Pamela Toth - A Winchester Homecoming

David gave her a lopsided grin, letting his gaze travel down to her feet and back up again.

“Don’t get your hopes up.” Too late, she realized how her remark might have sounded. “It’s hot, and my feet hurt, that’s all.”

“Ah, here’s the Kim we all know and love,” he drawled. “You’ve been so nice to me today that you had me worried. I thought an alien had taken over your body.”

“Better an alien than you.” Instantly she wanted to bite her tongue. “I’m sorry.”

He held up his hand. “No, no. I needed the reality check.”

His wry grin sent shivers through her. More than anything, she wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss that clever mouth. Obviously what she desperately needed after all the enforced togetherness of the last hours was a breather.

Dear Reader,

Breeze into fall with six rejuvenating romances from Silhouette Special Edition! We are happy to feature our READERS’ RING selection, Hard Choices (SE#1561), by favorite author Allison Leigh, who writes, “I wondered about the masks people wear, such as the ‘good’ girl/boy vs. the ‘bad’ girl/boy, and what ultimately hardens or loosens those masks. Annie and Logan have worn masks that don’t fit, and their past actions wouldn’t be considered ideal behavior. I hope readers agree this is a thought-provoking scenario!”

We can’t get enough of Pamela Toth’s WINCHESTER BRIDES miniseries as she delivers the next book, A Winchester Homecoming (SE#1562). Here, a world-weary heroine comes home only to find her former flame ready to reignite their passion. MONTANA MAVERICKS: THE KINGSLEYS returns with Judy Duarte’s latest, Big Sky Baby (SE#1563). In this tale, a Kingsley cousin comes home to find that his best friend is pregnant. All of a sudden, he can’t stop thinking of starting a family…with her!

Victoria Pade brings us an engagement of convenience and a passion of inconvenience, in His Pretend Fiancée (SE#1564), the next book in the MANHATTAN MULTIPLES miniseries. Don’t miss The Bride Wore Blue Jeans (SE#1565), the last in veteran Marie Ferrarella’s miniseries, THE ALASKANS. In this heartwarming love story, a confirmed bachelor flies to Alaska and immediately falls for the woman least likely to marry! In Four Days, Five Nights (SE#1566) by Christine Flynn, two strangers are forced to face a growing attraction when their small plane crashes in the wilds.

These moving romances will foster discussion, escape and lots of daydreaming. Watch for more heart-thumping stories that show the joys and complexities of a woman’s world.

Happy reading!

Karen Taylor Richman,

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedicated to readers everywhere who are separated

from their loved ones, whatever the reason, with the

sincere hope that you find your way home again soon.

USA TODAY bestselling author Pamela Toth was born in Wisconsin, but grew up in Seattle where she attended the University of Washington and majored in art. Now living on the Puget Sound area’s east side, she has two daughters, Erika and Melody, and two Siamese cats.

Recently she took a lead from one of her romances and married her high school sweetheart, Frank. When she’s not writing, she enjoys traveling with her husband, reading, playing FreeCell on the computer, doing counted cross-stitch and researching new story ideas. She’s been an active member of Romance Writers of America since 1982.

She loves hearing from readers and can be reached at P.O. Box 5845, Bellevue, WA 98006. For a personal reply, a stamped, self-addressed envelope is appreciated.

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

Kim Winchester stood frozen in the open stable doorway, her initial shock turning to disgust as she stared at the couple locked in a passionate embrace between the rows of stalls.

She had never dreamed he could act this way, too caught up in kissing the woman coiled around him like a snake to even care that his betrayal would break Kim’s heart. He had insisted over and over how important she was to him, but right now it was clear he’d forgotten her very existence.

Tears filled Kim’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She felt devastated and sick, but she had no intention of slinking away quietly and pretending she hadn’t seen the two of them.

“Oh, isn’t this just too, too cozy,” she drawled, sauntering into the light as though she didn’t have a care in the world, pleased beneath the hurt as the couple sprang apart. “You two make me want to barf.”

She’d half expected to see a gleam of triumph in Emily’s eyes, but instead the other woman looked totally mortified.

“Kim,” she pleaded, eyes wide.

Kim ignored her entreaty. “I knew you were after him!” She shook an accusing finger in Emily’s face. “I could tell by the way you practically drooled when we saw you in town.” Did Emily think she was blind or just naive?

It was obvious that the older woman could think of nothing to say in her own defense, but Kim’s feeling of vindication was immediately wiped away when he stepped in front of Emily. Protecting her.

He didn’t look embarrassed. Quite the contrary. His thick brows were bunched into a thunderous frown, and he was glaring at Kim. Bristling with disapproval.

How could he be so mean, siding with this woman he barely knew, against his own daughter?

David Major was headed in the general direction of Denver with classic country cranked up on the stereo and the car windows rolled down to let in the rush of warm air. Idly he glanced at the fields of dried stubble on either side of the road, the barren expanse occasionally broken by a cluster of jutting buildings before it marched to the distant horizon. Each fancy new hotel complex, set well away from the main road and dwarfed by the empty prairie surrounding it, managed to appear as out of place in flat, rural Colorado as satin panties on a sow.

Who would have thought a decade ago when he’d first moved here from noisy, smelly, crowded L.A. that he’d grow to appreciate the open spaces, the distant mountains and the clean, dry air? That he’d find work he enjoyed and a home he loved on a cattle ranch, of all places?

Up ahead of him appeared the jagged line of manmade white peaks that topped the Denver airport terminal. They were supposed to symbolize the Rocky Mountains, but looked instead more like a row of oversize canvas teepees than anything found in nature.

Adam Winchester had broken his leg the day before, so David was here in his stepfather’s place to meet Kim’s plane from Seattle. It was hard to believe that she’d been David’s first real friend in Waterloo, where he’d felt as out of place at the rural school as a sports car at a tractor pull, or to remember that at sixteen he’d been on the brink of a hormone-driven adolescent crush. She had looked beyond his dyed hair and bizarre clothes, much to her father’s initial horror, and befriended him.