Page 138 of The Troublemaker

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER ONE

THEFIRSTTIMEJude James caught a glimpse of salvation, she was wearing overalls. Her blond hair was in disheveled pigtails, dirt smeared on her cherubic cheeks.

The second time he saw salvation was in the produce section of the grocery store. He stopped and stared as she leaned over to pick up a peach. Her slender fingers closed around the fruit, her blond hair—not in pigtails—falling forward. It was like a golden halo shone about her. She wasn’t in overalls. She was wearing a dress that came just above her knees, showing off very shapely legs.

Penny Case.Penelope.The one woman he had never been able to forget. Strange, because mostly, he had known her when she was a girl. They’d both been kids, really. With no say over the lives they’d lived and no way to control the chaos around them.

But he’d been sure he loved her.

He’d kissed her one night under the stars and had wanted to have everything, but they were too young and he would never take the risk that she might get pregnant. Not when his own mother had spent her whole life dealing with the fallout of her teen pregnancy and raising him alone.

Then everything had gone to hell and the Kings had come to take her away...

He had wanted nothing more than to let her escape.

That life they lived, that awful, unstable upbringing they’d had... He had missed her. Always. But he had been glad that she had gotten away. Now, there she was. And him, with a basket in his hand containing only beer while she was selecting healthy food. Felt apt. It wasn’t that he hadn’t done okay for himself. In fact, he’d just come back to town. He did decent work and had cultivated land that supported him. It was a far cry from the petty criminal acts his father had committed.

But still, standing in front of her was like standing before an angel. Walking on holy ground.

He had always felt that.

He had always known it.

And then she turned, and her blue eyes went wide.

PENNYFELTFROZENin place. As if she had been spotted by a predator. And in many ways, she had been.

What a strange thought to have about her childhood best friend. Her first love.

Her first kiss.

Jude.

She hadn’t seen him since...since she was fifteen, and she had gone to live with the King family. Since Denver had taken her in, trying to make up for the things that his dad had gotten her dad involved in.

It was his own damned fault in her opinion. The only person responsible for Walter Case’s actions was him. But she couldn’t exactly be salty about the care that she had received from Denver in the intervening years. He had given her a nice place to grow up. A stable environment. Family. But before them, Jude had been her family.

And now he was...

She would recognize him anywhere. His black hair cut close to his head, his cheekbones still sharp. His eyes were an arresting shade of blue that contrasted intensely with that dark hair. He was tall, broad-shouldered, his muscles rangy. He had tattoos entirely covering both arms, extending down to his hands. The sight of that did something to her. It called to an old thing that rested low in her stomach. Recognition. The sort of person who lived a rough life.

She had tried to get away from rough.

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