A Torey Hope Novel Series: The Complete 4-Book Box Set

by A. D. Ellis

  “I want to do it this way,” I positioned myself on all fours and turned my head to look at him over my shoulder, “If you’re okay with it?”

  With a primal gleam in his eyes, he positioned himself behind me. Leaning forward to capture my lips he all but growled, “I’ll take you in any and every position I can get you, but having you like this in front of me is fucking perfect.” He filled me then and all talking ceased. My belly burned as his hands caressed its swollen form; my breasts, already so sensitive to the touch, ached as he toyed with them. His hands held me in place as he thrust over and over. Reaching around, he found my core and rubbed his thumb until I was about to shatter.

  I cried out when he removed his hand and whimpered in frustration as he quickly moved our position. He worried about being on top of me too much with my belly getting in the way, so he laid me carefully on my side and I found myself facing him with my leg being drawn up over his hip. Filling me in one smooth motion, one arm holding me and one hand cupping my face, he rested his forehead against mine, “Sorry, Jo, that position was hot, but I just needed to make love to my wife.” And with that, no other words were needed as he proceeded to make love to his wife.

  **********

  I was drifting into a sweet slumber when I heard him whisper the words that would warm me and fill my heart and soul for the rest of my life.

  “I will spend the rest of my life loving you, Josie.”

  Kyle

  As yet another family member walked out of our tiny hospital room, I looked at my wife and smiled wearily. “I think they’ve all been in, we can rest a little now.” I settled into the double-wide bed and gathered my sweet girl to my chest. Gazing down at our beautiful daughter, wrapped in a gorgeous multi-colored baby blanket, I was mesmerized as the baby instinctively rooted around and latched on to nurse. “I don’t think I’ll ever see anything more beautiful than that.” I lightly rubbed my hand on my daughter’s head and let my finger trace the swell of Josie’s breast.

  “Hey now, you know there’s none of that for six weeks. Doctor’s orders.” Josie joked.

  Leaning in to kiss her, I whispered, “I’m just going to have to come up with six weeks of foreplay then.” I smiled at the shiver that ran through her body.

  “You know, the nurse will be in any moment and we haven’t done it yet.” I continued to whisper seductively in her ear.

  “I know, I know, we need to do it, but I just don’t want to screw it up. I want it to be perfect.” She sighed, exasperated at a topic of discussion we’d been having for weeks. The name.

  “Jo, baby, I think you’ve got the one you want in your head. I think I’ve got the one I want in my head. Let’s both write them down and see what we come up with.” We’d been trying to narrow down a first name forever. We’d quickly agreed on Belle for the middle name in honor of Isabella; the first name, though, had been more of a struggle. We’d narrowed it down to a final three but neither of us seemed to want to make a decision.

  I looked one last time at my precious baby girl and wrote down the name I felt was perfect for her. I watched as Josie held the baby out in front of her, inspecting her carefully, before writing down the name she wanted. I handed her my paper and she handed me hers. Opening them at the same time, we both laughed in relief; we’d picked the same name.

  After signing all of the paperwork once we’d finally settled on the name, I texted the family to let them know what we had decided on. Then, gathering my wife and our baby in my arms, I cozied us all up in the big bed and took a deep breath, relishing the peace that I felt in my life.

  Had it not been so quiet in the room, I may have missed it; Izzy’s voice came to me from very far away. I’m so very happy for you, Punk Boy. Just be happy, loving Josie.

  I pictured my sweet Izzy-bel, holding our little Addyson Rose. In my mind, Addyson had her mother’s huge violet eyes and naturally pink lips. I watched that picture in my mind and saw them moving further away from me. “Thank you, Izzy. Thank you for making me see what was right in front of me. Because of you, my love, my friend, I will spend the rest of my life loving Josie.” I was speaking low so as not to wake my girls, but Josie heard me anyway. She turned a questioning look to me.

  Kissing her nose, I spoke softly, “I was just saying goodbye and thanks to Izzy. I told her that, thanks in part to her, I will be happy to spend the rest of my life loving you.”

  Tears welled in Josie’s eyes. “I had the same conversation with her recently. I got the feeling that she won’t be coming back to us anymore.” I nodded my head in agreement to her assessment of Izzy’s situation. It seemed that Izzy had reached her goal and was moving on.

  “Kyle, thank you for loving me. Thank you for teaching me how to be Josie and how to love myself. You helped me find my spirit again.” She leaned up to kiss me. The movement jostled the baby between us, and she made a cry of agitation.

  Taking the baby from my wife’s arms, I stared at her perfect little face and imagined her life as she grew up in Torey Hope. This was the place that Josie and I would live and love, surrounded by friends and family. “Welcome to Torey Hope, Zoey Belle; welcome home.”

  A Note from the Author

  When I started writing my very first book, I had one goal in mind and that was to see if I could write a book. About halfway through that book, I realized that one of the other characters needed her own story so the second book was born. When I finished the second book, I was crushed that the stories were over. My readers asked for more stories from Torey Hope; I let my imagination do some running and came up with the stories in the Christmas novella along with Kyle and Josie’s story.

  If Loving Josie is your first time visiting Torey Hope, I’d like to invite you to go back to where it all began and read For Nicky, A Torey Hope Novel Book 1 which is Nate and Nicky Morgan’s story along with Libby and Audrey Decker. The story continues in Because of Beckett, A Torey Hope Novel Book 2. You can round out your Torey Hope reading (until the next books release!) with Christmas in Torey Hope, A Novella.

  While writing Loving Josie, I was again feeling blue to be leaving these families behind. One day, in the shower (where else do great ideas come from!?!) I was hit with the idea to take the young boys in the first four books and write their stories. So, in the next books, you’ll fall in love with Decker and Sawyer Morgan (Nate and Libby’s twins), Zach Morgan (Nicky and Carly’s son), and Kendrick (Jeremiah and Audrey’s son). The boys grew up as cousins and best friends, went to college together, and now they are home to settle in to the only true home they’ve ever known…Torey Hope. Look for these stories in 2015.

  If you’d like to read the first books in A Torey Hope Novel Series, please visit my Amazon author page to see all of the books available. www.amazon.com/author/adellis

  About the Author

  A.D Ellis was born and raised in a small farming town in southern Indiana. An avid reader from the time she learned to read, A.D. could often be found curled up somewhere with her nose in a book. Most of her friends and family were not such book enthusiasts, so A.D. got used to dealing with snickers and joking comments about her constant reading habits.

  A.D. always dreamed of being a teacher. Graduating from Indiana State University in 1999 and earning a Master’s Degree from Indiana Wesleyan in 2003, she met her goal of entering the world of education. A.D. has been teaching in the inner city of Indianapolis, Indiana for 15 years. She spent the majority of her 15 years in fourth grade, but has now taken on the challenges of teaching 3rd and 4th grade alternative education students. A.D. loves teaching fractions, variables, probability, and graphing in Math. She loves almost all aspects of English Language Arts. Figurative language, theme, making predictions, drawing conclusions, inference, context clues, making writing come to life, A.D. loves it all! Her students don’t always share in that enthusiasm.

  A.D. met her husband in college in 1996 and they married in June of 2000. She lives in a south side suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband
and two school-aged children. When she’s not reading or writing with music blaring, she can be found shopping at thrift stores, reading to her children, and running.

  A.D. began her writing journey in October 2013 and she is grateful for the friends and support she’s found along the way.

  Please connect with A.D. Ellis on Facebook. www.facebook.com/adellisauthor

  Acknowledgements

  Where do I begin? First, I have to thank the readers. I love to read and I love to write, but I probably would have stopped after book 1 and 2 if it hadn’t been for readers loving Torey Hope and its families. Because of my readers, I continue writing and telling these stories. I would probably write even if I had no readers, but it sure wouldn’t be as fun and rewarding as it is with the fabulous readers I’ve gotten to meet along the way.

  Second, I have to say thanks to my editor, Stephanne. She’s been with me from the beginning and I appreciate her input and skills. Also to Kari for the gorgeous cover on Loving Josie! I also have to thank the numerous people who helped me out along the way and answered my questions over and over as I tried to figure this whole indie author thing out.

  The friends I have made during this journey are far too many to name; just know that I appreciate each and every one of you that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. I feel blessed to have gotten to know some of you; without these books, I likely would have never met you.

  The Ellis Elite Street Team—thank you for reading, supporting, and sharing my books.

  My BETA readers—you all mean the world to me. Thank you for walking me through my freak outs, reading excerpts and letting me know I’m on the right path with my stories, and for loving Torey Hope just as much as I do! Oh, and thanks for being my second set of eyes to help catch all those tiny mistakes that get by sometimes! I truly value your thoughts, opinions, and input. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

  To the ARC readers—again, too many to name, but I appreciate you taking the time to sign up, read, and review Loving Josie. Some of you signed up because you had read my previous books and loved them. Some you had read my previous books and really not cared for them but signed up and took a chance anyway. Some of you had never heard of me and I appreciate you giving Loving Josie a chance.

  My girls in the Indie Round Table, Indie Romance Writers, Indiana Authors and Blogger, and The Juice Box…having you all to turn to is beyond priceless and I’m so grateful to have you all. I feel blessed to have met some of you in real life and consider you colleagues/mentors/friends.

  My IEZ girls—I truly don’t think I could have done any of this without you all. I not only consider you colleagues and friends, but you’re like my family. One of these days, we’re making an IEZ get together happen! You all mean the world to me and I love you from the bottom of my heart! Twirl and flourish ladies!

  Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my family and friends. I know it gets tiresome to see me constantly at the computer with my hot tea and headphones. I know you get tired of hearing me talk about “my books” when some of you are not really into reading at all. To those of you who have taken and chance and read my books, THANK YOU!! It means so much to have family and friends standing behind me, supporting me.

  Connect with A.D. Ellis

  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE hearing from happy readers! Please feel free to contact me on any and all social media.

  Facebook--www.facebook.com/adellisauthor

  Goodreads--www.goodreads.com/adellisauthor

  Twitter--www.twitter.com/adellisauthor

  Website--www.adellisauthor.webs.com

  Amazon--http://bit.ly/ADEllisAmazon

  tsu--https://www.tsu.co/ADEllisAuthor

  Instagram--www.instagram.com/ADEllisAuthor

  Pinterest— www.pinterest.com/ADEllisAuthor

  Notes

  Kyle Martin dealt with depression as do many people. Julie, the girl getting the tattoo, suffered from depression. Josie, in some ways, had depression symptoms. Depression is not the same for all people and the treatment isn’t a one-size-fits-all. If you or a loved one suffers from depression, I don’t pretend to know all about it, but I do have people close to me who suffer to differing degrees and I know that talking about it and gathering information and treatment options is a good start.

  Getting help for depression:

  http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_signs_types_diagnosis_treatment.htm

  As you may have guessed, the hospital scene and funeral scene for Izzy came from some personal experiences. I have not had personal experience with general organ donation, but I know that I would be happy to know my organs were going to help others if I was no longer around to need them

  Organ donation:

  http://www.organdonor.gov/index.html

  Another type of donation that I’d like to call attention to, although no one in this book dealt with it directly, is bone marrow donation. This is something I have personal experience with and I know just how important it is.

  Bone marrow donation:

  http://bethematch.org/

  Finally, while we are on the subject of donation, I’d like to stress the importance of blood donation if you’re healthy and able. My own son needed a blood transfusion as an infant and we are forever grateful for the donors who made that life-saving procedure possible.

  Blood donation:

  In Indiana, I use www.indianablood.org

  Nationally, please look into the Red Cross: http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood

  RECIPES

  Libby's Little butter Cookies

  (this is the actual name of the recipe passed down in the author’s family….it just so happened to work perfectly for Libby to suggest the cookies for Josie to make)

  1 cup sugar

  2 cups butter

  Beat until creamy and fluffy.

  Add 1 tablespoon vanilla. Add 2 teaspoons water. Mix in 4 cups flour.

  Put mixture into refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

  Roll into small balls. Place balls 1 1/2 inches apart on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a fork dipped into flour press down in one direction and then lift fork/re-dip into flour and press down lightly to form cross cuts.

  Bake at 325 for 12 minutes until LIGHT brown.

  Can ice with icing made by mixing 1 tbs butter, 3/4 cup powdered sugar and just enough milk to make the frosting slightly runny. Drizzle onto cooled cookies.

  Kyle’s Famous Blueberry Pancakes

  1 tablespoon lemon juice mixed into 2 cups milk - let sit until slightly curdled.

  Melt 3 tablespoons unsalted butter - set aside

  Mix 2 cups unbleached flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt together.

  Whisk 1 large egg into milk mixture and add melted butter.

  Make a well into flour mixture and pour milk mixture into well and whisk very gently until just combined (will see lumps still) DON'T OVERMIX

  Pour batter onto preheated lightly greased griddle. Turn only once.

  If want to make blueberry pancakes sprinkle fresh or frozen blueberries onto pancake batter when first poured onto griddle. Would need one cup of frozen or fresh blueberries for this recipe. If using frozen blueberries rinse and drain thoroughly before use.