Their Second Chance Love

Their Second Chance Love
Kat Brookes

A Lone Star ReunionHope Dillan thought she’d left the town of Braxton behind her—right along with the man she abandoned. But when her father falls ill, Hope anxiously flies home and finds former love Logan Cooper right where she left him. Being around Logan again feels like old times. The spark between them remains, but so does the secret that forced Hope to end things—one she knows will always keep them apart. When her father’s condition worsens, Hope feels the weight of everything she might lose. But how can she come clean to Logan without closing the door on their happily-ever-after again?

A Lone Star Reunion

Hope Dillan thought she’d left the town of Braxton behind her—right along with the man she abandoned. But when her father falls ill, Hope anxiously flies home and finds former love Logan Cooper right where she left him. Being around Logan again feels like old times. The spark between them remains, but so does the secret that forced Hope to end things—one she knows will always keep them apart. When her father’s condition worsens, Hope feels the weight of everything she might lose. But how can she come clean to Logan without closing the door on their happily-ever-after again?

“Logan!” she shrieked, arms folded over her head.

This time he was the one chuckling. “You ready to call a truce, little darlin’?” he asked as he shifted the hose’s aim to the plants on the table beside her.

“Yes,” she sputtered as she turned to face him. Water clung to the spiraling strands of her hair like a heavy morning dew. Coppery curls hung in sagging, wet tendrils to frame her pretty face.

A memory came rushing back from the past. One that had been very much like this moment. He and Hope in this very same greenhouse, both armed with hoses. Both soaked clean through by the end of their water play. Both falling in love. Or so he had thought.

Logan shut off the nozzle’s spray and tossed it onto the ground beside him. “You can take it from here. I’ve got work to do.” That said, he walked out of the greenhouse.

And away from the painful memories of her walking away from what they’d once had.

KAT BROOKES is an award-winning author and past Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® Award finalist. She is married to her childhood sweetheart and has been blessed with two beautiful daughters. She loves writing stories that can both make you smile and touch your heart. Kat is represented by Michelle Grajkowski with 3 Seas Literary Agency. Read more about Kat and her upcoming releases at katbrookes.com (http://www.katbrookes.com). Email her at katbrookes@comcast.net. Facebook: Kat Brookes (https://www.facebook.com/kat.brookes.5).

Their Second Chance Love

Kat Brookes

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, doesnot act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered.

—1 Corinthians 13:4–5

I would like to dedicate this book to my good friend Tammy Johnson, who talked me into submitting to Love Inspired after she sold her book to Love Inspired Suspense. Without her pushing me to take the chance, this book would not have been. I’d also like to thank my wonderful agent, Michelle Grajkowski from 3 Seas Literary Agency, and my two writing besties, Janice Lynn and Lisa Childs, for believing in me and brainstorming ideas with me for so many years.

Contents

Cover (#u4b2944d5-3139-58e1-b238-10d0c398f64f)

Back Cover Text (#u390648d4-ab7c-590c-8456-c0c736185fc9)

Introduction (#u00e70bbc-ade0-5749-8144-81b8db3e91df)

About the Author (#u5667d289-bb0c-5fd2-83c6-32969447f6f9)

Title Page (#ucd7333b1-e4ae-52df-b262-dcd99a21b988)

Bible Verse (#u379a7de7-d339-59a7-bd92-6a5731c45978)

Dedication (#u1b995b56-690d-5add-8b05-c402656fbe35)

Chapter One (#u6ce7ba54-3681-5784-84bc-19ed1b67a93e)

Chapter Two (#u32c0f109-6e14-59a8-a681-500cf7f06371)

Chapter Three (#u976fcbb4-a1ec-5e35-b240-9194f56c33ef)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Dear Reader (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_17fafcad-7edc-5443-86c2-f797e5a1929f)

Logan Cooper grimaced as his gaze moved over the crisp white wedding invitation he held in his hands. One embossed with two shiny gold hearts with flowers woven around them. The matching fancy gold script announcing the specifics for his brother’s big day. A day filled with love and promises of happily-ever-after. But not all relationships had storybook endings. He knew that firsthand.

Nathan should know that, too.

A heavy sigh pushed past Logan’s lips.

How could his big brother have forgotten the depth of heartache that eventually came with loving someone? Either through something as painfully final as death, as was his brother’s case with his beloved wife, Isabel. Or by having the one who you love walk away, leaving your heart feeling as though it had just been trampled by a herd of stampeding cattle, as was the case with him and Hope.

Please, Lord, don’t let my brother be making a mistake by risking his heart again.

It wasn’t that Logan didn’t like Alyssa. She was everything good in a woman. Kind and caring. Compassionate and patient. All of which Nathan had needed desperately in his life. She’d brought him back from the brink of the emotional desolation he’d fallen into after Isabel’s death a little over two years before. Alyssa had even played a huge part in helping his brother find his way to the Lord again when no one else had been able to do so. But if something was to happen to her...

Logan shook the thought away. Nothing was going to happen to Alyssa. They wouldn’t let it. Setting the invitation and the fancy reply card that came with it onto the kitchen counter, he grabbed his truck keys, slapped his cowboy hat onto his head and headed outside. He had an order at Hope’s Garden to pick up.

Hope’s Garden. The local nursery, owned and run by Jack Dillan, had been named for Jack’s daughter, Hope, the girl Logan had once loved. He and Jack had been doing business together for years, despite the painful breakup that had gone on between Logan and Hope. Painful at least for him, because you had to love someone to be able to feel the pain that comes with losing them.

I don’t love you. Hope’s blurted-out declaration that day so long ago still rang in his ears. How had he been so wrong about her? About them? Shaking the ever-troubling past from his mind, he climbed into his truck and set off down the narrow dirt drive that fronted the three-bedroom log cabin his brothers had helped him build a few years before.