by T. L. Haddix
“He is.” She sighed and looked down at the baby going to sleep in her arms. “Molly Burke. Well, I suppose it’s no odder than Molly Dean, and it ought to make your dad happy. At least future generations won’t get her confused with another Molly.”
“That’s true.” He told her the stats on Molly’s weight and all the other numbers mothers always keep close to their hearts. “And she’s been eating like a little pig.”
Zanny winced when she laughed, but her mirth was genuine. “John David, don’t you call our daughter a pig.”
“Well, it fits, I’m proud to say. And she doesn’t hesitate to tell you when she’s hungry. She has a pair of lungs on her. You don’t want to let her get to full-blown wailing. She’ll pierce your eardrums.”
“Those are all such good signs. Here. She’s asleep, and my arms just can’t hold her,” she told him with some regret.
John took Molly and hugged her close before putting her in the bassinet beside the bed. When she was snuggled in, he eased his hip onto the bed and took Zanny’s hand in his. “Please don’t ever do this to me again. I can’t lose you.”
“Come here.”
Very carefully, he lowered himself into her arms. Resting his face against her neck, he closed his eyes. “Love you.”
“I love you,” she whispered back. “I can’t promise you tomorrow, you know that. Any more than you can promise me tomorrow. But I can promise you that in this moment, this very moment, life is good. And this is where we need to live. But God willing, I’ll be here when you’re ninety, chasing you around the nursing home.”
John laughed, though the sound was soggy. “God willing, when we’re ninety-ish, I’ll let you catch me in the supply closet. My Zanny.”
“My John.”
Looking down into her smiling eyes, he let the moment be enough.
Note for Readers
As with the first Firefly Hollow book, I have taken some liberties with the geography and local history of the Hazard/Perry County area. In particular, the hospital Zanny is taken to after her wreck had been replaced by a new facility by the time she had her accident. However, as I really wanted Noah to sneak next door, I kept the Old Hazard Hospital open a little while longer.
Thanks for reading!
Firefly Hollow
THE MYSTERIOUS RECLUSE…
Owen Campbell holds himself apart from other people. Badly scarred from emotional wounds that have never healed, he doesn’t expect to find true love or happiness. He remains isolated in a prison of his own making, determined to not let anyone close enough to hurt him again.
But his willpower is shaken to the core when Sarah Browning enters his world.
The girl next door…
Sarah Jane Browning is three years into her college degree when a call from home changes everything. Back at the family homestead in the heart of Appalachia, she’s forced to reevaluate her hopes and dreams for the future.
Distraction from her heartache comes in the form of her parents’ neighbor. Whispers about “odd Owen Campbell” abound in their small community, and Sarah’s curiosity is aroused. When she breaks the rules and trespasses onto his land, what she finds is beyond her wildest imaginings.
As Sarah struggles to overcome tragedy and loss, her burgeoning relationship with Owen is sorely tested. Will love conquer all, or will the secrets from Owen’s past tear them apart forever?
Secrets in the Shadows
SECRETS CAN KILL, SOMETHING LAUREN Grant was finding out the hard way.
Thirteen years ago, she had been the innocent victim of a crime that still shaped her life to this day. Just as she is starting to build a new life for herself and her daughter, the past comes calling with a violence she could not have imagined. Her shop is vandalized, another female business owner is brutally murdered, and Lauren can’t shake the feeling that the past is catching up to her. Will she have the strength to finally face her demons and fight for the future, or will the past overwhelm her once and for all?
Secrets in the Shadows is the first book in the Shadows Collection, standalone Romantic Suspense novels set in small-town Indiana.
Note for Readers: This book does deal with the issues of incest and sexual abuse, more with the effects on the victims than the abuse itself. Reader Discretion Advised.
Under the Moon’s Shadow
JOURNALIST BETH HUDSON KNOWS HER hometown. When disappearances are coupled with strange nighttime events on local farms, she puts two and two together to make a terrifying picture. She turns to her friends, family and a mysterious, handsome stranger for assistance in rooting out the truth, determined to solve the mysteries before another person disappears.
As if that weren’t enough, her contentious relationship with Detective Ethan Moore takes an unexpectedly tragic turn. Will Beth be able to figure out what is going on in time to stop a dangerous killer, or will she be the next victim?
Under the Moon’s Shadow is the second book in the Shadows Collection, standalone Romantic Suspense novels set in small-town Indiana.
Shadows From the Grave
WHEN IT COMES TO MURDER, the past is never really dead…
For ten years, Chase Hudson has carried the weight of his college girlfriend’s unsolved murder on his shoulders. When a ghost from the past comes calling, Chase’s friends and family become the targets of a serial killer who’ll stop at nothing to make Chase suffer. Now, Chase is in a race against time to convince the authorities of his innocence, and catch the real killer.
Annie Jameson-Tucker has been burned more than once. Afraid to get her heart broken again, she is careful to keep her lovers at a distance… until Chase Hudson manages to slip inside her walls. Terrified of being hurt, Annie has to choose whether to let Chase stay, or to close him out and let her insecurities destroy their chance at happiness.
Shadows from the Grave is the third book in the Shadows Collection, standalone Romantic Suspense novels by T. L. Haddix.
Hidden In the Shadows
EVEN THE GOOD GUYS SOMETIMES have secrets they don’t want revealed to the rest of the world…
For thirty years, Wyatt Dixon had worn a badge. Sworn to protect and serve, he’d done just that for the people of Olman County, Indiana. He’d even sacrificed his first marriage on the altar of the office of Sheriff. But then the blackmail letter came… And everything he’d worked so hard to build threatened to crumble around him.
Wyatt wasn’t the only one to receive a letter, either…
Fighting a deep attraction to a woman he should know better than to become involved with, Wyatt’s professional frustration also grows as the investigation is thwarted at every turn by a master extortionist who has the citizens of Olman County, Indiana, in an uproar. With decisions to make that will affect his life and the sheriff’s department for a long time to come, Wyatt has to choose—to reach for personal happiness and risk it all, or to walk away from what could be his soul mate.
Come to Leroy, and see just how dangerous small-town living can be. Hidden in the Shadows is the fourth book in the Shadows collection, standalone but linked Romantic Suspense novels by T. L. Haddix.
In the Heart’s Shadow
DETECTIVE STACY KIRCHNER HAS GIVEN up on finding Mr. Right. Convinced a happily ever after simply isn’t in the cards for her, she focuses instead on building her career and making her small house a comfortable home to share with her cat, Chloe. Without warning, she finds herself thrust into a world filled with uncertainty and deception. Struggling to keep ahead of a malicious prankster hell-bent on destroying everything she’s worked for, Stacy is blind-sided by her feelings for dark and mysterious Galen Gordon.
After a series of devastating losses, Galen Gordon is moving forward. The former FBI agent is settling comfortably into life in small-town southern Indiana. He’s finally ready to risk losing his heart again, to reach for what he wants--a life wi
th Stacy. All he has to do is convince her the idea has merit. That, and keep her alive in the face of growing danger.
Come to Leroy, and see just how dangerous small-town living can be. In the Heart’s Shadow is the fifth book in the Shadows collection, standalone but linked Romantic Suspense novels by T. L. Haddix.
