The Texas Stray

I am so excited to have been able to complete a second novel, that I am finally ready to present to the world. As any writer knows, our writing projects are our “babies,” really never completed. But at some point, they must be polished enough to let them go. Read below about what The Texas Stray is about and an excerpt from the book. See more about my writing by following this link.

And now, The Texas Stray is available for Kindle! Buy it here.

The Texas Stray: Only God Could Lead Her Home

Mack Henry has loved Kells Miller since she walked into his first grade class, all blonde curls and sweet, lost eyes. The last thing he expected when he got down on one knee in front of his entire family to propose to her was that she’d say no. Now, can he be patient enough to wait for Kells to realize her best place is by his side, or will he have to find a way to move on with his life without her?

Kells knows what it means to lose someone you love, so maybe avoiding that pain is why she turns down the one person who has always been there for her in order to move to the big city and try to make something of herself as a journalist. Except, the only job she can find is as the assistant to virile, worldly Hugh Camden, lead counsel at a big oil firm and the last man on earth a “good girl” should find herself attracted to.

At least, that’s what Kells keeps reminding herself as she struggles to figure out just what she wants from life and which path will lead her to the one place God wants her to call home.

Discover what it means to believe in God’s love for you no matter how far you may have strayed from Him in this young woman’s journey of faith from the author of Macy’s Treasure.

Read an excerpt:

She didn’t cry, not even in the comfort of her small apartment later that evening. She was proud of herself for that. It was the first day since she had made the move to Houston that she hadn’t cried about something. For a woman who was supposed to know what she wanted, Kells thought, she was doing an awfully good impression of a complete, indecisive idiot.

Kells took a shower and changed into her pajamas, fixing herself a light salad for her supper. The movie channel was showing a series of Doris Day movies, and Kells planned to spend the evening watching them and trying to relax.

She almost jumped out of her skin when the phone rang a couple of hours later. She picked up the receiver and took a deep breath before speaking.

“Hello?” she said, more a question than a statement.

“You okay, Kells?” Mack’s familiar voice filled the receiver and then the air around her, and it was full of concern.

She took a deep, relieved breath. “Hi, Mack. It’s good to hear your voice.” She settled back into the pillows on her couch and gulped back the tears that seemed to threaten.

She had to admit to herself she was a little nervous about talking with Mack, even though she had known him her whole life. Ever since he had proposed, and she had had to say no, she didn’t know exactly what their relationship was.

“The job that bad?” Mack asked, the soft sympathy in his voice almost undoing her.

“Well, the boss is pretty challenging, but I’m getting used to it.” She picked at a loose string on one of her throw pillows and concentrated on not letting any tears fall.

“So, you think you’re going to stick with it, then?” His voice sounded casual.

She knew what he was asking. She also knew she couldn’t keep him tethered to her, no matter how much she might have wanted it. “I have to, Mack,” she said. “I thought you understood. . . ”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. She could hear him breathing, shallow breaths that seemed hard to control.

“I thought I could do this,” he finally said.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said and meant it. “I know it’s probably impossible for you to understand. I’m not sure I totally understand it myself. I,” she paused, “just know I have to do this.”

“I don’t understand,” he was angry now. She was only making things worse, she realized, not better. “And I can’t spend my life waiting.”

It’s only been a few weeks, she wanted to say. Instead, she managed, “I know.”

“Yeah, look I,” his voice was apologetic, pained, and it shot straight through her, “gotta go. Good luck, Kells.”

She hung up without trying to say goodbye around the lump in her throat. In a world full of danger and loneliness, a world she knew all too well, what kind of woman threw away the chance to be loved by a great guy like Mack Henry?

Her kind of girl, apparently.

She turned off the television and went to her room to read from the Psalms, which often soothed her, and to pray about her troubles, but even then she cried herself to sleep.