by: Paula Altenburg
Series: The Montana McGregor Brothers
Genre: Western Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 21, 2019
Publisher: Tule Publishing
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Could home be 'on the range'?
After teaching at a prestigious university, Luke McGregor is headed home to his family's ranch in Grand, Montana, to help his brothers raise their baby niece and nephews and to help save the struggling ranch. His long-time girlfriend wants no part of playing cowgirl and dumps him fast. Luke commits himself to being home for at least a year and throws himself into family and ranch life. A chance meeting with a beautiful and free-spirited woman and a promising first date makes him wonder if his place is necessarily in a big city.
Plucky Mara Ramos has lived much of her life on the road as a performer, but a dance injury, that permanently sidelines her professional career and ends her fling with a famous pop star, strands her in the middle of Montana. She likes the friendly small town and soon opens a dance studio intent on building a new life for herself. She enjoys inspiring her young students, but she can’t help but feel she needs more. A casual date with an enigmatic, flirty stranger, who is so much more than a cowboy, teases Mara with the possibility of putting down roots and finding a happy every after.
When Luke’s former girlfriend announces she’s pregnant, he's faced with the decision of a lifetime. If he's all about family, can he make a decision that will keep Mara in his life?
Age: 31
Date of birth: November 10th
Physical Description: Tall, dark and handsome, with green eyes.
Occupation: College professor.
3 likes in no particular order: Watching Mara teach children, watching Mara dance, and dancing with Mara.
3 dislikes in no particular order: Questions, thinking too hard (which I do all the time), and neckties.
Drink of choice: Coffee.
Favorite food: Bacon and eggs.
Favorite song: Say You Won’t Let Go by James Arthur. I might be a little needy emotionally. I look at Mara and this song plays in my head.
Choice of transportation: Horseback, of course! Cars get you from point A to point B. A horse is a companion.
Favorite way to spend an evening: Watching Mara. Everything about her is beautiful. She’s so full of life.
Best memory to date: My first date with Mara.
If you could have a do over, what would you do differently? I would never have asked my long-time girlfriend to marry me. I discovered how short life really is, and if we’d gotten married it would have ruined both of our lives.
Is it possible to survive tragedy and find happiness again? I didn’t think so. But then I met Mara. She isn’t the kind of person to dwell on things that can’t be changed.
Most romantic gesture: Someone else’s, or mine? Because I introduced Mara to a new way to dance, and I’ve got to say, I really outdid myself. Her most romantic gesture for me comes late in our story, and it might not seem all that romantic to anyone else, but it shows me how much she really gets me.
Words to live by: Seize the day. Mara taught me that.
Finn leaped into his uncle’s arms, a move that didn’t faze Luke in the slightest. He pretended to stagger under the child’s weight, which could be no more than forty-five pounds soaking wet.
“Whoa, bud. How much muscle did you pack on in one lesson?”
Finn held Luke’s cheeks in his small palms and stared into his eyes, their noses a hair’s breadth apart. Mara had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from laughing. It was a classic child move to capture an adult’s undivided attention.
“I want to come back for another lesson tomorrow,” the boy demanded, leaving no room for doubt as to how serious he was.
“Miss Ramos doesn’t offer this class on Sundays,” Luke replied. “Besides, I need to get you the right clothes to wear first. How about if I bring you back next Saturday, instead?” He shot Mara an unspoken query, his eyebrows uplifted, and Mara’s breath snagged in her lungs. “That’s assuming Miss Ramos wants you.”
“I do,” she said.
She wanted his uncle even more. She couldn’t explain why. Montana was full of beautiful men. So was the world. And yet it was this one, with his layers of complexity, who couldn’t seem to stop his brain from spinning in multiple directions, who fascinated her the most.
With his nephew perched on his hip, and the pair looking so natural together, he pulled his phone from his pocket. He flicked his thumbs over the screen. Seconds later her phone, on the small table she’d used to register students, pinged that a text had come in.
She picked it up and took a quick, casual glance at the message.
Tonight?
She didn’t dare look in his direction. She tapped the screen on her phone and sent him an equally spare response that consisted of the number 8. Then, her heart pounding so hard she couldn’t believe the whole room didn’t hear it, she set her phone down.
No one had paid any attention, at least, not that she could tell. The mothers were listening to their daughters’ chatter. Luke had Finn by the hand and they were already halfway out the door.
“Wave goodbye to Miss Ramos,” Luke said, and Finn pumped his arm in a wide arc over his head. A broad smile exposed the gap in his gums where a baby tooth had come out. He was as hard to resist as his uncle.
She got another text a few minutes later.
I like my coffee with bacon and eggs.
“Whoa, bud. How much muscle did you pack on in one lesson?”
Finn held Luke’s cheeks in his small palms and stared into his eyes, their noses a hair’s breadth apart. Mara had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from laughing. It was a classic child move to capture an adult’s undivided attention.
“I want to come back for another lesson tomorrow,” the boy demanded, leaving no room for doubt as to how serious he was.
“Miss Ramos doesn’t offer this class on Sundays,” Luke replied. “Besides, I need to get you the right clothes to wear first. How about if I bring you back next Saturday, instead?” He shot Mara an unspoken query, his eyebrows uplifted, and Mara’s breath snagged in her lungs. “That’s assuming Miss Ramos wants you.”
“I do,” she said.
She wanted his uncle even more. She couldn’t explain why. Montana was full of beautiful men. So was the world. And yet it was this one, with his layers of complexity, who couldn’t seem to stop his brain from spinning in multiple directions, who fascinated her the most.
With his nephew perched on his hip, and the pair looking so natural together, he pulled his phone from his pocket. He flicked his thumbs over the screen. Seconds later her phone, on the small table she’d used to register students, pinged that a text had come in.
She picked it up and took a quick, casual glance at the message.
Tonight?
She didn’t dare look in his direction. She tapped the screen on her phone and sent him an equally spare response that consisted of the number 8. Then, her heart pounding so hard she couldn’t believe the whole room didn’t hear it, she set her phone down.
No one had paid any attention, at least, not that she could tell. The mothers were listening to their daughters’ chatter. Luke had Finn by the hand and they were already halfway out the door.
“Wave goodbye to Miss Ramos,” Luke said, and Finn pumped his arm in a wide arc over his head. A broad smile exposed the gap in his gums where a baby tooth had come out. He was as hard to resist as his uncle.
She got another text a few minutes later.
I like my coffee with bacon and eggs.
Purchase The Rancher’s Secret Love from:
The Montana McGregor Brothers Series:
The Rancher Takes a Family ~ Review
A degree in Social Anthropology from the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, again meant writing was the logical (meaning only) career path for her, although it did confirm her belief that learning is a life-long experience. She’s taken business courses, writing courses, and physiology of aquatic animals courses, all at the university level and all for fun.
She has worked in the Aerospace industry, although now makes writing her full-time career. Happily married, with two terrific sons, she continues to live in rural Nova Scotia but makes a point of traveling as much as she can.
She reads in all genres, but fantasy and contemporary romance are her writing loves.
Places to find Paula Altenburg:
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