PRAISE FOR CAROLYN BROWN

The Magnolia Inn

“The author does a first-rate job of depicting the devastating stages of grief, provides a simple but appealing plot with a sympathetic hero and heroine and a cast of lovable supporting characters, and wraps it all up with a happily ever after to cheer for.”

—Publishers Weekly

“The Magnolia Inn by Carolyn Brown is a feel-good story about friendship, fighting your demons, and finding love, and maybe, just a little bit of magic.”

—Harlequin Junkie

“Chock-full of Carolyn Brown’s signature country charm, The Magnolia Inn is a sweet and heartwarming story of two people trying to make the most of their lives, even when they have no idea what exactly is at stake.”

—Fresh Fiction

Small Town Rumors

“Carolyn Brown is a master at writing warm, complex characters who find their way into your heart.”

—Harlequin Junkie

“Carolyn Brown’s Small Town Rumors takes that hotbed and with it, spins a delightful tale of starting over, coming into your own and living your life, out loud and unafraid.”

—Words We Love By

“Small Town Rumors by Carolyn Brown is a contemporary romance perfect for a summer read in the shade of a big old tree with a glass of lemonade or sweet tea. It is a sweet romance with wonderful characters and a small town setting.”

—Avonna Loves Genres

The Sometimes Sisters

“Carolyn Brown continues her streak of winning, heartfelt novels with The Sometimes Sisters, a story of estranged sisters and frustrated romance.”

—All About Romance

“This is an amazing feel-good story that will make you wish you were a part of this amazing family.”

—Harlequin Junkie (top pick)

“The Sometimes Sisters is [a] delightful and touching story that explores the bonds of family. I loved the characters, the story lines, and the focus on the importance of familial bonds, whether they be blood relations or those you choose with your heart.”

—Rainy Day Ramblings

The Strawberry Hearts Diner

“[A] sweet and satisfying romance from the queen of Texas romance.”

—Fresh Fiction

“A heartwarming cast of characters brings laughter and tears to the mix, and readers will find themselves rooting for more than one romance on the menu. From the first page to the last, Brown perfectly captures the mood as well as the atmosphere and creates a charming story that appeals to a wide range of readers.”

—RT Book Reviews

“A sweet romance surrounded by wonderful, caring characters.”

—TBQ’s Book Palace

“[A] deeply satisfying contemporary small-town western story . . .”

—Delighted Reader

The Barefoot Summer

“Prolific romance author Brown shows she can also write women’s fiction in this charming story, which uses humor and vivid characters to show the value of building an unconventional chosen family.”

—Publishers Weekly

“This story takes you and carries you along for a wonderful ride full of laughter, tears, and three amazing HEAs. I feel like these characters are not just people in a book, but they are truly family, and I feel so invested in their journey. Another amazing HIT for Carolyn Brown.”

—Harlequin Junkie (top pick)

The Lullaby Sky

“I really loved and enjoyed this story. Definitely a good comfort read when you’re in a reading funk or just don’t know what to read. The secondary characters bring much love and laughter into this book—your cheeks will definitely hurt from smiling so hard while reading. Carolyn is one of my most favorite authors. I know without a doubt that no matter what book of hers I read, I can just get lost in it and know it will be a good story. Better than the last. Can’t wait to read more from her.”

—The Bookworm’s Obsession

The Lilac Bouquet

“Brown pulls readers along for an enjoyable ride. It’s impossible not to be touched by Brown’s protagonists, particularly Seth, and a cast of strong supporting characters underpins the charming tale.”

—Publishers Weekly

“If a reader is looking for a book more geared toward family and long-held secrets, this would be a good fit.”

—RT Book Reviews

“Carolyn Brown absolutely blew me away with this epically beautiful story. I cried, I giggled, I sobbed, and I guffawed; this book had it all. I’ve come to expect great things from this author and she more than lived up to anything I could have hoped for. Emmy Jo Massey and her great-granny Tandy are absolute masterpieces not because they are perfect but because they are perfectly painted. They are so alive, so full of flaws and spunk and determination. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.”

—Night Owl Reviews (5 stars and top pick)

The Wedding Pearls

“The Wedding Pearls by Carolyn Brown is an amazing story about family, life, love, and finding out who you are and where you came from. This book is a lot like The Golden Girls meet Thelma and Louise.”

—Harlequin Junkie

“The Wedding Pearls is an absolute must-read. I cannot recommend this one enough. Grab a copy for yourself and one for a best friend or even your mother or both. This is a book that you need to read. It will make you laugh and cry. It is so sweet and wonderful and packed full of humor. I hope that when I grow up, I can be just like Ivy and Frankie.”

—Rainy Day Ramblings

The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop

“The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop was hilarious and so much fun to read. But sweet romances, strong female friendships, and family bonds make this more than just a humorous read.”

—The Readers Den

“If you like books about small towns and how the people’s lives intertwine, you will love this book. I think it’s probably my favorite book this year. The relationships of the three main characters, girls who have grown up together, will make you feel like you just pulled up a chair in their beauty shop with a bunch of old friends. As you meet the other people in the town, you’ll wish you could move there. There are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and then more that will just make you smile. These are real people, not the oh-so-thin-and-so-very-rich that are often the main characters in novels. This book will warm your heart, and you’ll remember it after you finish the last page. That’s the highest praise I can give a book.”

—Reader quote

Long, Hot Texas Summer

“This is one of those lighthearted, feel-good, make-me-happy kind of stories. But, at the same time, the essence of this story is family and love with a big ole dose of laughter and country living thrown in the mix. This is the first installment in what promises to be another fascinating series from Brown. Find a comfortable chair, sit back, and relax because once you start reading Long, Hot Texas Summer, you won’t be able to put it down. This is a super fun and sassy romance.”

—Thoughts in Progress

Daisies in the Canyon

“I just loved the symbolism in Daisies in the Canyon. As I mentioned before, Carolyn Brown has a way with character development with few, if any, contemporaries. I am sure there are more stories to tell in this series. Brown just touched the surface first with Long, Hot Texas Summer and now continuing on with Daisies in the Canyon.”

—Fresh Fiction

ALSO BY CAROLYN BROWN

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES

The Empty Nesters

The Perfect Dress

The Magnolia Inn

Small Town Rumors

The Sometimes Sisters

The Strawberry Hearts Diner

The Lilac Bouquet

The Barefoot Summer

The Lullaby Sky

The Wedding Pearls

The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop

The Ladies’ Room

Hidden Secrets

Long, Hot Texas Summer

Daisies in the Canyon

Trouble in Paradise

CONTEMPORARY SERIES

THE BROKEN ROAD SERIES

To Trust

To Commit

To Believe

To Dream

To Hope

THREE MAGIC WORDS TRILOGY

A Forever Thing

In Shining Whatever

Life After Wife

HISTORICAL ROMANCE

THE BLACK SWAN TRILOGY

Pushin’ Up Daisies

From Thin Air

Come High Water

THE DRIFTERS & DREAMERS

TRILOGY

Morning Glory

Sweet Tilly

Evening Star

THE LOVE’S VALLEY SERIES

Choices

Absolution

Chances

Redemption

Promises

Title Page

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Text copyright © 2019 by Carolyn Brown

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle

Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

ISBN-13: 9781542015370

ISBN-10: 1542015375

Cover design and photography by Laura Klynstra

Dedication

To my aunt Mildred Chapman Edwards

and my cousin Doris Chapman Mead.

You are both more like sisters to me than an aunt and a cousin.

I appreciate all the love and support you lavish upon me.

Contents

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 Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dear Readers

About the Author

Chapter One

Chapter One

When you come to the end of the rope, it’s time to tie a knot and hang on. Lily Anderson had reached the place where there wasn’t even enough rope left to tie a knot. She’d thought about her problem for a whole day, made a few phone calls, and now her mind was made up. She was moving her kids out of the city of Austin and to her hometown of Comfort, Texas—population a little more than three thousand.

She hated to always be the bad person, but since the divorce five years ago, she’d had no choice. A kid could find a dozen friends on every street corner, but they only had one mother. And in her kids’ case, only one parent—thanks to no help whatsoever from her two children’s father. Knowing all that didn’t make anything easier for Lily on Friday morning. Her hands were clammy and her pulse raced. She felt like gravity was pulling her heart right out of her chest. At least she owned a house in Comfort, and the move wouldn’t be difficult.

She had almost changed her mind and decided to stay, but then her daughter, Holly, gave her one of those go-to-hell looks that was meant to fry her on the spot.

“You’ve got less than twenty-four hours to pack your clothing and whatever else you want to take to Comfort.” Lily’s voice landed somewhere between a whisper and an icicle. “The movers will be here at seven in the morning. Until then, I’ll be taking your cell phone, laptop, tablet, and all the games you play on the television.”

“You can’t do that!” Fourteen-year-old Holly jumped up from the sofa and screamed at her mother. “I won’t leave my friends! You can’t make me! We’ve got parties planned this weekend, and I’m not going to miss them. I’ll go live with Daddy!”

“You should have thought of that before you took a marijuana joint into the library bathroom on Wednesday afternoon.” Lily’s finger shot out like a pistol at her daughter. “Sit down and lower your voice.”

Holly fell back onto the sofa and glared at her mother. “You had no right to come in the bathroom and spy on me.”

“So this is my fault? Do you realize what would have happened if the police had come into the bathroom instead? You’d be in jail, not moving to Comfort.”

“Why do I get punished, too?” Her twelve-year-old son, Braden, pouted. “I wasn’t the one who got caught smokin’ pot in the public library.”

“No, you”—Holly did a head wiggle—“you and your little buddies have been sneaking out at night to smoke cigarettes and drink beer. I don’t see what the big difference is between smoking pot and cigarettes.” She turned back to her mother. “If I’d gotten caught with cigarettes, you would have taken my phone for a week. But your precious little angel of a son is doing that, and you didn’t even know it. I’m calling Daddy.”

Lily focused on Braden with his dark hair and big brown eyes that, at that very moment, were trying in vain to look innocent. Surely this was a nightmare. The walls seemed to be closing in on her, and she had to lean against the back of a recliner to keep from dropping. How did things get so out of control? She was a therapist, for heaven’s sake, and she didn’t even see the signs concerning her own children’s behavior. Talk about having her head stuck in the sand.

“Is that the truth?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I only smoked a few and drank two beers. I didn’t do nothing like she did.”

“Yeah, right,” Holly almost snorted. “You and your little friends think it’s sooo cool. You strut around with them like you’re too cool for the other kids.”

“Do not,” he protested.

“Sweet Jesus,” Lily muttered. “You just lost all your techie devices, also. Both of you will have to earn them back, and that won’t happen before summer.”

Holly ripped her phone from the hip pocket of her jeans in a dramatic gesture. “I refuse to live like a prisoner. I mean it! If you force me to give up my phone, I will go live with Daddy.”

“Tell him I want to live with him, too,” Braden said.

Lily folded her arms over her chest and waited. The children thought their world was tumbling down around the toes of their cute little boots—it was about to take another major nosedive when Holly called her father, Wyatt Anderson.

“You can use your phone for one more call, but you have to put it on speaker,” Lily said.

Holly rolled her eyes toward the ceiling, hit speed dial, and laid the phone on the coffee table. Her father, Wyatt, answered her call with, “Hello, princess, did you have a good Christmas?”

“Wonderful, Daddy, but it would have been better if I could have spent some time with you.” She smirked at her mother.

“Darlin’, I would have liked that, too, but Victoria had plans for us to spend the holiday in the beach condo. It’s just not big enough to fit us all,” Wyatt said.

Lily fought the urge to roll her eyes. Wyatt could weave a lie so sweetly the angels in heaven would believe him. Why didn’t he just tell the kids the truth? He liked his new, rich lifestyle with his second wife, and she didn’t want to share him with children.

“Mama’s bein’ a bitch, so me and Braden are going to come and live with you,” Holly said.

“Add riding the bus to school for the whole semester for calling me a bitch to your punishment,” Lily said.

“No!” Braden yelled. “Daddy, she really is being a bitch.”

“That puts you on the bus with your sister,” Lily said.

“Only geeks ride the bus!” Holly whined. “You can come get us tomorrow morning at seven, Daddy.”

The silence that filled the room was so heavy that it seemed to suck out every bit of the oxygen. Even though Lily was still angry with her children, she felt sorry for them. If she’d been paying more attention to them, maybe none of this would’ve happened.

“Are you still there, Daddy?”

Lily knew what Wyatt was about to say to them and that it would almost literally break their hearts. Poor Holly’s tone was so desperate that Lily wanted to hug her, but right then tough love was the only way to get through to her children. If it kept those two out of trouble and out of jail, it would all be worthwhile.

“Honey, I’m real sorry,” Wyatt said. “But you can’t live with me. Victoria and I made an agreement about children when we married. I’ll come see you real soon, and we’ll have a day all to ourselves. Maybe in July we can even have a whole weekend while Victoria is in California on one of her business trips. If free time comes up between now and then, I’ll call you for sure.”

“Daaa-deee.” Holly dragged the word out into several syllables. “Mama is moving us to Comfort. I don’t want to live in that Podunk town,” she whined. “You just have to come and get us. I’ll die in that place. You just have to go to court and get custody of us.”

“Me, too,” Braden yelled from across the room.

“You have to understand. I simply cannot have you kids living with me and Victoria. It wouldn’t work, and you’d be more miserable here than in Comfort.” Wyatt was beginning to sound frustrated. “Put your mother on the phone, and take it off speaker.”

Holly hit the right button and tossed the phone toward her mother. Lily caught it in midair and said, “Hello, Wyatt. So no deal on helping raise your children?”

“I told you when we divorced that I’d pay child support and see them when I could, but I didn’t want custody then, and I don’t want custody now. Victoria and I have a lifestyle that doesn’t . . .” He paused. “Why are you going back to Comfort, anyway, and at this time of year? Can’t you do what’s best for the kids and at least stay in Austin until summer?”

“I am doing what’s best for them. I caught your daughter smoking pot in the public library bathroom two days ago, and I just now found out that your son has been sneaking out at night to smoke and drink with his little preteen buddies. So I’m taking them out of the city, and they aren’t getting their phones or tablets for a long time.” Lily carried the phone into the next room. “If you think you can do better with them, maybe they could spend some quality time with you that involves more than taking them to dinner every six months, or to a hotel for a couple of days while Victoria is off somewhere on one of her business trips.”

“Good God!” he gasped. “I wouldn’t know what to do with them, and believe me, Miami is worse than Austin.”

“Then Comfort it is,” Lily said.

“Good luck,” Wyatt muttered, and the call ended.

Lily returned and dropped the phone into the tote bag she had sitting on the end table. Then she turned to face Holly and Braden, who were still pouting on the sofa. “I expect all your electronic devices to be in that bag in ten minutes.”

Holly groaned and Braden moaned at the same time.

“Until you earn the right to have your phones back, you can talk to your father when he calls on the house phone in Comfort. Oh, and FYI, it’s a corded phone that hangs on the kitchen wall. Since you won’t have anything else to do this afternoon, you can start packing. Set your alarms for six thirty in the morning.”

Braden pulled his phone out of his hip pocket and dropped it in the bag. He looked longingly at it, as if he were looking at his best friend lying in a casket. Finally, he let out a heavy sigh and started down the hall toward his bedroom. “What am I supposed to pack in?”

“The moving company is bringing boxes in . . .” Lily paused when she heard a truck outside. “Looks like they’re here now. You’ll have your own bedroom in Comfort, but we’ll all have to share one bathroom. So remember that. And one more thing—if either of you ever call me a bitch again, I’ll add another punishment to the list. Believe me, it will be something I can guarantee you will hate worse than giving up all your devices. Now, you can bring your tablets, your video games, and your laptops to me.”

“Our laptops, too? That’s not fair,” Holly whined.

“Fair flew out the window like the smoke you were blowing in the library, Holly,” Lily said, “and was drained like the beer you were drinking, Braden.”

“I can’t survive without my own bathroom.” Holly’s whining took on a whole new level. “I refuse to share one with Braden.” She jumped up from the sofa and glared at her brother.

“Sorry, princess.” Lily used the same nickname that Wyatt had given their daughter before she was big enough to walk. “It’s either share one with me and Braden or else you can use the one that’s out behind the storage shed. No one will fight you if you want that one. It was still standing the last time I was home. Just remember to take toilet paper with you.”

“I hate that house! I hate Comfort! I hate—” Holly’s mouth snapped shut.

“And right now you hate me, but that’s all right. I love you both, but I don’t like either of you very much today,” Lily finished for her. “And for your information, I hate leaving this apartment, too. I hate leaving my clients, my few friends, and our church. I hate that you and your brother’s misbehavior has made this move necessary. So, darlin’ girl, I don’t have much sympathy for you right now.” She pointed down the hall. “Go pack. If you ever even think about smoking another joint, I’ll homeschool you, and you’ll have no social life at all.”

“Not that there’ll be much of a possibility for a social life up there in the middle of nowhere, anyway,” Holly grumbled, and started down the hallway at a snail’s pace.

Lily remembered feeling the same way about Comfort when she was growing up in the small town. Her family lived three miles south of town, and they’d only had one vehicle, which her dad took to work every day. That hadn’t left much opportunity for the kind of socializing her kids were accustomed to having.

I think your words were that you couldn’t wait to go to college and get away from Comfort and all its prying eyes. Her mother’s voice in her head scolded her, but just imagining Vera Miller’s sweet voice took the sting out of the words.

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