His Hometown Girl. Karen Rock

because this is the first time we’ve all been together since we accepted our diplomas and faced a future that, for many of us, was already a given. We knew we’d take the torch our farming families passed us and keep it safe.”

      “We love you, Daniel!” shouted a female voice. By the set of Jodi’s face, it wasn’t hers.

      “We’ve done a good job so far, weathering one of the worst economic times and coming through intact. Yet some would like to take advantage of the cracks in our foundation. Midland Corp, for instance.”

      Several boos erupted in the audience and he saw Jodi flinch. He had to swallow over the lump clogging his throat and force himself to keep going.

      “We’ve resisted their attempts to steal our livelihoods from us—our communities, our traditions, all that we have to pass down to our own kids. Yet they’ve devised an even more sinister plan than I could have imagined.”

      He had the room’s full attention now. Many leaned in or stepped forward. You could have heard a pin drop.

      “They’ve sent one of our own against us. Jodi Lynn Chapman.” He gestured toward her and while everyone turned to stare, no one clapped or smiled. In fact, many who had been cordial before now looked hostile. Guess word hadn’t reached everyone about her real purpose for coming home until now.

      Jodi’s face turned bright enough to look sunburned.

      “Let’s show her the door. That’s all the welcome she’s getting if she’s with Midland instead of us,” yelled someone from a shadowed corner.

      Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd, their angry babble rising until it drowned out his attempts to quiet them. He had more to say, but they weren’t listening. In fact, they’d turned their backs on him and were closing in on Jodi. Her face contorted and she pressed a napkin to it before pushing through the crowd and out the door, her rose hair clip loose and flopping on her shoulders.

      He turned away from the microphone and muttered a word not for public hearing. After hopping off the stage, he shoved through the crowed in pursuit of her.

      “Great speech, big guy.” One of his friends slapped him on the back.

      Daniel nodded to the well-wishers who swarmed him, angry at himself for stirring this already boiling pot. Jodi’s motivations were wrong, and the sooner she realized it the better, but he’d underestimated the crowd and he owed her an apology. He’d wanted to get through to her, not drive her to her breaking point. The thought filled him with regret.

      “Jodi!” He cupped his hands around his mouth and belted her name across the parking lot before she slipped inside her car.

      “Leave me alone, Daniel.” Her keys fell from her shaking hands. “You’ve done enough.” She crouched down to search but ended up putting her fingers over her eyes, her shoulders quaking.

      In a flash he was by her side, scooping up her keys and the flowered hair clip that’d fallen before pulling her upright. Her damp hair clung to her temples when he pushed it away from her face, and his hands cupped her cheeks, his thumbs brushing away the moisture gathered in the corners of her eyes.

      “I’m sorry, Jodi. I didn’t mean for it to turn that ugly.”

      “Didn’t you?”

      His stomach clenched. Hadn’t he? Yes. In a way. But he’d never imagined the aftermath would affect him this much. He had her on the ropes, but he felt as if he was the one down on the mat. Yet it’d always been that way between them. Each swinging until they couldn’t raise an arm, the wounds they inflicted staying long after the contest was over. His chest constricted when he recalled their squabbles over the years, from who’d win the blue ribbon for best pumpkin at the county fair to who’d win class president.

      Even their temporary truce, called when they’d given in to their feelings, had ended badly. She’d disappeared from his life for ten years. And now she looked ready to quit again. It was what he wanted. So why, then, did he suddenly wish she’d stay?

      He pressed his forehead to hers, but she jerked away. “Please believe me. I’m not out to get you. I meant it when I said this isn’t business, it’s personal. I’m fighting for my life. Mine and others’.”

      Suddenly her face regained its composure. If anything, she looked stronger and more beautiful than ever. She took his breath away.

      “So am I, Daniel,” she said after a long moment. “So am I.”

      He started to ask her what she meant, whose life she fought for, but she held up a finger and the words dissolved on his tongue.

      “You’re right. It isn’t just business. It’s personal. Like you said, this is war, and I’m in it for the long haul.”

      And with that she grabbed her keys, unlocked her car and roared into the night, leaving him with thoughts and emotions as scrambled as the dust cloud she left behind.

      Despite his turmoil, however, he grinned. The old Jodi was back. She drove him crazy, but he’d rather have a clean, honest fight with the firecracker he remembered than mince words with one of those polished suits he’d feared she’d become.

      He stared down at the rose she’d left behind, then tossed it skyward. When it returned, he snatched it out of the air and tucked it into his pocket.

      “Now, that’s my girl.”

      CHAPTER FIVE

      A DUCK CALL woke Jodi the next morning, her uneasy sleep clinging to her like the muggy air. She peered at the sunlight filtering in around the edges of the opaque window shade, then at her alarm clock.

      It was 10:00 a.m.

      She bolted upright, her quilted coverlet pooling in her lap. How could she have slept so late? Usually Tyler’s monitor sounded by six. But when she glanced at it, the light was off, the battery dead. She lunged to her feet and stumbled down the narrow hall lined with pictures of her father and Grace as kids and Grace’s wedding photo.

      “Aunt Grace? Tyler?”

      Her heart pounded as she peeked into Tyler’s room, then her aunt’s. Last night at the reunion, she’d broken down and admitted to Daniel that her fight wasn’t business. What he didn’t know was that her personal reason for returning to Cedar Bay was Tyler. Yet how noble was her fight to help her son if she couldn’t keep track of him?

      She swerved into the kitchen and spotted a cartoon-patterned cereal bowl, a cup and a mug drying in the dish rack beside her aunt’s porcelain sink. Evidence that they’d eaten together. Jodi’s chest loosened and her breathing eased as she stood beside the potted geraniums lining her aunt’s open windows. Okay. So he was supervised. But where was he?

      A distinct belly laugh followed another duck call outside. Tyler?

      As she pushed out onto the back deck, a fifty-state spoon collection beside the kitchen door swung wildly.

      “Tyler!” She lowered her cupped hands and squinted into the midmorning light. The slanted roof shaded much of the narrow back lawn, its shadow reaching to the uneven rock wall and the stone staircase that led to a wooden dock. Lake Champlain sparkled brighter than a sapphire and for a moment the reflective, rippling waves blinded her.

      She clutched the rail and groped her way down the steps, blinking the spots out of her eyes.

      “Jodi! We’re over here,” called Aunt Grace.

      Relief filled her as she jogged to the dock where her aunt cradled her son on her lap, a familiar young woman with short dark hair and hazel eyes lounging nearby.

      “Sue?” Amazement pulled her up short and the rough planks scraped against her bare feet, her sleep shirt flapping in the lake breeze. She hadn’t seen her since the day they’d bet on which egg would hatch first on her father’s farm.

      Sue lifted a carved duck whistle and blew, making Tyler bring