The Prodigal Texan by Lynnette Kent

Author:Lynnette Kent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2006-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

AS SOON AS HE STEPPED into the town office, Jud sensed the volcanic eruption waiting for him behind Miranda’s door. He would have waited for Wade’s backup, but that meant staying within Reba’s predatory reach. Of the two dangers, he’d take his chances with the mayor.

She answered his knock with a terse, “Come in.” After he’d closed the door behind his back, she stared at him for a long, silent minute.

“Did you come back specifically to destroy the town, and me along with it?” The newspaper lay open on her desk. “Or was this some kind of lucky accident?”

Martinez had told him about the article. “I had nothing to do with that report.”

“Except you spent several hours with dear Deirdre last week. Let me guess…you were ‘misquoted.’”

“There isn’t a quote from me in the entire piece.”

“Just lots of discussion—paraphrased, I admit— on how the vandals are making Homestead unsafe for raising a family. How some of the incidents have been life threatening.” She looked down at her hands, pressed flat on the blotter, and shook her head. “Is this your idea of revenge? I gotta tell you, you’ve hit the jackpot. I expect I’ll be out of office in a matter of weeks, if not days, and the Home Free program will be dead.”

Jud leaned over the desk, placing his hands fingertip to fingertip with Miranda’s. “First off, let me point out that yesterday’s attack was, indeed, life threatening. Second, I did not give Deirdre material for the article. She’s a friend, we’ve cooperated in the past, but I don’t divulge information about a case to anyone, especially reporters.”

After a silent struggle, Miranda raised her desperate gaze to his face. “Who else would have talked to her?”

“I turned her over to Virgil Dunn. Maybe he said too much.”

“And she interviewed Ed Tanner, plus God knows who else. All she really had to do was get hold of Arlen Enfield and the damage was done.” With a sigh, she covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know why the Austin paper would even be interested in the story to begin with. Or who would suggest it.”

“But you were ready to blame me right off the bat.”

“Not without reason.”

“The reason being that I’m fundamentally un-trustworthy?”

She dropped her hands, staring up at him as different emotions chased across her face. Surprise, embarrassment—that pink flush again—and regret, followed by an expression he would have labeled hunger, if she hadn’t shut it down so fast. Yearning, maybe…the same kind that came over him lately whenever he let himself think about Miranda Wright.

“You want me to trust you?” she said in a low voice.

“Yes.” Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how much.

Slowly, she came to her feet. “Why should I?”

As they faced each other across the desk, his past rose up between them—not just his stupid stunts as a teenager, his justified reputation for girls and booze and trouble, but the history of these last fifteen years when he’d been everywhere except the one place his family needed him to be.

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