Praise for the novels of Kaki Warner “A truly original new voice in historical fiction.” —New York Times bestselling author Jodi Thomas “[An] emotionally compelling, subtly nuanced tale of revenge, redemption, and romance. . . . This flawlessly written book is worth every tear.” —Chicago Tribune “Romance, passion, and thrilling adventure fill the pages.” —New York Times bestselling author Rosemary Rogers “A romance you won’t soon forget.” —International bestselling author Sara Donati “Draws readers into the romance and often unvarnished reality of life in nineteenth-century America.” —Library Journal “Kaki Warner’s warm, witty, and lovable characters shine.” —USA Today “Halfway between Penelope Williamson’s and Jodi Thomas’s gritty, powerful novels and LaVyrle Spencer’s small-town stories lie Warner’s realistic, atmospheric romances.” —RT Book Reviews Titles by Kaki Warner Blood Rose Trilogy PIECES OF SKY OPEN COUNTRY CHASING THE SUN Runaway Brides Novels HEARTBREAK CREEK COLORADO DAWN BRIDE OF THE HIGH COUNTRY Heroes of Heartbreak Creek BEHIND HIS BLUE EYES WHERE THE HORSES RUN HOME BY MORNING TEXAS TALL Rough Creek Novels ROUGH CREEK A JOVE BOOK Published by Berkley An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC penguinrandomhouse.com Copyright © 2020 by Kaki Warner Excerpt from Home to Texas copyright © 2020 by Kaki Warner Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. A JOVE BOOK, BERKLEY, and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Ebook ISBN: 9781984806208 First Edition: July 2020 Cover art by Rebecca Knowles / Trevillion Images Cover design by Judith Lagerman This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. pid_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0 CONTENTS Cover Praise for Kaki Warner Titles by Kaki Warner Title Page Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Epilogue Excerpt from HOME TO TEXAS About the Author To the amazing, versatile quarter horse and those skilled men and women who train them. And to Adeline, whose courage and persistence helped bring a neglected horse back into the winners’ circle of the show ring. I’m so proud of both of you. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My heartfelt thanks to the R. L. Boyce family, young and not so young, who have so patiently answered my endless questions. Hopefully I got most of it right. To the dedicated readers who have followed my slight detour from Western historical romance to Western contemporary romance. I deeply appreciate your loyalty and patience and hope this book is as much fun to read as it was to write. And of course to Joe, who had little impact on the writing of this book, other than to offer unconditional support, a few choice Texas expressions, many delectable home-cooked meals, and a barn. PROLOGUE At five thirty A.M., Dalton Cardwell walked through his cell door at the Walls Unit for the last time and began the lengthy process of being discharged from the state prison at Huntsville, Texas. He showered and ate, then went to the dispensary, where he was issued dress-outs—a set of clothing only marginally better than his prison garb and a size too small for his six-foot-four, two-hundred-thirty-pound frame. He was allowed to keep his shoes, which he intended to exchange for boots as soon as he was able. He wanted no reminders of this place. He was then taken to the infirmary, where he waited to be fingerprinted and have blood drawn for the HIV test. At the business office, he sat for over an hour while his prison account was scanned and a check was processed for the remaining seven dollars and thirty-one cents. After another half-hour wait, he was handed a packet containing a state-issued check for one hundred dollars, a voucher for a bus ticket anywhere within the state of Texas, and the certificate of discharge ending his eighteen-month-long association with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The clock was edging toward eleven o’clock—the time inmates were normally released—when he was ushered out the front door, told one of the taxis outside would take him to the army-navy store near the bus depot, where he could cash his state check, and was warned not to come back because they always went harder on return offenders. Then the door slammed shut behind him, cutting off the noise, the stink of despair, and the endless clang of locks and doors in a place that never slept. The silence was deafening. For a moment, Dalton stood motionless on the top step, trapped between immense relief, euphoria to have nothing but open sky above him, and a heart-pounding fear that the door behind him would fly open, a hand would jerk him back inside, and a laughing voice would say, Just kidding. When nothing happened, he took a deep breath and walked briskly toward one of the taxis waiting at the curb. An hour later, he had five twenty-dollar bills and change in his pocket, a hot cup of coffee in his hand, and a window seat on an air-conditioned Greyhound bus headed up Highway 75 to Dallas, where he would change buses and continue on to Rough Creek. Twelve fifteen P.M. Tuesday, March 21, 2017. Five hundred and fifty-five days of being caged like an animal for a crime he confessed to but didn’t commit. Done. Over. And heading home. Finally. CHAPTER 1 With grim determination, Coralee Lennox Whitcomb sat at her dressing table and set to work transforming a sixty-year-old grandmother into a confident
