Return to Me

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O
THER
B
OOKS BY
R
OBIN
L
EE
H
ATCHER

A Carol for Christmas Loving Libby

T
HE
C
OMING TO
A
MERICA
S
ERIES

Dear Lady In His Arms

Patterns of Love Promised to Me

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ZONDER VAN·

ZOHDERVAH.com/

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Return to Me

Copyright © 2007 by RobinSong, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

AER Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-54155-411

Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hatcher, Robin Lee.

Return to me / Robin Lee Hatcher.

p. cm.

ISBN-10: 0-310-25804-9

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25804-9

1. Young women — Fiction 2. Domestic fiction. I. Title. PS3558.A73574R48 2007

813'.54 — dc22

2007000481

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the
Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version
®. TNIV®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photo- copy, recording, or any other — except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

06 07 08 09 10 11 12 • 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

With love to the One who showered me with grace when I returned to Him

Sixteen 143

Seventeen 151

Eighteen 159

Nineteen 167

Twenty 173

Twenty-One 183

Twenty-Two 191

Twenty-Three 199

Twenty-Four 205

Twenty-Five 217

Twenty-Six 225

Twenty-Seven 233

Twenty-Eight 239

Twenty-Nine 247

Thirty 253

Epilogue 257

A Note from the Author 259

About the Publisher 273

Share Your Thoughts 274

“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

Isaiah 44:22

Acknowledgments

My thanks to my wonderful editors, Karen and Sue, whose prayers have carried and encouraged me and whose skills help me improve as a writer, and to my agent, Natasha, who has been a constant source of friendship and support for so many years.

Return
MMe

Prologue

April 2000

“You don’t have any say in this, Dad. I don’t need your permission. I’m twenty-five, for crying out loud.”

“I know how old you are, Roxy. But you’re still not being sen- sible. You’ve never been to Nashville. You don’t know anyone there. All I want you to do is have a plan first. You don’t need to be in such a hurry.”

“A hurry?” Roxanne Burke stared at her father, her insides churn- ing. How could he not know how much this meant to her? That this was all she’d dreamed about since she was a little girl? “Dad, I’ve been waiting for this day all my life. Now I’ve got the money Grandma left me, and I’m going whether you like it or not.”

Her sister, Elena, stood near the living room entrance, arms crossed over her chest. “Listen to Dad, Roxy. You’re always running off half-cocked, letting your emotions make your decisions for you. You’ve barely managed living on your own. You haven’t kept a job longer than a year since you quit working at Burke’s. How do you think you’ll manage alone in a strange town?” She shook her head. “Singers are a dime a dozen in Nashville. Most of them are chasing a pipe dream.”

“You mean, like me?” Anger flared. “What do you know about it? You’ve never wanted to do anything or have anything that Dad didn’t approve of. You don’t know what it’s like to want something different, something more, something big. I may let my emotions show, but at least I
have
emotions. I’m not going to settle for less than I want. I’m going to Nashville and I’m going to become a star.”

Elena laughed, the sound sharp and humorless. “You have no common sense.”

“And
you
don’t know what it’s like to live. Oh, aren’t you just