The Comforts of Home Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  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

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Titles by Jodi Thomas

  PRAISE FOR SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY

  “Filled with amazing people that many of us can relate to . . . I love the characters and I love the caring, sharing, squabbles, and oddball individuals who live there.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “A delightful story with as much love and warmth as there is terror and fear . . . This is terrific reading from page one to the end. Jodi Thomas is a passionate writer who puts real feeling into her characters.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “Thomas once again brings to life this fascinating little Texas town and its numerous characters. The reader is expertly drawn into their lives and left eager to know what happens next.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “Extremely powerful and gripping writing. It’s full of passionate moments, hidden secrets, and likable characters.”

  —Roundtable Reviews

  “Distinctive . . . Memorable.”

  —Publishers Weekly (online review)

  PRAISE FOR WELCOME TO HARMONY

  “The characters are delightful, and a subplot about mysterious fires balances the sweet stories about being and becoming family.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A fast-moving, engaging tale that keeps you turning pages . . . Thomas’s characters become as familiar as family or friends.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “A heartwarming tale, with plenty of excitement, Welcome to Harmony is Jodi Thomas all the way—super characters, lots of riveting subplots, and the background of a realistic Texas town. Don’t miss this terrific novel.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “A wonderful novel of three interwoven stories, peopled with characters you will care for deeply.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  PRAISE FOR REWRITING MONDAY

  “Jodi Thomas again delivers a delightful, character-driven tale of modern Texas.... Heartwarming, heart-tugging, and just plain good reading.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “Thomas seamlessly weaves past and present into a gripping novel of contemporary romantic suspense, as Pepper begins to appreciate the accomplishments of previous generations and to enjoy true friendship and a sense of belonging for the first time in her life.”

  —Booklist

  “[Jodi Thomas] paints beautiful pictures with her words, creates characters that are so real you feel as though they’re standing next to you, and she has a deliciously wry sense of humor.... I enjoyed this book from page one until the end—and thoroughly recommend it.”

  —Romance Novel TV

  “If reading a new book is like opening a box of chocolates, then I got the one with cherry inside—my favorite—when I read Rewriting Monday.... This is quite a rich story with touching characters that seem real and behave like real people.... I loved it.”

  —The Book Smugglers

  PRAISE FOR TWISTED CREEK

  “Twisted Creek will weave its way around the reader’s heart. Compelling and beautifully written, it is exactly the kind of heart-wrenching, emotional story one has come to expect from Jodi Thomas.”

  —Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  “Jodi Thomas is a masterful storyteller. She grabs your attention on the first page, captures your heart, and then makes you sad when it is time to bid her wonderful characters farewell. You can count on Jodi Thomas to give you a satisfying and memorable read. Twisted Creek is absolutely delightful.”

  —Catherine Anderson, New York Times bestselling author

  “Thomas sketches a slow, sweet surrender, keeping the tension building to a rewarding resolution in this unsentimental, homespun romance.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Twisted Creek is a wonderful, character-driven tale that tells just what a family can be, even if it’s made up of a bunch of lonely friends.... Romance blooms slowly, but for two nearly lost souls, it’s rewarding when it does.... As usual, Jodi Thomas kept me up way later than normal! Twisted Creek could be anywhere, but Ms. Thomas makes it uniquely Texan with her wonderful characters and great dialogue. This is another thought-provoking novel to add to your Jodi Thomas collection.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “Romantic suspense and sweet women’s fiction are an unlikely combination, but in Twisted Creek, veteran storyteller Jodi Thomas makes the pairing work quite well. Allie’s love for her aging grandmother is sensitively portrayed, while her blossoming relationship with Luke simmers unforgettably in the background. This is a moving story about overcoming hardship and bitterness and about being brave enough to make a happy ending—no matter what it takes.”

  —Romance Junkies

  Titles by Jodi Thomas

  THE COMFORTS OF HOME

  SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY

  WELCOME TO HARMONY

  REWRITING MONDAY

  TWISTED CREEK

  TEXAS BLUE

  THE LONE TEXAN

  TALL, DARK, AND TEXAN

  TEXAS PRINCESS

  TEXAS RAIN

  THE TEXAN’S REWARD

  A TEXAN’S LUCK

  WHEN A TEXAN GAMBLES

  THE TEXAN’S WAGER

  TO WED IN TEXAS

  TO KISS A TEXAN

  THE TENDER TEXAN

  PRAIRIE SONG

  THE TEXAN AND THE LADY

  TO TAME A TEXAN’S HEART

  FOREVER IN TEXAS

  TEXAS LOVE SONG

  TWO TEXAS HEARTS

  THE TEXAN’S TOUCH

  TWILIGHT IN TEXAS

  THE TEXAN’S DREAM

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  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. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  THE COMFORTS OF HOME

  A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Berkley mass-market edition / November 2011

  Copyright © 2011 by Jodi Koumalats.

  Excerpt from Just Down the Road by Jodi Thomas copyright © by Jodi Koumalats.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form

  without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ISBN : 978-1-101-54558-4

  BERKLEY®

  Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  There is a legend in the small town of Harmony,

  Texas, that one winter, where the rivers once crossed

  in the center of town, the waters grew muddy. For

  months winter storms made the waters bubble and

  rage, and the people of the town grew weary of look-i

  ng at their distorted and pocmarked reflections.

  After a time, everyone stopped looking at the mirrored

  river and began only to see themselves the way

  others saw them.

  Visitors often commented that the people of

  Harmony grew better looking, for their beauty

  came not from what they saw for themselves, but

  from what they felt through others’ eyes.

  Chapter 1

  PREDAWN ON WEDNESDAY

  FEBRUARY 17, 2010

  TYLER WRIGHT MANEUVERED HIS NEW BLACK RANGE ROVER through the silent streets of Harmony, Texas. A light rain tapped on the windshield like a ticking clock. He knew he should still be trying to sleep, but with the dawn his life might be about to change forever, and he wanted to be ready to meet it wide awake.

  He drove out of town and headed toward Amarillo’s airport, warning himself to calm down. The day held no guarantees. He’d had his hopes crushed a dozen times over the years he’d known Major Kate Cummings. Almost two years ago she’d stepped back into his life, and he had no idea why she’d returned or, for that matter, why she’d left. Maybe she wasn’t ready to start more than a casual relationship, maybe she never would be, but that didn’t stop him from hoping. He was in midlife. He was ready.

  Only, last night when she’d called asking him to meet her plane, he’d heard something different in her voice. An excitement about seeing him. A longing to come home to Harmony. This was the first time she hadn’t rented a car and driven in on her own, almost as if she’d just decided to stop in town and had not come just to see him.

  This time he’d pick her up and drive her to Harmony. Everyone would know she was there because of him.

  Rolling down his window, Tyler smiled into the dawn. In the past two years since he and Kate had become good friends, she’d started talking about Harmony as if it were her home. It had taken him months of asking to get her to just come spend a weekend in his town. It might be 2010, but part of him knew people would talk if she stayed at his place, so Tyler always booked her a room at the Winter’s Inn Bed-and-Breakfast. Surprisingly, his proper Kate and the crazy innkeeper, Martha Q Patterson, got along perfectly. Each looked at the other as a curiosity.

  After that first visit, every month Tyler invited her back and every month she came. Once she was in town, they’d join friends for dinners, and go to concerts in the park or movies at the little theater where their feet always stuck to the floor. They would take walks in the cemetery where he’d tell her the stories of all the people of Harmony, and then they’d stop at the magnolia tree he had planted just because she’d told him once magnolias were her favorite tree. On each visit Tyler hoped she’d take root and stay as well.

  As he drove across the flat plains of the Texas panhandle, now dressed in winter browns, he thought about how wonderful his Kate was. He might be in his midforties and more than a few pounds overweight. He might not be much of a conversationalist and he knew he was probably the world’s worst dancer, but he had a perfect woman in Kate.

  To the world she was Major Katherine Cummings, an arson expert with the army. To him she would always be the hazel-eyed beauty he’d met one night at Quartz Mountain Lodge during a storm, with whom he’d talked half the rainy night away. Their friendship blossomed through e-mail. Months later a fire had rolled across the open land around his town, and Major Cummings had come to help. But afterward she broke off all contact.

  Then one night he’d e-mailed her of a danger the folks she had met faced and she’d responded. Their friendship seemed patched together with spiderweb thread, but with each e-mail, each visit, Tyler felt they added one more thread—one more bond.

  He never asked about why she’d stopped e-mailing after the fire. He was afraid he’d hear that he wasn’t half the man she thought him to be. Over the two years since, she’d stood him up almost as often as she’d come to visit. Her answer was always simply that her work kept her away.

  He set no restrictions on Kate. No rules. No promises. He knew she had an important job she couldn’t talk about and, as Harmony’s only funeral director, he had a job he didn’t want to talk about, so when they were together they talked of other things.

  Tyler dreamed of what she might say if he asked her to stay with him in his apartment above the funeral home and not go to the inn tonight. She’d visited him several times. His housekeeper had even cooked them a meal one night when Kate stayed late watching a movie in his quarters. He’d felt like a teenager walking her back to the inn and saying good night on the porch.

  Deep down, he knew he wouldn’t ask her to stay with him this time. They didn’t have that kind of relationship, not yet, maybe not ever.

  The day had warmed by the time he reached the Amarillo airport. He pulled to the side of the road and cut the engine. He could go inside and wait by the luggage claim, but he’d be among strangers there. Here, he could watch the planes and wait alone with his thoughts. He glanced in the rearview mirror. Alex Matheson, the town’s sheriff, had mentioned yesterday that he looked like he’d lost a few pounds. Maybe Kate would notice as well.

  An hour later hunger overtook him. He gave in and drove around to a little café next to the strip called English Field. He took his time ordering and eating. In his daydreams he was busy planning how to ask Kate to marry him someday. He thought, as a fourth-generation undertaker, it might be proper to say simply, “Kate, how would you like to be buried in the Wright family plot beside me?”

  She might think it was funny. She might never come back to Harmony.

  Maybe it
would be best just to ask if she’d like to grow old with him by her side. They liked the same books, the same movies, even the same kinds of food. They never ran out of anything to say. Maybe they weren’t as romantic as two young lovers, but she’d kissed him good-bye on the lips a few times and she never seemed to mind when he took her hand.

  As Tyler drove through airport security and parked in front of the luggage pickup area, he made up his mind that after two years of talking it was time for the next step.

  He’d try to keep it light. “Kate, if you’re going to call my border collie your baby every time you see her, maybe we should marry and make the poor dog legit.”

  No, he frowned. That was too light. She’d be here for a few days. Surely he’d think of something before she left.

  He stepped from the car as people began to circle around the luggage carousel. Halfway to the door, he spotted her through the glass. His Kate. She stood all straight and still like the soldier she was, but he knew her laughter and the way she talked to Little Lady as if the dog were a baby. He knew the feel of her hand in his.

  Before he could reach her, she pulled her luggage from the moving ribbon. Tyler rushed forward. “I’ll get that,” he said, covering her fingers for a moment before she let go.