Title: TOUGHEST COWBOY IN TEXAS
Author: Carolyn Brown
Series: Happy, Texas #1
On Sale: May 30, 2017
Publisher: Forever
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...
BUY THE BOOK HERE
EXCERPT
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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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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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