Small Town Love Story - read the first chapter here - FREE!
Take one city gal and drop her into a small town, into a countried life style she's never experienced but coveted from afar. Add one sexy half-Italian small town handyman and jack of all trades and blend. Mix in some small town gossip, some family ties, and some heated attraction....it's all part of my latest, Small Town Love Story just out from Rebel Ink Press.
Here's the lovely cover, the blurb, all the details including buy links and the first chapter free! It gives readers a chance to try before they buy!
Here's the lovely cover, the blurb, all the details including buy links and the first chapter free! It gives readers a chance to try before they buy!
Small Town Love Story
ISBN 978193726583
Rebel Ink Press April 2013
$5.99 EBook
When Rae Lockridge put St. Louis in the rear view mirror,
she sought the small town life she always dreamed about. After settling
into her job at the local library, she thought she was well on her way to
realizing those dreams until she met Anthony Pichetti. The good
looking jack of all trades fires her imagination. Their mutual attraction
is filled with heat but according to her co-workers, he has a past and they
advise Rae to steer clear. She follows her heart instead of their advice
but her views of the small town are tainted by their
gossip. As their relationship deepens, Rae holds back, uncertain if she's
in the right place. Rae's preoccupation with city versus country creates
some minor health issues and strains things with Anthony. When a
life-threatening crisis strikes, however, she must make choices for the future
- for both of them.
If she lived to be a hundred, like her
great-grandmother, she would never forget that glorious autumn afternoon. That Wednesday defined perfection with a
clear, deep turquoise sky that vied with flaming fall colors for
attention. Rae loved autumn and claimed
it for her favorite season. When the
nights turned cold but the days remained warm with just a hint of a crisp cool,
she came alive after the somnolence of summer.
Something about the vivid shades, the hint of wood smoke carried by the
wind, and the slower pace appealed to her inner self. Spring felt too capricious like a teenage
girl uncertain of herself, summer always seemed too much like a society matron
in full fashion foliage, and winter shivered like an old man who crept around
the fireplace. Autumn, in contrast,
offered a flamboyant gypsy spirit, beautiful color, and just enough wildness to
be interesting.
Rae breathed in autumn like holy incense
and delighted in the changing season with a pagan heart. At the local library where she worked, she
brought the outside in with brilliant leaves of orange, yellow, gold, and
red. She decorated bulletin boards with
them and kept the blinds wide open so she could see the seasonal splendor in
the small park down the block. Each
morning she walked to work from her apartment, a few rooms tucked away in what
was once a fine old family home, so she could revel in the autumn wonder. On this memorable day, she picked up her
lunch bag and instead of retreating to the break room or going home, she
strolled down to the park, delighted with Indian summer’s warmth.
She sat on a park bench, munching her
turkey and Swiss, gazing up at the sky so blue and beautiful it hurt to see,
and around with appreciation. Rae
watched as a flock of geese patterned in a sharp v against the clear sky passed
heading south, their plaintive call floating downward. A few squirrels scampered across the grass,
collecting walnuts and hickory nuts to carry back to their nests for the coming
winter.
Just as Rae polished a bright red apple
and took her first bite, movement in the grass caught her eye. She glanced up and gasped, the piece of
fruit stuck in her throat for a second.
As she managed to swallow, her contentment vanished into a stark, sudden
terror as she watched the large copperhead writhe in her direction. If she didn’t hate snakes, maybe the brown
hourglass pattern against the lighter beige might be beautiful but all
serpents, harmless or not, scared her even more than spiders. Her mind sprinted in three directions as she
debated should she sit still, move, or stand up on the bench where she hoped
she’d be out of reach should it decide to strike.
If she moved, she feared it might slither
toward her with a greater speed because it moved faster than she could have
imagined now. As her librarian’s mind
tried to recall just how far a snake could strike, it gained ground until the
space between it and her narrowed to less than two feet. Rae thought if she tried to stand up on the
bench now, she might draw its attention or worse, fall onto the creature. In desperation, she looked around the park
but on this fall weekday few people had leisure to enjoy the outdoors. Two senior citizens chatted near the street
and a single mother pushed a stroller toward the swings.
By then, the copperhead moved so close she
swore she could hear its skin whisper as it traveled across the grass and her mouth dried up like a mud puddle in
the sun. A shadow fell across her and
she whirled, startled to see a man dash past her toward the snake. Maybe he didn’t see it, but Rae had to warn
him so she recovered her voice.
“Hey,” she yelled. “Watch out, there’s a
copperhead right there!”
He didn’t turn around and she couldn’t be
sure he even heard her but as she watched, he leaned down unafraid and grasped
the snake behind the triangular head in one large hand. Then he caught the thrashing length with his
other and captured it. Rae gasped, first
with fear then with appreciation for his fearless skills. As he stretched it out, she gauged it to be
at least four feet long, larger than she thought and she shuddered at how close
it came to her.
“Thank you!” she called. “That was
amazing. What are you going to do with
it?”
The man looked up at her and grinned. “I’ll take him to my truck, toss him in a
five gallon bucket with a lid, and drop him off in the woods before I go home
tonight. Is that all right with you?”
Rae nodded. “Sure, unless you just want to
kill it or something.
He laughed. “Aw, there’s no reason to kill
it just ‘cause you’re afraid of it.”
She stood up, braver now that the snake
was in his hands and under control. “How
did you know I was scared?”
“I sat right over there,” he said, pointing
back to where another park bench rested beneath the tall evergreen tree the
city lit each year to kick off the holiday season. “I watched you and I thought
for a minute or two you might panic and get bitten. So I came over to catch the
snake before you got hurt.”
Rae liked his voice, low-pitched but very
male. She looked up at him, admiring his
height that made her look small by comparison.
He fit into his work worn, faded jeans as if he’d been poured into them
and his simple T-shirt molded to his chest like it was tailor made. His sandy hair flecked with golden
highlights that the sun caught and brightened touched the nape of his neck in
back and his grey eyes noted her interest and stared back, with apparent
enjoyment.
“Thank you,” she told him again. “I really
appreciate it.”
“No problem,” he answered. “Let me go put
this bad boy in the truck then I’ll introduce myself.”
She resisted an urge to tug her skirt down
into place. “That’d be great.”
Rae watched him stride across the grass,
his work boots eating up the grass in huge chunks, and thought he moved with
both grace and strength. She wondered
what he thought about her in her prairie style denim skirt, peasant blouse, a
swirling sea of color, and her sensible Oxfords. Her auburn hair matched some of the fall leaves
as it coiled into a tight bun held by a comb on the back of her head instead of
tumbling down her back like a wild woman, the way she preferred it.
When he came back, he carried two cans of
cold Pepsi and offered her one.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m Rae Lockridge.”
“Anthony Pichetti.”
He extended his free hand to shake and she
took it, aware of a fine and tangible force leaping between them, like strands of
sugar spinning into cotton candy.
Whatever magic it offered, it combined the same sweetness and heat and Rae
thought he sensed it, too. His eyes lit
from within and he smiled at her with a slow, easy smile making her breath
catch and hold for a second.
“You’re my hero,” she said, then realized
she still held his hand.
“Nope, nothing fancy like that,” Anthony
replied. “I just did what needed to be done, it’s no big deal. You were having your lunch?”
“Yes,” Rae said. When he released her hand, she gathered up
her trash and picked up the apple from the ground where she dropped it. “I do
sometimes when it’s nice. I work over at
the library.”
He must be familiar, she thought, because
he glanced past the Episcopal Church and through the hedge toward the brick
library building. “You walked over?”
“I did.”
Anthony smiled again. “Would you like a
ride back? I know it’s not far but I could drop you off.”
“I’d love that, thanks,” she said. “Do we
have time to drink our pop or do you need to be someplace?”
He sat down on the park bench and opened his
can. “I’m my own boss so I can stay as long as I want.”
Rae tucked her skirt under her bottom and
joined him. “What do you do for a
living?”
“I’m a jack of all trades, master of
none,” he joked. “I’m a plumber mostly but I do a little heating and air
conditioning work on the side, a few odd jobs, sometimes even maintenance. I’m in the phone book under Four-Ten Maintenance and our slogan is we’ve got you covered.”
She grasped the play on words and laughed.
“Like a .410 shotgun, right?”
Anthony shot her an appraising look. “Yeah, that’s it exactly. I think you’re the first woman who ever got
that. Does that mean you know a little
about guns?”
Rae let a smile spread across her
face. “No, it means I know a lot. Even though I grew up in the city, my daddy
taught me to hunt and shoot with my brothers and cousins.”
“That’s great! Maybe I’ll take you hunting sometime.”
The very notion sparked inner embers into
open flame within. Hunting might not
have been her first choice, but Rae liked him and she wanted to get acquainted. If that required tromping through the early
morning woods, she’d do it. Even if she
got a thousand beggar’s lice on her jeans and ticks, she’d say yes.
“I’d like that,” she told him. “And I hate to break up the fun but I have to
get back to work.”
As she spoke, the automated carillon
pealed from St. John’s Episcopal Church next to the park and filled their ears
with the sound of bells. That marked her
tardy by a few moments already but Rae didn’t care at all.
“Sure, let’s go. I’ll still drop you off if that’s okay.”
“It’s fine,” Rae said. They walked down the path that divided the
park in two, skirted around the flowerbeds near the entrance and across the
street. Anthony led her to a scuffed up
old Ford pickup and opened the passenger door so she could climb into the
cab. Rae did with a glance at the
covered five gallon bucket in the truck’s bed.
Anthony saw where her gaze fell and laughed.
“Don’t worry,” he told her. “That snake’s
not going anywhere, I promise.”
“Thank you, Anthony,” she said as he stopped
in front of the library. Rae lingered
because she’d like to see him again but she didn’t know what to say without
sounding too pushy. He solved the
problem for her.
“So, I guess the library’s not open on
Sundays?” he said.
“No, it’s not.”
“So you have the day off?”
Warmth suffused her face with color. She didn’t need a mirror to know when she
blushed – she always felt it. “I do.”
“So would you like to have some fun?”
His grey eyes lit with a teasing light and
Rae admired it. “Sure,” she said. “What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know,” Anthony said. “We could go
have dinner, see a movie or go to the corn maze over by the county high
school.”
Rae grinned. She’d always wanted to visit a corn maze but
since arriving to take the library job she hadn’t dared. One of the first things learned when relocating
to the small town had been most people frowned on women going around
alone. A trip to the supermarket or
discount store or beauty parlor or even the library earned an invisible seal of
approval but ladies prowling on their own at any event drew unpleasant
stares. Gossip began in such a fashion,
something Rae’s boss and head librarian Gregg Fox explained on her first day.
“It’s
just not the way it’s done here,” he told her.
“I’d love to see the corn maze,” Rae said.
“Great,” he said. “I’ll buy you a
hamburger or some pizza, too. Tell me
where you live and I’ll pick you up around eleven.”
She gave him the address of her simple
apartment and he nodded. “I know where it is.
I’ll see you then, darlin’.”
His casual endearment pleased her. Although Rae had one foot out of the open
passenger door ready to disembark, she leaned back into the truck and tilted
her face up for a kiss. Bolder than she
ever dared to be, she said, “I’m looking forward to it. How about you seal it with a kiss?”
Anthony’s grey eyes sparkled. “I like your
style, lady.”
Without another word he pulled her into
his arms and obviously without caring who might see, he put his mouth down on
hers. Rae loved to be kissed, but
Anthony’s took the experience to a new level.
Instant heat ignited between them and the way he commanded her lips demonstrated
he was an expert. He possessed them, marking
her mouth with ownership if just for the moment. Breathless, Rae pulled back as
he grinned.
“See you Sunday,” he called as she stepped
down to the pavement.
She nodded, smiled, and slammed the truck
door. Rae’s smile wilted though when she
saw Gregg, arms folded, foot tapping, waiting for her just inside the library
door.
“You’re late,” he said, his voice sharp as
she entered.
“I know,” she admitted. Better to confess than conceal, she
thought. “It’s just a few minutes,
though, and it won’t happen again.”
Her boss glared at her. “It’d better
not. And if I see a repeat of your
public display of affection, I assure you I’ll put you on probation if I don’t
terminate your position. I can’t have my
staff carrying on in public.”
Any other day Rae would have lowered her
head and apologized again but it wasn’t happening today. This time, she met his baleful gaze with her
own. “It was just a kiss, Gregg, for
pity sakes. He didn’t even use his tongue.”
For a moment Rae thought her snarky
comment pushed her boss over the edge.
His face flushed with an unhealthy red and his lips moved in a silent
sputter. Then he said, “That’s enough. I will not tolerate any more from you, Miss
Lockridge. And although I can’t dictate
what you do outside this library, I must warn you – Anthony Pichetti isn’t on
my list of upstanding citizens. I’d
advise you to steer clear of him.”
“Might I ask why?”
Gregg snorted. “He’s just not the caliber
of young man I’d advise you to associate with, Rae. I’ve heard things about his family and his
father died under strange circumstances. Besides, they live on the north end of town.
If you were a Neosho native, you’d understand these things.”
Thank
God I’m not if being from here would make me prejudiced and blind.
If she said anything more now, she might
be out of a job so Rae restrained the words she wanted to speak. She gave her boss a brisk nod and said, “I
have work waiting.”
“The tardy will be noted on your
employment record,” Gregg said.
“I understand.”
At the circulation desk, the head
librarian looked askance at her. “Everything all right? Gregg seemed hacked.”
“He was but it’s fine,” Rae said with a forced
smile. “Unless you have something else for me to do, I thought I’d catch up on
shelving returned books.”
The woman old enough to be her mother offered
a sympathetic expression. “Sure. I saw Anthony Pichetti bring you back from
lunch. I don’t always agree with our
boss, but Gregg’s probably right about using some caution.”
“Why?” Rae asked, her tone sharper than
she intended. “Did he do prison time? Commit burglary? Or did he commit the
unforgiveable sin of being born without a silver spoon shoved into his mouth?”
Her own humble origins, a factory worker’s
kid from Compton Avenue in St. Louis, evoked her sensitivity toward any
prejudice directed at social status.
Most of the time she kept silent but now, Rae’s sense of justice had
been riled.
“He did a little time in the county jail,”
Brenda admitted. Crimson circles high on each cheeks indicated either anger or
embarrassment. “It wasn’t anything big time,
though. Some older kids beat the crap
out of his younger brother and Anthony got booked for assault. I can’t remember if he was sentenced to just the
few days he spent in jail or got probation. Other than that, as far as I know,
he’s got a clean record. His dad
committed suicide when Anthony would’ve been about eighteen or nineteen and his
brother around fifteen. His sister had a
baby without being married. Besides, there’s something off about his brother,
something not right, but I’d rather not talk about it.”
Without asking, Rae gained a thumbnail
sketch of Anthony’s family history. “It
doesn’t sound bad to me. My family’s
worse than his,” she said. “Thanks for the warning, though.”
Rae trundled the loaded book cart out into
the stacks, fuming and putting volumes back on the shelves. At first, anger blinded her and she ran on
auto pilot, putting each book where it belonged without conscious thought. Anthony Pichetti hadn’t been anything but
kind and nice, she mused. He didn’t deserve the dirt apparently everyone wanted
to dish out, either.
I
like him…a lot. Anthony intrigued her more than any guy
she’d met in the small town. Rae wanted
to know more, to hear the true back stories behind the gossip and she
anticipated their upcoming date with delight.
Yeah, she liked Anthony.
But Rae liked his kiss even more.
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