by Joanne Rock
“Speaking of Mia—full disclosure—I did promise her I would try to intercede with you to consider staying here.” Her gaze tracked around the party and all the people she’d come to care about all over again.
She noticed both Zach and Sam kept an eye on her where she sat with Clay. She had the feeling those habits would be hard to break even when she told them she was ready to stand on her own two feet. But then she couldn’t imagine a day where she’d stop looking out for Mia. She’d come to love the girl so fast and so fiercely.
“Can I ask you one question?” Clayton straightened as a victory shout went up from the lawn where the blue team pulled the red one into the mud.
A wet splash followed with a victory cry.
“What is it?” Gabriella shared a smile with him to see the blue team leaping around in the mud anyhow—twenty crazy Hasting fosters rolling around the huge puddle.
“If you didn’t have Mia to take into consideration, where would you want to be?”
“First of all, I would be truly privileged to take your family into consideration.” She liked this huge band of siblings connected by the ties of love triumphing over hardship. “I love all the Chances, but I’ve discovered how special it is to expand who we think of as family.” She’d felt connected to Mia before they’d ever met in person. “But to answer your question, I would choose to stay here in Heartache. I didn’t realize how much I left behind here by focusing only on one bad night.”
She knew that was minimizing what had happened to her. Yet, after ten years, she was more than ready to put that hellish summer in the background. It did not define her.
From all parts of the lawn, kids and adults ran to join in the muddy fun. They had to be freezing. It was warm for November, but still. A few dogs got in on the action, too, barking happily at the chaos.
“You would enjoy living here?” Clay asked, his dark eyes missing nothing.
“I’ve let myself feel like an orphan for too long. I’ve got roots here, the same as you. And I want to make more.”
Clay slid an arm around her shoulders, hauling her closer. “I had almost that exact same thought when I got to the town line today. I stared up at the Heartache sign and realized I didn’t want to leave this town any more than I wanted to leave you and Mia.”
Happiness filled her up like helium in a party balloon, making her feel so light she could float right away.
“Really?” She could imagine herself here, being a part of her brother’s life again.
Being a part of Sam and Amy’s life, too. Holding their baby. Maybe, one day, holding her own. Her belly fluttered at the idea, but in a good, happy way.
“Absolutely.” He nodded and she saw a joy in his eyes that she’d never seen before. “I hear that Crestwood will need an assistant football coach next fall, too. Maybe I’ll offer some time to the program. See those bleachers where I met the woman I would fall in love with.”
Her breath caught. Would she ever tire of hearing those words? She couldn’t imagine it.
“I think we would be happy here.”
“I already am,” he said softly, brushing a kiss along her jaw.
Her skin tingled. She closed her eyes to savor the moment. Then, as he straightened, Gabriella pointed to the mud mayhem.
“Besides, who wouldn’t love Heartache’s small-town charm?” She giggled as two men pretended to be swamp monsters, stomping and roaring through the muddy mess. “Our sophisticated parties?”
“There’s no place like it.” Clay’s eyes twinkled with mischief as his gaze shifted from the mudslinging back to her. “You know your brother’s house has a hot tub?”
“You mention this...why?” Her heart felt light. Happy. Normal.
Life with Clayton Travers was going to be filled with good times and laughter. Family and friends. Because hardheaded or not, he understood her. They were alike in so many ways—both wanting to do the right thing. Both afraid of getting hurt and guarding their hearts. But she trusted hers in his hands. And for her part? She would guard his with her last breath.
She would protect this love and this happiness with all of her newfound strength and confidence.
“Just in case you’re ready for some old-fashioned Hasting family fun.” He nipped her shoulder playfully, lighting a warmth inside her.
She wanted to take him home, straight to that hot tub. But she wouldn’t trade a part of this day with his family—with her town and her friends—for anything. Her gaze swept the party, stopping at the coffee tent where two figures had found a quiet moment alone.
“Clayton, look.” She pointed to adorable Davis Reed kissing Mia sweetly on the lips. The two sat side by side on a picnic table, hands held between them.
“I’ll have to keep an eye on that boy,” he growled with the protective instincts of a good brother. “But he’s not the only guy who wants to sneak a kiss.”
“No?” she asked hopefully, her heart pounding like she was the sixteen-year-old today.
But she loved this man beside her with a love that went far deeper than any teenage romance. She trusted him—body and soul.
And he kissed her with all the love of forever on his lips, the sweetest promise of their shared future echoing in her ears.
EPILOGUE
One month later
“A TREE-TRIMMING party is just what we all needed,” Amy Finley observed as she eyed the stacks of ornament boxes scattered around Gabriella and Clayton’s new living room. The scent of a fifteen-foot blue spruce hung heavy in the air while a Christmas carol played on the sound system, one of the few things hooked up and working in their new home. “I’m so excited we’re doing this.”
Gabriella suppressed the urge to pirouette through the wide-open space of the beautiful home she’d purchased with Clayton just last week. The house had belonged to Sam, but since he and his son were moving in with Sam’s fiancée, Amy, Sam had offered them a good deal on his old place.
Clay had sold his home in Memphis quickly and Gabriella still had hers on the market out in San Jose, but she’d been able to contribute half the cost of the house thanks to the investments her brother had made on her behalf. Both of their names were on the deed and she knew—without question—they would one day share more than just a home. They were sharing a life. A future. Mia. And one day, they would share a name.
They were just waiting for the right time to shop for a ring. But for now, there was no hurry. Each day was a happy surprise for them, both still a little awed to be loved so completely.
“I figured a tree-trimming party sounded more festive than a ‘Life in Prison’ party, but let’s face it, we’re celebrating that, too.” Gabriella had attended Jeremy Covington’s sentencing with, it seemed, all of Heartache beside her. As one, the residents of their small town had waited to hear the punishment for Covington after being convicted on all counts.
As one, the residents of Heartache had cheered. Their town was safe again.
“Are you kidding me?” Amy grabbed the bottle of champagne from the coffee table. “This whole town is raising a cup to toast the last of that bastard.” She unwrapped the foil top on the bottle, carefully pointing it away from where Aiden snoozed in his baby carrier on the floor. “A ‘Life in Prison’ party would have filled your new place to overflowing.”
Gabriella bent beside baby Aiden, gazing into his snoozing face. He’d grown so much since she’d first held him that day at the reunion party, his little features filling out and changing. What a miracle he was.
“Well then, I’m glad I called it a tree-trimming party so it was just us.” Gabriella felt like she’d already been given the greatest Christmas present ever. In the past month, Lorelei Hasting had practically adopted her, introducing her to friends in Franklin who worked in the social services department, setting her up with a part-time job while she
worked on her degree in counseling. And all of that didn’t compare to the nights she’d hosted Clay and Gabby for dinners in her big, busy home.
Gabriella had met her rabbits, her current foster kids, and learned the secret family recipe for pizza known only to insiders and Hastings. Lorelei had also helped Gabby obtain approval to be a foster parent.
Just in case.
“Just us?” Amy shook her head as she laughed. “We have a way of filling up a house in a hurry, Gabby. Aiden alone has enough baby equipment to fill the living room.”
The Christmas carol shifted to an upbeat fifties holiday tune just as Clayton and Sam entered the back door, their arms full of pinecones, holly berry branches and pine boughs. They stomped their boots on the braid rug, laughing as Mia’s new golden Lab puppy, Dora, chased a fallen twig across the hardwood floor. She slipped and skidded as she captured it, rolling onto her back to wrestle the stick into submission, her ears flopping wide on either side of her head.
“But it’s wonderful, isn’t it?” Gabriella asked, her throat catching on a lump at all the happiness in her life right now. “Being back here where we were all friends once upon a time. Being with people we cared about even then. Sometimes I wonder how I ever stayed away for so long.”
Amy was by her side a moment later, pressing a champagne glass into her hand.
“We came back home at the perfect time, you know,” Amy assured her as the guys shed shoes and coats at the door. “I needed time to make amends with my family. You needed time to heal. But it all worked out just like it was supposed to.”
Sam entered the living room first, handing Amy a glass of water before helping himself to a glass of champagne.
“What have you two been up to?” He wrapped a possessive arm around his fiancée. “I thought this was a tree-trimming party and yet the ornaments are all still in boxes.”
Clayton joined them after setting down a bowl of water for Dora, who lapped up her drink with noisy enthusiasm. Clay kissed Gabriella’s cheek in a way that still sent a shiver of anticipation through her. Before she could say anything, Mia rushed into the house a moment later along with a burst of cold December air and Davis beside her.
“Are we too late?” The teen pulled off a knit hat and dropped it in a chair, her dark curls dancing with static electricity, her cheeks pink from the outdoors.
Davis hung his coat beside hers on the full coat rack, adjusting the others so they were straight and neat. He really was a great guy. He’d shown Gabriella the gift he bought for Mia for Christmas—a silver necklace with her name in pretty script like a seventies throwback. She was going to love it.
Her best present would arrive next week, though. Her former foster sister, Nicole, was coming to live with them at the start of January. It was on a trial basis, but Mia had been part of the decision from the beginning and both girls were so excited to be reunited they had a countdown calendar online. Clayton had been instrumental in making it happen, contacting the social services department about Mia’s former case worker who hadn’t helped her out of a bad situation in the house where Connor lived years ago. The woman was already under review for another infraction, and with Mia and Clayton’s statements, she would no longer be overseeing the placement of vulnerable children.
“You’re right on time.” Clay dropped a kiss on his sister’s head, and Gabby smiled to see the way Mia tilted toward it, their relationship easing more as Clay warmed to Pete.
Mia visited their father frequently, and Clay had started to drop by the assisted living facility more often, too. Pete was still surly sometimes, but he listened to Mia more than anyone else and his health was holding steady.
“So what do we do first?” Mia asked, scooping up two sodas from a bowl of ice on a side table left behind from when Sam lived there. Mia passed a soda to Davis. “Are we having a toast or something?”
She peered around the group where everyone now held a drink of some sort. Gabriella’s gaze narrowed to the water in Amy’s hand and she couldn’t help but wonder if there was another baby on the way for Sam. But, knowing how private her friend was, she didn’t comment. Amy would share in her own time.
Clayton wrapped an arm around Gabriella, staring down at her expectantly. The party had been her idea, after all.
“Well,” she began, glancing down at the bubbles floating up to the surface of her glass. “At first, I thought I’d make a toast to seeing the last of Jeremy Covington, but then I decided he wasn’t worth wasting good champagne on.” She lifted her chin to see everyone with their drinks at the ready. Her friends. Her family. She had to swallow hard to keep her voice steady. “So I’d like to propose a toast to all of us and our happiness. I’m so grateful to have you all in my life.”
Her voice turned wobbly and watery. But she blinked through it and raised her glass high.
“To family,” Clayton offered, coming to her rescue.
“To friends,” Sam chimed in, tapping the rim of his champagne flute to theirs.
“To the future.” Amy grinned, her hand resting on her stomach as she lifted her water glass.
“To second chances,” Davis Reed suggested, his soda bottle clinking into the mix. He winked at Mia.
“To happy endings.” Mia tossed in the last word, her soda bottle making the circle complete.
Amid shouts of “cheers,” laughter and Dora’s happy barking, baby Aiden woke up, kicking and waving his arms.
“You throw the best parties,” Clayton whispered in Gabriella’s ear while Sam and Amy bent over the baby’s carrier to tend him.
Davis and Mia started work on a holly berry bracelet for Mia, giving Gabby a moment to simply gaze into Clay’s eyes.
“It’s going to be the first of many in our new home,” she assured him, tilting her forehead to his and breathing in the scent of pine and leather.
“I love you, Gabriella Chance,” he reminded her, the words winding around her like a hug. “Every day a little more.”
She smiled up at him, feeling more bubbly than the champagne.
“I love you, Clayton Travers.” She would never tire of telling him. “Forever.”
* * * * *
If you loved this novel, don’t miss
Joanne Rock’s other HEARTACHE, TN titles:
PROMISES UNDER THE PEACH TREE
NIGHTS UNDER THE TENNESSEE STARS
DANCES UNDER THE HARVEST MOON
WHISPERS UNDER A SOUTHERN SKY
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Falling for the Cop
by Dana Nussio
PROLOGUE
“OFFICER DOWN.”
The words came to Shane Warner in a dream. At least it felt like a dream, its edges blurred and spreading like spilled wine. Flashing lights penetrated the fog in angry bursts, so bright that they seemed to have a sound all their own. The piercing squeals came from somewhere inside his head. The sounds built to a deafening pitch.
And something was dripping on his face.
“Hold on, buddy. They just got here.”
Shane blinked several times, trying to identify the vaguely familiar voice next to him. A voice that sounded too real to be a part of any dream. Hold on to what? Where was he, anyway? But the only words his mouth could form were “Who is—”
A rustle of cloth interrupted even that question as an umbrella unfurled over him. Of course. Rain. Not snow, though early December flurries had fluttered earlier in the day. His thoughts flicked to the windshield wipers that had been turned on in his patrol car. In a series of quick connections, he remembered. A domestic call. The angry shouts. The screams. The female victim crumpled inside the backyard gate.
Then the earsplitting blast.
As the stray dots of his memory scrambled back into a straight line, Shane jerked to lift his head.
And something set his back on fire.
Lying on his side, Shane tried to reach behind him to examine the pain’s source, but his hands refused to cooperate.
“Stay still, Trooper Warner,” a woman called out from somewhere nearby.
“Listen to her, Shane,” Sergeant Vincent Leonetti said, taking possession of that earlier voice.
He knelt in front of Shane, some towels in his hand. “You’ve been hit.”