Kisses, Family & Hope

                                                                                          Excerpt from Chapter 1 

New York City
  October 29

 Ava King smiled at Constance Hawkins, the woman to whom she’d just handed a two-hundred fifty-thousand-dollar check. “Congratulations, Connie. Is there anything else you need?”

Connie had been staring at the check with wide eyes, but the question had her glancing up. “N-No,” she stuttered, her tears flowing freely down her face. “I-I just don’t know what to say.”

“You say thank you.” Ava pushed down the rush she got every time she was able to help someone’s dream come true.

“Thank you,” Connie sighed gratefully. “When my husband died, I just never…”

Ava blinked several times as Connie’s story never failed to bring a lump to her throat.

“We all deserve a chance to make our dreams come true,” she whispered. “Your last child just graduated from high school, and now it’s your turn. Have you always wanted to own your own business?”

Connie’s face took on a far-away look. “Frank and I had such plans. He was going to stay with the police force for twenty-five years, and then we wanted to open Connie’s Cupcakes. But…”

Her chin quivered, and Ava wanted to reach out and hug her.

“But Frank was killed in a senseless accident a week before he was going to retire.”

“That’s right,” Connie agreed tearfully. “And now, thanks to you, I can open the business in his memory.”

“I’m glad I could help.” Ava closed Connie’s folder and slipped it into the Louis Vuitton shopper’s bag she’d taken to carrying instead of a briefcase. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll get out of your way. Be sure and let me know about the grand opening.”

“I will, Ava.” Connie walked with her to the door. “Thank you, again.”

“You’re very welcome. Bye now.”

Ava stepped from the building onto Seventh Avenue and glanced up. The sky was blue, the temperature was moderate, and she had the rest of the day to do nothing.

It had been nine months since her health scare had sent her on a new journey. One that took her out of her position as the CEO and President of her family’s multi-million-dollar corporation. And into a world that allowed her to use the skills she’d developed as a businesswoman and share them with others.

She was trying to learn to enjoy life and take it one day at a time. But she’d grown up feeling like Rapunzel. A princess trapped within the walls of a tightly run castle, who’d heard from a young age that her dreams didn’t matter. What mattered was learning how to behave as a King. And as such, the woman inside had been shoved into a corner where she’d laid dormant for almost thirty years.

 But in the blink of an eye, a broken blood vessel had been followed by a miracle drug, and Ava King was given a second chance. And since she’d made peace with her grown daughter, she was trying to create the life she wanted to live.

She wanted balance.

Work.

Family.

Love.

And her very own Flynn Ryder.

There’s…

His name circled…

Stop!

Ava shut down the thoughts and turned toward Central Park. She’d just crossed 40th Street when that awareness she felt whenever he was near skittered across her skin. Her pulse raced and fear had her darting into the doorway of the nearest glass building.

She took a deep breath, working to get her nerves under control, and peered around the wall. The sidewalks were crowded, and she didn’t see him anywhere, but she knew he was there. She could feel him. He was near. So near, the tiny nerve endings on the surface of her skin came alive. And his unique smell surrounded her.

“Who are you hiding from?” Finn Reade’s low baritone, with the sexy British accent, whispered in her ear.

Her heart stopped, she forgot to breathe, and her mouth dried.

Ava whipped around, but with her back to the glass window she was trapped.

You’re a King, she could hear her late father’s words.

Stand tall.

Look them in the eye.

Don’t let them see you sweat.

“What did you say?” she retorted in her clipped executive voice.

Finn’s black eyes glittered, and Ava fought not to get lost in them.

“I said,” his voice grew huskier, “who are you hiding from?”

“Me? No one. Why do you ask?”

“So, it’s normal for you to hide in doorways and peer around the wall?” A corner of his mouth ticked up into a sexy grin, and he straightened as if to say, ‘caught you’.

“I wasn’t hiding,” she fumbled in her pocket for her phone, “just taking a call.”

“Right,” he responded, tongue-in-cheek.

“Really.” Ava smiled. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I should go. It was nice to see you again.”

She moved from the doorway and let the other pedestrians carry her away. And with every step, she relinquished a little more of the weight of the corporate persona.

It seemed heavier every time she had to bring it out, but situations where she was in jeopardy of losing control, it was there…handy…comfortable. But not really. It was just, sometimes…

“Are you late for an appointment?”

His voice sent a zip up her spine. How had he snuck up on her?

“No,” she responded, in what she hoped was a nonchalant manner. “Why do you ask?”

“Good.”

He slipped his arm around her waist and led her into Central Park.

Ava wasn’t used to people trying to push her around, and side-stepped out of the flow of traffic, turning fiery eyes on Finn. “What are you doing?”

                                                                             ~~~SH~~~

Finn sighed and cursed his need to push, but she’d twisted him in knots since the first time he’d had the pleasure of looking into her beautiful face.

“Forgive me,” he tempered his response, giving her a flirty smile. “You said you don’t have an appointment, right?”

The longer she stared at him with those crystal-clear blue eyes of hers, the more he had to work to stand still.

“Right,” she finally answered.

“And it’s a beautiful day, right?” he tossed another question at her, hoping she’d let down her guard.

“Right.”

Finn fought the smile that threatened to break free at the way she stretched out the word. Almost as if she knew all was not as it seemed, but couldn’t quite figure out what was going on.

“And you never did buy that apartment in the City, right?”

Ava narrowed her eyes at him. “Just spit it out, Finn.”

“Have you ever been to the Central Park Zoo?” he asked, his heart racing. “Or ridden on the carousel?”

He could swear her eyes lit up, but she quickly dropped her head, and when she glanced back at him her expression was banked.

“You want to take me to the zoo?”

“Yes.”

Ava crammed her hands in her pockets and studied her foot as she slowly toed the ground.

His heart raced, wondering what was going through her head. He made million-dollar deals on a regular basis, but he was more nervous waiting for her to answer his question.

“Why?” she asked, so softly he almost didn’t hear her.

“Why not?” His flippant reply was out before he could call it back. But the gentle arch of her right brow had him amending his answer. “I’ve always wanted to go.”

 “You never took Liam and Killian when they were young?”

A corner of his mouth quirked at the thought. “No. Claire wasn’t a fan of being outdoors.” He studied her. “How about you? Did you take Emma?”

“I,” a sad expression flitted across her face as she admitted, “missed out on so much when Emma was young.”

“And was the zoo one of them?” he asked quietly.

Ava nodded, prompting Finn to push, “So will you…go to the zoo with me?”

The twinkle in her eyes appeared first, and Finn’s heart rate slowed slightly. “Yes,” she conceded. “But just the zoo.”

“Just the zoo?” he asked innocently. “I should forget the carousel?”

Her grin was impish. “We’ll see,” she tossed over her shoulder on her way toward the zoo entrance.

As he walked next to her, he kept trying to label the feeling he had inside. He was happy, but it was so much more. Had he experienced it before? Maybe…but then again, maybe not.

Once they entered the zoo, Finn found his greatest pleasure wasn’t in looking at the animals. It was in watching Ava and the myriad of expressions that crossed her face.

“What are you thinking?” he finally asked as she stared at the brown bears.

A melancholy smile crossed her face, “About the book Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

“The children’s book?”

“Yes. Most of the time Emma’s nanny, Johanna, read to her before bed. But one night,” her voice took on a dreamy quality, as if what she was saying had brought her great joy, “I was home early, and Johanna was sick.”

“So, you read to Emma?”

“Yes. Looking back on it, I realize I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have…”

“Isn’t that how many things are in life?” Finn murmured. “Not knowing how precious they are…until they’re over?”

“Point,” Ava agreed with a sigh.

“And so that night, you read Goldilocks and the Three Bears to Emma?” he circled back to his initial question.

“I did,” Ava laughed. “I remember thinking she liked the story because she was comparing herself to Goldilocks. But boy, was I surprised.”

“By?”

“Emma wanted to tell me that the bears used in the story were Ursus arctos and not Ursus americanus. And then she proceeded to list the similarities and differences between the two.”

“Ursus arctos,” Finn pointed to a sign with the scientific name written on it, “Grizzly Bear.”

“Very good, Mr. Reade,” Ava nodded, leading the way toward the seal pool. “Even at the age of four, Emma loved animals, something I never could understand.

“You didn’t have animals growing up?”

“My father was allergic. How about you?”

“A stray cat here and there,” he remembered with a smile. “But that was before…” And then his voice died, unsure if he was comfortable sharing his past.

“Before?”

Her blue eyes pinned him with a look that made him feel she was pulling things out of his memory he hadn’t thought about in years.

“When I was a kid.”

His offering succeeded in moving the conversation from places he wasn’t ready for it to travel. When she changed the topic, he breathed a sigh of relief and let her ramble. There was something endearing about it, but he couldn’t put his finger on why he found it so.

Maybe it was because most of the time, she didn’t share with him. They’d been as close as any two people could be, on more than one occasion. Yet, he didn’t know how she liked her coffee or if she ate breakfast.

“….Liam and Elsa?” he heard her say, when he tuned back in. But he was helpless with what she’d asked.

“What?”

“You weren’t listening to me, where you?” She slanted a side-eyed look at him. “Was I that boring?”