Graced: A Love Letters Novel

by Kristen Blakely

  He chuckled at her weak joke. “The kids in your class weren’t too bad.”

  “You must have been in an alternate universe.”

  “Either that or the threat of being sent to the principal’s office took on new meaning when the principal was actually teaching class. If I was in class, just imagine what kind of monster might have been camping out in the principal’s office.”

  “I really appreciate it, by the way.” Holly shifted her book bag to her other hand. Havre de Grace school district had been too short on funds to hire substitute teachers, so the elementary school coped by having teachers cover for each other. In a pinch, the principal helped too.

  “Not a problem,” he said. “Mojo missed you, by the way.”

  Holly grinned. “Now you’re just trying to make me feel better. Mojo was probably so busy playing with Lucy he didn’t even notice I was gone.”

  “I think Lucy’s still trying to decide if Mojo is a dog or a rug.”

  “He’s a rug, of course. How could there be any doubt?” She smiled. “Can I come by this evening to pick him up?”

  “Of course.” James nodded. “You take care. I’ll see you around.” He walked away, the swarm of students in the corridor giving way to him like the waters of the Red Sea before Moses.

  She knew she wouldn’t have nearly as much luck with the children, but thankfully, he left enough of his serenity behind to boost her flagging spirits. He always did.

  Holly drew a deep breath, infusing her lungs with the scent of Pine-Sol and children who hadn’t soaped nearly as thoroughly as they should have. It smelled familiar. Eight years into her career as a teacher, the sights, sounds, and smells of Havre de Grace Elementary School were as familiar to her as the essence of her own house. Her natural good humor sizzled through the hints of grudging resentment and ushered in a wisp of gratitude. However much Christmas sucked, it was good to be back where everything was familiar and welcoming.

  An excited chorus greeted her the moment she stepped into her first grade classroom. “Ms. Langford! You’re back!”

  She couldn’t hold back the smile. “Yes, I am.”

  The children rushed to the front of the class, and she didn’t have the heart to tell them to stay in their seats. Instead, she knelt to hug them as they came up to her.

  “Where did you go for so long?”

  “It was just five days, Perry.”

  “Five days is a whole week!”

  “No, you silly,” Trina cut in. “A week is seven days.”

  “Well, five days is a whole school week, so Perry is also right,” Holly interjected.

  Perry and Trina glared at each other.

  Leona tugged on the side of Holly’s jeans. “Where did you go?”

  “I went to New York City. Do you know where it is?”

  “In New York State,” Leona said smugly. “Where the super tall buildings are.”

  “That’s right.”

  “I’ve been to New York.” John bounced on the toes of his sneakers. “Daddy and Mommy took me last summer.”

  “Why did you go to New York, Ms. Langford?” Trina asked.

  Holly took a deep breath. “My aunt passed away.”

  “Oh.” Trina blinked. “Like your daddy passed away.”

  “Yes, two years ago.” At Christmas. Holly’s voice remained steady even though her heart trembled. The frankness of children was both a blessing and something to be dreaded.

  The children exchanged uncertain glances.

  “Can you get back to your seats?” Holly asked before the silence grew awkward. “We should get started.”

  The children scrambled past the rows of desks and settled down in their assigned places. Holly’s gaze swept across the class as she marked off attendance. For a moment, her attention lingered on Aidan, who had not come up to meet her. He was only seven years old, but firmly established in his role as the class loner and troublemaker. His eyes were the deep green of his father’s, his hair as blond as his mother’s, and his cherubic appearance showed promise of his father’s masculine good looks. The sullen frown on his face, though, was entirely his own.

  If Holly had had a son, he might have looked like Aidan, minus the scowl.

  The bittersweet twinge in her chest was so familiar that Holly scarcely felt it anymore. She pasted a smile on her face. “Let’s review what Mr. Kerrigan covered with you last week. Who remembers something from one of his lessons?”

  The first half hour proceeded smoothly until Trina let loose a piercing shriek. Holly jerked up her gaze in time to see Aidan release his grip on Trina’s ponytail.

  “Aidan!” She slapped her pen on her desk and strode to the back of the class.

  Trina hunched in her seat. Tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes.

  “She’s a crybaby!” Aidan sneered. He clutched strands of Trina’s auburn hair in his fist.

  “Apologize to her.”

  “I don’t apologize to crybabies.”

  Holly pulled Aidan out of his seat and pushed him toward the front of the class. “Go to the corner. You’ll stand there until you apologize.”

  Aidan snorted and stalked past the rows of desks. When he reached the first desk, he paused and looked over his shoulder, meeting Holly’s eyes. His upper lip tugged into a mocking half-smile, an expression far too bitter for a seven-year-old child.

  Holly was staring him straight in the face. There was no mistaking what Aidan subsequently did as an accident.

  He shoved Perry’s chair over, sending the other boy tumbling into Leona, who yelped as she and Perry landed up in a tangle on the floor.

  An outraged babble filled the classroom.

  “That’s enough.” Holly gripped Aidan’s upper arm and dragged him to the door. “You’re going to the principal’s office right now.”

  She stared at Aidan’s back as he trekked along the familiar path to James’s office. The subdued headache pulsing at the back of her skull threatened to explode into a full-blown migraine within the hour.

  Sweet Lord, and it isn’t even 9 a.m. yet.

  Continue your journey through Love Letters with HAUNTED.

  Love Letters

  ADORED

  Gratefully divorced and not looking.

  Well, okay, maybe just peeking.

  Single parenthood to a two-year old toddler and a full-time job doesn’t leave me with any time to find Mr. Right. Not that he exists. But when a sexy male escort walks into my volunteer clinic for his annual checkup, I’m startled—okay, fine, tempted—into accepting his invitation.

  Rowan Forrester’s model-gorgeous looks are the least of his attributes; he’s like no other man I’ve ever known. His single-minded attentiveness boosts my shaky confidence. I know better than to believe his interest is genuine, but his easy sincerity is irresistible. his fantasy can’t last—after all, he’s an escort—but I can’t turn away from someone who adores my daughter and makes me believe in love again.

  But when the truth of his past finally catches up with him…with us…it crushes my fragile hope for a future together. And it’s entirely up to me if I’m going to allow it to destroy our love...

  BETRAYED

  I can turn every man’s head…except his.

  I command attention on the haute couture catwalks of Milan, Paris, and New York, but whenever I’m face-to-face with Drew Jackson, I feel like a gawky thirteen-year-old again—in love with a superstar who will never see me as anything more than his younger brother’s ex-girlfriend.

  I tell myself Drew’s no longer a superstar. A long-ago car accident shattered his knee and destroyed his football career. What is he compared to the celebrities who whirl me through one-night stands or Tyler, the brilliant and witty social media maverick who is determined to win my love?

  Drew’s just…Drew. All logic and rationality aside, I want him.

  When betrayal knocks me off my supermodel pedestal, it’s a long way to the bottom. Will my tenuous friendship with Drew survive my career, my f
ame, and the rocky transition to love?

  CRUSHED

  I need a hero…but not him.

  Losing my job wouldn’t have fazed me.

  Losing my brother and then my job almost broke me. I’m down to my last hundred dollars and ready to accept help in any shape or form when Cody turns up on my doorstep with a job offer. And not just any job offer.

  My dream job.

  I can’t accept. I’m not that desperate.

  Because I know Cody.

  He’s the daredevil black sheep of the esteemed Hart clan, and should never have made it to his twenty-fifth birthday. What he probably hadn’t counted on, though, was his best friend dying instead of him.

  His best friend. My brother.

  I’m out of options, but nothing on Earth could possibly entice me into the arms of the man who killed my brother.

  DESIRED

  I want a divorce. And I don’t know why.

  “The Plan” we made twenty years ago as naive seventeen-year-olds is on track. Married. House with a white picket fence. Two matching BMWs. Two kids. And Gabriel is on track to becoming a partner in his law firm.

  How can one have everything and still need something more…something different? How do I tell the man I married that he’s practically a stranger to me now?

  “The Plan” is about to go completely off track. Far worse, I’m not sure if it’s his fault…or mine.

  ENSNARED

  They were named for the archangels. They should have come with warning labels.

  The two Falconer boys, Raphael and Michael, were named for the archangels. I know they are anything but. At twenty-two, I married Raphael, the first Falconer boy. By twenty-five, I was divorced. I traded my wedding ring for two near-fatal bullet wounds—and it was the best damned trade of my life.

  Now it’s time to go back to the place where it began, where Michael, the second Falconer boy, waits; his life on pause ever since I married his brother.

  He’s convinced I’m there to destroy his life.

  He’s not wrong….

  FLAWED

  I’m out of dreams. He’s full of them.

  I wanted to be an actress. I got as far as waiting on tables while waiting for the call backs that never came. Disillusioned and burned-out, I head out on a lavish, all-expense-paid vacation before facing up to the fact that life has dealt me a big flat zero.

  And then I meet him, and our mutual attraction is immediate and scorching. Jake Hunter is a professional beach volleyball player with gold in his sights. Olympic gold.

  And perhaps another kind of gold. He thinks I’m something I’m not.

  Rich.

  No amount of attraction is going to survive those false impressions and clashing expectations. I’m not going to make it out of this summer fling with my heart intact.

  And neither will he.

  GRACED

  I've outgrown him, but I haven’t forgotten him...

  My ambitions have always been bigger than the town of Havre de Grace, but when my father has a heart attack, I return home to find the town little changed—

  —except that Connor Bradley, the high school nerd, is now the town’s doctor, a Grade-A hunk, and a widower with two young children.

  He doesn’t have time for distractions, not while juggling single parenthood and his clinic on five hours of sleep a night. I’m the girl he remembers as the high school flirt who left Havre de Grace for the bright lights of the city. I’m a dangerous distraction he doesn’t want and can’t afford.

  When Connor’s plans for his first Christmas without his wife are derailed, I know I can step in and save the day for his adorable children.

  But do I want to?

  I’ve come so far, and I don’t know if I can go back…not even for him.

  HAUNTED

  Not all gifts can be treasured. Only one can be kept...

  I’ve given up on love, but Christmas unexpectedly ignites my bleak and solitary life with three men who represent my past, my present, and my future.

  Peter Warren, my high school and college sweetheart, who shattered my heart but rules my dreams…

  James Kerrigan, the principal of Havre de Grace Elementary School and my boss…

  Brandon Smith, the dashing New York City lawyer, who promises an escape from the confines of my small town life…

  Which man offers the gift of true love and happily ever after?

  About the Author

  “Heart, Humor, Heat, and Happiness…”

  At 4 a.m., when her husband and three sons are asleep, Kristen Blakely weaves unforgettable characters into unexpected stories.

  Love Letters, starting with Adored, features Kristen's contemporary romance series, which proves that, at the very least, she knows how to alphabetize books.

  Kristen's devious plan for world domination begins with making all her readers as sleep deprived as she is.

  LOVE LETTERS by KRISTEN BLAKELY