The Best of Me: a Hope Valley novel

by Prince, Jessica

  Just then, the doorbell rang, and my stomach fell to the floor. Nona gave me a nod and moved to the side so I could answer the front door.

  Heath stood on the other side, looking equal parts nervous and excited. He held a huge bouquet of flowers in his hand, and I had to admit—begrudgingly—that I was glad to see he’d pulled out all the stops.

  “H-hi, Mr. Wanderly.”

  I gave him a grin and stepped out of the way so he could enter. “Told you, kid, you can call me Trick.”

  He blew out a breath, and I caught him rubbing the palm of his free hand on his jeans. “Figured it’d be best to be more respectful this evening, you know, since you’re allowing me to take Hannah out on our first real date.”

  Okay, I thought to myself. So maybe Nona’s right about this being a good kid. But I still had every intension of keeping an eye on him.

  “You do what you feel you need to do, son.”

  He gave me a wobbly smile, and a second later, I heard the click of heels on the wood floor.

  “Oh wow,” Nona breathed, her eyes going glassy. “You look so beautiful, sweet girl!”

  Hannah and Blythe had been holed up in her bedroom for the past two hours, getting my baby ready for her date. I slowly spun to look at Hannah, and the sight before me nearly took my breath away.”

  I’d never seen my baby girl look more beautiful or happy in all my life. My voice came out gravelly as I declared, “God, Banana, you’re stunning.”

  She gave me a shy smile and murmured, “Thanks, Daddy.” Her attention shifted to Heath and to the flowers in his hand, and her face broke out into a beaming smile. “Are those for me?”

  “Y-yeah,” Heath stuttered. “Happy birthday, Hannah.”

  It was a wonder Hannah didn’t melt into a puddle as she took the flowers and held them to her chest.

  “Here, let me take those, honey,” Nona spoke, reaching for the bouquet. “I’ll get them in some water for you and put them on your bedside table.”

  “Thanks, Nona,” she whispered, handing the flowers over.

  “You ready?” Heath asked, holding out his hand.

  “Yeah.” Hannah took it and they started for the door, but at the last second, she stopped. “Wait just a sec. I forgot something.” Pulling away, she spun back around, rushing to me and throwing herself into my arms. “Love you, Daddy,” she whispered into my ear. “To the moon and back times infinity.”

  “Love you too, Banana,” I managed to say past the swell of emotion in my throat. “To the moon and back times infinity plus one.”

  Then she was gone.

  “I love you,” Nona murmured, coming up and fitting herself against my side, the both of us staring at the closed front door. “You’re the best father I’ve ever seen.”

  “I still remember the first moment the doctor put her in my arms after she was born,” I replied. “Remember it like it was yesterday.”

  “That’s the great thing about being a parent, handsome. You have those memories forever.”

  Turning to face her, I wrapped Nona in my arms and pulled her flush against me, looking down into those unique blue eyes. “What would you say if I told you I wanted to do it again?”

  The smile she graced me with warmed me to my bones. “I’d say you better hurry up and propose so we can get on that.”

  Christ, but I loved this woman. “I’ll get right on that, beautiful. Just you wait and see.”

  How it was possible that I was lucky enough to have a woman as incredible as Nona was beyond me. But I wouldn’t question it.

  Instead, I’d just keep counting my blessings.

  The End.

  Keep reading for a sneak peek of Marco and Gyspy’s story

  Wrong Side of the Tracks

  Sneak Peek of Wrong Side of the Tracks

  Prologue

  Gypsy

  Those stunning hazel eyes stared down at me, the intensity in them penetrating the shield I kept around my heart at the same time his perfect cock stroked that place deep inside me.

  It was like pouring gasoline on a fire.

  Dangerous.

  Explosive.

  So. Incredibly. Hot.

  The power behind his thrusts was scrambling my brain and making it impossible to think. All I could do was feel as he drove in and out with the perfect rhythm.

  “Marco,” I moaned, throwing my head back as my body strung tighter and my nails dug into his back. God, it had never been like this.

  So good. So sweet.

  It was perfect.

  He was perfect.

  “That’s it, girasol,” he spoke, the rich, husky cadence of his voice forcing my gaze open. The jade color of his eyes was nearly swallowed up by lustful black. “Give it to me. Let me hear how much you love what I’m doing to you.”

  I was about to. I could feel my release growing, building into something so powerful it scared me.

  I let out one last whimper as Marco slammed in deep, grinding against my clit. That was all it took. My mouth fell open and...

  The shrill buzz of my alarm clock sounded and I shot up, panting and gasping for air. A clammy sweat coated the goosebumps that covered my skin, and it took several seconds for me to get my bearings and realize it was just a dream.

  “Shit,” I whispered, flopping back on my mattress as I tried to calm my frantic heart and shallow breathing. That was the third sex dream I’d had about the undeniably sexy Marco Castillo, and each one is more detailed and vivid than the last.

  All it took was one word. One freaking word and a sultry look at my friend Nona’s backyard barbecue a few weeks ago, and I was done for.

  On the few occasions I allowed myself to daydream, to hope, I could still feel that look from him like a physical touch. I could hear him calling me girasol in that smoky voice and it never failed to elicit a shiver from me when I thought about the smooth way his tongue rolled on that “r”.

  But it wasn’t just the word said in that beautiful accent that turned me into an achy, needy puddle of lust. It was the meaning behind it. I’d looked the word up about a million times. Partly because I was hoping the more I saw it, the more desensitized I’d become, but mainly because I loved the way it made me feel. As ridiculous as it sounded, having him call me sunflower as opposed to babe or sweetheart or something equally innocuous made it seem like I was... special.

  See? Ridiculous!

  “Shit,” I repeated, then again with more passion as I kicked at the mess of tangled covers from my legs. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  This was bad. So, so bad.

  I couldn’t afford to let myself get hung up on Marco Castillo. A man like him wasn’t for the likes of me. And as much as I didn’t want it to, that realization depressed me. My life was all drama and baggage and constant headaches.

  And speaking of my life...

  The slam of a door sounded through the paper-thin walls, quickly followed by a loud pounding, and my sister Sunshine shouting, “Rhodes, get outta the bathroom! I need to do my makeup!”

  “No way in hell!” he yelled in return. “You’ll hog it all damn mornin’!”

  As the two teenagers in the house, respectively sixteen and seventeen, both kids were infamous bathroom hogs.

  Lifting my arms, I braced the heels of my palms and pressed down hard, hoping to stave off the inevitable headache. I knew what was coming next. It was the same thing every freaking morning.

  Like clockwork, Sunny and Rhodes shouting match was quickly followed by a sharp squall of my youngest brother, two-year old Raleigh.

  After that, it was full blown chaos.

  My bedroom door crashed open, and my six-year old sister Holiday stood in the doorway, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and pulling off an unhappy glare at the same time.

  “Morning, doodlebug,” I offered with a smile at my adorable little sister.

  “Rhodes and Sunny woke the baby again,” she grumbled, moving into the room and climbing into my bed.

  Seeing as there wasn’t n
early enough room in our house, Holly was forced to bunk up with Raleigh and Sunny while Rhodes and my nine-year old brother Raylan shared another room. So when Raleigh woke, Holly woke. And my baby sis was not a morning person.

  “You got a few more minutes, sugar,” I said softly, reaching up to brush her thick, shiny blonde hair from her face. “Rest your eyes, and I’ll come get you in a bit.”

  And just like that, she was out like a light again. Heading out of my room, I crossed the narrow hallway into Holly and Raleigh’s, moving to the crib to pick up my screaming brother.

  “Hey, punk,” I cooed, propping him on my hip and brushing the tears from his chubby pink cheeks. “What’s all that noise about, huh?”

  Wrapping his arms around my neck, he burrowed his face against my shoulder and rubbed it there, still half asleep.

  “That’s it, punkin,” I whispered as his cries turned to whimpers, then stuttered breaths. A second later, he was my calm, sweet baby once again.

  “Gyspy!” Raylan yelled. His tone was laced with an anger I understood the moment he added, “Rhodes ate all the Cocoa Pebbles again!” To say he brother was a finnicky eater was a massive understatement, so if we happened to run out of one of the only foods he was willing to eat it was DEFCON 1. Luckily, I was prepared.

  Brushing off the frustration I was all too familiar with, I jumped into action and headed back down the hall toward the kitchen. “Relax, little bro. I got you covered.” With Raleigh still perched on my hip, I used my free hand to open the cabinet where I usually kept the spices and reached to the very top shelf where I stashed a box of Cocoa Pebbles no one else knew about.”

  Raylan gave me wide eyes before twisting his lips into a pleased grin. “Sweet!”

  Wrangling the Bradbury clan was like trying to herd cats. However, I had years of experience so I was pretty damn good at it.

  Our folks hadn’t been good for much, other than pushing out kids and gracing them with embarrassing names, so the moment Rhodes had come into the world the responsibility of raising him had fallen on my own eight-year old shoulders. Sunshine came a year later, and it was the same gig. Over and over again for years.

  Then something in Danny and Peggy Bradbury changed when Raleigh came into the picture. They decided they weren’t the type of people who wanted to be parents after all, and I woke up one morning to discover they’d bailed out.

  That had been a little over two years ago, and as far as I was concerned, it was good riddance. We didn’t need them.

  Hell, I hadn’t needed them for twenty-five years, and the way I looked at it, I’d been the only parent my siblings ever had, so we’d get on fine without them.

  I’d only been seventeen years old, barely into my senior year of high school when, thanks to my parents’ being worthless blobs who refused to work or be responsible in any way, I’d had to drop out so I could get a full-time job to care for the kids and myself. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of options for a girl without so much as a GED, so I’d been forced into multiple jobs that paid shit money. Shit money that our worthless folks stole whenever the need for beer or vodka came over them. And the need came often.

  Without them there to mooch off me, things got a little easier. Then one day I saw an ad in the paper for a strip club two towns over. It wasn’t something I’d ever wanted to do, but to keep a roof over my kids’ heads and food in their bellies, I did what needed to be done.

  I’d been a dancer two to three nights a week at Pink Palace for a year and a half now, and the headlining act for the past eight months. I hated every second of it, and Pink Palace wasn’t exactly a classy joint, but it paid the bills. Barely.

  To supplement my income and make sure there was enough cash for the unexpected—and there was always something unexpected—I worked as a checker at Fresh Foods, the local grocery story in Hope Valley five days a week.

  Most days it was a struggle just to keep my eyes open, and I lived off coffee and energy drinks more than was probably healthy, but this was my life and I’d learned a long time ago that feeling sorry for myself didn’t solve my problems. All it did was waste time and make me feel miserable.

  Truth was, my siblings needed all of me, so time for pity-parties was out of the question. My whole life was those kids, and that was just fine with me.

  With each one that came, my heart swelled bigger and bigger. Each and every one of them was mine. I’d go to the mat for them. I’d fight and bleed and die for them if that was what it took. I just wished I could give them better than what they had.

  The shitty three bedroom double wide we lived in sat in the middle of a trailer park in an even shittier part of town. The place was meant for a much smaller family, and we were constantly stepping on each other’s toes, but it was the best I could do, and I had to admit, I hated myself a little for that.

  I wanted to give those kids everything I never had. Unfortunately, life wasn’t always fair and good things weren’t a guarantee. Especially for a girl who’d grown up on the wrong side of the tracks.

  It never managed to surprise me, but just like every morning before, I somehow managed to get four kids dressed and out the door for school with their teeth brushed and bellies full.

  I might not have graduated high school, but I fully intended to see to it that all my brothers and sisters did. And because of that, I insisted they fuel up with breakfast every morning so they had enough energy to make it through the day.

  I had a little while just me and Raleigh before I had to pass him off to our neighbor Odette so I could get ready for my shift at the grocery store, so we went about our morning routine. I clicked on a playlist I made just for him, fast pace, high energy Top 40 songs he loved, and I spent the next hour dancing and singing loudly as I made us breakfast. As usual, Raleigh spent the whole time squealing and clapping at my antics with the biggest, happiest baby grin on his face.

  That grin was all I needed to pull me out of my earlier funk. As long as the kids were happy and healthy, nothing else mattered.

  So what if a man such as Marco Castillo wasn’t for the likes of me, a high school dropout stripper who lived in a trailer park. I had the love of the five most important people in the entire world, and that was more than enough for me. I didn’t need anything else.

  Or at least that’s what I was determined to make myself believe.

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  More from Hope Valley

  After years of war, Lincoln Sheppard thought he’d left the violence and ugliness behind. He was content with the life he built for himself. Then the woman down the street came in and shook everything up.

  All Eden Brenner ever wanted was to have a place to call home. She finally found that in Hope Valley. Then she went and fell in love with the man a few houses down the first time she laid eyes on him. There was just one problem. Women like her didn’t catch the attention of men like him. He was totally and completely out of her league. And to make matters worse, when her past comes knocking, the beautiful world she’s built for herself is at risk of crumbling to the ground.

  When danger forces Eden into his arms, Lincoln begins to see her in a whole new light, and he suddenly finds himself wanting things he never expected. And he wants them all with the shy, clumsy woman from down the street. But when the truth comes out, that proves nearly impossible. Now he’s fighting the hardest battle of his life, and the stakes are higher than ever. Protect the woman he’s falling for while trying to win her heart at the same time.

  Temperance Levine had her entire world ripped away from her at eighteen. What had once been a life full of light and happiness was torn to shreds in the blink of an eye. With nothing left but a broken heart and painful memories, she ran away from the only home she’d ever had and tried to start over somewhere else. But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and sometimes all you can do to heal old wounds is come back home again.

  The day Temperance left him wa
s the worst day of Hayes Walker’s life, and he’d spent every one since then merely existing. The future he’d imagined had gone up in smoke, and all he could do was take life one step at a time. But when tragedy brings Tempie back to Hope Valley, he knows this is the only shot he’ll have at getting his happiness back, and there’s no way he’ll let this chance go to waste.

  After years apart, Tempie and Hayes are finally starting over and looking toward the future. But when their sleepy little town is rocked to its core, Hayes will be forced into a battle he never saw coming. Now he’s not only fighting for the future he always dreamed of, but also trying to protect the only woman he’s ever loved.

  Discover Other Books by Jessica

  HOPE VALLEY SERIES:

  Out of My League

  Come Back Home Again

  The Best of Me

  CIVIL CORRUPTION SERIES

  Corrupt

  Defile

  Consume

  Ravage

  THE PICKING UP THE PIECES SERIES:

  Picking up the Pieces

  Rising from the Ashes

  Pushing the Boundaries

  Worth the Wait

  THE COLORS NOVELS:

  Scattered Colors

  Shrinking Violet

  Love Hate Relationship

  Wildflower

  THE LOCKLAINE BOYS (a LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP spinoff):

  Fire & Ice

  Opposites Attract

  Almost Perfect

  THE PEMBROOKE SERIES (a WILDFLOWER spinoff):

  Sweet Sunshine

  Coming Full Circle

  A Broken Soul