My Favorite Mistake, page 1
Contents
Also By Claudia Burgoa
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Epilogue
Excerpt
Faking the Game
Can’t Help Love
Along Came You
Afterword
Acknowledgments
About Claudia Burgoa
Also By Claudia Burgoa
Copyright © 2022 by Claudia Burgoa
Cover by: Hang Le
Edited by: Brandi Zelenka
Dee from Dee’s Notes: Proofreading and Editing Services
Sisters Get Lit.erary
Chrisandra Johnston
Photograph: Wander Aguiar
Model: Kaz
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, brands, organizations, media, places, events, storylines and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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Also By Claudia Burgoa
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My Favorite Mistake is also available in Audio
The Baker’s Creek Billionaire Brothers Series
* * *
Loved You Once
A Moment Like You
Defying Our Forever
Call You Mine
As We Are
Yours to Keep
Paradise Bay Billionaire Brothers
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My Favorite Night
Faking The Game
Can’t Help Love
Along Came You
My Favorite Mistake
The Way of Us
Meant For Me
Finally Found You
Where We Belong
* * *
Luna Harbor
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Finally You
Perfectly You
Always You
Truly You
* * *
Against All Odds: The St. James Family
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Until Next Time, Love
Something Like Love
Accidentally in Love
Waiting for Love
* * *
Decker Family Novels
* * *
Us After You
* * *
Covert Affair Duet:
After The Vows
Love After Us
* * *
The Downfall of Us:
The End of Me
When Forever Finds Us
* * *
Unexpected Everlasting:
Suddenly Broken
Suddenly Us
* * *
Somehow Everlasting:
Almost Strangers
Strangers in Love
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Perfect Everlasting:
Who We Are
Who We Love
* * *
The Spearman Brothers
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Maybe Later
Then He Happened
Once Upon a Holiday
Almost Perfect
* * *
Against All Odds Series
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Wrong Text, Right Love
Didn’t Expect You
Love Like Her
* * *
Second Chance Sinners Duet
Pieces of Us
Somehow Finding Us
* * *
My One
My One Regret
My One Desire
* * *
The Everhart Brothers
* * *
Fall for Me
Fight for Me
Perfect for Me
Forever with Me
* * *
Mile High Billionaires
Finding My Reason
Something Like Hate
Someday, Somehow
Standalones
* * *
Chasing Fireflies
Until I Fall
Christmas in Kentbury
* * *
Chaotic Love Duet
Begin with You
Back to You
* * *
Co-writing
Holiday with You
Home with You
Here with You
Christine, this one is for you.
Thank you for your friendship and love.
“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”
-Vincent Van Gogh
Chapter One
Caspian
I sealed my future the first time I put on a pair of ice skates.
I was three.
It wasn’t until the age of five that I began playing organized hockey. My favorite thing in the world was when my father would take me to watch the San Jose Sharks. We had season tickets. Being one of eight children made it hard to have one-on-one time with him. His favorite sport was hockey, and lucky for me, I was the one out of all his kids who picked up the sport.
That was the way we bonded—until he died. Since then, I dedicated most of my free time to practice because I wanted to make him proud. I wanted to be a professional hockey player. When I’m on the ice, I feel him next to me.
Joel Spearman was a savvy businessman, a winemaker, but most of all, he was an extraordinary father. I was fifteen years old when he died. Each one of us coped differently.
Mom went into a deep depression.
My oldest brothers, who were twenty at the time, quit college and came home to take care of us. Aslan, Gatsby, and Lysander became our surrogate parents.
Fern, my older sister, became Mom’s caregiver—and at times, she was our mother too. She was just sixteen.
Heathcliff, who was thirteen, spent more and more time between the pages of his books. I don’t know what to call a guy who makes introverted people look like the life of the party. He’s not dull. He’s just…Heath.
Huxley and Cordelia, the youngest of the family, were eleven, and we all tried our best to ensure they didn’t feel like the world was ending.
I was fifteen and spent most of the time on the ice or studying because my goal was to become the best professional hockey player. I wanted to make my father proud.
We survived, became a strong family, but we’re all a little damaged on the inside.
I suppose this is how I became who I am today.
A hockey player, wine aficionado, cynic playboy—at least, that’s the concept everyone has about me. It was a consequence of the perfect storm. Loss of a loved one, moving to another state and leaving my family behind, being drafted by one of the best hockey teams in the league. I had to pretend to be someone I was not.
At eighteen, I moved to Boston for college. I’ve been playing for the Vancouver Orcas for the past six years. I dedicate my life to making my father proud and staying close to him. Hockey was our thing, and I still share it with him.
I could say that I answer to no one, except Dawn Spearman—my mother. Once she learned to live with the grief of losing my father, she became what we like to call Helicopter Dawn. I adore the lady, but when she gets overbearing I can’t handle her.
We try to remain close to each other but for me it’s almost impossible.
During my off-season, I live in Paradise Bay and spend my time helping my broth
I’m supposed to take a break and rest. Instead, I’m working in the wine tasting room, repairing things around the vineyard, or being Lysander’s bitch. That’s what my brother calls me. It’s a pain in the ass to have three older brothers who think they rule us all.
“We need to replace the fence on the west side,” Lysander announces as he enters the tasting room.
“You don’t expect me to do that, do you?”
He smirks.
The fucker smirks.
“Listen, I’ll pay for any repairs. Vacation time is almost over, and you know what happens after that?”
“Your chariot turns back into a pumpkin, and your peasant clothes become a hockey jersey?”
I roll my eyes.
He makes some sound as if I’m annoying him. “Where is your sense of humor?”
“I lost it a couple of weeks ago when I almost broke my leg,” I growl.
“It’s not my fault you don’t know how to climb a ladder.”
“On Monday, I’ll hire a company to build you a new fence, cheapskate.”
“Hey, don’t call me names. I’m trying to find things for you to do around the vineyard. This is me doing you a favor. We have plenty of money to pay for that.”
I glare at him. “Stop”—I draw air quotes—“doing me any favors. I can manage without your help.”
“You’re in a mood. Do you know what you need?”
“Scotch, cognac…who knows?”
He shakes his head. “You need to get laid. When was the last time you did it?” He rubs his neck, pretending that he’s thinking. “Once you were in the playoffs, you stopped having sex. If we add the few weeks you’ve been here and count that time when Cory cockblocked you because you tried to sleep with her friend…six months?”
“Are you keeping track of my dating life?”
He scoffs, quirking an eyebrow. “Do you date?”
I cock my head. An unapologetic smile spreads across my face. “I like to call it that, even if it doesn’t last long.”
He shakes his head. “You’re full of shit.”
That I am. Everyone swears that hockey players get tail all the time. Puck bunnies are easy to score. I let everyone believe that I sleep around with randos every night. I don’t. When I find a woman intriguing enough to share a meal with, I might take her to my room or follow her to her apartment. But it doesn’t happen often.
It’s hard to find a woman interested in getting to know me. They all want to sleep with Caspian “Cassie” Spearman. The best forward in the conference. In college, I couldn’t get enough of the attention, but as I grew older, the novelty disappeared.
Maybe that’s why I choose to stick around in the vineyard during the off-season instead of joining my teammates. They’re traveling around the world, partying with their girlfriends—or meeting a different chick every single night.
“So other than having to build a new fence, what else do you have for me?”
“When are you leaving?”
“You have one week left to have fun with me. Next Monday I have to be in Vancouver. We get to learn the fate of the club.” My smile doesn’t drop, but my hands get clammy just thinking about the meaning of that last sentence.
Last year, Mills Aldridge bought the team. We don’t know if he did it to spite the owners who released him from his contract or…well, there hasn’t been an explanation. Since then, everyone has been talking about the future of the team. We might move to the East Coast before the season starts or…who knows.
There are two things I’m afraid of. One is that he might move the team so far it would be impossible to visit my family as often as I do. The second is that they’ll trade me to another team. It’s bound to happen, but I don’t like the idea of leaving the people I’ve been with since my career started.
Mills Aldridge and I used to get along, but since they cut him from the team, I lost track of him, and well…it’d be strange to call and ask about my future on the team. The next week is going to be agonizing. My throat grows tight as the day I have to be back in Vancouver comes closer.
I should find a distraction. Maybe Lysander is onto something. I should get laid. It’s been a long time. Too long.
But how can I find someone when Paradise Bay has no more than two thousand people and way too many people in San Francisco recognize me?
Chapter Two
Rys
Mom always warned me about men.
I think the first time it happened was when I was five—after my parents’ divorce. Dad is a decent father. I can’t say anything about being a husband. Once I started college, Mom sent me the occasional text: Stay away from college boys. Or another random one would be: They only want you for your body.
One way or another, she always found a way to remind me that I was in school to learn, not to drink or sleep my way through the entire fraternity. My younger sister, who is an irreverent brat, asked her which fraternity, so I could go to the others. That’s Milly, my sister, always upsetting our mother with her nonsense. And yes, our names are ridiculous: Polly and Milly. It’s a lot better than Polaris and Millenya. Our names are grounds to accuse our parents of child abuse.
It’s been a year since I graduated from veterinary school, yet she’s still sending me texts with the same boring warnings.
My sister, whose other superpower is being passive-aggressive, waited until her boyfriend knocked her up to introduce him to Mom as the guy she had just met at a bar. All lies. Ernest and Milly have been together since college and had lived together for five years before my cute nephew came into the world. I’m guessing it’s some kind of retribution for all the years Mom’s been trying to convince us to stay away from men, which is why I kept Ernest a secret from our mother too.
Have I listened to her?
No, but I don’t date that much. It’s not for the lack of trying. I’ve been too busy.
Vet school was hectic. During the last year of school, I found a great guy who ghosted me when I told him I had to move to Oregon for my internship. Kevin couldn’t even tell me it was over. In my personal experience, there are five kinds of men I need to stay away from.
The liar, the player, the selfish, the controlling, and the emotionally unavailable.
You’d think that I’d stay away from them, but unfortunately I don’t realize they’re in those categories until it’s too late.
