Coming Home

By T.M. Johnson

The former Amanda Eakes trades her expensive suits and the big city life for the comfort of just being Mandy Hanson from good ‘ole Georgia. After her soul mate and husband Kevin starts to let their huge success and million dollar company go to his head, Mandy realizes she can no longer relate to the man she once loved. After an affair with an employee Mandy calls it quits and files for a divorce. She decides there is no better place to start over then the place she grew up in. After having burned many bridges to keep her ex-husband happy Mandy hopes to mend ties with her family and friends. Along the way Mandy meets a rather unexpected young man Cam McLean; her younger brother’s best friend. She tries to fight her connection to him, the age difference bothers her and she can only see him as a kid. After all what can a twenty-two year old have to offer a rich twenty-seven year old woman? After a summer back home more than a few new fires are lit. After time apart Kevin tries to win back his soul mate, but will Cam be the reason the two never rekindle the past? Or will Mandy just move on? Sometimes the best medicine is a clean slate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: T.M. Johnson
• Release date: Oct 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9780463181942

T.M. Johnson

T.M. Johnson calls a small town in North Carolina home. When not writing and reading everything she can get her hands on, she is at home wrangling two boys and a husband. Jury is still out on which one requires more wrangling. She is an avid crafter and lover of all things glitter. She is still trying to master the art of social media and is on a mission to figure out what a snap, tweet, and an insta is. For what it is worth you can follow her on twitter and Facebook for now.

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Coming Home

Published by T.M. Johnson

At Smashwords

Copyright 2011 T.M. Johnson

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 book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or 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.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. So pretty much I didn’t have you or my neighbor in mind when I wrote this so we’re good! :)

Chapter One:

Lord was the rain ever coming down! I guess it was a true symbolic moment in my life! My marriage had gone all to hell thanks to a damn little bleached blonde secretary. Also, a husband, I mean ex-husband, with a little penis the size of little miss bimbo’s brain. Yeah, I said it; and it made me feel a little bit better. The only thing that sucks more than being divorced at twenty-seven is coming home to Forsyth County, Georgia to a full parade of I told you so-s! They could all go suck lemons anyways! I had to remind myself why I came back here instead of running away to Hawaii for a month! I could blame it on the scenery, or the sultry southern nights, but the one true fact was I just wanted my Momma. Momma’s can heal the entire world if they wanted too and my mom was the best at fixing broken things and right now I was pretty damn broken.

Only about an hour away from me laid the beautiful two story classic old southern home that I grew up in. Where I’d bet my last twenty that my Momma was sitting on the swing, drinking fresh lemonade from her favorite hand painted glass pitcher she did in her last art class. She would probably be checking her watch and inching closer to the cordless phone sitting across from her on the wicker coffee table. She always did worry about her only baby girl. I grew up with two brothers; the older one was Mitchell and the younger one was Devin. I was fixed perfectly between the two; but you would think I was the youngest by the way they both treated me.

Waking up to the brightest summer morning I’d seen since leaving Georgia was both odd and comforting. Sadly, my bed from my teenage years was nowhere as plush and luxurious as my king size sleigh bed at home; which I was planning to burn as soon as I got back to New York. Geeze even the flies flew slower in the south! The clanging from the kitchen drew my focus from the window down to where I am sure my mother was. She loved to cook as much as she loved my father! Geeze! Men, I hate all of them! Except maybe my dad, Mitchell, Devin, and those hot twenty-somethings from those vampire movies; ohhhh and that TV show too! Yummy!

Yummy was right; Momma was cooking blueberry pancakes. My favorite! She always knew how to cheer me up; and by God pancakes worked every time.

Baby, your brothers will be here about noon with some of their friends, my Momma said while loading my plate up!

Ok that was a surprise, Cool, what are they gonna do just visit or whatever!

She gave me an apologetic look, They wanted to have a cook out and maybe play some football like ya’ll use to do on the weekends. Even Stacy said she’d come; she wants to see you!

Yeah that’s all I needed was a huge friggin’ pity party for the southerner who tried to run but got squashed by the big bad stock broker Yankee! Woot Woot—sounds like loads of fun! The next question repeating in my head was where in the hell can I hide? I wasn’t quite ready for all the attention or the crowd. I came home to be alone but, looks like everyone else had their own plans for how I would deal with my own heartache. I’m not sure if I like that or not.

I figured what the hell ain’t like I could just get mad and insist they call it off; it was already after ten. So I decided I’d put my big girl panties on and go get in the shower. At least try to make myself look a bit less worn than I was. Maybe even a nice little walk down the long drive way that was encased with huge ancient pecan trees. I really did love this place, it was truly home. But good Lord the bugs were wild in the summer time! A long walk around my home place calmed my nerves. It also brought back many childhood memories of hide and seek with my brothers. Man, those were the days; no real pain, no real hurt. Like now my heart was hurting so badly, how would I heal.

I guess my walk was longer than I thought because the party was in full swing when I got in view of the house. God there had to be thirty or forty people there; now I don’t know if I really want to handle that many people right now. The grill was smoking; I hope Devin wasn’t cooking; he burns everything. That thought just made me smile; he was the most awesome little brother; and Mitchell was a totally great older brother. I was blessed with such a loving and caring family. Not so very blessed in the husband department. Ole well time for my big girl panties and a fake smile.

My brothers waited for me to get closer into their view before both were charging me and hugging me to death!

Hello! I need to breathe here, Devin was chocking me with his huge bear hug, Oh crap sorry sis!

Damn he has bulked up, Cha yeah you need to learn your strength!

Yeah, Mitchell chimed in; I guess he had an up close and personal experience with Devin’s strength.

How ya doing today sis? Devin dropped the loaded question of the day.

Well about as good as any dog crawling back home with its tail between its legs!

My brothers always had my back, Whatever Mandy it ain’t even like that! Leave it up to my little brother to think all is always well with the world.

Hey, you up for some good ‘ole Bar-b-q, potato salad, and some good ‘ole flag football? Huhh, huhh, huhh punk? Mitchell was trying to lighten the mood then charged at me like he was gonna tackle me but, I moved out the way; hey I still had it! Maybe this would be fun after all!

Hey, does Momma need some help, I asked the boys.

Let’s go see! Oh yeah Stacy will be here soon, Devin told me!

That’s awesome haven’t seen her in years! I was kinda nervous and excited about that.

She hasn’t changed much, still a squirt like you!

Devin was off his rocker; Cha! Whatever! Devin I’m older than you remember!

God bless that dork, Whatever! I got some of my boys here I want you to meet. We hang out a lot and they never met my sis! They love Momma! We all just laughed because everyone loved Momma and she loved pretty much everyone too!

She was in the kitchen; in typical Momma fashion, she loved to cook. She was talking with a rather good-looking man; they were both laughing and smiling so I figured they knew each other well.

Hey Cam, this is my daughter Mandy! Damn he was hot and so was his name… CCccaaammm …yeah, I really liked that!

Hey Mandy, it’s really nice to meet you! I have heard a lot about you!

Hmm, Yeah it’s probably all lies, I laughed. God his smile was almost as sexy as the rest of him.

Devin looked at me; Sis that’s one of my boys I was tellin’ you about! Damn was the rest of his friends that hot!

Awesome so you gonna play some football too huh? I asked.

Of course, darlin’ I’ma spank Devin’s butt and maybe take down Mitchell a few times!

Wow this I can’t wait to see!

Actually, so far it wasn’t as horrific as I thought it was gonna be. The food was a hundred percent fabulous and another hundred percent southern. Stacy Miller my best friend practically since I was born and up until a few months into my new New York life showed up. She was exactly like I remembered her; short like five feet four kinda short with mid-length hair that was her least favorite mud color she called it. She had the most beautiful green colored eyes. God, I forgot how much I missed her till she was standing right in front of me. She hugged me like I never left and that made me feel bad. We were really close, she came to NY to visit twice, but my husband thought she was trailer trash and didn’t want to be seen with her. He was a fucking jerk. Usually good-looking men with money are!

Stacy I’m so sorry about not being a better friend and not calling you back and visiting! There is really no excuse! Tears stung my eyes.

Girl let’s not worry about the past and just move into the future okay, she said.

Okay my darlin’! You know I love you right!

She smiled so huge and it made me happy to have my best friend back, Yes I do! And I love you too! We hugged it out and went back to giggling like teenagers. Wow being home was awesome. Nobody asked me how I was feeling a hundred times or about my ex-husband. It just felt like old times again.

The guys were throwing around the football and downing a few beers. The jokes and the comebacks were flowing all around us; I just couldn’t help but laugh. I missed this so much more than I realized. Everyone was picking teams. Me and Stacy giggled, we loved watching the guys play football as teens. One of summer’s many blessings was shirtless football games. I shocked myself; since this whole mess I never once thought of men until now! And especially Devin’s friend Cam was pretty hot.

Hey! Hey Mandy! Whose team you gonna be on; you and Stacy? Stacy just chuckled; she did always have a thing for Mitchell even as a teen. From the corner of my eye I saw Devin’s friend Cam sitting his beer on the table. He grabbed the end of his red Georgia Bulldog’s shirt and pulled it over his head. Good Lord Jesus this kid was unbelievably sexy under those clothes. His chest was perfectly tanned and adorned with hard, chiseled abs that cried out to be rubbed all over and maybe even licked once or twice. Where the hell did that come from? But damn that kid was downright irresistible.

Hello Mandy, stop ogling Cam! You playing or not home slice? I was caught.

Shut up Devin I’m in! What team needs another player? Those two evil bastards chuckled and answered in unison Cam’s does!

The sheepish grin Cam shot my way gave me weird little butterflies in my stomach. It’s been years since anyone has made me feel like that and that was freaky! After all he had to be five years younger than me. But hey, I could still look. I took Cam’s team and Stacy went all too willingly to Mitchell’s! They actually looked really cute together; maybe I needed to talk to him.

The sun was setting, and it had been a really good day. The best I had in weeks; even years really. I saw the circular ring of bricks and Devin was making a tee-pee shape with sticks. It was bonfire time; one of my most favorite summer activities. Cam had a red gas can in his hand and was headed towards the giant stick