Here we are in the dog days of summer. I don’t know about you, but when the temperatures are hovering around the nineties, I’m happy to stay inside where it’s cool. For me, the summer had always been a perfect time to catch up on my TBR pile. If you’re an avid reader, you know what I’m talking about. I know I shouldn’t buy more books while the stack beside my bed is ready to tumble over, but when an author I enjoy releases a new book, I can’t resist.
This summer I’m thrilled to announce the release of my seventh Heartwarming book, The Lawman’s Secret Vow. This is the first book in the Meet Me At the Altar series, featuring the Matthews brothers, first introduced in The Bridal Bouquet. You’ll be meeting more of them in the books to come, but in The Lawman’s Secret Vow, we begin the journey with Dante, the youngest of the Matthews clan. The brothers are on a mission to protect their widowed mother from the mysterious man she is dating and being the well-meaning, but suspicious, sons they are, you can imagine the lengths they’ll go to uncover the truth. As well as the trouble they’ll get into along the way.
The Lawman’s Secret Vow features Dante Matthews and Eloise Archer. Both are detectives in a local police department, who have been paired up, pretending to be a newly married couple while they infiltrate a car theft ring. Problem is, they discover feelings for each other while undercover. Can they work together and keep their emotions in check as they delve deeper into the case? Or does the real danger come from falling in love?
I hope you enjoy Dante and Eloise’s story!
To have and to hold—
until the case is solved?
When an undercover assignment pairs laid-back Florida detective Dante Matthews with by-the-book cop Eloise Archer, he knows it won’t be easy. And not just because they’re competing for the same promotion. Now they’re living together under the same roof, and it’s getting harder to ignore his deepening feelings for “his wife.” Can he convince Eloise to partner up—for life?
Excerpt:
When he went back to the squad room, he noticed Ellie had returned.
Mug in hand, he sauntered to her desk. Leaned against the side.
“Heard you’re going to the mud run.”
Her head jerked up. “What? Who told you that?”
“Mason. Said he heard it from some guy over at the Palm Beach PD.”
“Well, he heard wrong. I have no intention of running in mud.”
“Chicken?”
Her eyes narrowed at his challenge. “Sane.”
“It could be fun.”
“Says who?”
Her horrified look had him chuckling. “I’ll take that as a definite no.”
“Because my first answer was unclear?”
“Touchy.”
She blinked at him. “Bleary-eyed.”
“Guess my wrangling you into reviewing my reports is moot.”
“I can’t provide information I have no knowledge of.”
“That’s right, we’ve never worked on a case together.” He took a sip of the bitter coffee and grimaced. “Although that might change. I’ll be around more often.”
“No new exciting cases?”
He shrugged. “Not for me. For a while, anyway.”
“So you hone your detective skills in the meantime.”
“Saying I’m rusty?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never worked with you.”
She’d used his words against him. He held up his mug and grinned.
“Not that I’ve asked not to be paired with you.”
“I never thought you did.”
She relaxed.
Add nice person to the mental list he’d been making about her earlier.
“How come you never go out with your fellow officers after work?” he asked, genuinely curious.
“I don’t know. I’m not a terribly social person.”
“Why is that?”
She shoved her glasses up her nose. A nervous tick he’d noticed.
“Not good company, I guess.”
“Then why is a Palm Beach detective interested in you?”
Her mouth gaped open. “Why would you think that?”
“Because he told Mason.”
“Good grief,” she muttered under her breath, then met his gaze again. “I think work relationships are better left at work.”
Interesting. History there?
“Fair enough.”
The conversation lagged for a few moments. Ellie glanced at a clock on the wall. “I need to head out.”
“You never answered me about dinner tonight. Two colleagues discussing work over a burger and fries?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, but thank you.”
She stood, gathered her purse and slid the chair up to the everything-in-its-place desk. He wanted to mess it up and see her reaction. Instead, he moved aside as she passed, her light floral perfume following in her wake. “See you tomorrow.”
Please join me August 13-18 for The Lawman’s Secret Vow Prism Book Tour where you can enter for a chance to win one of two prize packages!
After years of buying overpriced nonstick pans, only to have them fail to live up to their “lifetime” guarantees, our household has gone back to an old favorite: cast-iron cookware. Yes, the skillets are heavy for my “mature” hands and wrists. That just provides me with some much-needed exercise.
After a recent camping trip when my husband and daughter did most of the cooking in our cast-iron skillet and Dutch oven (heretofore kept only in the camping supplies), I decided to go back to my mother’s ways. I brought that skillet into the kitchen and started using it every day. When my son and daughter-in-law gave me an amazon gift certificate for Mother’s Day, I used it to purchase a cast-iron griddle for the weekly pancakes I make for my dear husband. As I said in the first paragraph, it’s hard on my old wrists and hands, but I like the results in the food I’m preparing. (At right is a one-pan peach cobbler made in our cast iron skillet.)
In August 2016, I was privileged to be part of t three-book series called the Lone Star Cowboy League with amazing, bestselling authors Renee Ryan and Regina Scott. As a promotional gambit, we also published a sampler, which you can download for FREE at 
From my book, 
Grandmother Lacy Cain’s Chicken and Flat Dumplings
