All I Want Read online

  Text Copyright 2016 Natalie Ann

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.

  Dedication: To all those strong women and sensitive men out there!

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Follow Natalie Ann on Twitter

  Website http://www.natalieannbooks.com

  The Road Series

  Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery

  Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption

  Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality

  Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason

  The All Series

  Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing

  Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me

  Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way

  Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want

  Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love (coming summer 2016)

  Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You (coming fall 2016)

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  In Person

  A Man

  But Me

  Payback

  Happy Thoughts

  Nice Feeling

  Just About

  Family

  Bad Side

  Shoe to Drop

  Teaching

  Sensitive

  Mother’s Soup

  Daisy

  Safe Hands

  To The Grave

  Hot and Amazing

  Accepted

  Growing Up

  Deep Breath

  So Right

  Dorothy

  Easily

  Honest

  Protective

  Pretty Wonderful

  Go Through That

  Cherished

  Sweet Girl

  Memories

  Best Behavior

  Progressing Rather Fast

  Heart

  News

  Welcome To The Family

  Heart Shaped

  Give Me Away

  Talk To Me

  Always Deserved

  Epilogue

  More Books

  Prologue

  Carly Springfield lifted her small hands and covered her ears. Daddy was yelling again. She was supposed to be sleeping right now, but it was hard to sleep when everyone was so loud.

  When she heard her mother’s voice—not the words, but the sound—she started to relax. Mommy had a way of calming Daddy down most of the time. Except when she couldn’t. Like tonight it seemed, when Daddy started shouting louder.

  “I asked you a question,” he demanded. Carly didn’t need to hear Daddy’s words to know he was angry, very angry. And scary, like the phantom ghost from her Scooby Doo cartoon today. When her daddy was mad, Mommy started to cry, but Mommy was being really quiet now, so Carly wasn’t sure what was going on.

  The one thing she knew was that she was glad she was in her room, in the dark and clutching her favorite stuffed monkey.

  “Well, are you going to answer me?” her father shouted again.

  Carly immediately dropped her hands from her ears and grabbed her comforter, yanking it over her head. “It’s okay, George,” she whispered to her monkey, gently rubbing its head with the tips of her fingers. “They’ll stop soon, and then we can go back to sleep.”

  Only it didn’t stop. “I don’t believe you, Trisha,” her daddy yelled. “Why were you ten minutes late? You were spending time with your boss again, weren’t you?”

  This time Carly heard her mommy’s words. “Lower your voice; you’re going to wake Carly.”

  “I don’t give a shit about waking anyone. I’m waiting for your answer.”

  “I told you, Joe, I picked Carly up on time. Check with the daycare if you don’t believe me. There was an accident on the way home and we were stuck in traffic.”

  “You think I don’t know the daycare would cover for you? I know they will. I’ve called before and they always say you pick her up on time, but I don’t believe it.”

  “I’m not lying to you, I swear. Why do you always think I’m cheating on you?” her mommy sobbed out. “I’ve never given you reason to think that.”

  Carly wasn’t sure what kind of cheating Daddy thought Mommy did. She’d never seen them playing a game. Either way, she didn’t want to hear any more. She’d heard it all before: the same yelling, the same questions, and the same answers. When her daddy was mad, there was no reasoning with him. She knew that by now.

  She started to hum to herself hoping it would block out the yelling, but it didn’t. She still heard her mother’s voice, “Joe, please listen to me. Sit down and let’s talk rationally.”

  “I don’t want to sit down, and I don’t want to talk rationally. I want to know why you weren’t home when you should be!”

  “Joe, please,” her mommy pleaded, like she had so many times in the past. “Carly is sleeping in the other room.”

  She couldn’t take it and the humming wasn’t helping to block out the voices. Quietly she climbed out of bed, taking the comforter with her and wrapping it around her shoulders, then squeezing George tight. When she heard a loud crash she hesitated and turned toward the door, then stopped again.

  She remembered the last time she tried to help her mommy. It didn’t turn out so well for her mommy then, and she didn’t want to make things worse.

  With tears in her eyes she threw the comforter over her head and ran to her closet, yanked the door open and hid inside, shutting the door firmly behind her. She didn’t care that it was pitch black in there; her eyes were shut anyway, stopping her tears from falling.

  Rocking herself back and forth, she willed her brain to shut it all out, hoping she would fall asleep. Mommy would find her in there in the morning. She had before.

  In Person

  Carly turned her head to see the principal standing in the doorway, a bright smile on his chubby face. Great, just what she needed—another distraction, when it seemed the kids couldn’t focus this morning as it was. “Hello, Mr. Wilson.”

  “Morning, Ms. Springfield. How are you this fine day?”

  “I’m good.” She turned to her class. “What do we say to Mr. Wilson?”

  “Good morning, Mr. Wilson,” the classroom shouted at once, louder than she expected, almost making her cover her ears.

  She had no clue what was going on today. The end of the school year was always difficult for the teachers. The kids would rather be outside running around in the sunshine, and she couldn’t blame them. But it was a nightmare for the teachers.

  “Are you doing a classroom review?” She hoped not, but was quickly rearranging her schedule in her head to accommodate him if he was going to be staying in the class.

  “No, I’m not. I’m coming to deliver some news.”

  “Oh,” she said, even more confused now. Mr. Wilson never came to the classroom to deliver news unless it was something special. She looked out at the children, trying to guess who had some special news coming their way.

  The children were all looking back, some actually bouncing in their seats in excitement, but she was clueless as to who the lucky recipient might be.

  Mr. Wilson stepped into the room, his hands behind his back, pushing his belly out even further, his smile growing wider, his eyes locked on her. She felt the heat in her face. He always looked at her a little too inappropriately for her peace of mind. Then again, he looked at all the teachers that way, so she was probably overreacting. He was harmle
ss, she knew, but that didn’t change the fact that he made her uncomfortable.

  “Children,” he started to say, addressing the classroom now. “Who do you think is getting the good news today?”

  “Ms. Springfield!” She covered her ears this time.

  “What?” She looked down, saw the letter in Mr. Wilson’s hand and pulled it forward, her eyes resting on the first sentence. Congratulations. Your faculty member, Ms. Carly Springfield, has been named the winner of the Teacher of the Capital Region Award.

  She looked up in disbelief and caught Mr. Wilson’s knowing grin, then his wink. “That’s right, Ms. Springfield, you won, even though you were shocked you were nominated.”

  Yes, she’d been shocked at being nominated, but that was overshadowed by the fear her name was going to be in the paper.

  She didn’t have time to answer back, not when she heard the stampede of feet and turned to see all the children rushing her. The first little body hit her legs and held on for a tight hug, then another and another until she was laughing and crying and trying to bend down and wrap her arms around the group of them. “I couldn’t have won it without all of you.”

  She pushed her fear of publicity aside. She’d deal with it later. Right now, she was so happy she held on to the children that made this the best job in the world.

  ***

  “What are you doing here?” Brynn Palmer asked, shifting her gaze from her computer monitor. “I thought you volunteered after school on Tuesdays.”

  “I do,” Carly said, moving out of the doorway and into Brynn’s office. “But I wanted to stop here first. I had to tell you in person.” She still was shocked she’d managed to keep from calling Brynn during her lunch break to tell her about the award. After she took several breaths, she convinced herself it was fine that she won. Enough time had passed that having her name out there shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

  “Tell me what?” Brynn asked, pushing back from her desk, her lips twitching. “Sit down; you’re bouncing on your feet more than one of your kids and it’s making me antsy.”

  Carly giggled. It was true, but she was just so wound up right now. “I won,” she blurted out.

  “Won what?” Brynn asked, grinning as Carly realized she actually was bopping up and down.

  “The Teacher of the Capital Region Award,” she shrieked and thrust the letter toward Brynn.

  Brynn jumped up and ran around the side of the desk for a hug. “That’s wonderful. It couldn’t go to a more deserving person.”

  “That’s sweet,” Carly said, returning Brynn’s hug and then sitting down in the chair across from Brynn’s desk.

  “Well, you’re a pretty sweet person,” Brynn said, then walked back to her own chair. “We need to celebrate. But first, tell me how you found out. When did you find out?”

  “Aw, aren’t you just full of compliments. Sweet like a Hershey bar, or sweet like a double decker sundae with whipped cream and sprinkles?” Carly momentarily lapsed back as if she were talking to one of her students.

  Brynn rolled her eyes but answered the question. “Double decker sundae with the Hershey bar on top. You need to make up for me never being that sweet.”

  Carly giggled. That wasn’t true. Brynn could be as sweet, but you didn’t see that side of her as easily as it was seen on Carly. “Anyway, Mr. Wilson came in and told me first thing this morning, in my classroom.”

  “And you are telling me right now?” Brynn asked, feigning hurt and wiping an imaginary tear from her eye.

  “I wanted to tell you in person,” she reminded her.

  “You did say that, didn’t you? Okay, you’re off the hook. Now back to celebrating. How long are you going to be volunteering? Will you have time to go to dinner and have a drink? We can talk about the wedding too, kill two birds with one stone.”

  “You’re talking about killing birds in the same sentence as celebrating my award. You’re kind of creepy.” She was joking and Brynn knew it.

  “Speaking of creepy, did jolly Saint Wilson hit on you again?”

  Leave it to Brynn to be blunt. “No, not in front of the kids. But he winked at me.” She shuddered.

  “Did you feel like there were spiders crawling up your spine when he did it?”

  That was a good description of it. “Actually I did, but I kept my smile in place, like I always do. He ended up laughing. And you know when he does that, the girth of his belly starts to jiggle and his cheeks get all red.”

  “Ew. Okay, let’s move away from your boss.”

  “Not everyone falls in love and marries their boss,” Carly told Brynn, smirking at the narrowing of Brynn’s eyes.

  “That’s true. But then again, not everyone has a boss like Alec. Anyway, speaking of my future hubby…dinner tonight and wedding plans?”

  “Sure. You’ve still got three months until the wedding. But knowing you, I’m shocked you haven’t finalized every detail already.”

  “It’s close. I just want it perfect.”

  Carly fought back the envy and longing over the fact that Brynn was getting married before her. Carly had wanted to be married and have a family by now. She wanted that American Dream of raising children, having her summer off with them, and doing all the fun things she never had as a child. “It will be.”

  “Am I interrupting?”

  Carly turned to see Sean Callahan, the CFO of Harper Construction, standing in the doorway. So handsome, yet he always made her uneasy at the same time. She’d never felt both of those things at once with a man. Usually she was either attracted and felt calm around a man, or she was uneasy and nothing could make the man look handsome in her eyes.

  “No,” Brynn answered. “Carly was just telling me she won the award for Teacher of the Capital Region. Isn’t that wonderful?”

  “It is,” Sean said, smiling and walking forward. She stood up fast. Sean was tall…taller than most men she found attractive, and being seated just made her feel even smaller than she already was. He reached his hand out to hers, giving it a little squeeze and tug. “Congratulations.” His hazel eyes were all soft and warm as they gazed at her.

  She froze for a moment. It was an innocent touch, but one that sent tingles up her arm and into her chest. Not nervous tingles in a fear kind of way, but ones that just magnified her attraction to him. “Thank you,” she said softly, then dipped her head down.

  “Did you need something, Sean?” Brynn asked, sensing Carly’s nerves.

  He held up some papers in his hands, then walked forward and handed them over. “Just dropping these off. I’ll let you girls get back to visiting.”

  Carly turned and watched him walk out of the office, then sat back down and caught Brynn’s smirk. “Why do you always clam up around him?” Brynn asked quietly.

  “I don’t,” Carly argued.

  Brynn snorted. “Sure you do, but we’ll debate it another time.”

  ***

  Sean walked back to his office, shaking his head and wondering what he’d said this time. It seemed every time he saw Carly, she shied away from him.

  He’d heard them in there laughing and joking and figured it was as good a time as any to bring the contracts to Brynn’s office. Only when he walked in, he saw Carly shut down once again.

  It wasn’t the first time she’d changed her demeanor around him. Every time he heard her voice in the office, he made an excuse to seek her out, to see if his attraction to her was still there. Even though she never encouraged it, he couldn’t seem to help himself, always wanting to see her and be near her when the opportunity arose.

  For the life of him, he couldn’t imagine what caused her to shrink away, though. He wasn’t the type of guy women shied away from. He was the harmless, happy-go-lucky Irish bloke.

  He sighed, sat down at his desk and listened to the girls’ happy voices. He wished Carly would laugh around him, or at least loosen up a bit. They started to whisper when he walked away and he didn’t hear what was being said, but he was sure they were
talking about him.

  One of these days he’d get her to warm up to him. He hoped.

  A Man

  Sean was walking down the hallway to talk to Mary, the office manager, when he noticed Alec Harper sitting at his desk. “What are you doing here the day before your wedding?”

  Alec looked up and smiled. “I just have a few things left to finish up and then I’m out of here.”

  “You better be. I can’t believe Brynn let you come in today.”

  “She doesn’t know.”

  Sean looked at the smirk on Alec’s face. “You better hope she doesn’t find out, or you’ll be in the dog house before you actually get married.”

  Alec pushed back from his desk and tipped in his chair, relaxing his hands on his stomach. “She won’t find out. She’s at Carly’s right now, and then they’re meeting the rest of the bridal party at the spa.”

  Sean’s ears perked up at the mention of Carly, but he held back asking anything else. “Phil would rat you out if he were here.” Phil was Alec’s twin brother, and together they owned Harper Construction.

  “Phil is too busy getting everything finalized as the best man. I did my part when he got married last December. Then Phil and I did everything again when Ben got married a few months ago. I’m sitting back and just enjoying this wedding.”

  In the last two years, all the Harpers seemed to have tied the knot. First their younger sister, Kaitlin, married Alec’s longtime friend Ryan Mathews. Phil was the second one to take a walk down the aisle, marrying Kaitlin’s best friend, Sophia Mansfield. Then their younger brother, Ben, married Presley James a few months ago. Alec was the last one to take the plunge.

  Sean knew he shouldn’t be thinking of getting married as taking the plunge, but it was hard not to.

  He was the youngest of four kids himself, and the only boy on top of it. The youngest of his sisters was still seven years older than him and each and every one of them had been on his case as to when he was going to settle down. The constant questioning was turning him sour on relationships. Not that he wanted to be spiteful, but he just wanted to live his own life without interference—or orders—from the women in his family.