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      Copyright Page

      Be My Valentino

      Copyright © 2015 by Sandra D. Bricker

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., P.O. Box 280988, Nashville, TN, 37228-0988 or e-mailed to [email protected].

      The persons and events portrayed in this work of fiction are the creations of the author, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

      Macro Editor: Ramona Richards

      Published in association with Books & Such Literary Agency

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Bricker, Sandra D., 1958-

      Be my Valentino / Sandra D. Bricker.

      pages ; cm. — (A Jessie Stanton novel ; book 2)

      ISBN 978-1-4267-1161-9 (binding: soft back) 1. Chick lit. I. Title.

      PS3602.R53B4 2015

      813’.6—dc23

      2015010424

      All scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.CommonEnglish Bible.com.

      Dedication and Acknowledgments

      For Eva.

      Jessie, Danny, and I are so much better for knowing you.

      Thank you for hanging in there with us.

      Acknowledgments

      Many thanks to my editor, Ramona Richards;

      to my Launchies;

      and to my head cheerleader, Marian Miller.

      Prologue

      Prologue

      Ain’t nothin’ on God’s green earth more satisfyin’ than answered prayer. That’s what I got when my Jessie called home to catch me up on the things happenin’ in her life out there in LaLa Land. That counterfeit husband o’ hers might just meet Brother Justice and—if that ain’t enough—Jessie done met the man I been prayin’ fer all these years.

      “He’s like no one I’ve ever known, Grampy,” she told me.

      But if she hadn’ta said it, I’da known anyways. The good Lord changed my Jessie in her troubles, no doubt about it. I knew them blinders would drop off her eyes eventually if I just took enough blood pressure medicine to keep me prayin’ fer my girl.

      “He’s a God-loving man like you, Grampy.”

      Course he is.

      “He makes me want to be better. And stronger.”

      Course he does.

      Comes a time in everybody’s life when the prayers of the people that came before ’em start to get answered. And the Lord ’n me been chattin’ for years upon years. All that other stuff was just bumps in the road that took my Jessie to use the good sense the good Lord gave ’er. Set her priorities right. Drop the blinders on her eyes and see things how they really are.

      No, ain’t nothin’ in the world like answered prayers, and the Lord’s got a way of whisperin’ in a sack of ears when somebody needs the fervent prayers of righteous men. And women. Jessie says a new friend, an elder like me named Marjorie, been prayin’ for her too. Lotta others besides, no doubt. Yeah. Tonight I’ll be thankin’ God for the prayers He answers as well as for the ones He don’t.

      Jessie’s old grandpa is gonna sleep sound tonight.

      Chapter 1

      1

      Jessie gazed at the people gathered around the warm and beautiful table near the hearth on the back wall of Tuscan Son. Beneath the yellow glow of the chandelier overhead, she tallied the ways that each and every one of them had played a part in getting her to this place. To the top of the insurmountable mountain, where she could finally look down at the path she’d taken and see it for what it was. The road toward her destiny.

      Piper—her beautiful friend. Jessie wondered what she’d ever done to earn a friendship like that one. Piper had carried her to the bottom of the mountain that Jessie felt sure would be the end of her, and Piper looked up and saw only possibilities.

      “Your

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