Book Blitz ~ Once in a Blue Moon by Amie Stuart

Once in a Blue Moon

by Amie Stuart
Publication date: May 19th 2015
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

At eighteen, Ty Boudreaux married his high school sweetheart and planned to live happily ever after on the family ranch. But after twelve years in a volatile, one-sided marriage, this gentle cowboy is struggling to put his life back together.

At eighteen, Bettina Blanchard’s goal in life had been to shake the dust of Bluebonnet, Texas off her heels, and with her baby sister now safely in college, that dream is within her grasp. But underneath Bad Betti’s tough exterior beats the heart of a woman with hopes and dreams, and she’s loved Ty almost as long as he loved his ex-wife.

When fate drops Ty in her lap, one night of passion leaves them dealing with a pregnancy and a marriage both have reservations about. Can a girl from the wrong side of the tracks and Bluebonnet’s favorite son find common ground outside the bedroom? Despite the interfering in-laws, a jealous baby sister and a holiday no one wants to remember, Betti and Ty discover that even though their happily ever after doesn’t come easy, anything worth having is worth working for.

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The days and weeks after my run-ins with Rhea and Ty floated by in a haze of tears, ice cream and anything else I could shove in my mouth. I’d never in my life been so in the dumps over a man but repeated self-scoldings and peptalks did no good.

I had come to think of my life in terms of BT—before Ty and AT—after Ty.

The first few weeks AT, I’d alternated between nausea and binge eating. Definitely not like me; however, I’d never had my heart well and truly broken before. Squashed and beaten like a flower in a South Texas flash flood. This was unquestionably new territory for me and at first, I allowed myself to mope, eat, and cry. But things didn’t seem to improve. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t pull myself out of my funk, and continued eating and crying...and sleeping. I was depressed.

My depression lifted at the oddest incident. But even that didn’t last long. The week after I blacked Rhea’s eye I came home to find my grass had been cut. Totally not out of the ordinary since I paid my neighbor’s sons to cut and bag for me. The Jackson brothers—a couple of twelve year old, fair-haired imps were always looking to make a dime.

About time, too. They were a week past due.

On my way to work the next morning I stuffed an envelope with their pay in the mailbox, figuring their mother would give it to them. And a couple weeks later we repeated our song and dance.

Late in August, just before school started, their mom, who was the source of their blonde hair and always looked frazzled, showed up on my doorstep with both envelopes. And that’s when I got tickled.

"Betti, I’m sorry to bother you, but I found these in my mail."

"Oh Bev, that was for the boys mowing my grass. I hadn’t seen you around, so I just left their money in your mailbox."

"Well, see now, that’s the thing. The boys left July 1 to go spend the rest of the summer with their daddy up in Wichita Falls. Then my mama got sick a week later, and I’ve been in Alabama. Sally Truesdale’s been collecting all my mail and watering my yard. I just got back last week, and I’m still trying to set my house straight."

"So, who cut my grass?" Frowning, I stepped out on my porch and looked around. Like the mysterious grass cutter would still be nearby.

"I have no clue, but Sally did mention she’d seen Ty Boudreaux pass through here quite a bit lately."

What in the hell was Sally Truesdale smoking? Bev wasn’t one to gossip...but she was a woman. And Sally was always in the know. We eyed each other in the porch light, both of us fully aware my response would be reported to Sally and then repeated all over town.

 "Why in the world would Ty Boudreaux come around here?" Least said; least spread was my motto. "This isn’t his side of town." I put on my best "I have no clue," frown and crossed my arms. Thank God it was dark out.

"She said she saw him more than once." Bev could fish ‘till the cows came home. "I hear he’s been having a lot of trouble since Rhea up and left him."

My lips were sealed.

But if Sally had seen him, then who else had? No way was I going to try and find out first-hand what Sally knew, or worse, canvas the neighbors to find out if anyone had actually seen Ty mowing my grass. And honestly, why would he?

Mowing a woman’s grass while she wasn’t home had to be the most insane thing I’ve ever heard of. Right?

AMAZON 

Amie Stuart is the last of a dying breed, a native Texan, and still makes her home there, where cowboys and music (her other two loves) abound. Growing up, she wanted to be a lawyer and a psychologist. No doubt the shrinks would have a field day with her head, but she's seen the error of her ways and considers all those other jobs 'research' for the writing gig.

She's a multiple contest finalist as well as a trained contest judge and is affectionately know as The Terminator by her critique partners. She's written as CELIA STUART for Black Lace Books, & Liquid Silver Books, and as AMIE STUART for Kensington Aphrodisia, she has a short story (PEACHES 'N CREAM) in Zane's CARMEL FLAVA 2, and launched Cobblestone Press's short erotica line,Wicked in 2007.