by: Lee Tobin McClain
Series: Hometown Brothers
Genre: Small Town Contemporary Romance
Release Date: January 10, 2023
Publisher: HQN Books
New York Times bestselling author Lee Tobin McClain returns to her Hometown Brothers series!
A sweet new beginning on the Chesapeake Bay
Bluebird Bakery owner Taylor Harp loves how small and close-knit Teaberry Island is…except when the only response to her help wanted ad is from someone she hoped to avoid. She and Cody Cunningham shared a long-ago romance until he started dating her prettier younger sister. But though the sting of rejection remains, so do the sparks.
After PTSD ended his military career, Cody Cunningham came back to the one place that felt like home. A difficult childhood left him running from commitment, but when he’s suddenly left in charge of his young half siblings, Cody doesn’t hesitate. He’s ready to build a future, and he hopes Taylor will want to have a place in it. Will she keep him around long enough to see that the boy she knew is now a man who’ll love her forever?
"Lee Tobin McClain dazzles with unforgettable characters, fabulous small-town settings and a big dose of heart. —Susan Mallery, New York Times bestselling author
PROLOGUE
Fifteen years ago
Taylor Harp was fifteen years old when she learned that, sometimes, it was better to be the smart one than the pretty one.
“Let’s go, Savannah, you’re going to stay with me.” Mrs. Williams, Mom’s best friend, tugged Taylor’s sister toward her Lexus.
Aunt Katy put an arm around Taylor. “Come on, honey. You’ll be living with me.”
Taylor leaned in, welcoming the comfort of her beloved aunt. And then she processed what the two adults had said.
Shock and pain tightened her chest as she looked at her younger sister, gorgeous even with the tears that had streaked mascara down her face. Taylor should have told Savannah not to wear mascara to their mother’s memorial service. She should have done a lot of things differently, she saw now, but it was too late.
She stuffed down the pain and welcomed the anger that rose in its place. Mrs. Williams and Aunt Katy wanted to separate her and her sister? How could they even think that, today of all days? “We need to stay together,” she said, stepping forward to take her sister’s hand.
Taylor was older by a year and wiser by a lifetime. She wasn’t always crazy about her sister, but it was her job to take care of Savannah. It had been that way for most of their lives.
She wasn’t going to cry. She was mad, not sad. Except when she looked at her sister’s tear-streaked face.
Today, when they’d just laid their mother, Birdy, to rest, was not the day to neglect her duty to her sister. “We’re staying together,” she repeated with more force in her voice.
Savannah gripped Taylor’s hand so hard it hurt.
“You can’t stay together,” Mrs. Williams said briskly. “Everything has changed, and we need to deal with it. Your aunt works too much to get Savannah to all her pageants.”
Taylor opened her mouth to make the horrible suggestion that she would come and live with Mrs. Williams, too.
Seeming to read her mind, the woman shook her head. “I can’t take both of you, so don’t even ask.”
Aunt Katy looked like she was about to cry herself. “Savannah could stop competing—”
“She needs to stay visible so she can get more modeling gigs.” Mrs. Williams’s voice was sharp. “Birdy left nothing. You know that.”
Aunt Katy bit her lip and reached out to brush back Savannah’s blond curls. “You can visit. A lot.” Then she turned and patted Taylor’s shoulder. “And you’re so good at math, you can help me with my tax business.”
Taylor tried to maintain her anger, but it was turning into a stone of despair, pressing down on her. If Aunt Katy was giving in to awful Mrs. Williams, that meant the adults had already discussed this. It meant this separation was inevitable. That was a new word she’d learned by eavesdropping on Mrs. Williams’s phone conversation. “It was inevitable she’d take her own life one day,” Mrs. Williams had said.
Taylor swallowed hard and kept a grip on her sister’s hand. “If you ever feel like Mom felt, you come to me,” she whispered. She’d learned online that depression ran in families, and Mom had definitely been depressed. “Whatever it takes, you hear me? Come to me, or I’ll come get you, wherever you are. Do not do what she did.”
Fresh tears rose to Savannah’s eyes and spilled over. “You, too,” she choked out. “If you ever feel like…” Her voice rose to a squeak on the last words.
“We have a train to catch.” Mrs. Williams took a tissue and tried to wipe Savannah’s face, then gave up and grasped each girl’s wrist, yanking them apart like they were beads on a child’s plastic necklace. “You can call your sister tomorrow, after the pageant.”
Aunt Katy pulled Taylor into a side hug, her warm softness comforting. “Come on, we’ll stop at the bakery and get cupcakes on the way home.”
Seriously, their mother had just died and Aunt Katy was offering cupcakes? But Taylor bit back the snarky remark. Aunt Katy was sweet, and really, cupcakes were as good a comfort as anything else would be.
“I want a cupcake,” Savannah croaked out.
“No cupcakes for a pageant princess. Your dress is already tight.” And with that, Mrs. Williams opened the passenger door of the Lexus and half pushed, half lifted Savannah inside.
Mrs. Williams must have seen something on Aunt Katy’s face, because her own expression went sour. “It’s not our fault, it’s Birdy’s,” she said. Her voice was harsh, but at the end, her face sort of caved in, her mouth twisting. She hurried to the driver’s side of the car and got in. Before Taylor could catch her breath, the car had squealed out of the parking lot, taking her sister away.
Taylor watched the Lexus until it blended into a traffic jam of other vehicles. She kept squinting, trying to see it long after it had disappeared.
“Come on, honey.” Aunt Katy took Taylor’s hand, even though Taylor was way too old for that, and they headed down the street toward the small apartment that would become Taylor’s home for the next however many years. Until she was eighteen and on her own, she guessed.
On the way, they stopped in front of the neighborhood bakery. As they walked inside, the checkered tablecloths and sweet-smelling cookies and happy chatter washed over Taylor. They gently soothed, for just a moment, the hole in her heart.
Excerpted from The Bluebird Bakery by Lee Tobin McClain. Copyright © 2023 by Lee Tobin McClain. Published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
Purchase The Bluebird Bakery from:
(Affiliated Links used.)
The Hometown Brothers Series:
The Beach Reads Bookshop releases April 25, 2023
Places to find Lee Tobin McClain:
No comments:
Post a Comment
STOP!
Did you just copy and paste your previous comment? Please don't. Duplicate comments will be deleted.
Comments that include links to other sites, or names including links WILL BE CONSIDERED SPAM AND DELETED.