Almost Home -- Out now from Avon Books TROUBLE IN PARADISE - Katherine Whitfield hadn't left her seamless life in California to get mixed-up with a rough around the edges man like Zach Tyler. With his well-worn jeans and slow, seductive smile, he was nothing but a cowboy on the wrong side of the Mississippi - a diversion in her heartfelt quest to discover the father she never knew. Zach has a gentle hand with horses and a seductive touch with women ... and when he takes Katherine in his arms, he unleashes the passion simmering just below her cool exterior. Yes, her probing questions and tantalizing ways could cause nothing but trouble - but sometimes a man needs a little trouble .... Read Reviews | Read Excerpt

The Latest Reviews...

"Ms. Freethy's protagonists have such depth of character and personal conflict that they come alive on the pages. The author then surrounds them with a bunch of interesting secondary characters and places them in a setting so well described I felt I was there in the lush Kentucky countryside. An excellent romance to enjoy, remember and keep." Rendezvous Magazine

"This book is meant to be read in one sitting. Like a horse worth riding, this romance is definitely worth reading, and the setting makes for one long and lovely romance. Ms. Freethy has penned a welcome addition to any keeper shelf, for this is nothing if not spirited." The Old Book Barn Gazette

Chapter One

We're going to have a baby. I know I'm a coward to write, but I'm afraid of what I'll see in your eyes when you hear the news. I know this isn't what you want, and I don't see how we can ever be together. But I believe in my heart that you must know the truth -- you're going to be a father. Now, if only I have the courage to send this letter.

Katherine Whitfield sat in the front seat of her rental car, tears filling her eyes as she traced the handwritten words with a shaky finger. She'd read the letter a hundred times since she'd discovered it a week ago, hidden away in an old cedar chest in her stepfather's attic. She'd memorized every word, every curve of every line, wondering if it could possibly be a letter from her mother to her father.

There was no signature, but the writing looked familiar – or did she simply want it to be true? She'd spent years wishing for the tiniest bit of information about her father, but her mother had always said they'd discuss it later. Unfortunately, later had never come. Her mother had died two days before Katherine's twelfth birthday, and she'd been left alone with a stepfather of only nine months and no other blood relatives anywhere in the world.

Orphaned, lonely, and feeling abandoned, Katherine had given up on knowing the truth, but now she could think of nothing else. Was it possible her real father had never known about her? Obviously, the letter hadn't been sent. And she'd found other things in the chest as well, match books, cocktail napkins, and a full-sized hand-stitched quilt with dates and words of memory. But whose words? Whose memories? Whose life belonged to the chest? Her mother -- Evelyn Whitfield -- or a stranger?

It was a question that had driven her halfway across the country from the urban streets of Los Angeles, California to the rolling hills of Kentucky, to the almost empty parking lot of a Dairy Queen where she'd stopped for a diet coke and a few moments to re-think her plan.

Rolling down the window, Katherine sucked in several deep reassuring breaths of air. She could do this. She could find her way, ask her questions, get her answers. She just had to start. She had to put the key in the ignition and put her foot on the gas and go.

Before she could move, a child burst through the door of the restaurant. Holding a large milk shake in her hand, the little girl's small face was covered with an ear-to-ear smile and a matching smear of chocolate.

A tall man stepped out of a car. "Over here, sweetheart," he called.

"Daddy, daddy. Look what I got," the child said.

The man held out his arms with a wide, beaming grin, and the child ran into his embrace. He kissed the top of the little girl's head, and the small affectionate gesture tore at Katherine's heart. There were no words of reprimand for the messy face, only loving acceptance.

A deep ache of longing swept through Katherine. She'd wanted a relationship like that. She'd never had it with her stepfather. Mitchell Whitfield had always treated her more like a responsibility than a daughter. If there was a chance, even a small one that her real father could be alive, that he could want to know her as much as she wanted to know him – Katherine had to take it.

Setting the envelope aside, she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. She barely paused at the entrance to the road. Since leaving the main highway, traffic was almost non-existent. As she headed down the two lane road, past the rolling green hills, endless white fences, thoroughbred horse farms, and elegant dogwood trees still clinging to a few spring blossoms, she knew she was a long way from home, a long way from the only life she knew. But the cocktail napkins, the match covers all had one thing in common, the name Paradise, Kentucky.

Katherine had never acted so impulsively in her life, but with her stepparents out of town, she'd had no one to answer her questions, no one to tell her to stop, to think, to look before she jumped. So she'd jumped, called in sick to her job at her stepfather's investment company, asked her neighbor to watch her cat and followed the only clue she had, landing herself in this rural landscape. No one would understand her desperate dash across the country. She barely understood it herself.

Katherine flipped on the radio for a distraction. She was just in time to hear a female singer ask, "Where have all the cowboys gone?"

A good question, she thought with a wistful sigh. She didn't know if it had to do with wanting a father or wanting a boyfriend or a husband or just wanting someone who really cared about her, but there was a hole inside of her that she couldn't seem to fill. She'd tried to keep busy with work and friends and chocolate -- lots and lots of chocolate. Nothing had worked. Jeez, she was a head case, wanting, wanting, wanting, when most everyone would look at her life and say it was good. And it was good. It was also a little lonely.

Katherine switched off the radio with a decisive click, knowing it was foolish to yearn for some impossible romance of the century. At twenty-seven years of age, she'd been around enough to know there weren't any more cowboys, no more men who roamed the open plains, who were strong and invincible, and protective of their women. Those guys didn't exist anymore. The famed Ponderosa was simply a tourist attraction in Nevada, and John Wayne only walked tall on the big screen.

The men she knew were soft in the middle from too many business lunches and too much time spent firing the remote control. They didn't wear holsters, they wore pagers. And a cowboy hat would have messed up the style of their hair. Smiling to herself, Katherine knew she was generalizing, but for the life of her she couldn't think of one man she'd gone out with in the last year who had made her heart race or her palms sweat or her stomach turn over. Well, actually one guy had made her stomach turn over, but not in a good way. The rest had just been – nice. Where was the deep, passionate love, the desperate need to be with someone, the feeling of intense and utter connection? She wanted to believe she would feel it all some day, but maybe such a love didn't exist. Maybe her father didn't exist. Maybe she should just turn around and go home and settle for the life she had, the family she had.

As her gaze drifted down the highway, a shiver ran down her spine, and she knew she couldn't turn around and go home. The long, empty road beckoned to her in a way she'd never imagined. She'd spent her entire life in big cities, surrounded by skyscrapers and traffic and people. But here, outside of Louisville, Kentucky, there was a quiet that was oddly appealing. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was meant to come here. Call it destiny, call it crazy, but she had to at least see what was at the end of this road.

Katherine reached for the map sticking out of her purse, then cursed when her purse tumbled to the floor, spilling out the map, her wallet, cell phone and a dozen coins. She reached for the map, trying to keep one eye on the highway, which had suddenly decided to curve. She had barely straightened when she saw the silver horse trailer parked on the side of the road. She was going too fast. She hit the brakes in panic, but she was too close, far too close ...

Twisting the wheel to the right as hard and as fast as it would go, she prayed for a miss. The car spun, kicking up gravel and dust. She hung on, urging the car to go to the side, to miss the trailer. She was almost there. She could see the shoulder of the road in front of her, and the deep drainage ditch. Damn! It was her last thought before the car slid head first into the gully off the side of the road.

Her head bounced off the steering wheel and she saw a kaleidoscope of colors in front of her eyes. Her ears rang with the sound of bells and horses and swearing. Swearing?

Katherine shook her head, trying to figure out where she was and who was yelling at her. There was a man -- a tall, dark-haired man with burning black eyes standing next to her window. He was pulling on the door handle and yelling all sorts of absurdities that seemed to have less to do with her and more to do with a horse.

She roused herself enough to unlock the door. She pushed on it as the man pulled on it, sending her stumbling into his arms.

He caught her with a sureness, a strength that made her want to sink into his embrace and just rest for a moment. She needed to catch her breath. She needed to feel safe.

"You could have killed my horse," he ground out angrily, his rough-edged voice right next to her ear. "Driving like a maniac. What the hell were you thinking about? Or were you even thinking? Jesus!" He gave her a shake, his tight powerful hands gripping her arms.

Katherine could barely keep up with his surge of angry words. "Let me go. You're hurting me."

His grip eased slightly, but he didn't let go. She settled for brushing the hair out of her eyes so she could see him and he could see her.

They stared at each other for a long minute, their breaths coming in matching frightened gasps. Dressed in faded blue jeans and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the forearms, the man towered over Katherine. His brown eyes held a fierceness that she couldn't begin to fathom, and his thick dark hair looked like he'd run his fingers through it all day long. His face was too rugged to be handsome, but it was compelling, strong, stubborn, determined ...

Good heavens -- she had the distinct feeling she'd found herself a cowboy.