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You can reach me at KatieAshleyRomance at gmail dot com
About Me
- Katie Ashley
- Atlanta, GA, United States
- I am the New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon Best Selling author of The Proposition, Proposal, Music of the Heart, and Nets and Lies. I am represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel and Goderich for all books except for Proposition and Proposal.
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Last Teaser Tuesday from Search Me
Happy Tuesday all! I'm in the process of the last minute touches/copyediting on Search Me, which will release on July 2nd. I had originally said July 30th, but I'll be enroute home from Book Bash in Orlando.
In this scene, Lane is in the backwoods working for Maudie at her orchard and brewery. She's about to get to meet up with the blast-from-her-past who broke her heart.
So here's Maddox...
In this scene, Lane is in the backwoods working for Maudie at her orchard and brewery. She's about to get to meet up with the blast-from-her-past who broke her heart.
So here's Maddox...
Here's Lane
And here's Maudie
Maudie linked her
arm through mine. “Now speaking of romance, do I have a surprise for you!”
I
wrinkled my nose as we strolled down an aisle. “You know I hate surprises.”
“Fine then. Guess what hunky blast
from your past just finished his tour in the Army and is back home?”
I
froze right in front of a display of Miss Maudie’s Apple Crisps. An
overwhelming wave of nausea crashed over me. Oh no. Please tell me no. This
couldn’t be happening. The glaring mistake from my past couldn’t be coming
front and center in my life again.
Maudie
grabbed my hand in hers. “Lane, you look positively green. Don’t tell me you’re
not happy at the thought of seeing Maddox again?”
Oh God, she had
said his name. My past had come back to haunt me in the worst possible
way—trapped for the summer with the guy I hated most in the world. I guess
hated really wasn’t a strong enough word—loathed and despised probably came
closer to how I truly felt about Maddox Diaz.
I’d known him since
I was seven, and he was ten. His dad had gotten killed in some Special Ops
mission in the Army, sending his already fragile mom into full alcoholism. It
wasn’t long before she lost custody of him and his older sister. With all of
Maddox’s father’s family in Puerto Rico and his mother’s family unwilling to
take them, they pinged around to several different foster homes until Maudie
took them in, just like she had my dad. But since Maddox was ten and his
sister, Neely, was twelve, they were never adopted. Instead, they just stayed
with Maudie. Although she and her husband would have formally adopted them,
Maddox’s mother had been institutionalized and labeled incapable of being of
sound mind for signing legal documents like adoption papers.
We played together
during the summers and holidays, but he always managed to do something mean that
had me in tears almost everyday. But just before I would go running to my
parents or Maudie to tattle on him, he’d wrap me in a big bear hug and give me
the sweetest, most charming apology anyone could ever hope for. I’d totally forget
I’d ever been mad at him—until the next time he upset me.
By the time we
were teenagers, he’d mastered that charm to woo all the girls within a hundred
mile radius….except for me. Well, I guess that’s not entirely fair since he had
more than charmed me.
“Lane, are you all
right?” Maudie questioned, bringing me out of my daze.
“Oh, sorry. I guess I just zoned out a
minute.”
She gave me a
sympathetic smile. “I know how upsetting what happened to Maddox is. Why, when
I think of the lousy care he got in that Army hospital and how it led to that
horrible Staph infection, I get so bitter and sad. It’s just not fair how he
ended up being medically discharged from service when he had all those dreams
of rising up the ranks and traveling the world.” She was then interrupted by
the voice of her secretary screeching over the intercom. “Maudie, you’re needed
in receiving. That’s Maudie to receiving.”
She huffed in
exasperation. “I do so hate interruptions!” Before she turned to go, she said, “Don’t
move a muscle. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded. As I
watched her retreating form, my mind frantically spun with excuses to get out of
working at Maudie’s this summer. I could probably still teach a class at my
dance studio’s summer camp. Of course, anything from picking up trash on the
highway to scrubbing toilets would be better than having to be around Maddox
for any length of time.
The stress of the
news sent my stomach rumbling into overdrive. Ignoring Maudie’s request for me
to stay put, I started toward Eula and the fried pies. I knew nothing would get
my mind off of Maddox quite like an apple pie. As I power walked down an aisle,
I smiled and spoke to a few regular customers. But then an all too familiar
voice sent me screeching to a halt.
I ducked behind a
towering display of Peach Fuzz tea. When I was satisfied he wasn’t any closer, I
craned my neck around the bottles. My heart rattled a little at the sight of
him. It had been three years since I’d seen him last. Now he was twenty-two—a
real man. If it was even possible, he was even more good-looking than I
remembered. Maybe, he was more built than I last remembered. His biceps
strained against the Miss Maudie’s Homebrew t-shirt he wore, not to
mention you couldn’t miss the outline of his chiseled six pack abs. He had
inherited his jet-black hair and naturally tan skin from his Puerto Rican
father, and his crystal blue eyes from his mom. Of course, his dark hair was
still buzzed short from his recent Army days.
The sound of
footsteps caused me to jump out of my skin. I whirled around to find Drew
staring at me over his glasses. With his furrowed brows and pinched lips, I
guess it wasn’t everyday he caught someone hiding out behind processed peach
juice.
“Oh, um, hi,” I
said, ducking my head.
“Maudie asked me
to tell you she’s gotten tied up but to go ahead and keep working on that jams
and jellies display.”
“Sure, of course,”
I replied to Drew’s feet.
He cleared his
throat. “She just told me to tell you that. It’s not like I’m trying to be your
boss or anything.”
I jerked my head
up. “Oh no, it’s fine. Really.”
Drew gave a dreamy,
dimply smile before shouting past me. “Hey Maddox!” I cringed as I waited for
his response.
“Yeah?”
“Grab
those green boxes inside the storeroom and bring them over to Aisle Three for
Lane."
“Will do!”
Drew nodded.
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you later.”
“Bye,” I said,
giving him a brief wave as he hurried off.
I started the sad pilgrimage
over to Aisle Three, sickened with the realization that there was no escaping
Maddox now. Heaving a sigh, I dug back into the box and started shoving
multicolored bottles of jam on the shelf.
The sound of his
footsteps behind me caused my breath to hitch. I was still holding it when Maddox
placed a box bulging with jam at my feet. I turned around, and our eyes locked.
The corners of his lips twitched, and I didn’t know if he was trying to grin or
was fighting the urge to say something deeply profound about our reunion. Of
course, there was the giant pink elephant loping about the room, and that was
our past. I’m sure he was trying to gauge whether I was going to go psycho
bitch and maim him, or let it slide. I decide to take the higher road rather
than bringing him to his knees with a swift kick to the balls.
“Welcome home.”
Any hesitation
quickly faded, and he plastered his signature cocky grin on his face. “Thanks,
squirt!”
Inwardly, I
groaned at him using my nickname of a vertically challenged kid. Any thoughts I
had of trying to tolerate his arrogant and egotistical presence with poise and
dignity quickly evaporated. I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know I hate when
you call me that.”
“Sorry.” After his
eyes roamed over me, he bobbed his head in appreciation. “Damn, Lane, I’d
barely recognize you. You’ve gone and grown up on me.”
I clenched my
fists at my sides. After everything that had happened between us, he had the
audacity to focus on my appearance. He was so infuriating! With him being so
arrogant, there was no way in hell I’d admit the nights I’d lay awake worrying
about him while he away in Basic or when he was wounded and away in the
hospital.
Instead of arguing
that I’d been the same height, if not same barely B cup size the last time he
saw me, I continued stacking jam. When I remained unresponsive, he cocked his
head at me. “So this is all you’ve got
for your old buddy and esteemed serviceman?”
“I
told you welcome home, didn’t I?” I winced at the harshness of my words. Was I
really being this cruel to him after all he had been through? After I shoved a
jar of Apricot jam on the shelf, I turned back to him. “Did you really get shot
in the buttocks like Forest Gump?”
He
chuckled. “No, that was just something I told Maudie so she wouldn’t worry so
much.” He jerked the hem of his shirt up to show a scar just above the
waistband of his jeans. “It came awfully close to nicking my kidney.”
For
a moment, our past was forgotten, and my heart swelled with sympathy for him.
“I’m sorry you had to go through all that. I really am,” I murmured. Then my
gaze focused on the way his jeans sat low on his hips, giving me a side view of
his washboard abs. A shudder ripped through me as I remembered what those abs
felt like against my hands…against my body. I shook my head free of my
ridiculous thoughts and started shoving jars of jam on the shelf.
We
stood in awkward silence for a few seconds. Conversation had never been this
strained between us—even when we were kids and were mad at each other about
something. Maddox rubbed the stubble along his chin. “So…after all this time
and everything that has passed, I’d hoped you weren’t going to hold a grudge.”
A jar of Muskedine
jam slipped through my fingers and then smashed onto the ground. “A grudge? I
was trying to be gracious and polite by trying to ignore what you did to me. I
mean, what happened between us wasn’t like the time you ‘accidentally’ burned
my hair as a kid!” As his serious expression turned to amusement, I changed
courses as well and snapped, “I had to have four inches cut off! I barely could
get it up into a bun for my recital!”
“What
can I say? I was a punk through and through. And you,” he leaned in closer to
me, “were such a little princess.”
I
shoved him back. “I was not!”
“Yes
you were!” He grinned at me. “You never wanted to play outside and get dirty, go
fishing, or do any of the things I wanted to do.”
“Oh,
is that why you’d put worms down my shirt and shove me into mud piles so you
could get me to do what you wanted?”
“Nah,
that was just me being a prick,” he replied.
“Your
main character trait.” I started to bend over to clean up the broken jar when
Maddox took my hand in his.
He gave me a
sincerely apologetic smile. “Look, I really am sorry for what happened before.”
His jaw clenched and unclenched. “I want more than anything in the world for us
to have fun working together, like we did a few years ago. Do you think we can
put the past between us and move on?”
I gazed down to where
his fingers wrapped around my arm. Maddox touching me again made my skin crawl.
But most of all, it was the fact he thought he could just brush what he had
done under the rug so easily. I jerked my arm away and announced, “I’m taking
my break.”
“What
about this mess?” Maddox asked, motioning to the broken jam.
“You
clean it up.” I then narrowed my eyes at him. “After the way you treated me a couple
of years ago, I think you owe me a favor or two!”
As
he made a strangled noise, I whirled around and started for the refrigerated
section. After I grabbed a bottle of my favorite Miss Maudie’s Apple Core cider,
I slipped out the door and onto the back porch. Luckily, there were no
customers eating outside with the heat, so I popped open my drink and eased
down in one of the rocking chairs that overlooked a small stream. As the sweet
flavor coated my throat, thoughts of that infamous 4th of July crept
into my mind, and for a moment, my stomach tightened so hard I thought I might
throw up.
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So excited for this book to be released!! <3
ReplyDeleteWill this be in paperback?
ReplyDelete