A Season For Family

A Season For Family
Mae Nunn

Texas cop Heath Stone knows what it's like to have no home or family. Once a foster-care kid, Heath now appreciates those who help others. Like Olivia Wyatt, the lovely young woman who opened a homeless shelter in a tough part of town. But Olivia's hard work is in danger when Table of Hope is suspected of being a drug front.Heath goes undercover to keep a close eye on the shelter - and Olivia. What he finds is a woman of faith, a woman who feels like family…the family he's always dreamed of.

“Good afternoon, I’m Olivia Wyatt. Welcome to Table of Hope.”

The man turned his face toward hers. As their eyes met, she felt a powerful spark shoot through her system.

“Heath Stone.” He stood and reached to shake her hand. “Detective Biddle said you’d be expecting me.”

Olivia took a second to compare the reality before her with the computer hacker she’d agreed to take in while he worked off a hundred hours of community service.

If this guy’s an internet nerd, I’m a Mexican drug lord.

Olivia had been warned that beneath Heath Stone’s quiet exterior there was a clever cybercriminal. Well, growing up around a lying father and then earning a degree in social work had taught Olivia a thing or two about men. Not only would she keep a close eye on Mr. Stone, she’d keep him busy with laundry, cooking, cleaning and Bible study.

But how would she keep herself from staring at those dangerous eyes?

MAE NUNN

grew up in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in communications. When she fell for a transplanted Englishman living in Atlanta, she moved to Georgia and made an effort to behave like a Southern belle. But when she found that her husband was quite agreeable to life as a born-again Texan, Mae happily returned to her cowgirl roots and cowboy boots! In 2008 Mae retired from thirty years of corporate life to focus on her career as a Christian author. When asked how she felt about writing full-time for Steeple Hill Books, Mae summed up her response with one word: “Yeeeee-haw!”

A Season for Family

Mae Nunn

Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

—Matthew 22:37–40

A Season for Family is dedicated to Bill and Peggy Biddle.

Your love for one another, your courage in the face of adversity and your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is an inspiration to everyone who knows and loves the two of you.

Acknowledgments

With love and thanks to my son, Paul Nunn, just the skeptical male I needed in my life while I was developing the character of Heath Stone.

Special thanks and appreciation go to Alan Beck for sharing your amazing stories and years of experience as an undercover officer.

Thank you to Pat Magid of Studio Gallery in Waco, Texas, for answering all my questions, even the dumb ones.

I’m grateful to My Brother’s Keeper in Waco, Texas, for the tour, the education and the incredible work you do for the people you serve.

As always, I owe my deepest gratitude to Michael. I am forever in your debt for being my critique partner, my first line editor and my biggest fan. You make it all worthwhile, my darlin’.

Lastly, special thanks to Libo for keeping me company.

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

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion