Free Baby, I’m Yours by Stephanie Bond

Baby, I’m Yours
    Stephanie Bond

    Emory Maxwel has come home to the smal town of Sweetness, Georgia, with one goal in mind—to get his childhood sweetheart Shelby Moon to marry him. They’ve been in love with the second grade, but Shelby’s father is determined to keep his daughter in Sweetness, not moving around the country as a soldier’s wife. No matter what she chooses, Shelby knows she’l hurt one of the men she loves.
    But when a tornado rips through town, wil she and Emory lose their chance to be together forever?
    Get ready to fall in love with the town of Sweetness, Georgia, in this prequel to Stephanie Bond’s Southern Roads trilogy.

    Stephanie Bond grew up on a tobacco farm in eastern Kentucky, where books were her main form of entertainment. “There were no book stores in my smal hometown, and no public library. My school had a smal library, which I exhausted fairly quickly. But I was lucky to have an aunt who lived out of state and who shared my love for books. When she visited every year, she would bring me bags ful of Harlequin romance novels and gothic romances by Phyl is Whitney and Victoria Holt. I was in heaven.”
    Years later, Stephanie was seven years deep into a systems engineering career and pursuing an MBA at night when an instructor remarked she had a flair for writing and suggested that she submit to academic journals. But Stephanie was interested only in writing fiction—more specifical y, romantic fiction. Upon completing her master’s degree and with no formal training in writing, she wrote a romance novel in her spare time. Two years later, in 1995, she sold her first manuscript, a romantic comedy, to Harlequin Books. In 1997, with ten sales under her belt, Stephanie left her corporate job to write fiction ful -time. “In hindsight,” reflects Stephanie, “those early years of devouring a book a day instil ed in me the rhythm of storytel ing.”
    Today, Stephanie has more than fifty published romance and mystery novels to her name, including the Body Movers humorous mystery series, which was recently optioned by Sony Pictures Television for TV series development, and the Southern Roads romance trilogy. Read more about Stephanie Bond and her books at her website, www.stephaniebond.com.
    Contents
    Chapter One
    Chapter Two
    Chapter Three
    Chapter Four
    Chapter Five
    Chapter Six
    Chapter Seven
    Chapter Eight

Chapter One
Ten years ago
    Emory Maxwel tightened his grip on the steering wheel of his SUV, looked over at his longtime friend and fel ow soldier, Porter Armstrong, and took a deep breath. “Wil you marry me?”
    Porter considered his words, then scoffed, “Man, you can’t just blurt it out like that.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because it’s not romantic, that’s why. You have to say ‘I love you’ and ‘I can’t live without you’ and ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you’,” crap like that. Try it again.”
    Emory frowned. “Wel , you don’t have to be such a jackass about it.”
    Porter sighed and pushed back the U.S. Army cap that matched his fatigues. “You want Shelby to say yes, don’t you?”
    “Of course I do, you idget. That’s why we’re going to Sweetness.”
    “That’s why you’re going to Sweetness,” Porter corrected. “You’re the one who’s jonesing to get married. Me, I’m never settling down. I just want as much home cooking as my mother can make in the few days I’m home on leave.” Then Porter looked apologetic. “Sorry, man, I know you miss your mom. You and Dr. Maxwel can come over and eat with us any time.”
    Emory felt a pang for his mother’s absence, something he knew Porter could understand. “And I know you miss your dad. Thanks for the invitation. Wil Marcus and Kendal be there?”
    “No. Marcus is in Pakistan, something about a terrorist group the U.S. is worried about. And Kendal is in El Salvador overseeing reconstruction after the earthquake earlier this year. I don’t know when I’l see them again.”