Forget Me Not

Roses are red, violets are blue.

Only one woman could make NFL star Gideon Wells walk away from the Super Bowl: His Mama, “Queen” Elizabeth, the beautiful, strong black woman who adopted him and his two white brothers when they were just kids. So when Elizabeth develops a pressing health issue, Gideon doesn’t hesitate to come home and run the flower shop she loves almost as much as her boys. But there’s an unexpected complication in Queen Elizabeth’s shop: and that complication looks really good in a gardener’s apron and pruning gloves.

This mama’s boy has a naughty side too.

Janelle Gold has always thought of herself as a geek, more into books than sports, preferring brains over brawn. So a gorgeous jock like Gideon Wells is not exactly the type she usually goes for. But there’s something about the hot quarterback that makes Janelle think sometimes opposites
do
attract, and it’s not just his dedication to his family, or the fact that he can hold his own in the flower shop. There’s just something irresistible about a man who stops to smell the roses.

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Mama’s Boys

The Look Of Love

Forget Me Not

Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

Mama’s Boys

Crystal B. Bright

LYRICAL PRESS

Kensington Publishing Corp.

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Copyright © 2015 by Crystal B. Bright

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First Electronic Edition: February 2016

eISBN-13: 978-1-61650-713-8

eISBN-10: 1-61650-713-6

First Print Edition: February 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1-61650-714-5

ISBN-10: 1-61650-714-4

Printed in the United States of America

his book is dedicated to my family and friends, who have always believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. Thank you for blowing my head up when I needed it while keeping me grounded. Thank you to Lisa Adkins, who laughed at my lack of football knowledge, then helped me whenever I asked questions about it. Thank you to the love of my life, Jimmy. Thank you for sharing your football know-how, too. My characters went from being Mountain Lions to Wolves because of you. Your love and support means everything to me. I love you.

I have always had a soft spot for rough and tough men who are put into awkward situations. I think it brings out a vulnerable side to men...plus it can be a bit comical. Movies like “The Nanny”, “The Tooth Fairy”, and “The Game Plan” are examples of men put in strange situations but also make them endearing.

Because of that fish-out-of-water type of genre, I got the idea of having three brothers, all stars in their sports, put into a situation where they would have to run their mother’s very feminine businesses. I also wanted to write a series about brothers. What’s hotter than three sexy brothers?

I hope you all enjoy my story about the Wells brothers and the way they run a hair salon, a flower shop and a clothing boutique.

Enjoy!

Crystal***

Thank you to the professors at Old Dominion University and Seton Hill University who taught me a lot about crafting a great story. Thank you to Lyrical Press for taking a chance on an unusual series. Thank you to every author I have read. I learn from each and every one of you.

Gideon Wells pressed his phone to his ear in a feeble attempt to drown out the shouts and chants of his teammates in the expansive locker room. The sounds brought him back to the first time he’d run with a football to the goalpost as a kid, trying to balance the big shoulder pads on his feeble frame. Time had changed him and his body, and ramped up his love of the sport.

He couldn’t blame the men for their excitement. The Super Bowl only happened once a year for two teams. Gideon’s Virginia Beach Wolves had made it. He hadn’t stopped smiling since their last game. Every time he’d talked about his upcoming participation in the Super Bowl, his first and, hopefully, not his last time, his skin had felt like he had electric sparks dancing over it. He hadn’t been able to think about anything else but this game.

Then the call from his mother had come a week ago with news that had made him feel like he had been doused in ice
-
cold water. Gideon’s thoughts had split between his mother and his career, two aspects of his life that gave him purpose.

At the first ring, he paced the red-carpeted floor ringed in a black
-
and
-
gold border in honor of his team’s colors. His mother had approved of him going to play for the Wolves, not because the team made Virginia Beach their home and he could still be close to his family, but because they wore her favorite colors. Recalling his mother’s almost regal voice forced him to smile.

Gideon took a deep breath on the third ring. The great thing about being a Super Bowl team had to be the way people catered to them. This locker room in Pasadena, California had been repainted with their colors and had their emblem over each wall. The fresh-paint smell still lingered in their air. Between the paint and the new carpet, the place had a new feel even though the stadium itself had been around for decades.

In his white tights, he didn’t want to think about the confining feeling constricting his legs and waist. The armbands he wore compressed his limbs from his wrists to the middle of his biceps.

The cleats on his shoes sank into the plush carpeting. He wanted to wait before suiting up with the full shoulder pads. He found it necessary to wear knee pads right now. He tugged on the side of one as he lifted his leg. At that point, he heard a click on the other line.

“Hey, Gid! Getting your mind right?”

Gideon smiled when he heard Gunnar answer the phone, until it hit him why his professional-athlete brother had had to stop his career to go back home. As a champion mixed martial artist, Gunnar understood what it took to get prepared. Gunnar had had an MMA championship fight right when their mother had gotten sick. Gideon had this game, this one life-changing
,
dream-come-true game.

Standing in an area between the chaotic locker room and the shower area, the quietest area there, he leaned against a nearby wall. “The mind is right. Hyped up to play, you know.”

“I know. I get it.” Gunnar kept his voice low and even, as though Gideon had planned on leaping from a plane without a parachute and Gunnar had to talk him out of the act.

The shorthand way of talking about their professions worked for Gideon. The same went for his younger brother, Thane, another professional athlete, who also understood the importance of pregame rituals.

“Congrats on your match. You took your opponent out in, what, ten minutes?” Gideon scratched the back of his head as he imagined his older brother’s serious countenance cracking.

“Seven, but who’s counting.” Gunnar laughed.

The sound brought him back home, back to a time when the two of them used to wrestle until one submitted or they got tired, whichever came first. Only one thing would have truly transported him to his childhood home in Virginia Beach. If he could see his composed mother, not in a hospital, but in her beloved flower shop where he used to help her, he would feel better.

“Good luck today. I’m sure you’re going to kick ass,” Gunnar exclaimed.

“Gunnar Wells.”

Gideon beamed as soon as he heard their mother in the background, the true reason for his call. Her calming voice and soothing nature always centered him. He could never figure out how he and his brothers had gotten so lucky to be adopted by a caring and compassionate woman.

He never saw himself and his African-American mother as being different. He saw himself as being Elizabeth Sommerville’s son. Full flesh and blood. She never treated him or his brothers any differently.

“Sorry, Ma,” Gunnar said to their mother. “Gid, I’m going to hand you over to Mom. I’ll talk to you later. Love you.”

“Love you, bro.” Gideon looked toward the locker-room area. He spotted one of his wide receivers shrugging his shoulders and pointing to his wrist, pantomiming that Gideon would need to hurry up and get ready.

Gideon nodded and turned his back on his teammate to give his full concentration to his mother.

“Darling, how are you doing?” Elizabeth’s words dripped with her trademark grace and elegance.

Gideon couldn’t help but smile.

“I’m fine, Mom, except I have this little thing I’m doing later.” He laughed.

“Cute.” She laughed and then got silent for a moment before she spoke again. “Ah, my baby.” She sighed.

“Thane’s your baby.”

“All of you are my babies. I worry about each and every one of you.” Elizabeth sighed, the sound audible through the phone.

Gideon remembered the nights she’d stay up staring out the living room window during Gunnar’s rebellious phase. She’d kept vigil by Thane’s bed, a particularly sickly child who’d grew out of that as soon as he’d hit puberty and discovered the opposite sex. Gideon had recognized his mother being pulled in different directions and had been determined, even as a snot-nosed kid, to be the least of his mother’s worries.

“I’m more concerned about you. How are you doing?” Elizabeth’s struggles with her health plagued his thoughts.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m doing okay. Gunnar and Eboni are taking great care of me.”

Gideon blinked. “Eboni? Eboni Danielson? Really?” He remembered Gunnar had gotten on that Greyhound bus years ago right after he’d graduated high school, leaving Eboni, his high school sweetheart and professed love of his life, behind to pursue his mixed martial arts fighting dream. “Are they—”

“Together…for now.” The lightness that filled his mother’s voice became heavy by the end of her statement.

At least Gunnar had someone by his side. After this game, Gideon would be rushing back home to take care of his mother. He’d learned from her to put family first.

“I’m glad he’s there for you. Right after the Super Bowl, I’ll come home to be with you all when you have your surgery.”

“Oh, darling, won’t you have press to do and have sponsors to please?”

“Come on. You don’t think I’ll do any of that with you having heart surgery. Hell—”