Romancing the Defense: Highland County Heroes, #6

By Melissa Stevens

Denni is married to her job, and she's never regretted it. As her friends and family pair off, she's left a little lonely, but long hours and her dedication have kept anyone from wanting to hang around long. That never bothered her... until now.

Stacy felt that pull the first time he saw her. But his brother had seen her, and asked her out, first. It's tricky water but Stacy suspects it will be worth the risk to get to know Denni. But is she willing?

See if Denni and Stacy can figure things out if their own hang ups will keep them from finding out what could be.

Welcome to Highland County, where we take our heroes seriously.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melissa Stevens
• Release date: Nov 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393113737

Melissa Stevens

Melissa was born and raised in Arizona, she’s spent her entire life living across the southern half of the state. She’s found that, along with her husband and three children, she prefers the small towns and rural life to feeling packed into a city. She started reading at a very young age, and her love for series started early, as the first real books she remembers reading is the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Through the years she’s found that there’s little she won’t read, and her tastes vary from westerns, to romance, to sci-fi / fantasy and Horror.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Denni collapsed into the recliner, propped her feet up on the ottoman and stared up at the ceiling. Exhaustion pressed down on her with the weight of not just the day, but of the big case she’d just won. The emotional load of being a public defender was often more than just the work of the case. She often dealt with people in desperate situations, whether they were guilty or not. Especially when her client was innocent. Now that the weight of that case was gone, she could breathe a little. Not that it was her only case, just her biggest at the moment.

She needed to get out, to cut loose and relax a little, let off a little steam from the pressure that had been building while she’d worked her ass off to prove the kid was innocent. She had done it. For a while she hadn’t been sure she would, but when the jury came back with an innocent decision, she’d felt like jumping up and shouting, right there in the court room. She hadn’t, of course, but she’d wanted to.

Now she wished she had someone to go out and unwind with. Hayley didn’t go out as much since she’d gotten married. Denni didn’t blame her. If she’d had someone like him at home, she wouldn’t go out much either. Still it sometimes left Denni feeling a bit left out.

Her other go to partner for going out, because she always went out with someone — safety in numbers you know — was Marissa, one of the other attorneys in the public defender’s office where Denni worked. Denni hesitated to call her because Marissa was in the middle of her own big case. The last thing she wanted to do was distract her friend when she needed to focus.

If she wasn’t going to hit the Silver Spur, she needed to go to the grocery store. There was food in the cupboard, but she was out of a lot of the basics.

Heaving a sigh, Denni pushed herself out of the chair and headed for the bedroom. Either way, she wanted out of her suit and into something more comfortable than the heels she wore to work. She was used to the heels, but by the time she got home, especially after a day in court, her feet throbbed. Her shoes usually ended up kicked off inside the door as she came in.

After changing clothes, Denni stepped into her tennis shoes, enjoying the soft padded bottoms for a few seconds before grabbing her purse and grocery bags then heading out the door. She needed enough she might as well make it a full trip.

Thirty minutes later, she pushed a cart down the frozen foods aisle, trying to talk herself out of a frozen pizza for dinner. She was tired and pizza would be easy, but she would pay for it later. She took one from the case, but hoped she’d find something else as she continued shopping. She could always stick the pizza in the freezer for another night.

Almost finished, Denni browsed through the produce section, knowing she should get salad fixing, but wasn’t in the mood to make any tonight. Maybe that was why she had half her usual amount of groceries. Nothing sounded good. Well, nothing but the frozen pizza.

She checked the stacks of her fall back vegetables, the things she ate when nothing sounded better: broccoli, zucchini, asparagus and a few others. The broccoli looked old, so she skipped it, but bagged some of the others and added them to her cart

Fancy seeing you here, said a voice she knew, but couldn’t place.

Denni turned and couldn’t help smiling as she spotted Stacy Manning. She had briefly dated his brother a little over a year before, but Tracy had only been there for a brief visit before going home to Alabama. Long distance relationships were hard and while she’d liked Tracy, the spark between them hadn’t been strong enough to bear the weight of fifteen hundred miles.

How have you been? she asked as she took a good look. He looked good, better than she remembered.

Good, you?

Busy. Denni laughed. When was she not busy? How’s Tracy? Just because they’d split, didn’t mean she didn’t care.

He’s great. Got engaged last month. She’s a sweet girl from our hometown.

That’s wonderful. I wish them both the best.

I’ll pass that on. How’s Hayley?

Denni chuckled. Married and so in love with her husband it makes me sick sometimes. Don’t get me wrong. I love my sister and I want her happy, but too much of the cutesy between them and I can’t wait to get away.

I totally understand. I went back for my parents’ anniversary a couple weeks ago, Tracy and Trina were so happy it was obnoxious. Maybe it’s because I’ve got no one, but they’re so lost in each other I want to smack him and yell at him to wake up.

They laughed together at their mutual misery.

Hey, how about we finish here and you join me for dinner?

I don’t know. Denni stared down at the contents of her cart. There was still nothing that really appealed to her. The idea of going out with someone, even with someone she barely knew was far more appealing than going home and eating alone.

The mid-November nights were cool enough she could leave her groceries in the trunk for an hour, maybe even two, and not have to worry about the cold stuff. Why not go to dinner?

You know what? Let’s do it. We can commiserate about our paired off siblings fixing us up with people. Or does Tracy not do that to you?

Not really, but my sisters do. They can’t seem to help themselves. Every time I talk to them they grill me about if I have someone in my life and how can I be happy without someone? Then when I visit, they conveniently have someone over who just so happens to be perfect because fill-in-the-blank. Stacy shook his head.

Denni laughed. Come on, let’s finish up here and go somewhere a little more comfortable.

I can’t wait, Stacy motioned for her to go first.

Denni made her way to the register, a newfound sense of urgency pushing her. She was looking forward to dinner. Hmmm… Maybe it’s more than just