Don't Take the Girl

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>At ten I was the unwanted tagalong on London Hale's fishing trip-the fatherless girl next door he resented having to include. But all it took was one hot Texas summer afternoon of fishing to change everything.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>At sixteen he saved my life and then he kissed me. The star quarterback and the quiet outsider we defied every small-town stereotype as we fell hopelessly in love. By eighteen we had our futures mapped out together until four desperate words shattered everything.</span></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Don't take the girl.</em></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>With those words my world collapsed and London disappeared from my life.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Six years later I'm starting fresh at my best friend's ranch healing among horses instead of people until I discover that the rival rancher next door is none other than London Hale. The boy I loved. The man who should be in prison.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>He wants me gone and I understand why. His sacrifice cost him everything. But I never asked him to save me not the first time or the second.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Sharing another small town with him isn't going to be easy but I'm not going anywhere. I need this job and besides-it's temporary. At the end of the summer I'll have my certification and I'll leave just as he asked me to.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>But when I uncover the truth behind that fateful night and why London never went to jail I realize our story wasn't finished at eighteen-it's been waiting here all along.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Some chapters aren't meant to be closed. Sometimes the most beautiful stories are the ones brave enough to try again.</span></p>