Kristina Knight - Famous In A Small Town

Lifestyles of the small-town famous

Forced to leave Nashville after a scandal, Savannah Walters has come home to Slippery Rock, Missouri, with a bruised ego and her singing career in jeopardy. As if that isn’t humiliating enough, on her way into town she’s rescued by her swoon-worthy childhood crush, Collin Tyler.

His hands are full running the family orchard and dealing with his delinquent teen sister, so Collin doesn’t need to get involved with someone as fiery and unpredictable as Savannah. But the intense attraction between them can’t be denied. And when disaster strikes, they’ll both be surprised by who’s still standing when the dust settles.

“Should I start another song, or should we...?”

Start another song, he wanted to say, but didn’t.

He had the orchard to build.

He had Gran and Amanda to support and, despite her reluctance to return to Slippery Rock, their other sister, Mara.

He wasn’t about to mess up the plans he had for a night with Savannah Walters, no matter how tempted he was to continue caressing her curves.

Reluctantly, Collin loosened Savannah’s hands from his neck and stepped back.

“Thanks for the dance. I’ll see you around,” he said and quickly left the bar, calling himself all kinds of a coward for doing so.

It shouldn’t matter who she was. It should only matter that she was a willing woman, he was a willing man and it had been nearly a full year since he’d...

But it did matter.

Savannah Walters was not the kind of woman to mess around with.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoy this first book in my new Slippery Rock series, Famous in a Small Town. Slippery Rock is a place that was born out of my past—I grew up in a small town near Truman Lake in Missouri. There are many man-made lakes in Missouri—most were made to help farmers and ranchers with irrigation, and most have been turned into tourist attractions. Despite the growth of these towns, they still have that mom-and-pop feel, with town squares and main streets, and where people still wave at one another as they pass by in their cars.

Famous in a Small Town is special to me because of the setting, but also because I wanted to write about a family like mine. My husband and I adopted our daughter through the foster care system, and while she doesn’t have the attachment issues that Savannah does, we’ve faced other hurdles, and those hurdles drew us closer together. An adoption quote that’s very special goes: “Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what.” That is the kind of family that both Savannah and Collin find...and it is the kind of love and family that I hope all of you find, too.

Have a great read!

Kristina Knight

Famous in a Small Town

Kristina Knight

www.millsandboon.co.uk

KRISTINA KNIGHTdecided she wanted to be a writer, like her favorite soap opera heroine, Felicia Gallant, one cold day when she was home sick from school. She took a detour into radio and television journalism but never forgot her first love of romance novels, or her favorite character from her favorite soap. In 2012 she got The Call from an editor who wanted to buy her book. Kristina lives in Ohio with her handsome husband, incredibly cute daughter and two dogs.

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For my Brainstormers: Connie, Jill, Jenna, Sloan, Katelynn, Shay. You inspire so much laughter, you offer such unreserved friendship, and I appreciate you all to the moon and back. xoxo ~ K

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Julie Kyer, who answered question after question about reactive attachment disorder (RAD), the foster care system, family counseling and adoptive family dynamics. It takes a special kind of person to be a social worker, and Julie is one of those special people. I am forever thankful for her friendship, and for her willingness to be an advocate for children everywhere.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Acknowledgment

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

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

DECISION TIME.

Savannah Walters sat staring at the faded red stop sign at a crossroads—one would lead her into complete anonymity and the other back to a place where everyone knew who she was.

Anonymity beckoned, slick and sweet. A simple left-hand turn onto the southbound lane of a rural highway in southwestern Missouri. She would roll the windows down in her old Honda, smell the freshly mowed highway grass and maybe pass a tractor or twelve before she hit the next town, a town with a bigger road leading to an interstate that would lead her...anywhere.

She hit the turn signal even though there were no other cars on this stretch of blacktop and listened to the click-click-click of it for a long moment. All she had to do was make the turn. This was her chance. A bigger chance than the one she’d taken when she’d elected to go to Nashville. A bigger chance than the one she’d taken to get onto the reality talent show that had made the Nashville move possible. No one would ever have to know she was that Savannah Walters again.

Hell, if she wanted, she could change her name completely and maybe cut off the signature micro-braids she’d spent three days installing, then no one would even make a tiny connection between her and about-to-fall-from-grace, one-hit-wonder Savannah Walters. She could be anything and anyone she wanted. The thought made her giddy. If she could, she would choose to be smart, strong and capable, rather than the dumb, weak and dependent person she’d been since she’d landed in Slippery Rock, Missouri, at the age of seven.

Her second-chance self would have a name like Nancy Smith because there had to be a million Nancy Smiths in the world. Nancy Smith would only sing in the shower or in the car with her windows rolled up. She would work as a bank teller and wear normal clothes without a single rhinestone, and maybe once she was settled she’d go to dental hygienist school. She would eventually buy a small house in a quiet neighborhood, and maybe she would meet a nice guy—not in a bar—and have a real relationship for the first time in her twenty-seven years.

Savannah’s heart a beat a little faster. Nancy Smith wouldn’t care what people thought of her. She would be stronger than that. Stronger than Savannah Walters, who had been afraid of what people thought of her for...most of her life.

Nancy Smith would not be afraid, but she also wouldn’t be reckless. There would be no judgmental dinner conversations, no too-high expectations and no comparisons to a brother who always did the right thing. She would be the opposite of Savanna Walters of Slippery Rock.