Unexpected Delivery (Paradise Place Book 8) Read online

  Unexpected Delivery

  Natalie Ann

  Copyright 2021 Natalie Ann

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Also by Natalie Ann

  About the Author

  Blurb

  Prologue

  1. Strings Attached

  2. Slow Life Down

  3. Speaking Their Minds

  4. Hold Together

  5. Porch Pirate

  6. Strong Shield

  7. A Good Team

  8. On Her Side

  9. Make My Head Spin

  10. Mighty Fine

  11. Weave And Bob

  12. Sentimental Over Sex

  13. Bigger Person

  14. Ray Of Sunshine

  15. Make That Change

  16. Looks Over Substance

  17. Showing You Off

  18. Having It Bad

  19. To Handle You

  20. Drop That Shield

  21. No Regrets

  22. Make A Good Impression

  23. Rolled With The Punches

  24. No Joke

  25. My Decision

  26. Honest With Herself

  27. Accidents Happen

  28. Had It Coming

  Epilogue

  Also by Natalie Ann

  About the Author

  Author’s Note

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Also by Natalie Ann

  The Road Series-See where it all started!!

  Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery

  Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption

  Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality

  Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason

  The All Series

  William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love

  Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing

  Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me

  Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way

  Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want

  Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love

  Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You

  Landon Barber and Kristen Reid- All Of Us

  The Lake Placid Series

  Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance

  Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance

  Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance

  Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance

  Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance

  Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance

  Matt Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance

  Logan Taylor and Kennedy Miles- It’s My Chance

  Justin Cambridge and Taryn Miles – One More Chance

  The Fierce Five Series

  Gavin Fierce and Jolene O’Malley- How Gavin Stole Christmas

  Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody

  Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden

  Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason

  Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade

  Ella Fierce and Travis McKinley- Ella

  Fierce Family

  Sam Fierce and Dani Rhodes- Sam

  Bryce Fierce and Payton Davies - Bryce

  Drake Fierce and Kara Winslow – Drake

  Noah Fierce and Paige Parker - Noah

  Wyatt Fierce and Adriana Lopez – Wyatt

  Jade Fierce and Brock James – Jade

  Ryder Fierce and Marissa McMillan – Ryder

  Fierce Matchmaking

  Devin Andrews and Hope Hall- Devin

  Mick McNamara and Lindsey White- Mick

  Love Collection

  Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love

  Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love

  Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love

  Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love

  Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love

  Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers - Autumn Love

  Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan - Holiday Love

  Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett - Christmas Love

  Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks - Winter Love

  Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love

  Jace Stratton and Lauren Towne - First Love

  Gabe Richards and Leah Morrison - Forever Love

  Blake Wilson and Gemma Anderson – Simply Love

  Brendan St. Nicholas and Holly Lane – Gifts of Love

  Paradise Place

  Josh Turner and Ruby Gentile – Cupid’s Quest

  Harris Walker and Kaelyn Butler – Change Up

  Philip Aire and Blair McKay- Starting Over

  Nathan Randal and Brina Shepard – Eternal

  Ryan Butler and Shannon Wilder – Falling Into Love

  Brian Dawson and Robin Masters – Mistletoe Magic

  Caden Finley and Sarah Walker- Believe In Me

  Evan Butler and Parker Reed – Unexpected Delivery

  Amore Island

  Family Bonds- Hunter and Kayla

  Family Bonds- Drew and Amanda

  Family Bonds – Mac and Sidney

  Family Bonds- Emily & Crew

  Family Bonds- Ava & Seth

  About the Author

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  Blurb

  Evan Butler has often been described as arrogant, grouchy, and inflexible. He just liked to say he was always right. When the wrong package is delivered to his house for the second time, he prepares to put a smile on his face and play nice with the new neighbor to bring it to its rightful owner. What he didn’t expect was the beauty that was going to make him realize that sometimes in life you’re wrong and you need to learn to compromise.

  Parker Reed has had family pressure and competition shoved in her face her entire life. She’s always felt she had a handle on it. But when her sister dies, she realizes that life shouldn’t all be about getting to the top of the ladder. Only how do you change what you’ve always known and done? And when the sexy neighbor across the street enters her life, she realizes that maybe long-term plans and goals aren’t the only things she should be focusing on anymore.

  Prologue

  Parker looked around at the remaining ten castmates sitting in tribal council with her. It’d been a dream come true to be on Survivor and she made it to the merge.

  In her mind, she was sitting pretty with her hidden immunity idol that took a risk getting when she was voted to spend the night alone on another island. She knew she rubbed people the wrong way. She’d been doing that her whole life and she was fine with it. Until she wasn’t.

  “Be tough,” her mother used to drill into their heads. Her brothers, Marcus and Jeremy, were just as competitive as her, but they weren’t ones to rough it like she was. She’d do anything for a dare if she could come out on top.

  Succeeding and being the best was something she always w
anted. Maybe it was that she was the third of the four kids. Marcus was the oldest. Jeremy next, so he was in the middle too. Then her and finally the baby, Erin.

  Yeah, Erin was the only one not competitive in the family and it drove her mother insane. Her father, he was used to their mother running the show, so he often ended up spending more time with Erin and cheering her up.

  “So we’ve made it to the merge,” Jeff Probst said. “Anyone feeling safe?”

  Parker looked around. She was fine, she knew it. Call her cocky, she didn’t care, but there were a lot of players that wanted Keegan out. Heck, she was thrilled when his name came up, as he was the first one to rally everyone against her in their tribe.

  If people thought she was competitive and bossy, they’d never met Keegan before. He named their tribe. He took the lead, he told everyone what to do and when. Because she was a woman and had an opinion a few times, he’d given her shit.

  No one gave her shit.

  But she was smart enough to stay calm and work any angle she could. She wasn’t a great salesperson for nothing. She knew how to play the game of life and was doing well for herself at it.

  And she had her safety that no one knew of hidden away and she wasn’t telling a soul.

  She’d been watching this show since she was a little kid and too many people made the mistake of blabbing. Not her.

  “I think we all know what we are doing tonight,” Tyler said. He was eighteen and had an issue with his mouth running like the results of consumed gas station egg salad for lunch that had sat out for a week.

  “So, is it safe to say that it might be fairly unanimous who is going home?” Jeff asked.

  There were some head nods, but no one was talking that much. Then Sandra said, “I’m not sure it’s ever unanimous. Everyone feels nervous at some point.”

  “That’s true,” Jeff said. “What about you, Parker? Feeling safe? Your tribe has the majority of members with the merge. You could easily start picking people off from the other side. How safe do you feel?”

  She heard Keegan snort two over. “Just like Sandra said: no one really feels safe unless they’ve got immunity hanging around their neck like Jason. So yeah, he probably feels real safe unless he wants to hand it to me.”

  There was some laughter in the group. She might be confident and cocky, but she had a good sense of humor. At least she thought she did.

  No one wanted to be sitting here for weeks starving and stinking without being able to make some jokes about it. Going to the bathroom in the bushes...yep, she was a pro at it now. When her family got to see these episodes months from now when she would be back home, they were going to laugh their butts off. Along with her coworkers.

  Her mother wouldn’t be laughing. Not unless Parker took the win home. But she’d long since given two flying monkeys what her mother thought of anything.

  She hoped to be laughing to the bank with that million-dollar check though.

  There was more talk going around and she was listening like she always did but just wanted to get this vote over with. It should be ten for Keegan, and one for whoever he voted for. Everyone told him Tyler was the guy they were targeting, so that should be the one vote.

  Who knew with Keegan? He was a wild card on top of being a dick.

  “Let’s go vote,” Jeff said. “Tyler, you’re up first.”

  One by one they all moved over and picked up the large coal pencil and wrote down Keegan’s name. At least she was ninety-nine percent confident everyone was.

  When the last person was sitting, Jeff walked over to tally the votes and then came back. “Does anyone have a hidden immunity idol they want to play?”

  Nope, she was holding onto hers, thank you very much. She’d wanted to split the votes tonight, but everyone insisted Keegan didn’t have an idol. That if he did, he’d be bragging to those closest to him.

  He was cocky enough to do that, so she was confident Keegan was finally going home.

  But when Jeff was getting ready to start reading the votes, Keegan stood up and said, “I’m pretty sure this is going to save my ass tonight.”

  Her jaw dropped as she looked around at everyone else who felt the same way. No way. He had to be bluffing. He handed over what looked to be some rock with scratches on it. Hers was like a mini totem pole.

  “Yes, this is one of the five idols that were on the island.”

  “Five?” Tyler said. “There were five there?”

  The island the members were sent to was out of play with the merge now. It was only when they were separate tribes. No one had any idea there were five of them. Everyone thought there might be two tops. One on each side for each tribe to find. Since Keegan and she were in the same tribe, she’d figured she had the only one.

  Holy shit, there could be three more out there counting hers. How was it no one figured out there were so many?

  “There are five,” Jeff said, taking the one from Keegan. “Now there could be four in play. One more thing to think about. But all votes for Keegan will not count. Let’s start.”

  One by one Jeff pulled out sheets of the worn rough weathered paper and opened them up. The first six had Keegan’s name on them. Enough to send him home. Darn it.

  She was starting to sweat. She had a feeling her name was going to be on Keegan’s sheet. That he’d outplayed them all and it was going to be a dirty bitter pill for her to swallow on a dry throat if that was the case.

  By the time they got to the eighth vote, Jeff read, “Parker, one. Keegan, seven. Three more to go.”

  But the next three had Keegan’s name on them. Son of a bitch!

  “Parker. The tribe has spoken.”

  She stood up with her torch to have it snuffed out when Keegan said, “No, Keegan has spoken.”

  She could be a bitch about it but wasn’t going to be. She could be the bigger person even if it was killing her inside. This was national TV and she wasn’t stupid enough to do anything that could come back and haunt her. “Well played, Keegan.”

  “I expected you to throw a fit,” Keegan said.

  She smiled and winked at him. “You don’t know me as well as you thought you did.”

  Then she walked off the set, her smile dropping the minute her back was turned. She’d throw a fit, but she’d do it in the hotel room after she took an hour-long hot shower and got all the grime off of her. When she was clean enough, she’d go stuff her face with food. It might be the only thing she had to look forward to before she got on the plane to go home.

  1

  Strings Attached

  Two years later

  “Hey, Ruby,” Evan said when he walked into Butler Construction’s office. “Got the house sold across the street from me, I see.”

  Ruby Turner was the realtor that Butlers used exclusively for new builds. Not everyone that was selling a house in the development went through her, but if anyone wanted to build, they did. It was easier for them to contract with her to do all the work, to set it up with his cousin Whitney when the time was ready to start building and ordering, and then Evan, his brother Christian, and cousin Ryan would get to work along with the over one hundred other employees they had.

  Evan’s father, Michael, and his uncle, Matt, now ran the company that their father had started many, many years ago. But his father and uncle were in the offices buying land and making deals both residential and commercial.

  “I did. Should be closing in two weeks. Want some information?”

  “Nope,” Evan said. “Don’t care. I want neighbors that keep to themselves. I built at the end of the road hoping for that. I’ve been lucky with the neighbors on the one side and the few others on my street, but those directly across the street had been a pain in my butt from the day they moved in.”

  He didn’t like it known who he was, but it was hard to hide it with his truck saying Butler Construction on it. Even then, he pulled it in the garage every night.

  It drove him insane when the last people that lived across the
street would knock on his door every time they heard a creak in the house.

  “Since when are you the grouch of the family?” his cousin Whitney asked. “That was Ryan’s job.”

  “Ryan isn’t a grouch much anymore and you know it,” he said of his youngest cousin, Whitney’s brother. “He struck gold with Shannon and a ready-made family. I can’t believe he is getting married in a month.”

  “Which means there is hope for you yet,” Whitney said. “If Ryan can land someone, then you can.”

  Evan laughed. “I’ve got no desire to land anyone. As I told my parents and Kaelyn at Easter when Sarah was talking about the new guy she was dating, when someone is older and single, they are set in their ways.”

  Ruby laughed when Whitney snorted.

  Evan’s sister, Kaelyn, was married to Harris Walker, ex-pro baseball pitcher. Harris’s younger sister started dating a guy that relocated to the area a few months ago. Mid to late thirties and never been married. Yep. Set in his ways and wouldn’t change, and Evan made a point of saying that and for Sarah to keep her eyes open with Caden Finley.

  When Evan’s mother laughed and said he’d be single forever, he pretty much agreed.