TOUGHEST
COWBOY IN TEXAS
Author:
Carolyn Brown
Series:
Happy, Texas #1
On
Sale: May 30, 2017
Publisher:
Forever
Mass
Market: $7.99 USD
eBook:
$6.99 USD
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Carolyn
Brown's begins an all-new series of rugged cowboys.
“This
is an emotional star-crossed lovers tale with tangible depths and an attitude
that’s relatable to real life.” –RT Book
Reviews
Last
time Lila Harris was in Happy, Texas, she was actively earning her reputation
as the resident wild child. Now, a little older and wiser, she's back to run
her mother's café for the summer. Except something about this town has her
itching to get a little reckless and rowdy, especially when she sees her old
partner-in-crime, Brody Dawson. Their chemistry is just as hot as ever. But
he's still the town's golden boy-and she's still the wrong kind of girl.
Brody
hasn't had much time lately for anything other than ranching. Running the
biggest spread in the county and taking care of his family more than keeps him
busy. All that responsibility has him longing for the carefree days of high
school—and Lila. She may have grown up, but he still sees that spark of
mischief in her eyes. Now he's dreaming about late-night skinny dipping and
wondering how he can possibly resist the one woman he can never forget...
Brody sang along with the radio the whole
way back to Hope Springs. Seeing Lila again brought back so many memories.
Nothing had been the same after she’d left town. Happy, Texas, didn’t have a
movie theater or a bowling alley or even a Dairy Queen, so they’d had to drive
all the way to Tulia or Amarillo to have fun. Or they would stay in town and
Lila would come up with some kind of crazy stunt that sent their adrenaline
into high gear.
Like surfing in the
back of my old pickup truck. It’s a wonder we weren’t all killed but the
adrenaline rush was crazy wild. He chuckled as he remembered the two of
them planting their feet on skateboards in the bed of the truck and then giving
Jace the thumbs-up to take off. No big ocean waves could have been as
exhilarating as riding on skateboards while Jace drove eighty miles an hour
down a dirt road.
Blake Shelton’s “Boys ’Round Here” came on
the radio and he turned up the volume. He rolled down the window, letting the
hot air blow past him as he pushed the gas pedal to the floor.
Seventy miles an hour, the dust kicking up
behind the truck just like the song said. At seventy-five, he checked the
rearview and imagined that Lila was back there wearing a pair of cutoff denim
shorts, cowboy boots, and a tank top that hugged her body like a glove. Her
jet- black ponytail was flying out behind her, and that tall, well-toned curvy
body kept balance on the imaginary skateboard every bit as well as it had back
then.
At eighty, he tapped the brakes enough to
make a sliding right-hand turn from the highway to the lane back to the ranch
house. The house was a blur when he blew past it and the speedometer said he
was going ninety miles an hour when he braked and came to a long greasy stop in
front of the barn doors. Gravel pinged against the sheet metal and dust settled
on everything inside his truck’s crew cab. He sucked in a lungful of it but it
did nothing to slow down his racing heart, thumping hard enough to bust a rib.
Gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his forearms ached, he checked the
rearview mirror. The vision of Lila was gone, leaving only a cloud of dust in
its wake.
You’re not
eighteen, Brody Dawson. The voice in his head even had the same tone and
inflection as his mother’s did. You’re a
responsible rancher, not a kid who drives like a maniac with the music blaring
loud enough they can hear it in Amarillo.
Blame it on Lila.
She brought out the wild side in me back
before I had to handle all the ranchin’ business, he argued, and felt a
sudden rush of shame because he hadn’t stood up for her in those days. Then he
had time and opportunities; now he barely had time for a
glass of tea with all the sticky situations of Hope Springs falling on his
shoulders.
His phone pinged with another text: Sundance is in a mud bog out on the north
forty. Need help. Bring rope. Where the hell are you?
Just as he was about to get moving, his
grandmother stepped out of the barn and made her way to his truck, shielding her
green eyes against the hot afternoon sun. Gray haired and barely tall enough to
reach Brody’s shoulder, she might look like a sweet little grandmother to
strangers, but looks were definitely deceiving when it came to Hope Dalley. She
had a backbone of steel and no- body messed with her.
“Did someone die? I heard you driving like
a bat set loose from the bowels of hell. I bet you wore a year’s worth of
rubber off them tires the way you skidded to a stop.”
“Everything is fine, but Sundance is in a
mud lolly, so I’ve got to get some rope and go help Jace,” Brody said.
“Damned old bull. He got bad blood from his
father when it comes to breakin’ out of pens, but he’s a damn fine breeder so
we have to deal with his ornery ways,” Hope said. “I’ll go with you and help.”
“We can get it done, Granny. What are you
doin’ out here in this hot sun anyway?”
“Bossin’ the boys about how to stack the
hay. I can’t just sit around in an air-conditioned house and do nothin’. I’d
die of boredom,” she said.
“Long as you’re supervisin’ and not
stackin’, that’s fine, but I’d rather see you in the house with Kasey and the
kids,” he said.
“I’m not ready to be put out to pasture
yet, boy. Kasey don’t need my help. She has the toughest job on the ranch,
taking care of those three kids as well as all the household stuff and the book
work. That’s a hell of a lot more exhausting and tougher than stacking hay. And
she’s doin’ a fine job of it. Now go take care of that blasted bull.” She waved
him away.
Fun and excitement were over. It was time
to man up and not expect to relive the glory days when Lila had lived in Happy
and everything had been fun and exciting.
Special Edition
Available at Walmart!
THE
HAPPY, TEXAS SERIES
TOUGHEST COWBOY IN
TEXAS, #1
LONG, TALL COWBOY
CHRISTMAS, #2
Carolyn
Brown is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author and
RITA® Finalist who has sold more than 2.75 million books. She presently writes
both women's fiction and cowboy romance. She has also written historical single
title, historical series, contemporary single title, and contemporary series.
She lives in southern Oklahoma with her husband, a former English teacher, who
is not allowed to read her books until they are published. They have three
children and enough grandchildren to keep them young.
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