Take Me Home: The Bedfords, #2

By H.C. Bentley

Charlotte Bedford left her sleepy little hometown in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains to make a name for herself as a fashion photographer in the Big Apple. She'd craved success and independence, but most of all she'd wanted to be in a place where she wasn't known as the Bedford girl or Landon Montgomery's girlfriend. But her life in New York began to take its toll, and she found herself longing to return to her southern roots in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. What she doesn't know is the one man she ever really loved had never left.

Landon Montgomery was a southern boy, born and raised. And as much as he'd loved Charlotte, he'd had no desire to follow her to the big city. Instead, he'd stayed behind to help run his family's business. When Charlotte returns home, he knows they have to reconcile their past if they are to have a future. 

The aftermath of a family emergency makes them realize they were meant to be together, but is it already too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: H.C. Bentley
• Release date: Sep 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393274704

H.C. Bentley

There's just something about a small town that makes relationships interesting, whether they are romances, long-running feuds, or life-long friendships. These are the relationships H.C. Bentley enjoys discovering and exploring. Well that, and the fact she just loves a good happily ever after or second chance story.  ​When she's not writing, H.C. works as a cataloging librarian at her county library. In her spare time, you can find her playing pool, traveling with her family, or curled up watching movies (romantic comedies are a favorite!). She's also an avid reader, leaning towards various authors of romance and chick lit, but her favorite is Nora Roberts.  ​A southern girl at heart, H.C. calls Kentucky her home. After opting to join the military to pay for college, she spent three years stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany before returning to her hometown in rural western Kentucky, where she and her husband live with their two daughters.  ​H.C. loves chatting with readers. You can contact her through the website, or any of her social media.

Book preview

1

The skinny model with an attitude problem had thrown a diva style hissy fit on set and it was the last straw. 

At least that’s what Charlotte Bedford told herself as she stalked her way down a New York City sidewalk, one flooded with noisy people, and attempted to hail a cab.  

The nerve of some people, she thought to herself as she slammed the back door to the yellow taxi closed behind her. Making outrageous demands and insulting the staff on her shoot, then telling Charlotte she was an untalented hack of a photographer with a fat ass when Charlotte called her on it. 

The truth of the matter was Charlie Bedford was one of the most sought after fashion photographers in the city, if not the entire industry. Her easy-going demeanor, paired with her creativity and talent with a camera made her a commodity clients clamored for and most models beg to work with. 

And she did not have a fat ass, thank you very much. 

In reality, Charlotte herself could have been a model. She was tall, willow thin but with just the right curves, plus the clear skin and high cheekbones designers adored in their models. But Charlotte had never felt comfortable in front of the lens. She preferred her place behind it. 

Most days. 

She let loose a sigh as the cab cruised to a stop outside her apartment building. Handing over the fare with a murmured thanks, Charlotte gathered her camera bags and trudged her way upstairs.  A glance at her watch as she unlocked the apartment door told her Jeffrey, her sometimes live-in boyfriend, wouldn't be home from the office for hours. She was relieved, given the fact they'd fought – again – last night over how he felt that Charlotte had chosen work over him by missing another dinner party due to a long shoot. 

She hated dinner parties. 

No, that wasn't necessarily true. She hated boring dinner parties with a bunch of snooty, pretentious stockbrokers who wanted to talk about nothing other than trading and which bimbo they were dating this week.  

Charlotte set her camera bags on the floor and flopped face-up on her bed. 

When had her life become so exhausting and not her own? She used to love getting up and going to work every morning, meeting new people, seeing the city as it bustled and boomed during different parts of her day. Charlotte had loved spending her spare time going to museums and art shows and concerts with friends. She now realized that those friends were people she rarely saw anymore, making her feel empty and alone...something she'd never experienced in the city. Or ever. 

Rolling her head, her eyes landed on the photographs on her dresser, their frames fighting for space over the small surface. The faces of her family smiled back at her, with the Smoky Mountains of her childhood home at their backs. They all looked so happy, standing there with their arms around each other. Charlotte's eyes began to mist. 

God, she missed them. So much. What she wouldn't give to be folded up into her Daddy's arms in a bear hug, or picked on by her brothers. To sit at her Mama's kitchen table while dinner cooked on the stove, or to be listening to one of the many stories her grandmother loved to tell. 

Maybe she should go home for a while. 

As soon as the thought popped into her head, Charlotte sat up with a jerk, her burnished blonde hair streaming behind her. There it was, the answer to her melancholy, shining like a beacon beckoning her back to where