“How long have you known
exactly who I am?”
“As soon as I learned your name. Why wouldn’t I realize that you’re the CEO of Aldrich Supermarkets?”
Tyler sighed. With stores across the state of Oklahoma, had he really thought she wouldn’t know?
“I won’t tell anyone, if it’s that important to you,” Charlottte vowed softly.
He nodded. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.” Then a horrible thought occurred to him. “That’s why they were all so friendly to me today. The whole town must know!”
“Now, that’s just silly,” Charlotte told him. “Folks in Eden are naturally friendly. It has nothing to do with who your family is!”
“How do I know that?”
“Oh, Tyler, not everyone is after your money.”
He wanted to flee—except that he didn’t really have anyplace to go or anything to do. And he didn’t want to be alone.
For once, Tyler realized, he really wanted not to be alone.
ARLENE JAMES
says, “Camp meetings, mission work and the church where my parents and grandparents were prominent members permeate my Oklahoma childhood memories. It was a golden time, which sustains me yet. However, only as a young, widowed mother did I truly begin growing in my personal relationship with the Lord. Through adversity, He blessed me in countless ways, one of which is a second marriage so loving and romantic it still feels like courtship!”
The author of more than sixty novels, Arlene James now resides outside of Dallas, Texas, with her husband. Arlene says, “The rewards of motherhood have indeed been extraordinary for me. Yet I’ve looked forward to this new stage of my life.” Her need to write is greater than ever, a fact that frankly amazes her, as she’s been at it since the eighth grade!
His Small-Town Girl
Arlene James
Published by Steeple Hill Books™
Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in.
—Matthew 25:34-35
To Virginia, because friends are just chosen family,
because sisterhood in Christ runs deeper than
blood, because there’s always lots of living left to
be done and because it’s never too late to find love.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Questions for Discussion
Chapter One
The sweet, clean aroma of freshly harvested fields invaded the low-slung sports car as it flew along the narrow ribbon of road, its sun roof open to the autumn breeze. Tyler sucked in a deep breath, feeling the last of his tension drain away, as if a great weight had lifted from his chest. Finally.
When he’d walked out of the board meeting in Dallas, almost four hours ago now on this last day in a long and difficult week, his only thought had been to find some peace somewhere. For Tyler this meant shutting off his cell phone, climbing into his expensive cinnamon-red car and hitting the road for a good, long drive. Operating from sheer impulse, he’d headed north, avoiding the most well-traveled roads, and now he found himself in Oklahoma on Highway 81, a smooth, level two-lane stretch with little traffic for a Friday afternoon.
A blinking yellow light brought his attention to the dashboard. He depressed a button on the steering column and saw via a digital readout that at his current rate of speed he could drive exactly 8.9 miles with the fuel remaining in his gas tank. Time to pull over. A glance at the in-dash clock showed him that the hour had gone six already.
Glancing around in the dusky light of an autumn evening beginning to fade into night, he saw nothing but empty fields bisected with the occasional lazily drifting line of trees and railroad tracks running at twenty or thirty yards distant alongside the highway. Bowie, the last town he’d passed before crossing the Red River, lay many miles behind him to the south, many more than he could cover with the fuel remaining in the tank, anyway. There must be a local source of gasoline, however. People had to drive around here, didn’t they? Wherever here was.
Tapping the screen of his in-dash global positioning system, Tyler noted that the small community of Eden, Oklahoma, some 2.3 miles ahead, offered a gasoline station. Confident that he would find what he needed there, he sped off.
Moments later, a female voice announced, “Right turn ahead.” Seconds after that, the GPS intoned, “Right turn in two miles.” Less than a minute later that changed to, “After two hundred yards, turn right. Then turn left.”
Braking, he reached over and shut off the voice prompt. “Thank you, darlin’. I’ll take it from here.”
When he turned off the highway onto the broad, dusty street, given the appearance of the few buildings he passed, the whole place seemed deserted, and the quaint three-pump filling station that he pulled into some moments later proved no exception. The overhanging shadow of an immense tree all but obscured the faded sign that identified the station as Froggy’s Gas And Tire.
Engine throbbing throatily, Tyler eased the sleek auto close enough to the door to read the posted business hours, which were 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Used to twenty-four-hour service, Tyler felt his jaw drop. Six to six? And closed on Sundays? Talk about turning back time.
Shaking his head, he tapped the GPS again and learned, to his chagrin, that the next nearest station could be found in Waurika, some 19 miles distant. A check on his fuel status showed a mere 6.1 miles left in his tank, thanks to his burst of speed back there, which meant…The implications hit him like a ton of bricks.
Stuck! He was stuck in the middle of nowhere. At least until six o’clock in the morning.
His intent had been to get away from the fighting, arguments and manipulation for a while, not to disappear for a whole night. He hadn’t brought so much as a toothbrush with him, let alone a change of clothing. Clearly, he had to do something.
Finding solutions had become his stock-in-trade. In fact, that very trait had prompted his father to choose him over his older sister and younger brother to head the family company, much to the angry disappointment of his siblings.
Tyler reached for his cell phone. As with most businessmen, the mobile phone constituted both a necessity and an irritant for Tyler Aldrich. In the ten months since he’d been named CEO of the Aldrich & Associates Grocery store chain, it had become more headache than help, giving his family unfettered access to his ear, into which they never