Deke leaned in and kissed her ear. “You tell them, lady.”
A minute later the crowd erupted in a huge cheer as the football team, dressed in their uniforms, ran onto the practice field, led by the five co-captains, including Kyle, who the town now considered one of their own. He had a good job at the Peaches ’N Cream, good grades, friends, and with the college scouts popping in weekly to watch him, the possibility of a college scholarship.
A lump formed in Deke’s throat as he watched Kyle jump up and down with the other members of the team, Rachel was at his side.
They should treat him like a hero. He was. Without Kyle’s help he wouldn’t have saved Libby in time. He owed the kid so much. More importantly, he liked him and wanted him to succeed. It’s one of the reasons he and Libby offered him a home with them. Not until Colbert house had been prepared, but permanently.
The other residents of the halfway house had finally been moved into the repaired Colbert House and the town had decided to take a different approach to the home. Instead of a hard-fisted, warden-type administrator, the town council chose to use a live-in housemother. On Libby’s recommendation, Melissa Compton had gotten the position. Not only had she survived the beatings from her husband and the very public trial, but she’d found her place helping the young men of the home. She understood where they were in their lives. Having someone to mother had helped her thrive.
“So, Gage is whining on a daily basis to me,” Bobby said, coming to stand on the other side of Deke and Libby. “He says you guys have your trip all planned.”
“Yep,” Deke said, pulling Libby in tighter. “Vegas at Thanksgiving, and then she’s all mine.”
“The football team is the only thing that made this guy wait or we would’ve eloped the day after the fire.” Libby laughed and the sound thrilled his soul. He planned to spend the rest of his life listening to that sound.
“Tell the Gunslinger not to complain,” Deke said, then looked down into Libby’s eyes. “He only has to wait until close to Christmas for you. I had to wait ten years for the love of my life.”
Other Suzanne Ferrell Books...
CLOSE TO HOME, Westen Series, Book 1
Emma Lewis has a lot on her plate. The single mother of two precocious twin boys and an aging mother who is having trouble getting through each day, the last thing Emma needs is a man in her life, especially a doctor. So when the town’s doctor goes on vacation and his handsome nephew takes over, Emma is shocked to not only find him standing in her bedroom, but accusing her of being a neglectful parent.
Clint Preston came to Westen for the year to fill in as the town doc while his uncle took a long needed vacation. Clint also needed a sense of peace and calm to try to find his passion for medicine burned out by long shifts in an urban hospital’s ER. Angered to find two boys in his clinic with broken wrists and no accompanying parent, he is determined to confront their mother. The feisty redhead he meets quickly dispels his belief that she’s a neglectful mother, but he can see her situation is more critical than she wishes to face and finds himself volunteering to help care for her sons and the remodeling of her home.
As Emma and Clint forge a relationship among the slightly off-beat characters that inhabit Westen a menace from Emma’s past threatens her and her sons. Clint and Emma join forces to prevent the loss of either boy and the love they’ve discovered in each other’s’ arms.
****
CLOSE TO THE EDGE, Westen Series, Book 2
After facing death as an undercover narcotics cop, Gage Justice has come home to heal. His recuperation is cut short by his father’s unexpected diagnosis of cancer and subsequent death. Now he’s honoring one of his father’s last wishes by taking over as the sheriff of his boyhood home, Westen, Ohio. Biding time until his father’s term is finished, he fights boredom more than crime in the sleepy little town – that is until one sexy little teacher-turned-Private-Investigator literally falls into his arms.
Bobby Roberts is looking for adventure. After giving up her own dreams to raise her two sisters after the death of their parents, she’s been trapped in a schoolroom for nearly two decades. The suffocating claustrophobia of the classroom has set her on a new career path. She arrives in Westen, complete with brand-spanking-new PI license, a handgun and a simple case – investigate a lien on property of a dead man.
Little does she realize her “simple little case” will lead her into the world of one sexy sheriff and the path of a murderer intent on keeping them both from discovering his secrets or stopping his plans that could destroy Westen.
****
The Edgars Family Novels
KIDNAPPED, Edgars Family Novels, Book 1
FBI Agent Jake Carlisle is in deep trouble. He’s been shot and if he can’t get help fast, two lives will be lost-his and that of the young witness whom he’s sworn to protect. Desperate, on the run from both the police and the Russian Mafia, he kidnaps a nurse from a hospital parking lot.
ER nurse Samantha Edgars has been living in an emotional vacuum since the death of her daughter. Mentally and physically exhausted following a difficult shift, she’s suddenly jolted from her stupor when she’s bound and gagged, then tossed into the back of her car. Forced to tend a bleeding FBI agent and his injured witness, she’s terrified. But Samantha quickly learns the rogue agent and orphaned boy need more than just her professional skills. Danger is bearing down on them, and she must learn to trust Jake – and her heart – if they’re all going to survive.
****
HUNTED, Edgars Family Novels, Book 2
In one fiery explosion Katie Myers' witness protection cover is blown. Unable to trust the Marshals who've been responsible for her safety, she’s on the run from the cult leader she put on death row. In desperation she forces a near stranger at gunpoint to help her hide.
By-the-book patrolman Matt Edgars is shocked when the woman he's come to rescue points a gun at him and demands he help her leave a crime scene. The stark terror in Katie’s beautiful eyes has him breaking rules for the first time in his career.
With a hit man on their trail, Matt must break down the walls Katie has built to guard the secrets of her past. If not the cult leader will fulfill his prophecy and take the one woman Matt has ever loved to the grave.
SEIZED, Edgars Family Novels, Book 3
Dave and Judy Edgars have always loved each other – they’ve been married ten years and have three kids. But ever since Dave, a SWAT team member, was shot on duty Judy can’t control the intense fear that grips her every time he heads out to work. It puts a strain on their relationship. Dave knows she’s scared, but damn it she knew he was a cop the day they met. His patience is wearing thin.
Until the tables are turned…
One icy winter night, Judy, an operating room nurse, is called into work. She’s taken hostage by a crazed gunman with an agenda. Now with Judy’s life in danger and the SWAT team deployed elsewhere, Dave must face the same fear his wife does on a daily basis. Terrified he will lose her, he and his law enforcement family race to save Judy and stop her captor’s plans.
****
THE EDGARS FAMILY NOVELS, 3 Book Anthology
This boxed e-book set includes the first two Best-selling Edgars Family Romantic Suspense Novels, KIDNAPPED and HUNTED, along with the fast-paced novella SEIZED.
****
Thank you for reading CLOSE TO THE FIRE!
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Author Bio
Suzan
ne Ferrell
Suzanne discovered romance novels in her aunt's hidden stash one summer as a teenager. From that moment on she knew two things: she loved romance stories and someday she'd be writing her own. Her love for romances has only grown over the years. It took her a number of years and a secondary career as a nurse to finally start writing her own stories.
A double finalist in the Romance Writer's of America's 2006 Golden Heart with her manuscripts, KIDNAPPED and HUNTED (Romantic Suspense), Suzanne has also won The Beacon Unpublished and the CTRWA's contests in the erotica categories with her book, The Surrender Of Lacy Morgan.
Suzanne's sexy stories, whether they be her steamy Western eroticas, her on the edge of your seat romantic suspense, or the heart warming small town stories, will keep you thinking about her characters long after their Happy Ever After is achieved. Visit Suzanne Ferrell’s website at www.suzanneferrell.com
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