Excerpt: 'I Saw Her Standing There' by Marie Force

Marie Force shares an excerpt from her new release, I Saw Her Standing There, book three in her Green Mountain Series.

Marie: A couple of years ago, when I was watching an NBC Nightly News story about the Vermont Country Store and the family that owns it, I never could've imagined the scenario that unfolded from that first fortuitous introduction to the store. My husband and I went to Vermont, we visited both of the stores — the original in Weston and the newer addition in Rockingham. We talked to people, we checked out the small towns and the idea for the Green Mountain Series came to fruition.

This week, the third book in the series, I Saw Her Standing There, was released. It features Colton Abbott, the seventh of the 10 Abbott siblings. Colton runs the family's sugaring facility on Butler Mountain, where he lives a rough and spare life on the mountain, with no electricity or running water, which is exactly the way he likes it. Until he comes face-to-face with city girl Lucy Mulvaney, who is in town to help her partner, Cameron Murphy, present the new website for the Green Mountain Country Store, owned and operated by the Abbott family.

Colton quickly realizes he has met his match in Lucy, but with six hours and vastly different lives between them, what hope do they have for making a real go of it? They settle for stolen weekends together, and for a while, the intrigue of his secret romance — and his family's burning desire to know how he's spending those weekends — is enough for Colton. Until it isn't. He wants more, and somehow he has to convince Lucy that they can bring their two separate lives together.

Here's a look at one of my favorite scenes in the book …

In the time it took to walk across the small room, Lucy summoned her inner she-cat vixen and prepared to do battle. Unlike the visitor she'd heard Colton talking to outside earlier, this one sounded young. She'd bet there was no lack of women interested in spending some time with her mountain man.

Her mountain man. Where in the hell had that thought come from, and when had she begun to think of him as hers? Probably about five minutes after she met him, if she were being honest with herself.

Realizing she needed to pull out her biggest guns, she tugged the neckline of her dress down to put her considerable cleavage to good use.

She cracked open the door wide enough to poke her head out, but not wide enough that the strikingly gorgeous blonde on Colton's doorstep could see inside. "May I help you?" Lucy whispered.

Cold brown eyes took a quick assessing look at Lucy and dismissed her as no significant threat. She was used to the instant dismissal as well as the disdainful look. She'd been on the receiving end of it from other women for most of her adult life. "Where's Colton, and who are you?"

"I'm Lucy, and Colton is under the weather."

"What does that mean? Under the weather?"

"He's not well."

Blondie took a step back. "Oh ... Who are you again?"

"Lucy."

"And you're his ... his ... ?"

"Nurse," Lucy said. "I'm his nurse. I was called in to manage his injury."

"Injury? What injury?"

"Oh you didn't hear?" Lucy grimaced dramatically. "The axe caught him. In a bad, bad place. Don't tell anyone I told you this, but he might not be able to, you know, ever again."

Blondie's eyes got all buggy. "Ever?"

"Never," Lucy said gravely. "It's as bad as it gets."

"God, that's an awful tragedy."

"Indeed it is. I'll be happy to tell him you came by, but he's on some serious painkillers. It might be a while before he's lucid again."

"Yeah ... Um, sure. Tell him Angie was here, and I'm really, really sorry to hear about his ... um, his injury."

"I'll be sure to tell him. It was so good of you to check on him."

"I'd better go. I wouldn't want to disturb him."

"That's very kind of you. I'm sure he'll appreciate your consideration."

Lucy watched Angie run more than walk to her car and smiled with satisfaction when Angie left a cloud of dust in her wake. That, Lucy thought, should take care of that. Pleased with herself and her quick thinking, she shut the door and turned to find Colton standing right behind her.

She let out a shriek of surprise.

—

Get your copy of I Saw Her Standing There in e-book, print and audio, all available now. And if you want to catch up on the first two books in the series, you can get All You Need Is Love and I Want to Hold Your Hand at most retailers. All three versions contain the bonus short story "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." Find out more about my books and the Green Mountain Series at marieforce.com.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Marie