Sequins and Spurs

Sequins and Spurs
Cheryl St.John

Her Last Chance at Redemption…Singer Ruby Dearing is tired of life on the stage and yearns for a place to belong. She returns home to beg forgiveness from her mother and sister, only to find stubborn Nash Sommerton – her sister’s widower – in charge.Nash is prepared to fight this unruly beauty for his ranch, but Ruby amazes him with her determination to restore the house to the home it once was. Can he persuade Ruby to forgive herself and see the second chance they’ve both been given?

Ruby gave him a look filled with appreciation. “Thank you for putting aside your resentment and giving me a chance.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Nash took a step back. “Goodnight, Ruby.”

She offered him a soft smile. “Goodnight.”

He locked the kitchen door and went up to his room. Thanks to Ruby he had his children back under his roof and could rest easy about that. Her presence here wasn’t conducive to sleep, however.

He thought of her traveling the country with her theater friends and riding that horse all the way to Nebraska on her own. In a way it bothered him, but on the other hand she impressed him beyond measure. He couldn’t think of another woman who would be so independent or daring. Few females would have packed a bag, saddled a horse and ridden alone for weeks and weeks.

Ruby was not like other women.

And those differences kept him awake at night.

Author of more than fifty romances, CHERYL ST. JOHN’s stories have earned RITA® nominations, Romantic Times awards, and are published in a dozen languages. In describing her stories of second chances, readers use words like ‘emotional punch, believable characters and real-life situations’. Visit her at www.cherylstjohn.net (http://www.cherylstjohn.net)

Sequins and Spurs

Cheryl St.John

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

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”

—Martin Luther King, Jr.

Contents

Cover (#uf205444a-9d8b-543e-a49f-8cfa3ba347a3)

Introduction (#ue27859ac-6bb5-5f32-87fb-bf93ee5568e6)

Title Page (#u7578ea68-64fe-5b53-acd1-f14c79e01393)

About the Author (#u5126e255-5926-5bef-88a4-2299f1fbcbb7)

Quote (#ue673ff27-5416-55a0-a7ba-a4054292b351)

Chapter One (#u7d01531c-dc82-5340-a1d0-b0e61ff5cecd)

Chapter Two (#ua9acf0b9-9ef2-58bc-9cd8-fba3fe03965e)

Chapter Three (#ue63c5142-dcb1-5074-87fe-dbb0c6da2505)

Chapter Four (#u8eee4c87-47b0-5615-b8e0-397643660ceb)

Chapter Five (#u326e4fb7-8f20-528e-a09d-0839d147ea51)

Chapter Six (#uc1fa54b3-28e8-5f10-b2fe-fe099aa8f2be)

Chapter Seven (#u16dfbaa3-4112-5fab-9f96-8c4f89bab8cd)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_1b3f7ac1-c720-51c6-b831-b36f5c756573)

Crosby, Nebraska, 1883

The screen door barely squeaked, but the familiar sound made Ruby’s heart leap. She’d never tiptoed all the way across the porch without Mama hearing that hinge and ordering her back to finish chores. Ruby Gail! Stop right there, missy.

Apprehension and uncertainty rising, she pushed open the unlocked interior door and entered the front room. In the remaining light of day it took a minute for her eyes to adjust enough for her to tell the furniture had been arranged differently, and the curtains at the windows were unfamiliar. The farmhouse sat eerily silent. No cooking smells met her senses; in fact, she wrinkled her nose at a faint antiseptic scent mingled with lingering lemon wax.