Mia Ross - A Place for Family

Hometown Girl Returns...With A Secret

One suitcase is all Amanda Gardner has to her name when she ends up back in Harland, North Carolina. No one knows how the high-powered ad exec, the girl who couldn’t leave town fast enough after high school, lost her glamorous life in California. Everyone’s curious—except John Sawyer. He’s done enough wondering about his childhood best friend over the years. Why she never called...or wrote...or visited. But John’s instinct is to protect Amanda, and something tells him she’s in deep trouble. Will she feel safe enough to trust him—and lean on his strength?

Amanda forced herself to look John squarely in the eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“About Dad? You said that already.”

“No.” Completely unprepared for such a personal exchange, she groped for the right words. “We were best friends, and I never even called you after I left. I never meant to hurt you. I just needed more than I could find in Harland.”

“Y’know, for a long time I prayed you’d decide you made a mistake and come back.” His expression closed up, his eyes darkening with a nasty mix of anger and pain. “You never did.”

Over the years she’d convinced herself that he must have forgotten her and gone on to marry someone who adored him shamelessly. But he was her age—thirty-one—and there was no ring on his left hand.

“I’m here now.”

“Because you’ve got nowhere else to go. I actually think that’s worse.”

As he stalked away from her, she wished there was something she could do to make things right between them.

MIA ROSS

loves great stories. She enjoys reading about fascinating people, long-ago times and exotic places. But only for a little while, because her reality is pretty sweet. Married to her college sweetheart, she’s the proud mom of two amazing kids, whose schedules keep her hopping. Busy as she is, she can’t imagine trading her life for anyone else’s—and she has a pretty good imagination. You can visit her online at www.miaross.com.

A Place for Family

Mia Ross

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Let us not love in word or talk

but in deed and in truth.

—1 John 3:18

For Rob

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

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Excerpt

Chapter One

Perfect. Just perfect.

Amanda Gardner pulled onto the side of the deserted country road as what she’d assumed was steam took on the alarming smell of smoke. To be on the safe side, she shut off the engine and popped the hood release. Not that she’d know what she was looking at, she thought as she left the disabled car. But maybe opening the hood would dispel some of the heat and the engine would start again in a little while.

Sure, she grumbled to herself as she looked through the crack for the rusty latch. And pigs could fly like hummingbirds.

When she touched the hood with her palm, she realized something was very wrong. It felt hot enough to cook eggs over easy, and she instinctively pulled away. Good thing, too. As she backpedaled on her Italian heels through the dusty gravel, the engine burst into flames.

A few months ago, she’d had a promising career in advertising and public relations, and a splashy condo in Malibu. Now, here she stood, completely incapable of doing anything but stare. She was vaguely aware of a strong arm pushing her aside and someone stepping in front of her with a large fire extinguisher. When she recovered enough to get a good look at the man who’d come to her rescue, she gasped in surprise.

John Sawyer.

The rangy farm boy who’d lived in her memories all these years had grown into an Adonis dressed in faded jeans. She thought he’d actually gotten taller, and the pale blue T-shirt he wore sculpted its way around muscles the guys she’d known in Los Angeles couldn’t have built in a year at the gym. Those kinds of muscles you could only get working your entire life on a farm. And this guy had them to spare.

The girls had drooled over him during high school, and now he was absolutely irresistible. He must have to fend off every unattached woman within ten miles. Not that John would even think of refusing female attention, she amended with a little grin. If she remembered correctly, her childhood best friend had always taken all that very much in stride.

Once the flames died down, her rescuer flung open the hood and doused the engine with the last of the foam.

“Whew! That was close.” As he looked at her, she saw no hint of recognition in his summer-blue eyes. “Are you all right, ma’am?”

“Ma’am?” she echoed with a laugh. “Are you serious? You’ve known me since we were four.”

He studied her for a few seconds, then cocked his head like a confused hound. “Amanda?”

The humor of the situation dispelled some of the terror she’d felt watching the car she’d just been sitting in erupt in flames. “I know it’s been a while, but I can’t believe you didn’t recognize me.”

After assessing her from head to toe, he came back to her face with a disapproving frown. “You look a lot different than the last time I saw you.”

Thirteen years ago, she recalled sadly. The day she hugged him goodbye and got on a plane, headed for UCLA.

“I guess so.” Shoving the bittersweet memory aside, she asked, “How have you been?”

“Fine.” He gave her wheels a skeptical look. “Where’d you get this heap?”

“From a girl in California,” Amanda replied as vaguely as possible. Although she was looking directly at John, it was hard not to notice that he was focused on the car. She had a feeling he wasn’t any more pleased about their unexpected reunion than she was.

“Hope you didn’t pay her too much.”

It had cost her a valuable vintage watch, but Amanda thought it was best to keep her dire financial straits to herself. For now, and maybe forever. She hadn’t decided yet. “She gave me a good deal.”

Obviously uncomfortable, he glanced around before meeting her eyes. “So, what brings you by?”

“I had an interview in Kenwood and was on my way back to that cute new B and B outside of Harland.”

“It’s been there ten years.”

Amanda felt a flush creeping over her face, but she forced a smile. “It’s new to me.”

After an awkward silence, he asked, “How’d your interview go?”

“I was overqualified,” she confessed with a sigh. “Just like yesterday and the day before.”

John gave her a long, hard stare. She wasn’t fishing for sympathy, but she didn’t know what to make of his nonreaction. She’d known him most of her life, and she’d never seen him this closed-off. No, she corrected herself. She’d once known him very well, but she’d been gone a long time and hadn’t gone out of her way to keep in touch. They might as well have been strangers.

To avoid his cool gaze, she glanced around at the fields surrounding them. The tractor he’d obviously driven up on sat across the road from her car. It was mid-May, and green shoots of various crops stretched out for what seemed like miles. The buzz of more tractors floated in on the warm breeze, and she took a deep breath of air scented with the first cutting of hay. Accustomed to the exciting, nonstop pace of L.A., she’d forgotten how it felt to stand somewhere and just breathe.

“The place looks great,” she complimented him. “You must be really proud.”

Folding his arms, he pinned her with a suspicious glare. She couldn’t recall his ever being anything but wide open and friendly, and she had a feeling she was one of the few who’d ever seen that scowl on his sun-bronzed face.