The pot was over a hundreddollars.
âYou wanna just fold and get this over with?â Luke smiled as he raised the bidding one more time.
Blake didnât bat an eye. He was sitting on a full house ace/deuce. The only way Luke was going to beat that was with a miracle. Looking up, Blake gazed past his opponent to the bare window behind him. In the daylight theyâd be able to see the river out there. Tonight there was nothing but darkness.
Andâ¦movement?
Someone was out there.
Blake tipped the corners of his cards again. Glanced over beyond the archway leading to a threadbare living roomâ¦and saw a woman slip quietly around the corner from the hall.
He tossed in four one-dollar chips. Noted the jack and king of spades Luke flipped over, tossed in his two aces, still face down, and asked, âWhat in hellâs she doing here?â
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Taraâs first book was a finalist for the Romance Writers of Americaâs prestigious RITA® Award. Her subsequent work has earned her finalist status for the National Readersâ Choice Award and the Holt Medallion, plus another two RITA® Award nominations. A prolific writer, she has more than forty novels and three novellas published. To reach Tara, write to her at PO Box 133584, Mesa, Arizona 85216, USA or through her website, www.tarataylorquinn.com.
Dear Reader,
Welcome to River Bluff, Texas! There are all kinds of great folks here for you to meet. From cowboys to single mums to entrepreneurs, secret babies, planned babies and another manâs baby, youâll get it all in this small Texas town.
The five authors in this series have brought you many, many love stories over the years, but the stories here in River Bluff are a little different. Oh, youâll still have the great characters you wonât want to leave behind, the gripping stories and the wealth of emotion. But in River Bluff you also get something new.
Think sisterhood â in a male version! This is a group of five guys, most of whom have known each other all their lives, who are bonded together through lifeâs ups and downs. They get together to play poker every week and theyâre friends.
In the months ahead youâll meet Cole â heâs a bit jaded because of a broken marriage, but heâs feisty and fun to be around. Then thereâs Jake. Heâs the motorcycle-riding bad boy we all want to meet in a dark alley. And Brady Carrick. Bradyâs been everywhere and done most things, from professional football to professional gambling. Now he wants to come home. Luke, one of my favourites, is just back from military service overseas. He has some hard truths coming his way, but I canât be with him and not love him.
And here, you get to meet Blake. Older than the rest of the Wild Bunch, Blake is the one everyone looks up to. But he has a secret, a burden he must bear, and while he thinks it makes him weak, heâs going to find out just how strong he really is.
My sister writers and I hope youâll love the town and the people of River Bluff, Texas as much as we do!
Tara Taylor Quinn
For Tim. Welcome to my world.
July 2005
COW MANURE HAD NEVER smelled so sweet, Blake Smith thought, inhaling deeply. Squinting against the bright July morning sun, he glanced down the thin metal steps to the tarmac, scanning the people waiting at the small airport just outside San Antonio.
There werenât many of them.
Four years was a long time.
But a three-and-a-half-year-old child should be easy to spot. He looked for a head covered with blond curls.
Or maybe her hair was brown.
Or maybe she was a he.
And yet no matter how many possibilities he considered, no small child appeared.
His uncle, then? Alan wouldnât miss this. Not on his lifeâ¦
What did it mean that Blake couldnât pick out the big frame and ruddy face of the man whoâd raised him ever since his parents had been killed in a car accident when he was seven?
Determined to hold on to the sweet anticipation that had sustained him during his eighteen-hour journey from the Middle East back to Texas, Blake renewed his search. Most of all, he sought the face of the woman whose memory had kept him alive these past forty-seven months, two weeks and three days.
The only person he really needed to see right now, after four grueling years of captivity as the hostage of political terrorists.
Annie.
His heartâs rhythm settledâand then immediately sped again as he spotted the beautiful face of his beloved wife. At last. With shaky knees, he hurried to meet her.
Annie had come for him.
CHAPTER ONE
October 2007
THE COWBOY PUSHED HIS HAT down low.
Everyone knew that thirty-four-year-old Luke Chisum, of the renowned Circle C Ranch, shifted his hat every time he had a good hand.
Lifting the corners of his two cards just enough to see the pair of aces, Blake dropped his thirty-three-year-old silver dollar on top of them and threw in two one-dollar chipsâthe mandatory flop bet. His buddy Cole Lawry, seated to his left, gave him a long look.
Cole studied the ten and queen of spades and two of diamonds faceup on the table, took one more look at Blake and folded.