Out of My League: a Hope Valley novel

by Prince, Jessica

  “So,” she started, turning me to face the mirror and pulling the elastic band from my hair. “What are we doing today?” She tousled and flipped the long strands, scattering them around my shoulders.

  “I-I don’t really know. I just want it to look… better.”

  Nona’s gaze met mine in the reflection of the mirror as she placed her hands on my shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “Well, there’s not much more left to do to improve on a beauty like yours, but maybe we can just put a little extra shine on it. What do you say?”

  The better I got to know her, the more I loved her. Nona was just more proof that I’d done right in picking Hope Valley as my forever place. I hadn’t run across very many people like her in my life, and I was still struggling with how to react to her kindness. It was so new to me that the compliments and sincerity were hard to accept, but every time I looked in her eyes, pure, genuine honesty was all that shone back at me.

  “I say I trust you, so do whatever you want.”

  Nona let out an enthusiastic squeal that drew the attention of the people all around us. “Carte blanche? Hell yeah! Trust me, sweetie, I’ll do right by you. You have my word.”

  I didn’t need her word. My gut told me Nona was the real deal, and I wouldn’t regret this decision.

  * * *

  Nona dropped the scissors on the counter and dusted the loose hair off my neck and face with one of those soft puffy brushes. Once she finished, she looked at me with a brilliant smile lighting up her beautiful face. “All done. You ready to see?”

  After having my head wrapped in so many foils I looked like a paranoid freak afraid of aliens reading my thoughts, then sitting with my back to the mirror as she cut, blow-dried, and styled, I was more than ready. I was anxious as hell.

  At my nod, she whipped the cape off and spun my chair around with a loud “Ta-da!”

  I sat speechless, staring at my reflection in the mirror.

  “Uh, honey,” Nona said anxiously from behind me. “You’re not sayin’ anything. Oh god. Do you hate it? You hate it, don’t you? Don’t worry, I can fix it. I’ll just—”

  Reaching back, I gripped the hand resting on my shoulder and held on tight. “I love it,” I replied, my excitement growing with each word. The dull, flat brown now shined with streaks of two different shades of blonde Nona referred to as caramel and honey, giving the once drab strands a vibrant golden hue. The weight of my thick hair gave me chronic headaches, so I’d gotten used to wearing it up constantly to combat the pain. But with the choppy layers, she’d given it dimension while also making the once unbearable weight much more manageable.

  With the glossiness of my new hair, even the boring brown of my eyes seemed to pop more. Just like she’d promised, my friend had done right by me. Actually, she’d worked a freaking miracle.

  “Gotta say, doll, it was a lot of damn work, but it was so worth it. God blessed you with a gorgeous head of hair.”

  My face scrunched with a tiny frown. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a blessing, Nona. More like a curse.”

  “Child, callin’ a head of hair like that a curse is just plain ol’ blasphemous,” Ms. McClintock in the chair next to mine chimed in. It was my first time meeting the older woman, but hours upon hours stuck in a chair was the perfect chance to get to know new people.

  Ms. McClintock was an adorably cantankerous blue-haired eighty-year-old with a hilariously salty personality. But I found I really liked her bluntness. It wasn’t meant to be rude. She just didn’t believe in taking the time to sugarcoat what she felt needed to be said in order to spare a person’s feelings. I knew that for a fact when, thirty minutes into meeting her, she informed me, “Life’s too short for me to coddle all these damn young folks and their sensitive dispositions. I don’t have forever to spread my knowledge around this Earth. And if I don’t get out what needs sayin’, the generations to come are at risk of bein’ even dumber than they already are.”

  I kind of loved Ms. McClintock.

  “You should be thankin’ the big man upstairs every night as you brush all that gorgeousness.”

  “It’s too thick, Ms. McClintock. I’ve struggled with headaches for years because of how heavy it is.”

  The old woman snorted and rolled her eyes before patting at the curlers currently setting her hair. “I’d take headaches any day of the week over goin’ damn near bald. Trust me, girly. You get to be my age and you’re gonna be prayin’ to the good Lord above for some of that lustrous volume back. You don’t like it, have Nona hack it all off and I’ll make a wig out of it.”

  Nona and I laughed before both turning back to the mirror. “The way I cut it should help a bit with the weight, but Ms. M is right,” Nona said. “This is some of the most gorgeous hair I’ve ever had the privilege of getting my hands on.”

  I was quickly coming to learn that compliments and Wynona Fanning went hand in hand. It was going to take some getting used to, but I forced my face to relax and met her gaze in the mirror, offering her a sincere smile.

  Just before I could open my mouth to thank her, the door to the salon flung open and a woman I’d never seen before came rushing toward Nona.

  “I’m late, I’m late. I know. I’m sorry! But you will not believe what’s happening.”

  Nona let out a carefree giggle at the hyper woman. “Relax, Sadie. It’s fine. I’m only just finishing up my last client now.”

  The woman, now known as Sadie, blew out a relieved puff of air. “Oh thank goodness. I was worried you’d filled my spot and I was gonna have to drive all the way to Grapevine to get my roots touched up.”

  Grapevine was a town two counties over. It was even smaller than Hope Valley, and at least a forty-five-minute drive. It was the closest place with a hair salon if you couldn’t get into Pure Elegance, so it wasn’t a surprise that Nona’s salon was as full as it was. The whole time my head had been baking, the door opened and closed constantly with a flood of new arrivals. Not only was it the most convenient option, but to hear women around town talk, Nona and her stylists were far superior to the salon in Grapevine.

  “No worries,” Nona offered. “Eden here had a whole lotta hair for me to get through, so you’re just in time.”

  The now-less-frantic Sadie turned her eyes at me, and I got my first good look at her. If I had to guess, she was around her early forties, with a kind face and red hair that, judging by the steel gray peeking from her roots, wasn’t the color she’d been born with. She was a few inches taller than Nona, which put her about half a foot taller than me, and had a bit of extra weight around her midsection, but she carried herself with a confidence that made that roundness work for her instead of against her.

  “Ooh-wee! You aren’t kiddin’,” she declared. “Girl, I know we only just met, but I think I might have to hate you for no other reason than pure jealousy. I had hair like that, I wouldn’t have to run in here like my ass was on fire, scared I missed my appointment.”

  My cheeks blushed a fierce shade of red as I dropped my gaze. I really didn’t know how to handle people being so damn amazing, and something told me I was going to have to get used to it. Fast.

  “So what’s goin’ on?” Nona asked, pulling Sadie’s focus from my hair.

  “Huh?”

  “You said we wouldn’t believe what’s happening, so you gonna spill the gossip or what?”

  “Oh!” Sadie visibly shook off her confusion and plopped down in the chair on my other side that had only been vacated a few minutes earlier. “So, you’re not gonna believe this. I was over at the Vanilla Bean, gettin’ a latte, and everyone was talkin’. Whole town’s in a full-blown tizzy.”

  “Enough with the buildup, Sadie. Get to the point before I keel over and die of old age,” Ms. McClintock ordered.

  Sadie rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Well, Sue Ellen was in line, and you know Sue Ellen’s a gossip if there ever was one. And she works reception at the police station, so she gets all the juicy stuff firsthand—”

&nb
sp; “Oh, for the love of god!” one of the ladies a few stations down cried. “Get on with it before we all die of old age!”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing, but apparently Sadie knew her as well, because the look on her face said she harbored no animosity at the woman’s interruption.

  “Anyway, like I was saying, Sue Ellen was yackin’ everyone’s ear off about a whole slew of calls that came in last night. Three B&Es. Can you believe it? Three! In one night! Hope Valley’s so low on crime that I almost feel bad for our police force. Most we get are those damn teenagers drag racin’ on old Tolliver Mill Road. Then we get hit with a string of robberies in one night? It’s insane!”

  Nona looked at Sadie with big eyes. “Did they catch whoever was doing it?”

  “No. He got away, but only by sheer dumb luck. Last house the guy broke into was Wilson Sullivan’s. And everyone in town knows Old Man Wilson sleeps with a sawed-off next to his bed. Only reason the guy didn’t end up with a hole in his skull is ’cause Wilson refuses to listen to his doctor about needin’ glasses even though the old fart’s damn near blind as a bat. The robber got away, but cops are hopin’ the near miss with some buckshot deters him from breakin’ into any more houses.”

  Hope Valley might have been low on crime, but I knew too well that stuff like this could happen anywhere. Hell, I grew up in a household with people capable of doing just that, if not worse. But I was a single woman living on her own, and the thought of someone running around in the dead of night breaking into people’s houses was enough to set me on edge.

  Nona must have caught the worry in my expression, because she put a hand on my shoulder and smiled down at me. “Don’t worry, Eden. The cops in this town might not see a lot of action, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t prepared. They’ll catch the asshole.”

  I let that knowledge sink in and ease my concern. “I’ll take your word for it,” I replied. “Let’s just hope it’s sooner than later.”

  Chapter Four

  Lincoln

  The second I pushed through the heavy glass doors of the police station, the receptionist’s eyes hit me and went half-mast. It took everything in my power not to cringe as she purred, “Mornin’, Linc.”

  “Sue Ellen,” I replied in a flat, emotionless voice, careful not to give her an inch. One of the biggest mistakes I’d made since moving to Hope Valley was getting so goddamn drunk that I’d stupidly gone home with the woman one night a couple years back. Worst sex of my life, hands down. But what I didn’t know then was that Sue Ellen couldn’t keep her trap shut to save her life, so word of our one and only encounter spread through town like wildfire and built up to be something much more than it actually was: a poorly chosen one-night stand that I had no plans of repeating.

  I’d made the mistake of thinking a woman who could strut as magnificently as Sue Ellen could in those sky-high heels knew what she was doing in bed. After all, it took some serious fucking skill for a woman to sway her hips like that. Turned out it was all an illusion. That sexy strut of hers was where Sue Ellen’s talents started and stopped.

  I’d tried brushing her off as kindly as possible, hadn’t looked at her with the slightest hint of interest in years, barely spoke more than a word to her in months, but as luck would have it, the damn woman was about as easily deterred as a dog with a bone.

  “Here to see Hayes,” I grunted, not bothering to slow as I made my way to the stairs that would lead up and into the bullpen.

  “Oh, yeah, sure!” she chirped, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her craning over the long counter to keep me in her sights. “It was good seein’ you! Stop by when you have time to chat.”

  I flicked two fingers out at her in reply as I hit the steps, taking them two at a time in an effort to escape as quickly as possible.

  The room mainly consisted of a mass of desks cluttered around the center. Along the left side were conference rooms, to the right was the call center where all emergency calls for Hope Valley were routed, and the captain’s office at the back of that. Directly behind the bullpen was a hall that led to the three interrogation rooms and the holding cells, and that was basically the whole of the Hope Valley Police Department.

  The instant I hit the bullpen, my gaze moved to Hayes Walker’s desk and I spotted my buddy, hunched over as he stared at something on the computer screen in front of him. Hayes’s desk butted up to his partner’s, Patrick Wanderly, putting his back to the entrance of the bullpen, so it was Trick who spotted me first.

  “Hey, man, what’s happenin’?”

  I stopped at the edge of the desk clump and answered, “Not much. Heard you guys caught a nasty one a couple nights ago. How’s that goin’?”

  Gossip about the string of robberies had made its way through the Hope Valley grapevine even faster than normal, mainly thanks to Sue Ellen and her big mouth. I knew Hayes and Trick were lead on the case, and that it had turned up a whole lot of nothing since shit went down, so I wasn’t all that surprised when Hayes called earlier that morning and asked me to stop in.

  I might have been born and raised in Virginia, but it wasn’t until I left the Marines ten years earlier that I discovered the little slice of heaven that was Hope Valley. It was quiet, peaceful, and, for the most part, crime free. That might have been a deterrent, seeing as my plan was to open a private investigations and security firm once I got myself settled, but the good thing about Hope Valley was that it was close enough to the bigger cities to allow business to thrive, while still being closed off enough that the nastiness of my job didn’t trickle into my everyday life.

  It was a win-win. And the reason I’d discovered this town was all because of Hayes. We’d been in the service together, Hayes having retired earlier than me in order to come back and join the force. But when it was time for me to set down roots and start a life that didn’t involve war, my brother in arms had convinced me that Hope Valley was the place to do just that. And he’d been right.

  “It’s goin’ absolutely fuckin’ nowhere,” Hayes replied, sitting tall in the old, beat up swivel chair and giving his back a stretch.

  “We don’t have anything but a bunch of pissed-off citizens wantin’ their shit back, and one particularly trigger-happy old man who can’t see two feet in front of his face.”

  Twisting the chair at the end of their desk clump so it was facing toward Hayes and Trick, I took a seat and made myself comfortable. “Pretty sure Wilson’s more of a danger to himself than anyone else.”

  “Still gotta protect and serve,” Trick muttered, rubbing at his temples. “Even the old bastards with a death wish.”

  Leaning back, I kicked my motorcycle boots up on the edge of the two desks and got right down to business. “So what can I do? I assume you called me in to help, not just ’cause you missed my pretty face.”

  Hayes chuckled and gave his head a shake. “Still blows my mind that women gag after your ugly mug. Bet money Sue Ellen’s droolin’ all over the front desk right about now.”

  At my noticeable cringe, Trick let out a hoot of laughter. They all knew what a disaster Sue Ellen was, and none of them would touch her with a ten-foot pole. But it would’ve been nice if my friends had given me a heads-up before I dipped my toe in that particular pond.

  “Fuck off,” I grunted at both of them. “I still can’t believe you assholes hung me out to dry like that.”

  “Brother, when it comes to Sue Ellen Mayfield, it’s every man for himself,” Hayes said. “Woman’s made her play on practically every cop in this building. As far as we were concerned, you were the perfect scapegoat to get her off our backs. Not my fault you couldn’t see what was hiding behind those little dresses and fuck-me heels.”

  Shaking off the shiver the memory of that night with her sent down my spine, I turned the subject away from Sue Ellen and onto more important things. “If this is all you called me in for, I got shit to do.”

  To their credit, their laughter dried up and both men leaned closer. Hayes lowered his voice s
o only the three of them could hear as he spoke. “Need your help, brother. Nothin’ big, just need you to do what you do best and keep your ear to the ground. You spot anything or anyone who sets off alarm bells, you let us know. We’re doin’ what we can on our end, but with no physical evidence, and our only witness bein’ blind as a bat, we’re in the dark.”

  Trick nodded and picked up where Hayes left off. “Everyone in three counties knows Old Man Wilson sleeps with his gun propped up beside his bed. Tells us whoever broke in the other night is either new in town or just driftin’ through. Could be the dude freaked and took off, but we still gotta cross all our t’s and dot all the i’s.”

  I dropped my feet and leaned in. “I’ll do what I can, but you give any thought to Malachi Black?”

  Malachi Black was the kind of asshole that all other assholes were too scared to bump heads with. He’d lived all his life in this town, and rumor was he had a pretty decent-sized operation cooking meth—but that was all it was for now, just rumor. Hope Valley PD had sent as many men as they could spare up into those mountains in search of his cookhouse, but they always came back empty-handed. If he was doing it, he’d been smart enough to set up in another county, and so far his product hadn’t hit our town. But sadly, it was just a matter of time before that happened. Grapevine and Hildalgo, the two towns closest, had reported an influx of drugs hitting their streets. My gut told me Black was bad news. Unfortunately, the fucker used his brain, so no one had shit on him.

  “Got nothin’ to warrant pullin’ him in for questioning,” Hayes answered, the tick in his jaw showing he was pissed as hell about that. “And Cap’d have our asses if we didn’t go by the book.”

  “It’s election year,” Trick grumbled. “Asshole cares more about keepin’ his position than doing his job. He’s of the opinion that if it isn’t a problem now, it’s not worth the man power and tax dollars to investigate.”