The Rancher's First Love (19 page)
Read The Rancher's First Love Online
Authors: Brenda Minton
Dear Reader,
Welcome back to Martin's Crossing! I'm so thrilled to be able to bring Samantha Martin's story to life. In the beginning, Sam was a bit of a mystery, even to me. She was sent away by older brothers who weren't quite sure what to do with a younger sister intent on getting herself into trouble. Now she's back home where she's determined to live her own life. Past and present collide and Sam has to deal with the man she thought never to see again.
I hope you enjoy Samantha and Remington's story!
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by Linda Goodnight
A mystery writer and a shy librarian find love on a dark, stormy night in Honey Ridge, Tennessee...
B
ARE FEET SOUNDLESS
on the cool tile flooring, Carrie moved to a pantry and removed one of Julia's sterling silver French press urns. “We'll have to grind the beans. Julia's a bit of a coffee snob.”
“Won't the noise disturb the others?”
Thunder rattled the house. Carrie tilted her head toward the dark, rain-drenched window. “Will it matter?”
“Point taken. You're a lifesaver. What's your name?”
“Carrie Riley.” She kept her hands busy and her eyes on the work. The fact that she was ever-so-slightly aware of the stranger with the poet's face in a womanly kind of way gave her a funny tingle. She seldom tingled, and she didn't flirt. She was no good at that kind of thing. Just ask her sisters. “Yours?”
“Hayden Winters.”
“Nice to meet you, Hayden.” She held up a canister of coffee beans. “Bold?”
“I can be.”
She laughed, shocked to think this handsome man might actually be flirting a little. Even if she wasn't. “Bold, it is.”
As she'd predicted, the storm noise covered the grinding sound and in fewer than ten minutes, the silver pot's lever was pressed and the coffee was poured. The dark, bold aroma filled the kitchen, a pleasing warmth against the rain-induced chill.
Hayden Winters offered her the first cup, a courteous gesture that made her like him, and then sipped his. “You know your way around a bold roast.”
“Former Starbucks barista who loves coffee.”
“A kindred spirit. I live on the stuff, especially when I'm working, which I should be doing.”
She didn't want him to leave. Not because he was hotâwhich he wasâbut because she didn't want to be alone in the storm, and no one else was up. “You work at night?”
“Stormy nights are my favorite.”
Which, in her book, meant he was a little off-center. “What do you do?”
He studied her for a moment and, with his expression a peculiar mix of amusement and malevolence, said quietly, matter-of-factly, “I kill people.”
Copyright 2016 by Linda Goodnight
ISBN-13: 9781488007095
The Rancher's First Love
Copyright © 2016 by Brenda Minton
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