Rules of Love

By Natalie-Nicole Bates

On the surface, Paige Paget seems to have it all. She's beautiful, confident, successful, and the co-owner of a new business, Cheer-Mania Academy, with her sister, Polly.

 

But beneath her seemingly charmed life, Paige is a woman stifled by rules.

 

When she meets Jordy Evans, the brother and now guardian of Paige's fourteen-year-old student, Gabrielle, she believes Jordy may be the man of her dreams.

 

Dating a man with the responsibility of parenting a teen means a whole new set of rules, and Paige isn't so sure she can handle it.

 

But the rules of love might not let Paige get away so easily!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paperlate Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223573654

Natalie-Nicole Bates

Natalie-Nicole Bates is a book reviewer and author. Her passions in life include books and hockey along with Victorian and Edwardian era photography and antique poison bottles. Natalie contributes her uncharacteristic love of hockey to being born in Russia. She currently resides in the UK where she is working on her next book and adding to her collection of 19th century post-mortem photos.    

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Natalie-Nicole Bates

Rules of Love

First published by Paperlate Press 2023

Copyright © 2023 by Natalie-Nicole Bates

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Natalie-Nicole Bates asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Natalie-Nicole Bates has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

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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

About the Author

Also by Natalie-Nicole Bates

Chapter 1

Chapter Separator

I walk through the open door and nearly pee my pants.

I stand in mute shock and survey the walls covered with killer clowns, decomposed corpses, rancid zombies, and mutated animal heads.

This is what happens when you walk in somewhere unannounced and unexpected. You never know what - or who is waiting.

The distinctly male voice breaks up my shock.

I quickly surmise all of the grotesque creations that surround me are just that - creations. Fabrications of plastic, paint, rubber, and who knows what else.

Jordy Evans walks from a back room drying his hands on an old cloth. I don’t know him very well beyond the fact he is the brother of one of my brightest cheer dance students, Gabrielle Evans. I also know he is Gaby’s guardian, but nothing more. I don’t know if their parents are deceased, or simply absentee.

We have a rule at Cheer-Mania Academy - which I own along with my younger sister, Polly - and that is that no gossip is tolerated.

We mean that, too.

In addition to gossip, we don’t tolerate any type of abusive or behavioral problems such as bullying or bad attitudes. Anyone, whether student or parent, who attempts to defy us, will find her ass on the outside.

But I digress. I’m here to see Jordy Evans for several important, and may I mention these are time-critical issues.

So…Ms. Paige Pumpkin…I mean, pageant…No! Paget. Ms. Paige Paget, what do I owe the pleasure of this unannounced visit? Here to ambush me with some cheerleading nonsense? Do I need to get the checkbook?

I don’t know what I’m incensed by more, him calling cheer dance - not cheerleading - nonsense, or pretending to stumble all over the myriad of nicknames I acquired over the years.

Paige Pumpkin, because my father owns the largest pumpkin farm in western Pennsylvania.

Paige Pageant, because I was a pageant girl in my teens.

Something I’m very proud of, too. My wins paid for my college education.

I clap my hands together.

The sound echoes hollowly off the walls of his workshop of ghouls and smells like a mixture of turpentine and glue.

Wow, you managed to work all of my names into one incomprehensible sentence. That stink in here must have penetrated your brain.

Ha, ha, ha, he mocks.

I could go on all day with this, but I’m here for a purpose. I turn on my all-business voice.

A few things about Gaby, Mr. Evans.

Immediate concern creases his features.

For the first time, I really look at him.

I normally only see him at the occasional mandatory parents’ meeting at Cheer-Mania, where he’s usually smack in the middle of a group of mothers, a decade or more his senior, who love nothing more than to flirt with the much younger man. His long, dark hair is thick and formed into dreadlocks, possibly from the lack of diligence with a hairbrush. Of course, maybe his dreadlocks are deliberate. His eyes are blue as the suburban sky, and he has