SunnyWithAChanceofTrueLove
Read SunnyWithAChanceofTrueLove Online
Authors: Jessie Evans
Tags: #cowboy, romance series, bully, second chance romance
Please enjoy this excerpt of DIAMONDS AND DUST
SUNNY WITH A CHANCE
OF TRUE LOVE
The Ballad of Ugly Ross
A Lonesome Point Novella
By Jessie Evans
All Rights Reserved
Copyright
Sunny With a Chance of True Love: The Ballad of Ugly Ross
© 2015 Jessie D. Evans
www.jessieevansauthor.com
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. This contemporary western romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with, especially if you enjoy hot, sexy, emotional novels featuring alpha cowboys. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work. Cover image by Rob Lang c. Rob Lang/Roblangimages.com 2014. Cover design © by Violet Duke. Edited by Robin Leone Editorial.
More by Jessie Evans
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Lonesome Point, Texas, Series:
Twelve Dates of Christmas: The Ballad of Lula Jo
Sunny With a Chance of True Love: The Ballad of Ugly Ross
Chaps and Chance
Ropes and Revenge
Always a Bridesmaid Series
Taking You
(Series Ending Novella)
The Fire and Icing Series
Saving You
(Series Ending Novella)
The Wild Rush Series (Edgy, Sexy New Adult Reads) written as J. Evans
This Sweet Escape
-(Danny and Sam’s story)
One Beautiful Revenge (Danny and Sam’s conclusion)
PROLOGUE
Fourteen Years Ago
Ross
It’s not easy to fall in love for the first time.
It’s even harder when you’re only twelve and everyone at school calls you Ugly Ross. With a nickname like that all but tattooed on his forehead, Ross Dyer knew he was probably doomed to spend the rest of his
life
alone, let alone the rest of sixth grade.
But as he held a cardboard box for Elodie Prince, helping her empty out her locker on her last day of school at Lonesome Point Elementary, he felt something special slipping through his fingers. His chest ached like he’d been punched and his stomach had gone sour.
He didn’t want her to go, not yet.
Ross played with his friends Bubba, Mia, and Tulsi every morning during recess, but in the afternoons, he found Elodie’s hiding spot behind the bushes at the edge of the playground and spent a half hour bending creatures out of pipe cleaners and listening to her stories. Elodie had the best imagination of anyone he’d ever met and could make a story out of almost anything. He liked her scary stories the best.
Elodie was small, shy, and had a face like a fairy tale princess, but she had a secret spooky side that Ross found fascinating. Her wild imagination and tales of ghosts and Texas-sized monsters had captured his attention years before her crooked smile started to make his heart do funny things in his chest. But even when he realized that what he felt for Elodie was different than what he felt for his other girl friends—that it might even be love—he didn’t say a word. He was too afraid.
He was Ugly Ross and, unfortunately, lived up to his nickname. He was one of the tallest boys in sixth grade, but where his best friend Bubba was tall and strong, Ross was tall and scrawny. His bony knees and elbows stuck out at weird angles and his nose poked from the center of his face like a bird beak. His teeth were crooked, his clothes never seemed to fit right, and his eyes were the color of fresh cow poop—a comparison made by the other Ross in his class that had earned Ugly Ross the additional nickname of Cow Poop Face for most of third grade.
Elodie had her own unfortunate nickname that Ross knew made her sad sometimes, but to him she was simply…beautiful. With her long blond hair that she always wore in braids, big blue eyes, and hands that danced when she talked, she reminded him of Sleeping Beauty. If Sleeping Beauty were smarter and funnier and could tell stories scary enough to make the evil fairy pee her pants.
He just…liked the girl. A lot.
And now she was leaving. And he would probably never see her again.
“Thanks for helping,” Elodie whispered as she placed her pencil case and battered pack of pastels in the bottom of the box. She kept her eyes glued to the scuffed floor beneath their feet, where they’d been since Mrs. Nelson had announced to the class that Elodie was leaving to go to school in Houston, where her grandmother lived.
“Happy to.” Ross fell in beside her as she started down the hall toward the front of the school. “I mean, not happy you’re leaving, but I bet Houston will be fun.”
Elodie didn’t respond, but Ross still got the feeling he’d said the wrong thing.
“There’s more to do there, right?” he added, peeking at her out of the corner of his eye. “You know, in the city?”
Elodie sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t been in a long time. My mom and grandma don’t get along.”
“Oh.” Ross frowned. “Then why are you going to live with her?”
“Because-” Elodie’s voice hitched. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“Okay. Sorry.” Ross bit his lip. He always said the wrong thing.
Always.
His friend Mia said he needed a filter between his brain and his mouth, but by this point, Ross was pretty sure he’d been born without one. So he wasn’t really surprised when more words burst unexpectedly from his lips. “I’m going to miss you. A lot. I wish you didn’t have to go.”
Elodie stopped at the end of the hall, in front of the double doors that led out to the parking lot, where her grandma was waiting. “I’m going to miss you, too,” she said, lifting her eyes to meet his. “Thanks for always being so nice to me, Ross.”
Ross blinked in surprise. “Why wouldn’t I be? You’re great, Elodie. Really great.”
“Yeah?” she asked, shyly.
“Yeah,” Ross confirmed. “You the most interesting person I’ve ever met.”
The smile that crept across Elodie’s face in response sent a bolt of joy shooting through him from head to toe. She was so beautiful when she smiled. So beautiful and suddenly looking at him like maybe she saw something beautiful in him, too. And in that bright, brilliant moment, Ross decided to go for it. To go for his first kiss, to see if Elodie would kiss him back and maybe even give him her grandma’s phone number so they could keep in touch after she moved away.
He was leaning down, bringing his face slowly closer to hers—heart pounding, palms sweating, holding his breath and praying she wouldn’t push him away or laugh when she realized he was aiming for a kiss—when a voice called out from the other end of the hall.
“Oh look, y’all. Ugly Ross and Stinky Elodie are in love!”
The words were met by a burst of mean laughter. Ross flinched and Elodie’s shoulders curled until she looked like a flower that had gone too long without rain.
His face burning, Ross turned to see Ross Spencer and three of his jerk friends standing near the door to their classroom, library books in hand. They were always the first ones back from the library. They didn’t care what they picked out; they wouldn’t read the books anyway. They were too dumb and mean to appreciate a good story.
“Ross and Elodie sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” Chuck Atkins crooned in a sing-song voice. “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Ross with a baby carriage.”
“And an ugly, stinky baby,” Spencer added, summoning more guttural laughter from the other idiots.
“Shut up!” The words burst from deep inside of Ross’s chest. He’d never dared to stand up to the class bullies before, but he was so mad he felt like he was going to explode.
How dare they? How dare they open their big stupid mouths?
He hated them for ruining his goodbye and for making Elodie’s final moments at Lonesome Point Elementary another ugly memory to add to her collection.
“Come make me, Poop Face.” Spencer dropped his library book to the floor with a loud
thwap
and took two challenging steps forward. “Come show your stinky girlfriend how tough you are.”
“D-d-don’t, Ross,” Elodie said softly. “He’s not worth it.”
“But you are.” The moment the sentence was out of his mouth, Ross realized it was one of the truest things he’d ever said. He met Elodie’s sad, frightened gaze with a hard look, willing her to see he meant the words with every piece of his heart. “You’re worth it. You’re wonderful, and don’t you ever let some jerk like Spencer make you think you’re not.”
Elodie blinked and a familiar light flickered behind her big blue eyes. It looked a lot like the feeling that made Ross’s heart skip a beat whenever he sat close to her—like hope, wonder, and maybe even a little bit like love.
Just a little bit.
A little was all it took to send Ross charging down the hall toward Spencer, his bony fingers balling into fists as he ran. He’d never lifted a hand to defend himself, not in all the years he’d been Ugly Ross, Cow Poop Face, and the second to the last person chosen for dodgeball when Spencer and his friends were the ones to pick teams. No matter how mad Bubba would get on his behalf, Ross had never let Spencer’s meanness get to him, not really.
Deep down, Ross knew he was worth something. He had a family who loved him, friends who had his back, and dreams no bully could take away. Elodie had a mom and dad who hardly ever left their house—not even to go to the Laundromat—and sent their daughter to school in dirty clothes. She had a stutter that got worse when she was nervous and was even shier than Ross’s friend, Tulsi. She was too shy to come play with Ross’s other friends, too shy to answer questions in class, and too shy to even think of standing up to the boys who tormented her.