Stephanie Bond - Baby, Come Home

“The perfect summer read.”

—Romance Reviews Today on Sand, Sun…Seduction!

“[My Favorite Mistake] illustrates the author’s gift for

weaving original, brilliant romance that readers

find impossible to put down.”

—Wordweaving.com

“This book is so hot it sizzles.”

—Once Upon a Romance on

She Did a Bad, Bad Thing

“An author who has

remained on my ‘must-buy’ list for years.”

—Romance Reviews Today

“True-to-life, romantic and witty,

as we’ve come to expect from Ms. Bond.”

—The Best Reviews

“Stephanie Bond never fails to entertain me

and deserves to be an auto-buy.”

—Romance Reviews Today

www.mirabooks.co.uk

This book is dedicated to every person

who has answered the call of going home.

Stephanie Bond was raised on a farm

in eastern Kentucky where books—

mostly romance novels—were her number one

form of entertainment, which she credits with

instilling in her “the rhythm of storytelling.”

Years later she answered the call back to books

to create her own stories. She sold her first

manuscript in 1995 and soon left her corporate

programming job to write fiction full-time.

Today Stephanie has over fifty titles to

her name, and lives in midtown Atlanta.

Visit www.stephaniebond.com for more information

about the author and her books.

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

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

“We’re way behind schedule,” Marcus Armstrong announced.

“That’s ridiculous,” Porter Armstrong said, smacking his hand on the desk between them. “We’re way ahead of schedule!”

Kendall Armstrong looked back and forth between his older brother and his younger brother and gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to jump in, like always, to mediate between his stubborn siblings. Serious-minded Marcus had a tendency to be overly cautious, and the more reckless Porter had a predisposition for leaping before he looked—literally. His younger brother had only recently rid himself of the casts on his broken leg and broken arm that had kept him hobbled for the whole summer and most of the fall. With the holidays behind them and a new year begun, everyone was feeling the pressure of the one year plus change that remained on the federal deadline to prove their green experiment of rebuilding the mountain town of Sweetness, Georgia, would work. The brothers had started from nothing—worse than nothing, really. Ten years ago an F5 tornado had flattened their small hometown, sparing human life, but obliterating businesses and homes. The devastation had been the death knell for the tiny town already dwindling in population and economic prosperity. The town council had elected not to reorganize; residents had relocated. When the Armstrongs had arrived a year ago, the roads into Sweetness were choked and overgrown, the land consumed with kudzu vines and littered remains of buildings, vehicles and trees shorn by the twister. Wild animals roamed freely among the rubble. It was as if the outside world had forgotten about Sweetness.

Now, including the two hundred and fifty or so workers the men employed, the hundred or so women who’d come en masse from Broadway, Michigan, in response to an ad the brothers had placed in a local newspaper, looking for women who wanted a fresh start, their children and miscellaneous relatives who had since followed, and various professionals and trade experts who’d come to help them shape the town, the population of Sweetness had grown to— Kendall turned his head to look at the latest number written on the chalkboard by the door—536. “Ahead of schedule?” Marcus said to Porter. “What calendar are you looking at?”

“The same one you’re looking at,” Porter said, jerking his thumb toward the giant calendar that papered the walls of the office.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah!”

They suddenly stopped and looked over at Kendall, who sat in a chair across the room.

“Aren’t you going to weigh in?” Marcus asked.

“You’re just going to sit there?” Porter said.

Kendall pursed his mouth and nodded. “That’s right.” He scooted his seat back against the wall, then made a rolling motion with his hands. “Go ahead, have at each other. Settle this like real men. Porter hasn’t been in a cast for a while.”

Marcus frowned. “You don’t have to be sarcastic.”

Porter scowled. “Yeah, it doesn’t suit you, brother.”

Anger sparked in Kendall’s stomach, sending him to his feet. “Really? Because it feels pretty damn good! I’m tired of constantly trying to wrestle you both back to middle ground. You’re wearing me out. I have half a mind to leave this place and never come back!”

He stopped, surprised but relieved that he’d voiced the thought that had been hovering in the back of his mind for months now. His brothers gaped at him.

“Leave?” Marcus said, sounding alarmed.

“You can’t leave,” Porter said, his eyes wide. “Not now, not when everything is going so well.”

Kendall gave a little laugh—his brother could afford to be cavalier since he’d fallen in love with the town physician, Dr. Nikki Salinger. “Everything is going well for you, Porter. You have Nikki and you’ve started building your own home. You have a reason to stay here.” He stopped, before he said too much. Before he revealed the cause of his increasing restlessness.

But from the way the expressions on his brothers’ faces changed, he knew he’d tipped his hand.

“This is about Amy Bradshaw,” Marcus said.

Porter sighed. “Kendall, why don’t you just call Amy and ask her to come back home?”

Kendall fisted his hands. “How many times do I have to tell you? She told me to leave her alone. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.” He exhaled, shaking his head. “I was able to put her out of my mind when I was in the Air Force, but coming back here dredged things up again.” He stopped, embarrassed, expecting one of his brothers to step in to rib him.

But they didn’t. They just looked at him with such pity, he couldn’t bear it. He was pathetic, he conceded. Amy Bradshaw had left Sweetness over twelve years ago, before the tornado had struck. He’d come home from the Air Force to attend her aunt’s funeral, and Amy had expected to leave with him. But he wasn’t ready to get married. When he’d suggested she stay in Sweetness for a while to give herself time to grieve her aunt’s passing, she’d turned cold. Her parting words were branded in his brain.

You think I’m going to sit in this podunk town and wait for you? Forget it. Goodbye, Kendall. And don’t ever try to contact me.

She’d left. Climbed into her beater Chevy and drove away without looking back.