Was he angry at her for leaving, or for coming back?
When Emma Candler returned to Bliss, Tennessee, after four long years trying to find—or lose—herself, she was intent on restoring more than just her nan’s termite-tortured old house. She had her life and her dignity to rebuild, too. Every small-town gossip knew all about the family fiasco she had fled from, and the fiancé she had hoped would follow. But Noah Gage wasn’t a follower. And he didn’t seem too pleased to see her back...or impressed with her attempts to make amends. Maybe there was nothing left between them. But Emma had to try to make things right.
“The thing is, he didn’t love me.”
“He did. I was there. Noah loved you deeply.”
No. He had wanted to love her. But he’d had no time to let Emma in, to let her share his burdens. But she wasn’t about to dredge up the same old song with her mother. “Whatever happened, it’s in the past. His mother just hasn’t noticed yet.”
“What do you want from him, Emma?”
She blinked. “That’s an odd question from you.”
Her mother only waited.
“Nothing.”
Now She’s Back begins on my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. When I was ten, my parents split up, and my mother moved us children back to her family’s part of the world—the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Little did I know we had an amazing tradition that had been going on for years while I pranced around a southern beach. I missed that beach. I never feel more at peace than when the ocean is playing music in my head, but if I could spend one more Thanksgiving at my grandmother’s table in Tennessee, that would be perfection.
When I started this story, I wanted to bring you to the Smokies for a family dinner at Grandma’s, but I had a difficult time because perfection in my head didn’t fly straight onto the page. Then I asked my own beloved grandmother into my fictional kitchen, and her love and compassion fueled this book.
If ever a couple hungered for love and compassion, it’s Emma Candler and Noah Gage. They contend with old scandals and fresh wounds. They have to learn each other all over again and overcome old habits built on defenses they’ve built against a hard world.
I hope you’ll enjoy dinner at their Thanksgiving table, and I hope you’ll come back to the town of Bliss, wrapped in the mists of the Smoky Mountains.
All the best,
Anna
Now She’s Back
Anna Adams
ANNA ADAMS
wrote her first romance on the beach in wet sand with a stick. These days she uses pens, software, or napkins and a crayon to write the kinds of stories she loves best—romance that involves everyone in the family, and often the whole community. Love, like a stone tossed into a lake, causes ripples to spread and contract, bringing conflict and well-meaning “help” from the people who care most.
This is for my brother, Pete. One day, he walked out of our house, yelling for our cousin, but I heard him call for “Shrimpo,” and Shrimpo he became for years. Pete, my little buddy, my baby in a way. Pete, a softness in my heart. I love you, brother.
Contents
THANKSGIVING WAS HER favorite holiday because it meant getting away from the anger at her house and bathing in the love at her grandmother’s. Emma Candler turned her father’s SUV into the lane that ran between their house and her grandmother’s white Victorian homestead on Bliss Peak. Pale, thready, early-morning mist wound between the hardwoods and the pines, drifting to the spires