Hometown Reunion


 
 
 
 “I don’t want to talk about what happened sixteen years ago. I really don’t.”
 He stuck his hands in his pockets, looked down at his boots and then up at her again. “We’ll talk about other things, then.”
 “What things?”
 “Anything. How you adopted your little girl.” He said that gently. She almost smiled. But then he added in a low growl, “Or why the hell you married Nick.”
 As if he had any right to judge her choices. He’d left. What was it to him?
 Folding her arms across her middle to keep from slamming her door in his face, she sternly reminded herself that it made zero sense to be so mad at him right now. They were nothing to each other. A memory. A love that wasn’t strong enough, a love that didn’t last.
 So why did her heart throb painfully every time she saw him? 
 
 
 Dear Reader,
 Most of us never forget our first crush, our first kiss...our first love. Rancher Jobeth Bravo never has.
 Right after high school, Jobeth’s first love, Hunter Bartley, left their hometown of Medicine Creek, Wyoming, to make a better life for himself. He wanted Jo to go with him, but she loved Medicine Creek and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
 Years later, she is long over him—or at least, that’s what she told herself when her dad asked her if she would be okay with Hunter staying at the family ranch for a while. Turns out his successful home-improvement show is filming several episodes in town.
 Jobeth reassured her dad that having her high school boyfriend living fifty feet from her front door would be no problem at all for her. What else could she say? But now he’s right there on the ranch with her. And Jobeth is having to face the fact that she’s not nearly as over Hunter Bartley as she thought.
 Some of you may remember way back to the first Bravo family story, The Nine-Month Marriage, which came out in the late nineties. Jobeth was six years old then. She appeared in several Bravo books after that and I’ve had a lot of requests for her story. I kept meaning to get around to giving her the happy-ever-after she always deserved. At last, here it is.
 And whether you’re a fan of the Bravo family or a newcomer to the series, I hope this story sweeps you away and keeps you turning pages from the first chapter to the last.
 Happy reading, everyone,
 Christine
 
 
 Hometown Reunion
 Christine Rimmer
 
 
 
 Christine Rimmer came to her profession the long way around. She tried everything from acting to teaching to telephone sales. Now she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly. She insists she never had a problem keeping a job—she was merely gaining “life experience” for her future as a novelist. Christine lives with her family in Oregon. Visit her at christinerimmer.com.
 Books by Christine Rimmer
 Harlequin Special Edition
 Bravo Family Ties
 Hometown Reunion
 Wild Rose Sisters
 The Father of Her Sons
 First Comes Baby…
 The Christmas Cottage
 The Bravos of Valentine Bay
 Switched at Birth 
 A Husband She Couldn’t Forget
 The Right Reason to Marry
 Their Secret Summer Family
 Home for the Baby’s Sake
 A Temporary Christmas Arrangement
 The Last One Home
 Montana Mavericks: Brothers & Broncos
 Summer Nights with the Maverick
 Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
 
 
 This one’s for Norma Carroll and her eighteen-year-old gray tabby cat, DC. Norma says DC is “kind of grumpy” and “carries socks around like he hunted them down and killed them.”
 When Norma’s youngest child found him, DC was a kitten and barely weaned. At the sight of him, Norma’s husband declared, “I don’t want a damn cat.” The remark reminded Norma of an old movie, a comedy mystery from back in 1965—and thus DC was named after the sleuthing Siamese in That Darn Cat!
 Thank you, Norma, for sharing DC with me and allowing me to use his name and likeness to create the heroine’s gray tabby in this book.
 
 
 Contents
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Excerpt for Winning Her Fortune by Heatherly Bell
 
 
 Chapter One
 From the second-floor window of her sister’s office at the Medicine Creek Clarion, Jobeth Bravo had an unobstructed view of the entrance to the Statesman Hotel.
 As her little girl cooed happily in her arms, Jobeth stared at that entrance and thought of the past and wished she could change it somehow. Change it or let it go—forget it had ever happened. Wake up tomorrow morning, stretch and yawn and smile, and look forward to the coming day without the faintest remembrance of Hunter Bartley in her mind or her heart.
 Starr, Jobeth’s sister, glanced up from her desktop monitor. “Get away from that window.” Starr frowned at the monitor again. “Hmm.” Her fingers, swift and sure, went to work at her keyboard. As she typed some more on her next editorial, she muttered, “You are obsessed.”
 Jobeth didn’t budge. She cuddled nine-month-old Paisley a little bit closer and continued to stare fixedly at the hotel across the street.
 The Statesman was currently filled with reality-TV people from Hollywood. The TV people were in town to film several episodes of the hit home-improvement show Rebuilt by Bartley. No, Jobeth couldn’t see a single one of those TV people right now. But she knew they were in there—not Hunter Bartley, though. The star of the show was bunking elsewhere.
 “Da-ga-wa...” Paisley tried to stick a plump finger up Jobeth’s nose.
 “No, you don’t.” Jobeth caught her tiny hand. Paisley giggled as Jobeth said glumly, “I don’t think I want to go home. Not for four months at least.” Filming was expected to take that long. Rebuilt by Bartley would