Page 2 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

An Excerpt from Bad for Me

About the Author

By Codi Gary

An Excerpt from An Heiress for All Seasons by Sophie Jordan

An Excerpt from Intrusion by Charlotte Stein

An Excerpt from Can’t Wait by Jennifer Ryan

An Excerpt from The Laws of Seduction by Gwen Jones

An Excerpt from Sinful Rewards 1 by Cynthia Sax

An Excerpt from Sweet Cowboy Christmas by Candis Terry

Copyright

About the Publisher

Chapter One

“Ladies, lock up your men! Caroline Willis is back in town.”

—Miss Know It All

CAROLINE WILLIS SNORTED as she read the entry in the Rock Canyon Press. She’d seen her name on the cover and paused to pick up a paper before heading into Hall’s Market. When she’d turned to page three, there had been a picture of her leaving her sister Valerie’s house. Twelve years ago, gossip was spread on Sundays after church, at the local salon, and on any bar stool in town. Now every juicy tidbit was being printed in the local paper by an anonymous big mouth.

Miss Know It All was the town gossip columnist-turned-blogger. No one knew her identity, although there had been much speculation bandied about by Caroline’s sisters. Valerie was certain it was Gracie McAllister, while Ellie thought it was Mrs. Andrews, the town’s biggest bitch and gossip. Caroline had no idea. And yet, over the last few weeks, whoever it was seemed to have taken a particular interest in her.

Still, it wasn’t like Miss Know It All could make her return any worse. Caroline had decided over a month ago that she wanted to come home to be with her sisters. As for her father, well . . . she had hoped that at least he would be willing to put the past behind them and start over. It wasn’t like they’d ever been a picture-perfect family, at least not behind closed doors, but despite all their bad blood, he was still her dad.

Working things out with him probably wouldn’t have been so urgent if he hadn’t had a heart attack two weeks ago. Valerie had called Caroline to tell her the morning it happened. As Caroline had raced home, she’d imagined her father’s relief at seeing her doing so well after twelve years away with no contact.

Man, had she been living in a fucking fantasy land.

If her father’s refusal to even see her hadn’t proven how she’d over estimated time’s ability to heal all wounds, she definitely wasn’t prepared to face the citizens of Rock Canyon, Idaho. Lord knew she’d burned more bridges before she was eighteen than most people lit up in their lifetimes. She’d only bumped into a few people since being back, but when she’d tried to be friendly, she’d been met with chilly nods as they hurried away.

Walking into Hall’s Market offered a perfect example of how her return was definitely not met with cheers and parades. The first thing she noticed was the stares. Hope Weathers was putting out boxes of cookies in the bakery department and just about dropped one as Caroline passed. Marci Andrews, Betty Harwood, and Willa Fullerton—Rock Canyon’s version of the morality police (they were just like the Fashion Police on E but meaner)—were standing in line at checkout stand one, a wall of open disapproval as they whispered back and forth with the blonde clerk, whose scowl was so ugly that Caroline almost paused. She didn’t even recognize the girl, but she was sure giving Caroline the business.

Even Danny Cordova, who was stocking an end cap, stopped what he was doing, his eyes bugging out of his head as she gave him a tiny wave. Although maybe he was staring at her for another reason. She smiled at the thought that straight-laced Danny might be checking her out, especially considering how shy he’d been in high school. She’d never seen him even look sideways at a girl and had actually assumed he played for the other team.

Caroline was tempted to stop, spin around, and yell Boo!, but then they would say she was crazy. Lord knew she’d called herself the same thing for the last fourteen days. Crazy for coming back, crazy for expecting her father to have grown and softened in his old age. Who knew that when he’d told her to never come back twelve years ago, he’d meant it?

“Oh my God, Caroline Willis? Is that you?”

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