beautiful but unforgiving land—then closed her eyes and saw Alaska.
Full circle, Mama. I’ve come full circle.
Then she heard music and took a slow, deep breath.
The music from “A Thousand Years” led her out the door and all the way to the head of the stairs. “A Thousand Years,” because that’s how long it had felt before this man found her to love.
When she paused to look down, it reminded her of the moment she’d first looked down into the Bottoms…and the possibilities of change just waiting for her.
Then she saw Duke and started down the stairs toward him without looking away, drawn by the love in his eyes and the fact that he didn’t look like he was breathing. She needed to correct that as soon as possible, and had to make herself walk when she wanted to run.
The rest of the night was pure magic.
All Duke remembered was the Christmas angel at the top of the stairs, and then finally hearing her say “I do.”
Once the preacher announced that they were married, Duke felt complete. He’d waited all his life for this moment, and she’d been worth the wait.
Pictures were taken, but Duke and Cathy never knew it. They had eyes only for each other and shared the traditional bites of wedding cake.
The guests were still there when Duke and Cathy slipped out, her still in her wedding dress, and him still in his suit and boots.
The bags they’d packed were in his truck, and when he drove away from the farm that night, it felt right. The road that led around the section line to get to their new home was dark except for the headlights and a sliver of new moon.
When they pulled up to their home, all the lights inside the home were on, as well as the light on the porch—a welcome beacon.
Cathy was trembling. She’d come such a long way from the little girl from Alaska. Lost for a long time in the desert world of sand and sin…to running for her life, straight into this man’s arms.
“Wait here a sec,” Duke said. He got out and took their bags to the porch and set them inside the door, then ran back to the truck and opened her door.
Before she could get out, he lifted her out of the truck seat into his arms.
“This is how we met, and this is how we start again,” he said, then carried her up the steps, pausing only at the threshold to brush a kiss across her mouth. “Welcome home, Mrs. Talbot.”
And then he carried her inside.
* * *
Blessings was ringing in the new year when a man on a motorcycle rolled into town. He paused beneath a streetlight and looked up at the Christmas wreath above his head, and then accelerated up the street, all the way to the Blessings Bed and Breakfast.
It had been a long damn ride to get here, and he needed sleep before he could face what he’d come here to do.
Sharon Sala welcomes you back to Blessings, Georgia, with
Somebody to Love
Available February 2021
From Sourcebooks Casablanca
Chapter 1
Hunter Knox had never planned on coming back to Blessings, so the fact that he was riding up Main Street in the middle of the night was typical of his life. Nothing had ever gone according to plan.
It was just after midnight when he pulled his Harley up beneath a streetlight, letting it idle as he flipped up the visor on his helmet and glanced at the Christmas wreath hanging from the pole.
From the sounds going off in town, a lot of people were ringing in the New Year. He could hear fireworks and church bells and someone off in the distance shouting “Happy New Year.”
Hunt wasn’t looking forward to this visit, and he’d planned to get some sleep first, but he couldn’t. Too much time had passed already, and there was someone he needed to see before it was too late. So his reservation at Blessings Bed and Breakfast, and the bed with his name on it, were going to have to wait. He flipped the visor back down, put the bike into gear, and rode up Main Street, watching for the turn that would take him to the hospital.
* * *
The Knox family had just ushered in the New Year in total silence—eyeing each other from their seats in their mother’s hospital room—already wondering about the disposition of the family home before their mother, Marjorie, had yet to take her last breath.