So I live by the Ohio.

It’s weird how you never realize how something like that plays into your life until you find yourself driving down by it.  Stopping to taking pictures…

And then one day…bam…there’s a book.

More like three.  This idea has been toying and dancing and flirting with me for a while now and finally, it let me catch it.

It’s a fun one, too.  Fun as in, it’s suspense-ish.  But I won’t be killing people all around town, either.  I mean, yes, there will probably be mayhem.  But I don’t think I’ll be smashing and bashing on every corner.

That’s the fun for me…maybe a little more laid back.  Maybe.

Here’s the fun for you…(and me)…I sold it.

St. Martins has bought a new trilogy for me.  It’s going to be a three book series, another small town romantic suspense series, this one, set in the south.  Instead of the Ohio, I ended up going with the Mississippi for reasons that I won’t be going into, but it was important to the story.

I have NO idea when it will be out.  I kinda need to write it first.

But here’s a snippet.

 

 

The last thing Gideon Marshall expected when he woke up that morning was to see trouble come rolling back into town.  But, unlike most people, he didn’t mind one bit.

He’d always had a soft spot for Neve Flanagan, the hellion youngest child of the family that had been the central figure in this small town for more than a hundred and fifty years.

Now that he was the sheriff of said small town, people might expect things to change—Neve had gotten into trouble more than once in her life, both before and after she’d left home.  But to be honest, Gideon suspected a lot of that was because people had expected her to get in trouble.

Neve simply gave them what they wanted.

Right now, as she leaned against the side of the beat-up Corolla that looked nothing like the fire-engine red Porsche she’d driven away from here eight years ago, she did the same thing.  She gave him what he wanted.

A smile.

It wasn’t the same smile, though.  That hit him, right in the heart.

Neve was like the little sister he’d never had and that wan, tired smile mad him want to chew nails and hit something.  Or somebody.  Because he recognized the look on her face, all too well.

She had the look of somebody who needed to hide.

But he knew his Trouble too well.  Instead of handling her the way he wanted to, hugging her up against him and demanding she tell him what was wrong, he did what he would have done eight years ago.  He reached up and caught of lock of her hair—deep red and soft—and pulled.  “Well, well, well.  Trouble is back.”

She made a face at him.

“In town fifteen minutes and I’ve already heard that—three times now.”

Gideon grinned, somewhat relieved to see an echo of her old smile flash across her face.  Then she moved away from the car and wrapped her arms around him.

Now, he let himself hug her.  And it hurt, he realized, more than he’d thought possible to feel the sharp bones and frail strength in her.  She’d lost weight, too much of it.  It was like there was nothing but skin, bone and the remnants of that cocky attitude.

“You stayed gone way too long, sugar,” he murmured against her temple as she tucked her head against his chest.

“Yeah, well.”  She sniffed and snuggled in closer.  “I kept thinking about coming back and nabbing you up for myself since my sister was dumb enough to let you get away.  But…well.  You’re so old.”

“Old?”  Chuckling, he rubbed his cheek against her hair.  “You mean to tell me I’ve been waiting around here for eight long years, pining after you and you think I’m too old for you?”

The gas pump shut off and she sighed, breaking away from him.  “Well, maybe not too old.”  Then she shrugged and finished dealing with the car, grabbing her receipt, putting the gas cap back on.  “But you and I both know you’ll never love anybody but Moira.”

He didn’t say anything.

Neve’s gaze swept up to him and he knew he didn’t have to.  She wouldn’t tell anybody.  Neither would he.

Their secret.