I have a treat today! Because I’m so excited about the official release of WILD HEARTS on Amazon, I wanted to share the first chapter here, in the hopes that it might spark your interest!
First – quick paperback update: There was an issue with the formatting of the paperback cover, so the wonderful woman who’s done all my design work is currently addressing that. Once finished, I’ll re-upload it to Amazon and it’ll be another ~72 hours before it’s available in that format for purchase. Stay tuned and I’ll update when it’s ready!
Currently the e-book is available for download ($3.99, or FREE with Kindle Unlimited). If you’re so inclined to read/purchase, you can find it here!
And now without further ado, here’s chapter one of WILD HEARTS! I hope you enjoy it…
The pale-yellow moon cast a dusty glow on the gravel drive leading to the light blue farmhouse. The evening light gave the house a greenish coloring, and the proud American flag hanging off of the front porch billowed gently in the soft May breeze. White steps flanking that porch revealed chipped paint and crooked wooden boards, and the two potted plants to either side of the steps clearly hadn’t seen a good watering in God only knew how long. Pots clanked and clattered from inside the cracked kitchen window, where a red and white plaid curtain wafted in the spring air, and a small dog’s yap mingled with the lulling echo of a nearby owl.
These were the sights and sounds of many quiet homes nestled into the peaceful, rustic landscape of Reliance, Montana. But for Cara Brown, the scene was much, much more.
This was home.
She shut off the ignition to her 2008 Ford Ranger, and smiled to herself when her companion bolted upright in the passenger seat beside her, suddenly alerted that the short ride was over. A blue Australian Cattle Dog, he had boundless amounts of energy that needed expelling, and this was just the place for it.
“Come on, Tang,” she encouraged, reaching across the seat to push open his door. Like a bullet, he was out, leaving Cara laughing as she gathered her things and followed suit. “Tough day at work for you, I guess.”
Right on cue, the thin wooden storm door to the farmhouse swung open, and out stepped Kay Brown, Cara’s mother. Her warm smile was easily seen, even through the evening dimness, and the silver streaks in her long brown hair, braided neatly and falling down over her shoulder to the waist, shone in the hazy porch light.
“Long day?” Kay asked with a smile as Cara stepped up the wooden stairs. Tang pranced at her feet, delighted to be home and clearly anticipating his reunion with Mabel, Kay’s Yorkshire Terrier.
“Longer than usual.” Cara leaned in to kiss her mother’s cheek. “One waitress was a no-show tonight, which meant double the work, and staying for closing.” They stepped through the door and into the farmhouse, which immediately smelled like a combination of freshly-baked bread and Kay’s signature rosemary candle, which sat flickering on a small wooden table beside the door. Mabel bounded out from the back of the house, yapping and squealing, right to Tang, who sniffed and licked the small dog delightedly.
“Honestly.” Kay shook her head with a smile. “You’ll work yourself to death, I swear it. Don’t think I didn’t hear you this morning, leaving for work at the crack of dawn. I don’t think your father was even out in the barn for another hour after I heard your truck rumble down the drive.”
Cara shrugged once inside the kitchen, setting her bag and an assortment of small to-go boxes on the round table. She walked to the side door, shooing both dogs out into the fenced yard for a much-needed run. Flicking the outside light on, she watched them play for a moment before closing the door again and turning towards Kay.
“Working a little late means I get to bring leftover pie home.”
It was all she needed to say in order to hear the distant shifting sound of the recliner in the living room, followed by footsteps on the creaking wooden hall floor. Within seconds, Cara’s father, Ron, appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Blueberry?”
She grinned. “What else?”
Ron was the most hardworking man Cara had ever known – and she didn’t think that just because he was her dad. A cattle rancher all of his life, Ron Brown had owned one of the largest ranches in Reliance for more than forty years – spanning three thousand acres of pristine, rugged Montana farmland, and boasting nearly one thousand cows. He had a small team of young men who worked for him, but the majority of work was his alone, and Cara had been impressed by his work ethic and motivation since she was a little girl. Even now, with Ron in his late sixties – almost always complaining of sore feet and a tired back – he was out in the barns no later than six each morning, and back in the house in time for supper – not a moment sooner.
All three of them grabbed forks from the silverware drawer and pulled up a seat at the kitchen table. Cara passed around the boxes of blueberry pie slices, grinning as she watched Ron dive into his. She knew he’d probably been watching baseball in the living room – and most likely starting to doze off while he did it. It was usually only the mention of baked goods from the Reliance Grill that could tear him out of his recliner at this time of night.
“Mm, this sure is good,” Kay nearly moaned as she took another bite. Before she even moved for it, Cara knew she was thinking about putting a pot of coffee on. Aside from the rosemary candle, Kay’s other trademark scent was freshly brewed coffee, which she sipped several times a day, and always just before bed. Cara didn’t understand how the caffeine didn’t seem to affect her parents’ sleep, but somehow it didn’t. They both drank the stuff like water.
Just as expected, Kay stood up to put a pot of coffee on, and Ron offered a grunting sound of approval as he shoved another forkful of pie into his mouth.
“Good day on the ranch, Dad?” Cara asked. She closed the box that contained her slice of pie. It was already her second one of the evening and she was stuffed.
“Livin’ the dream,” he replied with a crooked smile. It’s what he always said when she asked about his work. Day in and day out, cattle ranching had been Ron’s life, and it was what he enjoyed. Cara just couldn’t see him doing anything else. He was a man meant to work with his hands out on the land, getting dirty and exhausted doing an honest day’s work. And the wrinkles and lines near his eyes were proof of those many years of hard labor.
Cara stood to open the side door for the dogs, who were whining from outside. Once she did, they bounded in, ready for dinner.
“Okay, okay,” she soothed, grabbing both food bowls from the floor and setting them on the counter. “Jeez, you’d think the two of you were actually starving.”
“I still don’t know how Tang does it all day,” Kay said after a sip of coffee. “How he sits with you all day at work.”
“A dog like that needs to run all day,” Ron agreed. “I need him with me on the ranch.”
“Yeah, right,” Cara laughed. “As if you’d have the patience to teach Tang how to work cattle. He might be the right breed, but my boy’s a princess at heart. He doesn’t like to get his feet dirty.”
She set both food bowls down and gave Tang and Mabel affectionate scratches behind the ears.
“Besides,” she continued. “Tang does get to run around. At the store he hardly ever sits still. I let him run all morning, and by the time we get to the Grill he’s content to curl up in the office for my shift.”
Kay smiled at the dogs and pulled her knit sweater tighter around her lithe body. She was a small-framed, delicate woman – but she was by no means weak. Cara had seen her mother put in her own fair share of work on the ranch, and her strength had always surprised and impressed her. Kay pitched in occasionally – not because she had to – but because she had trouble sitting still, being idle. She’d been a schoolteacher for many years, as well as a stay at home mom while Cara had been young, and now she was a dedicated volunteer for the local Gallatin County Animal Shelter. Cara had never known a human being to love animals – especially dogs – more than her mom did, and the sparkle of affection in her eyes as she watched Mabel and Tang warmed Cara’s heart.
Cara glanced at the clock on the wall, registering that she’d have to be awake in seven hours to open up the Silver Creek Farm Supply – her morning job.
“I should hit the hay,” she sighed. Mentally she added, after a shower. A nice, steaming hot shower. It was one of the things she most looked forward to when she arrived home after a long day. Afterwards, she’d cuddle up with Tang and be asleep nearly before her head hit the pillow. As usual.
“Did you eat tonight?” Kay asked. It was one of her normal queries.
“Grilled cheese, and a slice and a half of pie.” Cara crossed the kitchen to kiss both of her parents’ heads. “Make that nearly two and a half slices of pie. See you in the morning.”
Patting her thigh to beckon Tang, she grabbed her bag off the back of the kitchen table chair and headed out the side door. It was a short walk to the smaller farmhouse across the yard, just beyond the nearest cow barn. She and Tang slipped through her parents’ back gate and across the stretch of field separating the two modest homes. A single light shone through the window in the foyer – the one Cara always left on to light her way inside, since it was typically late when she came home from work.
“Okay, Tang,” she muttered, reaching for the door handle. The one hundred year old door creaked open and the dog bounded inside, straight up the stairs to Cara’s bed. He knew the drill.
Chuckling, Cara deposited her things on the living room couch and headed up after Tang. Once in her bedroom, she closed the door and stripped off her restaurant uniform as her trusty companion leapt onto the bed and curled up on the quilted comforter. It was the bedroom she’d had since she’d graduated high school at eighteen and insisted on ‘moving out’ of her parents’ house. Of course, she hadn’t been able to afford a place of her own, but that hadn’t necessarily bothered her. Living on the farm was all she’d ever known – especially since she hadn’t gone to college – and she liked being close to her family. But living under her own roof – even while on the same property – had been a crucial step in her mind, towards establishing her own adult life.
She’d shower now, then set her alarm for five-thirty, her normal wake-up time. Mentally, she flicked through the things on her to-do list for the morning. Get to the store in time to meet the feed supply truck, organize an inventory of hay, straw, and grain, and work out schedules for the high school employees for the next two weeks. She’d schedule a mid-morning meeting to go over re-shelving, as well as the setting out of summer gardening supplies. She’d also pick up two colorful flower arrangements for those pots on her mother’s front porch, since her current plants were no doubt dead. Kay would appreciate it. After a morning at the store, she’d head to the creek for an hour, where Tang could play in the water and she could catch a small break before her shift at the Grill. It would be another long day – the only kind she knew these days. The kind she preferred.
Patting Tang on the head and eliciting a tired groan from him, Cara grabbed her sweatpants and a t-shirt and left the bedroom, in need of the hot water and the refreshing comfort of a good shower, followed by a hard-earned night’s sleep.
***
Reliance, Montana was, no doubt, one of the most beautiful places in the whole entire world. The most, if you asked Cara, but she knew other people might have their own opinions. Some might prefer the rocky coasts and crashing waves of New England, while others liked the miles and miles of flat, green acreage of the Midwest. Still other people were drawn to palm trees, to woodlands, to sandy beaches. But in Cara’s mind, absolutely nothing could beat the breathtaking mountainous vista and wide-open sky that was her home. Even having lived in the same town for twenty-seven years, Cara couldn’t get enough of the view of the Rockies from where she sat, perched on a boulder near Silver Creek, where Tang excitedly leapt after a thrown stick.
“Come on, boy,” she encouraged. “Grab it! We’ve got to get going.” It was nearing one-thirty, which meant her shift at the Reliance Grill was about to start, and she had just enough time to get there and change into her uniform if she left now.
It had been a gorgeous morning. That light May breeze of mountain springtime left her feeling refreshed and grateful to have a morning job that allowed her ample time outdoors. At the Farm Supply, she was always greeting delivery trucks – helping to unload hundreds of pounds of feed, stable shavings, and hay. She was also frequently watering the garden plants that they kept outside for customers, and hanging various signs and flyers advertising products inside the store. She was never bored there, or cooped up in an office, and Tang was always by her side. On a beautiful spring day like this, Cara almost hated the fact that she’d be in a restaurant for the rest of the afternoon.
She gathered up her water bottle and Tang’s leash, ushering him back to the Ranger. The drive to the Grill was short and easy, with no traffic during this time of day. Actually, there wasn’t really ever any traffic at any point of the day in town – another thing Cara loved about Reliance. She couldn’t imagine living and working in a place with traffic, where people were constantly in a hurry, bustling from one place to another without sparing a thought for the actual moment they were living in. Anxious, stressed out – Cara couldn’t imagine that kind of lifestyle.
“Oh, thank God you’re here!” exclaimed Bo, the Grill’s general manager, as soon as Cara stepped through the back door and into the prep kitchen. Tang knew where to go after greeting Bo happily with a wagging tail, and he sauntered into the back office, content to curl up in his dog bed after a fun-filled hour of play in the creek.
“Where’s the fire?” Cara asked.
“Jess didn’t show up again for her shift. I’ve been running on two waiters and a kitchen staff that can’t manage. We’re swamped today. Who knew so many people could be craving a bacon ranch panini for lunch.” Desperation radiated from his face. “Tell me you can stay ‘til closing. I really need the—“
“It’s no problem,” Cara cut him off. “As long as I can snag myself a bacon ranch panini, too. I haven’t eaten a thing all day and if I’m supposed to be on my feet for the next several hours…”
“Done. Kyle! Whip up the special for Cara, and make it quick!” Bo called out to the whistling twenty-year old, who was currently juggling four different frying pans with a grin as big as the state of Montana.
“You got it, boss!”
So what if Cara had once promised herself that working overtime would only be a rarity. So what if she’d tried to convince herself to take more time to be at home – for enjoying her hobbies, like playing with Tang, riding horses, or going for long walks on the ranch. So what if her mother would shake her head in disapproval at her daughter’s fifteen-plus hour workday, as she always did. When Cara was needed, Cara would work. Plus, the overtime pay didn’t hurt one bit. It might even allow her to finally get that leak in her kitchen ceiling fixed – the one that had been dripping sporadically in the metal bucket on her linoleum floor for two months, which she’d carefully avoided telling her father about, since she knew he’d insist on fixing it himself.
“You’re a saint,” Bo breathed. It was clear that the poor middle-aged man had been there all day already – most likely having arrived at sun-up, and struggling ever since. Cara might be tired, but she felt bad for him – one of the nicest men in Reliance, and an old friend of Ron’s. It also helped that Cara liked to be busy – couldn’t stand idleness, just like her mother. She actually supposed she’d inherited that trait from both of her parents.
“So you’re always telling me,” she winked. And with that, she set off for the bathroom to change. Her nine-hour shift started in exactly one minute.
Her phone buzzed on the office table just after five, and Cara only happened to hear it just as she brought Tang in from a short walk behind the Grill. She was sweating and her feet were killing her, and the idea of sitting in the office chair for just a moment was unbelievably appealing.
The prep kitchen was scorching hot, and the two cooks – Kyle and Devon – yelled back and forth as they juggled orders and balanced pots and pans between themselves. The few waiters there scurried here and there, making the kitchen not only stifling, but a frenzied, chaotic mess of a place. Despite it all, Cara had just checked on her tables, which were content for the moment, so she spared a minute for a text from her mom.
New rescue at the shelter, the text read. Won’t be home til late. Fix supper for yourself and Dad. I’ll see you later. Xo.
Cara smiled to herself, knowing that wouldn’t actually be able to happen. While she worked late, Ron would fix himself a peanut butter and banana sandwich, or simply content himself with a jumbo bag of pretzels, as he often did. He had no problem fending for himself when he had to, but whenever they were all home together, they ate as a family in her parents’ kitchen – a routine Cara loved.
She wondered what her mom would do for supper. Though she’d been out of the school system for over ten years, at sixty years old she was still just as dedicated to being useful as she had ever been. The county animal shelter was lucky to have her, and more than a few dogs had benefited from Kay’s loving care and devotion – at all hours of the night, if need be. Cara was still amazed that the farmhouse wasn’t filled to capacity with foster dogs at all times. She suspected it was her dad who kept that from happening.
She stood from the chair, gave Tang another scratch as he nestled back down into the dog bed, and straightened her white skirt apron. Grabbing her pen and notepad, she headed back onto the Grill floor, lifting her eyes to the booth at the front window – right under the bright red “Reliance Grill” sign. The booth now held her newest customers, who waited for her attention.
She slammed to a halt as a frisson of recognition raced up her back.
Reeling backwards into the kitchen once again, she sought as much distance as possible from the main restaurant floor. She placed a hand on the cool tiled wall and breathed deeply. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t actually be here. Could he? Glancing back towards the booth confirmed for her that yes, he could. And he was.
Dustin Luray was somehow back in Reliance, and the reaction that that fact brought up in Cara was one that surprised even her. It shook and unsettled her. Sure that she was just seeing things, she blinked hard. Blinked again. No, Dustin was still there, chatting with a man across from him at the booth that awaited her service. And yet she couldn’t bring herself to move.
Without thinking, she grabbed Daniel, a college-aged waiter, as he entered the kitchen with a tray full of dirty plates and glasses.
“Whoa.” He glanced down at her hand on his arm, then at her face. “You okay, Cara? You’re a little white.”
“I’m fine,” she managed, but she kept her hand firmly placed on his arm. “Actually, I’m not.” She paused, glancing back at the booth, where Dustin continued talking to the other man, thankfully unaware that she was there. “I need you to take that booth that just came in.” She nodded towards it and Dan followed her gaze.
“Sure, no problem. But you should sit down. Get a glass of water. You look like you’re about to faint.”
“Thanks.” She turned away before he could ask her any questions. Escaping to the office, she plopped back down into the desk chair that she’d just come from. Faithfully, Tang appeared by her side, lifting his front paws up onto the chair to get a better look at his human, and nudging her arm with his wet nose.
“I’m fine,” she said, though she wasn’t at all sure that was true. To be honest, she didn’t have the faintest idea what could have brought Dustin Luray back to Reliance – back home – without warning. Without even the tiniest indication. It had been years since she’d seen or heard from him, and she’d accepted – no, embraced – the fact that she never would again. She didn’t need to. Didn’t need any reminder of what there’d once been between the two of them, and what else could have followed. She didn’t need any reminder of what he had made abundantly clear would never pass again. That chapter of her life had long since closed.
And now that he sat in a booth less than twenty feet away from where she was, Cara wondered if it was possible for it to remain closed.
WILD HEARTS is now available in e-book format at Amazon. Purchase here!
STEPHANIE KLINE 