PROLOGUE
Last will and testament Michael Ripley Hart:
I hereby decree my estate will be split equally among my four sons.
Renn Walker refoldedthe worn document in three and tucked it back in his desk drawer.Looking out the window of his downtown Atlanta condo, he wondered if it was ever going to be the right time.He’d never been interested in claiming a quarter of the estate from a father he’d never known.
But something always stirred when he read the document, like a part of him must be buried in Sandy Point, Georgia.And the fact that he had three half-brothers he’d never met taunted him.Did they know about him?Did they prefer he stay away?The only way he was going to find out the answer to any of his questions would mean he’d have to admit who he was.The fourth Hart son that everyone pretended didn’t exist.Up until now it didn’t matter, but with his sudden push into the spotlight in the NFL, people were starting to ask questions he didn’t want to answer.
It’d been sixteen years since his biological father died, and he’d only been ten.He’d never known his father, so it wasn’t much of a shock, but he’d heard his mother cry.And even at a young age he realized he’d lost something too.His mother had told him almost nothing about Michael Hart.They’d had an affair and he knew about Renn.He knew his mother was sent money every month, and he only met his dad once, a month before he died.
That was the last time Renn’s mother had spoken about him until this year when she was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer that was caught too late.She’d been the only family he’d ever known—it was always just the two of them.Right before she died, she reminded him that he did have more family, if he wanted them.
Renn had nearly been swallowed up by that grief, but the part of him that was his mother’s son gutted it out.He was in his sixth year as the second-string quarterback playing for Atlanta’s NFL team—the Aces—and a week after he buried his mother one pivotal game propelled him out of oblivion.The starting quarterback had been sacked and injured badly, with four games left in the regular season, and Renn was called up.
He not only played well, he also took his team to the play-offs, which was when the trouble started.The press had been relentless.Who was Renn Walker?Where had this phenom come from?But he was just a kid raised by a single mom who’d gone to college on a football scholarship, and had an uneventful NFL career, until now.And for some reason the media had latched onto him.They wanted to know all about his life and weren’t letting up.When asked about his family in the one interview he agreed to do, he’d said both his parents had died.But he didn’t mention the three half-brothers who either didn’t know he existed or didn’t want to.He knew it was only a matter of time before the media discovered his dad had an affair with his mom and abandoned him when he was a kid.Then all their names would be plastered over social media and every news outlet.
So, he found himself rereading that will, looking up the Hart family online, and wondering what they really thought about him.He knew it was time to have an overdue conversation with his brothers, before everyone in America knew his story.Now he just needed the courage to get in his truck and go get the answers he needed.
CHAPTER ONE
Miranda
Try me
No matter howhard she tried to resist the sting of tears, big fat drops rolled down Miranda Sutton’s cheeks as she walked down Main Street.The same fifty-foot walk she did every Wednesday afternoon after spending the morning doing all her ranch chores.A reward trip into the heart of the small beach town of Sandy Point, to the library where she’d swap out all the books she’d taken out the week before.She knew this walk like the back of her hand, and since she hadn’t finished the final romance book she’d borrowed, she was reading the last chapter as she walked.
But if she hadn’t had her face buried in the book she would have looked up in time to notice the tall, dark-haired stranger before she ran right into him.
“Whoa, are you okay?Walking while reading isn’t recommended.”The man had a deep voice with a thick country accent.
His chin had brushed the top of her head when she ran into him and now his two warm hands gently gripped her upper arms to steady her.His scent was crisp and manly.She could feel the warmth of his body with him standing so close, and she nearly dropped her book as she looked up into his big eyes framed by long flirty lashes, because one was brown and the other was half brown and half icy blue.It was impossible not to gawk at his interesting eyes and chiseled jawline.He looked how she imagined the villain turned hero from her current historical romance book was described.
“I’m sorry.”She swiped at her wet cheek and realized how strange she probably seemed.
“Must be a really good book to cause such an emotional reaction.”He took a step back, but his hand reached out to turn the cover over.
“The Rogue and the Heiress.Hmmm I bet she tames him, and they live happily ever after?”he said, with a faint smile pulling at the right side of his handsome face.
“So, you’ve read it then?”she couldn’t help teasing him.
“Maybe I should.”
She didn’t know what else to say, so she painted on her sassiest smile.“You’ll want to start with book one in the series.”Then she walked away toward the library door that was just being unlocked by the librarian, who was looking suspiciously from Miranda to the stranger.
“Thanks for the recommendation,” the stranger called out and tipped his ball cap up before heading back down the street in the opposite direction.
“Who was that?”the librarian said.
“I don’t know—probably just some tourist passing through.”
“Huh, hope he sticks around for a bit because he looks like an interesting character to me.”
“Mrs.Hope, you’re a married woman.”
“But I’m always on the lookout for a good story.Speaking of which, how did you like that final book in the series?”
“You’ve outdone yourself.I was just blubbering on the sidewalk finishing the last few pages when I ran into that man.I was captivated.”
