The Best of Me: a Hope Valley novel

by Prince, Jessica

  He gave me one last quick kiss before heading inside. While he was gone, I snuggled into my porch swing and looked back out at the setting sun, watching its beauty as the colors bled from soft pinks and oranges to deep purples and blues, all the while counting my blessings.

  * * *

  Trick

  I turned the corner into the kitchen and saw Blythe standing in front of the open fridge. She looked back at me from over her shoulder and gave me a grin. “Hey.

  “Hey, darlin’. Hand me one of those beers, would you?”

  “Sure.” She grabbed a bottle of water and a beer, then moved to the island as I uncorked Nona’s wine bottle and refilled her glass. “That for Mom?”

  “Yep.” I finished pouring and shoved the cork back into the spout.

  “You really like her, huh?”

  Surprised by her question, I jerked my head up and saw her watching me hesitantly. “Yeah. I do.”

  She nodded, relief loosening her shoulders. “Good. That’s good. She deserves that. She really likes you too, you know?”

  I smiled at her, my chest feeling almost uncomfortably warm. “Yeah, honey, I know. And I’m thrilled.”

  “Dad never did that,” she said strangely, in a voice so quiet I almost missed it.

  My brain went on alert. I put my hands on the counter and leaned into them, giving Blythe my full attention. “Never did what, sweetheart?”

  Her eyes had been downcast, staring at the counter like it was the most interesting thing she’d ever seen. But when she spoke next, she lifted her head and met my gaze head-on. “Poured a glass of wine for her. Honestly, he never really did much of anything.”

  A voice in the back of my head screamed at me that something wasn’t right. According to Nona, Blythe had been back to her normal self the past couple of weeks. I’d seen it myself, so I knew she was right, but what I was witnessing now was more than just unsettling. “Blythe, is something wrong?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip in a way I’d seen her mother do a number of times. “Could you, um… do you think you could maybe talk to her? About my dad?”

  “What about him?”

  “Well, um, I don’t… I don’t want to go back. Like ever.” Christ. “Do you think you could tell her that? That I don’t want to go back?”

  That voice turned into blaring warning sirens, and I knew I needed to tread very carefully. “All right, darlin’. I’m not sayin’ no, but I need you to tell me why you want me to talk to her about that first, yeah?”

  The anxiety rolled off her and slammed into me with the force of a tidal wave. “It’s… I just… I don’t want to get him in trouble, but—”

  “You can trust me, Blythe. I promise.”

  Her eyes grew glassy, like she was battling to fight back tears. “You’re a police officer, so you have to protect people, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “And i-if I tell you something, it’s your job to, like, investigate it?”

  My fingers pressed harder into the marble until my knuckles turned white. “Yes.”

  “So, if I told you I saw a man at my dad’s house, and this man gave me a bad feeling, you’d look into it?”

  Fuck me. I was suddenly overcome with the desire to wring Christian Fanning’s neck. “Tell me about this guy, and you have my word I’ll look into it. You have nothing to be scared of, sweetheart. There’s no way in hell I’ll let anything happen to you, your brother, or your mom.”

  That seemed to settle her nerves, and she started from the beginning. However, the longer she talked, the more my stomach sank. “Last time we were at Dad’s, he took off, saying he had to handle some business. I thought it was kinda weird ’cause last I knew, he didn’t even have a job. But he was gone all night. I was kinda freaked, you know? I mean, Dad’s place isn’t in the best part of town, and I know I’m old enough to stay home by myself, but I didn’t like doing that there. And I didn’t like not knowing when he’d be back.

  “Anyway, I tried calling him a bunch of times, but he never answered, so Tris and I ordered a pizza and watched some movies. Tris finally passed out, but I wasn’t able to. I heard Dad’s truck pull up really late. And I went to look out the window.”

  “And then?” I pushed when she went quiet on me.

  “Another car had pulled in behind him,” she whispered, lowering her head and staring at the counter once more. “I’d never seen the guy before, but he gave me a bad vibe, you know? Like, he totally creeped me out. He got outta the car and was yelling at Dad. They were kinda far away, so I couldn’t hear everything, but like I said, he was yelling, so I got bits and pieces.”

  It took an act of God to keep my tone neutral as I asked, “What did you hear?”

  “He said Dad owed him,” she admitted. “He said something about vouching for him and it coming back to bite him in the ass—” she finished on a whisper.

  “Did you hear anything else?”

  “Well, they started arguing, and then he told Dad that he better pay him back what he owes him. He said it just like that. Then the guy punched him in the face. Hard.” She stopped and sniffed back her tears. “Three times. Dad hit the ground, and the guy got back in his car and took off. That was it.”

  Needing a moment to get my anger in check, I pulled in a breath and slowly counted to three before asking, “Did you get a good look at the car?”

  She shook her head in defeat. “No. It was really late, so it was super dark. I only saw the guy ’cause he and Dad were standing under one of the only lights in the parking lot that worked.”

  “And you say you didn’t recognize him.”

  “Not at all,” she confirmed, shaking her head insistently. “He was totally skeevy. Like, none of my friends’ dads look like him. He was a bad guy. I don’t know how I know that. I just do. It was the feeling he gave me.”

  “All right, Blythe. So what happened next?”

  “Well, that was it. Dad came inside a little while later, and I pretended like I was asleep. I-I didn’t want him to know I’d been awake. Tris flipped when he saw the bruises the next morning, but Dad lied and told us that he got up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and accidentally walked into the door.”

  Rounding the island, I moved close to Blythe, noticing the way she’d been holding herself tense, and placed my hands on her shoulders just like I would do with Hannah. “Okay, darlin’, here’s the deal. You trusted me with that, and I don’t take that lightly, but I hope you understand why I can’t keep this from your mom.”

  “I do,” she answered with a nod. “I totally get it, and I know I should have told her myself, but….”

  “You know I have the capability of taking care of it, whereas your mom doesn’t, and you didn’t want to risk her doing something that could get her hurt.”

  “Exactly,” she whispered, her wide eyes growing watery as she looked up at me.

  “I’ll take care of this, Blythe. I don’t want you to give this another thought, all right?”

  “O-okay.”

  “You trust me?”

  She sniffled and rubbed beneath her nose with the back of her hand. “Yeah, Trick. I trust you.”

  “So you trust that I’ll handle this? That you’ve got nothing to worry about?”

  “Y-yes, sir.”

  I wasn’t sure if it was the right move, but I pulled her into my arms, needing to hug her, needing to give her every bit of strength that I could leach from my bones. I quickly discovered that it was the right move when she wrapped her arms tightly around my waist and squeezed with all her might.

  “Everything okay in here?”

  At the sound of Nona’s voice, Blythe and I broke apart. Nona’s eyes were pinned to her daughter as she wiped a tear away.

  “Yeah, beautiful,” I answered on Blythe’s behalf. “But you and I need to talk.”

  She kept her gaze on her daughter, those turquoise eyes filling with worry. “Blythe? Honey?”

  Blythe whispered, �
��It’s okay now.” And with that, she grabbed her bottled water and walked out of the kitchen, trusting me to give the story to her mom, and to do it with care.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Nona

  “Come on, beautiful,” Trick said as I stared off at where my daughter had just disappeared. “Let’s go back outside and I’ll fill you in on everything, yeah?”

  I let him take my hand and lead me out onto the back porch. He settled me on the swing I’d abandoned just moments ago, then went back inside to grab my wine and his beer.

  I’d ventured inside, wondering what was taking him so long, but after seeing my baby girl with tears in her eyes, I wasn’t sure I could stomach another sip.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” I demanded the moment he rejoined me.

  He did just that, and I should have known that the answer would be more than I’d bargained for. By the time he finally finished telling me everything Blythe had just shared with him, I’d downed the whole glass and was in desperate need of another.

  I only had two options in that moment: drink or let my head explode. “I’m gonna kill him,” I seethed, shooting up from the swing. “I’m gonna hunt him down and beat the holy hell out of him, and then I’m gonna kill him!”

  “You aren’t gonna do anything,” Trick said in a low, deep timbre, grabbing my hand and forcing me back to my seat.

  “You can’t possibly expect me to keep my mouth shut about this!” I cried.

  “I can, and I do. The only reason Blythe told me was because she knows I’m a cop, and she trusted I could take care of it for her. And I will, baby. But the one thing she worried about was you goin’ off halfcocked and getting yourself hurt.” My back went stiff, and it suddenly hurt to breathe. “That man scared her, Nona, in a really big way. I don’t have a goddamn clue how Chris managed to get tied up with this guy, but until I figure this out, I don’t want you or the kids anywhere near him. You need to call your attorney to tell her what’s going down, you do that. But you stay away from Chris until I’ve got this handled.”

  “Trick, I—”

  “Promise me, beautiful.”

  It was incredibly hard, but I managed to let out a calming breath and finally nodded a minute later. “I promise.”

  He tucked me under his arm and gave me a squeeze. “Thank you.”

  “What’s going on, Trick?” I asked a few seconds later.

  “I don’t know, baby. But I’m gonna find out, I promise.”

  We lapsed into silence as I tried to piece together everything he’d just laid on me. My instinct was to go momma bear and rip Chris a new one for proving, once again, just how worthless he was, but Trick had a point. And it freaking killed that my daughter had been struggling with this for weeks now, too worried about my reaction to tell me what had been bothering her, to the point that it changed her personality.

  I didn’t have the first clue what my ex had gotten himself into, but I did know it wasn’t my problem—until it began bleeding into my kids’ lives.

  “He called me a couple weeks back,” I said in a small voice. “The day after Tristan’s birthday, Chris called.”

  “The restaurant,” Trick stated strangely.

  I turned my head so I could look up at him. “What?”

  “The calls you started getting at The Groves. It was him, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” I looked back out toward the amazing view of the wilderness beyond my backyard. “He wasn’t even calling about Tris. He didn’t even remember it was his boy’s birthday. He was calling to ask me for the money I told you about.” I let out a bitter laugh. “He actually expected me to borrow against the equity on the house, or my sal—” I swallowed down my words, scared to even say what I was suddenly thinking.

  “What, baby?”

  “He suggested I take it from the salon.” I shot up and whipped around to look at Trick with wide eyes. “Oh my god, do you think it was him? Do you think Chris was the one who broke into the salon and tried to rob it?”

  He didn’t say anything for several seconds, but his expression went hard as stone, and there was something working behind his thunderous gaze that gave me my answer. He already suspected him. "You already think that, don’t you?”

  “It crossed my mind,” he admitted. “But there’s no definitive proof.” My eyes glazed over with fresh tears, and Trick reached up to wrap his hand around the back of my neck. “But you can fuckin’ guarantee I plan to find out.”

  Leaning into Trick, I pressed a palm to his chest and dropped my voice. “Thank you.”

  His brows dipped into an exaggerated frown. “For what?”

  “Take your pick, handsome. For putting my girl’s mind at ease. For taking care of me and my family. For being so amazing.” I moved closer, brushing my lips against his as I added, “For loving me.”

  His hands hit my waist, and once again he maneuvered me onto his lap. “Not a hardship, beautiful. Not any of it. But loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”

  He groaned, fisting his fingers into my hair and forcing my face closer so he could turn a gentle brush of lips into a bruising kiss that left me breathless.

  And I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  * * *

  Trick had managed a miracle and kept me from boiling over the night before when I found out about what was bothering Blythe. It still plagued my thoughts, but with him at my back, I felt capable of handling anything that came my way. And because of that, I’d spent most of the day so far in a pleasant mood.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to last.

  The bell over the door let out its whimsical chime, but before I could turn to look at who had just entered, the atmosphere of the entire salon shifted.

  When I glanced over my shoulder and found Emma standing there with her hip cocked and her arms crossed over her chest, I knew exactly what that shift meant.

  Ah, hell.

  The bright smile I pasted on my face dug into my cheeks painfully. “Hi, Emma.” I moved from my station to the front counter and rested an elbow on top of it. “You here for a trim?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  The clipped tone of her voice threw me for a moment, and I scrambled to get back on track. “Oh. Okay, well, if you—”

  “I need to speak with you, please.” She might have said the word please, but the way it came out was anything but a request.

  “Um….” I looked over my shoulder at the bug-eyed client sitting at my station, watching the exchange along with every other woman in there. “I’m sorry. As you can see, I have a client. But if you wouldn’t mind coming back later—”

  “I’ll say what I have to say now, thank you very much,” she replied snottily.

  My skin started to prickle with embarrassment as her voice rose. “Emma, please, if you could just—”

  “You need to back off,” she continued, making a scene.

  My teeth ground together, but I did my best to remain calm as I said, “Please keep your voice down.”

  “Do you even care that you’re tearing up my family?”

  She had to be kidding. I wasn’t the one who tore up her family. She was.

  Blowing out a frustrated sigh, I rubbed at my temples and requested, “Emma, please. This is my place of work.”

  A nasty smile tugged at her face. “Oh, so you don’t want everyone knowing you’re a homewrecker?”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” I snapped. “We aren’t doing this, not now and certainly not here. I don’t know where you get off accusing me of anything, but I wasn’t the one who tore up your family. You did that when you put a good man out and filed for divorce. And I’m most definitely not a homewrecker. There was nothing to wreck by the time Trick and I got together.” I stabbed my index finger at her and stressed, “You saw to that.”

  She took a step closer, squaring off with me. “If you’d back off, I could put my family back together.”

&nbs
p; “That’s not going to happen,” I informed her in a cold, hard voice. “I’m sorry you regret the decisions you made, but I know what I have with Trick, and no way in hell am I giving him up. Now, I don’t know what you expected to achieve with this little showdown, but I’m telling you now, it’s not gonna go your way, so I’d appreciate it if you’d leave.”

  “You think it’ll actually last with you and Patrick? We had years together. I gave him two children. I was his wife. He’ll come back once he’s done slumming it with trash like you.”

  “Get out.” We both turned at the unexpected voice. Ms. McClintock stood there with the black cape hanging off her age-hunched shoulders, her blue-hued hair in curlers. Her hands were planted on her hips, and she was glaring daggers in Emma’s direction. “You should be ashamed of yourself, comin’ in here and causin’ a ruckus with that foul mouth.”

  “I’m sorry, but this conversation isn’t really any of your business,” Emma sneered.

  “I beg to differ, seein’ as sweet Nona here asked time and again for you to stop, and you just kept right on goin’, makin’ a fool of yourself in front of all of us,” Ms. M continued, schooling Emma in the way only the old woman was capable of. “By doin’ that, you made it all of our business. And since it’s my business, I’m gonna damn well voice my opinion, and that is I do not like you.”

  Emma sucked in a gasp while my jaw dropped to the floor in shock.

  “If we’re throwin’ around our two cents, I don’t much care for you either.” I turned to Roxanne, who was sitting at Blair’s station. She was younger than Ms. M., in her fifties, but just as surly. She worked the reception desk for Lincoln’s firm, and she claimed that having to keep those alpha men in check at all times had given her a thick skin. Everyone pretty much loved Roxanne and her hard demeanor, and until now, I thought she liked everyone in return. Guess I was wrong.

  “Liked you well enough when you were makin’ Trick happy. A man like him, always puttin’ his life on the line to protect and serve, deserves a good woman, but you were never one of my favorites. Always seemed snooty. Then you quit bein’ a good woman altogether, and I officially stopped liking you. Now I think you’re snooty and stupid for throwin’ away something so good. And it’s just pathetic how you’re mad ’cause Detective Wanderly found himself something better than you ever could’ve been.”