EXCERPT

Chapter One

Trish Clayborne sat in the warmth of her car at the stop sign, blinking away the tears filling her eyes. Home. She was almost home.

From the intersection of the county road and the main street of town, Desperation, Oklahoma, resembled something out of a foggy dream. Colorful, twinkling lights draped the storefronts, and giant red and white candy canes adorned each of the street lights. A misty haze, caused by the remnant of the dusting of snow that barely covered the ground, created halos around the lights and gave the deserted street an eeriness that contradicted the friendliness of the town and its inhabitants.

Trish had grown to love Desperation and everyone in it after she and her sister, Kate, had arrived to live with their father’s sister eleven years earlier. Aunt Aggie had quickly filled the void left by the death of their parents in a tornado, and the people had accepted them with open arms. The sisters had both thrived and become a part of the community. It was home, and Trish was grateful to be back after having been gone for six weeks on a book promotion tour that had seemed to last forever.

It wasn’t until the flashing lights of a sheriff’s cruiser filled the interior of her car that she realized she had been sitting at the intersection for more than several minutes. Dread filled every fiber of her being. The last man she wanted to see was probably behind the wheel of the cruiser.

The sheriff approached, casting a shadow into the car. Slowly, wishing she could disappear, Trish pushed the button to roll down her window. But instead of greeting the sheriff with a smile, she continued to stare at the misty scene before her, hoping the knitted cap she wore would hide her blonde hair and her identity until she could stop her heart from racing.

“Having car trouble, miss?”

She turned slowly, wishing she could be anyplace but where she was.

“You’re back,” Morgan Rule said, his voice flat and matter-of-fact.

She tried her best to ignore his frown and the lack of emotion in his voice. “You knew I’d be home before Kate’s wedding and Christmas.”

“The wedding is a week away. You could have stayed and done some sightseeing.”

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep the tears at bay. Not long ago, this man had loved her, had wanted to marry her. They’d planned a future together. But something had happened to change him. He wasn’t a man who wore his emotions on his sleeve, but somewhere, sometime he had forgotten how to smile and apparently to love.

“Whose car is this?” he asked, stepping back and taking it all in with one long look.

“Mine. I bought it with money from the sale of my book.” Money she had planned to spend on their wedding.

His dark eyebrows shot up as he turned his attention back to her. “I thought you couldn’t drive.”

“I’ve known how to drive since high school, I just never did. You know that.”

“Yeah, maybe I do. Maybe I forgot. Easy to do when you’re not around to remind me.”

“Out of sight, out of mind?” she asked, and instantly wished she hadn’t.

“Something like that.”

He hadn’t been out of her mind. Not for a minute. And now that they were alone, with no one to hear, maybe they could find a way to work things out. “Can we call a truce, Morgan? For the holidays, if nothing else.”

“A truce? Are you saying you want to be friends? Is that it?”

She nodded, hoping to somehow regain what they had lost when she left. He was a good man, kind and gentle, a serious man who cared deeply for others, but rarely let it show. If only she could find that man who’d changed six months ago.

Placing his hands on the window opening, he leaned down, his dark gaze connecting with hers. “Our wedding was cancelled. You had other things to do. I don’t see a reason to be friends.”

“I postponed our wedding,” she pointed out, while attempting to remain calm. “You were the one who cancelled it.”

A flicker of emotion crossed his face, something she couldn’t recognize, and was gone. His eyes betrayed nothing.

Without thinking, she laid her gloved hand on his. “Now that the tour is finished——”

“What’s done is done.” Pulling his hand away, he avoided looking at her.

She had hoped he would be more reasonable than he’d been six weeks ago, and it was breaking her heart that he hadn’t changed. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Taking a step back, he focused on her, his gaze intent. “When are you leaving again?”

The question caught her off guard. It was clear the subject of a truce and rediscovering at least their friendship if not their love was closed. “I don’t know that I am,” she answered.

His nod was short and curt. “To make this easier on both of us, here’s what we do. I’ll avoid you and you avoid me. There’s no reason to get everyone in town talking——and you know they will, no matter what——so let’s just be civil when we do run into each other.”

Civil? Was this his idea of being civil? She didn’t know what had happened back in June, but whatever it was, it had changed him. And she didn’t like this man he had become.

Knowing that arguing would be useless, she shrugged her shoulders and stared out the windshield at the lights. “If that’s the way you want it.”

“It is.”

Her heart ached, but she wouldn’t let him see how much she was hurting. “Then I’d better be getting home. Aunt Aggie and Kate are probably wondering where I am.”

When he didn’t respond, she slipped the gearshift into drive, looked both ways and proceeded slowly across the street, headed for the Clayborne farm a few miles beyond town. Temptation drew her gaze to the rearview mirror as she rolled up her window, and she could see Morgan standing in the street where she’d left him. He wasn’t watching her, just staring at the spot where she’d been. Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket, he turned for the cruiser, its lights fading away behind her, adding to the eerie glow of the night.

With a sigh, she tried to focus on the road ahead, but her mind was on what needed to be done and just how she would do it. She had thought when she’d sold the children’s book she’d written that life would be rosy. She’d been engaged to a wonderful and well-respected man, and they’d been planning their upcoming wedding.

And then her publisher had offered her the chance to promote her book with a book signing tour. As far as she was concerned, it was a one time thing, not something she planned to do again, and she had been excited, even though it meant taking a leave of absence from teaching her second grade class. Morgan had instantly hated the idea and had threatened to cancel the wedding. The night before she left on the tour, after they’d made love, he announced that the engagement was off and he was canceling the wedding. She begged him to reconsider. When he wouldn’t, she insisted that he at least tell her why, but he’d refused to give an explanation. She still didn’t know the reason.

And now she needed him more than ever, but she hadn’t decided how she would tell him the news she had. Not with him still feeling the way he had six weeks ago when she’d left town.

    

© 2010 Roxann Delaney