bloom in my chest.

Taehyun’s name is on my mind as I search for his gaze again, but he’s no longer standing where I last saw him.

I look over at the door for some reason. But Taehyun isn’t there. However, before I can look away, Liza comes barreling through the door. With rounded eyes, she frantically searches the room until her eyes land on me.

She does her best to be discreet, I can tell, but she quickly makes her way through the sea of Townsends, over to me.

“We need to talk,” she whispers.

I’ve only seen Liza look somewhat troubled when she was present when I took that nasty spill that led to my ‘injury.’

“What’s wrong?” I rise as I ask her.

“Not here.” Her eyes dart around the room.

She grabs my arm and rushes us both from the room. Thankfully, the rest of the family members are so engaged in their gift exchange that they don’t notice us.

“Have you seen this?” Liza turns her phone so that I can see the screen, in the private stairwell she’s pulled me into.

My eyes go wide as I read the headline of the sports blog.

“Tania Casey Fakes Injury to Get Out of X Games!”

“What?” I screech.

“That’s what I said,” Liza tells me. “Who would write such a malicious lie?” She begins to pace back and forth.

My stomach twists in shame.

I clear my throat. “It’s just one blog. They probably don’t even have that many followers.”

“This is Tom Collander’s personal blog,” she counters. “He also does freelance work for the likes ofSports Daily. If this has made it to his personal blog, there’s a good chance it’ll be published on the major networks soon.”

“I …” I don’t know what to say. I read the blog to see that Collander has framed it to look like I’ve faked my ankle sprain as an excuse to pull out of the X Games in a few weeks since—according to him—at twenty-five I must be feeling the pressure of my age in a sport with so many up-and-coming younger athletes.

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