Hunter wiped an escaped tear from the corner of her eye and smiled at her. “I’m happy to help. This will be so good for Cody and for the town, and you’re right, it is beautiful. But not as beautiful as you.”
A dusting of pink the color of the setting sun flared on her cheeks, and she leaned into his hand. “Hunter…”
He didn’t know what she had planned to say next, probably something about how she wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the world, or how he needed his eyes checked. Those were her usual answers when he opened his heart to her, but he wasn’t going to let her get away with that tonight. Not tonight when the small black box burned a hole in his pocket. Not tonight when he’d suffered through the entire day knowing he would ask the question but having to wait for the perfect time.
“I mean it, Daisy. You took my breath away when I first met you. Then, I saw a beautiful, feisty, confidant woman. Now, I see even more of you. I can no longer imagine my life without you and Cody in it, and though I know it hasn’t been long, there’s something I need to ask you.”
As his hand snaked into his pocket, he saw her eyes widen. Shaky hands flew to her mouth as he retrieved the small velvet box. How unassuming it looked on the outside, but everyone knew what the black box symbolized. He’d practiced all day what he was going to say, how he would string the words together so they would be a proposal she would never forget, but as he dropped to his knee and stared up at her, all of his carefully planned thoughts flew out of his head.
He stared up at her. “Daisy, I never thought I’d like life in a small town or on a ranch. I never enjoyed getting dirty before, but you showed me everything I was missing. Now, I can’t wait to spend every evening watching the sun set with you and every morning watching the sun rise.” He flipped the lid open and smiled when she gasped. “Will you marry me?”
Hunter had never seen Daisy without words, but for a moment she stared at him before nodding and throwing herself at him. The impact took him by surprise, and he lost his balance, falling to the ground with Daisy on top of him. “Can I take this as a yes?” he asked with a laugh.
“Yes, of course, yes.” Before he could place the ring on her hand, she had lowered her face to meet his lips with her own. Careful to hold on to the box, he returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around her. Though the position was awkward and the situation amusing, he knew he would never tire of kissing her.
“Would you like to put it on?” he asked when the kiss finally ended.
Daisy nodded and sat back enough that he could scramble to his knees once again. He pulled the ring out of the box and slid it onto her finger.
“It’s perfect,” she said, her voice breathy. Her eyes flicked to his. “You’re perfect. I love you, Hunter Garrison.”
“I love you too, Daisy, and I can’t wait to make you my wife.” He leaned forward to kiss her again, and as he did, a feeling of peace and contentment settled over him. Though he never would have expected it, he knew this was exactly where he was supposed to be.
The End!
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Not ready to say Goodbye yet?
Hunter and Daisy were a challenge to write, but I’m glad their story finally made it to the pages.
Anyway, this next book isn’t exactly a love story, but it might have some love along the way. It’s a book that weighed on me for a year, but I finally finished it. I hope you’ll enjoy it even though it’s very different from what I normally write.
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The Still Small Voice
Kat Jenkins had her world rocked when her best friend died…
She’s angry at God and lashing out at those she cares about. To make matters worse, she’s begun seeing a light around some people. Is she going crazy?
Jordan Wright is just a college student…
Jordan appeared in When Hearts Collide, but now she gets her own story. After giving up her son for adoption, she’s turned her heart to God, but she never expected to receive the gift he’s given.
A woman in a window….
Following a vision, Jordan crosses the country, but can she convince Kat that she has a gift and a purpose?
Read on for a taste of The Still Small Voice….
The Still Small Voice preview
“Kat, honey, what are you doing?” Leah had just laid her two-year old daughter down for the night, but the girl kept tilting her head to look around Leah.
“Trying to see Jesus.” Kat smiled matter-of-factly as she looked up at the ceiling. As if this were a common occurrence.
Leah followed her gaze but all she saw was the smoke detector attached to the ceiling. “I don’t see anything, honey.”
“Jesus is right there, Mommy. Don’t you see him?” Kat’s green eyes were wide and round beneath her dark curls.
“I don’t honey.” Leah tried to keep her voice even as she shook her head. She didn’t want her daughter to know she was afraid of her seeing visions. This wasn’t the first time she had claimed to see Jesus.
The first time, Jesus had been on the hall ceiling as they were heading out to church.
“Are you ready, munchkin?” Leah scooped up her daughter who giggled as she flew through the air. “You ready to go to church?”
Kat’s curls bobbed as she nodded.
“And do you love Jesus?”
Kat’s tiny mouth pulled into a large smile and she pointed to the corner of the ceiling. “Uh huh. Hi, Jesus.” She waved her little hand, the same way she waved to Leah whenever she dropped her off with the nanny.
Leah brushed it off as a two-year old’s imagination. “Do you see Jesus up there?” Kat nodded again and Leah kissed her on the cheek. “Well, that’s nice. I wish I could see Jesus like you do.”
The second time, Jesus appeared in the corner of Kat’s ceiling as Leah was reading her a story.
“Honey, where are you going? The story isn’t finished yet.”
Leah watched as Kat toddled over to the small area between the closed bedroom door and the closet. She pointed her tiny hand up at the ceiling. “Hi, Jesus.” Then she held up her bunny as if offering the stuffed toy to someone. “No?” She lowered the bunny and looked around the room. Then she grabbed a book, returned to the spot, and held it up. “No? Okay.” She returned to Leah and climbed back onto her lap to finish the story. “He doesn’t want bunny.”
Leah forced a tight-lipped smile across her face. Was her daughter really seeing Jesus or was this the natural young child imagination at work?
Tonight, Jesus was in a different place. He was still on the ceiling but now firmly over the foot of Kat’s bed instead of by her bedroom door. While Leah hoped her daughter was seeing Jesus, she couldn’t dismiss the possibility that she was seeing something else and that bothered her. “Can you tell me what he looks like?”
“He’s wearing white, but he’s not talking to Bunny.” Kat held up her stuffed bunny – the one that went everywhere with her. Once a soft pink color, time and dirt had worn the plush animal to a dull grey color now.
“Does he talk to you?” Leah supposed she should be relieved that whatever Kat was seeing was wearing white and not black, but the fact he didn’t talk struck her as odd. If Kat was seeing Jesus, wouldn’t He tell her how much He loved her or something like that? Leah was a religious person. She believed in God, but she’d never seen God or heard Him speak to her.
“He’s not talking right now.”
“Is he smiling?” She was trying not to ask leading questions, but it was hard with a two-year-old who was just now putting sentences together. Leah wished she could see what her daughter was seeing to make sure it was safe.
“Mommy, who’s that?”
Leah followed the tiny index finger pointing to the top of Kat’s closet. “I don’t know, honey. I don’t see anything.” A cold stone settled in Leah’s stomach. It was one thing to be seeing Jesus, but now she was seeing something else too? What was wrong with her daughter? She tried
to keep the tremor out of her voice as she spoke again. “Here, let’s get to sleep. We’ll see Jesus in the morning.”
She whipped the blanket up and let it fall until it covered Kat completely, another thing Leah found odd. Most of her friends said their children were afraid of the dark, but Kat wanted to be under the blanket. It had to cover her head and her toes. Leah wondered if the visions were why Kat wanted her head covered. Though not simultaneous, they had started at similar times.
Leah sat in the rocker in Kat’s room until she heard the rhythmic cadence of breathing signaling her sleep; then she tiptoed out of the room and to the master bedroom down the hall. Her Bible lay on her nightstand, where she kept it to remind her to read every night, and she picked it up before sinking to her knees on the floor.
She clutched the Bible against her chest and turned her head heavenward. “Lord, please protect my daughter. I don’t know what she is seeing, but please protect her.” That was all Leah could get out before the tears ran down her cheeks. She had waited so long for her baby girl, and now she was terrified that either something was wrong with her or that something would happen to her.
Continue reading The Still Small Voice….
A Free Story For You
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The Billionaire’s Impromptu Bet
A SWAT officer. A bored billionaire heiress. A bet that could change everything….
Read on for a taste of The Billionaire’s Impromptu Bet….
The Billionaire’s Impromptu Bet Preview
Brie Carter fell back spread eagle on her queen-sized canopy bed sending her blond hair fanning out behind her. With a large sigh, she uttered, “I’m bored.”
“How can you be bored? You have like millions of dollars.” Her friend, Ariel, plopped down in a seated position on the bed beside her and flicked her raven hair off her shoulder. “You want to go shopping? I hear Tiffany’s is having a special right now.”
Brie rolled her eyes. Shopping? Where was the excitement in that? With her three platinum cards, she could go shopping whenever she wanted. “No, I’m bored with shopping too. I have everything. I want to do something exciting. Something we don’t normally do.”
Brie enjoyed being rich. She loved the unlimited credit cards at her disposal, the constant apparel of new clothes, and of course the penthouse apartment her father paid for, but lately, she longed for something more fulfilling.
Ariel’s hazel eyes widened. “I know. There’s a new bar down on Franklin Street. Why don’t we go play a little game?”
Brie sat up, intrigued at the secrecy and the twinkle in Ariel’s eyes. “What kind of game?”
“A betting game. You let me pick out any man in the place. Then you try to get him to propose to you.”
Brie wrinkled her nose. “But I don’t want to get married.” She loved her freedom and didn’t want to share her penthouse with anyone, especially some man.
“You don’t marry him, silly. You just get him to propose.”
Brie bit her lip as she thought. It had been awhile since her last relationship and having a man dote on her for a month might be interesting, but…. “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem very nice.”
“How about I sweeten the pot? If you win, I’ll set you up on a date with my brother.”
Brie cocked her head. Was she serious? The only thing Brie couldn’t seem to buy in the world was the affection of Ariel’s very handsome, very wealthy, brother. He was a movie star, just the kind of person Brie could consider marrying in the future. She’d had a crush on him as long as she and Ariel had been friends, but he’d always seen her as just that, his little sister’s friend. “I thought you didn’t want me dating your brother.”
“I don’t.” Ariel shrugged. “But he’s between girlfriends right now, and I know you’ve wanted it for ages. If you win this bet, I’ll set you up. I can’t guarantee any more than one date though. The rest will be up to you.”
Brie wasn’t worried about that. Charm she possessed in abundance. She simply needed some alone time with him, and she was certain she’d be able to convince him they were meant to be together. “All right. You’ve got a deal.”
Ariel smiled. “Perfect. Let’s get you changed then and see who the lucky man will be.
A tiny tug pulled on Brie’s heart that this still wasn’t right, but she dismissed it. This was simply a means to an end, and he’d never have to know.
Jesse Calhoun relaxed as the rhythmic thudding of the speed bag reached his ears. Though he loved his job, it was stressful being the SWAT sniper. He hated having to take human lives and today had been especially rough. The team had been called out to a drug bust, and Jesse was forced to return fire at three hostiles. He didn’t care that they fired at his team and himself first. Taking a life was always hard, and every one of them haunted his dreams.
“You gonna bust that one too?” His co-worker Brendan appeared by his side. Brendan was the opposite of Jesse in nearly every way. Where Jesse’s hair was a dark copper, Brendan’s was nearly black. Jesse sported paler skin and a dusting of freckles across his nose, but Brendan’s skin was naturally dark and freckle free.
Jesse flashed a crooked grin, but kept his eyes on the small, swinging black bag. The speed bag was his way to release, but a few times he had started hitting while still too keyed up and he had ruptured the bag. Okay, five times, but who was counting really? Besides, it was a better way to calm his nerves than other things he could choose. Drinking, fights, gambling, women.
“Nah, I think this one will last a little longer.” His shoulders began to burn, and he gave the bag another few punches for good measure before dropping his arms and letting it swing to a stop. “See? It lives to be hit at least another day.” Every once in a while, Jesse missed training the way he used to. Before he joined the force, he had been an amateur boxer, on his way to being a pro, but a shoulder injury had delayed his training and forced him to consider something else. It had eventually healed, but by then he had lost his edge.
“Hey, why don’t you come drink with us?” Brendan clapped a hand on Jesse’s shoulder as they headed into the locker room.
“You know I don’t drink.” Jesse often felt like the outsider of the team. While half of the six-man team was married, the other half found solace in empty bottles and meaningless relationships. Jesse understood that - their job was such that they never knew if they would come home night after night - but he still couldn’t partake.
Brendan opened his locker and pulled out a clean shirt. He peeled off his current one and added deodorant before tugging on the new one. “You don’t have to drink. Look, I won’t drink either. Just come and hang out with us. You have no one waiting for you at home.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Jesse had Bugsy, his Boston Terrier, but he understood Brendan’s point. Most days, Jesse went home, fed Bugsy, made dinner, and fell asleep watching TV on the couch. It wasn’t much of a life. “All right, I’ll go, but I’m not drinking.”
Brendan’s lips pulled back to reveal his perfectly white teeth. He bragged about them, but Jesse knew they were veneers. “That’s the spirit. Hurry up and change. We don’t want to leave the rest of the team waiting.”
“Is everyone coming?” Jesse pulled out his shower necessities. Brendan might feel comfortable going out with just a new application of deodorant, but Jesse needed to wash more than just dirt and sweat off. He needed to wash the sound of the bullets and the sight of lifeless bodies from his mind.
“Yeah, Pat’s wife is pregnant again and demanding some crazy food concoctions. Pat agreed to pick them up if she let him have an hour. Cam and Jared’s wives are having a girls’ night, so the whole gang can be together. It will be nice to hang out when we aren’t worried about being shot at.”
“Fine. Give me ten minutes. Unlike you, I like to
clean up before I go out.”
Brendan smirked. “I’ve never had any complaints. Besides, do you know how long it takes me to get my hair like this?”
Jesse shook his head as he walked into the shower, but he knew it was true. Brendan had rugged good looks and muscles to match. He rarely had a hard time finding a woman. Jesse on the other hand hadn’t dated anyone in the last few months. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been looking, but he was quieter than his teammates. And he wasn’t looking for right now. He was looking for forever. He just hadn’t found it yet.
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The Story Doesn’t End!
You’ve met a few people and fallen in love….
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I bet you’re wondering how you can meet everyone else.
Star Lake Series:
Sealed with a Kiss: Meet the quirky cast of Star Lake and find out if Max and Layla will ever find love.
When Love Returns: Return to Star Lake to hear Presley’s story and find out if she gets the second chance with her first love.
Once Upon a Star: Continue the journey when aspiring actress Audrey returns home with a baby. Will Blake finally get the nerve to share his feelings with her?
Love Conquers All: Meet Lanie Perkins Hall who never imagined being divorced at thirty or falling for an old friend, but will his secrets keep them apart?
The Star Lake Collection: Get the latter three stories in one place. Series will include book 1 when it releases around November 2020.
The Heartbeats Series:
Where It All Began: Sandra Baker finds forgiveness and healing even after making a horrible choice.
The Cowboy Billionaire Page 11