Author Spotlight: C’est Moi & I’ve Got a Fun Surprise for You!

We have a winner! Cathy Poyser, your name was chosen at random and you will be receiving my box of goodies. Watch your email, I’ll be in touch! Thanks to everyone who stopped by. I love hearing about your flower memories!

Just a quick little spotlight because it is release week for Make It Real, book 2 in the Walkers of River’s Edge series. I had such a good time with this story researching and asking questions about flowers, gardens, landscaping and oh, serious leg injuries and poison ivy reactions. All in a day’s work for authors…

Make It Real

They were only faking it….

A landscape designer for his family’s construction firm, Joe Walker, is nearing completion on one of the most important projects of his career—gardens for spec homes that if they wow, Walker Construction will survive. When a freak accident sidelines him with a broken leg, the firm hires a competitor. Her ideas are radically different, but his stalker ex arrives to play nurse, and Joe needs more than gardening help.

After six-years working in English manor gardens, horticulturist Kara Sudbury returns to River’s Edge to help in her grandparents’ struggling garden center. She’s thrilled when Jackson Walker hires her to execute his injured cousin’s designs. Ignoring Joe is difficult because he’s as sexy now as he was in high school and even more stubborn. But when Joe asks Kara to play the role of girlfriend, they strike a deal that will help Joe handle his tenacious ex and put Sudbury’s Nursery back in the black. Kara’s up for the subterfuge…for a price, but then the pretense feels real, and Kara is reminded that every rose has its thorns.

Go here for all the buy links for this one!

GIVEAWAY:

Tell me in the comments below your very favorite flower and what its special significance is. I’ll start–I love lily of the valley because they smell so heavenly and they  remind me of my mom.  Up for grabs is a chance at a signed copy of the River’s Edge backlist book of your choice, a handmade guardian angel bracelet, a River’s Edge notebook, and a $10 Starbuck’s gift card, along with some other random swag. (Continental US only, please) 

Excerpt:

He took a breath, formulating his request so that it didn’t sound self-serving and maybe even a little disturbing. “Could you . . . I mean, would you possibly be willing to pretend for a little while longer that we’re together? You and I?” At her startled expression, he hurried on. “You were darn close when you referred to Allyson as a stalker. She’s not dangerous at all, but she’s damn persistent. Somehow she’s managed to turn a few dates into the romance of the century.”

She moved the cookie box farther away, dammit, and plopped down in the chair by the bed, crossing her arms over her chest—the universal signal for I’m not open to anything you might suggest, buddy.

He ignored that and continued, “If she thinks I’ve moved on—”

“To me,” she interrupted wryly.

“To you.” He smiled his best rash-covered smile. “Then maybe she’ll finally get the message and go away.”

“This little ruse would only play out here, while you’re in the hospital?”

Ah-ha—she’s thinking about it.

“Well, no.” He scratched absently at a healing blister on his wrist.

“Don’t scratch,” she admonished like a mother hen. Oh, she was going to be good at this role if she was willing to take it. “Wouldn’t it take just one time of—Allyson, is it?”

He nodded.

“Of Allyson seeing us together to get the job done?”

“You don’t know this woman. She’s tenacious and smart.” His mind was whirring now, creating scenarios where he and Kara could be a believable couple. He wished he had a piece of paper so he could diagram out a plan. Maybe come up with some definite ways to let everyone see them together. It would have to be so convincing that even his family would buy it, because knowing Allyson, she’d break someone down—probably Cam—and force them to admit it was all a big hoax.

Kara gave him the side-eye. “If she’s so smart, why would she ever buy you suddenly falling madly in love with me?”

“What do you mean by that?” Did she think he couldn’t be convincing as a man ass-over-elbows in love? Hell, he’d played Romeo in the eighth-grade production of Shakespeare’s classic play. He could totally do this.

“Well, for one thing, you’re a lot older than me.”

That was just offensive. “I am not! I’m only thirty-three.”

“Okay, I’m twenty-eight.” She pursed her lips. “Plus, I’ve only been back in town for a couple of months, and when’s the last time you had a date with the lovely Allyson?”

“’Bout three weeks ago.” He thought for a moment. “But you and me? All it took was one look—our eyes met across a sunflower field and pow!” He punched his fist into his palm. “I fell like a rock in a pond.”

She laughed out loud—a sexy, throaty sound that sent a startling tingle through him. “Yeah, you were so bowled over by my unbelievable beauty, you tripped over a log, broke your leg, and damn near shot me.” She rose, swept her hands over her Sudbury Garden Center T-shirt and crumpled khaki shorts. “Because this”—she yanked off her ball cap, raked her fingers through her curls, and pulled a goofy face—“was the sexiest thing you’d seen since Allyson’s behind in a pair of tight jeans.” She dropped back into the padded chair. “Sure. Why not?”

“Come on, we can do this,” Joe urged, because now he was intrigued with the whole idea of Kara Sudbury. She was cute and funny, and he found the little bit of self-deprecation pretty damn appealing. “Please be my girlfriend until Allyson is convinced you are, then we can part ways amicably. But we have to convince everyone, not just Allyson. It has to look real.”

“So, we fake passion until hers cools? Then we just say, oh, we decided to call it a day.”

“Exactly!” Joe was exultant. Surely this would get batshit-crazy Allyson off his case, and he could focus on healing without being scared to answer his door. “But, remember, everyone has to buy this: your family, your friends, my family, my friends. Oscar-worthy performances by both of us.”

She squinted at him. “Just one question?”

“Okay.”

“What’s in this for me?” She still had her arms crossed over her chest.

Merci, mes amis! And welcome home to River’s Edge!