Come Back Home Again (Hope Valley Book 2)

by Jessica Prince

  Nona flipped her gorgeous red hair over her shoulder and leaned in. “Doll, I don’t know who you’re tryin’ to fool, but I own the only salon in Hope Valley, and let me just tell you, those old blue-haired biddies love to talk. I knew about the epic romance that was Hayes and Temperance the first day I opened my doors. A story like that doesn’t last for twenty years unless there’s a whole hell of a lot of truth to it.”

  “It’s true,” Gypsy said with a tipsy nod. “I’m totally persona non grata around here, and even I heard that story about a million times.”

  My head quirked to the side as I took in the stunning blonde. “Persona non grata?”

  She gave her shoulders a shrug like it didn’t matter, but there was no missing the shutters that fell over her pretty blue eyes as she said, “Taking my clothes off and dancing naked for a living doesn’t sit well with some of the upper crust in this town.”

  My whiskey-soaked brain could only handle so much at a time, and right then there was only one thing I could focus on. “You’re a stripper?” I asked on a breathy whisper before booming, “That’s so cool!” I was cognizant enough to notice the way her chin jerked back in surprise at my response. She obviously hadn’t been expecting that reaction. “I can totally see that,” I continued. “I mean, with your legs and all that hair and those curves, you’re probably the best-looking girl in that club! I bet you rake it in.”

  She stared at me in shock for a few seconds before her face broke out in a smile. “Oh, I like you,” she announced.

  “I mean, there’s so much more to being a stripper then just getting naked,” I continued drunkenly. “Like how you work that pole! That takes serious talent. I tried one of those pole dancing classes at a gym once, and gave myself a concussion. You totally have to teach me how to do all that stuff.”

  Gypsy slammed her palm down on the bar and declared, “That’s it. You’re officially part of our crew for life.”

  “I second that. Cheers to our newest member!” Eden chirped loudly, lifting her shot glass in the air. Nona, Gypsy, and I did the same while Rory looked on with a giggle and a shake of her head.

  The four of us threw our shots back, then plunked the empty glasses back on the bar.

  The liquor settled in my belly, and as I looked around the group of ladies who’d just adopted me as their own, something deep in my gut told me that I could trust them. They were the type of women you could lean on, who’d offer to help shoulder your burden simply because they cared. I’d never had that. Not since I tucked tail and ran away a lifetime ago.

  And it was because of that realization—and copious amounts of booze—that I found myself opening my mouth and admitting, “I was so crazy in love with him. I was only a kid, but it never felt like this childish, naïve love. It felt real. Even looking back on it now, it still feels that way.”

  “Then what happened?” Eden asked on a hesitant whisper as everyone leaned in close, their curiosity piqued.

  I looked to Rory to see her eyes glistening with unshed tears. She was the only one who knew the truth. Until now.

  “Hayes’s dad was a Marine, and since he was old enough to want it, all Hayes dreamed of was following in his father’s footsteps. That was the only thing he ever wanted to be. We used to drive his truck out to the pond on my grandparents’ land and lie down in the back, looking up at the stars, and he’d talk about it with so much passion that I couldn’t imagine him ever doing anything else. But….” I stopped to swallow the lump forming in my throat. “One night in the middle of our senior year, the condom broke.”

  “Oh my god,” Eden breathed, lifting her fingertips to her lips.

  “The Hayes I knew was loyal to a fault,” I continued. “The moment that stick turned pink, he was ready to give up everything he’d ever wanted. No way he was willing to leave me behind while I was pregnant. It was out of the question. He made the decision that he was going to stay in Hope Valley. We’d get married and he’d get a job so he could support us. And that was that. There was no arguing with him. When he set his mind to something, there was no swaying him. I knew whatever job he got would never fulfill him, but no matter how much I argued, he wouldn’t change his mind.”

  “Shit,” Gypsy hissed.

  “No one knew. We kept it from everyone because we were scared of how our parents would react. I only told Rory about it after the fact.”

  I looked to my friend, and she gave me a sympathetic smile. “Then….” The backs of my eyes began to burn, but I fought the tears back. “I started bleeding one night. I freaked out and told my mom everything. She took me to the hospital and I ended up… I had a miscarriage.”

  Nona leaned in and placed a hand on my knee. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.”

  “Hayes blamed himself for not being there even though it wasn’t his fault. He told me we could try again as soon as we graduated, but I just couldn’t do it. I’d wanted that baby more than anything. It was part of us. I felt like a failure for losing it, and I felt like a failure because the boy I loved more than life had given up so much for me, but still wanted to give me more. I kept asking myself what it was I was giving him in return, what was I doing to make all his sacrifices worth it, and couldn’t come up with a good answer. I thought it was selfish keeping him here. So I….”

  “You broke up with him so you wouldn’t hold him back,” Eden finished for me, understanding and sadness laced through her words.

  “I was young and immature. I thought I was doing the right thing. That was just the first bad decision in a whole string of bad decisions on both our parts. By the end, we’d messed up so much there was just no coming back from it.”

  I could still recall everything that happened after that with such great clarity that it might as well have happened yesterday. The party Rory dragged me to a couple weeks after the breakup. Seeing Hayes and having my already-broken heart ripped to shreds. The note. Sitting out in the woods all alone. Then going home to a nightmare.

  Each terrible memory was in vivid technicolor, playing on a continuous loop in my head.

  “Well,” Gypsy started, breaking the minute-long silence that had enveloped us, “it’s a good thing we found you when we did,” she stated, surprising me out of my melancholy. “Between all of us, we give good advice, an awesome shoulder to lean on, and even better girls’ night out. You’re officially under our wing, babe.”

  And just like that, the mood was lightened, and I knew, without a doubt, that I’d done right in putting my trust in these women.

  “Yes!” Gypsy yelped. “I love this song. Let’s dance!”

  Without giving me a chance to object, she grabbed my hand, yanked me off my stool, and dragged me onto the dance floor, both of us wobbling drunkenly as “Natural” by Imagine Dragons blared from the jukebox.

  Nona stayed back with Eden since the gunshot wound to her leg—while healing—prevented her from dancing for a little while longer. Rory was once again schlepping drinks as the crowd at The Tap Room continued to grow, so that left just me and Gypsy.

  I loved to dance so it was second nature to throw my hands in the air and move to the beat. As we shook our hips and moved all around the floor, it became clear to me that if her looks weren’t enough to earn her the big bucks, Gypsy’s moves certainly were. The woman could dance. Practically every man in the bar was salivating over her. But it wasn’t about sensuality. It was almost like watching moving art on that dancefloor. Hell, even I couldn’t look away, she was just that good.

  One song bled into another and another, and we danced and laughed until a thin sheen of sweat had spread across my skin and I was nearly out of breath. When it became too much, I grabbed Gypsy’s hand and gave it a little jostle to get her attention.

  “I need water,” I called over the music.

  “All right,” she relented with a smile. “Let’s go back.”

  Holding tight to her, I turned to head back to the bar only to jerk to a stop so fast she crashed into me from behind.

&
nbsp; “What the—oh shit,” she finished when she caught sight of what had stopped me short.

  A small crowd had gathered around the girls since we left them. The tall, hulking blond dude holding on to Eden like she was his very reason for breathing had to be none other than her Lincoln, and damn, had she done well with that one. Another extremely good-looking guy stood to the left of them, chatting with Rory and Nona, but it was the man currently bent at the waist, leaning into his forearms on the bar top, who held my attention fast and stole my breath. Those deliciously dark eyes were so intense on me that I felt my skin tingle as he stared in my direction.

  The combination of his gaze and all the whiskey I’d consumed was impairing my senses and making me woozy.

  When I left the farmhouse earlier, I hadn’t expected a couple of drinks to turn into a full-blown girls’ night, so I wasn’t dressed accordingly. I had on the same clothes I’d gone riding in earlier that day, a pair of faded bootcut jeans and a fitted maroon tee with an unbuttoned flannel over it—normal wear for Hope Valley if you weren’t out for a night on the town with your girls. I’d changed out of my Wellingtons into a pair of beat-up boots, but having only done the bare minimum makeup-wise that morning and with my long hair pulled back in a sloppy ponytail with flyaways all over the place, I was far from a stunner like the other women I was with.

  And now Hayes was there, and I was suddenly wishing I’d had the forethought to put a little more effort into my appearance before making a trip to The Tap Room.

  I started for the bar again when Gypsy leaned in and said, “Good Lord, girl. Is it just me, or did the temperature in here go up about ten degrees?”

  At her words, the heel of my boot caught just a few feet from the bar and I stumbled like a drunken idiot.

  Of course.

  Before my ass hit the floor, two strong arms rounded my waist and I slammed into a strong wall of muscle that smelled like musk and man.

  And when I looked up into those warm brown eyes, I felt like I’d just traveled back in time more than two decades.

  Shit.

  Chapter Six

  Hayes

  My partner, Patrick Wanderly, and I had been at Alpha Omega Investigations, going over everything we had on the Henderson murder with Lincoln. He wasn’t part of the police force, but being that he ran his own security and private investigations firm he was a well-trained, extremely talented fresh pair of eyes, and I trusted him to keep his help on our case under wraps. When it came to Lincoln Sheppard, I trusted the man with my life. Serving in the Marines together created a bond stronger than most blood. We’d been hitting one dead end after another when his cell phone rang with a call from Eden, asking for a pickup from the local bar.

  Trick and I decided to tag along, both of us in serious need of a drink after a day full of frustration. We’d been working nonstop the past couple months on this case and getting absolutely nowhere, and the frustration was doing both our heads in.

  My need to relax with a beer or two was completely forgotten the second I walked through the door of The Tap Room and spotted Tempie out there on that goddamn dance floor.

  I’d seen her twice since her return to Hope Valley, but both those times she was locked up and tense. It was nothing like this. I hadn’t seen her this loose and relaxed in two decades, and it stole my goddamn breath.

  She still danced with complete abandon, eyes closed, arms up, hips swaying tantalizingly. She’d always loved to dance. Anytime there was music, no matter what the song was or where it was coming from, if she could hear it, she’d start dancing without even realizing. She danced while she washed the dishes after one of her mother’s homecooked meals. She bopped around in her chair or tapped her foot while doing homework or studying. She moved around the kitchen like it was a dance floor while making a sandwich. Hell, sometimes there didn’t even need to be music. A tune would pop into her head, and that was enough to get her moving.

  Tempie had been a social butterfly back in the day. She was nice to everyone, which made her one of the most popular girls in our school. Because of that, our weekends were spent bouncing from one party to another. It never failed that she’d find herself an empty spot in whatever room we were in, close her eyes, and dance like she was the only one in there.

  When I wasn’t giving all the other assholes threatening looks for gawking at what was mine, I was watching her, completely entranced in everything about her.

  And as I watched her now, it felt the exact same.

  The men all around the floor stared at her and Gypsy like the show the two women were putting on was just for them, and I was just as captivated as they were. I managed to mumble my hellos to Rory, Eden and Nona before Tempie’s allure drew me in completely and I leaned onto the bar to focus more intently.

  One minute ticked into the next before she finally opened her eyes. Grabbing Gypsy, she said something to her, and the two of them turned to head back to the bar. She came to a halt the moment her gaze locked with mine, and even from that distance I could see her chest rise with a sharp, surprised inhale. She started moving again a few seconds later, but when Gypsy leaned in and spoke, Tempie’s foot caught and she started going down.

  Moving faster than I had in a long time, I cleared the last few feet between us and grabbed her before she could hit the floor.

  The second my arms closed around her, I knew I’d screwed up. But when Tempie’s head tilted back and those wide, crystal-clear blues landed on me, I realized I hadn’t just screwed up, I’d made a huge fucking mistake.

  The way my body reacted to her being in my arms was the exact way it had back when she’d been mine. My muscles tightened, my chest squeezed, and my dick started to swell.

  “You okay, angel?” The old endearment rolled off my tongue with an ease I never would have expected, and I knew the effect of that one word hit her just as hard as it had me when her body melted deeper into me, her eyelids fluttered before that blue went warm, and her lips parted on an inhale.

  Fuck me. That look was still goddamn tempting as hell. I needed to break the spell before I did something really fucking stupid.

  Placing my hands on her hips, I made sure she was stable on her feet before setting her back a few inches.

  “I, uh….” The tip of her tongue poked out and swiped along her full, pink bottom lip. “Yeah. Sorry. I’m good.” Her words were slightly slurred, and I could smell the whiskey mingled with sweet mint on her breath. “Just lost my footing there for a sec.”

  Lost her footing, my ass. The corner of my mouth hooked up in a smirk, and my fingers on her rounded hips clenched of their own regard. “You’re plastered, aren’t you?”

  She pulled her lips between her teeth and bit down before casting her gaze to the side and replying ominously, “It’s kinda been a crappy day.”

  I didn’t want to care about that statement. I wanted to be able to brush it off like it was nothing. I didn’t want to be concerned. But Christ, I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

  I felt the pinch of the frown between my eyebrows, and before I could think better of it, I found myself asking, “Everything all right?”

  A shadow passed over her face so fast that I’d have missed it if I wasn’t studying her so closely. “Yeah, no. It’s fine.” she answered way too quickly. “Everything’s fine. Just one of those days, you know?”

  I read the lie clear as day, but I fought against my instincts as a cop—and, more to the point, a man—to dig further.

  “We showed a little after Tempie and forced her to hang with us,” Eden stated before letting out a drunken hiccup. “We had all the shots!”

  Oh, for Christ’s sake.

  Lincoln’s head shot around. His eyes pinned me in place the second he heard Eden say Tempie’s name, and I just knew in my gut that I was going to get a ration of shit from him. Fortunately, the women were here as a buffer for the time being.

  It wasn’t until Lincoln’s eyes traveled down to where my hands rested that I realized I was sti
ll holding Temperance. I let her go and dropped my arms to the side just as his attention returned to my face, and the fucker gave me a shit-eating grin.

  “Now she’s officially part of our group!” At her declaration, Eden threw her arms up in the air and lost her balance, teetering on her stool before Lincoln grabbed hold and righted her.

  “Easy there, drunky.” Linc smiled—something he hadn’t done a whole lot of until he met her—and used her wobbling as an excuse to pull his girl even closer and not let go. Not that he needed much of an excuse. The man who’d once snubbed his nose at just the thought of commitment was completely sprung for the sweet, adorable woman a few doors down. It was a relief to see my brother had found his happy.

  Eden tipped her head far back to look up at him, her expression loopy and full of drunken adoration as she reached up and dragged her fingertips along his jawline. “You’re so handsome. My handsome, handsome man.”

  Lincoln’s smile grew even wider. “Think it’s time to get you home, buttercup, yeah?”

  She let out a low hum and leaned deeper into him, her face going soft as she rubbed her palms up his chest. “Drunk sex,” she slurred. “Yay!”

  Biting back my laugh, I lowered my head and studied my boots to hide my grin.

  “Yeah. Definitely time to get you home,” Linc said on a chuckle.

  “I should be goin’ to. Got a long day ahead of us tomorrow,” Trick stated, looking less than happy at the prospect of going back to the motel he’d been crashing in the past couple of weeks.

  To add to the stresses of work life, my partner was also struggling with his personal life as well. After years of what seemed like a happy, healthy marriage, Trick’s wife just up and decided that she didn’t like being married to a cop anymore. My brother in arms was fighting a serious battle, trying to turn the love of his life back around to his side, but with every day that passed, and every night spent sleeping at the Valley Inn, room sixteen, his hope seemed to dwindle a little more.