Chances Are

By Laura Shinn

~ Sensual Romance ~ Katie and her son, Byron, are weeks away from moving on to their next destination while running away. Sheriff Trent Stiller is instantly taken with the beautiful and intelligent waitress in Little, Texas, and convinces her to give them a chance.

Will he still feel the same way when he discovers what she did to her ex-husband and why she and Byron are on the run?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laura Shinn
• Release date: Dec 2, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452341811

Laura Shinn

My writing didn't truly begin until I became a junior in high school. A friend encouraged me to write a short story, like the one he was writing, and I gave it a shot. It was a spin-off between Mork and Mindy and Star Wars. What it lacked in plot direction was replaced with adventure and fun dialogue. This first attempt accomplished its purposed and I was forever overtaken by the writing bug.Over the next few years I read like crazy, mostly historical novels. I didn't begin reading contemporaries until I got married several years later. I decided I wanted to write a time travel like the one my favorite author had written. Constance O'Day Flannery became my first inspiration to become a published author. {Since then I have had the honor of meeting and learning from many different authors: Suzanne Brockmann, Madeline Baker, Christine Feehan, Michele Bardsley, Jo Beverley and many more.}I love to read. New ideas for novels pop into my head at the most inconvenient times. The idea that you can create a magical or mysterious world with only the touch of your fingers to a keyboard encourages me to write more.While in college, at Howard Payne University in Brownwood Texas, I majored in English {minored in Art} and wanted desperately to become a published author. I've continued to work on my writing and designing skills and hope to one day achieve the same level of talent as many of my favorite authors.I have a wonderful husband, two boys, two dogs and two cats. We currently live in central Texas.I offer my clients design work for ebook and print, formatting and uploading only to Smashwords and Amazon.View my website for more details: http://laurashinn.yolasite.com.

Book preview

Chances Are

Laura Shinn

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2010 by Laura Shinn

Cover Design by: Laura Shinn Designs

http://laurashinn.yolasite.com

Edited by: Rebecca J. Vickery

ISBN: 978-1-4523-4181-1

[Revised 2018]

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with other people, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this ebook without purchasing it and it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chances Are is a work of fiction. Though some actual towns, cities, and locations may be mentioned, they are used in a fictitious manner and the events and occurrences were invented in the mind and imagination of the author. Similarities of characters or names used within to any person past, present, or future are coincidental.

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Other books available by this author:

FICTION

Someone To Watch Over Me – Angels of the Realm series/Book 1

A Matter of Trust – The Men of Wellington, Texas series/Book One

Nightlife Anthology

Night Hunter

Conceived in Darkness

Chances Are

A Christmas Vow

Underneath the Mistletoe

The Hands of Time

NON-FICTION

Too Late: A Dramatic Play

SIN: Origins, Consequences & Deliverance

To view more of Laura Shinn’s stories or cover designs,

visit: http://laurashinn.yolasite.com

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Chances Are

Katie and her son, Byron, are weeks away from moving on to their next destination while running away. Sheriff Trent Stiller is instantly taken with the beautiful and intelligent waitress in Little, Texas, and convinces her to give them a chance.

Will he still feel the same way when he discovers what she did to her ex-husband and why she and Byron are on the run?

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Reviews

{Below are reviews given when Conceived in Darkness was originally published. I now publish under my own name, but have retained the original reviews.}

SMASHWORDS:

Review by: Ginger Simpson on Feb. 01, 2011 : 4 Stars!

Bravo Laura Shinn for reeling me in and keeping my attention throughout the story. That's always the sign of an awesome book. I truly enjoyed reading about Katie Goodman, her son, Byron, and handsome, lawman, Trent. This awesome romantic suspense will keep you reading in order to find out why the heroine and her son are on the run and who or what they are running from. The romance is realistic, the restraint believable, and the story balanced and well-written. Looking for a good read...look no further. (reviewed 60 days after purchase)

Review by: Larry Hammersley on Jan. 20, 2011 : 5 Stars!

Ms. Shinn has spun a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Katie and her son, Byron wind up in Little, Texas and they must keep moving. Trent, the sheriff wonders why. The characters are well developed and the urgency for Katie and Byron to move on has the reader wondering just what happened that causes their constant running. We root for the characters despite some secret that Katie has and we want the sheriff and Katie to get together. A mixture of romance, humor and suspense makes this a good read.

(reviewed 46 days after purchase)

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Chapter One

Katie Goodman sighed hard as yet another customer gave her backside a too familiar swat. This one wore a thick, black bush, located above his upper lip. The monstrosity did nothing to hide the leer beneath it. Katie sent the pale, bloated customer a false smile before quickly allowing it to die. She lifted the platter higher as she walked and went through the swinging doors of the kitchen, backside first. Katie ignored the cook and loaded the dirty dishes from table number four into the large dishwasher.

Lord, I hate this job! Waitressing in a truck stop in the outskirts of Little, Texas, would never be called glamorous work. It paid the bills and nothing more. She needed this job if she and her son, Byron were to survive. They were not really living and enjoying life, but anything was better than returning to the hell her life had become before moving here.

Although they’d left Louisiana behind, Katie did not consider them safe by any means. This job and location served a purpose—to save enough money in order to move on. At this rate she would have enough saved in about three or four weeks. She’d stayed here longer than the last location since the owner agreed to pay her in cash. No paperwork. Soon, they would pack up and continue to run.

Maybe they could go north, toward Wyoming. Byron loved snow and she promised one day to take him to a state where it snowed during Christmas. Every ten year old boy deserved at least one white Christmas. She intended to keep that promise.

Katie checked her watch—two-forty. In twenty minutes she would get off work and go into town to pick up her son from school by three-fifteen. She might be able to serve two more tables before leaving. Since the restaurant—she used the word loosely—stayed open twenty-four hours a day, Katie usually volunteered to work from five am until three in the afternoon with only fifteen minutes for lunch. The work left her exhausted at the end of each day, but the tips couldn’t be beat.

Coming through the swinging doors from the back into the main room, Katie glanced at mustache-man. As long as she could bite her tongue and put a false smile on her lips, tips would remain very good. She couldn’t afford to draw attention to herself or her son, so Katie would continue