Serving Pride

Serving Pride

Robert Brogan was destined to be
sheriff in the small town of Pride, Oregon. He moved to Pride when
he was eight after his mother’s mysterious disappearance. Always
following the rules and sticking up for the weak, he had only one
thing in mind after graduation—tracking down his mother. But after
almost ten years of looking with no luck, he makes his way back to
his hometown. When tragedy strikes, he’s given the opportunity of a
lifetime. Being sheriff in the small town of Pride gives him the
chance to pursue the girl he just can’t keep his mind
off.

Amelia Blake can never forget the boy
that saved her from certain danger ten years ago. When she comes
home after her father’s death, she only plans on a short visit, but
her mother’s failing health and her feelings for Robert persuade
her to move back home. When sparks fly, she can’t help finding
herself falling fast for the new sheriff in town.

SERVING PRIDE

This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places and incidents either are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.

Follow the Pride Series and Jill
Sanders online at:

Web: www.jillmsanders.com

Twitter: jillmsanders

Facebook: jillmsanders

ISBN:

Copyright © 2013 Jill
Sanders

Edited by Erica Ellis
http://www.ericaellisfreelance.com

No part of this book may be reproduced,
scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without
permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of
copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase
only authorized editions.

Serving Pride

Jill Sanders

Other Titles by Jill Sanders

Finding Pride – Book one in the Pride
Series

Discovering Pride – Book two in the Pride
Series

Returning Pride – Book three in the Pride
Series

Lasting Pride – Book four in the Pride
Series

Secret Seduction – Book one in the Secret
Series

Secret Pleasures – Book two in the Secret
Series

Coming Soon by Jill Sanders

Secret Guardian – Book three in the Secret
Series

Secret Passion – Book four in the Secret
Series

Cowgirls Ride Harder – Book one in the
Cowgirls Series

Cowgirls Ride Faster – Book two in the
Cowgirls Series

Cowgirls Ride Longer – Book three in the
Cowgirls Series

Red Hot Christmas – A Christmas Love
Story

To my editor…

I can’t thank you
enough,

for making my books read
as

well as they do in my
head.

L
ittle Robert
listened to his mom crying in the next room. He knew that he
couldn’t go in there yet. He had to wait until Roy left before he
could go see how bad the damage was from the fight. Chances were
Roy would either pass out drunk within fifteen minutes or he’d grab
his keys and leave, heading down to the local bar to get even more
wasted.

It was a hell of a
way to spend his eighth birthday. He had enjoyed the party earlier;
all of his friends had attended and he’d gotten loads of cool
presents. But shortly after the last guest had left, Roy had
started drinking. It had taken less than an hour for his mother to
do or say something that had caused the fight. Robert knew it
wasn’t her fault.

He could remember a
time when his mother had been pretty and strong. Back when his real
father, Robert Sr., had been alive, she’d smiled and laughed a
lot.
But when he was six,
his dad had died in a car accident and his mother stopped
living.

She hadn’t started
dating until just last year, and the first person she’d picked was
Roy. She’d met him at the bar where she worked six nights a week.
At first Roy had smiled and brought presents for them. Shortly
after he moved in to their small two-bedroom apartment, the fights
began. Robert didn’t know why his mother kept him around, why she
allowed him to still live there. There really wasn’t anything the
man was good for. After all, shortly before he’d moved in, he’d
lost his job at the steel mill.

Robert didn’t like
him not only because of this, but also because the man called him
Robby, which he couldn’t stand. He always used a tone, like he was
making fun of him or that he had a secret joke somehow tied up in
his nickname. But his mother acted like she loved him, and so
Robert had tolerated him.

Plus, Roy had
promised them both that he’d find a new job and take care of them.
But then he’d started drinking. Robert even thought that he was
using drugs, though he couldn’t really tell. He never took drugs in
front of him, but Robert had listened carefully to the police
officer who had talked to his class when his school had a drug
awareness week. The man had spoken about saying no to drugs, but
hadn’t really talked about how to tell if someone else was on
drugs.

After the officer’s
planned speech was done, Robert had walked up to him and asked him
how to tell if someone else was on drugs. The man had looked at him
funny, and then he sat down and talked to him, giving Robert a few
things he should look out for. He asked Robert if he was okay and
tried to get him to tell him who Robert thought was on drugs. But
Robert didn’t want to get Roy, or worse, his mother, in any
trouble, so he’d just told the man that there were some kids that
bugged him on his walk home.

He’d enjoyed
talking to the officer and had eyed the man’s gun like it was
candy. He knew guns were dangerous and needed to be handled by
professionals, but man, he really wanted to see how much it weighed
and feel how it felt in his hands. Maybe someday he’d get to hold a
real gun and even fire it.

Now he listened to
Roy leave, then waited a few more minutes before he crawled out of
his bed with his Spider-man comforter and sheets. As he tip-toed
down the short hall, he listened for the front door, just in case
Roy decided to come back. If he did, Robert would make a bolt for
his room. Roy had never hit him, probably because if he ever laid a
hand on him, his mama will the man. She’d said so on many
occasions.

“Mama?” He pushed
the door opened and looked into the dark room. He could just make
out his mother on the bed in the dark room.

“Go back to bed,
honey.” He heard her sniffle and she quickly rolled over, putting
her back to him.

He walked over to
the other side of the bed and looked at her. “Mama, are you okay?
Should I call the police?”

“No, honey. We just
had a fight. Roy’s just stressed that he hasn’t found a job
yet.”

“Mama, did he hit
you?” Robert had been asleep for the first part of the fight. All
the sugar and running around during his party had worn him out.
He’d actually gone to bed an hour earlier than
normal.

“No, baby. He just
yelled.” His mother sat up and turned on the light. Robert saw that
her eyes were swollen red from crying. She still had on the dress
that she’d worn for his party. It was her happy dress, as Robert
liked to think of it. The pale yellow reminded him of better times
with his father, for some reason.

She patted the
mattress next to her and he climbed up next to her on the bed. When
she wrapped her arm around him, he felt comforted. He loved the way
his mother smelled, as fresh as a field of daisies. That’s what his
father had always said, and Robert had always agreed with
him.

“I’m sorry to wake
you. Did you have fun today?”

Being the
eight-year-old boy that he was, he fell for the change of subject
his mother provided and proceeded to talk for a few minutes about
his party and all the cool presents he’d gotten that day. He fell
asleep again, there in her arms, and she carried him back to his
room and sung to him as she laid him back in his
Spider
-
man
bed.

The next morning
when he woke, she was gone. There was no note, no goodbyes,
nothing. Roy had come back and had fallen asleep on the couch, face
down. When Robert tried to wake him, he’d just turned over and put
the pillow over his head.