Cover Copy
Welcome to Mountain Meadow, Virginia, where love is worth waiting for…
The town bad girl is back, and this time, Erin Richardson is in need of protection. Years ago, her youthful crush on handsome older man Sam Barnes nearly led to scandal. Now she’s on the run from an entirely different kind of trouble: a criminal intent on eliminating his witnesses—including Erin. As the local sheriff, Sam’s duty-bound to provide a safe haven. Though tongues will surely wag once Erin is sharing a house with the sexy lawman….
Erin is still too young, too vulnerable, and too irresistibly beautiful. But when Sam lays eyes on her again, all he wants to do is shelter her in his arms. It won’t be easy keeping her out of harm’s way. But it’ll be even harder keeping the woman he never forgot out of his bed—and his heart…
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Books by Laura Browning
Winning Heart
Mountain Meadow Homecomings
Special Delivery
Lost & Found Love
Erin’s Way
The Barlow-Barretts: An American Dynasty
Bittersweet
Balancing Act
Remember Me
Broken Heart
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Erin’s Way
A Mountain Meadow Homecomings Novel
Laura Browning
LYRICAL PRESS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
www.kensingtonbooks.com
Copyright
Lyrical Press books are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2016 by Laura Browning
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First Electronic Edition: August 2018
eISBN-13: 978-1-60183-573-4
eISBN-10: 1-60183-573-6
First Print Edition: August 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1-60183-575-8
ISBN-10: 1-60183-575-2
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all the students it has been my pleasure to teach over the last decade. Many of you have struggled to improve reading skills that were holding you back. You inspire me with your determination and hard work, and I am grateful every time one of you succeeds that I could help. The hugs are nice too.
Author’s Foreword
Author’s Note
According to the International Dyslexia Association, 15-20% of the population has a language-based learning disability like dyslexia. Reading delays are among the most common issues for students receiving special education services. Dyslexia knows no sex, racial or socio-economic bounds. Causes of dyslexia are both neurological and genetic. There is no cure. It’s not a disease, and early intervention is a key.
Children who are identified by kindergarten and first grade and receive help become much more successful at reading on grade level than students not identified until later. However, even older children and adults can still benefit from a multi-sensory approach to understanding language.
As a reading specialist and the parent of a child with learning disabilities, I urge parents not to wait if they or their child’s teacher notice reading difficulties. Dyslexia, or any reading difficulty for that matter, does not mean stupid. Many dyslexics are of average or above average intelligence. Learning ways to cope with the difference in the way their brain functions opens the door to a successful future.
For more information about dyslexia, you can visit: www.interdys.org
Chapter 1
Erin Richardson handed over some of her precious stash of cash and signed by the X for her rental car. Leaving a paper trail made her nervous, but reaching her destination quickly took precedence. Home sweet home. The black sheep of the family was returning to the fold.
Hating the heavy jacket she’d donned to keep out the last blast of winter cold, she tossed it in the back seat of the little sedan. The car would warm up soon enough. The bulky coat was a further reminder that she’d been forced to leave behind the warmth and her friends for the cold and uncertainty of the Blue Ridge…also known as home. Right. The place where she was headed had rarely felt like home, at least not as she had wanted it to be.
An image of a frowning face with snapping, dark eyes flashed in front of her. Sam. He was older now, but so was she. Not that it would make a difference. He was one more face lined up in judgment of her.
She slid behind the wheel and checked her reflection in the rearview mirror. A little different look than last fall when she’d dropped in on the ’rents so unexpectedly. Erin had kept the extra body jewelry but ditched the Goth-looking makeup and dyed her hair back to its natural color. This time when she returned home she wasn’t aiming to shock as she had been at Tabitha’s art showing. Erin was trying hard to fit the image of the senator’s daughter. That would be a first. But now totally necessary.
After what had happened right before she left the Virgin Islands, it was important to lay low and fit in. Maybe she should get rid of the ring in her eyebrow. No. She’d keep it for now. That was one too many changes for her to cope with at the moment. If she suddenly turned up in plaid and pearls, she’d make her family more suspicious than they would be simply by her turning up at all.
One thing hadn’t changed. Erin carried a bag of some high-grade pot, a few hits of ecstasy, and even a couple of Quaaludes she’d traded for with a guy from South Africa. She laughed humorlessly as she pulled out of Dulles and headed southwest in the rental. There was only so much goodness she could stand, and she certainly wasn’t