New Release & Excerpt – Help Wanted, Cowboy by Nan Reinhardt
Synopsis
A Montana bull rider temporarily working as a ranch hand. An OB nurse who wants “a favor”. Two opposites thrown together. A treasure hunt adds to autumn magic.
When a family emergency brings cowboy Rory Pearson home to Marietta, he hires on to Juniper Falls Ranch for seasonal work. He’s hoping to explore an intriguing family legend. Armed with research and his grandfather’s stories, Rory thinks he’s ready, but nothing goes as planned. Then a sweetly sexy nurse propositions him.
Nurse Millie Sparks is tired of playing it safe. She’s been too focused on her education and career and romance and adventure have passed her by. Staying on the ranch to care for a patient with a tricky pregnancy, Millie’s interest in Rory is immediate. He offers to teach her to ride, and she wonders if the lessons could extend to something else she’s been hiding.
It’s a game of flirtation and fun. Feelings can’t be serious. But as the clock ticks down, hearts interfere, and saying goodbye just got way more complicated.
Amazon * Tule Publishing
Excerpt
“Do you have a girlfriend?” The words fell out of her mouth and surprised her as much as it obviously surprised him. She hadn’t meant to just blurt it out. It was on a list of things she’d written out late last night in her room—stuff she thought she should know if she was going to ask for his help. When he gaped at her, she stuttered. “I mean … I-I was just curious. Do you? I mean … do you date at all?” Dammit, this was getting more awkward by the second because he was looking at her all suspicious. “You know what? Never mind. None of my business.”
“I’m not lookin’ for a bachelor pad, if that’s what you’re thinkin’.” He pulled the foil off the casseroles. “And if I were, it sure as hell wouldn’t be the bunkhouse on the ranch where I work.”
If the floor had opened up at that moment, Millie would’ve happily dropped into the hole. Heat filled her cheeks and she knew she was probably twelve shades of red. “N-no, of course not. I wasn’t thinking— I mean … I was … just curious,” she said again.
The oven dinged that it had reached temperature and Rory shoved the two dishes in and set the timer on the microwave. Then he leaned against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest in a rather forbidding stance. He narrowed his eyes. “I’m straight, I date, but I haven’t been in relationship in a few years. Rodeo doesn’t really leave much time for that. And for the last year, I’ve been taking care of my mom. I’ve never been in love, at least not that I know of, and I’m guessin’ I’d know if I were.
“Got a high school diploma. I read a lot when I’m out on the circuit, ’cause unless you’re barhopping from town to town, there isn’t much else to do. I like fiction and history. Country music is fine if it’s not twangy. I watch the Food Network and the History Channel, and just about any kind of movies except horror. I’m five foot nine, weigh 179 pounds, which is up from my fighting weight because I’ve been off the circuit for a while. I was hopin’ to drop the extra weight workin’ this ranch, and here I am in the kitchen. Go figure.
“I brush my teeth a couple times a day, never met a shower I didn’t like, and Hemingway’s my favorite author although I can’t rightly explain why.” He was ticking the items off on his fingers as he named them, practically without taking a breath. “Anything else you’d like to know?”
Millie was pretty sure she’d turned another couple of shades of red as he ended his little speech—more words in a row than she’d heard him say since they’d met. And practically all the information she’d been looking for and had expected to have to drag out of him over the next few days while he was manning the Juniper Falls kitchen. She was too aware that she was sitting there with her mouth agape, but she had no idea how to respond. “I-I …”
He smiled then and lit up the whole kitchen with his soft laughter. “Ya know, you can find all this information and more online on my FindaCowboy profile.”
Millie damn near choked. “There … there’s a dating site called FindaCowboy?”
Rory opened the fridge and pulled out a bag of oranges and looked at her askance but gave her a grin. “Wouldn’t be surprised, but I’m not on it.” He set the oranges on the table in front of her, along with a knife, bowls, and some paper towels. “Wanna learn how to section an orange?”
His guileless grin made her decision right then and there. Why wait? But she had to know one more thing. She pushed her chair back and stood. “Yeah, I’d like to, but first …” She framed his face with her hands. “I’m going to kiss you, okay?”
About the Author
Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of sweet, small-town romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader; however, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 50 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.
