Rosie’s Diner is at the center of the small town of Saddle Creek, Wyoming, in the shadows of the Grand Teton Mountain range. When horse rancher Chase Montgomery first lays eyes on a waitress’s bruised and swollen face, and beautiful green eyes, his first instinct is to kiss the bruises away.
Lauren McCray flees Michigan and heads west to escape another beating from her ex-boyfriend, Clint Jackson. When she sees him looking inside her car outside the diner where she works, she runs again. This time, jumping into the bed of a nearby pickup truck hauling a horse trailer.
Chase’s life is enriched when he pulls back the tarp in the bed of his pick up and finds the green-eyed beauty. Lauren is running and needs protection from something or someone, and he agrees to protect her with his life, but will it be in time?
Excerpt
Chase Montgomery entered his coordinates into the GPS to check his location. Out here in the middle of nowhere, it could sometimes be hard to tell how far he’d come since the last sign. Next time he would remember to check the odometer.
Dammit! Still eighty-eight miles to get to his ranch. He needed a break from his nonstop drive from Colorado. Heading back from the big horse sale in Denver, he was beat and anxious to get to his home not far outside the small town of Saddle Creek, Wyoming. He needed to stable the new horses whinnying impatiently in the trailer, who were just as desperate for a break, too.
His backside was numb, and the rumbling in his belly reminded him of Rosie’s Diner. His mouth watered thinking about the restaurant’s belly-filling comfort food they served. He decided to stretch his legs and grab some food from his favorite stop.
A few miles later, he parked the truck and trailer outside the back door of the family diner. He shoved the truck door open and inhaled. After more than a week of leather and horse odor, the warm, welcoming aroma of hot, fresh coffee and home-cooked food assaulting him was refreshing. After saying hello to some friends, he moseyed up to the counter. “Susan.” He nodded to the manager.
She waved. “Welcome back, Chase. Where have you and your buddies been? Haven’t seen any of you for a while.”
“Ranching. Just workin’ and ranchin’.” He perched on a barstool at the counter, plopped his hat on his right knee, and picked up a menu out of habit. He already knew what he wanted to order. The homemade meatloaf, dripping with ketchup and juices, the mashed potatoes, so real and fresh that he didn’t mind at all if there were a few little lumps in them, and everything smothered with a rich, savory gravy he could have eaten out of a bowl like soup, it was so tasty.
About Lorelei Confer
I live on a peninsula in the mid west coast of Florida with my husband, 2 cats, and AJ, my long haired Chihuahua.
I wrote my first story in the fourth grade in the form of a play which actually was produced by my teacher for parents and students. I continued writing and majored in English in College. I practice everyday to improve my craft.
I love reading almost as much as writing and have filled my book shelves with my favorites, i.e. Harlan Colban, Eliza March, Johanna Lindsey, Kathy Carmichael, Terri Garey, Karen Rose, LuAnn Rice, and Bobbi Smith just to mention a few, as well as all the classics.
I am a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America), TARA (Tampa Area Romance Authors), Kiss of Death, PRO, CSI (Crime Scene Investigations), and I am an editor for The Wild Rose Press.
www.loreleiconfer.com | www.loreleiconfer.blogspot.com
