Fools in Love
Fools in Love
Pride, Oregon
Book 11
Jill Sanders
Contents
summary
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Also by Jill Sanders
About the Author
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
* * *
DIGITAL ISBN: 978-1-945100-64-2
PRINT ISBN:
Text copyright © 2023 Grayton Press
All rights reserved.
Copyeditor: Erica Ellis–inkdeepediting.com
* * *
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
summary
Kate didn’t really want to be back in her hometown of Pride. But thanks to a recent injury that had ended her dancing career, she was stuck at home. She’d considered the move to be temporary, until she’d run into the new law in town. What was someone that good-looking doing in such a small town?
* * *
Tom had always dreamed of being a cop and had picked a job in a picturesque town along the coast hoping to escape his dark past. But the sleepy little town holds some big secrets, and the pretty dancer he meets on the beach one night isn’t the only surprise he finds.
Prologue
Thirteen-year-old Kate stood just outside her new school and couldn’t help but do a little dance of excitement.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this, kiddo?” Her father looked down at her.
“I’ve been waiting for this my entire life,” she answered.
She shuffled her big duffle bag and held onto her dad’s hand. It wasn’t the first time she’d been in the big city, but it was the first time that her parents would be leaving her here for an entire year. All by herself.
After today’s orientation, they would be heading back home to Pride, Oregon, without her. She was a big-city girl now, having just moved up from one of the best dance schools on the West Coast to the School of American Ballet.
She squeezed her father’s hand and tried to hold back the excitement as they walked through the main doors.
She really had been waiting for this moment all her life. From the moment she could walk, Kate had danced. Or so her parents always said.
Her mother had enrolled her in the closest dance studio shortly after her third birthday, after Kate had begged her to do so every single day for an entire month.
She’d sweated and improved—bloomed, really—more than anyone else beside her. She’d quickly moved up to a larger school after a scout had spotted her. Then another. In the following years, she’d gone from a small regional school to one of the best in the state. Now, she was going to SAB.
She was only thirteen, which she knew limited the roles she could perform, but she had high hopes of becoming the youngest prima ballerina SAB had ever seen.
Ten years later….
Kate held onto her father’s hand as she made her way slowly towards her parents’ house. The crutch under her left shoulder did little to help her walk. Her father taking most of her weight helped the most.
He was as strong as she remembered and just as handsome as ever, even with the new streak of silver hair running along his temple.
“Easy, kiddo,” he said in a deep voice.
“Dad, I’m fine,” she told him for the billionth time since she’d hobbled from the hospital room into his waiting arms.
“You don’t look fine,” her mother said, frowning at her. “You’re too pale. Are you in pain?”
She was, but Kate didn’t want them to worry. Her mother would just shove another pain pill in her, and then Kate would spend the next few hours in a daze.
She was home.
For the first time in almost thirteen years, she was home for more than just a weekend or holiday break.
That thought made her slump a little more on her dad’s shoulder. It wasn’t that she didn’t love home. It was… the best. But being here meant her dream was officially dead. Her entire life gone.
Everything she’d spent all of her life working for had disappeared in one misstep by her partner. Then she and all her dreams had come crashing to the floor, broken and useless.
“Here.” Her mother patted the sofa as their two dogs rushed over to sniff the bags her mother sat down at the base of the stairs. “We’ve given you our room so you don’t have to go up and down the stairs.”
“I am not going to—” she started but stopped when her father gave her a look. Sighing, she nodded. “Thanks.” She sat down on the sofa, where her mother had fluffed a pillow for her. Instantly, her father lifted her right leg and laid it gently down on the ottoman.
Just having the weight off it helped with the pain, and she realized just how tiring the trip home had been.
“You need some rest,” her father said, setting the duffle bag down next to her other bags. Everything she owned was in the two rolling suitcases and the large duffle bag that she’d moved to New York with.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “But for now, I’d like to sit out here.”
Her father handed her the remote for the television.
“I’ll go make you some lunch,” her mother said. Kate thought she saw her mother wipe a tear from her eye as she headed to the kitchen, but she’d turned away too quickly to be sure.
“Dad?” she said as her father sat beside her.
“Yeah, kiddo?” He took her hand in his.
She shifted to look at him and set the remote down on the armrest of the sofa. “What am I going to do now?” Tears burned her eyes as her father wrapped his arms around her.
“Whatever you want, kiddo,” he said into her hair. “Whatever you want,” he repeated, and she heard his voice crack.
Chapter One
Tom stood back and held the umbrella as he waited for Patty O’Neil to walk through the door of the police station. Patty had been the first to welcome him to town when he’d moved here from Las Vegas almost three years before. The older woman used a walker but still moved around pretty quickly.
Switching from one of the largest police forces in the country to a small-town police station had changed his life—and saved it. He’d only just passed his exams when he’d requested the transfer and hated himself for saying on his application that he had over a year of experience in the field instead of only the three months he really had. Still, there wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t thankful for the job and the town.
“Thank you, Tom,” Patty said as she continued towards the front counter slowly.
Patty’s silver hair was tied up in a bun at the base of her neck. She was always wearing brightly colored pants and even brighter shirts. Stylish, but very bright.
“Are you sure there isn’t something I can help you with?” he asked for the third time.
> “No, I’m just here to gossip.” Patty motioned towards the town’s long-standing mayor, Lacey Stevens, who was sitting behind the counter talking to Aiden Brogan, Tom’s boss and the chief of police in Pride.
Lacey had been the third person he’d met in town. The short woman was a spitfire, which was probably why she’d been mayor for so long. No one in their right mind would go up against her.
Aiden Brogan was the son of the old police chief in town, Robert, who still showed up to the office every now and then and filled in for one of the dispatchers. Aiden had taken over when his father had been seriously hurt in an accident years before. The older man walked with a slight limp, but outside of that, appeared in perfect health.
“So, it’s true?” Lacey said, jumping up from a chair. Lacey often sat in the station to chat. Tom knew firsthand that she visited every business in town at least once a week.
“It is.” Patty nodded as she sat down in one of the waiting room chairs. “She’s home for good. She arrived two days ago, apparently, and hasn’t left the house since.”
Lacey sighed and sat down again. “That poor girl. To have her career and dreams taken away so soon.”
“Now, she’s had more than ten years to bask in the spotlight. She made some really great memories and touched a lot of people with her talent. God only knows what he has in store for her now,” Patty replied.
Tom tried not to eavesdrop, but he was busy filling out his time sheet at the main desk and couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Who?”
Everyone turned to him with strange looks on their faces.
“Why, our very own Kate,” Patty answered.
His eyebrows shot up. “Kate…”
“Sean and Becca’s girl,” Lacey added.
“Nick’s sister,” Aiden said at the same time.
Becca Farrow ran Sara’s Nook with her sister Sara, the owner, and her daughter, Brook Masters.
Tom had taken Brook out on a date or two, but they just hadn’t felt any spark for one another. Instead, they’d fallen into a friendly relationship. She was more like the sister he’d never had.
Sean Farrow headed up the big Coast Guard facility outside of town along with Allen Masters. A lot of people living in Pride either worked or trained out there.
Sean’s son, Nick Farrow, had moved back to town shortly after Tom had taken the job. Nick was ex-military and had started working shortly after his return to town. Tom and Nick had been made partners after their first year on the job.
“Right.” Even though Nick didn’t talk about her all that often, he’d heard all about his sister and how she’d been a dancer in New York.
“What happened to her?” he asked. He’d been out on vacation for the past week and hadn’t talked to Nick. The extended fishing trip had been just what he’d needed to reset. His job wasn’t stressful, but he’d needed some downtime.
“Her partner dropped her. Right before her big performance opening night,” Patty answered.
“It was such a horrible thing.” Lacey shook her head. “Rumors are floating around that it wasn’t an accident. Kate’s understudy has been fighting for the lead for months, and it is widely known that she is dating the guy who dropped Kate.”
“Okay,” he said, his timesheet totally ignored now. His legal brain kicked into gear. “Are the police—” Aiden’s laughter stopped him. “What?” he asked with a frown.
“It’s New York. Rumors may get an officer looking into something in a small town, but New York?” He shook his head. “I doubt it.”
“Right.” Tom leaned on the counter. “How badly was she hurt?”
The three of them went silent before Lacey finally answered. “Enough that her career as a prima ballerina is dead.”
“It’s a damn shame too. I went out with her for a while, long time ago in school. Kate is… well, basically family. Nothing would stop me from kicking the guy’s ass if I could,” Aiden said with a shake of his head.
Tom couldn’t help but think about what he would do if he was suddenly unable to do the job that he loved. For as long as he could remember, he’d wanted to be a cop.
Watching his father being hauled away had solidified in Tom’s young mind that the police saved people. He wanted to be a hero just like them.
His first few years after graduation hadn’t been smooth. And his choice had not been popular with his father. But he’d plowed through the training courses. Even after his mother’s and Ryan’s death. Because of their deaths.
Losing his mother and younger brother had almost broken him. There could never really be enough justice for their murders, that belief had taken Tom down a very dark path. One that this small town had finally helped him break free of.
His grandfather had moved to the United States from the Philippines when he was ten years old, which had put a target on his back and, later, onto the backs of Tom’s father and Tom and Ryan. Still, that didn’t justify the evil his father had carried in his heart. Nothing could ever justify that.
Tom loved being a cop and being a cop in Pride was like winning the lottery, twice. When he’d moved into town, Patty had rented him the one-bedroom apartment above her grocery store, O’Neil’s.
In less than a year, he’s purchased a small three-bedroom home down by the docks with his hard-earned money. He’d spent the next year fixing it up as best he could. Thankfully, he’d run into Parker when the man had gotten a flat tire one snowy night. Parker Clark was Pride’s local handyman.
Tom had pulled over and helped the man change his tire and, in return, Parker had come in and replaced the old water heater and furnace at his new place for free.
After that, Tom had hired Parker as much as he could around the place. It was home, and at least now he was pretty sure it wouldn’t fall down around him.
He was also no longer considered a new resident of Pride. That had finally happened about a year after moving into town when a few new people moved into town, bumping him off that list.
It hadn’t taken him long to get to know all the locals after working in town and manning the booth in the festivals the town held every holiday season. Spring, summer, fall, winter—you name it. If there was any reason for a festival, Pride held one. And at each one, the police set up a booth, handing out glow sticks, police whistles, first-aid kits, and badges for the young kids.
Growing up in the city, he’d never believed a town like Pride existed. The kind of place where everyone knew everyone else. Where they looked out for one another and stood up for them too.
Sure, the town had its share of problems and troublemakers. But it was nothing like the big city. In Vegas, he hadn’t even known the names of the neighbors who had lived next to him for years.
Three years in Pride and he not only knew everyone’s names, but he pretty much knew their family histories as well.
Nick may not have talked a lot about his sister, but the rest of the town had. Of course, he’d heard all about Kate’s exciting career. He’d even been shown a few pictures of her in full costume on stage. From what he could see, she was one hundred percent ballerina.
“Ready to head out?” Nick asked him half an hour later.
“You know it,” he answered as he finished putting on his rain gear.
“Looks like we got school traffic today,” Nick said with a slight groan.
“Yup.” To tell the truth, Tom didn’t mind directing the cars in and out of the elementary school’s parking area. It was one of the jobs he could do while still allowing his mind to wander. Since it was his first day back from his mini vacation, he was struggling to get his mind back in gear.
An hour later, standing in the pouring rain, soaking wet, he changed his mind.
Nick too seemed to want to be somewhere else. For the first time in the three years that he’d known the guy, he was quiet. He had barely said two words in the last hour.
When the last car left the parking lot, they both climbed into the patrol car, with Tom at the wheel, and headed out to
make their rounds on the highway.
“You okay?” he asked Nick as he drove.
“Yeah. Just…” Nick took a deep breath. “You ever think about the future?”
Tom glanced over at him. Nick was his age, roughly his build, and, according to him, a perpetual bachelor. He knew Nick had spent a few years in the Army and when he’d come home, he’d joined the force immediately.
“All the time,” he admitted. “Is this about your sister coming home?”
Nick shrugged. “She spent her entire life aiming for one thing. Then”—he snapped his fingers—“poof, it’s gone.”
“Is her injury that bad?” he asked, concerned.
“Bad enough that she’ll never be a prima ballerina again.”
“But she can walk?” he asked.
“Sure. I mean, right now she’s on crutches. She had surgery, but the doctors think that she’ll be fine. May even dance again someday. But once you’re out, you’re out.” He shook his head.
“That sucks,” he agreed. “Still, she was lucky to reach the level of fame she did.”
“Oh, she never wanted the fame.”
“Then what?” He didn’t really understand. He thought that all professional dancers did it for the glory and recognition. Why else would anyone subject their bodies to so much… torture.
Nick shrugged. “Kate’s not…” He glanced over at him. “Kate’s hard to explain.” He chuckled. “Hell, most of our childhood she was shuffled from one dance class to another. Then she went away to school, and we only saw her during her breaks or on stage.”