“Like you don’t know.”
She had no clue. But that didn’t stop her mother’s oldest friend from piling up the charges.
“Broke her heart is what you did. You couldn’t get up the nerve to come back when she was breathin’. Oh, no. You had to wait until—”
Kate’s patience snapped. “Mrs. Price… you can blame or chastise me all you want. But not today. Today, I am allowed to grieve like anyone else who’s lost a parent. Got it?”
“Oh, I got it.” Her pruney lips curled into a snarl. “But I also got opinions and I aim to speak them.”
“Not today you won’t.” Kate lifted her sunglasses to the top of her head and gave Mrs. Price her best glare. “Today you will respect my father, my brother, and my sister. Or I will haul you out of this cemetery by your fake pearl necklace. Do I make myself clear?”
The old woman snorted then swiveled on her orthopedic shoes and hobbled away. Kate didn’t mind taking a little heat. She was, at least, guilty of running and never looking back. But today belonged to her family and she’d be goddamned if she’d let anybody drag her past into the present and make things worse.
Great. And now she’d cursed on sacred ground.
Maybe just thinking the word didn’t count. She already had enough strikes against her.
It’s your fault…
Exactly what had Edna meant? How could her mother’s death be any fault of hers when she’d been hundreds of miles away?
Kate glanced across the carpet of grass toward the flower-strewn mound of dirt. Beneath the choking scent of carnations and roses, beneath the rich dark soil, lay her mother.
Too late for good-byes.
Too late for apologies.
Things just couldn’t get worse.
Unable to bear the sight of her mother’s grave, Kate turned her head. She startled at the sudden appearance of the man in the khaki-colored deputy uniform who stood before her. She looked up—way up—beyond the midnight hair and into the ice blue eyes of Matt Ryan.
The boy she’d left behind.
Return to the Sugar Shack…
ANY GIVEN CHRISTMAS
When an injury dashes NFL Quarterback Dean Silverthorne’s Super Bowl dreams, he heads back to Deer Lick, Montana, with a chip on his wounded shoulder and more determined than ever to get back in the game. He loves his kooky family, but his trip home is nothing but a very brief Christmas visit.
His game plan didn’t include an instant attraction to Emma Hart, a feisty kindergarten teacher, who seems to be the only person in Deer Lick not interested in the hometown hero. Or his dearly departed mom popping up with mistletoe in hand and meddling on the mind. Now Dean can’t help but wonder if there’s more to love than life between the goal posts.
Available now wherever e-books are sold.
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU
Letty Silverthorne has her work cut out for her when her middle child, Kelly, returns home to Deer Lick reeling from a major courtroom loss and needing to shake the “Sister Serious” moniker she’s been carried since childhood. With the help of her dead mother and a former bad boy in uniform, anything is possible at the Sugar Shack.
Coming in June 2012 from Avon Impulse!
About the Authors
CATHY MAXWELL spends hours in front of her computer pondering the question, “Why do people fall in love?” It remains for her the greatest mystery of life and the secret to happiness. She lives in beautiful Virginia with children, horses, dogs, and cats. And if you imagine that you have met William Duroy before, it’s because you have. He was first introduced to readers in Treasured Vows. Fans can contact Cathy at www.cathymaxwell.com or PO Box 1135, Powhatan, VA 23139.
A retreat leader and writing teacher, LYNNE HINTON is the author of numerous novels including Pie Town, Wedding Cake, Christmas Cake, Friendship Cake, Hope Springs, and Forever Friends. She also writes a mystery series under the name Jackie Lynn. She lives in New Mexico. She can be reached at www.lynnehinton.com.
CANDIS TERRY was born and raised near the sunny beaches of Southern California and now makes her home on an Idaho farm. She’s experienced life in such diverse ways as working in a Hollywood recording studio to scooping up road apples left by her daughter’s rodeo queening horse to working as a graphic designer. Only one thing has remained constant: Candis’s passion for writing stories about relationships, the push and pull in the search for love, and the security one finds in their own happily-ever-after. Though her stories are set in small towns, Candis’s wish is to give each of her characters a great big memorable love story rich with quirky characters, tons of fun, and a happy ending. For more, please visit www.candisterry.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
ALSO BY CATHY MAXWELL
The Seduction of Scandal
His Christmas Pleasure
The Marriage Ring
The Earl Claims His Wife
A Seduction at Christmas
In the Highlander’s Bed
Bedding the Heiress
In the Bed of a Duke
The Price of Indiscretion
Temptation of a Proper Governess
The Seduction of an English Lady
Adventures of a Scottish Heiress
The Lady Is Tempted
The Wedding Wager
The Marriage Contract
A Scandalous Marriage
Married in Haste
Because of You
When Dreams Come True
Falling in Love Again
You and No Other
Treasured Vows
All Things Beautiful
THE CHATTAN CURSE
Lyon’s Bride
Coming Soon
The Scottish Witch
ALSO BY LYNNE HINTON
Fiction
Pie Town
Friendship Cake
Hope Springs
Forever Friends
Christmas Cake
Wedding Cake
The Things I Know Best
The Last Odd Day
The Arms of God
Meditations for Walking
Writing as Jackie Lynn
Down by the Riverside
Jacob’s Ladder
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
ALSO BY CANDIS TERRY
Second Chance at the Sugar Shack
Any Given Christmas
Coming Soon
Somebody Like You
OPERATION PAPERBACK
Avon Books is proud to salute America’s armed forces!
This Memorial Day, in celebration of For Love and Honor, we will be donating books to Operation Paperback, a non-profit organization that collects books and sends them to American troops deployed overseas, and to SOS Aloha, the blog site for SOS America, an internet destination dedicated to promoting romance books to military families and military issues to romance readers.
For more information about these organizations, please visit:
http://www.operationpaperback.org/
http://www.sosamericainc.org/
http://sosaloha.blogspot.com/
www.facebook.com/avonromance
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Lyon’s Bride: The Chattan Curse copyright © 2012 by Catherine Maxwell Inc.
Excerpt from Welcome Back to Pie Town copyright © 2012 by J. Lynne Hinton
Excerpt from Second Chance at the Sugar Shack copyright © 2011 by Candis Terry
FOR LOVE AND HONOR. Copyright © 2012 by HarperCollins Publishers.
THE BOOKISH MI
SS NELSON. Copyright © 2012 by Catherine Maxwell Inc.
LETTERS FROM PIE TOWN. Copyright © 2012 by J. Lynne Hinton.
HOME SWEET HOME. Copyright © 2012 by Candis Terry.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780062207692
Print edition ISBN: 9780062218162
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