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    A Valentine's Day Surprise
    A Valentine's Day Surprise
    A Valentine's Day Surprise
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    A Valentine's Day Surprise

    By Rose Francis

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    When Alicia’s cousin asks her to fill in last minute on a babysitting job, Alicia expects nothing more than a few hours of inconvenience. It’s Valentine’s Day, and she is shamefully available to sub in, so she agrees. What Alicia doesn’t expect, as she shows up at the client’s door, is a handsome, sad-looking father, and a quiet, but endearing four-year-old. And she certainly doesn’t expect wanting to see them again once the gig is done! Alicia puts the jarring night out of her mind as best as she can, but her services are unexpectedly called for once more, and she starts suspecting the client wants her for far more than watching his kid!

    Mark only wants what’s best for his daughter, and once he realizes she has unexpectedly taken to the new babysitter, Alicia, he vows to do everything in his power to explore romantic possibilities with the enchanting woman to keep his child happy. Alicia agrees to babysit again, giving him hope, but as the night unfolds, secrets come to light, devastating their budding relationship.
    They both find themselves torn between their hearts and familial duty, between past loyalties and new dreams and possibilities.
    Suspicion, doubt, and distrust threaten to destroy them, but can the two fight through to what’s best for them all?

    **A quick, intense BWWM romance read.**

    'A Valentine’s Day Surprise' is the second book in the Holiday Hunks series—unrelated, interracial contemporary romances taking place around a holiday or other special occasion.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPoison Arrow Publishing
    Release dateFeb 28, 2014
    ISBN9781311870025
    A Valentine's Day Surprise
    Author

    Rose Francis

    Rose Francis writes interracial and multicultural romance. She loves reading and writing psychological fiction, particularly stories addressing difficult topics. She has been writing from a very early age and is thrilled to have a platform that allows her to bring her tales to the public!

    Read more from Rose Francis

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    Reviews for A Valentine's Day Surprise

    3.5/5

    7 ratings1 review

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    • 2/5
      Sorry but I just couldn't connect on any level with this story. I found it very boring and dull, no excitement whatsoever. The characters just seemed one dimensional. I guess you could say it was sort of a sweet story, one that'd appeal to those that prefer fluffy and soppy love stories? I'm a huge fan of IR romance/erotica, and although I don't like race being made the focal point of these stories, I like to know 100% I'm reading a BWWM love story. In this case there wasn't any reference to how the two lovebirds looked, all I had to go off was the cover. Very disappointing from Rose Francis!

    Book preview

    A Valentine's Day Surprise - Rose Francis

    Part I

    Dead Ringer

    Chapter 1

    Alicia

    Alicia smiled as she saw the name that popped up on her ringing phone. Yes, Georgia? she answered.

    Please, please, please say you’re free tomorrow night, her little cousin began.

    Alicia decided to play hard-to-get, although she knew she’d give in to whatever request her favorite cousin had. The only problem was, Georgia knew that, too.

    Hmmm…tell me why, and I’ll see if I’m free or not.

    I’m supposed to babysit tomorrow, but something came up—I booked the babysitting gig long before I thought I’d have anything else, and the Greens are one of my favorite clients. I don’t want to leave them hanging!

    Alicia stopped smiling. This wasn’t what she’d expected at all. Wait—you want me to fill in as a babysitter for you? Why me? Don’t you have any other friends your age who might be down for that or need the money?

    No, I already tried them and none of them are available and it’s going to be pretty much impossible to get a replacement since it’s Valentine’s Day. Please—I know you don’t have plans; you’re not dating anyone right now, right?

    She’s young, Alicia had to remind herself. She has no idea how much that could hurt. Alicia tried to remember if she was that clueless at the age of seventeen.

    I mean, I haven’t seen you with anyone seriously since Jeremy, Georgia continued. And that was like, what, eight months ago? No special date popped up for tomorrow, right? I mean, you totally would’ve told me if you’d met someone recently, right?

    Alicia let out a breath. "Okay, fine—I am available, cuz. Although I’ll have you know I have been dating; but yeah, no one’s stuck yet, so none worth mentioning."

    But Georgia was already celebrating on the other end of the line with ecstatic ‘yays.’ Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    Hold on, I haven’t even said yes, yet!

    Oh, cuz—I appreciate it so much. I’ll make it up to you; in fact, you can keep the cash.

    Alicia laughed. Oh, all fifty dollars of it? How much do you babysitters make these days?

    I get twenty an hour and the shift is for three hours…

    Oh, my bad. Sixty dollars. That’s great—it should cover gas.

    Don’t make fun. It’s not that far from you, anyway—probably like ten or twenty miles from your place.

    Well, what’re the rest of the details? How old is the kid? If it’s a newborn or under six months, forget it; I haven’t been around babies in a while.

    Amy’s four. And she’s really cute. And really smart—you’ll like her. She’ll be easy to entertain.

    And how does your client feel about you subbing in some stranger?

    Oh, I already prepped them. They’ll trust you as my rec.

    Wow—sounds like you already went ahead and confirmed it before even asking me!

    Alicia let out a frustrated breath. Was she that predictably boring? Her young cousin had just assumed she wouldn’t have plans on a Friday night? On Valentine’s Day? She was too young for this foolishness. When had she turned into this? She’d had such fun in college! But then she hit that quarter-life crisis she’d heard people talk about, and coupled with a failed relationship, she suddenly felt like some lost homebody with a complete lack of direction or purpose in life.

    At the very least, she liked her job and got to use her accounting degree—unlike a few of her old schoolmates. Still, something was missing—that other side to being an adult. Supposedly the fun part—the dating part.

    She had acquired some amusing stories from outrageous and unbelievable dates on her journey, but a taste here and there wasn’t cutting it; she needed to find someone she could stand beyond a date or two.

    I’m sorry, cuz, Georgia began, I didn’t mean anything by it. I just…

    Don’t worry about it. Just shoot over the details when you can. It’s probably better than the night I had planned anyway, so maybe I should thank you.

    What were you gonna do? I really hate the thought of you moping at home alone.

    Watch a sappy movie and drink myself to sleep, Alicia thought, but she knew she couldn’t say that to the youngster. Oh, I don’t know. Read, probably, she said quickly, having had enough time to come up with a decent lie. I was going to read.

    Hopefully not a romance, right? That would be torture, I’m sure—reading about somebody else getting their happy ending.

    Of course not, Alicia lied. Anyway, what I want to know is, what’s your sudden emergency? How come you’re bailing last minute?

    Alicia realized later that the few seconds of silence that followed was probably filled with blushing on her cousin’s end.

    My first date, she said. Like, ever.

    Alicia’s heart sank. Even she had a date? Then excitement replaced the flash of envy. She remembered those days—filled with butterflies and hope, and stars dashing across the sky.

    Oh, wow—Aunt Shelly’s finally letting you out, huh? Tell me about him—I’m glad one of us has a man to be excited about tomorrow.

    She listened to her cousin go on about how her date had asked her out, and how cute and hot he was. They were going to see a movie, eat some food, but, of course, she had a curfew.

    Alicia smiled in silent approval. Her aunt seemed to have found that happy middle—unlike her own mom, who believed in the tight hold, caging her daughter in.

    Alicia saw how her strict upbringing had contributed to her ‘wilding out’ in college. But then again, who was she to judge anyone’s parenting? Kids could be a lot of hassle, and people didn’t usually find out until it was too late.

    As Alicia drove toward the client’s home, the knots in her stomach caught her by surprise.

    It hadn’t been that long since she babysat somewhat regularly herself—she’d done a lot of it throughout college and the summer after graduating. As a result, she was quite comfortable temporarily looking after kids from the ages of seven months to three years old. So her nervousness couldn’t be the age of the kid—one year couldn’t make all that much of a difference, could it?

    But she knew that to be a lie: one year was more than enough time to make all the difference in the world. In less than one year, her life had changed in ways she hadn’t planned on. Jeremy called off their engagement, and she’d happily settled into a cubicle job two counties away from where she’d grown up.

    It seemed every time one aspect of her life started working out, another fell apart.

    She had no steady relationship in college, but she was working on herself—her degree, and future—and was at least happy about that. She met Jeremy after college when she was struggling to find a job, and she was happy to at least be in a steady relationship while bouncing around, exploring job opportunities.

    The job she had now didn’t come along until after she and Jeremy broke up. Now, with a job she liked in a place she liked, she had no one to share it with or come home to.

    She took a deep breath once she parked, and then made her way to the door. Before she could knock, the door opened, and as much as Alicia remembered the lesson hammered into her brain by her mother about the rudeness of staring, she lapsed at that moment.

    For some reason, she hadn’t expected a man to answer, and not just any man—a beautiful man with

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