Best Friends with the Girl Dad

By Kali Hart

Lilian

Ten years ago, my best friend confessed he was in love with me.
I thought he was joking.
He wasn't.
He didn't take the rejection well.
He disappeared.
A decade later, he shows up unannounced at my family's ranch with a daughter.
He thinks we're just going to be friends again.
Well, he's wrong.
Except I'm having a helluva time resisting him.
He's not some lanky, nerdy boy any more.
He's all sexy muscle and melt-your-panties hot.
I'm in big trouble.
I know I should keep my distance, but the harder I fight it, the more I want him.

Josh

After years of living the city life in the fast lane, I decide to move my daughter back to my hometown.
I give up the corporate life for the ranch life.
That I'm working—and living—on Lily's dad's ranch isn't a coincidence.
I selfishly want to see how my former best friend's life has turned out.
Though I decided at six years old that she was the most beautiful woman there ever was, I'm not prepared for the curvaceous beauty she's become.
The attraction between us burns hotter than the scorching sun.
It's not just my daughter who's falling in love with her.
I am too.
This time, I'm not running away.
I'm going to do whatever it takes to prove that the fire blazing between us is the forever kind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jackie M. Wallick
• Release date: Jun 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9798223186885

Book preview

1

LILIAN

Peaches, no one wants a picture of your ass, I holler at the stubborn mare. She and I have a love-hate relationship, but today she’s got an extra dose of attitude. My arms ache from holding the camera at the ready for several unsuccessful minutes waiting for her to turn around. Finally, I relent and drop the Nikon to shake them out.

I’m trying to put you on the home page, you cranky old woman.

The horse turns to face me, clearly insulted.

So that’s your secret. I lift the camera, but I’m not quick enough. She cuts a hard right and trots off down the field.

Dammit, I mutter after snapping half a dozen shots of her blurry ass running away. I’ve been taking photos of the family ranch all week for the new website I’m building. Peaches is a beautiful horse and a sure eye-catcher for web traffic. If only she weren’t more stubborn than a damn mule.

Horsey, horsey! a young female voice cries out, causing me to spin on my heel. Daddy, there’s a horsey!

I nearly fumble the camera, muttering curses under my breath for having taken the neck strap off. In my attempt to protect the expensive camera, the lens cap slips from my much too small pocket and tumbles into the long grass, disappearing.

Shit!

That’s a dollar in the swear jar, the little girl announces, like it’s her life’s calling to seek out potty-mouthers. I’m in the process of searching for the lens cap that’s been swallowed up by the long grass and forcing a gentle smile across my otherwise annoyed lips when I hear a voice straight from the past.

Aimee, be polite.

I slowly stand, lens cap clasped tightly in my hand. I’m certain I’m hearing things. Josh Danvers can’t be here in Emerald Creek. The day he graduated high school, he swore he’d never come back. Considering the way things blew up between us, I can’t really blame him. Even if he was an ass for not saying goodbye or telling me he was changing his damn phone number.

Josh? I say carefully, the stupid lens cap slipping from my fingers when I take the first good look I’ve gotten of my former best friend in ten years. The once lanky, nerdy boy has filled out with muscle. So. Much. Muscle. His massive biceps strain against his shirt sleeves. Low hung jeans show off an ass that’d make most fitness models jealous.

Lily, hey.

I gulp a swallow at the nickname that pulls me back a decade. Josh was the only one who ever called me that. It’s Lilian, I correct, clearing my throat because it’s suddenly hard to breathe. I blame the ambush for my momentarily inability to think clearly. It surely has nothing to do with the way that damn shirt shows off those pecs.

"Can you introduce yourself to Lilian?" Josh says to the little girl, drawing my full attention to the kid with honey blonde pigtail braids in a purple shirt with a horse on it. Her eyes…they’re the same as Josh’s.

Hi, I’m Aimee Danvers.

Lilian Whitmore. It’s all I can do to force out my name as shock rolls through me. Josh has a daughter. Immediately my gaze flashes to his left hand. No ring. Are you and your daddy visiting the ranch?

We’re going to live here! Aimee announces with a smile big and cheesy enough to melt even the most hardened hearts, of which mine is one. Dammit, she’s adorable. But her statement has unsettled me, and I kneel to search out the elusive lens cap to hide my panic.

Live here, huh? I ask, refusing to make eye contact with my