Love one Another

Love one Another
Valerie Hansen

NEIGHBORLY LOVESingle dad Zac Frazier arrived in the close-knit town of Serenity expecting little more than a fresh start. But he never counted on having his wounded heart rejuvenated by his son's bubbly preschool teacher, who lived a few houses away and had an extraordinary gift for understanding small children. In record time, pretty and petite Tina Braddock brought laughter back into his lonely little boy's life–and encouraged the disillusioned widower to rejoice again in God's love….Why, if romance-resistant Zac didn't know better, he'd allow himself to fall head over heels for his green-eyed neighbor! But beneath the sunny surface that Tina presented to the world, he sensed uneasiness, foreboding, even fear. What was she afraid of? And would loving one another be enough to make all their dreams come true?

Tina flattened her palms against his chest so she could push him away.

Do it! her conscience ordered. Give him a shove and tell him to go home.

I will, Tina reassured herself. Any second now. Yes, sir. I’ll call a halt to this ridiculous game we’re playing.

Only, she didn’t. There seemed to be a short circuit in the communications between her will and her body. There she sat, practically stupefied, while a man she cared about prepared to make his second terrible mistake. The first had been their first kiss. The second would be more of the same. Unless she stopped it.

The weak protest she finally managed to make wouldn’t have been enough to deter anyone who didn’t respect her. Fortunately, Zac did.

He got to his feet and backed away from the swing. “Oh boy,” he said, a bit breathless. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

VALERIE HANSEN

was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. In the years that followed she worked with young children, both in church and secular environments. She also raised a family of her own and played foster mother to a wide assortment of furred and feathered critters.

Married to her high school sweetheart since age seventeen, she now lives in an old farmhouse she and her husband renovated with their own hands. She loves to hike the wooded hills behind the house and reflect on the marvelous turn her life has taken. Not only is she privileged to reside among the loving, accepting folks in the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, she also gets to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired line.

Life doesn’t get much better than that!

Love One Another

Valerie Hansen

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

A new commandment I give unto you.

That you love one another; as I have loved you,

that ye also love one another.

—John 13:34

To all the wonderful people in my life

who are so easy to love, especially my husband,

children, grandchildren and special Christian

friends. And to the one person I find it so hard

to forgive, for being the way the Lord has chosen

to show me that I’m not perfect…yet.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

Letter to Reader

Chapter One

Tina Braddock bent over a low table, up to her elbows in green and yellow finger paint and up to her knees in preschool tots. It was fortunate the colors blended with her floral print skirt because Sissy Smith had a handful of the fabric and was tugging vigorously.

“Miss Tina! Miss Tina!”

“What is it, Sissy? Is your picture finished?”

The little blond girl ignored the question. “Miss Tina, look! A stranger.” She used both gooey hands to gather up the loose edge of her teacher’s apron and try to hide behind it.

Straightening, Tina looked toward the door. Her breath caught. Sissy was right. The man standing there was a stranger. The best-looking one she’d seen in longer than she could remember. His hair was brown and his eyes were so dark they were almost black. As if that weren’t enough, the good Lord had blessed him with about six feet of height and a stature that insisted he could pick up a small automobile all by himself and fling it across the room without even breaking a sweat.

Tina blinked herself back to reality as she smiled a greeting. “Hello. Can I help you?”