Kathleen Creighton - The Sheriff of Heartbreak County

This time, he had the strangest feeling she was saying goodbye.

Joy gave the bridal veil one last twitch, then leaned down to lay her cheek alongside Yancy’s- no, Mary -she must remember to call her Mary from now on. “It’s just perfect-you look absolutely beautiful, sweetie pie.”

She straightened up to look out the windows, checking on the girls. She saw her daughter Carrie prancing across the Hartsville United Methodist Church lawn, showing Susie Grace exactly how she was supposed to scatter the rose petals in her basket. Susie Grace looked absolutely perfect, too, in her frothy yellow flower-girl dress and blue cowboy boots, a wreath of daisies in her red hair.

“Okay, now, stand up,” Joy ordered, turning back to the bride. “Let me have a look at you…okay, no wrinkles…oops-you’ve got a smudge of lipstick…” She stood back, hands on her hips. “Darlin’, have you been kissin’ the groom ahead of time? Now, shame on you.”

Mary gave a guilty giggle. “Guess I just couldn’t help it. You should see him-he looks so adorable in his black Western-style suit-kind of like a riverboat gambler.”

Joy reached for her hands and gave them a squeeze. Her throat was tight with emotion. “Oh, honey-you really have found it, haven’t you? That rainbow you were chasing? The fairy tale…happiness.”

A laugh burst from her dearest friend’s lips, along with a sob. Her lovely green-gold eyes sparked fire…streamed rain.

“Yes,” Mary whispered, and her smile was like the sun breaking through. “Oh, yes.”

has roots deep in the California soil but has relocated to South Carolina. As a child, she enjoyed listening to old-timers’ tales, and her fascination with the past only deepened as she grew older. Today she says she is interested in everything-art, music, gardening, zoology, anthropology and history, but people are at the top of her list. She also has a lifelong passion for writing, and now combines her two loves in romance novels. Her book The Top Gun’s Return won the 2004 RITA ®Award for Best Long Contemporary Novel.