Krista Faye has decided it’s time to put her dark past behind her and face her demons in her hometown.
Matt Burgess isn’t ready to have her back, especially when he finds out that they’re going to have more to do with each other than he cares for.
There’s someone, though, who wants Krista gone even more than Matt does, and the two must reluctantly work together to find out whom so Krista can make her dream come true. Along the way, Matt discovers a woman with passion, confidence and unyielding determination.
And Krista finds a man who is able to put aside everything he’s believed for fifteen years, to look beyond the scars the past left behind into a heart that is at last ready for love.
MRS GIGGLES ON WHERE ONE ROAD LEADS
Where One Road Leads is a most enjoyable heartwarming story that hits all the right spots with me. I appreciate that, for the most part, Ms Hebert doesn’t make it easy on herself and her characters. This story is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow because it can be heartbreaking while at other moments it makes me sigh and go, “Awwww!” After all that is said and done, I can only say that this one leads me to a very nice place indeed.
~~Rated 88
EXCERPT FROM WHERE ONE ROAD LEADS
“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”
Looking madder than hell, Matt’s hands clenched into tight fists that were paper white against the navy blue of his uniform. In contrast his cheeks were florid. The other day he’d been annoyed. Now he was ready to exchange some words.
Krista forced herself to look away from him. She’d been waiting for this. Relieved the moment had finally arrived, she’d be damned if he’d get the satisfaction of knowing he rattled her.
“I’m setting up my office,” she replied dryly. Well, she didn’t intend to make it easy for him. Over the past years she’d found a talent for tucking away her nerves and showing a calm, cool façade.
“Don’t get cute with me, Krista,” he growled. He shut the door and stalked toward the desk.
Krista held on to her temper. “Cute is not in my vocabulary. This is my office. I’m running this youth center. Of course you know that, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, now would you?”
Matt paused in front of her. She didn’t glance at him, but kept him within her vision. She busied herself with opening an envelope, praying that her hands weren’t shaking.
He moved past her, pacing to the window, his step quick and agitated. “This isn’t right. If I’d known you were—”
“Which is why I didn’t come to you or your father with this.”
“This has to be illegal. There must be a way to get out of it.”
It seemed Matt talked more to himself than to her so she didn’t reply. Looking up from the papers on the desk, she took the opportunity to study him.
He didn’t resemble Jay at all. Jay had been tall and lanky, with dark shaggy hair and stunning blue eyes. He’d been a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy, the one who’d refused to go to senior prom because he wouldn’t wear a tux. He’d been wild and so full of life.
Matt’s energy was more bound up inside him. She could see it, bristling from him like it wanted to burst free but he wouldn’t let it. His fists were still in tight balls at his sides as he stared out the window. A good three inches shorter than Jay, Matt’s build was far more muscular and he filled out his uniform very well. If he’d been any other man, Krista would be attracted to him. Men in uniform hadn’t much been her thing. A man like Matt, though, could definitely persuade her otherwise.
Matt was the last man she wanted to be attracted to. They were little more than enemies. No, he thought of her as an enemy and worked on ways to eliminate her from his life.
“I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do,” Krista commented blandly. “The company leasing this building is quite legitimate, as is the lease we signed.” She finally looked directly into his eyes, setting the steel in her stare so he knew she wouldn’t back down. “You don’t have to like me, Matt, but what I’m doing here is good. Even you can’t deny that.”
Matt paused and glared at her, animosity hard in his hazel eyes. She didn’t shrink from the glare. She met it steadily, her chin up and with defiance.
“You think this is going to make everything better? That it’ll excuse what happened to my brother and Liz?”
Krista drew air deeply into her lungs and expelled it slowly.
“I can’t change the past. If I could, believe me, Matt, I would in a heartbeat. Maybe then I wouldn’t have spent two years of my life in prison and I’d have my best friend back and maybe Jay and I would be married and our—” She stopped abruptly. No, she didn’t want Matt to know about the baby she’d lost. “I don’t expect to become the hometown hero by opening this center, but if I could make things better, more enjoyable for other people, everyone wins. This is not about me or making everything in the past go away so I can feel good about myself. I’ll have to live with that night for the rest of my life, no matter what will come down the line.”
Cerian Hebert 