Finding Home (Player Loves Curves Book 2) Read online

  Finding Home

  Hope Ford

  Finding Home © 2020 by Hope Ford

  Editor: Kasi Alexander

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  www.authorhopeford.com

  Contents

  1. Holly

  2. Shawn

  3. Shawn

  4. Shawn

  5. Holly

  6. Holly

  7. Holly

  8. Holly

  9. Holly

  Epilogue

  Epilogue 2

  JOIN ME!

  Free Books

  About the Author

  1

  Holly

  Blowing a lock of red hair from my face, I’m busting ass to get the props for the photoshoot off the elevator and into the staging area. I’m a mess, drenched in sweat and huffing and puffing, but I’m determined to get everything set up on time. Normally everything is set up in the studio, for the most part anyway, but we had a shoot outside earlier so now I’m rushing to get set up for the next one. I grunt as I bend down and pick up the heavy piece of lighting. I’m not the newest member of the team of interns working for famed photographer Troy Gunther, but I am the youngest. So I have to work harder than the others to make sure I keep my coveted spot. Meanwhile, my female coworkers are gushing about getting to meet Shawn Cannon. He’s the model for today’s show. He’s also the third baseman for the Tennessee Mavericks and one of the hottest players on the team. He’s older than most of the other guys, but there’s something about him. I’ve found any time I’m watching the game, either at the stadium or on television, I can’t take my eyes off the field for waiting to see him.

  I’ve worked hard to get here and even though I’m looking forward to seeing the hot third baseman, I still have to do my job. But I can’t help but look at the other interns with a little bitterness. They are all clean and fresh looking while I am rumpled and a mess. I look down at myself, ignoring my extra bit of pooch around my middle and my thicker thighs. But I can’t help comparing my T-shirt, jeans and sneakers to the other two that are supposed to be helping me. I must have missed the memo on dressing up because they are all decked out in skirts with full hair and makeup. Did they really think they could move equipment in that? I guess they weren’t too worried about doing their jobs today.

  I barely finish getting everything set up before a commotion comes over the room. Even before I see him, I know he’s here. Everyone is loud and the murmuring of He’s here, he’s here can be heard from the women waiting in their bathing suits. However, as soon as he steps in the doorway, the room becomes quiet and everyone stares at him. I’ve imagined what it would be like to see him up close and personal, but all my daydreaming and imagination couldn’t have prepared me for this right here. He’s big, so big he has to duck his head and turn sideways when he comes in the doorway. His hair is dark brown, except for the soft threads of gray that are seen throughout. His jawline is hard, intense and his eyes are large and unreadable as he gazes around the room. A burn deep in my belly starts to ignite and I slide my legs together at the new feeling. His presence is commanding and every pair of eyes is on him.

  Taking a deep breath, I drag my eyes off of him, because I’m afraid if I don’t, I will spontaneously combust. Whatever it is about him, if he could bottle that, he would make millions. All my coworkers who have been useless before this have completely forgotten what they are supposed to be doing. They can’t take their eyes off the star baseball player and I can’t really blame them. In between moving a few pieces of equipment around, I keep glancing at him. He’s distinguished looking with a deep lumbering voice that I’m sure vibrates to the core of every woman within hearing range. I could stare at him all day, but I know I can’t. My boss Troy calls over to me. “We ready, Holly?”

  Immediately, I nod my head. Everyone knows that you don’t keep Troy Gunther waiting. Usually I have things set up way before time, but the lack of help today caused me to be right on time. “Ready.”

  He doesn’t wait for my response, however. He is striding over to Shawn and I can tell he’s going over what is expected of him today. When Troy points toward the models, I watch as Troy nods his head and wariness fills his face. I look between him and the models to try and see what the problem could be. The models are all beautiful, scantily clad and they are all preening at him. I’m sure as soon as we get started, he will be surrounded by them. Most men in his position would be thrilled to be matched with them, I would think. But not him, it appears. He’s eyeing them warily and looks like he wants to be anywhere but here. Today is a shoot for the sexiest bachelor edition of Upscale magazine, all the women have already been covered in baby oil, and I’m sure my coworkers will be knocking each other over to be the one to wipe Shawn down. I let my camera fall from the strap around my neck and wipe my sweaty, nervous hands down the pant legs of my jeans.

  Marcie, the makeup artist, sets him down in her chair and starts talking to him, so I have a few minutes to prepare myself. I take an elastic band from my pants pocket and pull my hair off my face. An excitement fills me. Sure, because I’m getting to shoot Shawn Cannon, but also because this is my favorite part of the job… actually taking pictures.

  “Let’s go. Everyone take your places,” Troy hollers to the room. My usually professional coworkers are now fumbling and flirting with Shawn and I can tell that Troy is losing his patience with his team. He finally sends them across the room and both of them look like they just lost their puppy. I try to keep the smirk off my face, but it’s hard to do. I know they had been looking forward to this shoot for a while now.

  Now, I’m not only doing my job, I’m doing theirs too. Shrugging my shoulders, I move the lights around a little before I go over and grab a camera. Usually, once everything is set up, Troy lets me take some photos too. He’s even been known to use a few of them, and I have to admit, it’s the best feeling ever. I love being behind the camera. Plus, I know there’s not a snowflake’s chance in hell that Shawn would even notice me enough to even give me an autograph, so I don’t give in to the attraction that I feel. I’m determined to keep my wits about me and not screw this up.

  2

  Shawn

  I’m here because I don’t have a choice. My agent said I needed to do this. Yeah, it’s the sexiest bachelor, but also all the money goes to a feed the children charity so I know I’d be an ass to turn it down. I offered to just make a donation, but that didn’t go over well.

  This whole nonsense has had me on edge and is messing with my game. Ever since the announcement naming the sexiest bachelors, I’ve never had so many women fall all over me and themselves. I’ve had plenty of attention from females and while I’m not against it, I’ve grown tired of the type of women my fame and reputation attract.

  Two women come over to me, pushing photographs of me in my face, wanting autographs. I sign them and begin to wonder how I’m going to get rid of them when the man that introduced himself as the photographer orders them away from me. I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life. I’m surrounded by women with hardly any clothes on. They tried to put baby oil on me in the back but I refused. Right now, I’m cussing my agent wondering what the hell he got me into.

  Troy signals a woman with red hair to turn on his “genius music,” then he comes toward me to pose me for the shoot. A techno beat fills the air just as the women in bikinis start to crown around me. My agent told me to come, smile and it will be over.
But the more I think about it, the more I can’t do this.

  “Hold up, Troy.”

  He looks shocked by the disruption, but I don’t have a choice, I have to say something. He eyes me warily before he walks over to me. “Yes?”

  “Look, I get what you’re doing here, but I’m not really thinking this is the look I’m going for,” I tell him honestly.

  His face turns red and I can already tell that he is not the type that takes kindly to being questioned on his craft. I know I wouldn’t like him to come and tell me how to hit, so I get it. But I also know that this is not the image I want to put out there. He just stares at me blankly, so I continue.

  “Look, for anybody else this would be great. Not me though. I run sports camps for kids in my off time. I have a lot of kids that look up to me. This,” I say, gesturing to the women showing more skin than you would see at the beach, “is just not right.”

  The longer I talk the more he looks like his head is going to explode. I’m at least a foot taller than him and probably seventy pounds heavier, but I don’t think he cares. He opens his mouth, but before he can get a word out, I hear, “He’s right.”

  Troy and I both turn our heads to look at the woman behind the voice. It’s the redhead that he had turn on the music. Except now, she’s facing me and as I look at her flushed face, I can’t help but appreciate how beautiful she is.

  “What do you mean, he’s right?” Troy asks her.

  She’s nervous. I can tell that right from the start. She starts off softly, but the more she says, the more confident she becomes. “I, uh, think that Mr. Cannon is correct. I know it’s for the sexiest bachelor, but we had the pop singer last week with all the women and I thought you would want to try something different this time. After researching, uh Mr. Cannon”—she smiles at me and then looks back at what I’m assuming is her boss—“I think if we could just get him maybe into something else, he could do the shoot on his own.”

  When Troy doesn’t seem to be agreeing, I nod my head. “That’s a great idea. What’s your name?” I ask the redhead.

  She’s looking at Troy, but she answers me. “Holly. My name’s Holly.”

  Troy looks between Holly and me and then over at the women, who are glaring holes into Holly. “No props? Nothing?”

  Holly shakes her head. “I have props,” she assures him.

  “Fine. Put the girls on standby. And then work your magic,” he tells Holly before turning to me. “If this doesn’t work, we use the girls,” he negotiates. Holly looks at me over Troy’s shoulder and I can see the confidence in her now.

  Shrugging my shoulders, I answer him, “Sure, if Holly’s plan doesn’t work, we use the models.”

  Holly walks over to me after she asks the women to wait on the side. “So let’s go get you changed into something else.”

  She looks at me and my board shorts I have on, shaking her head.

  I hold my hands out. “What? You don’t like the shorts?”

  She leads me out of the studio to the dressing room. She’s hustling and even with my long legs I have to speed up to catch up with her. “No, it’s not that. They look great. But every shot we’ve done for the ‘sexiest bachelor’ have all been the same. It doesn’t make sense to me. You’re sexy as you are. Why wouldn’t we just expand on that?”

  As soon as the words leave her mouth, I hear her gasp. She turns around, slapping her hand to her mouth and her face is flushed.

  I smirk at her and if anything, her face gets even redder. I can see from her expression that she didn’t mean to say that out loud. She got to rambling and it just came out.

  She busies herself looking through the wardrobe and pulls out a white muscle shirt. When she holds it up to me, I can’t resist. “So you think I’m sexy.”

  Holly

  I knew the minute the words left my mouth, it was a mistake. He’s had all those women falling all over him and even though I was determined not to do the same, look at me now.

  I ignore his question and ask him one instead. “I don’t think I have jeans that will fit you. Can you wear the ones you came in wearing?”

  He nods and reaches for a pair of jeans across the room. Instantly, he starts pulling his shorts down and I’m frozen in my spot, staring at him with my mouth hanging open. When I start to see his underwear I flip around the other way, squeezing the shirt in my hands tightly. I force myself to take deep breaths.

  I’m concentrating so hard on my breathing that I barely realize he’s moved toward me until I can feel the heat of his body behind me. “Uh, you decent?”

  His deep voice fills my ear. “Yeah.”

  I turn around and he’s standing right in front of me. I have to lift my head backwards to look up at him he’s so much taller than me. I hold the shirt that I’ve been gripping in my hands out to him. He takes it and when our hands touch, I jerk away.

  He pulls the tight material over his head and puts it on. The stark white against his tanned skin causes me to be breathless. “Props,” I mutter to him.

  “Sure, what you got?”

  I take a step back and reach for the box I brought in earlier. It’s an arrangement of bats and when I find the perfect wood bat, I get it and hand it to him.

  He smiles at me and I can tell he’s happy about my suggestion. “Perfect.”

  The way he’s looking at me catches me off guard. It’s almost like he likes being around me. He was so frustrated earlier, but now he’s different. I lead him back out into the studio.

  I resist the urge to fan myself. He’s older, probably at least ten years older than my twenty-three years of age, but I don’t really care.

  When we walk back in, Troy looks at his watch and then at Shawn. After a few seconds, he nods his head. “Good work, Holly.”

  “Oh wait, one more thing.” I go up on my tiptoes to reach Shawn’s hair and inadvertently I press my body into his. He groans, whether from the fact that I’m mussing his hair or the fact that I’m pressed up against him, I don’t know. I run my fingers through it really quickly before stepping back from him. “There, now it’s perfect.”

  His eyes are heated when I look into them. Flustered, I turn away, giving Troy the thumbs-up sign.

  The remainder of the shoot, I watch and take a few pictures. His eyes seem to follow me and the subtle smiles he has for me makes me a little giddy. I’m still getting death stares from the women on standby, but I just ignore them.

  3

  Shawn

  I smile for the camera and do exactly what I’m told to do. I don’t want to screw this up because I really don’t want to have to pose with the women still waiting on the sidelines. I keep glancing toward Holly and she may be looking at me through a camera lens but either way, I like it. I like her. She’s probably the only woman here that hasn’t asked me out or gone out of their way to try and seduce me. I can’t help but wonder if she even knew who I was before she researched me for the photo shoot.

  Watching her work, I admire that she’s decisive and confident. If she hadn’t backed me up on the new shoot idea, I don’t know what I would’ve done. My agent would have lost his mind if I walked out of here. The fact that she went out on a limb for me makes me think even more of her. I know I want to get to know her.

  “That’s a wrap,” Troy calls to the room. Instantly, everyone is in a bustle. I watch Holly start taking lighting fixtures apart and working. The other women, the ones I think are supposed to be helping Holly, walk over to me.

  I try to go the other direction, but they stop me. “So we were wondering if you would like to go out… with both of us?”

  I know I look taken aback. I’ve never had two women offer themselves to me as some kind of package deal. I look over at Holly and catch her staring but as soon as our eyes meet, she looks away and starts working again.

  Shaking my head, I look at the two women. Maybe back in the day, I would have told them yes. But not now. That’s not what I’m looking for. “Sorry, ladies, I already have plans.
”

  I maneuver around them and go straight up to Holly. “Go have coffee with me,” I say to her. It’s not a question, although I probably should have posed it as one.

  She looks surprised and I can see that she wants to say yes, but instead she says, “I can’t. I have to pack up.”

  I’m about to offer to help when Troy comes over and pats her on the back. “You go ahead. They can finish up,” he tells her, pointing over at the other two women.

  Surprise is evident on her face, but she collects herself quickly. I want to take her by the hand and walk her out of her, but I need it to be her decision. Finally, what seems like forever later, she nods her head. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

  Walking next to her toward my truck, her scent fills my nose. She smells amazing. When I open the passenger door and she climbs in, I resist putting my hands on her hips.

  I try to calm my heart as I get into the driver’s side and pull out toward the coffee shop. “Do you like coffee?” I ask her.

  She scrunches her nose up. “Not really.”

  I laugh then and it comes from deep within my chest. “Yeah, me neither.”

  She giggles then and the sound is like a beautiful harmony in my ears. “Well, then why did you invite me to coffee?”

  I turn down Main Street. “I didn’t think you would commit to anything more. We could go to the bakery? Or have dinner? Either is fine with me. I just want to spend time with you.”

  She’s quiet and I pull over on the side of the street. We’re downtown and there are restaurants and a bakery within walking distance. I put the truck into park and turn it off. “So what will it be?”