Hometown Healing. Jennifer Slattery

       Chapter One

      Paige Cordell felt as if she had regressed back to that awkward, frizzy-haired bookworm who’d left Sage Creek, Texas, fourteen years ago. With no intention of ever returning.

      And yet here she was. As a divorced unemployed single mother no less.

      Nothing screamed failure like sitting in Mom’s driveway with all of her belongings crammed into a U-Haul hitched to her car.

      She glanced back at little Ava, sleeping soundly in her car seat. She looked so peaceful with her rosy cheeks, the halo of red curls and the slight part of her lips. As if she hadn’t just spent nearly an hour fussing, not that Paige could blame her. They’d had quite the drive. Traffic, work zones, an accident just outside of Houston.

      Her phone rang. Paige glanced at the screen. It was Mira, her old high school friend.

      “Hey.”

      “Just checking you made it into town okay. And to see if maybe you’d like to stop by my place for a nice cold milkshake.”

      “Just got in.” She explained the reason for her three-hour delay. “And though I appreciate the offer, I’m wiped.”

      “I imagine.”

      “And discouraged. I know I’ll find another job eventually...”

      “Have you prayed about it?” Mira’s statement sliced through Paige like an accusation. “Might help.”

      “Please don’t talk religion to me. Not today.” She believed in God. But unlike her friend, she didn’t find comfort in tossing every decision up to Him.

      Besides, she and God hadn’t exactly been on the best terms as of late.

      “Well, like I said, this is only a hiccup.” Mira’s overly perky pep talk wasn’t helping. “Consider this an extended vacation.”

      “I can’t believe Ardell let me go. I mean, I get budget cuts, but why me? I was a high performer. I never missed a deadline, pitched great article ideas...”

      “You’ll find something even better with more job security.”

      Paige inhaled a fortifying breath. “You’re right.” She’d never allowed setbacks to discourage her before, and she had no intention of starting now. “Maybe even for a better magazine with a larger readership.”

      Only, Chic Fashions was about as big as they came. Not only was it Chicago’s premier fashion publication, but it was considered the top in the nation. She’d worked long and hard to land a position with them, only to end up jobless and living with her mother.

      The antithesis of adulthood.

      She glanced at Mom’s single-story brick house, heavily shadowed by a towering oak. Thick roots snaked through the grass, and a handful of dandelions dotted the lawn. The windows were dingy, like they hadn’t been washed in...ever, and the canary-yellow trim was beginning to peel.

      Other than that, the place seemed well-kept, and the yard had been mowed, which was surprising if her sister were right about how much Mom struggled. Hopefully Paige’s arrival would help pull Mom out of this phase she was in.

      A blur of red seeped into her peripheral vision, and she shifted to watch a shiny red pickup truck pull into the adjacent driveway.

      Her pulse spiked as a tall, broad-shouldered man dressed in jeans, boots, and a cowboy hat stepped out and then turned her way. “Seriously? Could this day get any worse?” she muttered.

      “Why? What happened?”

      With the phone still pressed to her ear, she sank farther into her seat with no intention of leaving her vehicle. At least, not until Jed Gilbertson was no longer standing less than fifty feet away. Staring at her.

      She turned to the box of office junk on the seat beside her to avoid making eye contact. “Jed just pulled up at his grandmother’s.” It’d been too long, and her heart had been too shattered, for him to still have such a pull on her.

      “I thought you were over him.”

      So did she. “That doesn’t mean I want to see him.”

      “I