Today’s snippet is from The Cowboy’s Little Secret, book one in my upcoming series, The Hitching Post Hotel.

Seventy-something Jed Garland wants nothing more than to have all three of his granddaughters married and settled in Cowboy Creek, preferably with the mates he’s hand-picked for them!

In the clip below, we meet Jed’s first victim…um…that is, the first intended groom.

To Cole Slater, walking into the Hitching Post Hotel felt like coming home…which probably didn’t mean much, considering he’d hated the home he had grown up in and hadn’t stayed in any one place since leaving it.

He stared around him in awe. Everything looked the same as it had the day he’d shown up here as a high-school senior, as raw as any wrangler could have been, to start a job on Garland Ranch. In those early days, he’d ridden the line between a determination to prove himself and the stomach-clenching certainty he was in way over his head.

Exactly the way he’d felt since his return to Cowboy Creek.

Pushing the thought aside, he turned to Jed, who hadn’t changed much, either. His white hair was combed neatly into place, as always, and he wore the same string tie and belt buckle Cole had never seen him without.

“Glad you could drop by,” his former boss said.

“I appreciate the invitation. As the saying goes, you’re not looking a day older, Jed. And things around here don’t seem to have changed a bit.”

Jed beamed. “We try to keep the place up.”

“You’ve done a good job of it.”

In the sitting room off to one side of the entry, the same heavy, low-slung couches and chairs sported the same handmade afghans, and the chime clock on the wall still ticked the seconds away like a slow, steady heartbeat.

Or maybe that was his own heart, thumping so hard he could hear it.

No, the Hitching Post hadn’t changed. Neither had the old man in front of him. But he himself sure had, and the time had come for him to prove it.

“Paz and Tina will be sorry they missed you.”

At the statement, he froze. Jed couldn’t know just how wrong he’d been. Paz, yeah, maybe she would be happy to see him again, and he felt the same. But Tina…

He’d practically grown up with Jed’s granddaughter. They’d had the same teachers all through the lower grades and even shared some of the same classes in high school. But after what had happened between them senior year, Tina would never want to see him again.

~~~

Thanks for reading!

You can find the book available for preorder at your favorite booksellers, including:

Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Books-a-Million
Harlequin  Kobo  IndieBound

All my best,

Barbara