Glynna Kaye - Mountain Country Courtship

His Hometown Romance

After being jilted at the altar, the last place Denny Hunter wants to be is in his hometown. Yet he’s back in Hunter Ridge renovating a run-down old inn with the lovely Lillian Keene. He doesn’t know she’s a runaway bride—or that her niece has serious matchmaking plans. But in this Hearts of Hunter Ridge book, Denny and Lillian discover that the most important restoration starts with the heart.

GLYNNA KAYE treasures memories of growing up in small Midwestern towns—and vacations spent with the Texan side of the family. She traces her love of storytelling to the times a houseful of great-aunts and great-uncles gathered with her grandma to share candid, heartwarming, poignant and often humorous tales of their youth and young adulthood. Glynna now lives in Arizona, where she enjoys gardening, photography and the great outdoors.

Also By Glynna Kaye

Hearts of Hunter Ridge

Rekindling the Widower’s Heart

Claiming the Single Mom’s Heart

The Pastor’s Christmas Courtship

The Nanny Bargain

Mountain Country Cowboy

Mountain Country Courtship

Dreaming of Home

Second Chance Courtship

At Home in His Heart

High Country Hearts

A Canyon Springs Courtship

Pine Country Cowboy

High Country Holiday

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Mountain Country Courtship

Glynna Kaye

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08249-5

MOUNTAIN COUNTRY COURTSHIP

© 2018 Glynna Kaye Sirpless

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

It starts with just a little hope...

“It was good seeing you.”

“You, too.”

But when Lillian moved off in the direction of her car, Denny couldn’t help but call after her. “Should we get together tonight?”

She halted and looked in his direction, her eyes widening slightly.

“I mean to narrow down the colors—with your aunt, too, of course.”

“Daylight would be better for that, don’t you think?”

“Noontime tomorrow, then? I can pick up sub sandwiches and we can make it a working lunch out in the garden.”

She hesitated for the briefest moment, then nodded. “Okay, sure. I’ll see you then.”

For whatever reason, Denny whistled a merry tune all the way to his car.

For the first time in recent memory, he was not in that much of a hurry at the moment to get himself out of Hunter Ridge...

Dear Reader,

While Lillian may be the only one of the pair who chose to flee from the altar, both she and Denny clearly have “runaway hearts” needing to be healed. Despite a longing to love and be loved, both hold misconceptions about themselves and others that have built barriers only our loving Heavenly Father can break down. Only He can show them that they must first accept His love in order to unlock the bolted doors to their hearts.

Have you accepted the love God offers to you? He’s there, ready and waiting, with open arms. For “this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” There is no greater gift that’s ever been given.

I must admit that saying goodbye to a beloved Arizona mountain town in this final book of the Hearts of Hunter Ridge series is bittersweet. It’s been a time of change for the little community, and I’ve enjoyed exploring with you the lives and loves of the men and women who have always called this place home, who once fled its city limits and returned, or who stepped into the little community for the very first time—all with connections, either family or friend, to the Hunters of Hunter Ridge. I hope you’ve enjoyed your visits there, as well!

You can contact me at Love Inspired Books, 195 Broadway, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10007. And please stop by glynnakaye.comand Seekerville.blogspot.com, which is designated as one of Writer’s Digest magazine’s 101 Best Websites for Writers. We love readers, too!

Glynna Kaye

Herein is love, not that we loved God,

but that he loved us, and sent his Son

to be the propitiation for our sins.

—1 John 4:10

Therefore if any man be in Christ,

he is a new creature: old things are passed away;

behold, all things are become new.

—2 Corinthians 5:17

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;

but the greatest of these is charity.

—1 Corinthians 13:13

To my Heavenly Father, who gifted me with

a love of storytelling and who has walked

alongside me every step of the way. And to my

faithful readers, who make the ups and downs

of writing a book totally worth the journey.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

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

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

The honor of your presence is requested

at the marriage of

Corrine Elizabeth Anton

and

Victor Andersen Gyles

Two o’clock in the afternoon

Saturday, October...

With an exasperated shake of his head, Hayden “Denny” Hunter crammed the summons and RSVP back into the envelope, then tossed it into an open briefcase sitting on the parked Porsche’s leather passenger seat. When packing for an unavoidable business trip to “hometown” Hunter Ridge in mountain country Arizona, he’d come across the invitation he’d ignored a few days earlier. So why had he brought it along with him, let alone opened it once he arrived at his destination?

He’d like to believe he was inadvertently added to the invitation list by someone not comprehending the complexity of the situation—that his older stepbrother’s betrothed had only in June left Denny standing at the altar, and that after a prolonged absence from the family hotel business, that same stepbrother had also swooped in to carry off a promotion Denny had worked long and hard for.