Hannah Louise Barkley had no intention of seeing Travis Bodine when she came back to Misery, Texas. Five years before he had demanded she choose between her legal career and their love. Her answer had been to walk away, never forgetting the pain--or the pleasure--of his touch.
Attorney Travis Bone was in torment. His older brother Rafe was about to go on trial for murder, and Hannah was back in Misery. If anybody could save Rafe, it was Hannah. But the very thought of her made him burn with anger as hot as his passion.
Hannah is willing to be Travis’s partner--at law. Soon they’re clashing over a risky plan to clear Rafe’s name. Now they must learn some fast lessons in love. For a good man’s future is at stake--not to mention their own last chance for happiness.
The church was packed by the time Travis arrived. His family’s pew was filled to overflowing with his father, Ben, and his wife, Lavinia, his sisters-in-law, assorted nieces and nephews and that traitor brother of his, Ethan, who didn’t bother to hide his self-satisfied smirk as his gaze roamed over the two spinsters now motioning to Travis.
“Psst! Travis, come sit with us. We saved you a seat.” Olive and Margaret scooted over to make room for him in their pew, looking pleased as preening felines that they’d managed to snare him for the next hour or so.
Reverend Potter was long-winded and known for his boring, officious sermons. This being Easter Sunday the service would probably extend beyond the sixty-minute norm.
Shooting his brother a dagger-filled look that promised retribution before the day was through, Travis nodded his acceptance to the two women and took the seat they proffered, fighting the urge to groan.
The organist began to play Amazing Grace, one of his favorite hymns, saving him from engaging the two spinsters in conversation. Just as he was about to give thanks to the Almighty for sparing him that much, the doors at the back of the church opened, admitting a shaft of brilliant sunlight down the aisle.
A collective gasp went up. Choking sounds from Olive and Margaret had him turning his head to see what, or who, had caused such a reaction to the normally staid congregation. His mouth unhinged, even as his eyes widened in disbelief.
If he’d been a drinking man, he would have thought himself hung over and his eyes playing tricks on him.
If he’d been a superstitious man, he would have thought that a voodoo curse had been laid at his doorstep.
If he’d been a cowardly man, he would have jumped over the backs of the pews, broken through one of the stained-glass windows, and hightailed it out of town.
For God in all his wisdom couldn’t have been so unjust as to bring Hannah Louise Barkley back into his life.
But he had.
Walking down the aisle, Hannah Louise clutched her father’s arm like a lifeline, ignored the hushed whispers and some not so quiet comments about her arrival, and stared straight ahead at the ancient cleric standing at the podium. She thought surely Reverend Potter would have gone to meet his Maker by now. The man had to be nearing eighty-five and looked as if a stiff wind could topple him from the pulpit.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Travis Bodine seated next to Olive Fasbinder and Margaret Willoughby, her childhood nemeses. Her heart accelerated, and her palms started sweating inside the pristine white-cotton gloves she wore.
It was as if the last five years had never happened. Travis looked just as handsome as she’d remembered--startling blue eyes, thick dark hair--damn him! And damn herself for noticing how the sunlight glinted off of it, how the dimple in his chin made him look boyish, and for being affected by the mere sight of him.
Damn! Damn! Damn!
Sliding into the pew her father indicated, she tried not to feel Travis’s heated stare boring into her back like a drill bit, refused to recognize the tight knot that now centered in the pit of her stomach, and prayed with all her heart that she would survive this day and the many others to follow.
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