From the beloved and bestselling author of the Ransom Canyon and Harmony, Texas series comes a powerful, heartwarming story about generations of family and the ironclad bonds they forge
Jillian James has never had a place she could call home. So when she lands in the sleepy Texas town of Laurel Springs, shes definitely not planning to stayexcept to find a few clues about the father who abandoned her and destroyed her faith in family.
Connor Larady is desperate: hes a single dad, and his grandmother, Eugenia, has Alzheimers. Hes the only one around to care for her, and he has no idea how. And now he has to close the quilt shop Eugenia has owned all her life. When Connor meets down-on-her-luck Jillian, hes out of options. Can he trust the newcomer to do right by his grandmothers legacy?
Jillian is done with attachments. But the closer she grows to Connor and Eugenia, the higher the stakes of her leaving get. She has to ask herself what love and family mean to her, and whether she can give up the only life shes ever known for a future with those who need her.
Also By Jodi Thomas
The Ransom Canyon Series
Ransom Canyon
Rustlers Moon
Lone Heart Pass
Sunrise Crossing
Wild Horse Springs
Indigo Lake
Winters Camp (ebook novella)
A Christmas Affair (ebook novella)
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk
Mornings on Main
Jodi Thomas
www.millsandboon.co.uk
MORNINGS ON MAIN
© 2018 Jodi Thomas
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a Licensed Device) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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Version: 2020-03-02
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Praise for New York Times bestselling author
Jodi Thomas
Compelling and beautifully written, it is exactly the kind of heart-wrenching, emotional story one has come to expect from Jodi Thomas.
Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author on the Ransom Canyon series
You can count on Jodi Thomas to give you a satisfying and memorable read.
Catherine Anderson, New York Times bestselling author
Ransom Canyon will warm readers with its huge heart and gentle souls.
Library Journal
[Sunrise Crossing] will warm any readers heart.
Publishers Weekly, A Best Book of 2016
Thomas is a wonderful storyteller.
RT Book Reviews on Rustlers Moon
This tale will grab readers, who will fall in love with the main characters and be just as enamored of the others.
Library Journal, starred review, on Lone Heart Pass
A pure joy to read.
RT Book Reviews on the Ransom Canyon series
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
Booklist
Title Page
Copyright
Praise
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Readers Guide
Questions for Discussion
A Conversation with Jodi Thomas
About the Publisher
1
Laurel Springs, Texas, had the warm feel of a Southern town long forgotten by progress. A hundred years ago the main street had been built wide enough to turn a wagon around. Today, the only sign of change was marked at every intersection by swinging stoplights. They clanked in the wind like broken clocks beating out time in red and green.
A trickle of day visitors flowed down the uneven sidewalks in front of quaint little shops with catchy names like A Stitch in Time, Hidden Treasures and Mamma Bees Pastries. Occasional sides of buildings and entrances to alleyways were painted with murals of cattle drives and oil fields, as if anyone needed reminding what built this state.
Jillian James drove through the heart of town, fighting back tears. This wasnt where she wanted to be. It was impossible to remain invisible in a small town. Strangers would be noticed. People would ask questions. Welcome her with smiles or glare at her like no one ever did in large cities.
She dropped her chin, letting her dark, straight hair curtain her face as she waited for the light to change.
Look at the bright side, she almost said out loud. Time slowed in a place like this, and she had to catch her breath. She had to plan her next move. A small town. A slower pace would give her time to think.
Shed been a traveler, a wanderer for as long as she could remember, and like it or not, this town offered her a place to rest and regroup.
In a strange way, this dot on the map reminded her of Budapest, Hungary. But a creek ran through the center of this town, not the Danube river. No hauntingly beautiful Chain Bridge joined the split cities as it did in Buda and Pest, but she sensed the beat of two separate towns between the city limit signs.
Two worlds divided by a ribbon of water.
One side of town was dark and industrial, with warehouses and grain elevators that blocked the sunset to the west. The other side was postcard cute, with gingerbread trim on brightly painted cottages and the Texas flag hanging from nineteenth-century streetlamps.
Here she was, stopped at a tolling light in the middle of town. Not belonging to either side. Not belonging anywhere. At first, her traveling had been an adventure she thought she was born for, but lately it felt like drifting. Just wandering with no more direction than the leaves dancing along the gutters.
Sniffing, she managed a smile, remembering what her father used to tell her every time they packed. If you want to see the world, Jillie, youve got to rip off the rearview mirror and never look back.
Somehow, she doubted hed been talking about Laurel Springs, Texas, when hed said the world. Shed grown up moving with him. Alaska in the summers, the oil rigs off the coast of Texas in winters. Norway when she was eight. Australia at ten. Washington State when she reached her teens, and a dozen other places. Never the same. Never staying long enough to grow roots.
When she was eighteen, hed left her at a dorm on a small college campus in Oklahoma and disappeared without a trace. Shed made it two semesters before her money ran out. She hadnt bothered to look for him. Her father had spent her formative years teaching her how to live without leaving a footprint to follow.
Travel light, hed once said. Pack nothing from the past, not even memories. And, finally, hed left without packing her along. Deep down shed known he would leave someday. Whenever he talked of her as grown, he never mentioned being in the picture.
Only now, a dozen years later, she longed for an anchor. One relative. One harbor. One place where she felt she might belong for a while.
The light changed. Jillian scrubbed her face with a napkin from McDonalds, where shed had lunch, and followed a sign advertising the towns only historic bed-and-breakfast.
Papas rule: Never stay at a cheap motel. It marks you as a drifter.
A small bed-and-breakfast was cheaper if you considered the one meal a day could stretch into two if you picked up fruit on the way out, and the friendly staff usually offered a wealth of information. Innkeepers almost made Jillian feel like she had a friend in town.
She parked her car in one of the four Special Guest of Inn reserved spots.
When she climbed the steps of what looked like a miniature Tara mansion from Gone With the Wind, a tiny woman, in her late fifties, rushed out with a welcoming smile. Her chocolate-colored apron was neatly embroidered and read JOIN THE DARK SIDE. We have chocolate chips in our cookies.