Bluegrass State of Mind

Bluegrass State of
Mind

A Bluegrass Series
Novel

Kathleen Brooks

All Rights Reserved. No part
of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of
fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products
of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are
not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or
dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely
coincidental.

An Original work of Kathleen
Brooks.

Cover art by Calista Taylor.
http://www.calistataylor.com

Bluegrass State of
Mind
Smashwords Edition, Copyright 2011 by
Kathleen Brooks

To the memory of my
Grandmother and Aunt,
who taught me so
much, including how to shop for great shoes.

For my husband, daughter,
parents, family, and friends who have shown me love and support
every day.

Prologue:

Her bare feet pounded down the
concrete stairs. Her panty hose were ripped from snagging the cold
metal strips on the edge of each stair. Her feet stung with every
step she took. She heard the door above her open. She pushed
herself faster. She couldn’t let him catch her.

She jumped the last stair on the sixth
floor, the impact of the jump reverberating up her body. She felt
as though she had stopped breathing two floors ago. Her lungs
burned as she forced her legs to move faster. Her hand was sliding
along the railing to brace herself as she raced down the stairs at
breakneck speed.

She heard him yell her name. She
turned around to see he was now just one floor away. The look cost
her dearly as she missed a step and had to slow down to steady
herself.

Her heart beat in turn with each slap
of her foot. Faster. Louder. She just had to make it to the garage.
He would kill her if she didn’t. He called her name again as if she
was a disobedient child. He was taunting her, triggering her fear.
Her heartbeat felt as if it would explode as she ran faster and
faster down the stairs.

She didn’t feel the cuts causing her
feet to bleed. She didn’t feel the pain running up her legs. All
she knew was she had a couple more flights to go. She tried to suck
in a breath of air but could only manage a small gasp. He was
closer now. She could feel him right behind her.

The door to the garage was so close.
She could see it now. She had to reach it. He closed in on her. She
could hear him breathing. She willed her legs to move faster. He
reached out his arm to grab her…

Chapter One

McKenna looked around and saw nothing
but black four-board fences and green grass for as far as she could
see. Daffodils were playing peek-a-boo with the bright morning sun.
She looked down at the GPS in her cherry red BMW M6. Only five more
miles until her destination. Bringing her eyes back up to the
narrow country road, Kenna gasped and hit her brakes as hard as she
could.

The stabilization in her car kicked in
and kept it from fishtailing off the road. She fought for control
of the car as her brakes locked. A massive horse was standing in
the middle of the road calmly watching her scrambling for control
over her car. She rested her head against the steering wheel and
let out a shaky breath when she stopped the car in the opposite
lane. Hearing tires squealing, she lifted her head and saw an old
pick-up truck heading straight for her, fishtailing out of control.
Kenna shifted into reverse and floored it. The truck skidded by
her, narrowly missing her car. The truck came to a sudden stop in
the grass ditch off the side of the road.

Kenna watched a jeans-clad woman
wearing a stylish, black long sleeve shirt and bright pink scarf
belt jump out of the truck The woman with beautiful, shiny shoulder
length brown hair, was the polar opposite of what McKenna expected
to see. Instead of being concerned about her truck, the woman
slowly approached the horse with her hand out. Kenna saw her mouth
moving as she talked to him. Ever so slowly, she placed her hand on
his head and gave him a smile. Sliding her hand down, she grasped
the bridle and scratched his nose.

Kenna opened her door and got out on
shaky legs. She could hear the woman talking on the cell phone as
she walked toward the scene. “Yeah Bets. I am out here on Route 178
and it looks like one of your stallions is loose. Another woman and
I almost hit him. Yes, we’re okay. No, I have him now. You better
have one of the boys bring a trailer. Okay. Bye.”

“
Hi. Are you okay?” Kenna
asked after the woman put away the cell phone.

“
Yes. Thanks. Looks like
you made it out okay. I’m Paige Davies. Do you mind helping me for
a sec?”

“
McKenna Mason. What do
you need?”

“
Here, hold this.” Paige
walked the massive stallion over to her and indicated where she was
to hold him. “I need to see if my truck is able to run or if I need
to call a tow. Thanks!”

Kenna took a hold of the bridle and
stared at the horse. She hadn’t been around a horse in decades. She
held on for dear life, even though the horse seemed content to just
stand off to the side of the road and watch the world go
by.

Paige’s truck roared to life. She
drove it out of the ditch and parked next to Kenna’s M6. What a
sight; a brand new M6 next to a rusted blue Chevy pickup that had
to be fifteen years old. Paige gracefully jumped down from the cab
and walked over to her.

“
Thanks. Now we have room
for the little guy to be picked up. I wonder how he got
out?”

“
I am just glad we didn’t
hit him.”

“
This is part of the
Ashton Farm and unfortunately they have been having a lot of
problems recently.”

“
Ashton, as in Will
Ashton?” Kenna couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t even pulled into
town and she had just found the person she was looking
for.

“
Yes. The family owns and
runs it. You know Will?”

“
I used to. I haven’t seen
him in seventeen years.”

“
Are you here to visit
them?”

“
No. I am here to
interview with Tom Burns for the Assistant District Attorney
job.”

“
That’s great.” Paige was
so excited for her that Kenna couldn’t help but smile. She stepped
forward and scratched the forehead of the large horse.

“
Actually, I am glad I ran
into someone from the town. Can you tell me a good place to stay? I
couldn’t find any hotels online.”

“
That’s because there
aren’t any. You’ll want to go see Miss Lily Rae Rose. She has a bed
and breakfast. Just continue straight and make a left at the first
stop light you come to. She’s in the big white Victorian. And, if
you’re looking for a good place to eat, Miss Lily has two sisters,
Miss Daisy Mae Rose and Miss Violet Fae Rose that run the Blossom
Cafe. Great place to eat some chocolate after a close call like
this!” Paige laughed and Kenna couldn’t help but like her. This was
a woman after her own heart!

“
Thanks a lot. I am
guessing you are from Keeneston. What do you do there?”

"I have a store on Main Street named
Southern Charms. I have all local made products. Everything from
statues, paintings, jewelry, clothes, painted wine glasses, to
cookbooks.”

“
Sounds interesting. I
will have to stop by.”

“
We should have lunch
together. I can be the official welcoming party!” They both turned
to the sounds of a diesel engine and saw a massive truck with horse
trailer come around the corner from the direction Paige had come.
“Ah, good. Now we can get this boy home.”

Kenna stood back as three men jumped
down from the truck and with an apple helped convince the horse to
get in the trailer.

“
Thanks for the help with
him. I look forward to our lunch. It was great meeting you and
welcome to Keeneston,” Paige said as she and Kenna walked to their
cars.

Kenna’s legs had finally stopped
shaking when she slid into her car. Pulling out after Paige she
headed into town wondering what her new home would be
like.

* * *

"Just shoot me now," Kenna thought as
she squeezed her eyes closed. She slowly opened them hoping against
all odds the scene before her had changed, but to her utter
despair, it was the same scene she had just driven upon. Kenna had
pulled her M6 to the side of the road and stared at the town before
her with a critical eye. She was sitting on the edge of Main Street
and could see the other end of what she guessed to be downtown just
two stop lights away. The town was straight out of Mayberry, she
thought. She couldn’t help but started whistling the theme song to
the Andy Griffith Show as she looked around her new hometown.
Perfect trees lining both sides of Main Street, American flags
waving from every light post and the people wandering down the
sidewalk seemed to know each other since they were tipping their
hats and smiling to each person they passed by.

Kenna had spent the last eleven years
in the Big City. So when she took a deep breath that lacked
pollution and listened to the honking of cars that were strangely
not honks of anger, but honks of greeting as they passed someone
they knew, she felt out of her element. Not for the first time
Kenna wondered how she ended up here. Just a month ago, she was at
the hottest nightclub in New York City with her best friend
Danielle celebrating her twenty-ninth birthday with all her friends
from Greendale, Thompson and Hitchem, the largest law firm in New
York. Kenna sighed wistfully as she thought about the six figure
salary, the hot clubs and a condo in the Upper East Side of
Manhattan she had left behind in a hurry.

With her eyes closed and her mind
firmly set in what might have been, Kenna thought about how she had
dined with professional athletes and actors at the best restaurants
on the company dime since they were clients. Standing only five
foot four, but blessed with what she called womanly curves, Kenna
had not only wined and dined famous people, but had been dated and
pursued by some as well. Kenna’s auburn hair, milky skin and dark
green eyes that hid an intelligence and sharp wit had made her
sought after inside and outside of the courtroom.

Kenna continued her trip down memory
lane by giving herself a moment to gloat. She had just made junior
partner, one of the youngest associates to have ever done so and
the only woman to ever do so.

She cringed as she remembered the
night it all changed. The night she fled from her six figure salary
and left her luxurious condo. She had fled from New York City with
her ex-boyfriend hot in pursuit of her. Kenna fought a shiver as
she remembered Chad trying to find her to prevent her from leaving
not only the City, but most likely her beautiful condo ever again.
It was in the early morning hours of the city that never sleeps
that Kenna found herself running for her life and looking for a
place to hide. She had sat in her car and thought about what always
made her feel better - chocolate. She had suffered a chocolate
craving to end all other chocolate cravings that night.

Now sitting in her car in Keeneston,
she remembered the shivers of fear that had racked her body and the
feel of the cold bite of the February wind. And all she wanted was
chocolate. That’s when the idea hit her, the perfect place to hide
and the perfect place to indulge in the mother of all chocolate
cravings. She turned her car towards the interstate and headed to
Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Kenna’s lips twitched. She had been
right. Since he had no idea where she was, she was left alone. And
in turn, Kenna was surrounded by chocolate for a month. The second
night she spent in Hershey, Kenna knew it was time to develop a
plan for the rest of her life, or at least for the next phase of
her life. Even though she was tempted to apply for the taster’s job
opening at the Hershey plant, she decided she couldn’t waste the
law degree her parent’s death had paid for. They died when a
drunken truck driver jackknifed his semi-truck on a patch of ice
leaving no place for her parents' car to go. The trust they
established for Kenna was more than enough to pay for her
attendance at law school and she even had a good part of it left to
be able to live off of if she wanted. However, after her parents
death, Kenna had lost the carefree ways the life of privilege
provided and went to law school to learn how to put away drunk
drivers for the pain they caused innocent families.