Kathryn Springer - Longing for Home

Big Fish In A Small Pond

It seems like the perfect solution: hotel mogul Alex Porter will manage his sister’s small-town bed-and-breakfast while she honeymoons. But he gets more than he bargained for when he finds himself clashing with feisty café owner Kate Nichols. Suddenly he’s organizing church outings and playing surrogate dad to the foster children Kate takes in. Alex is used to taking charge—but not like this! If he isn’t careful, this big-city executive just might lose his heart to Mirror Lake’s favorite hometown girl.

“Find a place to sit. I’ll be right with…”

You.

Kate felt a sudden disconnect between her brain and her voice when she spotted the man standing just inside the entrance, backlit by the morning sun.

Alex Porter, in the flesh.

In her café.

She’d sat right next to Abby in church the day before and her friend hadn’t warned—told—her that Alex would be in Mirror Lake.

A week early.

Their eyes met over the counter and Kate’s heart did a backflip. As impossible as it seemed, the man was even more good-looking than she remembered.

“Abby sounded a little stressed out the last time I talked to her,” he said. The rough velvet voice had a serrated edge that immediately put Kate on the defensive. “I decided to drive up a few days early to help out.”

Kate knew better. Men like Alex Porter didn’t help out. They took over. And the guy probably didn’t have a clue that he’d been the cause of Abby’s stress.

KATHRYN SPRINGER

is a lifelong Wisconsin resident. Growing up in a “newspaper” family, she spent long hours as a child plunking out stories on her mother’s typewriter and hasn’t stopped writing since! She loves to write inspirational romance because it allows her to combine her faith in God with her love of a happy ending.

Longing for Home

Kathryn Springer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Love Inspired!

2012 is a very special year for us. It marks the fifteenth anniversary of Love Inspired. Hard to believe that fifteen years ago, we first began publishing our warm and wonderful inspirational romances.

Back in 1997, we offered readers three books a month. Since then we’ve expanded quite a bit! In addition to the heartwarming contemporary romances of Love Inspired, we have the exciting romantic suspenses of Love Inspired Suspense, and the adventurous historical romances of Love Inspired Historical. Whatever your reading preference, we’ve got fourteen books a month for you to choose from now!

Throughout the year we’ll be celebrating in several different ways. Look for books by bestselling authors who’ve been writing for us since the beginning, stories by brand-new authors you won’t want to miss, special miniseries in all three lines, reissues of top authors and much, much more.

This is our way of thanking you for reading Love Inspired books. We know our uplifting stories of hope, faith and love touch your hearts as much as they touch ours.

Join us in celebrating fifteen amazing years of inspirational romance!

Blessings,

Melissa Endlich and Tina James

Senior Editors of Love Inspired Books

In loving memory of Lois A. Goldsmith

June 29, 1916–February 27, 2011

* * *

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

—1 Corinthians 13:13

Contents

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

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

“Sit.” Kate Nichols took one look at her best friend’s face and pointed to an empty booth by the window. “I’ll be right back with a piece of pie.”

“Just bring the whole thing.” Abby Porter’s sigh stirred the wisps of honey-blond hair on her forehead. “And a fork.”

Kate shot her a sympathetic look. “That bad, huh?”

“Let’s put it this way—for the past twenty-four hours I’ve been seriously contemplating a destination wedding,” Abby said darkly.

“Mmm. Could be fun,” Kate mused. “What’s the destination?”

“Oh, possibly a tent in the middle of the Sahara. Maybe a remote tropical island.” Abby’s silver-green eyes narrowed. “Jupiter.”

Kate tried not to smile as she retrieved a piece of triple berry pie from the revolving dessert case near the cash register and topped it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

She set the plate and a carafe of fresh coffee down on the table in front of Abby before sliding into the opposite side of the booth. “Interesting choices but I’m not sure I see a pattern. What’s the criteria?”

“There’s only one,” Abby admitted as she attacked the pie. “Somewhere my brother can’t find me.”

Kate suppressed a smile. “I hate to be the one who breaks this to you, but I’m pretty sure the ‘tent in the Sahara’ thing won’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Because Alex probably holds stock in some high-tech spy satellite. He’d track you down in no time.”

Abby frowned as she considered that. “Scratch that one, then. Tropical island?”

“Definitely a no go unless you’re willing to choose a new maid of honor. My hair and humidity are sworn enemies.” To prove her point, Kate tweaked a flame-colored curl that seemed to have doubled in size since she’d unlocked the door of the Grapevine Café at six o’clock that morning. “Not to mention that Alex has a yacht.”

“You’re right.” The words tumbled out with Abby’s sigh. “I guess that leaves Jupiter.”

“Uh-uh.” Kate leaned forward and lowered her voice a notch. “He owns it.”

“Kate!” Abby choked back a laugh.

Kate simply looked at her.

“Okay, because there’s a slight—very slight, mind you—chance that you’re right, I’ll take Jupiter off the list, too,” Abby grumbled.

“And several other planets in the solar system,” Kate said under her breath.

They shared a grin.

“All right.” Abby gave up. “It looks like I’m back to where I started. Getting married at the inn.”

Which was, Kate knew, exactly the place that Abby and her fiancé, Quinn O’Halloran, wanted to exchange their vows.

Shortly after the couple announced their engagement, Alex Porter had done his best to persuade Abby to hold the wedding in the grand ballroom of a swanky Chicago hotel. One of—count them—four swanky hotels the Porter family happened to own in the midwest.

It was clear the wealthy executive didn’t think that a small ceremony and outdoor reception were good enough for his only sibling.

If she were Abby, Kate would be contemplating Jupiter, too. Either that or sending the guy on a one-way trip to the moon.

Not, Kate thought, that it would do any good. The man possessed both the ways and means to find his way back.

Alex Porter was nothing if not…resourceful. Creatively, ingeniously and, yes, sometimes even scarily resourceful.

He’d proven that the previous summer when he’d secretly hired Quinn O’Halloran, a local security systems expert and former bodyguard, to keep an eye on Abby when she’d moved to Mirror Lake.

Kate had found out the whole story after she and Abby became friends. How Alex had hoped his sister would give up what he considered to be a foolish dream—turning an old Bible camp on the lake into a bed-and-breakfast—and return to Chicago where she belonged. How the plan had backfired when Abby and Quinn fell in love.