Dating Dru: Love in Little River Book 2 Read online

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  Copyright © 2019 by Sweetly Us Press, LLC

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles. This is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, places, and dialogue are products of the authors’ imaginations and are not to be construed as real.

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  CONTENTS

  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

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek: Finding Taylor

  Love in Little River

  Also by Raneé S. Clark

  About the Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Here you go. Best room in the house. Tag insisted.” Bellamy, the pretty brunette manager of the Ranch House, held open the door for Dru North to step through. He surveyed the room, grinning when he caught sight of the view. Tag had indeed told him about this. Said the views here would rival camping outside under the stars. “And our most popular since we started advertising on the website that this is where Tag wrote most of the Roxy album.”

  Dru widened his eyes in mock reverence and walked over to the gray sectional, dropping his duffel on the floor near the bed. “Here?” He pretended awe that had Bellamy smirking. “Here? In this very spot, he penned the lyrics to that iconic song that still has half the teenage girls in America fainting, even a full year after its release?” He hummed a few bars of “Roxy’s Song,” making Bellamy all-out laugh.

  “The one and only. I knew I should’ve taken pictures or something.” She shrugged, pretending that this lapse devastated her. “I’m a little surprised, to be honest. Roxy talked like you were staying with them.” She hovered in the doorway, watching Dru inspect the rest of the room.

  Taggart Dubois—better known as Tag Turner in these parts—had invited him to spend the holiday at their house. His wife, Roxy, had reiterated it multiple times. He wouldn’t have minded staying at Tag and Roxy’s house, just down the road from the famous Ranch House, but he wouldn’t mind a couple days of complete solitude either. Over the last few years, Tag had become the closest thing Dru had to a best friend. He’d mentored Dru from the moment Dru started opening for him, and when Dru got just as big, Tag had easily transitioned into colleague. Accepting their invitation to spend Christmas in Little River was a given. He was dying to experience the big Christmas holiday celebrations Tag had described he and Roxy celebrating with her friends and family. But he didn’t want to intrude too much.

  When Dru looked back at the door again, he caught Bellamy staring. She blinked and blushed, then looked away. He smiled. Two years later and that didn’t get old. He wondered if the women would have looked as long back when his hair was short, he was clean-shaven, and he didn’t have tats running up and down his left arm. He had never minded the bad-boy, rock-star persona that made him sell far more records than the clean-cut version of him had. His admirers seemed like it a lot too. It not only sold music but got him plenty of dates. His manager thought the playboy, country bachelor thing was great for the image too. Dru didn’t typically argue.

  Even though sometimes the expectation that he was actually that man behind the stage persona wore thin. But Dru could wait patiently for the day a woman could see behind all that, the way Tag and Roxy had weathered their fair share of tabloid rumor mongering and were still going strong.

  Bellamy cleared her throat. “Let me know when you want dinner, and I’ll have someone bring it up.”

  Dru frowned. “I thought that big Christmas party was tonight. The one all of Little River shows up to the Ranch House for?”

  Bellamy blinked at him, looking surprised. “Oh. I didn’t think you’d want to go to that. Some of our guests prefer the solitude. That’s why they come to the Ranch House.”

  Dru nodded. Guests like Taggart Dubois, before he married Roxy, and the other A-listers that had been coming to this small town to get away. “Roxy made it sound nice. You don’t need to cook another meal for me.”

  Her cheeks darkened. Bellamy Hansen wasn’t quite his type, but Dru had always enjoyed flirting. “Wow. That’s nice of you. But I don’t mind.”

  Dru couldn’t help pushing up the sleeves of his shirt before he folded his arms across his chest, playing up the bad boy image. Bellamy’s eyes darted to the ink there before going back to his face. “Not what you expected?” he smirked.

  She wagged a finger at him, her smile only widening. “Oh no, Mr. North. I trust Tag far more than I trust anything I read in a magazine. I know you’re a good guy.” She put her hand on the doorknob and moved out into the hallway. “Call me if you change your mind. The office number is on the card next to the phone, along with the Wi-Fi details.” She nodded at a table next to the bed before shutting the door and leaving him.

  Dru chuckled as he picked his duffel back up and moved to put it on the luggage stand next to the dresser. Tag might have been right about Little River being the perfect place to escape from being Dru North, country rock star.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Amber Miller steeled herself for the arguments as soon as she picked up her suitcase to roll it out the door.

  “This is ridiculous,” her older sister Katie said, hands on her hips.

  “I tried to tell you that before you had the twins, but you thought trying for a girl one more time was a good idea. You’re the one stuck with six boys,” Amber teased, pulling on her coat and smirking.

  “Five of whom can totally sleep on the floor of the family room,” Katie replied. “We should all stay here, at Mom’s house, together. I can’t handle the guilt of kicking you out.”

  Amber’s oldest nephew, Chad, stared at his mom with wide eyes. “No, Mom! Don’t make me sleep in the same room as Cam and Charlie. They’ll play all night.”

  Katie gritted her teeth. She glanced at Amber and whispered, “Teens,” before turning back to her fifteen-year-old. “You’d make your aunt stay at a hotel so you don’t have to sleep in a huge room with your brothers?” Her arched eyebrows, scarily reminiscent of their mother’s, caused Chad to retreat a couple inches.

  “She wants to,” he said, throwing his hands toward Amber. She bit down on her lips to keep from laughing. Since the day Chad was born, Katie had never really appreciated how funny her kids could be when they were disobedient.

  “You have to stay here,” Kate said. “Otherwise my child will grow up to be spoiled and entitled.”

  Amber held up her hands, barely keeping her shoulders from shaking. “Make him sleep there anyway and give the twins their own beds.” She pulled on her hat. “The Ranch House is literally just across the highway. Less than a mile, actually. And no one will be jumping in my bed at five a.m.”

  Katie hurried over to the door and put her hands o
n Amber’s shoulders. “I’ll lock the twins in their room. Cross my heart.”

  “Katie.” Amber mimicked her sister’s stance, putting her hands on Katie’s shoulders. “You’re the mom. You can make Chad and the minions sleep in the family room even if there are beds available. No one will be entitled and spoiled, and I can eat Bellamy’s biscuits and gravy every morning.”

  “You’re rubbing it in.”

  “Maybe you should come too, Katie,” Amber teased. “Then everyone can be spoiled and entitled.”

  “My husband will whine if I leave him here with the boys.” Katie frowned and sighed. They both started laughing. “Fine.” Katie stepped back, as though her nearness to Amber had been the only thing keeping Amber from going. “I’ll see you tonight at the party.”

  Amber leaned over. “Come over early. I have a dress you should wear that Will’s gonna love.”

  Katie snorted with laughter and pushed her sister toward the door. “Six boys, Amber. You don’t own a dress that forgiving in the hips.”

  Amber laughed in return, waved to her mom in the kitchen, and then headed out the door. According to Mom, there’d been snow in Little River the previous week, but it had all mostly melted, leaving crunchy patches around the yard and a few slicks of dark ice on the gravel road in front of the house. Her nephews were all hoping that the snowstorm that weekend would bring in piles of snow for Christmas. Amber didn’t want to drive on those roads when she headed home to Fort Collins the following week.

  But as she hopped into her silver sedan, she smiled at the scenery around her. It wouldn’t look so bad with some fluffy snow, and maybe extending her vacation wouldn’t be the worst thing. As a teacher, she had a long holiday break along with her students. She’d planned to head home after New Years to utilize the days off to do some deep cleaning at her house, but where was the fun in that? Bad roads would be a legitimate excuse to put that off.

  Bellamy hugged Amber when she arrived, laughing as Amber related the resistance she’d faced about not staying at her parents’ house. As Amber talked, they went upstairs to one of the rooms. They’d gone to high school together in Little River but hadn’t been particularly close until they’d ended up on the same floor of the dorms their freshmen year at University of Wyoming. They’d kept in touch since then, and Bellamy had been the one to suggest that Amber splurge and stay at the Ranch House over Christmas.

  Bellamy left Amber to get ready for the famous Christmas party that the Ranch House held every year on the day before Christmas Eve. Amber hadn’t been to one before. Though she’d been in town the past few Christmases since the Ranch House opened, she usually didn’t get into town until too late in the evening to make it.

  She laid out the gray tulle midi skirt and billowing white blouse she’d brought to wear, making sure neither had wrinkles that needed attending too, then pulled out the sparkling, strappy silver heels she couldn’t find enough excuses to wear on a regular basis. She’d bought the outfit the year before to go to Carson’s office party, hoping not to stand out as “the teacher” among all the glamorous women who worked with him and the wives of the power members of the firm.

  When Amber found a jetted tub in the bathroom, she nearly decided to forgo the party and just spend the evening in her room. She spent so long soaking in the wondrous thing—and going back and forth about the party—that she could hear the murmur of guests downstairs getting louder and louder by the time she finished her hair.

  She stepped out of her room the same time the door across the hall opened. Amber couldn’t help it. She froze.

  Dru North.

  Dru-freaking-North was standing in the hallway staring right back at her. His long, ashy blond hair had been pulled into a neat bun on top of his head, a style Amber always made fun of when she and her friends talked about the hipster wannabes at the gym but she secretly really liked. His beard was trimmed, close to his face and much shorter than the last picture she’d seen of him when it had been long and maybe a little bit scraggly.

  Not that Dru North—his eyes so green that Amber could not take her own away—was ever, ever scraggly. But she definitely liked this. He was wearing a suit, dark blue with a gray shirt and white tie, and he looked like a slick businessman. Or a model. Probably just a model. Whatever he looked like, it wasn’t the dressed-down, t-shirt and jeans country star who was usually plastered all over the media.

  “Hi,” she finally said.

  “Hi.” He held out a hand. “I’m Dru.”

  She took it, risking that he might feel the way her fingers were shaking. “Amber.”

  He pulled his hand from hers slowly. “Can I walk you down?” he asked, gesturing toward the stairs.

  Okay. Not only was Dru North staying across the hall from her, but she was going to walk into the Ranch House Christmas Party with him. She gripped the clutch that held her phone and lip gloss, and nodded. “Sure.”

  He slipped a hand on her back as they moved that direction, and Amber had to focus so she wouldn’t trip.

  “You in town for this famous party?” he asked. “Bellamy tried to talk it down, but I’m sure all those high rollers this place caters to probably fly in specially.” He gestured to the white lights twined along the railing within a white garland, like those kinds of decorations were too tempting for a famous actress or musician to pass up.

  Wait, did he think she was one of those high rollers? She sort of hated to disappoint him. “Not quite. I’m here to visit family. Grew up in Little River, actually. But what about you? Did you fly in just for this party?” Amber almost grinned in triumph that she’d managed to tease him, what with all the concentrating on not making a dummy out of herself.

  “Tag—you know Tag? I know this is a small town, but I’m never sure if you all call him Tag or Taggart or what.” He turned and grinned at her, and she had to take a slow and sneaky breath in.

  “I knew him as Tag growing up. He’s a little older than me, so it’s not like we’re really close, but we went to a small high school, so you know everyone.” She shrugged like she didn’t drop the fact all the time in Fort Collins that she’d gone to high school with Taggart Dubois.

  “He invited me out,” Dru finished. “It sounded nice. How come you’re not staying with your family?” He glanced over her, eyes trailing down her like he was actually checking her out, although there was a hint of confusion to his gaze. In any case, she was going to add to the list of facts she dropped. Dru North checked me out at a party.

  “My mom’s house was a little full. My older sister has six boys and—” She cut herself off. He didn’t need to know all the particulars. “It was crowded.”

  He chuckled. “I understand that. Tag promised me peace and quiet for a couple weeks.”

  “You have six boys?” she tossed back. She was actually on a roll here, conversing with him like a normal person and everything.

  His laugh was deep and husky and sent a shiver fully up her spine. “Um, no. Sometimes it feels that way with all the time I have to spend with my band and manager and everyone.”

  “I bet.” They’d made it down the stairs, and Amber glanced at the people there, noticing that several eyes were on them, most notably her sister Katie’s. She was standing inside the door, handing her coat over to one of the kids from town who must have been hired to help. Her eyes widened, and her mouth formed an “o” as she openly stared. Amber scowled at her, mentally sending a message that she get a grip.

  “There’s my sister so . . .” Amber took a step away.

  Dru caught her arm and leaned over. “You’re not going to abandon me, are you? I don’t see Tag and Roxy, and I don’t know anyone here.” He said the words lightly, but when she turned to look at him, she noticed a bit of panic there. He probably usually had people to handle, well, all the people he had to deal with that weren’t always professional in their interactions. She wondered what Tag and Roxy had been thinking, leaving him here by himself to fend off fans at a party.

  “Of
course not.” She smiled. “Come and meet my sister and her husband.”

  “Thanks,” Dru breathed, his breath tickling her neck before he straightened. Amber nearly fell flat on her face. Was this some sort of Christmas magic happening? Whatever, she’d take it.

  Her sister hugged her like they hadn’t just seen each other an hour before and whispered, “What the . . . ?” before she pulled away.

  “You know Dru North, Katie?” Amber held her hand out to gesture to him. “He’s staying across the hall from me. Dru, this is my sister, Katie, and her husband, Will.” Dru reached over and shook their hands, everyone murmuring greetings. Will kept squinting at Dru like he was trying to place him. Amber barely held back laughter at it. Her brother-in-law knew far more sports related names than entertainment ones.

  “Let’s go get food,” Katie said. “I’ve been waiting all year for this.” She took Will’s hand and headed across the open living area to the dining room, where the long table there was piled with the food Bellamy had probably been slaving over all day.

  Dru tilted his head and stared after Katie’s retreating back before sharing a confused look with Amber. “Have you heard of Bellamy’s famous cooking?” Amber asked.

  “Of course. Roxy brought her out once to cater a dinner party Tag threw. I thought it was overkill until I started eating.” He patted his stomach and nodded appreciatively.

  Amber laughed. “Katie’s a big fan too.”

  They found Tag and Roxy next to the food table, where Bellamy was hovering as well. Bellamy’s attention snapped to Amber as soon as she arrived at Dru’s side, but Bellamy didn’t say anything until she skirted around the table and Dru had moved away to talk to Tag.