Page 64 of Barbed Wire and Burglary

However, she’d promised the guy she’d been paying to oversee the chicken farm that she’d meet him there at three o’clock sharp. Because of the extra traffic she’d run into on the interstate, she was nearly out of time.

Gotta keep driving.

She rolled down her window to smell the fresh country breeze and suddenly wondered why she’d ever left it behind. The city air couldn’t compete with this. She filled her lungs with it as she turned onto the unmarked gravel lane leading home.

I made it!

She’d done it with only a minute to spare, too. Rounding the final curve, she abruptly slammed on her brakes. Directly in front of her was a moving truck. She’d almost crashed into it.

The FOR SALE sign in front of the home she’d grown up in made no sense, nor did the bright red SOLD sign someone had tacked to the front of it. Or the two small boys who looked identical, throwing a baseball back and forth…

She watched, stunned, as one of the boys missed his catch, and the ball flew in her direction—straight for her windshield!

A tall man leaped from the back of the moving truckand, with a superhuman twist and dive, caught the ball right before it slammed into her car. The crouch he landed in brought him face-to-face with her over the window she’d rolled down earlier.

“Um, hello.” She stared dazedly at him, wondering who he was. He was ridiculously handsome in his navy t-shirt, faded jeans, and windblown auburn hair; and his crooked smile was one of those perfectly imperfect kinds of smiles that made it, well, perfect. But the positive side of her assessment of him stopped there.

He was trespassing. Maybe he’d gotten lost on his way to somewhere else. She didn’t realize she’d stated the question aloud until he answered her.

“Nope. I live here.” His voice was as nice as the rest of him, all warm and husky like a guy who knew how to laugh.

“That’s impossible, because I live here!” Her emphatic response erased all signs of the warmth and laughter she was so sure she’d seen in him, making her wonder if she’d imagined it all.

“Would you like to see the real estate contract?” he demanded.

“What?” She swayed dizzily in her seat, sensing that something was terribly wrong.

This can’t be happening!

“I-I have the court paperwork proving it’s mine,” she mumbled. “I grew up here. It’s?—”

She was dimly aware of the man opening her car door and asking if she was well. He offered to call an ambulance, and she refused. She closed her eyes and counted to ten like she did sometimes before attempting to calm a rowdy five-year-old.

Then she opened her eyesto face the handsome stranger and attempt to resolve the mystery unfolding in front of her.

Aurora gazed dreamilyat her new husband as he spun her across the dance floor at their wedding reception. Then he dipped her over his arm and claimed her lips.

“I love you, Mrs. Pike.”

“I love you, too.” She clung to his neck and the cluster of red roses fisted in her hand. Her heart was full. A few short months ago, she hadn’t known such happiness existed. Quite honestly, she couldn’t think of a single thing that would make their wedding day more perfect.

Until it came time to throw her bouquet… Maggie caught it, Uncle Cary gave a whoop of exultation, and the look on Aaron’s face was priceless. Aurora tried to name each emotion as it wafted across his handsome face:

Astonishment.

Wonder.

Joy.

Adoration.

Hope.

Expectation.

Yeah, I know the feeling, buddy!He probably didn’t know what had hit him yet, but he would.

A.J.’s grin told her he was thinking the same thing. They kissed again to celebrate the thrill of knowing that it was only beginning. The best things were yet to come.