My hand trembled as I reached out to take the mailer from her. I didn’t need to look at the return address because I already knew what it would say. But I had a morbid need to see, so I glanced down at the sender’s address.
Not surprisingly it read “Basia Kowalski.”
Don’t miss No One Lives Twice, by Julie Moffett, available now wherever books are sold.
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Copyright © 2010 by Julie Moffett
Keep reading for an excerpt from Colton Cowboy Standoff by Marie Ferrarella.
Chapter 1
“Hello, Wyatt. How are you?”
The woman’s low, melodic voice hypnotically wove its way into his bloodstream.
Wyatt Colton stood in the doorway of the Crooked C ranch house, completely speechless and trying to remember if he’d somehow gotten drunk last night without having any memory of it.
But he knew he hadn’t.
He’d cleaned up his act several years back, substituting work to numb himself instead and to blanket the hurt he’d felt when she’d left him. Last night, like so many other nights, he’d been dead tired and had just fallen into bed, still dressed with his boots on.
The same way he’d woken up this morning.
But a hallucination was the only way he could explain why he was suddenly seeing Bailey, tall, golden-brown-haired and beautiful, standing on his porch, talking to him as if it was just any other day.
As if nothing had ever happened.
As if she hadn’t ripped his heart out of his chest, breaking it into a million pieces when she’d suddenly walked out on him and on their marriage without giving him even a single warning regarding her intentions.
He felt as if he’d been torpedoed when the divorce papers had arrived in the mail.
“Stunned,” Wyatt finally said, answering his ex-wife’s question when he was finally able to find his tongue and get it to work.
His tongue might be working but his brain was another story.
The first year after Bailey had left, he’d kept fantasizing about situations like this one. Scenarios in which he would open his front door—the door of the ranch house they had begun to build together—and find Bailey standing there. Sometimes repentant and contrite, other times smiling through tears, but always telling him that she’d been wrong to leave him. The scenarios would always end with Bailey throwing her arms around his neck and him forgiving her as he lost himself in the sweet taste of her lips.
As time went on, the fantasies occurred less and less frequently until he was finally able to make it through a whole month without aching for her.
Well, almost.
However, the pain did ease up and he felt he was almost human again...
And now here she was, standing in front of him, in the flesh, and Wyatt found himself suddenly catapulted back to the shaken shell of the man he’d been right after Bailey had left him.
Staring at her now, he couldn’t help thinking she looked almost shy standing there. As if she didn’t know what seeing her like this was doing to him.
“May I come in?” Bailey asked in a quiet voice, shifting and feeling somewhat awkward standing there on the front porch.
Her fingertips were cold, colder than even the Colorado January air warranted. Wyatt looked almost like a stranger, not at all like the man she had loved and lived with six years ago. His shaggy, dark brown hair, bits of gray just coming in at the temples, framed dark blue eyes and a left cheek with a slight hint of a dimple.
Had she made a mistake, coming back? Was he going to turn her away after all?
For a moment it seemed as if Wyatt wasn’t going to answer her question. And then, when he opened his mouth, she could feel her heart squeeze in fear, afraid that he would say no and then close the door on her.
So when Wyatt finally said, “Sure,” and stepped back to allow her access into the house, Bailey felt the corners of her eyes growing moist.
Willing her tears not to fall, she walked into the wide, warm, inviting living room.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” she told him after a beat. She slowly looked around and took in the room in its entirety.
Initially they had worked on this room together but hadn’t gotten nearly finished when she’d suddenly taken off.
It all came flooding back to him, every detail, every feeling, as if it had been just yesterday.
“It needed furniture,” he told Bailey with a careless shrug.
Bailey looked around again, taking more in. They had only finished building half the ranch house before she’d made her mind up to leave.
“Well, you did a nice job, Wyatt,” she murmured and then added, “Really,” in case he thought she was just mouthing empty words.
Wyatt frowned. His guard was up, but even so he could feel her getting to him.
She always could.
His resolve kicked in. He wasn’t going to allow himself to be set up for another bout of mind-numbing disappointment, he thought fiercely. He’d barely survived the last time and had just gotten to the point where he was breathing regularly.
He couldn’t go through all that again.
He wouldn’t be able to survive it.
His dark blue eyes narrowed as he looked at the woman he had believed would be by his side forever. The joke was on him, he thought bitterly.
In the beginning it seemed as if Fate had purposely thrown them together when he’d left home and embarked on making a name for himself outside the oppressive Colton sphere of interest.
All of his life he’d been overshadowed by his family and his last name. When his father, Russ, wouldn’t allow him to do what he’d wanted to do—insisting instead that his oldest son get a business degree so he could take over the family business—Wyatt had abruptly dropped out of college, left his family and taken to the road.
His father had all but gone into a rage when he’d learned that his firstborn was following the rodeo circuit.
It was on that same circuit that Wyatt had met Bailey-Ann Norton.
A rodeo brat whose father took her with him as he went from town to town, following the circuit, Bailey had never known another life. Eventually she’d become a barrel racer.
Their attraction was immediate and strong, but she hadn’t thought there was any serious commitment on his part. That hadn’t happened until Wyatt had learned his beloved grandmother had died, leaving him a sizable amount of land right outside of Roaring Springs, Colorado.
It seemed like an omen, the next step in his desire to make something of himself apart from his father’s almighty influence. Tired of the aches and pains he’d accumulated as a bull rider, Wyatt decided to change his plans—again. He’d asked Bailey to marry him and help him create a home and a ranch.
He remembered that Bailey had never looked more beautiful than when she had smiled up at him and cried, “Yes!”
They’d returned to Roaring Springs and started building their home and the ranch he envisioned.
He’d thought things were going well. Obviously he’d thought wrong. A few years into their marriage, Bailey had suddenly left him.
Wyatt felt as if he’d been gut-shot.
It had taken him all this time to get over her, to get on with his life and finally become whole again.
And now she was back!
Why was she here?
It made no sense to him.
He wanted to know. “Did you come back here just to give the place a once-over?” he snapped, a cold edge in his voice.
Bailey’s courage almost failed her then. But she had come this far—she couldn’t just back out now. She had to tell him why she’d sought him out after all this time.
“No,” she answered Wyatt quietly, “that’s not why I’m here.”
“Then why are you here, Bailey?” he demanded.
Bailey took a deep breath, hoping her voice wouldn’t crack. She raised her head slightly, doing her best to look and sound as if she was in command of herself, in command of the moment. She knew that her ex-husband didn’t like displays of weakness. He valued bravery, even in an enemy, which she knew was the way he probably thought of her. At least to start with.
Her dark eyes met his.
You’ve got this, Bailey, she told herself. Her voice sounded as if it was echoing in her head as she answered his question.
“I’m here because I want to have a baby and I want you to be the father.”
Copyright © 2018 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Acknowledgments
Writing a novel is a solitary effort for an author, except when said author has the amazing support of a fantastic group of people. I am so thankful for my brilliant brother, Brad, who helped me enormously during the plotting and writing stages of this book, as well as fantastic author and sister Sandy Parks (seriously, you guys should buy her books!), and my mom, Donna, who always have such thoughtful and insightful comments. I also have to thank Sandy, and her husband, Scott, for accompanying me on the most amazing vacation this summer to Italy and the Amalfi coast. It was a trip of a lifetime and permitted me to add a lot of special and unique detail to the story. I hope you enjoy it! I also want to acknowledge reader Jeannette Koenhein, the winner of my newsletter contest that permitted her to name a character for one of my books. She chose her son, Julian Koenhein, who became a character in this story. Lastly, but never least, I want to give a special shout-out to my editor, Alissa Davis, who is the most extraordinary editor EVER and always challenges me to do bigger and better every book. We’ve been together now for 11 books! Lexi and I couldn’t do it without her!
About the Author
Julie Moffett is a bestselling author and writes in the genres of mystery, young adult, historical romance and paranormal romance. She has won numerous awards, including the Mystery & Mayhem Award for Best YA/New Adult Mystery, the prestigious HOLT Award for Best Novel with Romantic Elements, a HOLT Merit Award for Best Novel by a Virginia Author (twice!), the Award of Excellence, a PRISM Award for Best Romantic Time-Travel AND Best of the Best Paranormal Books, the EPIC Award for Best Action/Adventure Novel. She has also garnered additional nominations for the Bookseller’s Best Award, Daphne du Maurier Award and the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence.
Julie is a military brat (Air Force) and has traveled extensively. Her more exciting exploits include attending high school in Okinawa, Japan; backpacking around Europe and Scandinavia for several months; a year-long college graduate study in Warsaw, Poland; and a wonderful trip to Scotland and Ireland where she fell in love with castles, kilts and brogues.
Julie has a B.A. in Political Science and Russian Language from Colorado College, an M.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, and an M.Ed from Liberty University. She has worked as a proposal writer, journalist, teacher, librarian and researcher. Julie speaks Russian and Polish and has two sons.
Visit Julie’s website at juliemoffett.com.
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The Lexi Carmichael Series
Suggested reading order
No One Lives Twice
No One to Trust
No Money Down (novella)
No Place Like Rome
No Biz Like Showbiz
No Test for the Wicked
No Woman Left Behind
No Room for Error
No Strings Attached
No Living Soul
No Regrets
No Stone Unturned
Stay tuned for the next book in the
Lexi Carmichael Mystery series from Julie Moffett
No Questions Asked
Coming Winter 2019
Also from Carina Press
Scottish Historical Romance
The Thorn and the Thistle
Her Kilt-Clad Rogue (novella)
Also from Julie Moffett
Historical Paranormal Romance
The Fireweaver
The Healer
A Double-Edged Blade
Across a Moonswept Moor
Young Adult
White Knights
Knight Moves
Get your geek on!
Prepare for adventure with reformed hacker and trouble magnet Lexi Carmichael. Don’t miss the whole Lexi Carmichael Mystery series by Julie Moffett!
NO ONE LIVES TWICE
NO ONE TO TRUST
NO MONEY DOWN (A Lexi Novella)
NO PLACE LIKE ROME
NO BIZ LIKE SHOWBIZ
NO TEST FOR THE WICKED
NO WOMAN LEFT BEHIND
NO ROOM FOR ERROR
NO STRINGS ATTACHED
NO LIVING SOUL
NO REGRETS
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ISBN-13: 9781488030666
No Stone Unturned: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Eleven
Copyright © 2019 by Julie Moffett
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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No Stone Unturned: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Eleven Page 38