Description: Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Epigraph Map CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER TWENTY Teaser chapter Nora Roberts HOT ICE SACRED SINS BRAZEN VIRTUE SWEET REVENGE PUBLIC SECRETS CARNAL INNOCENCE DIVINE EVIL HONEST ILLUSIONS PRIVATE SCANDALS HIDDEN RICHES TRUE BETRAYALS MONTANA SKY SANCTUARY HOMEPORT THE REEF RIVER''S END CAROLINA MOON THE VILLA MIDNIGHT BAYOU THREE FATES BIRTHRIGHT NORTHERN LIGHTS BLUE SMOKE ANGELS FALL HIGH NOON TRIBUTE BLACK HILLS THE SEARCH CHASING FIRE Series Irish Born Trilogy BORN IN FIRE BORN IN ICE BORN IN SHAME Dream Trilogy DARING TO DREAM HOLDING THE DREAM FINDING THE DREAM Chesapeake Bay Saga SEA SWEPT RISING TIDES INNER HARBOR CHESAPEAKE BLUE Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy JEWELS OF THE SUN TEARS OF THE MOON HEART OF THE SEA Three Sisters Island Trilogy DANCE UPON THE AIR HEAVEN AND EARTH FACE THE FIRE Key Trilogy KEY OF LIGHT KEY OF KNOWLEDGE KEY OF VALOR In the Garden Trilogy BLUE DAHLIA BLACK ROSE RED LILY Circle Trilogy MORRIGAN''S CROSS DANCE OF THE GODS VALLEY OF SILENCE Sign of Seven Trilogy BLOOD BROTHERS THE HOLLOW THE PAGAN STONE Bride Quartet VISION IN WHITE BED OF ROSES SAVOR THE MOMENT HAPPY EVER AFTER The Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy THE NEXT ALWAYS Nora Roberts & J. D. Robb REMEMBER WHEN J. D. Robb NAKED IN DEATH GLORY IN DEATH IMMORTAL IN DEATH RAPTURE IN DEATH CEREMONY IN DEATH VENGEANCE IN DEATH HOLIDAY IN DEATH CONSPIRACY IN DEATH LOYALTY IN DEATH WITNESS IN DEATH JUDGMENT IN DEATH BETRAYAL IN DEATH SEDUCTION IN DEATH REUNION IN DEATH PURITY IN DEATH PORTRAIT IN DEATH IMITATION IN DEATH DIVIDED IN DEATH VISIONS IN DEATH SURVIVOR IN DEATH ORIGIN IN DEATH MEMORY IN DEATH BORN IN DEATH INNOCENT IN DEATH CREATION IN DEATH STRANGERS IN DEATH SALVATION IN DEATH PROMISES IN DEATH KINDRED IN DEATH FANTASY IN DEATH INDULGENCE IN DEATH TREACHERY IN DEATH NEW YORK TO DALLAS Anthologies FROM THE HEART A LITTLE MAGIC A LITTLE FATE MOON SHADOWS (with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman) The Once Upon Series (with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman) ONCE UPON A CASTLE ONCE UPON A STAR ONCE UPON A DREAM ONCE UPON A ROSE ONCE UPON A KISS ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT SILENT NIGHT (with Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, and Claire Cross) OUT OF THIS WORLD (with Laurell K. Hamilton, Susan Krinard, and Maggie Shayne) BUMP IN THE NIGHT (with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas) DEAD OF NIGHT (with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas) THREE IN DEATH SUITE 606 (with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas) IN DEATH THE LOST (with Patricia Gaffney, Mary Blayney, and Ruth Ryan Langan) THE OTHER SIDE (with Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas) THE UNQUIET (with Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas) Also available . . . THE OFFICIAL NORA ROBERTS COMPANION (edited by Denise Little and Laura Hayden) THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen''s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi--110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author''s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. Copyright 2011 by Nora Roberts. Excerpt from The Last Boyfriend copyright by Nora Roberts. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author''s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. BERKLEY is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. The "B" design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. PRINTING HISTORY Berkley trade paperback edition / November 2011 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Roberts, Nora. The next always / Nora Roberts.--Berkley trade paperback ed. p. cm. ISBN: 9781101545782 1. Man-woman relationships--Fiction. I. Title. PS3568.O243N49 2011 813''.54--dc22 2011004389 To John Reese, best job boss ever, and the crew of Inn BoonsBoro The song and the silence in the heart, That in part are prophecies, and in part Are longings wild and vain. --LONGFELLOW CHAPTER ONE THE STONE WALLS STOOD AS THEY HAD FOR MORE THAN two centuries, simple, sturdy, and strong. Mined from the hills and the valleys, they rose in testament to man''s inherent desire to leave his mark, to build and create. Over those two centuries man married the stone with brick, with wood and glass, enlarging, transforming, enhancing to suit the needs, the times, the whims. Throughout, the building on the crossroads watched as the settlement became a town, as more buildings sprang up. The dirt road became aspha< horse and carriage gave way to cars. Fashions flickered by in the blink of an eye. Still it stood, rising on its corner of The Square, an enduring landmark in the cycle of change. It knew war, heard the echo of gunfire, the cries of the wounded, the prayers of the fearful. It knew blood and tears, joy and fury. Birth and death. It thrived in good times, endured the hard times. It changed hands and purpose, yet the stone walls stood. In time, the wood of its graceful double porches began to sag. Glass broke; mortar cracked and crumbled. Some who stopped at the light on the town square might glance over to see pigeons flutter in and out of broken windows and wonder what the old building had been in its day. Then the light turned green, and they drove on. Beckett knew. He stood on the opposite corner of The Square, thumbs tucked into the pockets of his jeans. Thick with summer, the air held still. With the road empty, he could have crossed Main Street against the light, but he continued to wait. Opaque blue tarps draped the building from roof to street level, curtaining the front of the building. Over the winter it had served to hold the heat in for the crew. Now it helped block the beat of the sun--and the view. But he knew--how it looked at that moment, and how it would look when the rehab was complete. After all, he''d designed it--he, his two brothers, his mother. But the blueprints bore his name as architect, his primary function as a partner in Montgomery Family Contractors. He crossed over, his tennis shoes nearly silent on the road in the breathless hush of three a.m. He walked under the scaffolding, along the side of the building, down St. Paul, pleased to see in the glow of the streetlight how well the stone

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