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Chapter One
Lucy Malone tossed another suitcase in a growing pile of luggage She slung a shoulder bag toward the runt when the last piece fell to the grassy ground
“This is just perfect,” she grumbled, aware of the fact that no one was around to hear her co over her like a black ’s curse “Grandfather got his final wish I’m at the start-finish line with a lot of tracks behind ht ahead”
She snarled at the plantation-style hoesture With the chipped white paint and black shutters strategically placed on the upper and lower floors, the house appeared to glare back at her through various sets of dark, hollow eyes
This must have been the devil’s joke
At the very least, Lucy’s return to East Tennessee was her grandfather’s cunning way of getting what he wanted, and that knowledge irritated her to no end What she’d give to dig up the old geezer and have a sit-down talk with hiuaranteed to start a war of words
When Mason Malone was teetering around a, the old man always found a way to ed hia until he took his last breath
LucyIn this sht smack dab in the middle of no-man’s-land
To add insult to injury, Lucy never possessed the desire to live in Church Hill, Tennessee None There wasn’t anything for her in S
Yet here she stood, light years away fro the front woh Perforlorandfather and cousins until she bought them out one by one
As a high-profile race tea everything fro career, but what she learned in the pits never prepared her for this
Dealing with race car drivers—all of ere on her payroll—was one thing, but facing off with cowboys she’d avoided, quite another Most men were all the sa manure-covered boots and a cocksure attitude
Lucy couldn’t feel too sorry for herself She had pushed her SUV to extraordinary li the laws set by every state she put in her rearviewninety miles an hour fro there were only three reasons to brake for traffic—coffee, chocolate, and necessary refueling
For soen of dread eet back to this godforsaken place The why behind her need for racing up the interstate at a high rate of speed infuriated her on many levels
Turning her gaze toward the McDavid land, Lucy searched the property boundaries The grass was greener on the other side of the fence, or at least, Lucy used to think so At the moment, the land looked like any other small-town farm
Round bales of hay lined the center of the McDavid’s lower fields Several horses frolicked in the distance, kicking up their heels as if they meant to show off before a spectator’s eyes, and a tractor slowly backed up to an eon
Most would consider the day a fine ti trees, birds chirped and sang their high-pitched songs The sun was bright in the afternoon summer sky, and the smell of honeysuckle and lilac filled the air around her
In that otten in a rush to return was pointless Lucy had hit I-30 East and kept one speed—wide open and as fast as she could go, driving like a madwoman who meant to arrive somewhere the day before yesterday
Truth told, she should’ve returned hoo She’d realized that much when she’d felt the excitement in her pulse as she’d watched Dallas disappear in her car mirrors Her heart found an uneven te changed and her pal wheel They were clammy and more noticeable at every turn
Those were the early signs of a disaster waiting to happen Of course, being a woman and all, what did she do? She drove faster, clutched the padded wheel even tighter, and with stark determination kept her eyes focused on the road with every intention of closing the distance between Texas and Tennessee
Spotting another overnight bag, Lucy opened the car door and grabbed a stubborn duffle from the backseat She latched on to the stiff handles with both hands and tugged the daylights out of one final leather satchel She gave her luggage a whirl, heard it land with a plop, and slammed the heavy automobile door, satisfied that the sound was one of finality, a defining moment to notify her of the obvious
After years of running, she’d found her way home