Marnie Lynn Pehrson - Clean Romance Club

Tomorrow's Promise
By Marnie L. Pehrson

SHE HAD TO ADMIT TO HERSELF THAT SHE FELT NOTHING FOR HIM...NOTHING BUT GRATITUDE... BUT HE WAS HER ONLY MEANS OF ESCAPE from the cold cruel world she'd known since childhood.

And so Dani Montana, the poor farm girl from the hills of Tennessee, found herself married to the well-respected Seth Harkin: a kind, handsome man who, for some mysterious reason unbeknownst to Dani, worshipped the ground she walked upon. While any other woman would have been thrilled to own him, Dani still felt nothing. She decided that her difficult upbringing had damaged her somehow and resigned herself to never know true love. That was until one event changed her world forever, and Dani learned that within true love lies tomorrow's promise.

What readers are saying about this title:

"Marnie has done an excellent job of showing how growing up with abuse and without the soft touch of a mother kept Dani from being able to feel much of anything. Knowing from an early age that she'd marry anyone "with two legs" who would take her out of this situation, it's amazing that the catch of the town was the one who had loved her all along. It almost looked too good to be true, but in time the love shown to Dani allowed her to experience the love of a lifetime. This is Marnie's best yet! As always, she tells a story of romance intertwined with enough heartbreak to keep you furiously turning the pages." - Joyce Pierce, EmersonPublications.com

Chapter 1

It was a cool spring morning when Zack Montana stepped out the back door of the little log cabin in the Tennessee hills. He spit a wad of tobacco, sending it sailing onto the dew-laden grass, and lifted his red plaid shirtsleeve to absorb the juice that ran down the corners of his mouth and clung to his black beard.

He grumbled to himself, rolled up his shirtsleeves to his elbows and snapped his suspenders into place. It was time to milk the cows; and his two lazy brothers, Jed and Zeke, were impossible to waken when they’d been up late guzzling a new batch from their still. This left Zack with the tasks of milking the cows and slopping hogs alone.

Dani Montana , the youngest of the Montana siblings, had just finished feeding the chickens and opened the back flap of the henhouse. She gathered six eggs into a basket and started back to the house.

“Mornin’ Lazarus, how you doin’ this bright, beautiful day?” she patted the head of a calico goat that nuzzled her leg. Lazarus only bleated in reply.

“That good – eh? Well, I’m not doin’ half bad myself,” she answered and pictured her mean ol’ brothers still slumbering in their beds. While they could be cruel as vermin in their drunken states, she relished the times when they passed out cold and left her alone. Being the baby of the family with her parents both gone and nothing but brothers, left Dani with a hard row to hoe, but she tried to make the best of it.

Zack stepped in as a father figure, but he was only seventeen when Gordon Montana passed away from a heart attack, and really wasn’t up to the position. Dani’s mother died giving birth to her, hence, her name. Gordon Montana wanted boys – all boys – and if his wife “had to up and die givin’ birth to a danged girl,” the least he could do was give her a boy’s name. Maybe then she’d be tough enough to hold her own in a house full of men. At least that was her father’s logic on the matter.

Dani often fantasized that she’d have a beautiful feminine name if her mother had lived – something elegant and ladylike, and she’d been dressed in pretty dresses with ribbons and bows. Instead she wore her brothers’ old hand-me-down jeans and plaid shirts. But nothing could hide Dani’s feminine features or wavy auburn locks which she usually kept pulled back in a ponytail or occasionally braided.

She’d taken the time to braid it loosely down the back this morning and tie it with one of the few bows she owned – a pale green one. She wore a pair of jeans and a green plaid shirt that was too big for her, hiding the feminine figure beneath. Dani was tall, nearly five foot ten, and her brother Zeke loved to tease her and say she’d never find a man that wanted to marry a giant. Zack argued the point, insisting that any man would be proud to have a woman as pretty and smart as his little sister. Zack was Dani’s only reprieve in the Montana household. If it weren’t for him, Dani wondered if she’d even be alive.

Dani had lived on a farm her whole life, and she knew very well the pecking order of chickens. She’d deduced that around this place, she was the littlest chicken. If anything went wrong or wasn’t to suit Zeke and Jed, they took it out on Dani. She was the runt of the litter and the brunt of their wrath. Zeke and Jed, twenty-year-old twins, were bad enough when they were sober, but when they were drunk they were down right dangerous. Fortunately, Zack, who was now a man of twenty-two, was larger than his brothers and on more than one occasion had protected his sister from their tirades.

Dani shuddered as she thought of the last time Jed came home late from carousing to find his food cold. He’d backhanded her, hitting her so hard she went flying onto the floor, her lip bleeding and her eye blackened. Jed stood up and prepared to kick her in the stomach when Zack entered the room to pull him away.

Thank heavens for Zack! But as much as Dani loved her eldest brother, she had one goal and one goal only – getting out of that house! She didn’t care who she had to marry or what menial job she had to take, she wanted out of there. Unfortunately, the hill country of Southeast Tennessee held slim pickins for both marital candidates and employment. And the only man who’d ever shown her any attention hadn’t been seen since winter.

“My, my, don’t you look pretty as a peach this mornin’, Dani!” Zack smiled at his little sister and patted her on the back as she stood over the stove scrambling eggs.

“Thank you, Zack,” she smiled into his dark brown eyes.

“Nice and quiet in here this mornin’” he noted.

“Yes, isn’t it wonderful!” she spoke softly, not wanting to change the fact.

“Sure is. I could use their help outside, but I’d almost as soon do it all myself as have to deal with ‘em,” he reached over for a slice of fried bacon and popped it in his mouth.

“I know what you mean,” she nodded affirmatively.

“They must’ve come in well past midnight , ‘cause I didn’t hear ‘em, did you?”

“No, I must’ve slept through it too.”

“That’s kind’ve unusual, don’t you think?” Zack’s brow furrowed a little as if studying upon a puzzle. “Comin’ home nights, they’re usually as noisy as a squirrel trapped in a kitchen.”

“Reckon they’re even here?” Dani asked.

“One way to find out,” Zack strode toward the bedroom in which Jed and Zeke slept and quietly turned the knob. Slowly he opened the door a crack, then widened it the rest of the way and entered the room. “They ain’t in here!”

Dani joined Zack in the twins’ room, “Where you reckon they are?”

“Don’t know. Probably sleepin’ it off somewhere. But I tell you one thing, if they’ve gone and got themselves locked up again, bull if I’m bailin’ ‘em out anytime soon! They can rot there for a while and learn a lesson or two.” Zack ran his hand angrily through his hair and strode back to the kitchen, pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Guess we’re havin’ a nice big peaceful breakfast, just the two of us this mornin’!” his irritated countenance transformed into a bright smile. Dani returned the expression, carried the eggs, bacon and toast to the table, and sat down opposite her brother.

They both ladled food onto their plates, and Dani looked up at Zack and giggled, “This is nice isn’t it?”

“Sure is! Be nice if ‘em two’d go get hitched, settle down in their own places, and we could live like this all the time!” Zack wished aloud.

“Except, I’d pity the poor women who married ‘em,” Dani noted.

Zack quirked his head to the side with a nod, “True, that’s true. Wouldn’t want to wish them two on nobody!”

Just as the siblings finished their breakfast and Dani cleared the table, the kitchen door flung wide. Zeke and another man entered carrying Jed.

“What’s happened now?” Zack rolled his eyes and came to stand before his brothers. Blood soaked Jed’s chest, and Zeke’s face looked like he’d been slammed by a two-by-four.

Dani well knew the young man accompanying her brothers. Seth Harkin was every girl on the mountain’s dream. Tall, dark and handsome, he stood nearly six foot four and had the clearest, bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Those eyes caught hers as she looked up from her brother’s chest into Seth’s face. He smiled and winked. She blushed and hurried to the sink to gather a cloth, soap and water.

“Get ‘im into the bedroom,” Zack ordered. They laid Jed down on the bed on his back and Zack ripped open his shirt. “Good heavens, what in blazes have y’all been up to now?”

“Bubba Lawson started into us at Moe’s, and Jed got sick of it and went after him. When he did, Bubba pulled out a knife and stabbed ‘im,” Zeke explained.

“When was this?” Zack asked.

“Oh, several hours ago, I guess.”

“Where’ve y’all been all this time? Why didn’t you bring ‘im home directly?” Zack fussed.

“They knocked me out. When I came to in the alley, Jed was a layin’ there beside me, and they’d taken our horses.”

“Took your horses? You mean you two’ve gone and lost Jenny and Franky?”

“Wasn’t our fault, Zack, they ganged up on us!”

“You shouldn’t ‘ve been drinkin’ to all hours o’ the mornin’!” Zack’s attention turned to Seth, “What about you, Seth, where do you come into the picture?”

“I found ‘em all banged up this mornin’ and brought ‘em home.”

“Oh, well, thank you, then,” Zack nodded and extended his hand to shake Seth’s.

Dani set the water and a cloth on the night table. Zack sat on the edge of the bed to tend to his brother. Luckily, Jed’s wound wasn’t incredibly deep, Zack discovered upon closer examination.

Dani stepped out of the room, not wanting to watch. She crossed to the sink and pumped water into a pot. Just as she was about to carry it to the stove to warm it to wash her dishes, she felt two hands take her waist on either side. She froze tense.

“You miss me, sugar?” Seth whispered in her ear.

“Well, um,” she felt his breath on her neck and she felt… she felt nothing. Why didn’t his nearness thrill her? Why didn’t she feel the sudden compulsion to swoon at his touch, at the caress of his lips to her neck? Any other girl would have. She turned to look into his eyes.

“Where have you been, Seth? We haven’t seen you since winter.”

“I’ve been workin’ in the city at the stockyards. I’ve saved enough to build a cabin on that piece o’ property my dad gave me.”

“That’s good,” she smiled. He was incredibly handsome. She had to give him that, and something inside her did stir when he looked at her that way.

Seth still held his hands to her hips, and his head leaned back to make sure Zack and Zeke were still distracted with Jed. He took her hand and led her out the kitchen door, being careful to let the door shut softly.

She leaned her back against the house, and he stood in front of her with his hand beside her head, leaned against the cabin.

“When’re you gonna let me take you outa this place?” he leaned closer, nuzzling her neck.

Dani’s pulse accelerated. He’d come back for her! Seth Harkin, every mountain girl’s dream, stood in front of her offering her freedom from her abusive brothers’ constant harassment!

“What’re you suggestin’, Seth?”

“Why the obvious, sugar. Let me get this cabin built and come be my wife,” he slipped his arms around her back, holding her close and staring into her green eyes.

Why couldn’t she feel anything? Dani’s heart told her she should feel something for him, but all she felt was the exciting thrill of a prisoner about to be set free. Maybe she was just numb – numb from all the abuse, and later when she was alone with Seth, away from all her worries, she’d feel something for him then.

“Whenever you’re ready, Seth, I’ll go,” she answered. His blue eyes twinkled with his smile, and he kissed her. She returned his affection, hoping that if she responded the best way she knew how, something would stir in her heart, and she’d see him as something more than her escape route.

Pleased by her response, he put his hands to her cheeks, winked and gave her one more little kiss, “I better get to work then. I’ll be back for you.” He waved and returned to his truck.

Excited to have her means of escape in place, Dani looked heavenward with a gesture of thanks and returned to her household chores.

A month passed with no word from Seth, but the property upon which he built his cabin was twenty miles away – twenty blessed miles free of Jed and Zeke, but also twenty mournful miles from Zack. She wished she could take him with her when she left. He was her rock, her anchor in the storm. Could she withstand leaving him to go and live with Seth?

Sure, Seth was kind and attentive, but would she ever come to love him the way she’d dreamed of loving a man? Maybe that kind of love wasn’t realistic anyway. Maybe it was only the stuff of fairy tales. She’d be grateful to have a handsome man who cared for her, was a good provider and protected her. It would be enough – it had to be; there was no other means of escape.

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