by Danica Avery
Redemption
Heart’s Peak Book One
DANICA AVERY
REDEMPTION: HEART’S PEAK BOOK ONE
Copyright © 2019 Danica Avery
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
First Printing, December 2019
Ziina Publishing
www.ziinabooks.com
Danica Avery
www.danicaavery.com
Cover images from RomanceNovelCovers.com and ShutterStock.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Contents
1. Dove
2. Burley
3. Dove
4. Burley
5. Dove
6. Burley
7. Dove
8. Burley
9. Dove
10. Burley
11. Dove
12. Burley
13. Dove
14. Burley
15. Dove
16. Burley
17. Dove
18. Burley
19. Dove
20. Burley
21. Dove
22. Burley
23. Dove
24. Burley
25. Dove
26. Burley
27. Dove
Epilogue
1
Dove
"You've arrived.”
Dove glanced at her phone and reached over to shut off the GPS. She was grateful to have it because she never would’ve found this place otherwise. A lone house on the outskirts of a small town nestled in the mountains of Colorado. It was a miracle it was on the GPS at all.
The house that lay before her now, framed by her windshield, had belonged to her grandfather. It... it looked like a disaster waiting to happen.
"Seriously?" she said to herself, as if doubting it out loud would change reality. She was told to expect a quaint craftsman style home. What she saw was a simple country house that was very run down and not her definition of 'quaint' at all.
With a sigh, Dove pushed out of her car to have a better look. Autumn leaves littered the yard and clogged up the house's gutters. The light blue paint on the siding was faded and peeling. Spider webs and bits of old hornet nests clung to the dirty windows. The porch steps creaked as she went up them and she was struck with the horrible image of the wood giving way beneath her. She'd snap her ankle on the way down! Hell, when was the last time she had a tetanus shot?
Thankfully, Grandpa's steps didn't collapse on her. The porch looked as worn as the rest of the house and was bare except for two chairs. The screen door squeaked as she pulled it open. She intended to simply hold it open with her hip while she got the house key out of her purse, but after staring at the old door for a minute, she crinkled her nose and decided against it. Her clothes were far too nice to be rubbing up against that grungy screen door.
She let it swing shut, which it did with a loud slap, and dug into her purse. Maybe she shouldn't feel so judgmental about the place. She was just given it. The call came out of the blue. Her grandfather passed and, since he didn't leave a will, his property and belongings defaulted to her.
Except what was she supposed to do with this house in the middle of nowhere? She lived in New York City, for crying out loud! There was no way in hell she'd leave that to live in the boonies. The sooner she could finish here and get back home, the better.
If only she could find the house key.
"Ugh, where is it?" she breathed out with a sigh. Oh wait. Oh, yeah, she put it in the glove box for safekeeping. She hated when she did that. Put something in a 'safe place' only to completely forget later. She rolled her eyes at herself, letting out a scoff that eased her tension, and headed back to her car.
The porch steps didn't eat her on the way down either.
She went to her passenger side and was pulling open the door when she heard what sounded distinctly like a horse neighing. She perked up and gave a glance around. There it was again. Yep, that was totally a horse.
That didn't come entirely as a surprise. She knew the property came with a stable. Grandpa had bred horses for a living. She just didn't expect the horses to still be here. Wasn't that, like, animal neglect or something? She thought someone official would've come to take them until Grandpa's family could do something about them. Like the State or PETA or whatever. Clearly she had no idea how any of that worked.
A sudden worry filled her that the poor things were starving to death. Dove wasn't a horse lover. She had never even ridden on one. To be honest, they scared her. But that didn't mean she wanted them to suffer!
She dropped her purse onto the passenger seat and hurried off to find the source of that neighing. Where in the world actually was the stable? It wasn't visible from the driveway. She noticed a road, leading off around the side of the house. It was a dirt road, damp and somewhat muddy from a recent autumn rain. Walking across it in her super cute ankle boots suddenly gave her pause.
Damn it, but what about the horses?
Gritting her teeth, she started down the road and tried her hardest to avoid the patches of mud. She was so focused on the ground that she didn't even notice the stable until it was fully in view ahead of her. She glanced up and there it was, looking like a big red barn, run down like the house.
The stable doors were open, revealing a row of animal stalls on either side with a wide-open space down the middle. She couldn't see any horses from where she stood, but she could hear them more clearly now.
She jumped and stopped in her tracks. There was someone in the stable.
Grandpa lived alone. There shouldn't be anyone on his property. On her property. Who was this man? Whoever he was, he didn't seem to notice her. He had a push broom in his hand and was sweeping what looked to be dirty straw across the floor of the stable.
Well, she needed to find out who this guy was, didn't she? It looked like he was doing chores, so he probably wasn't some hillbilly psycho killer like from the movies. She straightened her posture, holding herself high with the confidence of someone who was supposed to be there, and approached the open stable doors.
As she got closer, she got a better look at the man, and... damn. He wasn't a hillbilly at all. He was a hunk! He was tall, easily over six foot. His long-sleeved shirt was rolled up to the elbows, showing off his muscular forearms. From the way the rest of his shirt hugged his body, she could tell that his broad build was probably solid muscle. His dark brown hair was long, falling over his shoulders, and it matched his thick beard. Everything about him looked strong and rugged. She never would've thought mountain man and sexy went together, but boy, did he prove her wrong.
And now here she was, gawking like a fool. She snapped herself out of it and reminded herself of what she intended to do.
"Excuse me," she said, walking into the stable. "Who are you?"
The hunk paused with the broom and looked over at her, noticing her for the first time. His expression was difficult to read.
"Name's Burley Johnson, miss," the man replied, and even his voice was attractive. Was it hotter inside the stable or was that just her?
2
Burley
“I’m Dove Donoghue. The new owner of this property.”
Burley knew that name. Old Man Bennett had mentioned he had a granddaughter named Dove. Apparently she lived in New York City, and the old man hadn’t seen her in years. Burley had seen pictures of her, but the pictures were when she was a child. A scrawny blonde girl with messy hair and a gap in her teeth, where she had lost a
tooth just prior to having the picture taken. He never would have guessed that little girl would have grown into such an attractive woman.
“Bennett mentioned you once or twice,” he replied.
“You knew my grandpa?”
“Sure did. I worked for him. Takin’ care of the horses.” He gave a gesture of his hand towards one of the stalls. Just then a black Lab looking dog appeared from behind Dove. The dog approached her, tail wagging, as friendly as could be. Dove let out a shriek and quickly stepped away from it.
“He’s friendly. That’s BD,” he reassured her.
“He’s... yours?” she asked with hesitation. Her hands were held up in front of herself in a defensive manner, as if the dog was going to lunge at her at any minute.
“Yeah, he wouldn’t hurt a fly. He just wants to say hello. We don’t get a lot of visitors up here.”
Dove stared down at the dog with wide eyes as he was sniffing at her leg. It was as if the woman had never seen a dog before. How was that possible? Didn’t they have dogs in New York City?
“Oh... Well could you call him away? Please? I don’t want him to like... jump on me or something.”
“Yeah, sure. BD, com’ere.” BD perked up and came to his master. Dove seemed relieved. She let out a slow breath and dropped her hands to sweep off her clothes, even though BD hadn’t touched her.
“Thanks. So you worked for my grandpa? I was wondering who was taking care of the horses. I felt worried they were left to starve to death,” she explained.
Burley couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. He hadn’t found himself laughing much lately. Since the incident, there hadn’t been much for him to laugh about. It didn’t help that the only two people he had interacted with for going on a year now were Old Man Bennett and his friend, Luka, who worked at the Piggly Wiggly.
“Naw, I wasn’t about to let them starve. Figured I’d take care of ‘em until the new owner showed. Guess they’re yours now,” he said.
Dove looked around at the stalls. “I don’t know the first thing about taking care of horses...”
Some of the horses were sticking their heads out over the wooden doors. Others you couldn’t see unless you walked up to the stall. There were a total of twelve horses. One of them was pregnant. She was due any day now.
“I can take care of them for ya. This is the only job I got going for me right now,” he said.
“Oh, thank you!” she replied, with a big sigh of relief. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to clean up this place. It’s such a mess!”
“It ain’t bad. Whattaya plan to do with it? If you don’t mind my askin’.”
“I’m gonna sell it. All of it. I live in New York. I want to get back as soon as possible.”
Hearing that brought a frown to Burley’s face. If she sold the house, and the horses along with it, what was he going to do for a job? No one in town was going to hire him. Most of the townsfolk wouldn’t even speak to him, unless they were calling him names. He needed this job. More than this little city girl even knew.
“Listen, ma’am, I need this job. And sellin’ horses is good money. You don’t think maybe you could consider keeping it? I can teach ya everything you need to know about horses.”
“What? No. No way. I’m really sorry about your job, but I’m sure someone else would be willing to hire you.”
She didn’t know how wrong she was with that statement. Burley felt irritation over how easy it was for her to dismiss what he said. She didn’t seem to care at all that in selling the horses, she would essentially be firing him.
“Yeah...” he muttered, as he moved to lean the broom up against one of the stalls. “Well if you change your mind, I live next door.”
“Okay...” Dove replied. She seemed to realize she had said something wrong. She bit her lip, watching him. “Are you leaving?”
“Uh-huh. I’ll be back later to check on the horses. Figure you wanna get a look at your new place. Not that you’re gonna hang onto it or anything.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped, in an accusing tone of voice. Her hands went instantly to her hips. Burley didn’t know if she was trying to be intimidating, but it wasn’t working. Actually, he thought she looked kind of cute like that. He didn’t let that show on the outside.
“Just think it’s kinda selfish to sell everything your grandpa worked hard for. Just ‘cause you can’t be bothered to learn how to take care of it all.”
Dove’s mouth dropped open and anger flashed in her eyes. She looked completely shocked that he would say something like that to her. As if no one had ever stood up to her before. She seemed like the high maintenance kind of girl that got everything she wanted. Spoiled rotten to the core. Not the type Burley would usually go for.
“You don’t know a thing about me, Mr. Johnson! I’m not going to drop everything in my life and come live out here in the boonies like some hick! I didn’t ask for Grandpa to leave me his house. I didn’t ask for any of this!”
“No, you’re right. Bennett hadn’t seen his granddaughter in years. ‘Cause she was too busy living it up in good old New York City. Why should you care at all about this place? You never cared before,” he replied.
“What?! You have some nerve! Who do you think you are?!” she retorted, her cheeks burning.
“Just some hick, I guess. Have a good day, Miss Donoghue.” He continued out the door. With a click of his tongue, BD started trotting alongside him. He could hear what sounded like a very irritated huff coming from behind him, and it wasn’t coming from one of the horses.
3
Dove
The following day, Dove sat at her Grandpa’s dining table - now her dining table - and looked over the list she had made in her notebook. The inside of the house was as disastrous as the outside. The furniture all looked as if it was from before she was even born, the place didn’t seem as if it had ever been dusted, and every surface was old and worn. There was no way anyone would want to buy it in its current state. She didn’t think anyone would take it even if she gave it away!
She had a lot of work ahead of her, that was for sure. She made inventory of everything that would need to be fixed or replaced. Build new house? she wrote at the bottom of the list with exasperated humor.
Realistically, she knew she’d just have to tackle everything one step at a time. So, on a fresh page, she figured out what she wanted to do first and what supplies she’d need for that. It quickly occurred to her that... she had no way of getting hefty supplies to the house. She drove a compact car. The small size helped in the city, but it would do her no favors here.
Mr. Johnson probably had a work truck...
She dreaded the thought of asking that rude man for help. She hadn’t spoken to him since their first encounter. She heard him working out there again, having come back like he said he would, and she hadn’t felt a need to stop what she was doing in the house.
Except now she had a need. Swallowing her pride, she gathered up her notebook and her purse, and headed over to his house next door. Standing on his porch, she noticed there was no doorbell. Of course there wasn’t. It was probably surprising these houses even had electricity. She lifted her hand to knock on his front door.
The knock set a dog off barking. Probably that big black one she had seen before, if she had to guess. She took a cautionary step back, in case that dog came flying out of the house when the door was answered.
That didn’t happen, thank goodness. But what she was met with didn’t feel much better. Burley opened his door and gave her a look as if he wasn’t pleased to see her. It was a brief look, before his expression went more neutral.
“You need something, Miss Donoghue?”
Dove put a smile on her face, trying to look as pleasant as she possibly could. It should’ve been easy, because he was still a hunky mountain of a man with a nice deep voice, but she couldn’t forget the irritating things he had said to her yesterday.
“Yeah, actually. Would
you mind taking a trip into town with me? My car’s small and I could really use your truck.”
He eyed her for such a long moment that Dove’s smile faltered into uncertainty. What would she do if he said no? Maybe she shouldn’t be asking. He was taking care of the horses for her, sure, but that was only because it was his job before and he wanted to hang onto it. She didn’t think he was doing it out of the goodness of his heart. Yeah, she shouldn’t have bothered--
“Yeah, I guess I can do that,” he finally decided.
Dove smiled again with a sigh of relief.
“Awesome, thank you! You’re a lifesaver,” she replied. Burley didn’t match her smile. He looked at her for another moment, his features suddenly hard, before he disappeared back into his house to get his keys.
Soon enough, they found themselves on the winding road that led into the small town of Heart’s Peak. It was a pretty drive. The trees were all dressed up in their fanciest reds and yellows. Dove leaned closer to her side window, enjoying the view.
“You put any more thought into keeping the place?” Burley asked, breaking the silence that had filled the cab ever since they left his house.
“No,” she frowned. “I’m fixing it up to sell it.” And don’t you dare try calling me selfish again, mister.
Burley let out a deep sigh and shifted in his seat, his knuckles drawing tight around the steering wheel. To her surprise, he didn’t throw a complaint back at her. She didn’t see why it mattered so much to him, anyway. Was it just because it was convenient? Working right next door? Well a fit young man like him would have no trouble finding another job, and it wasn’t her fault he might have to actually commute.
“Do you know anyone around here who'd want to buy the horses?” Dove went on to ask. She didn’t know the first thing about selling horses. Or houses, but somehow houses seemed easier.