Hello December!
Not sure if I'm ready or not but this year is winding down fast. One thing I AM happy about is that Medicare AEP ends in 1 week and boy am I ready! It's been a good season but I'm ready for the madness to stop LOL!
Today's guest, brought by Class Act Books, is new to me so please welcome Icy Snow Blackstone as she enters the spotlight for today - Welcome Icy!
Icy Snow Blackstone was born in 1802, in northern Georgia where her
father, the Reverend John Blackstone, was prominent in local politics. She married a minister, raised seven
children, and lived there all her life.
Two hundred and five years later, her
great-great-great-great-granddaughter began using her name as a pseudonym for
her romance novels. The present Icy Snow Blackstone lives far from her Southern
roots in Lancaster County, Nebraska, where she continues to write
romances.
As of 2017, Icy Snow has eleven novels published by Class Act Books. Her
contemporary romance, Tuesday’s Child,
was given the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewers Choice award for Best
Contemporary Novel of 2014. A SciFi romance, Earthman’s Bride and Vietnam-era romance Jericho Road, have also received awards.
At the age of twenty-two, newly-graduated Nicolo Liguori is
forced by his three brothers to become care-giver for his father, who suffered
multiple strokes. For the next ten
years, Nick gives up his own ambitions , working during the day in the family
jewelry business in Vanderhoek, New York, and returning to the Liguori mansion
every night, to be at his father’s beck-and-call. Then Papa dies and Nick is
free…or is he? Carlo, Marco, and Pietro
expect him to continue life as usual, but Nick has other ideas. Secretly buying a motorcycle, he starts to
work one day and… disappears.
Nick gets as far as the southern coast of Georgia before an
accident disables his bike. Stranded,
with no idea of the South except what he’s seen on TV, Nick isn’t certain what
kind of reception he’s going to get.
Then, a pretty Southern miss and a white tank disguised as a
temperamental horse named Shazam change his life as they and the citizens of
Oceano teach a runaway Yankee about life and love in a small Georgia town.
EXCERPT:
The track was getting narrower, barely two ruts now
with a width of slender, wiry grass separating them. He slowed the bike. Don’t
want to get that stuff caught in the spokes and stall the engine.
Nick raised his head, looking around, then gave a
loud sigh of exasperation. Okay!
So I’m lost! He’d just follow
the road to wherever it went, probably to some farmer’s front yard. When he got there, he’d apologize, turn
around and get himself back to the main drag.
If he could find it.
A broken branch loomed ahead, and he turned his
attention to it, guiding the bike around it.
A second
branch and several twigs littered the roadway.
Nick was so concerned with maneuvering around them he didn’t see the
horse sail over the fence, wasn’t even aware it was there until he looked up
and found the white shape almost directly in front of him.
He jerked
the wheel to the right, forgetting to apply the rear brakes first. The bike skidded, its back wheel rising off
the ground as the front one stopped rolling.
He had a brief vision of the animal leaping forward, its rider clinging
to its back, wide, frightened blue eyes, flying blonde hair...
The
motorcycle went off the road, sliding into the ditch and running up the other
side, the front fender striking one of the fence posts. It bounced and rebounded, and Nick went
flying over the handlebars, flipping in mid-air and hitting the same post with
his back. The bike wavered a moment, then toppled onto its side. Nick slid down the post, landing upside down
in the ditch, his shoulders crushing coffeeweed into an aromatic mass.
The
pounding hooves stopped. He heard
running footsteps, opened his eyes and saw someone running toward him. He closed them again.
“Are you
hurt?”
This time
when he opened his eyes, he was staring at the upside-down face of a very
pretty girl, at least she’d have been pretty if her face wasn’t screwed up into
such a dismayed scowl.
“Am I hurt?” He managed a growl as he slid further into
the weeds and rolled over. “I just hit a
fence and got tossed into a ditch! What
do you think?” Clambering to his knees,
while she plucked ineffectually at one arm, he jerked out of her grasp. “I can get up by my— Ow!”
He’d
gotten upright, took a step, and his leg buckled, turning at the ankle “Here.”
She slid into the ditch, offering a hand. Reluctantly he took it, being careful not to
put too much weight behind it as he let her pull him to his feet. He could see she was worried and he really
wasn’t hurt all that bad, but he was angry because she’d been so reckless.
“What the
Hell’s the matter with you? Jumping in
front of me like that! If I’d hit that
horse—”
“What are
you doing riding this road? This is
private property.”
She was
too pretty for him to pretend to stay angry at, so he toned it down, answering
her question. “I got lost. I only wanted
to find the end of the road and turn around.”
“You have
a way to go. The house is about a
quarter of a mile that way.” She nodded
toward a group of pines thrust into the road, hiding the rest of it from sight.
Nick looked in that direction, then back at her. She, in turn, looked at the motorcycle, still
on its side in the weeds. “You seem okay. Is that
hurt?”
Nick got
down on one knee, feeling under the bike.
His hand came away wet. He
sniffed at his fingers.
Gasoline.
He pulled off one glove, exploring gingerly.
Something had punched a hole in the gas tank and gasoline was pouring
into the grass. He had no idea how, but
it didn’t matter. What did was that he
wasn’t going anywhere as long as that hole was there.
“Well?” She appeared to be awaiting his diagnosis.
He wiped
his fingers on the seat of his jeans.
“Gas tank’s got a hole in it, clutch cable’s severed. Is there a
motorcycle shop around here anywhere?”
“No, but Marshall’s in town can probably repair
it. He does everything from lawn mowers
to farm machinery.”
Oh Lord, deliver me from small town
handymen! He was about to tell her
he didn’t want Marshall touching his bike when he realized, What else am I going to do? Do you have a better idea, Mr. Runaway?
“So which
way is town?” He straightened, looked
around as if expecting to see the city limits a few feet away.
“Too far
for you to push that thing,” she answered, gesturing at the front wheel. “Not with it twisted like that.”
“What do
I do then, Miss Not-So-Helpful? Since this is your fault—”
“My
fault?” Hands went to her hips. And deliciously slim ones they were,
too. Nick had a moment to think she
looked anything but angry, though it was apparent she thought she did. Cute, maybe.
Hell, he might even say adorable with
those blonde wisps floating around her face, but angry? Nope! “Who’s the trespasser? Who had his head down, studying the ground
when he should’ve been looking straight ahead?”
“You
weren’t ahead of me,” he
countered. “You and that white tank of
yours jumped a fence and came in from the side.”
“Never
mind. Just let me get the bike upright
and point me in the right direction, and—”
“I’ll do no such thing.” That made him stare at her, wondering if she
was going to walk away, mount her white steed, and leave him stranded knee-deep
in Kudzu or whatever-the-Hell these weeds were.
“I’ll ride back to the house and get my grandpa’s truck. We”ll put the motorcycle in it.”
She
clambered up the bank, running toward the horse now was grazing on the other
side of the road. Catching the reins and
a handful of mane, she swung into the horse’s back—very gracefully, he
noted—then turned the animal’s head and trotted it back to him.
“You stay
right there,” she told him. “I’ll be
back in a jif!” She kicked the horse in
the ribs and sent it galloping down the road.
Nick
turned his attention back to the V-Rod.
It hadn’t moved. Did he expect it
to get up and limp over to him like a dog with a hurt paw, whimpering for
sympathy? Shaking his head, he leaned
against the edge of the ditch, back against a fencepost.
Welcome South, Brother!
Runaway Brother can be purchased from the
Publisher and
Amazon.
Hope you enjoyed our guest today friends and that you'll check back regularly for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight!
Until next time good luck and God's blessings.
PamT
