Out of My League: a Hope Valley novel

by Prince, Jessica

  When the time came for lunch to end, Lincoln tossed some bills on the table and stood, reaching out to help me from my side of the booth. Once I was up, he kept our hands clasped, grabbed Rocky’s leash, and started toward the exit.

  Sally watched us with that same beam she’d had on her face nearly the whole time we were there. As we passed, I slowed long enough to return her smile and look over my shoulder at the passthrough as I called out, “Lunch was spectacular, Ralph! Thanks for the suggestion!”

  “Any time, sugar!” Ralph replied. “Don’t be a stranger!”

  “Not a chance of that now that I know what I’ve been missing.”

  When we pulled up in front of Alpha Omega Investigations a few minutes later, I was comfortably full and surprisingly relaxed. Lincoln twisted the key to kill the engine, and I grabbed the door handle, throwing it open and hopping out of the big truck before he could round the hood to my side.

  “Thanks for lunch,” I started as I shut the door and spun on my heels. “It was delic—”

  The words died on my tongue when I looked up at Lincoln’s hard face as he reached me. Both his hands came up and rested on the metal of the door on either side of my head, caging me in. My back hit the side of his truck in surprise as he bent his elbows and moved in even closer, the smell of his cologne invading my senses and rendering me utterly speechless.

  “Don’t do that again, Edie. You’re a little thing, and this truck’s big. You hop out of it on your own like that, you could hurt yourself. You wait for me next time.”

  Holy. Shit.

  That intensity returned to his eyes as they bounced back and forth between mine before moving lower, taking in every inch of my face before settling in on my lips.

  I thought for a second that he might kiss me, and there was a strong possibility that my heart may just explode in my chest if he were to do that, but god how I wanted him to.

  But instead of kissing me, his gaze grew introspective, and he watched me for so long the silence began to claw at me. Finally, he reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, letting his fingertips linger at my jaw before dropping his hand and taking a step back.

  “I enjoyed lunch, buttercup. See you later, yeah?”

  “Uh… yeah. Sure.”

  Rocky gave a little bark as if asking for my attention, and when I looked down at him, he butted my hand with his head.

  Squatting down, I gave his head a rub and let him lick my chin. “Be good, boy. And be sure to come visit me.” Rocky barked again in agreement. I stood tall and began backing away as I turned my focus to Lincoln. “Thanks again. I had a good time.”

  And with that, I spun around and headed for my car.

  So maybe the lunch hadn’t ended how I would have liked—namely with a mind-blowing, toe-curling kiss from the man of my dreams—but at least I came away from it with another friend. That was better than nothing.

  Or at least that was what I told myself.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lincoln

  Walking into Alpha Omega Investigations, I pointed Rocky toward Roxanne’s desk where she’d set up a dog bed with a small stash of toys for the days I brought him into work with me.

  She watched me closely as I unhooked his leash, giving his head a pat. I could practically see her itching to ask, and before I could escape to my office, she did exactly that.

  “So… Eden’s really pretty, don’t you think?”

  Shooting her a look over my shoulder, I warned, “Rox, don’t start.”

  “What?” She shrugged innocently. “I was just askin’. I mean, it’s not exactly a secret that you like to play the field. Then that cute little thing waltzes through the door, and not only did she have your dog—who’s clearly in love with her, by the way—but then you went all stone-cold badass Linc when you caught Bryce turnin’ his charms toward her. Color me surprised, Lincoln Sheppard. Didn’t know you had it in you, boy.”

  She wasn’t the only one surprised by my behavior when it came to Eden Brenner. It started the other night at The Tap Room. I’d spotted her the second she and Nona walked in, and it was like seeing a totally different person. All I’d seen her in before that were baggy pants and loose shirts that did nothing for her figure. But that night she’d done something different.

  Her clothes were more fitted, hugging her curves. And damn, did that woman have some delectable curves. When I agreed to help Hayes, I thought it would be a simple job. Then I held her in my arms while we danced, smelled her, felt her lush body against mine, and I’d had to fight against going hard enough to pound nails.

  Asking her to keep Rocky for the weekend had been an excuse to get close. I’d pushed my unexpected attraction to the back of my mind and focused on the task at hand. Getting to her through her affection for that lovable mutt was the start of something I hadn’t expected. When she answered the door, all adorably sleepy and wearing nothing but that nightie, I nearly lost my goddamn mind.

  Seeing that she didn’t have any safety precautions in place to keep her or the house she’d clearly worked so hard on making into a home brought out my strongest protective instincts, and the need to make sure she was protected overwhelmed me.

  I spent far too many hours thinking about her in those tight jeans and that revealing nightgown during my job in Montana when I should have been focused on work. She was a job, nothing more. That was what she had to be.

  At lunch I dug as Hayes had asked. And what I discovered during that time left me incredibly uneasy.

  Eden was hiding something. I didn’t know what, but it was something. Every time I asked about her past or family, she found a way to steer the conversation back around to me. She wasn’t obvious about it, and had it been anyone else, the diversion would have gone unnoticed. She was practiced at avoidance, and the fact that I couldn’t get a read on her drove me crazy.

  “Don’t make this into somethin’ it’s not, Roxanne.”

  She held her hands up in surrender, but I knew her well enough to know better. “I’m not makin’ anything out of anything. Just curious is all.”

  “Uh-huh, and your brand of curiosity leads to nothin’ but rumors and trouble.”

  She pasted on an expression of mock offense and put a hand to her chest. “Well now that’s just rude, Lincoln Sheppard. I believe you just hurt my feelings.”

  One corner of my mouth kicked up in a grin as I grabbed the messages she’d taken and stacked on the ledge for my return. Then I turned back toward my office and started that way as I said over my shoulder, “I might believe that if I knew you had feelings to hurt, Roxy.”

  “Now I’m offended!” she called out to me. “I’m thinkin’ maybe you owe me a raise for bein’ so coldhearted.”

  “I’ll get right on that,” I said with a chuckle. Then I entered my office and pushed the door closed behind me as Roxanne let out a loud hoot of laughter.

  Tossing the messages on my desk, I rounded it just as my cell began to ring. Pulling it from my back pocket, I checked the screen to see Hayes’s name and engaged the call. “What’s up, brother?”

  “We got a problem, Linc. There were two more robberies last night.”

  Leaning over, I braced my free hand on the top of my desk and bit out, “You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.”

  “Wish I was,” he replied, his voice hard and frustrated. “Clean in and out. Whoever this guy is learned his lesson the last time and scoped the place out to make sure no one was home before goin’ in, but didn’t take the time to be picky. Instead he took the shit closest to whatever window he smashed to get in and spent the rest of his time destroying everything else. Think it’s clear our boy’s got a bit of an anger problem after nearly bein’ blown away.”

  A thief and a hothead. Just what this goddamn town needed. “I’m workin’ the Eden angle. You’ll be the first to know if I get anything.”

  “Thanks, man. Gotta go. Got shit to do.”

  “Yeah, talk soon.”

  With that, I ended
the call and returned the phone to my pocket as I scrubbed at my forehead.

  I needed to get the ball rolling with this Eden shit. If her brother had anything to do with the robberies happening around town, I had to find out. My gut told me she wasn’t part of it, but I needed to be sure.

  Moving back to the door, I threw it open. Bryce was standing at the front of Roxanne’s desk, flipping through a file folder, and his eyes came to me as soon as my door opened. “Rox, I’ve got some work to take care of. I’ll be outta the office the rest of the day if anyone needs me.”

  Bryce looked at me with the same smirk he had on his face when I caught him with his goddamn hands all over Eden. “This have anything to do with that gorgeous brunette from earlier?”

  I stopped to hook the leash to Rocky’s collar before giving him a blank stare. “You don’t need to concern yourself with Edie. I’ve got her covered.”

  The smirk fell away as he pushed off the desk to stand tall. “Edie? You call her Edie?”

  The two of us squared off. “Yeah, I do.”

  “You two got somethin’ going on?”

  “And if there was? That a problem?”

  “No problem,” he replied with a shrug that set my teeth on edge. “But to hear her tell it, she was nothin’ more than your dog sitter. If that’s the case, you wouldn’t have an issue with me makin’ a play.”

  The thought of Bryce making a play on Eden pissed me the hell off and made me want to put my fist through the face of a man I’d never had anything but respect for. I’d never experienced such a strong reaction over a woman before in my life. It was inconvenient as hell, and could potentially cause all kinds of problems I definitely didn’t need. But ignoring the draw to her was fucking impossible. Three days and thousands of miles away from her hadn’t done shit to tamp it down, and I was starting to think nothing would.

  “Eden’s off-limits,” I said between clenched teeth. “Leave her alone.”

  “Jeez, the testosterone in here is givin’ me a headache,” Roxanne grumbled with a dramatic roll of her eyes.

  Bryce’s jaw ticked at my order. Ignoring our salty receptionist, he gritted, “That you laying claim to her?”

  “As far as you’re concerned, yeah.”

  He let out a bark of caustic laughter. “That’s rich, coming from the man who’s already fucked his way through most of the women in town. Everyone knows you don’t settle down, Linc. If you’re just lookin’ to hook up, find it somewhere else, and free her up for another man.”

  He might have had a couple inches and a few extra pounds of muscle on me, but he knew as well as I did that there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d be coming out of a fight on the winning side. It would be close, but Bryce was known to be a hothead whereas I could be cooler, more patient. That would work in my favor every time.

  Taking a step closer as the blood in my veins heated, I clenched my teeth and hissed, “Like I said, Eden’s off-limits. Back. Off.”

  His nostrils flared and the vein in his forehead throbbed, but years of being in the service won out. The soldier in him came through and he backed down. “Whatever you say, boss,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender and taking a step away.

  Giving Rocky’s leash a tug, I turned back to Roxanne and repeated, “Got shit to handle. See you tomorrow.”

  Then I took off. I needed to pick up supplies to install Eden’s security system tonight.

  * * *

  Eden

  My head was still cluttered with thoughts of that near kiss—or at least what I’d hoped was a near kiss—as I pulled into my driveaway after lunch with Lincoln. I didn’t have the first clue what was going on with him. It felt like I was living in some alternate reality. That had to be the only explanation for why a man like Lincoln Sheppard would even give me a second look.

  I was so lost in the thoughts swirling around in my head that I wasn’t paying a bit of attention as I stepped into my house. I dropped my purse and keys on the table just inside the door, turned for the living room light, and let out a frightened shriek at the figure sitting on my couch.

  “Surprise, baby sis.”

  I placed my hand over my rapidly beating heart, my wide eyes planted on my brother as he slowly stood to his full height. Where I got my mom’s genetics, meaning I was short, Shep took after our father and was an inch over six feet.

  He had the same brown hair and eyes as I did, but whereas I always thought they looked plain on me, they were much more attractive on him.

  But that was before I met Nona, before she made me see myself as I truly was and helped me to start letting go of the negative self-image my family had pounded into my head. Now, as I looked at my older brother, I saw we actually looked a lot alike—with the exception of his dirty, rumpled clothes and the dark circles under his eyes. It looked like he’d been awake for days and hadn’t had a shower or a change of clothes in just as long.

  A surprise visit from Shep Brenner at any time was a bad omen, but a surprise visit from him when he seemed totally wired and agitated was even worse.

  Finally getting my composure back, I crossed my arms over my chest and glared. “What are you doing here? And how the hell did you get into my house?”

  “You know, this is a pretty nice place, E. But your locks are shit.”

  My eyes bulged as I stuttered in disbelief before rushing back to my front door and yanking it open. Sure enough, the white paint on my pretty front door was scratched to hell at the locks. “You’ve gotta be shitting me!” I snapped. “Jeez, Shep. You broke in?”

  “Jesus Christ,” Shep hissed, rushing over to me and yanking the door from my grasp, slamming it so hard it wrenched my shoulder before I had a chance to let go. “Keep it down, will you? Don’t need your fuckin’ neighbors hearin’ you yell shit like that.”

  “Well then how about you don’t break into my house!” I yelled in return.

  He did what he always did whenever I got mad at him for being stupid. He rolled his eyes, which made my skin prickle as anger washed over me.

  “Will you relax?” he muttered, moving back into the living room and flopping onto my couch. When he lifted his feet and propped his dirty boots on my reclaimed wood coffee table, I saw red. It might have been a flea market purchase, but I’d put a lot of time and energy into restoring it and making it beautiful. I didn’t have a lot, but what I did have I took great pride in. And seeing my brother’s total disregard for my stuff pissed me off. “You’re a hard woman to track down, E. Took a long time to find you.”

  “Then you didn’t get the hint that I made it that way because I didn’t want to see you,” I snapped, storming over to my brother and knocking his feet off my table. “And don’t bother making yourself comfortable. You’re not staying.”

  “Oh come on,” Shep whined, standing to follow me as I headed back toward the front door, pulling it open once again. Only that time it was for him to walk through. “Sis, please. Don’t be like that.”

  Whirling around on him, I drilled my index finger into his chest as I began to rant. “Don’t be like that? Seriously? That’s what you have to say to me?”

  “Eden—”

  ‘You treated me like shit all my life, Shep. And you think you can just walk in here like you’re just stopping in for a visit? I don’t think so.”

  “I’m in trouble,” he blurted, lifting a hand and rubbing at the back of his neck.

  “What?” I asked on a whisper.

  “I’m in trouble, okay? I just… I just need to lie low for a bit, that’s all. Come on, E. You’re my sister. You owe me this.”

  My hands clenched into fists so tight my nails dug into the heels of my palms. “I owe you? How the hell do you figure that? Please, I’m dying to know.”

  Shep’s face twisted in anger, an all too familiar look, and I knew things were about to deteriorate in a very big way. “Because we’re family,” he returned. “And family helps its own.”

  A sudden bark of incredulous laughter burst from d
eep within my chest. “You have to be kidding me!” I shouted. “You’re gonna pull the family card right now?”

  “It’s the goddamn truth and you know it.”

  “Yeah? Well where was that family loyalty when I was eight, and Mom was on a bender and beat the shit outta me for breaking the TV you broke? Or how about when I was eleven and you stole my lunch money so you could buy weed? Or what about that time when I was sixteen and came home all excited that Billy Evington asked me out on a date?” He at least had the good grace to wince with that one. “The very first boy to ever ask me out. I’d had a crush on him since we moved there, and you knew that, Shep. You knew. That was the first time I’d felt even a hint of happiness in the miserable shit show that was my life. So tell me, where was your family loyalty when you decided to break into his parents’ fucking house in the middle of the fucking night to steal Billy’s fucking car? Where was it then, huh? Did you really think he’d still want to go out with me when my big brother was caught trying to rob him?”

  Throwing his hands in the air, Shep clipped, “What kinda parents buy their kid a goddamn BMW for their birthday, huh? They were just askin’ for it to be jacked!”

  I let out a manic giggle of bewilderment and raked both hands through my hair. “Oh my god. You’re unbelievable. You really don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself.”

  Shep’s face hardened and his cheeks grew red. “So I’m takin’ it you’re not gonna help me.”

  God! He was so fucking selfish.

  “Look at you. Smartest guy in the room,” I bit sarcastically. “No. I won’t help you. I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into this time, but I won’t let you drag me into your mess. I spent enough of my life being mired down in your bullshit, and I’m done. Now get out.”

  My brother’s brown eyes lit with a viciousness I was unfortunately all too familiar with. “Jesus, still such a fuckin’ bitch,” he hissed. “Still thinkin’ you’re so much better than everyone. You’re just a pathitic, fat cow who’s gonna die alone, ’cause no one wants someone as ugly as you.”