Black Heat (17 page)

"It's my pleasure to announce that this morning's ceremony will be concluded with the unveiling of a recent donation to our station. A historic flag dating back to 1889, from the estate of the Brackens family. Mimi and Roan, I wonder if you would do the honors."

The room fell silent as Roan and Mimi made their way to the back wall, where a curtain had been hung over the newly installed glass case. Roan met Mimi's eyes—and Mimi winked. "One, two...three!" she exclaimed as they pulled back the curtains.

The audience gasped, then cheered. The old flag had been carefully restored and mounted, and Roan was sure it had never looked more resplendent. She wished she knew the story of how it had come to be in her family. But even in the best of families, there were things you could never know, secret loves and losses, hidden treasures and forgotten promises.

Every family experienced hurt as well as happiness. The luckiest people got a second chance to find the love that was lost along the way.

Roan reached for Mimi's hand as the audience applauded. "To the Brackens family!" someone shouted, and a chorus of cheers went up. Roan found Cal in the crowd, looking handsome in his uniform. Their eyes met and he mouthed
I love you
, and Roan knew she had everything she ever wanted.

#

Half an hour later she was helping Jayne serve the cake while Matthew ladled punch. Cal was standing with the other new officers, receiving congratulations, when Chief Byrd came over.

"It's come to my attention that Cal and Darrel and Trevor aren't the only new graduates around here," he said.

Roan looked up in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"You may not know that Dr. Raj and I go way back. We've been bowling together every Tuesday for a decade. He told me one of his patients just graduated from physical therapy. So I issued one extra invitation to the reception."

He pointed to the back of the room, where Mimi was teetering on her high heels, tugging a leash and grinning. While Roan watched, Angel walked through the door, wearing a big red bow around her neck. Cal went to greet them, and led them over to Roan.

"Thank you!" she said to Chief Byrd, remembering in the nick of time that it probably wouldn't do to hug her boyfriend's new boss. So she made do with hugging her boyfriend instead.

"The old girl's looking good," he said, giving Roan a quick kiss that held the promise of much more later.

"I heard that," Mimi said, handing over the leash to Roan. "And I'll take it. A woman my age can't be choosy with her compliments."

As not one but two silver-haired gentlemen in the crowd looked her way with admiration, Roan laughed. "Um, I think Cal was talking about Angel." She reached down and stroked the dog's fur, which was silky from a celebratory grooming. "You're going to get spoiled from all this attention," she chided.

"Both of my girls are going to be spoiled rotten, if I have anything to do with it," Cal said.

"You need to get back to your admirers," Roan said. "And I need to finish serving cake."

"As long as you make time for me later," he said, breaking away reluctantly.

"Of course," Roan murmured. For Cal, she had all the time in the world.

***

Did you enjoy
Black Heat
?

Check out more sweet, small town romances by Ruby Laska:

The Boomtown Boys Series:

Black Gold

Black Heat

The Cupid Island Series:

Larissa Learns to Breathe

Standalone novels:

Mountain Song

Heartbreak, Tennessee

A Man for the Summer

Mine 'til Monday

Along for the Ride

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…or keep reading to enjoy an excerpt from
Black Flame,
Book 3 in the Boomtown Boys series
.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ruby Laska grew up in a small midwestern town, where her passions included state fairs, Vince Gill, and the local library. A recent West Coast transplant, she lives and works in Emeryville, California. When not writing sweet, small-town romances, Ruby loves to explore San Francisco’s neighborhoods, stopping in at every shoe store and searching for the perfect cup of joe.

PLEASE ENJOY THIS EXCERPT OF
BLACK FLAME

By Ruby Laska

CHAPTER ONE

“But—it’s Christmas,” Deneen Burgess sputtered, her face coming dangerously close to violating the Burgess family “No Tears Under Any Circumstances” rule, which was almost as sacred as the “Never Admit Defeat” rule that she had already violated earlier in the week.

She’d come halfway across the country to escape her family’s scorn, and they didn’t even know about her latest mistake yet. She wasn’t about to compound the error by crying in public.

“It’s not Christmas today,” the woman behind the rental car counter pointed out unhelpfully. “Only Christmas Eve. And barely noon, so I’m not sure you can even call it ‘eve’ yet.”

“Thank you for your help,” Deneen said miserably, giving up all hope of leaving the Conway, North Dakota airport in a taxi or a rental car. It was probably just as well; she was down to her last eighty-seven dollars, so she would have had to put transportation on the just-in-case Visa her dad had given her when she graduated from college and started her first job.

That had been four years ago, and she’d never managed to go more than a few months without having to put some unexpected expense on the Visa. Mother and Daddy never got angry with her, but they made it clear that it was time for her to find a nice husband to keep her in pocket money. Deneen had almost started to believe they might have a point, that she might as well give up all hope of making it on her own and find a man to take care of her, but she didn’t have any current prospects.

Her sister Jayne had never needed to ask for money, but then again, Jayne was the perfect one. She’d managed to find not just a well-paying job but a fantastic boyfriend—none other than Matthew Jarrett, who had been famous in Red Fork, Arkansas for his looks and athletic ability and charm and, well, everything about him was just as perfect as Jayne. Just once, Deneen would like to know what it felt like to be perfect herself.

That’s why she was here. To prove she could be really, truly, good at something. After all, Jayne had found a job the minute she came up here last summer. Unemployment was down to three percent in this oil boomtown. With all the extra disposable income in the local economy, there would surely be a need for a skilled events planner. After all, newly wealthy oil workers would be getting married and having kids. There would be birthdays and engagements and retirements and christenings and all kinds of parties and celebrations.

And while the unthinkable, horrible event of last week was still too painful to think about, the timing couldn’t have worked out better, because Matthew and Jayne had announced their engagement. Now Deneen had come to Carson, North Dakota to plan her sister’s Valentines’ Day wedding, and prove to her family that she had a talent all her own, while wowing all her potential customers, and giving her sister a gift to remember. Not to mention, avoiding having to face her parents once they found out that she’d been fired yet again.

That’s why she’d spent the last of her savings on a one-way plane ticket here on Christmas Eve. She’d planned to surprise Jayne and Matthew, and everything had gone without a hitch until now. It had been an uneventful flight through crisp, sunny skies; her luggage was stuffed with cute cold-weather outfits and gifts for the engaged pair; and she’d been having a pretty good hair day, too, at least until the heat blasting through the tiny building that served as an airport terminal made it stand on end.

But apparently there were no rental cars left in town, and the only taxi service was already booked solid and not even answering their phone. Deneen briefly considered hitching a ride out to the ranch where her sister was living, but one look at the snow-covered streets outside changed her mind. She’d just have to give up some of the element of surprise, that was all. But that was all right: Jayne would still be thrilled that Deneen had come all this way.

Except that Jayne wasn’t answering her phone. Deneen tried three times before remembering that her sister said there wasn’t always good cell reception at the ranch.

“Reception’s better outside,” the woman behind the car rental counter called.

“Of course it is,” Deneen muttered to herself, attempting a pleasant smile and wave at the woman as she schlepped her suitcase toward the door.

Outside, the wind hit her full blast in the face. It felt like ten below, not that it ever got that cold in Arkansas, and Deneen pulled up her hood and stamped her feet while paging through Jayne’s texts in search of the number to the ranch’s land line. “Please please be there,” she whispered, and hit the call button.

Look for
BLACK FLAME in Spring 2014!