Chapter 1
Chapter One
TESSA
Moving to this new small town from Houston, Texas, where I’d lived all my life, was a complete culture shock. I was so used to the hustle and bustle, to flat landscapes and tons of concrete, that the kind of beauty here stole my breath.
You could stand anywhere, turn in a full circle, and see trees and mountains and blue skies in every direction. Tucked into all of that sat a picture perfect town called Hope Valley. A place that looked like it belonged on every single postcard ever printed.
The name was fitting, considering that was what I felt the first time I drove through. Hope. Hope that I could finally start making a difference. Hope that I could shake off the shackles of the down-trodden, jaded woman I’d become.
All I’d ever wanted to do was help children who’d grown up like me.
When I’d finally completed my master’s degree in social work, I’d been na?ve and idealistic.
I thought I could save everyone. But bureaucracy and red tape tied my hands behind my back over and over again, and I started to feel like a failure.
I saw how the system failed the innocents who needed it the most, and as the years passed, my heart broke into pieces.
However, things were changing. By either pure happenstance or fate intervening, I was grateful for whatever had caused this new position to be dropped in my lap.
After two phone interviews with the founders, I was offered a position as director of Hope House, a group home for children set up by a big-hearted couple who wanted the same thing I did: to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.
Taking the job had been a no-brainer, and within two weeks I’d packed up my entire life and made the trek from Texas to Virginia without a single regret.
Today I was meeting with a woman named Rory Paulson, and I was excited to start this next chapter.
There was only one problem. My meeting was in less than ten minutes, and I didn’t have a clue where I was.
When I’d looked up directions to a bar called the Tap Room, the GPS on my phone said it was only a short walk from Valley Inn where I was staying.
I’d decided to kill two birds with one stone and get in a little cardio while taking in a few of the sites in my new town, but somewhere along the way, I’d taken a wrong turn and was lost.
A frigid wind had kicked up, making my cheeks feel like they were being pricked with a thousand tiny needles. I wasn’t used to weather like this. Where I’d come from, there were only two seasons: hot and slightly cold, and the cold only lasted a handful of days.
It was only September, but I was already chilled to the bone.
Stopping in the middle of the quiet sidewalk, I looked down at the map on my phone. “Damn it,” I cursed into the wind. “Where the hell am I?”
The sound of a door opening, followed by quick footsteps beating against the sidewalk, came from behind me. Before I had a chance to turn to make sure I wasn’t in someone’s way, a hand wrapped around my arm and whipped me around so fast my hair went flying.
“Tessa?”
I was suddenly thrust into the past. As the voice penetrated my senses, that familiar smoky tenor, I slowly tipped my head back and looked up into pale, wintery green eyes.
Eyes I hadn’t seen in more than ten years.
No. No, no, no, no, no. This couldn’t be happening.
I’d worked my whole life to be a good person.
Sure, there were times I fell short of the mark, just like everyone else, but karma couldn’t possibly be this cruel.
Right?
“Christ. It’s really you. I can’t believe it.”
I felt my eyes bulge out. My stomach sank to my feet, and I was sure I’d gone white as a ghost. It wasn’t possible. I blinked over and over, but every time I opened my eyes again, he was still standing there, looking even more gorgeous than he did in my memories.
Bryce took two steps, bringing him dangerously close, and his scent, something I could still recall from that one week we had together, mixed with the chilly air. A woodsy, citrus smell. That was enough to send my heart into a full gallop.
“Jesus, beauty.” Those eyes that had haunted me for so damn long looked me over from head to toe. “I can’t believe you’re standin’ in front of me right now. Are you here for me?”
That one question was all it took to snap me out of the fog that had flooded my brain. Of all the self-centered, thoughtless things to say, he’d chosen that.
Wrenching my arm from his hold, I narrowed my eyes until they threw fire. “Are you kidding me? Of course I’m not here for you.”
“Honey, I—”
“What the hell kind of question is that, anyway? You really think, after what you did, I’d actually try to track you down all these years later? Man!” I let out a bark of caustic laughter. “You really are full of yourself.”
His eyes shone bright with remorse, but all that did was fuel my rage. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, Bryce, or why you’re suddenly standing in front of me, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s just a very unlucky coincidence. One I hope to never repeat again.”
“Tessa, please. If you’ll just give me five minutes . . . I want to explain—”
“The time to explain passed a long time ago. Too little, ten years too late. Now it’s my turn to walk away from you.” With that, I spun around, my five-inch heels clacking against the ground as I picked up my pace.
It was only by the grace of God—because I certainly was too discombobulated to be paying attention—that I rounded the corner of the long building and spotted the large letters that spelled out the Tap Room across the street.
My hands shook, my breathing was choppy, and my mind felt like it had short-circuited, but as I stepped into the crosswalk, I gave myself a mental shake and a mumbled pep talk.
“Shake it off, Tessa. So you just saw the man you stupidly fell in love with after more than a decade, so what? It’s just another day. ”
Only, it wasn’t. There was no way this could possibly be like any other day. This was a freaking nightmare, and no matter how many times I pinched myself, I couldn’t seem to wake up.
I still felt that churning dread in my stomach as I pushed through the doors into the surprisingly large and welcoming bar.
My tan heels, fitted ivory pencil skirt, and stylish camel-colored sweater were the perfect attire for a work meeting, but none of it—including the trench coat I had cinched closed against the chill—was suitable for the temperatures of my new home, so the warmth from the spacious building was more than welcome.
The bar wasn’t crowded, but it wasn’t dead by any stretch of the imagination. From the number of people sitting at tables and on barstools, either this stunning town harbored a lot of day drinkers—which I didn’t believe to be the case—or they offered a decent lunch menu. Smart.
“Hi. You must be Tessa.”
My head swiveled toward the feminine voice, and I spotted a beautiful woman with a mass of long black hair and a big smile moving from behind the bar toward me.
I returned her welcoming grin and closed the distance between us, meeting her halfway. “I am. I take it you’re Rory?”
She gave my hand a nice, firm shake. “The one and only. It’s so good to finally meet you in person.
I can’t tell you how excited we are for you to join us at Hope House.
” She waved to a table a few feet away, and I followed, taking a seat across from her.
“Sorry about the location. I was hoping to meet up with you at the home today, but one of my waitresses called in sick, so I had to work her shift.”
“That’s quite all right.” I looked around the open space. “So this place is yours?”
“Yeah.” She lifted a hand to sweep her hair back from her shoulders, revealing a shirt that read Tapping Out is for Quitters.
“The Tap Room’s been in my family for a really long time.
I took it over from my parents a while back so they could retire, but when my husband and I decided to open Hope House, they came back to help take some of the load off my shoulders.
It’s been a little crazy lately, what with the bar, the foundation, Hope House, and making sure our son doesn’t try to take over the world. ”
“I can’t imagine,” I said with a chuckle. “I didn’t realize you and your husband had a son.”
Her face lit up. “Yeah, his name is Zach. The adoption was finalized last year, but we’ve thought of him as ours since the moment he came into our lives.
It’s because of him we wanted to start Hope House.
The foster home he was in was a complete nightmare.
” The happiness on her face fell into a deep frown.
“We found him one night eating out of the dumpster out back because his foster parents had been starving him as a form of punishment.”
My heart clenched and my sinuses began to burn. It took to the count of three to get my emotions under control, but even then, my voice sounded raw. “I wish I could say foster parents like that were a rarity. Unfortunately, there’s as much bad out there as there is good.”
Her expression grew sad as she clasped her hands together and leaned forward. “Did you see that a lot in your old job?”
“I did, unfortunately. And let’s just say, it begins to wear on a person’s soul.”
She nodded in understanding. “My husband, Cord, grew up in the system, so I’ve heard stories. I can’t imagine what it takes to be a social worker. It has to be incredibly hard. What made you want to get into that line of work?”
“I was a foster child from ten to eighteen. I got into it because I wanted to help kids like me. I know the toll it takes on children, being bounced from one place to another, never feeling like they belong. Unless a child is as lucky as your Zach, there’s never a sense of security, and that can be devastating. ”
She shocked me by reaching across the table and taking my hands in hers.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that.
But I’m glad your experience made you who you are today.
We want the kids in Hope House to feel like they belong.
We want it to be their safe place, and with you at the helm, that might just happen. ”
I swallowed to dislodge the lump in my throat. It wasn’t just that Rory was incredibly nice, but that she also got it. She understood what I wanted to accomplish with these kids, because she wanted the exact same thing.
“Cord’s gonna be so bummed when I tell him how awesome you are. He was really looking forward to meeting you.”
“He won’t be joining us today?”
“Unfortunately not. He has a case at work that’s taken him a little longer to wrap up than he initially thought.”
“Oh, he’s a police officer?”
“Private security, actually,” she answered. I wasn’t sure what all that entailed, but it sounded pretty cool.
Rory and I talked for a while. She filled me in on the responsibilities of my job, told me about the other workers and volunteers at Hope House, about the kids, and once the shop talk was done, she even filled me in on the town I’d now call home.
“I know you’ve only been here a few days, but have you had a chance to find a place?”
“I’m taking my time,” I told her. “Luckily, Valley Inn is a really cute place, so I’m not in any hurry.”
“That’s good. And if you ever need someone to show you around, I’d be happy to do it.”
I let loose a small laugh as we stood. “I might have to take you up on that. This might be a small town, but I’m kind of directionally challenged. I managed to get lost between the inn and here once already.”
Her pretty face split into a grin. “Well, you have my number. Don’t hesitate to use it.”
We parted ways after she wrote down detailed directions on a cocktail napkin to get me back to the inn safely.
And as I made my way back to my temporary home, I made a to-do list in my head.
Stop at the grocery store for dinner.
Use the inn’s washer and dryer to finally make a dent in the huge pile of dirty laundry I’d accumulated.
Then down an entire bottle of wine.