Secretly Yours: A Christian Valentine's Day Romance (Riverbend Romance Novella Book 1) (10 page)

BOOK: Secretly Yours: A Christian Valentine's Day Romance (Riverbend Romance Novella Book 1)

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Jo shuddered. They weren’t going to get the best of her. She grabbed a dustpan, shoved it hard under the nest and gagged at the stench of feces she’d disturbed. Choking down her bile, she hurried to the door, wrenched it open, and flung the dustpan’s contents . . .

. . . right at a set of chest buttons. Scraps of insulation clung to a shearling-lined suede coat right at Jo’s eye level.

Jo froze. What had she done? “Sorry,” she gasped. Her eyes jerked up. For an instant she focused on the shocked brown eyes of a tall guy with a closely cropped beard and mustache. Dark blond hair curled from beneath his tweed newsboy cap. His hand, poised to knock, dropped to his side.

At the same instant, the sound of frantic clawing pulled Jo’s attention down to a Border collie puppy nearly yanking the leash from his master’s hand as he surged at the slug-like blobs. Jo stooped and swept the wiggling mice from the wood-planked porch with her dustpan. “No! You don’t want to eat those.”

The dog rewarded her with two paws on her shoulders and a slurp up her cheek, nearly knocking her over.

Jo stifled a giggle then remembered the guy. The totally hunky man she’d just baptized with rodents.

Oh, no. She could use a do-over of this meeting.

He cleared his throat and shortened the leash. “Domino, sit.” The pup almost got his rump to touch the boards, but his wagging tail threatened to topple him.

Apparently Jo was stuck with
this
introduction. She took a deep breath, straightened, and reached out her hand. “Hi. Sorry about that. I’m Josephine Shaw.”

The guy stared down.

What had she done now? Jo followed his gaze to the dustpan she clenched in her outstretched hand. It dropped from nerveless fingers and clattered against the boards. The pup pounced on it.

Jo closed her eyes, breathed a quick prayer, and wiped her hand on her overalls. Ideal garb for cleaning out an old, filthy trailer, but not so perfect for meeting the cutest guy she’d seen in a while. She summoned a smile and looked up at him again. “Let’s try that again. I’m Josephine Shaw, and I’m really sorry I threw mice at you.”

A sparkle gleamed in his eyes. “I’m sorry you did, too. Zachary Nemesek, from next door.”

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Author Biography

Valerie Comer
lives where food meets faith in her real life, her fiction, and on her blog and website. She and her husband of over 30 years farm, garden, and keep bees on a small farm in Western Canada, where they grow and preserve much of their own food.

Valerie has always been interested in real food from scratch, but her conviction has increased dramatically since God blessed her with three delightful granddaughters. In this world of rampant disease and pollutio
n, she is compelled to do what she can to make these little girls’ lives the best she can. She helps supply healthy food—local food, organic food, seasonal food—to grow strong bodies and minds.

Her experience has planted seeds for many stories rooted in the local-food movement, such as those in her Farm Fresh Romance series.

To find out more, visit her website at
www.valeriecomer.com
, where you can read her blog, explore her many links, and sign up for her
monthly email newsletter
, where you will find news, giveaways, deals, book recommendations and more. Click the image below.