Joanna and Pete were high school
sweethearts who once believed they would be together always. Then Pete was
drafted, unaware Joanna carried his child. Her domineering father forced her to
give up the baby then relocated the family to keep Pete from finding Joanna.
Years later, they meet again. Pete is a
prosperous farmer, a widower with five children, and Joanna is an unmarried,
big city, college professor.
In the same city, a young woman named
Beth desperately searches for her birth family while her adoptive father is
determined to stop her.
Can Joanna and Pete overcome the
obstacles which now separate them? Will Beth find what she seeks? Does fate
complete the circle of these diverse lives to bring happiness at last?
EXCERPT
"What was it like, Pete? The war, I mean."
He took a deep breath. "That's hard to explain. It was a whole different world, Joanna. I was just a kid who'd won a few ballgames and thought he was a big shot. Then I found myself facing bullets and land mines, and life wasn't a game anymore. My girl back home wasn't answering my letters and I couldn't figure out why."
She started to speak, but changed her mind.
"It seemed like an eternity until I got leave to come home. That's when I found out you'd moved to Tennessee. I thought maybe that was why you hadn't written—that you'd never gotten the mail I sent."
There was a long pause while he dealt with his painful memories, but she remained silent.
"So I went to Jackson and finally found your house." He stopped, clenched his fists. "Your father saw to it I didn't find you."
