There was something very … wonderful about that.

His boots.

My sandals.

His masculine.

My toenails painted pale pink.

Him right there.

With me.

“Pepper, look at me.”

“You’ve gotta go,” I repeated.

“Juno’s with him.”

That made the back of my neck itch.

Then again, whenever my girl was gone, doing her time with her dad, I had that feeling.

“Yes, she is.”

“So we can talk.”

“We’re not talking.”

“Pepper—”

My head shot up and I snapped, “God! I shouldn’t have to say it again! Get out, Auggie! That was stupid and it was weak and it’s not happening again. I’m already mortified enough I let you fuck me. You’re just making it worse.”

He got in my face and growled, “I’m not gonna play this game.”

“I’m not playing a game.”

“I know women like you. And yes, you are.”

He knew women like me?

I didn’t ask, mostly because he didn’t give me the opportunity.

“Thanks for the hot fuck, babe,” he said. “At least that made it worth putting up with this bullshit play.”

And then he was gone.

I closed the door behind him.

Put my forehead to it.

“Huge mistake,” I whispered.

But I knew.

I could tell myself that again and again and again.

But I’d seen the girls with their guys.

So I could repeat it for eternity, and I’d never believe.

No, Augustus Hero was not a mistake.

The mistake would be if he took a chance on me.

Now that would be a mistake.

Huge.

* * *

LEE

His phone went, waking him up.

His wife, Indy, was buried under him.

It was their thing.

It was also a necessity.

His woman was a mover when she slept. If he didn’t pin her to the bed, his shins would be covered in bruises by morning and she’d possibly smack him in the face waking him up in the middle of the night.

Repeatedly.

He rolled off her, reached out, nabbed his phone, looked at his screen and any vestiges of sleep fled.

He took the call.

“Willie,” he greeted.

“Need your time,” Willie answered.

Willie Moses.

A good friend for years, since high school.

A cop, on the beat. A sergeant, never had a dream of detective, he was good with people and the street was in his blood.

“Now?” Lee asked.

“Now,” Willie answered.

“Text me, brother,” Lee told him.

“Got it,” Willie said and then disconnected.

Lee rolled back to Indy.

Before he could give her a kiss, she muttered drowsily as well as irritably, “Remind me again why I married you?”

“Multiple orgasms and we made two super fuckin’ cute kids,” he replied.

“Oh yeah, that’s why,” she said.

He grinned, aimed, touched his mouth to hers, then made certain the covers were still on top of her as he got out of bed.

By the time he returned, she’d be totally tangled up in them.

Which was good, he’d have to wake her to get her untangled, and him, Indy, two sleeping kids, two awake adults and a bed meant he’d get a fantastic welcome back.

He dressed, took keys, phone and a weapon with him to his car, got in and drove to where the text instructed: a dark corner of a parking lot at Mile High Stadium.

Eddie was already there.

Figured.

Lee parked next to Eddie’s truck, got out and moved to Eddie, who was leaning against his front bumper.

“Hank coming?” he asked.

“Since I didn’t know you were coming, no clue,” Eddie answered.

“Got a clue about this middle-of-the-night mystery?” Lee went on.

Eddie shook his head. “Nope.”

They heard it before they saw it.

A car approaching, headlights out.

Both put hands to their guns at hips and repositioned so Lee’s vehicle was between them and it.

It stopped and Willie could be seen in the driver’s seat.

It appeared there was a Black woman with short cropped hair in the seat beside him.

They both got out.

Lee didn’t take his eyes off the woman.

She was tall. Slender shoulders, round hips, dark skin, strong features.

She had confidence in her movements, so much, it was better described as power.

She stopped at the hood of the car and leaned against it, crossing her feet at the ankles, her arms on her chest.

Willie approached Lee and Eddie and got a lot closer.

He, too, stopped.

“Thought you boys might wanna meet Dynamite,” he said.

And then one side of his lips curled up in a smile.

* * *

AXL

It was only two days after he saw Hattie’s sculpture of them before it was delivered.

And this time, Elvira didn’t give any shit about it like she did when Boone got his.

Neither did any of the guys.

Now, when it happened, it was what it was.

He’d just returned to the office from being out in the field and it was sitting at the head of his workstation.

Light blue plastic, white words, slid into an aluminum stand.

Cheap.

Simple.

Everything.

The plaque said,

AXL PANTERA

“THEN AND NOW”

He got out his phone immediately and texted Hattie.

I love it.

Hattie texted back in less than a minute.

Good.

Don’t miss the romance the Dream

Team has been waiting for—Pepper

and Auggie’s love story is coming in

Dream Keeper!

AVAILABLE LATE 2021

Please turn the page for a preview.

CHAPTER ONE

A Perfect World

PEPPER

My phone chimed with the eleventh text I’d gotten in an hour and I just managed not to pull it out of my purse and throw it in the nearest garbage can.

Okay.

All right.

Deep breath and …

Center.

Bottom line: I needed to get over it because I didn’t want to be a hater. Hating was such an ugly thing. I didn’t like how it made me feel and I didn’t want it around my daughter. And when the world at large was so full of negativity and hate that it was pushing in sometimes on an hourly basis, the best way to keep that kind of thing from burying my little girl was, when I had her, do my all not to be a hater.