Say It Again, Sam

211 Pages·2009·0.84 MB·English

by  McBride Mary

THE CRITICS LOVE THE ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
NOVELS Of MARY McBRIDE!
MY HERO
“I’m hooked on Mary McBride!”
—SUSAN ANDERSEN, author of Getting Lucky
“McBride’s fine characterization and fresh, funny voice sweep the reader
along… . This book is as warm and relaxed as its Southern setting—a world in
which readers will be happy to sit, kick off their shoes, and stay awhile.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Fun… engaging… Mary McBride shows that love makes everyone a hero.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Enjoyable… refreshing,… For a little trip over a rainbow to Texas, get carried
away by My Hero.”
—Romantic Times
“McBride’s charming and sexy tale may well leave readers believing in heroes
themselves.”
—Booklist
“With her first action-packed book, Still Mr. and Mrs., Mary McBride swept
away readers into a world of love and danger. My Hero repeats the experience…
. An addictive read, well conceived, stylishly written, and plotted with a nice
twist.”
—Bookloons.com
—Bookloons.com
“A very touching, moving romance between a real hero and a woman who
doesn’t believe in heroes… wonderful and satisfying… will keep readers turning
the pages.”
—The Word on Romance
“Ms. McBride has excelled in this book… the pages will fly by and make you
hate to turn the last page.”
—MyShelf.com
“Will make you believe in heroes… Ms. McBride does a fine job of capturing
small-town Southern charm… a heartwarming story.”
—Contemporary Romance Reviews
“McBride has scored a bull’s-eye with the sizzling chemistry between her two
protagonists… a fun, flirty, and feel-good read.”
—Heartstrings
“A very enjoyable story… an exciting story line with exceptional characters.”
—The Romance Reader’s Connection
—and STILL MR. & MRS.
“Outrageously fun… thoroughly enjoyable.”
—Publishers Weekly
“McBride deftly spins the estranged lovers through the hoops of passion and
danger.”
—NORA ROBERTS
“This lighthearted presidential adventure rings true with a compelling mix of
comedy and heart-tugging emotion.”
—CHRISTINA SKYE
“Mary McBride serves up a book that is both filled with action and packed with
emotion… witty and invigorating reading.”
—Romantic Times
ALSO BY MARY MCBRIDE
Ms. Simon Says
My Hero
Still Mr. & Mrs.
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by Mary Vogt Myers All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in
writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages
in a review.
Warner Forever is a registered trademark of Warner Books.
Warner Books
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com
www.twitter.com/foreverromance
ISBN: 978-0-446-56555-4
First eBook Edition: October 2009
For Kimberly Hartstein,
My favorite long-haired lady
Contents
COPYRIGHT
ALSO BY MARY MCBRIDE
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
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THE EDITOR’S DIARY
CHAPTER ONE
O
n a map, the township of Shelbyville, Michigan, resembled a startled face.
Blue Lake and Pretty Lake, each very nearly round, formed a pair of staring
eyes, set wide by the dense woods between them. The pinched lobes of Little
Glory Lake sufficed for a nose, and just below it, Heart Lake was carved out like
an open, astonished mouth.
Or, if you didn’t have much imagination, Shelbyville township looked like
five lakes and a hell of a lot of trees just above the forty-third parallel and a few
miles east of Mecklin, the county seat.
The population of Shelbyville was 1,245 souls, give or take a soul or two. In
June, July, and August, though, that figure swelled, almost doubling with the
influx of tourists, or what the townspeople called “the summer folks.” And the
summer folks tended to get in a lot more trouble than the residents.
It was summer now, and Constable Sam Mendenhall was responding to an
early-morning call about more trouble. He walked into the post office carrying
the coffee he’d picked up at the Gas Mart, wondering why the postmistress had
summoned him instead of the feds.
“What’s up, Thelma?” he asked the elderly postmistress.
“Somebody stole my flag.”
Sam took a thoughtful sip of the steaming brew, hiding his exasperation
behind the paper cup. From her urgent tone on the telephone, he’d been
expecting an actual burglary. He thought her cash drawer had been cleaned out,
or that someone had made off with her stamps.
“It was a brand-new one, too. I just got it a couple weeks ago.” She slapped a
liver-spotted hand on the countertop. “Damn it all. In over fifty years, I haven’t
missed a single day—not one!—of running my flag up the flagpole out there. A