Homeward Bound. Marin Thomas

      “Hey, man, I don’t want any trouble.”

      The kid turned and lost himself in the crowd. Royce saw the angry sparks in Heather’s green eyes. She opened her mouth, but before she squawked a single protest, he snatched her arm and tugged her toward the exit. He made it as far as the door before she dug in her heels. It was either stop or drag her the rest of the way. He stopped.

      “How dare—”

      “Not now.” He flung open the door. His hand firmly against her back, he propelled her out of the bar.

      The waiter’s eyes widened. “Problem, Mayor?”

      “Problem’s leaving.” He followed Heather outside, grateful she hadn’t put up a bigger fuss. He grinned at the outrage on her face.

      Compared with her teen years, tonight’s rescue had been relatively painless.

      Dear Reader,

      If there’s one thing I dislike, it’s someone telling me I can’t do something. That’s a surefire way to motivate me to prove that person wrong. In that respect, the heroine in this story is a lot like me.

      Royce McKinnon, mayor of Nowhere, Texas, throws down the gauntlet when he tells Heather Henderson she doesn’t have what it takes to run her deceased father’s feed store.

      Royce took Heather under his wing when her mother ran off, leaving a young Heather with a negligent alcoholic father. Heather admits she probably would have turned into a “statistic” if Royce hadn’t kept her in line and in school. But she’s all grown up now and doesn’t want or need Royce’s unsolicited advice.

      Heather is Homeward Bound, not only determined to prove she’s capable of managing an almost-bankrupt business, but also determined to uncover the deep, dark secret she suspects is the real reason Royce doesn’t want her returning to Nowhere.

      Sit back and enjoy the show as Heather challenges Royce’s sanity with her feminine wiles and spunky spirit. Who can resist a small-town girl with an attitude!

      I’m always happy to hear from readers. Please visit me at www.marinthomas.com.

      Happy reading!

      Marin

       Homeward Bound

       Marin Thomas

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To my high school girlfriends from Janesville, Wisconsin—

      Jenny, Lynn, Sue, Holly, Kay and Dana:

      What a talented bunch of girls we were at Craig High School. We had brains, beauty, athletic talent, acting talent, singing talent, musical talent…and even a salutatorian among us. We’ve come a long way in our individual lives and careers. Through the years and across state lines we’ve manage to keep in touch. I treasure our friendships and feel blessed to have so many fond memories of our high school days together…well, except for the spring break trip to Sue’s family cabin our senior year….

      Books by Marin Thomas

      HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

      1024—THE COWBOY AND THE BRIDE

      1050—DADDY BY CHOICE

      Contents

       Prologue

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

      Prologue

      Smoke tendrils curled into the air above the burned wreckage of the single-wide trailer. The debris continued to smolder under the late-May sky, the scorched ruins contrasting starkly with the bold pink-and-rose Texas sunset. The stench of singed fabric, melted rubber and seared wood saturated the air.

      “Sheriff thinks it was accidental.”

      Royce McKinnon shifted his attention from the yellow Caution tape strung around the rubble to his aging foreman, Luke. “Probably was.”

      “Bet my best whittlin’ knife he drunk himself stupid, then passed out with a lit cigarette stuck in his craw.”

      “Wouldn’t be the first time.” Royce rubbed his brow, trying to ease the throb that had plagued him for the past hour. “As soon as the fire inspector gives the okay, I’ll make arrangements to have the wreckage hauled off to the dump.” The trailer fire was the first real catastrophe Royce had had to deal with since being elected the town mayor of Nowhere two years ago.

      Luke shoved a wad of chew between his lip and gum. “You gonna call her tonight?”

      “No.” The her was Heather Henderson. Daughter of the man who’d perished in the fire. Melvin Henderson had never been considered one of Nowhere’s exemplary citizens. Royce had had his share of run-ins with the man over the years—not one of them pleasant.

      He wondered how Heather would take the news of her father’s death. On a scale of one to ten, Henderson had a negative number in the fatherhood department. Heather’s mother had split years ago, leaving her thirteen-year-old daughter at the mercy of a drunk, mean ol’ son of a bitch. In the end, Heather had had no one to care about her.

      Except for you.

      Royce had been nineteen when he’d stumbled upon the teen bawling her eyes out on the loading dock at the back of her father’s feed store. The lost look on her face when she’d sobbed that her mother had run away and left her behind had shaken Royce more than he’d cared to admit at the time.

      That afternoon he’d sympathized with Heather’s grief as if it had been his own. He’d known all too well the feeling of being abandoned. Both his parents had died in a boating accident when he was a young boy. His childless aunt and uncle had taken him in but had treated him no better than one of the cow dogs. They’d given him shelter. Food. A place to sleep. And in return, he’d worked his butt off, learning how to raise cattle and work around a ranch—not an easy task for a boy who’d lived in Southern