Derailing the Drifter

Train Track Romance

Riding the popularity of Florida’s expanding rail line in 1904, Mattie Jo Pike has to administer first aid after two hobos squabble at her water tower stopover in Favoretta. The kindly victim, Mo Rudyard, doesn’t seem like the train-jumping type, but her stern Florida cracker father won’t let the man hang around long enough to learn more about him. Undercover, Morrison can’t seem to please his entrepreneurial father, and to aggravate matters, his priceless secret token has been stolen. He traces the token’s path to a hobo village where anarchy rules the cutthroat roost. With the kingpin of the hobos his target, the last thing he wants is for lawless Dell Wilkes to end up in Favoretta—where lovely Mattie Jo has taken up selling her orange marmalade to the tourists. A clash of shifty railroad characters leaves the local sheriff scratching his head as to who can be trusted. Mattie Jo sets out to settle the conflict, armed with a sassy attitude and a pistol hidden in her skirt. No man steals her kisses and then jumps a train without explanation— because she’s had about enough of a one-way relationship along a two-way track.