Once She Dreamed: Part One (Unabridged‪)‬

Everyone in the small country town that Sammy Jo Knox had been born and raised never left. They made their lives there. Got married, had kids, lived in the same houses that were always there along the streets that never changed. The whole white picket fence and tree swing might look good on greeting cards but, in real life, it was boring, at least to Sammy Jo.

When Sammy Jo was a little girl she began dreaming of something bigger. Brighter.

Something that wasn't her town. She wanted to see the world and experience it all.

Just how she was going to do that she had no idea. Because if her momma had her way, she'd marry one of the boys in town and be spitting out babies and going to church on Sunday with them all lined up in a row.

The day Hale Christopher Jude III walked into the bakery she worked at, she knew he was it. That part of life she was missing. He smelled of foreign places and exciting things. He represented all the bright lights she dreamed of and simply put she hoped he was her way out of this place.

What Sammy Jo didn't realize was things that appear perfect...aren't. And chasing her dreams could lead to something very different.