The Secrets Love Kept

She thought she was in love. He showed her what love meant.

At eighteen, Gertie Johnson knows two things: she loves Blue, and she's terrified of defying her parents. When their friend is murdered and Blue is blamed, he asks her to run. She goes without hesitation.

But Blue slips out of the cabin in the night and leaves her alone with nothing but a promise he can't keep.

Sam Crawford brings her home. Marries her to save her reputation. Sleeps on the floor of their bedroom without complaint. When Gertie discovers she's carrying Blue's child, Sam doesn't flinch. He simply stays.

Gertie thinks Sam married her out of kindness. She falls for his quiet strength anyway, certain he doesn't feel the same. Then his mother—who has been watching the two of them dance around what's obvious to everyone else—mentions casually how in love her son is. And sends them on a honeymoon.

Some mothers know exactly what they're doing.

What follows is war, loss, a grocery store kept running by sheer stubbornness, and a woman who transforms from a wounded girl into someone her whole town depends on.

Gertie's story begins here. Readers of the Hill Country Secrets series already know who she becomes — this is how she got there.

The Secrets Love Kept is a sweet, closed-door historical romance about a girl who learned the difference between infatuation and love the hard way. And the quiet, steady man who never stopped showing her. Book one of the Love's Secrets duet, set in fictional Schatzenburg, Texas.

Content Note: This book references racial violence, including the murder of a beloved side character early in the story. It also references (but never condones) racial prejudice throughout, consistent with small-town Texas in the 1940s.