Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Page 29
He watched her chin jut out as she declared, “Nice? I’ve heard it’s nothing short of spectacular.”
Marla Jean turned to Irene. “Have you met Theo, Irene?”
“As a matter of fact, Theo and I are old friends.” Irene stood up and walked over to the group.
Jake looked at Theo in surprise. “Is that so? How come I didn’t know that?”
Theo fought the urge to deny it. Old friends. Such a catch-all phrase, such a generic, inadequate term for what they’d been. But now was not the time or place to squabble over how to define their past. “You remember when I got that job working at the Piggly Wiggly after school. Ree was a checker while I was a lowly grocery sacker.”
Jake looked from one to the other. “That grocery store was over in Derbyville. You lived in Derbyville, Irene? I never realized that, either.”
She nodded. “I grew up there. But I couldn’t wait to escape to the big city. I moved to Dallas right after high school.”
Jake narrowed his eyes like he was sensing a deeper undercurrent. “And so did Theo.”
Theo nodded. “Yep. That was a long time ago, though. A lot of water under the bridge.”
“In all your visits you never mentioned you knew Irene,” Jake said suspiciously.
Theo wished he would drop the subject. “It never came up and, well, our paths haven’t crossed much since those days.”
Marla Jean swatted Jake’s arm. “Quit being so nosy, Jake.”
Theo smiled at Marla Jean gratefully. “Yeah, Jake, we all have a few secrets in our deep, dark past.” He was talking to Jake, but he looked directly at Irene while he spoke.
Irene met his eye and lifted her chin as if she was ready to challenge any version of things he might offer. Abruptly, she turned and marched back to the patio table. She grabbed the wedding folder and announced, “I hate to interrupt this walk down memory lane, folks, but we should head over to the pavilion and walk through the ceremony. We have a lot of ground to cover before it starts getting dark.” She started off down the backyard path without waiting to see if they would follow.
“We’re coming.” Marla Jean grabbed Jake’s hand, and they bounded after her like dogs let off their leash. Theo found their enthusiasm for the upcoming wedding to be downright heartwarming. He planned to concentrate on their happiness while he was here, and as much as possible, ignore the woman who had broken his heart without a backward glance all those years ago. That might have been easier to do if the recent picture of her wet, naked body hadn’t been seared permanently into his brain.
THE DISH
Where Authors Give You the Inside Scoop
From the desk of Jennifer Haymore
Dear Reader,
When Sarah Osborne, the heroine of THE DUCHESS HUNT, entered my office for the first time, I thought she was a member of the janitorial staff and that she was there to clean.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I’m going to be working for a few more hours. Can you come back later?”
Her flush was instant, a dark red suffusing her pretty cheeks. “Oh,” she said quietly. “I’m not here to clean… I’m here as a potential client.”
Now it was my turn to blush. But you couldn’t really blame me—she wore a dark dress with an apron and a tidy maid’s cap. It was an honest mistake.
I rose from my seat, apologizing profusely, and offered her a seat and refreshments. When she was settled, and neither of us was blushing anymore, I returned to my own chair and asked her to tell me her story.
“I’m the head housemaid at Ironwood Park,” she told me. Leaning forward, she added significantly, “I work for the Duke of Trent.”
I’d heard of him, and of the great estate of Ironwood Park. “Go on.”
“I want him,” she murmured.
I blinked, sure I’d missed something. “Who?”
“The Duke of Trent.”
“You are the housemaid.”
She nodded.
“He is a duke.”
She nodded again.
I shook my head with a sigh. The housemaid and the duke? Nope. This wouldn’t work at all. The chasm between their classes was far too deep to cross.
“I’m so sorry, Miss Osborne,” I began, “but—”
Her dark eyes blinked up at me and she held up her hand to stop my next words. “Wait! I know what you’re going to say. But it’s not as impossible as you might think. You see… I am His Grace’s best friend.”
I gaped at her, for that was almost more difficult to believe than the thought of her being his lover. Dukes simply didn’t “make friends” with their maids.
“We have been friends since childhood. You see, the duke’s family is quite unconventional. The dowager raised me almost as one of her own.”
Now this was getting interesting. I cocked my head. “Do you think he would agree with your assessment?”
“That the House of Trent is unconventional?”
I chuckled. “No. I know the House of Trent has been widely acclaimed as the most scandalous and shocking house in England over the past several decades. I meant, would he agree with your assessment that you are his best friend?”
She folded her hands in her lap, and her dark brows furrowed. “If he was being honest?” she said softly, and I could see the earnest honesty in her gaze. “Yes, he would agree.”
I leaned back in my chair, drumming my fingers on my desk, thinking. How intriguing. Friends to lovers, to… love. What a delightful Cinderella story this could make.
My lips curved into a smile, and I flicked open the lid of my laptop and opened a new document. “All right, Miss Osborne. Tell me your story. Start with the story of the first time you laid eyes upon the Duke of Trent…”
And that was how my relationship with the wickedly wonderful family of the House of Trent began. I’ve loved every minute I’ve spent with them, and I hope you enjoy Sarah and the duke’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Please come visit me at my website, www.jenniferhaymore.com, where you can share your thoughts about my books, sign up for some fun freebies and contests, and read more about the characters from THE DUCHESS HUNT and the House of Trent Series.
Sincerely,
From the desk of Marilyn Pappano
Dear Reader,
One of the questions authors get asked most is, “Where do you get your ideas?” I’ve gotten inspiration from everything—music, news stories, locations, weather, simple thoughts or emotions, from events going on in my own life or someone else’s, from dreams, wishes, hopes, fears.
Some ideas take a tremendous amount of work to come together. I don’t work on them continuously but rather sporadically while they percolate in the back of my mind. Some never come together.
And then there are the thank you! stories: ideas that come fairly complete with characters, location, and plot. A HERO TO COME HOME TO was definitely one of those.
For some time, I’d been thinking about doing a series with a military setting (my husband is retired from the Navy, and our son was in the Army), but it wasn’t on my mind at all one summer day when I watched a news segment about military widows. That evening I saw another news segment about a woman who’d thought her dreams had ended when her military husband died in the war, only to find a new love.
By the time I got up the next morning, I knew the seven widows from the Tuesday Night Margarita Club, as well as Dane, the soldier who would restore Carly’s dreams, and Dalton, the rancher who’d lost his wife to war as well. I knew the setting, too: my home state of Oklahoma. Of all the places we lived on active duty, Oklahoma is my favorite. I took time off from the book I was writing and wrote the first few chapters, then sent it off to my agent.
The Department of Defense really nailed it a long time ago when they came up with the slogan that “wife” was the toughest job in the service, though since there are plenty of women on active duty, “spouse” is a better choice. Trying to have a career of your own? Good luck when you move at the whim of the
service. Need roots? Better learn that home really is where the heart is. Worry too much? Take a deep breath and learn to let go. Never wanted to be a single parent? Start adapting because deployments are inevitable.
But being a Navy wife was great, too. I met some wonderful people and lived in some wonderful places. I learned a degree of independence and adaptability that I never thought possible pre-Navy. Our Navy life gave me ideas and exposure to new experiences for my writing career. Though I already had a lot of respect for those who serve, I also learned to respect their spouses and children and the sacrifices they make.
One of the best parts of writing romance novels is giving all my characters a happily-ever-after ending, and no one deserves it more than the Tallgrass crew. I hope readers agree.
Oh, one final note: that morning A HERO TO COME HOME TO popped into my head? It was the Fourth of July. Fitting, huh?
Happy reading!
From the desk of Molly Cannon
Dear Reader,
The theme of food is woven into almost every chapter of CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE. Etta Green is a chef in the big city, but her love of cooking came from her grandmother Hazel. For Etta, the sharing of food represents love, caring, and nurturing—all those things we need and crave our entire lives.
When Etta returns to Everson, Texas, for her grandmother’s funeral she discovers her grandmother had been in the middle of turning the old family home into a bed and breakfast. The responsibility of finishing the work on the old family home falls to Etta, and after reading her grandmother’s notes on the project she sees that each of the guest rooms has been named and decorated with an old-fashioned dessert as the theme—desserts that evoke comfort and fond memories of days spent with her grandmother.
I love dessert, so deciding on the room names was deliciously fun, and I didn’t have to count a single calorie. For the first room I thought back to my school days. Buying lunch in the cafeteria of my elementary school was not high on my list of favorite childhood memories, with one exception. The cherry cobbler was scrumptious with just enough tart fruit to moisten the pie crust on top. I’ve had other cobblers since then, but that one remains my favorite. So of course Cherry Cobbler had to be one of the rooms. I decorated the room in different shades of red and taupe, cozy throw pillows scattered everywhere, and topped it off with pictures of cherries in bright white bowls. A cheerful room that could brighten any day.
Next was the Banana Pudding room. Banana pudding was one of my father’s favorite desserts, so I always think about him whenever I make it. I still think the recipe on the vanilla wafer box is the best I’ve tried. And making the pudding part from scratch is simple and tastes so much better than any pudding from a box. With that as my inspiration, I decorated the room in pale yellows and fluffy meringue whites. A light and airy room that wraps the guest in down comforters and soft pillows.
But food can evoke other powerful emotions as well. When I was a barely a teenager my older brother went to a summer camp, and when we went to visit on family day all the boys greeted us with a meal they’d prepared themselves. The star of the meal was the Ham in the Hole. They dug holes and lined them with slow-burning wood, and then buried the hams, cooking them until they were tender. It was their gift, their offering to the visitors. And it was delicious. The campers were so proud of themselves.
When my brother found out a few years ago that he had cancer, he decided on his own course of treatment and chose the path he wanted to take. As he got weaker we watched him stay strong in his resolve to live the rest of his life on his terms. One of the last things he did was to invite his family and friends over for a special gathering. He’d gone into the backyard and dug a hole. Then he lined it with slow-burning wood and buried a ham. When it was done he fed us more than a meal. It was his last gift to us all. It was a thank-you for loving him and being his family. I let Donny Joe Ledbetter borrow my brother’s gift as the gesture he uses to show his home town his appreciation. It makes me happier than I can say to make the Ham in the Hole such an important part of Donny Joe and Etta’s story.
I hope you enjoy it, too!
Learn more at:
MollyCannon.com
Facebook.com
Twitter@CannonMolly
From the desk of Kristin Ashley
Dear Reader,
I have an obsession with names, which shouldn’t surprise readers as the names I give my characters run the gamut and are often out there.
In my Dream Man series, I introduced readers to Cabe “Hawk” Delgado, Brock “Slim” Lucas, Mitch Lawson, and Kane “Tack” Allen. My Chaos series gives us Shy, Hop, Joker, and Rush, among the other members of the Club.
I’ve had quite a few folks express curiosity about where I come up with all these names, and I wish I could say I knew a load of good-looking men who had awesome and unusual names and I stole them but, alas, that isn’t true.
In most cases, characters, especially heroes and heroines, come to me named. They just pop right into my head, much like Tatum “Tate” Jackson of Sweet Dreams. He just walked right in there, all the gloriousness of Tate, and introduced himself to me. And luckily, he had an amazing, strong, masculine, kick-ass name.
In other instances, who they are defines their name. I understood Hawk’s tragic back story from Mystery Man first. I also understood that the man he was melted away; he became another man with a new name so what he called himself evolved from what he did in the military. His given name, of course, evolved from his multiethnic background.
The same with Mitch, the hero from Law Man. The minute he walked into Gwen’s kitchen, his last name hit me like a shot. What else could a straight-arrow cop be called but Lawson?
Other names are a mystery to me. Kane “Tack” Allen came to me named but I had no clue why his Club name was Tack. Truthfully, I also found it a bit annoying seeing as how the name Kane is such a cool name, and I didn’t want to waste it on a character who wouldn’t use it. But Tack was Kane Allen and there was no prying that name away from him.
Why he was called Tack, though, was a mystery to me, but I swear, it must have always been in the recesses of my mind because his nickname is perfect for him. Therefore, as I was following his journey with Tyra and the mystery of Tack was revealed, I burst out laughing. I loved it. It was so perfect for him.
One of the many, many reasons I’m enjoying the Chaos series is that I get to be very creative with names. I mean, Shy, Hop, Rush, Bat, Speck, and Snapper? I love it. Anything goes with those boys and I have lists of names scrawled everywhere in my magic notebook where I jot ideas. Some of them are crazy and I hope to get to use them, like Moose. Some of them are crazy cool and I hope I get to use them, like Preacher. Some of them are just crazy and I’ll probably never use them, like Destroyer. But all of them are fun.
All my characters names, nicknames, and the endearments they use with each other, friends, and family mean a great deal to me. Mostly because all of them and everything they do exists in a perfectly real unreality in my head. They’re with me all the time. They’re mine. I created them. And just like a parent naming a child, these perfectly real unreal beings are precious to me, as are the names they chose for themselves.
I just hope they keep it exciting.
Also by Molly Cannon
Ain’t Misbehaving
Praise for Ain’t Misbehaving
“An endearing heroine, an honorable hero, sizzling sexual chemistry, and writing full of sassy charm add up to a romance readers will treasure.”
—Chicago Tribune
“This is a funny and warm romance with a cast of quirky characters and a couple you can cheer for.”
—Parkersburg News and Sentinel (WV)
“If you are in the mood for a romance with a touch of Texas, then dust off your cowboy boots and check out this new author. This is a very readable book with some really funny lines.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A lighthearted, zany Texas two-step starring engaging protag
onists and an eccentric support cast… [Fans] will enjoy this wild regional contemporary with two romances.”
—GenreGoRoundReviews.blogspot.com
“Sweet, sassy, and oh, my yes—sexy! Molly Cannon’s debut Ain’t Misbehaving is delicious fun! If you like Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Kristan Higgins, you’ll love Molly Cannon.”
—Mariah Stewart, New York Times bestselling author of Hometown Girl
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Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven