Always

Always is a 1990 romance novel written by M. J. (Jodi) Morris (under the name Jo Morrison) and published by Harlequin Books as part of its Harlequin Temptation line. The book is set in the fictional community of Morristown (population 7,356), which is modeled after Wynne (Cross County).

The book opens with a prologue in which farmer Tanner McNeil confronts his lover, Jodi Forest, for having been away backpacking in Canada and Alaska during the summer, coming back only in October. She likes to travel and has disappeared for long stretches of time (typically summers) over their relationship of several years, and he finally says to her, “I need someone who wants to be with me. Always. Not someone who comes and goes like the rain on the wind.” Reluctantly, she leaves again, telling him, “I always come back, Tanner McNeil. Always.”

Later that year, divorcée Lara Jamison moves back to town to join a local law practice. She meets Tanner at a club, the Jubilee, where he has regularly been getting drunk. She drives him home. They later meet again, end up discussing her recently ended marriage, and make a date for the Jubilee’s New Year’s Eve party. A blizzard takes down electricity and phone lines, but Tanner drives out to her place on his ATV. She lets him in, and, wordlessly, they begin to have sex.

In the morning, Tanner is convinced that they are destined to be together, but Lara cautions him that their previous relationships may be coloring their emotions. However, over the coming weeks, he spends every night at her place, and Lara later realizes that, as intimate as she has been with him, she knows little of his personality: “They had found their common ground in the bedroom, exploring each other’s bodies, instead of in the little bits and pieces of information that are usually discovered on those first few dates when two people are forced to make idle conversation.” Surprising him with a visit to his farmhouse, Lara discovers in the potato bin a crumpled-up postcard from Jodi saying that she will be back soon. They have an argument about their future and break up. That night, Tanner piles into a bonfire everything Jodi had ever given him or that he had bought to try to make his house comfortable for her.

Tanner enlists the help of Lara’s friends Susan and Kelly to try to make amends with Lara, and Lara goes to Tanner’s house and asks him to tell her all about Jodi. After an honest discussion about their lives, they set a wedding date of June 15 (coincidentally the anniversary of Arkansas’s statehood). On the last day in April, Lara receives a letter from her former husband, Kevin, wishing her happiness in her forthcoming nuptials, and Jodi shows up at Tanner’s home. Tanner rejects Jodi’s assertions that she will stay this time, telling her, “You’ve walked through deserts. You know the danger of being confused by a mirage….We settled for a mirage, because it was easier than continuing to search for the real thing.” Jodi leaves, and the novel ends with the wedding of Tanner and Lara.

Minor characters Susan Metcalf and her husband, Hank, stand at the center of Morrison’s 1991 follow-up novel, An Imperfect Hero.

For additional information:
Morrison, Jo. Always. Toronto: Harlequin, 1990.

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas

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