ebook release April 26 2011

You can always come home.

Second chances come a little harder.

Chase and Zoe were the high school golden couple. Football captain, cheerleader, prom royalty.

After graduation, though, Chase couldn’t resist the urge to experience life outside their small town. He didn’t exactly expect Zoe to wait twelve years for him, but now that he’s back, he finds some small part of him hoping she did.

It’s no big surprise she’s married. The kick in the face is she married his best friend.

Zoe was devastated when Chase left, but she’s filed those bittersweet memories under “Moved On”. She loves her life, and loves her husband. She has all she needs. And Chase keeps an honorable distance.

One cold, wet, miserable day, tragedy turns Zoe’s world upside down. Chase never expected her to simply fall into his arms, but a man can dream. Except his dream doesn’t include the fact that this time, she’s the one hitting the road…and he’s the one left behind.

But he’d just needed to get away. He’d been eighteen, edgy and restless, and the girl who had looked at him with her heart in her eyes had…hell. It had made it worse somehow, because part of him had wanted to stay. Wanted to give her everything she’d wanted and never asked for.

“Get it over with,” he muttered, rubbing a hand up and down his face. “Just get it over with.”

Setting his jaw, he jogged up the steps.

Dad wasn’t expecting him, but that didn’t concern Chase.

The mayor’s office was quiet—half of the staff out to lunch.

The secretary, though, she recognized Chase and with a beaming smile, ushered him in.

In his dad’s office, a faint smile curling his lips, he studied the certificates, plaques and pictures on the walls.

His dad, the mayor. From small town police officer, to chief of police, to mayor.

What the hell.

One picture caught his eye and he narrowed his eyes, moved closer.

Huh.

Roger. Roger Kirkbride. “I’ll be damned,” Chase murmured. He skimmed the article below and then started to laugh.

Roger had been his best friend in high school. Apparently the guy had decided small town life—and politics—was his thing.

He was Dad’s right-hand man.

Still smirking, Chase set the picture and moved on, studying the rest of the framed pictures.

The third one he picked up wiped the smile from his face and just about knocked the breath right out of his lungs.

Zoe.

His right fist clenched. A sharp pain jabbed into his palm and he looked down, opened it. Dazed, he realized he’d still been holding the necklace.

The door opened and he turned, stared at the man in the doorway.

His father.

All of a sudden, he understood why Zoe had been off limits.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Chase…” A smile creased the older man’s face and he crossed the room.

His father hugged him and Chase briefly returned the embrace.

Briefly.

But then he eased back and looked at the picture he had yet to put down.

Zoe’s wedding picture.

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