J is for Jack-O-Lantern

A peek at Debra's upcoming Halloween at The Corral.

Kelly, our heroine, is dismayed to learn Dan, our hero, has never carved a jack-o-lantern. And even though she's having trouble figuring him out, one thing she's sure of. No one should miss out on one of Halloween's most classic traditions.

Dan opened the door to the biggest pumpkin he’d ever seen. From behind the massive gourd came Kelly’s voice. “Want to give me a hand here?”

He took a brief moment to appreciate her long, slim legs covered in faded denim before taking the pumpkin from her arms.

“Thanks. Take that inside. The kitchen table should work. I’ll be right back with the rest.”

“The rest?” But she was already halfway down the sidewalk.

A heavy weight, present since he’d walked away from her in The Corral’s parking lot last night, lifted from his chest. He placed the enormous pumpkin on the kitchen table. Finding her on his doorstep was a pleasant, if unexpected, surprise.

The front door opened, then closed. Booted footsteps thunked on the hardwood in the hall. Kelly appeared in the doorway with a cardboard carton in her arms. She set the box down. “Whew. I’m glad you have
a ranch.” She nodded toward the pumpkin. “Good. You have a table. I wasn’t sure if you had a galley kitchen. That would have made things tricky.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, because I’m glad to see you, but what are you doing here?”

She flashed him a grin that was at once impish and sexy. “We’re going to carve a pumpkin.” She brandished a wicked looking knife from the box.

His breath caught. His light-as-air heart beat faster. She’d listened. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "That sounds like fun."

Halloween at The Corral makes its worldwide debut on October 5.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Sunday Snippet - A Peek at Debra's VALENTINE'S DAY AT THE CORRAL

The latest in Debra's Holidays at The Corral Series released on Friday.

“Gail?”

She groaned. Someone had recognized her? The stairs were only a few feet away. So close to freedom. Maybe she could pretend she hadn’t heard her name. She took another step.

“Gail Robbins?” The deep voice was closer now.

Crap. She turned.

Double crap. Scott Callahan, the new president of Thompson and Sons, the accounting firm where she worked, stood before her. She bit back another groan. Of all the people to run into.

He smiled. “I thought I recognized you.”

“Hello, Mr. Callahan.”

“Scott.”

Even though theirs was a small firm, being on a first name basis with the head of the company seemed too familiar, so she merely nodded.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

Not the word she’d use. More like awkward. Or embarrassing. Running into your boss at a speed dating event? Gads.

Wait…

“What are you doing here?” The question popped out before she could stop it.

He chuckled and tapped the name tag affixed to the lapel of his tailored suit jacket. Had he come right from work? “Same thing you are.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’re here for the mixer?”

His green eyes twinkled. “Yep.”

“Really?” Triple crap. Her mouth had a mind of its own. If she wasn’t careful, it would get her fired. Not to mention the fact she’d snuck out of work early to go home and change before heading to The Corral.

He quirked an eyebrow, which drew her attention to his face again. Up close, he appeared more boyishly charming than stern executive. Younger too. Considering his position, she’d assumed he was in his mid-forties. Now she reassessed and put him closer to her own age of thirty.

“Does that surprise you?”

His age? She jerked back to the conversation at hand. “What?”

“You sound surprised I’m here for the speed dating event.”

“I am.” In for a penny, in for a pound. Not like the situation could get any worse. She might as well be honest.

He laughed. The deep, throaty chuckle was…sexy.

Gail blinked. Where had that come from? You shouldn’t think your boss’s laugh was sexy. Or the wayward lock of sinfully black hair falling over his forehead, loosened from the sweptback style as if he’d just run his fingers through it.

“I have to admit, I’m surprised I’m here too.”

“That makes two of us.” She bit her lip. “I mean, me. Not you. Me being here is surprising. It’s all my cousin’s fault.” Ugh. The more she tried to explain, the more tangled her words became. And now she was rhyming.

“Ah, we have something in common. It’s all my sister’s fault that I’m here.” He grinned. “Tell you what, how about I buy you a drink, and we can swap stories about our meddling relatives?”

Once again Gail gaped. Had he just asked her to have a drink with him? Her first instinct was to say no. For one thing, she wanted to get the hell out of there. For another, he was her boss. Mingling socially didn’t seem…proper. Then again, was it worse to refuse to have a drink with your boss? That couldn’t be good for a career either.

He leaned closer. The spicy yet subtle scent of his aftershave tickled her nostrils. “Come on, help a guy out.”

Odd phrasing. “Help you out?”

“Yes. Please save me from the woman dressed in a pink jumpsuit checking out my ass.”

Gail laughed. How could a girl say no to that?

Sundy Snippet - A Peek at Debra's "A Christmas to Remember"

Prelude

Did she really expect him to be there? She hadn’t seen him since last year. She had no way to contact him. No way to know if he meant it when he’d said they should meet again next year.

Yet through the long months in between, she’d hoped. Even when the snow melted and the tulips bloomed announcing the arrival of spring, she hoped. On those sultry summer nights when it was too hot to sleep, she hoped. And when autumn turned the leaves to burnished gold and russet, she’d hoped.

Through the changing seasons, her thoughts, her heart, had never been far from snow covered mountains, cold, crisp air, and a cozy ski lodge.

She made her flight reservations in late October. Hoping.

As the days grew colder and the nights grew longer, her anticipation heightened. When the first snow fell, a giddiness overcame her. The pristine blanket of white made the memories more vivid. More real. Many times over the past year she wondered if she’d dreamed the whole thing.

Heck, for all she knew he had a wife or a girlfriend at home. Or both. Maybe everything he’d said to her had been a lie.

She told herself he wasn’t the reason she hadn’t gone out with another man in the past year. It had nothing to do with him. She simply needed a break from dating.

All the while she hoped.

Now she was here and anticipation warred with nerves. She couldn’t really expect him to show up, could she? Theirs had been a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Yet here she sat. Waiting. Hoping.

More than likely she’d wind up alone in this place. As she’d expected to be last year.

Only it hadn’t turned out that way. She touched the pendant hanging around her neck as her mind drifted back.

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Sunday Snippet - A Peek at Debra's AN UNEXPECTED BLESSING

Chapter One

Katy Roth refrained from kicking the ceramic turkey planter on the porch. Barely. She sat on the top step, its aged and grayed wood visible through the peeling paint. Her hand clenched convulsively, crumpling the letter she held. The contents didn’t surprise her. Not really. They were hardly past the merriment of Halloween, and she already knew things to be thankful for, come Thanksgiving, were going to be few and far between.

Unable to sit still, she shoved the crumpled document into the front pocket of her hooded sweatshirt and rose to her feet. She took a deep breath and sucked in a lungful of crisp, fall air. Her feet crunched through crimson, gold, and ocher leaves as she made her way across the yard toward the woods.

With Thanksgiving approaching at the end of the month, it was the time of year for counting blessings, but all she could think about were the things going wrong in her life. Because of the poor economy she couldn’t find a full-time job and was living back home. Daddy’s physical health was declining. And now her ex had cut his child care payments. She kicked at a clump of leaves. Normally she wasn’t so pessimistic, but lately it was like living in a house of cards. All it would take was one more calamity and the whole thing would come tumbling down. She didn’t know if she had the fortitude to scramble out from underneath.

A noise from over by the utility shed caught her attention. She looked over and her mouth dropped open. Had her negative thoughts actually conjured another catastrophe?

A man carrying an armful of wood strode toward the driveway. An unfamiliar pickup truck sat in the gravel. Was he stealing from Daddy’s woodpile?

She broke into a run. “Hey. What are you doing?”

The man turned and Katy gasped as she recognized him.

Joe Mason.

Her surprise turned to trepidation. Joe was the town’s bad boy. Literally. He’d been sentenced to prison. She couldn’t remember for how long. Had he been released already? Well, if he were stealing, he’d be headed right back.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Sunday Snippet - A Peek at Debra's "The Vampire and the Vixen"

Since we're in the month of October, I thought I'd share a snippet from my Halloween novella.

Chapter One

“I still think we’re a little too old to be dressing up for Halloween.”

Kelsey Adams glanced over at her best friend. “No, we’re not. It’s fun. Besides…” She swept her hand out. A couple hundred or so costumed people mingled in the banquet room. Long John Silver chatted with Snow White at a nearby table. Romeo and Juliet twirled among the dancers on the parquet floor. At the bar, James Bond sipped a martini. “Dressing up as one of your favorite literary characters for the library fundraiser was an inspired idea.”

Tracy laughed. “It was your idea.”

“I know. I was inspired.” Her gaze swept over the other woman. Tracy wore a black mini sweater dress with tights. Red contact lenses tinted her eyes, and an oval ring encrusted with cubic zirconia glittered on her finger when she raised a hand to brush the hair from the long, brown wig out of her eyes. “You make a very convincing Bella.”

“Thank you.” Tracy batted her eyelashes. Then she looked at Kelsey. “Tell me who you are again.”

Kelsey took a glass of wine from the tray of a passing waiter. “I’m not a particular someone.” She sipped the wine. The lush, fruity with a hint of vanilla flavor of the chardonnay slid over her tongue. She swallowed. The warmth of the alcohol pooled in her stomach. “I’m the heroine on the cover of a historical romance.”

“Which one?”

“All of them.”

Tracy’s gaze raked over Kelsey again. “Okay, so I get the boobs bursting from the barely barely-there bodice of your dress. But why the slit?”

Kelsey shifted her weight to let one leg peek through the thigh high slit in the full, floor length skirt of the baby blue gown. “A heroine always shows leg on the cover.”

Tracy laughed. “Well, you certainly play the vixen well.”

Kelsey lifted her glass in a toast. “Why thank you.”

In the background, The Monster Mash morphed into the theme from The Addams Family.

“So how long do we— Holy crow,” Tracy breathed.

Kelsey turned toward the entrance. Her gaze collided with the dark stare of the man in the doorway. Her breath caught. A flush of heat having nothing to do with alcohol, burned through her.

A cape, black as sin, flowed over his broad shoulders. The high collar stood up against the back of his head, nearly blending with his ebony hair. At his neck, a white bow tie topped the tuxedo shirt worn beneath a white fitted vest. A golden medallion nestled against his muscled chest. Black, tailored pants encased long legs.

Kelsey’s gaze met his again. Dracula’s mouth quirked up at one corner. Her heart did a funny skip beat. She swallowed and licked her lips. When he tracked the gesture, warmth seeped into deep, secret places. What would his mouth feel like on hers?

“Kelsey.”

She jerked her attention away from the man at the door. “Sorry.” She took a sip of wine. Her fingers trembled around the fragile stem of the glass. If Tracy hadn’t interrupted the fantasy, Kelsey might have melted into a puddle on the rose-patterned carpet.

“I completely understand. A vampire will do that to you.”

“Uh huh.” Kelsey snuck another peek at the door, but the compelling stranger was gone. Damn.

Snippet Sunday - A Peek into Debra's WIP

This story will hopefully be the first in a series of short spin-offs of my Corral Series. It features the brother of Zach, from This Can't Be Love, as the hero. As a disclaimer, it is only the first draft and has not been through any kind of edits whatsoever.

Chapter One
"What do you mean you're stuck in Colorado and can't get home?"
Van Rawlings looked over at the woman sitting a few stools down at the bar. Her open-mouthed expression of dismay might have been comical if it weren't paired with the desperate tone of her voice, which carried even over the energetic beat of Luke Bryan's Run, Run Rudolph currently blasting through the bar's speakers.
Although it had been the content, not the tenor, of the sentence she'd spoken into the phone tucked against her ear that had caught his attention. He also happened to know someone stuck in Colorado unable to get home. No way could it be a coincidence. Not in a town this size.
But who was this woman?
She tucked a strand of long, honey blonde hair behind her ear. "How could you do this to me?" She paused to listen. Made a face. "Easy for you to say. You're frolicking in Colorado with your wife. What am I supposed to do now?"
Van frowned as he took a sip of his beer. Cheating husbands and wives weren't anything new to him, but somehow he'd never imagined his brother falling prey. Was his 'perfect' marriage already crumbling into the dust of impending divorce? Goed to show, even the good guys had trouble keeping those wedding vows.
"Fine. I'll talk to you when you get home." Another pause. A sigh. "No, I'm sorry. I know you didn't do this on purpose. Besides, there's always next year. And you owe me one. Huge." She laughed. "Me too, but don't let Jessica hear you say that."
She swiped the phone off and placed it on the bar. "Better make my refill a double, Nick."
The bartender nodded. He returned shortly to place two stemmed glasses in front of her. He winked. “Double chardonnay, per your request.”
The woman laughed. Not the forced sound of polite acknowledgement, but one of genuine amusement.
Van took another swallow of beer. Should he say something? Confront her? What would he open with… 'So, are you fooling around with my brother behind his wife's back?'
Nope. Best to stay out of it. Really, it wasn't any of his business. Not yet. If it came down to it, he'd offer Zach a family discount.
The woman sighed and tapped long, red fingernails on the bar. Since she seemed wrapped up in her own thoughts, he studied her without fear of getting caught staring. A black sweater hugged her curves. Skinny jeans encased the long legs propped on the rung of the stool. Tall boots molded shapely calves. Definitely attractive.
Still. Even though his life was filled with people who didn't give a damn about upholding the sanctity of marriage, he honestly had a hard time believing Zach would cheat on Jessica, no matter how attractive another woman was. Seeing Zach and Jessica together almost made Van rethink his view on the institution of marriage. Almost.