Echoes from the Past introduced three brothers. The youngest of these gets his own romance November 5th in Lands of Fire-- Book 6 Arizona Historicals: The Taggerts. This is not just a love story of two people but also of the Southwest and its beautiful desert.
The following is a snippet, with one more edit still due; so this might change some by the time it comes out.
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“You
have a gift with horses, I hear,” she said trying to find something to say that
didn’t leave her feeling like a fool. That wasn’t it.
“Maybe,”
he said. He was looking down at her. Being so close to him made her even more
aware of how very tall he was. She’d never been near a man that height. It was
a bit intimidating.
“You
think you can teach me to ride?” That was another dumb comment. She was furious
with herself for having lost her wits.
“If
you want.”
“I
should want.” Again, she was annoyed at what she was saying. Of course, how
could she instead say he was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen, and would
he pose for a painting?
“Ma’am,
the horse will react to what you feel.”
“Oh,
you mean if I don’t want to ride him, he will sense it?”
He
nodded. “They feel you. You need to feel him too. Then it will work.”
“How
do I do that?”
“Come.”
He turned and led her back down to the corral. Jethro had come to the rails as
soon as he saw him. Jesse reached out and stroked his forehead. Or she guessed
they called it that.
Jesse
turned back to her. “Put out your hand.”
“He
won’t bite me?”
His
smile softened as he shook his head. She didn’t know why she knew she could
trust him, but she did. She held out her hand and let the soft nose of the horse
sniff of it.
“Good,”
Jesse said. “Now pet him gently.”
She
liked the feel of the horse’s face. He seemed not to mind her touch. “I thought
he might be as afraid of me as I am of him.”
“That’s why you let him sniff of you. He knows you don’t mean bad by
him.”
“They
can tell?”
“More
than most humans.”
She
looked up at him. His smile was a little crooked, faint as before, but it seemed
warm. He liked being with the horse. She felt their joined energy. It was
beautiful.
“I
might as well tell you now, ma’am,” he said.
She
stopped petting Jethro. “What?”
“I
am dumb. You will figure it out sooner or later. I do better with horses than
people.”
“But
you can talk.”
“Stupid.”
She
remembered then what Holly had told her. ‘Jesse is... slow in how he thinks.’
So, he saw that as stupid. “You don’t seem stupid to me,” she said.
“Not
yet, but I will.”
“Why?”
She could not believe any of this, not after seeing him with the horse, and
then looking up into his eyes. They were intelligent and seemed to speak
without words.
“I
can’t reason, lady, not like you.” He shut his mouth, and she saw the muscle
jump in his cheek. He was clenching his jaw. Clearly, he hadn’t wanted to say
what he had. Why had he?”
He
smiled then. “Because we will be working together on the... horse.”
“You
read minds?” She smiled then. Feeling finally relaxed, she reached out again
to pat Jethro’s nose.
“Sometimes.”
