A Place To Call Home

By Sara Kinsey

            Charity had only one goal when she decided to move to Katy, Texas...

Find the woman who had abandoned her at the hospital twenty two years ago. She had no idea who she was or what she looked like, but she was hurt and alone and nowhere to go.  She expects to find a woman happily married and living a dream life, like the one she had always wished for.

 

            Bobby Ray Jean had lived his whole life with the woman that raised him since he was six. He owed her everything and had dedicated himself to helping her at Katy's Tradition. His recent experience with his ex wife had made him resign to a lonely life and unable to love.

 

            When Charity comes to Katy, stranded with nowhere else to go, he offers her a roof and a place to stay and he finds himself not just helping a woman navigate through the life as they discover family secrets, secrets better left buried about her life. His ex-wife decides to show up then and at first confused about his feelings he discovers that everything he once believed to be real was a lie.

 

            Will Charity and Bobby Ray Jean find peace in their newly found love? Or will the secrets they uncover threaten to keep them apart forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Just Romance Reads
• Release date: Jun 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393051848

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

It rained heavily that afternoon as Charity tried to maneuver her way down South Houston Ave. It was her first time in Texas and the deluge kept her from exploring. She turned on the car’s heater as her skin started to chill and she turned down the radio. A part of her felt fatigued, like she had been on a journey for days when in the reality she had spent about two hours and thirty minutes on the flight from Indiana to Houston, Texas. Even her bones felt tired and her eyelids threatened to close. What bothered her most though, was the rain.

She followed the direction of her Google map judiciously and made the right turn where it was noted. This was it; a whole new world awaited her. One she knew absolutely nothing about. She hadn't wanted to know for a long time. Her life in Indiana was what she was used to and she had maintained that peace until....

Joey’s death was still a shock to her and she reeled from the aftermath when his lawyers had contacted her with his will. Somehow he had located her biological parents and it turned out they lived here, in Katy, Texas.

Katy’s Tradition

According to the lawyer, Rebecca Jean lived here with her husband and ran the town's only famous restaurant called Katy's Tradition. Charity longed to see what Rebecca looked like. Aside from the pictures the private investigator Joey hired had come up with, she wanted to see what her bio mom looked like in person, to look her in the eye, and ask why she had been abandoned at a hospital when she was born. What kind of a mother gave her child away? Not looking back, or even searching for her.

Charity was a month pregnant when the incident happened. She was once again alone in the world, just like she had been before Joey. Growing up in an orphanage was something she didn’t wish on anyone. There had been a lot of other kids just like her, waiting for someone to love them. She had been thirteen when she had escaped from the home where they stayed.

She took a turn and drove into the gas station to fill up. The rain had reduced to droplets now and she was able to step out of the car and get gas. When she was done, she drove down the road into the main town. As far as she could tell she wouldn’t have much trouble finding the place, restaurant, or whatever it was. Katy was a small town.

The family that had taken her in at age thirteen hadn’t done much in terms of bringing up a child. The woman had cared for her but there had been a limit to what she could do, so Charity had saved up a little money and one morning had taken a bus to the nearest town, Carmel. All her life she had been a drifter until she had met Joey.

It took ten minutes to drive through Katy until she approached a T-junction and took the right turn. Katy's Tradition was not at all what she expected it to be.

The building was what she would call more of an antique; it looked old. From the recent rain, the front lot was covered in puddles and she could barely see a soul as she out of the car and walked to the entrance.

The sign read closed.

She knocked a few times and waited for someone, anyone, to open up. She didn't know what to expect so she turned and snuggled deeper into her jacket for warmth and started to walk back to her car.

She might just have to wait until someone showed up eventually.

She almost closed her car door when someone stepped out of the restaurant. She rushed out of the car and walked towards him.

Excuse me, she called, as he locked the door with a key, and he turned to her.

I'm looking for Rebecca Jean, she said and brought out the picture of the woman she had carefully tucked into her pocket.

The man frowned at her, ignoring her question as he started to walk across the street to a truck parked at the other end. You're not a local, he said, noticing her white Nissan parked just behind his.

No, I’m not she agreed, and followed him, hoping he could give her information on where she could find Rebecca.

The man was tall, with short auburn brown hair that fell across his face and framed it perfectly. He had the build of an athlete or some sort of physical fitness trainer. She cocked a brow, folding her arms across her chest, not minding that his eyes moved down her body, landing on her protruding abdomen and then back on her face.

If you are looking for Rebecca, I’m afraid you won’t be seeing her now, or ever again.

Why, what are you talking about? she asked him, her eyes wide as a familiar sense of dread filled her.

Rebecca Jean is dead, he said

Her face paled and her palms became sweaty all of a sudden as goosebumps appeared on her arms. She hugged herself and frowned.

Dead? She’s dead? she asked, and he opened the door to his truck.

She passed away the early hours of this morning, gave in to cancer just like her husband a few years back, he said, and got in his truck. Good luck lady, I’m sorry I can’t help you. He started his engine and drove away, leaving a trail of exhaust behind him.

She stood rooted to the ground and stared after the truck, her mind still reeling from the news she had just received.

Her birth mother was dead

So much for finding a family...she was too late. Maybe a few hours earlier and she might have been able to meet her in person. She had more questions now than ever. If Rebecca was dead, and so was her husband Peter, then who was the young man she had just spoken to? She remembered something about Rebecca having a son, an adopted son.

Bobby Ray Jean

That had to be the name; she rushed to her car and searched through her bag for a picture of the boy. She came up with a picture of a young boy with a bright smile. She was going to wait here for Bobby Ray Jean to get the answers she came for.

CHAPTER TWO

Bobby Ray Jean lifted the last of the supplies he had gotten from the local market. He needed to keep everything in place and be ready to re-open after the funeral tomorrow. Rebecca had been one of the prominent figures here in Katy. Her death had been a huge shock to the entire community. He had received calls and visits all day from the neighbors, sympathizing, and sharing memories of the woman they had once called a friend.

They didn't know Rebecca as he did. Although she wasn't his birth mother, she had raised him like her own. They shared a