Residents of a small town share each other's joy and sorrow as both old families and new work to make their home a strong community.
Promise Texas
By Debbie Macomber
DH Audio
Copyright © 1999
Debbie Macomber
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781552041871
Chapter One
"Annie, I'm so sorry! I can't
tell you how sorry I am."
Annie Applegate shifted the receiver to her other ear and blinked repeatedly. Jane Patterson's
sympathetic voice had brought tears to her eyes.
"You should've let me know," Jane continued.
It'd taken Annie nearly twelve months to write her childhood friend about the disasters that had
befallen her in the past two years. Jane had called the minute she'd read the letter; Annie was
grateful for that, although even now, a friend's genuine sympathy threatened her shaky resolve in
a way that indifference didn't.
"I ... couldn't," she said. "Not right away."
Four years ago, Jane had left southern California - where Annie still lived - and moved to
Promise, a town in the Texas hill country. She'd gone there to work in the local health clinic as
partial payment for her medical-school loans. Her parents had been dismayed and delighted in
equal parts when their only daughter married a local rancher and settled in the small community.
"What are you going to do?" Jane asked briskly.
She'd always had a practical, we-can-deal-with-this quality that Annie envied. "What are your
plans?"
Annie wished she knew. The question was one she'd asked herself a thousand times since the
car accident and everything that had followed.
"Do you think you'll stay in California?" Jane pressed when Annie didn't answer.
"I ... I don't know. Probably not." Only she had nowhere to go, nowhere she needed to be, and
no real family to speak of. Her friends here all seemed at a loss. They urged her to get on with
her life; what they didn't understand was that she needed a completely different direction. A new
sense of purpose. If she was going to pick up the shattered pieces that had once been her
comfortable orderly existence and move forward, she had to make some real changes first.
"Come to Promise," Jane said, her voice unnaturally high with excitement.
"Texas?" Annie murmured. "You want me to go to Texas?"
"Oh, Annie, you'd love it! This town isn't like anyplace else in the world. The people are friendly
and kind and there's a ... a kind of caring here. Promise is small-town America at its best." Jane's
enthusiasm was unmistakable - and contagious. "Smalltown Texas at its best, too."
Annie smiled. "I'm sure a visit would do me a lot of good," she said, thinking aloud, deciding
then and there to take Jane up on her offer.
"I'm not suggesting a visit," Jane said, interrupting Annie's musings. "I think you should move
here. You need a change, a fresh start - you know you do."
She hesitated. "It might sound odd, but I have this feeling that Promise needs you, too."
Staring out the display window, Dovie Hennessey watched her husband hurrying along
Promise's main street. He was headed toward her shop, and judging by the look on his face, he
had something he couldn't wait to tell her.
"Dovie!" Frank barreled into the store a moment later, his eyes twinkling with amusement. At
sixtyfive, he remained muscular and fit, she noted with pride. Every time she saw him, he gave
her heart a little thrill - even after three years of marriage. Their romance had begun more than
a decade before they decided to "make it legal," as Frank put it. He'd initially been reluctant,
since he'd never been married before and was afraid of losing what he'd thought of as his
freedom. Dovie, who'd been widowed for years, had desperately wanted the comfort and
respectability of marriage. In the end Wade McMillen, the local pastor, had suggested the
perfect compromise: marriage with separate residences. It hadn't taken long, however, for
Frank to move into Dovie's house full-time.
"My goodness, Frank, what's gotten into you?"
"Adam Jordan," Frank told her, shaking his head.
"I swear I've never seen anything so funny in my life. Just wait'll you hear what that deputy did
this time round."
"Sheriff Jordan," Dovie gently reminded him. Frank had retired five months earlier, and it had
been an adjustment for both of them. After serving as the town's sheriff for almost fifteen years,
he'd found it difficult to hand over the reins to someone else.
Especially when that someone had been such an unpromising specimen as a teenager. Adam
Jordan had gotten into one scrape after another and had nearly worried his parents sick before
he enlisted with Uncle Sam. Somehow the army had straightened him out. To everyone's
amazement, Adam had thrived under the structure and discipline of military life. After basic
training he'd applied and been accepted to Airborne Ranger School, and from there had gone
on to serve a distinguished twelve years as a member of the elite outfit.
With the recent cutbacks in the military, Adam had returned to Promise. Much to the delight of
his parents, who owned the local western-wear shop, he'd applied for a job with the sheriff's
department. Frank immediately saw that he'd found his replacement. Al Green, who'd served as
deputy for almost twenty years, had no desire to assume the responsibilities of the sheriff's
position.
So Adam had arrived at precisely the right time. When Frank announced his retirement, the
exAirborne Ranger had run for the office of sheriff and promptly been elected; that was almost
six months ago now, in the November election. Frank continued to spend much of his time with
Adam, helping, he claimed, with the transition. Dovie didn't know who required more
assistance, Adam or Frank.
"Boy's made a fool of himself with that new teacher." Frank chuckled. "Again. Locked her keys
inside her car trying to show her the importance of security."
Dovie groaned, embarrassed for Adam. Anyone could see he was infatuated with Jeannie
French. Fresh out of college, the first-grade teacher had been hired the previous August, and
Adam Jordan hadn't been the same since. He'd done everything he could think of to attract her
attention, but according to rumor, he hadn't yet asked her out on a date. Some days, it was all
Dovie could do to resist shaking some sense into the man.
"Naturally he had no way of knowing she always throws her car keys under the front seat,"
Frank explained.
"Why in heaven's name would she do something like that?" Dovie was exasperated with
Jeannie, too. Surely the girl could figure out how Adam felt! She sighed; she could just imagine
Adam's face when he realized what he'd done.
Frank shrugged. "Why do women do anything?" he asked philosophically. "She had her purse
with her, as well as the keys for the school. Apparently she picked up the habit from her father.
He's got a ranch a ways north of here. Not much concern about theft in a place like that. Or
here, either."
Continues...
Excerpted from Promise Texas
by Debbie Macomber
Copyright © 1999 by Debbie Macomber.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
