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CHAPTER 1
JOURNEY
Starting to work for a new client is always kind of nerve wracking. It’s not the job—I’m damn good at what I do. It’s the uncertainty of what I’m walking into and how I’m going to be treated.
Either they leave me to do my job in peace or they hover over me just waiting for me to fuck up. They’ll be waiting a long time because I take my business seriously, even if not all the people who hire me do.
I’m certain some people in Christmas Falls hire me because they want to remind me of my place. As if I could ever forget. Even though it’s been years, the wounds of the town’s opinions about me are still fresh. It doesn’t help that their continued judgement is a constant reminder.
I’ve faced all the sneers and all the name calling for the last eight years. Whore. Disgrace. Slut. Trash. Stupid. Gold digger.
None of them were true and every one of them forced me to shield my heart from the disdain shown to me. I never expected the town to react that way. Their scorn gave me strength, but I’m sure it wasn’t their intention.
Those who have looked down on me thought I would hide away and be ashamed. But I don’t. Life is about making mistakes. It’s part of our humanity.
I never claimed to be perfect and getting pregnant when I wasn’t quite 16 proved it.
Giving birth to Shiloh wasn’t part of the plan I had for my life, but I wouldn’t change it. Shiloh is a bright, smart, kind, funny, giving, and thoughtful little girl. How could I regret something that has brought me so much joy?
Being her mom forced me to grow up and face the reality of the world, on a few different levels.
Being a teen mom proved to me too many people are willing to forget who someone is, at their core, because of one wrong turn.
Doing it all on my own showed me a strength and maturity I didn’t know I had.
Having Shiloh’s sperm donor abandon us, like a childish coward, put me in a position to build walls around myself. It’s not only her father who refused to acknowledge her either. His entire family treats Shiloh like she doesn’t exist. I would be sad about it, but it’s their loss.
There are days when it’s difficult not to focus on how young and stupid I was for getting involved with Harry in the first place. He charmed me and I was a sucker for it.
I had no idea that alarm bells should have been going off in my head because he never wanted to take me around his family. I thought he just wanted to keep me all to himself, but now I realize he was ashamed of me.
Harry’s family has old money and is one of the richest in the county, but money had nothing to do with why I was with him. I thought I was being seen for the first time in my life and I loved the attention.
Teenagers are supposed to be naïve, and I certainly took the cake on that one. I was headstrong and stubborn. I wouldn’t listen to anyone who tried to tell me I was getting in over my head with a boy who was all wrong for me.
The moment I found out I was pregnant a lot of truths came to light.
What Harry and his family don’t realize is I’m the one who came out victorious. The barbed words and judgmental side-eyes I’ve had to endure from the town of Christmas Falls don’t change that.
I thought I grew up in a place where community meant something. I guess it does, as long as you’re not a teenage mother carrying a baby fathered by a kid from a family with far too much influence and not nearly enough sense. I wasn’t looking to get pregnant, but everyone decided I tried to trap Harry.
I was able to graduate high school on time, but it wasn’t easy. I had a little bit of support when I needed it the most, but I struggled through those years and felt alone. Sometimes I wonder how things could have been different if the community had rallied around me instead of making me a pariah.
Not that it matters now.
I started cleaning houses because it was something I could do easily, and most people didn’t mind if Shiloh was with me. I wasn’t expecting to turn it into a business, but I enjoy doing it and I take pride in my work.
When I knock on the door to the understated house, nervousness fills me. Is this going to be one of the people who whispered about me behind my back for years? Or is it someone who sometimes offers me a kind smile?
Not everyone in Christmas Falls is horrible, but the good ones do not outweigh the bad.
Before I can fall too deep into the hole of my personal pity party, a place I try not to visit too often, the door swings open and I make a sputtering sound right before I start to choke on my fucking saliva.
It’s a great look for me.
Normally I wouldn’t even care, but I’m mortified right now.
Because the man who answered the door is the hottest man I’ve ever seen. He’s not so tall that he can’t fit through a doorway, but he’s still taller than me at about six feet tall. He might not be the tallest guy I’ve ever met, but his shoulders are the broadest and there’s just something about him that takes up a lot of space.
