6 authors share some Old West meet-cutes
Everyone loves a great meet-cute — the scene in a book, film, TV show in which a romantic couple meets for the first time in an adorable or funny way. It's often the part that hooks you in for the rest of the story!
Historical Western authors Rosanne Bittner, Linda Broday, Kaki Warner, E.E. Burke, Jacqui Nelson and Jo Goodman share their favorite meet-cutes from their historical Western romances.
Rosanne Bittner, author of Outlaw Hearts
First meeting? In a Bittner book? I don't write fluff and sweet "first" meetings. When Jake and Randy from Outlaw Hearts first meet, he's a wanted man who gets into a gunfight inside the supply store where Randy is shopping. Jake scares Randy to death and she thinks he might shoot her, so she pulls a little gun out of her handbag and shoots Jake! He looks at her like … "What the heck??" … and he stumbles out and rides out of town wounded. Later he ends up hiding in Randy's own house, but he doesn't know that's where he is. He passes out and Randy comes home to find him lying unconscious on her bed!
Linda Broday, author of Twice a Texas Bride
An excerpt:
Eyes watched him. Rand renewed his grip on the Colt, readying for anything. "Come out. I won't hurt you."
In the dimness, he noticed two forms huddling in a far corner. When he got closer, a woman leaped to her feet, brandishing a stick that came within a hair of whacking his leg. Surprised, he jumped back. She shivered either from fear or the icy wind.
"Please, I don't mean you any harm, ma'am. Name's Rand Sinclair." His gaze flicked to the second person, a young boy. Rand finally remembered the Colt and slid it back into the holster. "I have a fire going, and food. You don't have to be afraid."
"I always have to be afraid," the woman whispered. "It's the only way to stay alive."
Clearly, trouble trailed her. Rand said softly, "Think of your son."
She took his measure with a hard stare. After several long seconds, she dropped the makeshift weapon.
Kaki Warner, author of Home by Morning
Thomas and Pru appear in all six Heartbreak Creek books. Below is Thomas' recollection of that first meeting as told in the final book, Home by Morning.
"When I first saw you in Declan Brodie's wagon, Prudence Lincoln, with your shy smile and great, wounded eyes, I knew that I would love you. And later, when I held you in the sacred pool, and spirits trailed ribbons of light across the moonless sky, I knew that I would lose you. I accept that."
He waited for the emotion blocking his throat to ease, then said in a ragged voice, "But know this, Eho'nehevehohtse. Through all the days I have left ... until the last sunset unfurls across the sky and the owl calls my name into the night ... I will never forget you."
E.E. Burke, author of A Dangerous Passion
An excerpt:
Shivering, Lucy hunched over and hugged her cloak tighter.
A pair of shoes appeared in her line of vision, the polished leather uppers partially concealed by the dirtied hems of gray trousers and the edges caked with mud.
"Miss?" The stranger's deep voice matched his shoes, cultured, and…familiar.
She raised her eyes, and a thrill shot through her.
Her rescuer. He'd returned.
He gazed down at her with heartwarming concern. "Are you unhurt?"
"I-I'm well, thank you." Nervous, stammering, the speech she'd rehearsed gone, her mind blank as a chalkboard. One of the feathers adorning her bonnet drooped over her right eye. Flushed and flustered, she brushed it aside. "My hat could use some help."
His lips didn't quite reach a smile. But, oh, what fine lips they were. How fortunate his beard didn't cover them. She didn't care much for facial hair, but it didn't detract from this man's handsomeness. Neither did the mud, which was spattered on his overcoat and trousers. There was even a spot on the dark hair covering his cheek. Had he chased after their attackers, gotten filth flung at him by retreating hooves?
Her imagination ran wild.
Jacqui Nelson, authors of Adella's Enemy
From Jacqui's stand-alone novella, which is also part of Passion's Prize anthology featuring interlinked storylines by E.E. Burke and Jennifer Jakes, Adella's Enemy:
Kansas, 1870
Chains burst. Iron screeched. The mountain of rails toppled toward Adella. Trapped as she was in the muck below, she'd soon be crushed in a muddy grave.
A hand clamped round her arm and yanked. Her feet popped from the mud, and she sailed through the air before landing on the train platform. Shock rendered her legs useless, crumpling her like a rag doll on the boards. A shower of mud pelted the platform on either side of her.
"Did I hurt you?" The now familiar brogue whispered so close it raised goose flesh.
Lifting her head, she stared into eyes as silver as newly minted dollars, the only difference in a face as muddy as the rest. The man's massive frame crouched protectively over her. She was bombarded with memories of her mother's stories, tales passed down for generations of Celtic warriors. She'd never dreamed of encountering one of those mythical men in human form.
Jo Goodman, author of This Gun for Hire
An excerpt:
Quill politely knocked on the door.
Calico asked, "Is that you, Joe Pepper?"
"No. Not Sheriff Pepper. But he will be here directly if that eases your mind."
"My mind is not uneasy."
"That's good. A clear conscience is a comfortable companion."
"Who said that?"
"I thought I just did. Why? Did it seem profound?" A moment later the door was opened, although she blocked his entrance with a hand placed on either side of the frame.
"It seemed," she said, "like something a badly behaved schoolboy would have to write repetitively. Probably under his teacher's watchful eye."
A small vertical crease appeared between Quill's eyebrows as he gave her observation full consideration. A few strands of sun-licked hair fell across his forehead when he tipped his head sideways. He raked them back absently, still mulling. "No," he said. "I never put chalk to a slate to write something like that. I think it is an original thought."
"Well, damn. When I woke this morning, I did not anticipate standing in the presence of a man with an original thought, and yet here I am, practically basking in his glow. My day is steadily improving, wouldn't you say?"
Quill grinned. "You think I have a glow?"
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