Cupid’s Quest Read online

  Cupid’s Quest

  Natalie Ann

  Cupid’s Quest

  Copyright 2020 Natalie Ann

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Also by Natalie Ann

  Where to find Natalie Ann

  Blurb

  Prologue

  1. His Plan

  2. What He Was After

  3. Way To My Heart

  4. Call Her Own

  5. Friendly and Sweet

  6. Clouding My Thoughts

  7. The More I Know

  8. Never Found

  9. Paradise Place

  10. Tempt You

  11. In Over Their Head

  12. Sure Of Yourself

  13. Being Greedy

  14. Strength In Us

  15. Making It My Own

  16. Stepping Stone

  17. More Relaxed

  18. Too Close

  19. In Good Shape

  20. Kind Of Her Too

  21. Fair and Square

  22. Hurts My Heart

  23. A Real Gem

  24. Where She Stood

  25. To Guilt Me

  26. Ignorance Is Bliss

  27. She Was His

  28. Get In The Way

  29. Panic Attacks

  30. Unicorns And Rainbows

  Epilogue

  Change Up

  Hopes and Dreams

  Also by Natalie Ann

  Where to find Natalie Ann

  Author’s Note

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Also by Natalie Ann

  The Road Series-See where it all started!!

  Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery

  Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption

  Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality

  Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason

  The All Series

  William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love

  Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing

  Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me

  Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way

  Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want

  Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love

  Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You

  Landon Barber and Kristen Reid- All Of Us

  The Lake Placid Series

  Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance

  Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance

  Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance

  Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance

  Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance

  Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance

  Matt Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance

  Logan Taylor and Kennedy Miles- It’s My Chance

  The Fierce Five Series

  Gavin Fierce and Jolene O’Malley- How Gavin Stole Christmas

  Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody

  Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden

  Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason

  Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade

  Ella Fierce and Travis McKinley- Ella

  Fierce Family

  Sam Fierce and Dani Rhodes- Sam

  Bryce Fierce and Payton Davies - Bryce

  Drake Fierce and Kara Winslow – Drake

  Noah Fierce and Paige Parker - Noah

  Love Collection

  Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love

  Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love

  Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love

  Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love

  Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love

  Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers - Autumn Love

  Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan - Holiday Love

  Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett - Christmas Love

  Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks - Winter Love

  Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love

  Jace Stratton and Lauren Towne - First Love

  Gabe Richards and Leah Morrison - Forever Love

  Blake Wilson and Gemma Anderson – Simply Love

  Brendan St. Nicholas and Holly Lane – Gifts of Love

  Paradise Place

  Josh Turner and Ruby Gentile – Cupid’s Quest

  Harris Walker and Kaelyn Butler- Change Up

  Where to find Natalie Ann

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  Blurb

  Ruby Gentile made it out of the foster care system by keeping to herself and counting down the days until she was on her own. She considers herself a successful realtor now and loves that she is doing her part to put people in their forever home. Commitment issues often remind her she may never find what she always wanted as a little girl even if she secretly dreams of love and romance, happy ever after and Prince Charming...that forever home of her own.

  Josh Turner lived through the horrific murder of his parents while he hid in the closet as a young child. He’s an investigator now sworn to protect, but those he loved...he couldn’t bear the thought of life without them. He’d lay his life on the line and make sure they never felt as scared and lonely as he had that one night. When Ruby ends up as his realtor, he realizes that she is the one he never wants to lose, if only she’d let him in.

  Prologue

  Ruby got out of the car and pulled her backpack from the backseat that had been sitting next to her, flung it over her shoulder and put her head down while she waited for the social worker to open the trunk for her larger duffel bag. That was it, all her possessions were portable and had been for the past ten years.

  “You’ll like it here,” Missy said. Missy Carter was her eighth caseworker. Seemed no one stayed at this job for long.

  “Whatever,” Ruby said. Missy was young, she was eager, and she was clueless. Give her a year or so—maybe even six months—and she wouldn’t be so peppy dealing with her clients.

  The two of them walked up the creaky stairs to a chipped white front porch that had seen better days. Out of place in the corner was one spray-painted black rocking chair. There was room for plenty more, but that solo one told her all she needed to know about this house.

  While they waited for the front door to be answered, Ruby looked around the neighborhood. It was pretty much like most of the other ones she’d lived in. Not completely run down, but not nice pretty suburbia. Yeah, wouldn’t that be sweet? If ever!

  When the door was opened, Ruby got a look at her new foster mother. She was probably in her fifties, tall, stocky and rough around the edges. That had to be her chair that no one was allowed to sit in while she escaped from the wards under her roof.

  “Mrs. Wilson, this is Ruby Gentile. I’m Missy Carter,” she said, putting her hand out. “We spoke on the phone. I’m so glad you’ve got room for Ruby.”

  “Always room for kids,” Mrs. Wilson said. “Call me Candy. Everyone else does.”

  “Thanks, C
andy,” Missy said.

  “Come on in. Shoes off,” Candy said to Ruby. “You walk in the door, you take your shoes off. We’ve got rules here and I expect them to be followed. If you do that, we’ll all get along just fine. If not...”

  Yeah, Ruby knew what the “if not” meant. It meant she’d be moving once again. All she wanted to do was find a place where she could stay long enough to make it through her last two years of school, which was starting in three weeks. Another school district she was changing to.

  Ruby slid her old sneakers off and left them by the door where a few other pairs were taking up residence. Four that she suspected belonged to other kids by the range of sizes. She continued to stand there in the doorway, not making a move until she was told. Been there and done that and wasn’t about to assume a damn thing.

  “Would you like to show Ruby around before we talk and fill out paperwork?” Missy asked Candy.

  “Sheri!” Candy yelled at the bottom of the stairs that they were facing as they stood in the foyer of the older home.

  Ruby remained until she was told otherwise, heard a door open above them, and a teenage girl close to her age came to the top of the stairs. “Yes?”

  “Ruby is in with you. Show her your room and explain how we do things here while I meet with the caseworker.”

  She couldn’t even call Missy by her name. Yep, Ruby knew how it was going to be here for sure.

  “Come on up,” Sheri said, a smile on her face. Not even a forced one. Maybe Ruby was wrong. Most kids didn’t smile in foster homes. They just wanted to get by.

  Ruby turned to Missy. “Thank you.”

  Missy put her hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “You’re welcome, sweetie. I’ll be in touch.”

  She nodded her head and went up the stairs and to her new bedroom. It was small, had bunk beds and one single in the corner. She’d never had her own room anywhere and didn’t expect that here either.

  “I’m on the top bunk,” Sheri said. “I like it there. Suzie is in the single. She is out in the backyard playing. She’s ten. That leaves you under me.”

  “No problem,” Ruby said, walking over and putting her backpack on the plain tan bedspread. They had different colored bedspreads, but they were definitely simple and cheap. At least the second-story room had an air conditioning unit in the window, even if it wasn’t on, though it would be nice if it were.

  Sheri must have caught her gaze. “We are allowed to put it on for four hours a day when we go to bed. So we turn it on at eight and off at midnight. I’ve found that it cools the room down enough to fall asleep and then stays decent most of the nights.”

  “It’s better than I’ve had at other homes.”

  “They are strict here, but if you follow the rules it’s not so bad,” Sheri said.

  “Who lives here?”

  “Candy and her husband, Colin. He works construction and is gone a lot. He’s nice enough, keeps to himself for the most part. We are just people in and out of his house in his eyes.”

  “How many kids?”

  “You are the fifth. There are two boys in another room. They are set up for six and try to keep it three boys and three girls. The house is big, but they keep us in these two rooms.”

  “It’s fine,” Ruby said. “Are you always this happy or told to be this way with the caseworker here?”

  “I normally am. I’ve been in some bad places,” Sheri said, sitting on Ruby’s new bed. “This is one of the better.”

  “So tell me the rules other than shoes by the door.”

  “Meals are always the same time. She makes one thing and if you don’t like it, well, then you pick around it, but she won’t make you something different. If you miss a meal, then you are on your own.”

  “We are allowed to get our own food if we miss it?” she asked.

  “No. If you want to play a sport and miss dinner, then what you get is the nightly snack we all have around seven thirty.”

  “Everyone gets the same thing there too?” she asked.

  “Yep,” Sheri said. “But it’s food and I’ve been hungry before so I’m not complaining.”

  Ruby had been too. Plenty enough times. “How long have you been here?”

  “A year. I’m sixteen. I’m hoping I get to stay until I’m done with school.”

  “Me too,” Ruby said. “I just turned sixteen. Two more years.”

  “You’re lucky your birthday is over the summer. Mine is in April. Wherever I am, I pray they let me stay to finish school when I turn eighteen.”

  The magic number when the payments stop and foster families normally want the bed opened up.

  “Are we allowed to get jobs?” Ruby asked, knowing that was the first thing she planned on doing. There was a bus stop around the corner, perfect in her eyes.

  “Yep. But you have to find your own transportation and still follow the curfews.”

  “I’ll make it work,” Ruby said. She had to. She’d been doing that since her mother overdosed ten years ago and she started to get shuffled around.

  All she wanted to do was have a home of her own someday. A family who was there for her or cared about her would be nice, but a home was her number one priority.

  1

  His Plan

  Twelve years later

  Josh Turner let himself into his apartment, walked to his bedroom that barely fit the king sized bed he refused to do without. He opened the drawer in his nightstand and put his gun in there, then his badge on top, his holster hanging on the hook behind his door.

  Once he was changed out of his tan pants and button-down shirt, he put on shorts and a T-shirt, and grabbed the extra key to his apartment that he kept on a chain. He slipped it over his neck and went to the gym to run for thirty minutes, then lift some weights for another thirty.

  Just like always, a few women from the apartment building were eying him while he worked out, sending him flirtatious smiles and little waves.

  He returned them, being friendly and all, but continued on with his workout. No way he was getting involved with anyone that lived in the same building.

  An hour later, he stood staring into the open freezer trying to decide what to warm up of his grandmother’s frozen dinners. He grabbed the small casserole of lasagna and popped it in the oven and went to shower.

  Dressed in sweatpants and a sweatshirt twenty minutes later, he pulled the oven open to check on his dinner and noticed that one side was cooking faster than the other. He turned the dish and shut the door again trying to hide his frustration. Between the oven, the water dipping in his bathroom sink, and the draft through one of the windows that wouldn’t shut properly in his spare room, apartment living was getting to him.

  When he accepted the transfer ten months ago he grabbed the first available apartment that met his needs and signed a one-year lease, but now he had some decisions to make.

  He grabbed his phone when it rang, noticed it was his grandmother and felt the grin fill his face. “Hey, Grandma.”

  “Josh, am I interrupting anything? Did you just get home?”

  “No, I got home a little after five, worked out and now I’ve got your lasagna warming in the oven.”

  “You’ve got to be getting low on food. It’s been three weeks now.”

  He went to visit his grandparents once a month in Poughkeepsie. They had raised him after his parents were murdered when he was eight. He owed them everything he had in life. For keeping him sane, for giving him a stable life, for being his world when the world he’d had crumbled beneath his feet while he hid in the closet and heard the screams of his mother and his father fighting back the intruder.

  “I’ve got enough,” he said. He loved that she cooked for him but at the same time knew that she was pushing eighty and he didn’t like that she spent so much time working on it. He needed them around for a long time and overdoing it was the way for that not to happen.

  “You say that all the time. Your grandfather and I are going to come up and check and see if you
are lying to me.”

  Since he ate out a few times a week or made sandwiches now and again, he didn’t eat his grandmother’s meals nightly so they did last.

  “I’ve got enough for about six meals,” he said, knowing the lasagna would stretch for two easily.

  “Then if you aren’t doing anything this weekend, you can come down and get some more.”

  “I don’t want you rushing to cook for me,” he said back and opened the oven to check on his dinner, saw it was burning on that one side and shifted it to another in the oven.

  “I don’t. I freeze what your grandfather and I have. Do you really think I cook a roast beef and mashed potatoes to put in container trays for you alone?”

  He laughed over the humor in her voice. “I have no idea what you do.”

  “Whatever I make for Grandpa and me, you get the same. I just make extra. My freezer is overloaded so that is when I know you need some too.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll stop down on Saturday sometime.”

  “See that you do. Bring a few coolers with you,” she reminded him. Not that he needed the reminding, but he figured she felt like she had to say it.