Blurb
Abby
Callier is more in love with Shakespearean heroes than any real man,
and she’s beginning to wonder if there is life for her outside the
pages of a book. It doesn’t help that her esteemed parents tend to
view her as they would one of their science experiments gone wrong.
On the eve of finishing her dissertation, she escapes her staid
existence to live in the house she inherited from her Great Aunt Evie
in the small town of Echo Springs, Colorado. Because, let’s face
it, when a woman starts comparing her life to horror films, it might
be time for a break.
Sheriff
Nate Barnes believes in law and order and carefully building the life
you want. In his spare time, he has been remodeling his house in the
hope that one day it will be filled with the family he makes. But
Nate doesn’t like drama or complications and tends to avoid them at
all costs. And yet, when Miss Abigail Callier, his newest neighbor,
beans him with a nine iron, he can’t help but wonder if she might
just be the complication he’s been searching for all along. It
doesn’t hurt that he discovers a journal hidden away by the
previous tenant and decides to use Old Man Turner’s advice to
romance Abby into his life.
Abby
never expected her next-door neighbor, the newly dubbed Sheriff Stud
Muffin, to be just the distraction her world needed. The problem is
she doesn’t know whether she should make Echo Springs her home, or
if this town is just a stopover point in her life’s trajectory. And
she doesn’t want to tell Nate that she might not be sticking
around—even though she should because it’s the right thing to do,
the honest thing—because then all the scintillatingly hot kisses
with the Sheriff will come to an abrupt halt. Did she mention that
he’s a really great kisser?
Excerpt
Abby
opened the door to two delivery men wearing Styman and Sons logos on
their polos. Greg Styman Junior and Teddy Styman were the sons part
of the company. They were both relatively attractive guys in a
down-home Mayberry type of way, and were young—far, far too young.
While
Abby might be nearing her twenty-ninth birthday, these two reminded
her of students—fresh-faced, with that innocent wide-eyed wonder of
youth that people tended to lose by their mid-twenties.
One
of the things that had drawn her to the local appliance shop, instead
of heading into Denver and one of those big-box stores to make her
purchase, had been their willingness to haul away the old freezer
free of charge. Styman and Sons would strip it and refurbish any of
the old parts that weren’t rusted or still viable and resell them
online. It made Abby feel like she was doing something good for the
environment because the whole thing wouldn’t end up in a landfill.
Abby
was standing on her porch, watching the two guys pull her handy-dandy
new deepfreeze from the truck, when she was flattened.
She’d
barely had time to issue an umphff before she was on her back on the
ivory wooden porch, a hulking brute covered in dark black fur
towering over her. She lay on her back, trying to assess the damage
as a large, wet, pink tongue slobbered over her face. From this
angle, she could tell there were a few parts of the roof overhang
that needed to be fixed before winter arrived.
Her
hands slid into the soft, short fur, attempting to move the massive
beast as it said hello with an almost rabid enthusiasm. Abby would
have had better luck moving one of the fourteen footers nearby.
“Rufus,
stupid mutt, get off her.” Abby heard the deep baritone filled with
abject horror.
Rufus,
the mammoth Great Dane, listened about as well as a toddler playing
with his favorite toy and, instead of moving off her, decided he
really wanted to cuddle and lie on top of her. Her breath whooshed
out of her again at the dog’s impressive weight. He had to outweigh
her by twenty pounds.
“Jesus,
Rufus.” Nate Barnes tugged and yanked the hulking beast of a dog
off Abby’s prone form. Rufus seemed to think that meant Nate wanted
to play and wrestle around. They skirmished on her porch for a minute
or so, until Rufus spied a rabbit and took off after the poor
creature.
She
was starting to push herself up, mentally assessing the damage, when
Nate held out a hand to her, a mask of apology adding a deep line to
his furrowed brow. “I’m so sorry. Are you all right? He’s
harmless, really. The lamebrain just thinks he’s more of a lap dog
and doesn’t realize how big he is.”
Abby
felt a few brain cells faint as she accepted his help, placing her
hand in his much longer one, noticing that the fingers were rough
with calluses.
“It’s
okay,” she said as she gained her feet, only to be shocked—and a
little turned on—as he ran his hands over her, checking for
injuries. As much as she tried to rationalize that it was a
police-style frisking, a low burn ignited in her belly. Before she
did something entirely stupid, like invite him in where he could give
her body a private inspection, she batted his hands away. “No harm
done. He seems like a big lover.”
Nate
smiled sheepishly as he retreated a step, and it did nothing to
lessen his impact.
She
almost sawed her tongue in half. See? I shouldn’t talk to people,
ever. Especially not after Sheriff Stud Muffin put his hands all over
her. The action had short-wired and fried her brain, leading to her
precarious foot-in-mouth disease. As if he knew she had been talking
about him, Rufus loped back up her porch, making a beeline directly
for her or, better yet, her crotch, as he planted his wet nose there
by way of greeting.
“Rufus,
get off her. Jesus, I’m sorry. He’s normally not like this,”
Nate explained, more than a little flummoxed and embarrassed as he
tried to yank him off.
It
was nice to know the guy was human. After their initial and rather
violent meeting, she’d wondered if he was a superhero in disguise.
She had hit him with the golf club with her full force and the guy
had barely flinched.
About
the Author
Maggie
is a bestselling and award-winning author published in multiple
fiction genres. She also writes erotic romance under the name Anya
Summers. A total geek at her core, when she is not writing, she
adores attending the latest comic con or spending time with her
family. She currently lives in the Midwest with her two furry
felines.
Visit
her website here:
Visit
her on social media here:
Facebook:
FB.me/MagMaeGallagher
Twitter:
@magmaegallagher
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3 comments:
Thanks for hosting!
Welcome to Beyond Romance, Maggie Mae!
I'm much more of a cat person than a dog person, but your Great Dane excerpt is so vivid, I had to share it.
Hope the tour goes really well.
Great excerpt
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