She was supposed to be worrying about the ants. Class. Her life.
He scratched his curly hair and surveyed her neatly organized trunk.
As if he could wield her jumper cables better than she could against an army of fire ants.
Instead, he swung her Windex out of the trunk like a gunslinger preparing for a showdown, then tucked her paper towels under his arm.
“My car is very—” she started, but then it hit her.
He wasn’t going to clean it.
Carbon-based ants, meet ammonia.
Forgetting simple chemistry principles was not a good omen for her degree.
Wanting to watch her unexpected helper go to battle against the ants wasn’t a good omen for her sanity.
Her skin flushed as if she were standing inside Hell’s boiler room. She reached for the Windex, but something stopped her before she could get close enough to grab it.
Something that tasted suspiciously like fear.
Not of him.
Of herself.
“I’ll do it,” she bit out. She flicked her fingers up, gesturing for him to hand over the Windex.
“Ain’t no trouble.” His gaze wandered down her body, and she felt a whomp in her chest beneath the tingles spreading to her rib cage.
“Be a shame to mess up them pretty clothes,” he said.
“I can handle this,” she said firmly. She gestured to his car. “There’s another exit two rows down. I’ve taken enough of your time.”
His eyes were big and blue as her wounded heart, but when he squinted at her like that, they went a shade darker to cobalt. “Now I’m sure it don’t matter none to you, but my momma’d have my hide if she heard I abandoned a lady with critters in her car.”
Anna stifled a whimper of frustration. She swiped at her forehead. She’d probably drown in her own sweat before she managed to wrestle the Windex out of his hands.
If she could get brave enough to get within touching distance of him. “I don’t know your momma, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”
He scratched his hair again, and she felt an intense desire to claw out that part of her that wanted to know how it would feel between her fingers.
Rebound, her brain yelled.
Something more primitive was still clamoring about his hair.
…Excerpt from SOUTHERN FRIED BLUES by Jamie Farrell ©2013
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Have you met the Misfit Brides? Keep reading for an excerpt from Matched!
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Lindsey turned away. “Have a nice evening, Billy Brenton.”
Will’s heart lurched. He shouldn’t care if she left. He didn’t want to care. He was Billy freaking Brenton. He didn’t need to care.
But his body—tonight, his body thought he was a dumb nineteen-year-old kid. “Hey, lawyer lady,” he said.
Her shoulders bunched like he’d hit a sore spot. “Yes?”
“How does a pretty girl end up doing such ugly work?”
She did a slow one-eighty to face him, and this time, she met his gaze head-on. “There’s nothing ugly in giving someone a second chance to do it right.”
Wasn’t just his heart lurching now. His stomach got in on the action too, twisting all tight and gnarled, fighting with those beer bubbles still in there. His skin pebbled in waves of goose bumps, both from the cold and from the company. “Instead of using your magic to set ’em up right the first time,” he clarified.
“I don’t do magic, and contrary to what people say, I’m not a matchmaker. I fix mistakes.”
Wasn’t any strings off his guitar if she was denying it, but he didn’t believe her.
He knew a thing or two about people who could see things.
She tucked her arms around herself. “Thank you for crashing my sister’s wedding. My nephew adores you. You probably made his whole life tonight. But you should go before this gets messy.” She nodded at the building, as if that was what would be messy.
A crowd that size could get messy, no doubt.
But talking any more to Lindsey tonight—that was where the real mess was.
“Still didn’t change your mind on the country music though, eh?” he said.
She lifted an eyebrow. “Perhaps a different song next time.”
Last thing he expected was to be standing out in the bare-ass cold, honestly smiling at this woman, but there it was. Couldn’t have stopped the grin if he wanted to. Lady didn’t appreciate having her underwear sang about. “Might could think about that,” he said, his smile getting bigger when her eye twitched at his might could. “Got another one. Called ‘My Truck Done Broke Down and My Skunk Runned Off and I Got Fired from Pickin’ Chicken Parts.’ Here. I’ll play it for you.”
She looked to be fighting a smile herself, but even with only the moon to light the night, he could tell that smile still wasn’t spreading to any of the rest of her face.
Might’ve been his imagination, but he thought there was some sad lingering in there. Maybe some regret.
Proof she had a soul. Wasn’t something he would’ve given her credit for.
“You should go,” she said quietly. And this time when she turned, he swore she murmured something that sounded like, “I’m proud of you, Will.”
Even if he wanted to chalk it up to his imagination, he couldn’t stop the flood of pure, simple affection those five little words brought about.
With the flood came something else.
She kept walking away. She didn’t know it, and Will didn’t like it, but she left a part of herself behind.
He knew, because for the first time in near about two years, he wanted to write a song.
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…Excerpt from Matched by Jamie Farrell ©2015
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The Complete Jamie Farrell Book List
The Misfit Brides Series:
Blissed (CJ and Natalie)
Matched (Will and Lindsey)
Smittened (Mikey and Dahlia)
Sugared (Josh and Kimmie)
Merried (Max and Merry)
The Officers’ Ex-Wives Club Series:
Her Rebel Heart (Lance and Kaci)
Southern Fried Blues (Jackson & Anna Grace)
Moonshine & Magnolias (Zack & Shelby)
Standalone Books
Mr. Good Enough (Trent & Maddie)
Sweet Serendipity (Wyatt and Skye)
Acknowledgments
This book wouldn’t have happened without the nudging from Rachel, Kait, and everyone else who loved Kaci in Southern Fried Blues. Thank you for your notes, your encouragement, and your volunteering as tribute in exchange for Kaci’s book being written. I hope Her Rebel Heart has lived up to expectations!
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To my amazing Feisty Belles!! Y’all make this job fun on the hard days, and I couldn’t have named half the characters in this book without you. Special thanks to Rhonda Brant and Holly Ruzycki for suggesting Kaci’s ex-husband’s name and to K’Tee Bee for inspiring the name of Lance’s ex. And more special thanks to Zada Koury, Brittany Shivers, Julianna Santiago, Jess Peterson, and Wanda and Gerald Hamm for letting me use your names and parts of your names in this book.
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A huge shout-out to my amazing editorial team, Deb Nemeth, Pauline Nolette, and Jessica Snyder. You all are simply amazing! And a round of applause to Kim Killion at The Killion Group for the new covers for the entire Officers’ Ex-Wives Club series.
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To my family, you are my heart. Thank you for your love and support and undying belief in me. I love you!
About the Author
Jamie Farrell is a bestselling author of feel-good contemporary romances. She believes love, laughter, and bacon are the most powerful for
ces in the universe. Her debut novel, Southern Fried Blues, was a finalist in the National Readers’ Choice Awards and the National Excellence in Romance Fiction Awards. Blissed, the first book in her Misfit Brides series, received a starred review in Publishers Weekly Magazine.
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A native Midwesterner, Jamie has lived in the South the majority of her adult life. When she’s not writing, she and her military hero husband are busy raising three hilariously unpredictable children.
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For news and updates on Jamie’s books, and for a glimpse into her sometimes zany personal life:
Sign up for Jamie’s VIP Reader Newsletter at:
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Copyright
HER REBEL HEART
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Copyright © 2017 by Jamie Farrell
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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ISBN: 1-940517-18-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-940517-18-6
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Cover Design by The Killion Group, Inc.
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http://www.JamieFarrellBooks.com
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