Precious Blessings

Precious Blessings
Jillian Hart

Lawman Jack Munroe didn't want to see the truth about his troubled little girl, especially when she was caught shoplifting in Katherine McKaslin's Christian bookstore. Being a single father was hard on a man's faith and patience, and he didn't need the all-perfect Katherine telling him how to impose discipline.Yet, he began to see the positive effects Katherine had on his daughter…and on him. Jack hadn't been looking for a relationship, but this strong and beautiful woman made him wonder if God wanted him to risk a second chance at love.

There was Jack Munroe with a vase of white rosebuds cradled in his hands.

“These are for you, to say thank you. I owe you an apology,” Jack said.

“Please, don’t worry. It was understandable given the circumstances.”

Katherine had to move closer to accept the bouquet, close enough to notice he didn’t wear a wedding ring. Not that she should be noticing. Not that she wanted to.

“You’re generous to say that. Needless to say, I don’t take criticism of my daughter very well.”

“I wasn’t criticizing her. Just trying to make things right. Everyone makes mistakes, especially teenagers.”

How could he have gotten it so wrong? The woman wasn’t high and mighty, she wasn’t righteous and judgmental. She was amazing. And if he stood here one second longer and kept this conversation going, then he was going to make a huge mistake.

JILLIAN HART

makes her home in Washington State, where she has lived most of her life. When Jillian is not hard at work on her next story, she loves to read, go to lunch with her friends and spend quiet evenings with her family.

Precious Blessings

Jillian Hart

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

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

—Galatians 5:22-23

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

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

“Go on, do it.” The barely audible whisper skimmed over the tall aisle of displayed greeting cards on the other side of the store.

Ordinarily, there was too much noise in the Corner Christian Book Store to hear a low, private conversation. But with the heavy February snowfall tumbling just outside the Spring Is Coming front window display and the fact that most of the customers had hurried through their shopping and left for home when the snow began falling in earnest, the whispering was almost too loud in the quiet, nearly empty store.

Katherine McKaslin didn’t stop her work straightening and restocking the greeting-card display, but she did look around. The last time she’d heard those words whispered in the store, someone had been shoplifting.

Two teenage girls stage right, between the crystals case and the humorous greeting cards. They giggled softly, their heads bobbing together to tell secrets. All Katherine could see of them over the chin-high displays were the tops of their heads. One had a tuft-like hairdo of orange spikes, and her friend had blond hair streaked with blueberry strands.

Ah, teenage rebellion. It was a stage she’d missed entirely, which was probably why she was thirty-two and still single. She’d always been stuck in the same rut. There was comfort in the familiar.

Whenever she got an impulse to color her hair—not orange or blue—and maybe add a few highlights to her plain blond locks or wear shoes with more than a sensible one-inch heel, it was short-lived. What would her family think? How would she explain it?

They’d probably say, that’s not like you, Katherine, what’s gotten into you? And so here she was, thirty-two and working in her parents’ store, wearing sensible low-heeled shoes and a black blazer, blouse and skirt that suited a conservative businesswoman. Ever since she’d been a teenager, she’d been afraid of making mistakes.

“I’ll be back,” Spence, her brother, called as he shrugged into his nicest coat. “Send prayers and positive thoughts.”

“Already done.”

With a chime of the overhead bell, the door swished shut behind Spence and she was alone on the floor. She swung her gaze back to her work, pressing down serious worries over the store’s worsening financial situation. Her stomach tightened with dread, but before she could send a prayer on Spence’s behalf, a blur of movement caught her eye.

There, in the corner security mirror, she had a perfect view of the blue-haired girl slipping something inside her oversized purple book bag.

Oh, no. You aren’t shoplifting, right? Katherine waited, pulse thumping, hoping against hope the teen was reaching for her cell phone. Or maybe the girl was checking where she’d left her keys. Customers did that all the time.