The Sheriff's Sweetheart

The Sheriff's Sweetheart
Laurie Kingery

He needs to turn his life around…And Simpson Creek, Texas, is the perfect place to do it. On the run from his dangerous past, Sam Bishop is happy to find a town seeking "marriage-minded bachelors." A wealthy wife is just what he needs to make his gambling problems disappear. But when Prissy Gilmore catches Sam's eye, she proves to be much more than a rich match. Sam wants to deserve her, wants to become sheriff and protect her hometown–wants to be the man she believes him to be. Yet the true test is waiting, when his past returns to challenge his future.

“I have a confession to make,” Sam said. “About me.”

“Are you…are you an outlaw? A wanted man?” Prissy held herself very still, as if she were afraid of the answer.

“No,” he said.

“Are you…are you married?” Her voice was a shaky whisper. “Did you leave a wife behind somewhere?”

He couldn’t stop the hoot of laughter that burst out of him and seemed to bounce off the twisted tree limbs hanging above them. “No, Prissy! No, I’m not married, or promised or anything like that.”

“Then what could it be?” she asked, her blue eyes puzzled in the sun-dappled shade. “If you’re not in trouble with the law, or married…”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make you play a guessing game,” he said, contrite over the worry that furrowed the lovely brow framed by her strawberry-blond curls. “Here’s my confession—I didn’t come to Simpson Creek for the sheriff job.”

“Y-you didn’t? Then why—”

“I came to meet you.”

LAURIE KINGERY

makes her home in central Ohio, where she is a “Texan-in-exile.” Formerly writing as Laurie Grant for the Harlequin Historical line and other publishers, she is the author of eighteen previous books and the 1994 winner of a Readers’ Choice Award in the Short Historical category. She has also been nominated for Best First Medieval and Career Achievement in Western Historical Romance by RT Book Reviews. When not writing her historicals, she loves to travel, read, participate on Facebook and Shoutlife and write her blog on www.lauriekingery.com.

The Sheriff’s Sweetheart

Laurie Kingery

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

Choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

—Joshua 24:15

To A.C.F.W., the American Christian Fiction Writers, an amazing organization that inspires and informs me, and as always, to Tom

Contents

Prologue

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

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Epilogue

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Prologue

Houston, Texas, June 1866

“Hold him a moment, gentlemen,” the silky voice purred, like a sleepy lion preparing to toy with some hapless creature his cubs had brought down.