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Where He Belongs
Gail Barrett
THE HARDEST TASK HE'D EVER FACE…Tongues wagged when Millstown's resident bad boy roared into town on the back of his Harley. Only a dire emergency could bring Wade Winslow back to the place where he'd never belonged and never would. But now someone else needed his help–the trusting young girl who'd given herself to him……in a searing night of lovemaking Erin McCuen would never forget. Then Wade left town, taking her heart with him. Twelve years later the lanky boy who's been her biggest defender was back–a risk-taking smoke-jumper tempting her with a passion that stunned them both.With Erin by his side, was Wade ready to slay the dragons of the past and take the biggest risk of all?
“Erin.”
His deep voice sent chills along Erin’s arms, and brought back a rush of sensation. That hot, pulsing night at the river. Whispered words and shocking pleasure. The devastating sound of goodbye.
His gaze stayed on hers for a moment, then dipped and traveled the length of her. Her pulse tripped, and for a wild second she wished she’d changed into something more appealing. But she’d kept on her faded jeans and sweatshirt to convince herself Wade didn’t matter.
His eyes met hers again as the cold wind whipped through the door. He looked tougher than before, stronger. Her gaze lingered on the lean cheeks and hard jaw beneath the stubble, his tanned and sinewed neck.
The lanky, sexy boy she’d loved had become an outrageously appealing man….
Dear Reader,
Well, we’re getting into the holiday season full tilt, and what better way to begin the celebrations than with some heartwarming reading? Let’s get started with Gina Wilkins’s The Borrowed Ring, next up in her FAMILY FOUND series. A woman trying to track down her family’s most mysterious and intriguing foster son finds him and a whole lot more—such as a job posing as his wife! A Montana Homecoming, by popular author Allison Leigh, brings home a woman who’s spent her life running from her own secrets. But they’re about to be revealed, courtesy of her childhood crush, now the local sheriff.
This month, our class reunion series, MOST LIKELY TO…, brings us Jen Safrey’s Secrets of a Good Girl, in which we learn that the girl most likely to…do everything disappeared right after college. Perhaps her secret crush, a former professor, can have some luck tracking her down overseas? We’re delighted to have bestselling Blaze author Kristin Hardy visit Special Edition in the first of her HOLIDAY HEARTS books. Where There’s Smoke introduces us to the first of the devastating Trask brothers. The featured brother this month is a handsome firefighter in Boston. And speaking of delighted—we are absolutely thrilled to welcome RITA
Award nominee and Red Dress Ink and Intimate Moments star Karen Templeton to Special Edition. Although this is her first Special Edition contribution, it feels as if she’s coming home. Especially with Marriage, Interrupted, in which a pregnant widow meets up once again with the man who got away—her first husband—at her second husband’s funeral. We know you’re going to enjoy this amazing story as much as we did. And we are so happy to welcome brand-new Golden Heart winner Gail Barrett to Special Edition. Where He Belongs, the story of the bad boy who’s come back to town to the girl he’s never been able to forget, is Gail’s first published book.
So enjoy—and remember, next month we continue our celebration….
Gail Chasan
Senior Editor
Where He Belongs
Gail Barrett
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
GAIL BARRETT
always dreamed of becoming a writer. After living everywhere from Spain to the Bahamas, raising two children and teaching high school Spanish for years, she finally fulfilled that lifelong goal. Her writing has won numerous awards, including Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart. Gail currently lives in western Maryland with her two sons, a quirky Chinook dog and her own Montana rancher turned retired Coast Guard officer hero. Write to her at P.O. Box 65, Funkstown, Maryland 21734-0065, or visit her Web site, www.gailbarrett.com.
Dear Reader,
What a pleasure this is to introduce you to my debut novel, Where He Belongs, and especially to its hero, Wade Winslow. From the moment I began writing this book, Wade intrigued me, not only because of his smoke-jumping career and daring lifestyle, but because he’s a real hero—a man who can’t help but do the right thing, even at his own expense.
Like Wade, I grew up in a small town. And also like Wade, I spent years traveling and living in different places. But I’ve learned that while moving can be exciting, it also has a cost, the loss of roots and a sense of belonging.
Now Wade has his own lessons to learn. He must return to his hometown, confront his painful past and listen to his heart—because only love can show him where he belongs. I hope you enjoy his journey.
Gail Barrett
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 One
Wade Winslow wanted only one thing as he cranked the throttle on his Harley V-Rod and rumbled down the main street of Millstown, Maryland—to get the hell back out. Millstown. His home sweet hometown, where he was White Trash Winslow, no matter how many years had passed. Where bad reputations lingered longer than the antebellum town houses lording over the narrow street. Where even the ancient oak trees sneered down at him, their twisted branches reaching out like fingers of condemnation, trapping him in the past.
Battling the urge to kick up a gear and blast himself back into sanity, he tightened his grip on the throttle. Norm. He had to reach Norm. That goal had driven him for the past two days, straight from Miami, ever since he’d gotten the message that the cancer had spread and the man who’d taken him in as a kid lay dying. Dying. Hell. Didn’t anyone he loved survive?
With dread settling deep in his gut, he downshifted at the Stone Mill Café, edged into the narrow alley beside the abandoned theater, and turned the wrong way onto the one-way street that served as a shortcut through town. Then he twisted back on the throttle and rocketed to the end of the lane, the roar of the engine matching his mounting frustration.
Norm had lived out of town back then, on a few rocky acres tucked against South Mountain on the fringes of Appalachia. A lousy farm, but the perfect place to teach a rebellious kid to survive. But Norm had sold the farm and moved into town when Rose died and Wade had left, and the smoking finally caught up to him.
At the end of the road, Wade dropped a gear and pulled into the driveway beside the duplex Norm called home. He parked the Harley beside a row of cars in the driveway, hooked his helmet over the backrest and straightened his aching body. Then he raked back his hair and tucked in the T-shirt he wore under his leather jacket. Sick or not, Norm didn’t tolerate disrespect. And he was the one man Wade owed too much to ever defy.
And now he was going to lose him.
His nerves tight, he strode to the door and entered a small, coffee-scented kitchen packed with neighbors: Jack Fleagle, who’d run the theater before it closed; Mrs. Cline, retired from the post office last year. And Battle-Ax Bester, a linebacker of a woman with a rigid, beehive hairdo. Good God. As if he didn’t have enough to contend with.
Her crayoned lips curled down. “You have some nerve showing up.”
Hell. A dozen years after high school and she still acted as if he’d kill a man and end up in prison like his father. No wonder he hated this town.
“Wade, you made it.” Norm’s younger brother, Max, in his fifties himself now, stepped around Mrs. Bester and reached out his hand.
Wade shook it and caught the tension in his eyes. His stomach dipped. “He hasn’t—”
“No.” Max clapped his shoulder. “Go on back. The nurse is there, but he’s been asking to see you.”
With foreboding weighting his steps, Wade threaded his way through the crowd and headed down the hall to Norm’s bedroom. He tapped on the door and pushed it open. “Norm?”
A woman he didn’t know turned toward him. “Excuse me, but Mr. Decker needs to—”
“Wade,” Norm wheezed. “You came…”
Wade’s heart stalled as the nurse moved away from the bed, and he forced himself to breathe. Good God. Was that Norm? Glazed eyes stared out from his bloodless face. Wrinkled skin sagged from his bones, as withered as the dry leaves clinging to the oak trees outside.
Sick dread speared his gut. What happened? Norm had looked fine last spring when he’d stopped on his way to Montana.
“You can only stay a minute,” the nurse warned. “He just took his medicine. If you need anything, I’ll be in the kitchen.”
“So what’s with the Mr. Decker bit?” Struggling to mask his shock, Wade pulled a straight-backed chair close to the bed and eased himself down. “You putting on airs now that you live in town? Hell, if I’d known you were getting formal, I’d have worn a suit.”
“Heard the bike. Knew you’d come…”
Damn right he’d come, instantly, stopping only for a few hours to sleep at the North Carolina border.
“Where…?”
“Florida. Found a great beach. You wouldn’t believe the babes down there.”
“Not…California?”
Still reeling, he fought to keep his tone light. “Nah. I went to San Diego as soon as the fire season ended, but the traffic got to me. It’s one big freeway from L.A. to the border now. So I headed to Florida instead. Thought maybe I’d fly to the Bahamas and hide out for a while.” And let his wrecked knee heal so he wouldn’t lose his smokejumping job. He stretched out his throbbing leg.
“Hurt?”
He grimaced. Cancer had ravaged Norm’s body, but not his mind. “Jolted my knee. Hit some down air on my last jump and landed hard. Nothing serious. I had to hike over the mountain after we got the fire out, though, so it could use a rest.”
Norm closed his eyes. “Good place, Millstown. Stay…” He winced, then wheezed.
Wade’s heart lunged. “What’s wrong? Should I call the nurse?”
“No.” He opened his glassy eyes. “Damn morphine…”
Wade glanced at the morphine pump hanging from the IV bag. The oxygen tank beside the bed. The wheelchair in the corner. Props to ease the descent into death. He tried to speak but failed. He swallowed hard.
Norm’s mouth moved and he leaned closer to catch the words. “Stay…”
“I’d planned on it.”
“Promise. Need you to…”
Norm wasn’t asking him to live in Millstown. He always knew Wade couldn’t stay. He just wanted him here when he died. Died. Oh, God.
“You need me to what? Cook you Thanksgiving dinner? Hell, Norm. Next thing I know you’ll be wanting me to polish the silver.” Like when Rose was alive. Panic surged, then buzzed in his head.
“Not here. Promise me, Wade…”
He was going to lose Norm. Oh God, no. Not Norm, too.
“Wade…”
Sweat formed on his brow. He couldn’t take this. Norm dying. Staying in Millstown. But he couldn’t leave. He couldn’t let down Norm. “I’ll be here.” For as long as he needed him.
“Not here,” Norm repeated.
“What’s not here?”
“Rent…room…”
Rent a room? He frowned. What was he saying? “I’m not leaving you, Norm.” His heart jerked at the thought. “I’ll crash on the couch, same as I always do.”
“No.” Norm’s voice was suddenly sharp. “Nurse is here. Max. Need you to stay…Mills Ferry…”
Mills Ferry? The old mansion on the outskirts of town? Why would he stay there? And why would Norm want him to? Unless….
His shoulders stiffened. “What am I, company now? Is that it? I’m not wel—”
“No, Wade.” Norm’s hand snaked from beneath the sheet and grabbed his wrist. The slight weight trembled cold on his skin. “Son. Always my son… Need help. Please…” His voice faded.
Dread knifed through Wade’s gut. “But—”
“Promise me. Promise…” Norm’s hand slid from his wrist.
His lungs squeezed shut. He’d do anything for this man, no matter how odd the request. “Fine, I’ll stay there.”
“Good.” Norm slumped back and closed his eyes.
“Norm? Norm?”
“Sir?” The nurse spoke from behind him. “Mr. Decker needs to rest now.”
He sucked in a shallow breath. Norm hadn’t died. He was just sleeping, thank God.
But for how much longer?
