The Mostly Real McCoy (Apple Valley Love Stories #1)

by Julie Christianson

“You have this big, big heart, Brooke. Your heart’s so big that when it breaks, well, it breaks bigger than other people’s hearts.”

“Come on, Mac. Do I look like I just came from the salon?” “I don’t know. I’m a guy.” Also you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve seen by a mile, without makeup and fancy hair. No, especially without makeup and fancy hair.

I take my half-full glass to the sink. Wait. No. It’s half empty. Optimism is for suckers.

“Rollercoaster relationships aren’t all bad,” she says. “Highs and lows can be fun. If you have the right person on the ride with you.”

(Neither one of us wants to say the name Ethan Clifton. He’s like Voldemort. With a nose.)

And some people aren’t meant for happily ever afters.

“I never claimed I was Jane Austen.” “Maybe. But you sure are stubborn enough to be Elizabeth Bennet.”