Homes, and families, aren’t restored overnight
Jason Kendall grew up being treated like the poor relation he was. And after a devastating betrayal, he fled under a cloud of scandal. Now he needs a place to raise his four-year-old adopted son, and Kendall Farm is the only home he’s ever known. The problem is, his old homestead has a new owner.
Kelly Ashton sank every last cent into restoring the Maryland horse farm. Hiring the handsome engineer would be a huge mistake. But after five years away, Jace, the prodigal son, is back. To fight for his little boy’s future. And Kelly could lose the home she loves...unless she and the single father can create a new one together.
“We’ve been here before,” Kelly said.
Jace stepped back and reached down to help her. “Yes, we have.”
As she stood, her hands went to his shoulders and his caught her around the waist. Jace didn’t release her immediately. Kelly looked up at him, her hands still on his shoulders.
“And we decided you wouldn’t confuse me.”
“Not we,” he said. “You decided.”
Jace drew her closer to him. His head dipped and he kissed her. She didn’t try to stop him. His mouth was sweet on hers. It had been a long time since someone had held her like this. In his arms, Kelly felt safe. She let herself relax.
She would let herself enjoy the special moment, for now.
CHAPTER ONE
SWEAT TRICKLED DOWN Jason Kendall’s neck. It had been years since he’d fled this same road, the wind behind his Corvette creating a small hurricane as he vowed to never set foot on his family’s property again. Coming back to Windsor Heights, a town forty miles west of Baltimore, wasn’t easy and the closer he got to the farm, the harder it was to hold the memories at bay.
Rain pelted the car windows like large splats of paint falling from the sky. Wiper blades flipped back and forth, clearing the windscreen a second at a time, giving Jace a glimpse of a road that appeared smaller than he remembered. It was a long tree-lined ribbon without lights that led to the house at Kendall Farm. Jace had thought of it as the big house when he lived there. The Kendall, as it was known by the locals, was a world unto itself, but it was a world that was stuck in time. His half brother, Sheldon, made sure of that.
Thinking of Sheldon, Jace almost laughed. Wouldn’t he be surprised to find the family’s black sheep on his doorstep?
Jason Kendall had grown up here. Maybe grown up was too strong a term for what had happened to him. He supposed he could say it was the place that made him into the man he was today. He was proud, resourceful, cynical and steadfast. Although maturity had curbed his urge to throw a punch as a solution to an argument, he was always ready to stand his ground.
The Kendall was what the farm had been called since the end of the Civil War when Jameson Kendall returned from the conflict to find himself the lone survivor of his family, the others having succumbed to disease or died on the battlefield. It took him five years of hard work to bring it back to a profitable enterprise. As it passed from generation to generation, it had been well maintained but virtually unchanged.
Peering through the rain-soaked window, Jace tried to spot the house. He’d last seen the imposing structure five years earlier, vowing with every fiber of his being that he wouldn’t ever return.
But here he was, driving up the narrow road, returning not as the Prodigal son, but still as a son, even if he was illegitimate and merely tolerated. He had a reason for coming back and it outweighed his emotions.
Would the place be the same? Rain obscured his vision, along with the column of trees that lined the driveway. So much had changed in his life in the intervening years. He was more responsible. And he wasn’t as angry, yet no one would call him humble.
He hadn’t let Sheldon know he was coming. Why should he? Jace frowned. The Kendall was as much his as it was his half brother’s, even if their father had referred to Jace in his will as a distant relative. How distant were direct genes? The same blood that flowed through Sheldon’s veins flowed through Jace’s, “tainted” though it might be.
Jace gripped the steering wheel strongly enough to crush the hard plastic. What would Sheldon say when he saw him? Would he throw him off the property now that he was the sole owner? Jace didn’t put it past his brother. The two had never been real brothers, even saying they were friends would be a stretch, but underneath that tough exterior, Jace had the feeling Sheldon wasn’t totally indifferent to him. He was simply his father’s son.
When the jumbo jet had set down at Dulles Airport, it had been daylight outside. But quickly the light had gone, giving way to the dark, rainy sky. Lightning flashed and in that instant, Jace saw the house. Unconsciously his foot eased off the accelerator and the car rolled to a gentle stop. Windshield wipers tossed water back and forth as Jace stared at the white house that shimmered through the raindrops.