A Young Adult Romance Novel
Tanya Lauterbach, 17-year-old daughter of country music diva Rita Harding, didn’t want to go stay with her father’s family in the Blue Ridge Mountains while her mother went on a world tour. She was a city girl! She almost had to be dragged out kicking and screaming. How was she going to get along with her stepmother, Katie…along with her stepsister Charlotte and her half brother Nolan? What would she do with herself all that time?
But once she was there, the hills began to work their magic…part of which included a handsome young man with a mysterious past and possibly dangerous present….
Excerpt:
Bascombville, 25 miles, according to the sign. I’d have expected them to call it something quaint like Polecat Alley or Toad Suck Holler. Or Mayberry. It’s bigger than I remember. But not even within hollering distance of Nashville, and WHERE THE HELL IS THE MALL?? And will I get my own room? I can just see Charlotte getting her sticky fingers on my earrings. And I didn’t even bring a weapon….
My grandparents live on this horse farm. Horses, yippee. I’m scared to death of horses, having gotten kicked by a couple of ponies at camp at the age of twelve. Took me two and a half months to recover. Uncle Grover, my dad’s brother, lives out here too, with Aunt Dru and their four girls and one boy.
The whole fam-damily, as Uncle Grover calls it, has gathered right there at my dad’s to greet me. Did those four girls and boy actually ride in the back of that truck? Is that even legal? But there’s no vehicle here other than my dad’s and Katie’s. Reckon they do thangs diffurnt in these yere hills.
But now I’m afraid to get out of the car. WHAT ever possessed me to put on these ridiculous high heels??? This terrain is rougher than I bargained for. Why am I so effing stupid???
My mom gives me a little smirk and looks at me like, What are you waiting for? I almost expect her to start singing that old Billy Joel song, “You hadda be a big shot, didn’tcha” like she sometimes does when I make an ass of myself. I’ve no choice but to get out of the car. Well, I could take the heels off first, but I’m nothing if not defiant. So what if I fall and break my face, the world will go right on spinning. Move along, kids, nothing to see here.
My dad swoops down on me as I step out, after one double take. Katie stands nearby holding Nolan’s hand. Her red blouse looks stunning with her dark hair and fair skin. Nolan’s five now, and ta-da, he’s redheaded! The only other ginger in sight, that’s gotta count for something. And there’s Charlotte, Katie’s daughter, practically dancing like she needs to pee. She’s a YUGE country music fan, an aspiring singer herself….
“Rita, come on out!” my dad hollers. “We’re having a cookout in honor of Tanya! You’re invited.”
“In honor of Tanya”?? Oh, Daddy, Daddy. Mom stays planted in the driver’s seat. Six years, three boyfriends, and one engagement later, and she still hasn’t forgiven him. Way to go, Katie. Let me know when you’re ready to wreck another home, I’ll go along with you and film it. Oh, but it was True Love, that excuses everything, right?
“Y’all enjoy yourselves then,” Mom says. “I gotta be gettin’ on back. Tanya hon, you keep in touch, okay? And be sure and stay out of trouble, and watch your mouth. Come over here and give me a kiss, baby doll.”
Somebody shoot me, I say to myself as I stumble on the grass and reach out to steady myself on the car. Oh, to be an octopus, so I could facepalm eight times at once….
But what’s this? There’s a blond guy sitting in the cab of the truck, behind the wheel. Now he’s looking my way.
Oh.
My.
GAWD!!!
He’s GORGEOUS!!!
Stop the presses. Cancel the shooting. This beotch is here to STAY!
Home
Yellow Rose Publications 