Do you need a break today? Maybe a trip to Texas where hearts are as big as the wide open spaces? If you like a solid faith journey and clean romance, you’ll want to read my latest, An Unexpected Homecoming, available FREE to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
Okay, it’s not totally new. This is the trilogy featuring former soldier Jaz Rolle and handsome cowboy Bailey Travers set in Sweet Grove, Texas. I recently reacquired the rights to these stories from Sweet Promise Press.
Even better news for you, my publisher had the “novel-sized” collection priced at $7.99 but I’m selling it for $5.99. Keep reading for a sneak peek inside the first book in the trilogy. Remember, this volume includes all three stories, so you get Jaz and Bailey’s story from meet cute to happily ever after.
Now for the excerpt:
Long grass lining the road’s shoulder rustled. A jackrabbit leaped into the road. Jazlyn Rolle stumbled as it dodged her. Her heart jackhammered and her steps faltered.
An instant later, a brown and white dog burst from the scrub a yard behind her. Its pink tongue lolled to the side, but nothing slowed its pursuit.
Jaz shortened her stride. Typical Sweet Grove. The traffic included wildlife rather than automobiles.
The dog scrambled down the berm on the opposite side of the road. Before disappearing, it stumbled tail over nose with a yelp of agony that shivered up her sweat-coated spine.
Jaz slowed, already past the dog’s crashing point. She couldn’t even run in the middle of nowhere without something interfering. She paused her music and glanced toward the ditch. Nothing.
Her finger hovered over the play button when she heard a whimper. She sighed, scraping more sweat from her brow. Only a jerk could ignore an injured dog.
Jaz plodded to the edge of the road. The furry pile lay near the white rail fence. An obstacle course of gopher holes had tripped up the poor animal.
Jaz squatted a few feet from the dog. “Good boy,” she crooned without thinking.
Another whine pulled her intestines like taffy. She extended her fingers toward his nose, slow and steady, and he barely snuffled them before letting out another pitiful cry.
“Gopher hole get you?” She spoke quietly, scanning his body for signs of injury.
The dog rolled his eyes at her. The brown pools begged for help. Jaz edged closer, hands grazing gently over the long hair. When she smoothed across his hind leg, a yip startled her. The lolling tongue flapped toward the injured area and coated her hand with spittle.
Jaz huffed out air. So much for a quiet morning run.
She knelt in the grass, wincing when her knee found a sharp rock. She cooed and slid her arms under the dog. If anything was broken, moving him might make it worse, but the dog didn’t make a sound.
As she rocked back, rolling the pup against her chest, a warm tongue swathed her chin. Ugh. Dog kisses. But then again she was a walking salt block.
With a grunt, she stood and staggered to the top of the ditch, glancing in both directions. Further along the road she noticed an iron gateway. The steer head emblem in the center had nearly rusted loose, and the double-bar T brand beneath it shook like a leaf in a windstorm.
May as well ask at that house. Her brain sifted old memories for the owner of the brand while her feet carried her beneath the arch and down a rutted driveway.
A fence, paint flaking, lined one side while a collection of fruit and nut trees speckled the grass on the other. It didn’t look much like a working ranch to her. Who had she gone to school with that lived out here?
She was still trying to work it out when a horse snorted off to her left. Her steps slowed. After all, she was trespassing and that could be a shoot-first-ask-later offense in small town Texas.
Jaz stopped and squinted toward the rising sun. A saddled horse on the far side of the corral swiveled its head in her direction. The cowboy kneeling at the horse’s feet stood. Broad shoulders tapered into a trim waist and long legs kept her gaze dropping all the way to the heels of dusty cowboy boots.
She opened her mouth to call out at the same moment he twisted toward her, but the word petered on her lips.
“Hey.” The stranger jogged toward her, bent arms flexing firm biceps. Jaz stumbled away from the fence. With his face in shadow, she couldn’t decide if he was angry or concerned. Her experience with men advised her to back away and keep her guard up.
If you read this already, I would LOVE if you clicked over to Amazon and left a short review.
What are you reading this weekend?