Want to read a little of what's arriving in June from I Love This Bar and Come High Water?
I LOVE THIS BAR
Available June 1
All the air escaped Daisy’s lungs in a whoosh when the
cowboy collapsed on top of her body. She sucked in air
and pushed at the weight, but her arms were pinned. She
opened her eyes to see a head full of dark hair and felt
the sharp bone of his nose pressing into her left breast.
He raised his head and looked over at her, his face
only inches from hers, his eyes zeroing in on her lips.
Hot damn! That’s one sexy face, they both thought at
the same time.
She shut her eyes and started to lean in for the kiss,
then reality hit. She had fallen flat on her back on the
floor of the Honky Tonk beer joint and taken the nearest
cowboy down with her. She popped her eyes wide open
and wriggled back away from the sexiest gray eyes
she’d ever seen.
Oh, shit, who saw us? Daisy looked up to find
everyone staring down at them, the cowboy’s body still
touching her from breast to toe, even though he had
rolled to one side. The blush that filled her cheeks had
nothing to do with afterglow.
The joint was as quiet as a tomb. It was a hell of a
time for the jukebox to go silent.
“You all right?” Tinker, the bouncer, asked. He was
hovering over the two of them, worry etched in his face
as he bent to touch her shoulder.
“I’m fine. Make sure he is too,” she panted.
he’d seen the girl slip in the same slick puddle of spilled
beer and grab for him.
Daisy forced a smile.
Tinker held out a hand and in one swift movement the
cowboy was on his feet.
Tinker picked up Daisy carefully and set her on a
barstool. “You sure you’re all right?”
“My dignity is in tatters and I might have a bruise or
two, but I’ll live,” she said.
“I’d better get back to the door. Motion if you need
me,” Tinker said.
She nodded and raised her voice to the customers,
who were still watching the whole scenario as if it were
an X-rated movie. “I’m fine, everyone. I promise. Get
on back to having a good time.”
Someone plugged coins into the jukebox and George
Strait’s song “River of Love” filled the place. Several
people started a line dance and by the time the song
ended everything was back to normal.
All except Daisy’s heart. It still raced.
She looked at the cowboy. He was just as sexy sitting
on the barstool as he’d been lying on top of her. “Sorry
about that. I hope you don’t have anything broken.”
The cowboy barely nodded. “Just a little stunned.
Stupid things like that happen so fast it’s like it happened
to someone else. Might have a bruise—but you broke
my fall.”
Daisy forced a smile.
“Guess we stepped in that beer at the same time.
COME HIGH WATER
Available June 24
If it could go wrong it did.
If it couldn’t go wrong it did anyway.
That’s what caused Bridget O’Shea to grab her coat and umbrella and storm out of the Black Swan hotel that bitterly cold January afternoon. A petite lady with a mass of strawberry blonde hair piled on top of her head, her features were delicate with a small nose and rosebud mouth made for kissing, blue eyes that danced when she was happy but capable of cutting steel when she was angry. That morning they could cut steel.
All because of a blasted rat; cornering her in the kitchen like that. She hated anything or anyone able to take all the control from her. Her ex-husband, Ralph Contiello, had ripped every shred of self-worth from her with his abusiveness during the year they were married. Once he was gone from her life she’d vowed that no one would ever make her cringe in a corner again while the belt slapped against her hide. And now a simple rat had brought back all those emotions. It hadn’t held a razor strop high in its paws when it reared up on its hind legs and glared at her with those beady little eyes but it had invoked the exact same measure of helplessness.
“Where would you be heading off to in such a hurry?” Major Engram asked from the front porch steps. Bundled up in a coat over his faded and patched bibbed overalls and a hat pulled low on his head to shed the rain, he had a face full of wrinkles and a kind smile in his bright eyes. One of the oldest citizens in Huttig, he enjoyed the food and the visiting at the Black Swan. Besides he could always depend on a blaze in the massive fireplace to warm his hands by.
“I’m going to the train station. Come hell or high water I’m bringing a man back to work for me,” she said.
