Sweet Return
Authors: Anna Jeffrey
Praise for the Novels
of Anna Jeffrey
Salvation, Texas
“Anna Jeffrey continues to demonstrate her spectacular storytelling talents…. A first-class romantic suspense tale.”
—
Affaire de Couer
“[E]xciting…Readers will enjoy Anna Jeffrey’s fine thriller.”
—
Midwest Book Review
“It was a treat to read a good book set in Texas that really felt authentic. The people in this book were not just pretty folks in Wranglers and Ropers—they felt like they belonged there.”
—All About Romance
“A good solid read, with great characters and a fast-paced plot. Do yourself a favor and pick it up, and while you are at it, clear your plans for the evening!”
—Romance Reader at Heart
Sweet Water
“Jeffrey mixes just the right amounts of soft, sweet, and funny, making Agua Dulce hard to resist.”
—
Detroit Free Press
“
Sweet Water
…is filled with wonderfully complex characters whose personalities are gradually revealed. There are no easy answers for any of them, but the ones they find are mostly happy and satisfyingly realistic. A pleasurable read!”
—
Romantic Times
“A warm contemporary romance starring amiable lead protagonists and a town of eccentrics who meddle, matchmake, and mother the stars…. Fans will enjoy this slice of life in West Texas.”
—The Best Reviews
“Refreshing, appealing, and authentically romantic…Moving and sensual,
Sweet Water
is not soon forgotten.”
—Michelle Buonfiglio, Romance: B(u)y the Book
“
Sweet Water
is her best yet! Sexy, tender…romantic doesn’t begin to describe how wonderful this story is.”
—Romance Junkies
The Love of a Lawman
“Real characters come to life in this heart-wrenching tale littered with imperfect characters readers come to love and root for.”
—
Rendezvous
“Engaging…The story line is loaded with action and the cast is a strong ensemble…a warm romantic tale.”
—The Best Reviews
“If you like well-written, character-driven romances…with engaging characters and lots of internal conflict, I highly recommend
The Love of a Lawman
.”
—Romance Reviews Today
The Love of a Stranger
“Delicious…a riveting read.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Fun…a delightful, solid novel.”
—
Midwest Book Review
The Love of a Cowboy
“This book is on fire! Intense, romantic, and fiercely tender…an authentic and powerful love story.”
—Joan Johnston,
New York Times
bestselling author of
The Cowboy
“Anna Jeffrey delivers a big, bold, and passionate story of second chances and starting over. Curl up and enjoy!”
—Susan Wiggs,
New York Times
bestselling author
“
The Love of a Cowboy
is a truly remarkable debut from a writer who is bound for superstardom!”
—Katherine Sutcliffe,
USA Today
bestselling author
“Anna Jeffrey’s debut novel,
The Love of a Cowboy
, is a welcome rarity in contemporary romance because its hero and heroine are kept apart by real obstacles…. Jeffrey writes a straightforward narrative and moves her plot along nicely. Dahlia and Luke are fully developed characters who’ll have you wincing over their hurts and sharing their joys.”
—
Romantic Times
“One of the most satisfying endings that I’ve read lately. This one is a keeper—a book I’d read again. Anna Jeffrey has penned a passionate story of unconditional love and second chances. I highly recommend this book because I couldn’t put it down.”
—
Romance Fiction Guide
A
LSO BY
A
NNA
J
EFFREY
Salvation, Texas
Sweet Water
The Love of a Lawman
The Love of a Stranger
The Love of a Cowboy
Sweet Return
Anna Jeffrey
SIGNET ECLIPSE
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Signet Eclipse, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Jeffery McClanahan, 2007
All rights reserved
SIGNET ECLIPSE
and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
ISBN: 1-4295-7902-1
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
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As always, this is for my biggest fans—my husband,
George, and my daughter, Adrienne
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thanks to my neighbor, a retired oilman, for advising me on oil well drilling. Though I grew up in the West Texas oil patch, I’ve been away from it for many years and he helped refresh my memory.
Thanks also to hardworking, egg-laying hens everywhere. We really do take those birds for granted.
Chapter 1
Saturday, 1 a.m.
The headlights of Joanna Walsh’s pickup cast two wide fans of gold over a highway so dark it looked like black water. She had met only two cars since leaving the city limits of Hatlow, Texas. She saw just one other vestige of civilization. It showed in the form of occasional narrow columns of white lights from distant drilling rigs spearing the black sky like javelins.
Still half an hour from Lubbock, she pressed the accelerator more firmly—eighty, eighty-five, ninety…
Beside her, swallowed up by an old brown barn coat, Clova Cherry, her friend of thirteen years, huddled in the passenger seat. “I asked ’em if he’s gonna make it,” she said, “but they didn’t give me no answer. I don’t know what I’ll do if he don’t make it.”
The “he” was Clova’s twenty-nine-year-old son, Lane. Joanna heard the quaver in the older woman’s voice, heard the fear, not just for Lane’s well-being, but for her very future.
The phone call from Lubbock Memorial Hospital had come to Clova an hour earlier. Life Flight had choppered Lane to the hospital after EMTs pulled him from his pickup truck, which was found overturned in a ditch beside the highway that ran between Hatlow and Lovington, New Mexico. Clova, in turn, had awakened Joanna from a sound sleep and asked that she drive her the seventy-five miles from Hatlow to Lubbock. As one of the few friends Clova had, Joanna wouldn’t have dreamed of saying no.
“He’ll make it,” Joanna said with confidence she didn’t feel. She knew of too many times Hatlow citizens had been killed on the desolate Wacker County highways. Too often, the isolation of the locale and the monotony of an unremarkable, arrow-straight highway made drivers assume exceeding the speed limit was safe. On that thought, Joanna lifted her right foot and dropped her speed back to eighty. “Maybe he’s just got a few broken bones.”
“I’m prayin’ for that. God knows he’s had ’em before.”