Title: Kentucky Rain
Author: Jan Scarbrough
Genre: Sweet Contemporary Romance
Book Blurb:
Kate Lawrence’s rose-colored glasses are rudely yanked off when her divorce leaves her without her home, her friends, and her identity as the perfect stay-at-home wife and mother. She heads to her hometown in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region to create a new life for herself and the only person that really matters, her daughter. With her heart still fragile and hurt, she’s not prepared for the old sweetheart she finds living right next door. Security consultant and confirmed bachelor Scott Gray could have told Kate her marriage would never work out when she’d chosen another man over him ten years ago. But when he discovers she and her daughter are his new tenants, he’s stunned to realize he’s been secretly carrying a torch for her all these years, and it’s suddenly burning hotter than he ever expected. Kate thought her dreams of love were dead and buried. As dead as her marriage…and her heart. Does Scott really want to forget the past and move on? Or can he convince Kate to step out of the cold Kentucky rain and into a bright new future with him?
Excerpt:
Sheets of rain pummeled the windshield, the steady flap-flap-flap of the wiper blades filling the silence of the SUV. Kate Lawrence gripped the steering wheel, unsure whether her blurred vision came from the glare of oncoming headlights reflecting off the rain or from the tears welling in her eyes.
It had been a month since her divorce was final, and tonight was the first time Jerry had taken their daughter. Visitation was an ugly, ugly word.
God! I can’t stand this!
A single tear trailed down her flushed cheek, and she swiped it away with a rough knuckle. But the lone tear soon became a torrent, distorting Kate’s vision. A sob shook her shoulders, and she clutched the steering wheel as if her life depended on it. Sitting forward, she stared into the dark highway as her heart pounded like the rain.
Stupid! I was so stupid!
She chided herself for having been too content to be Jerry’s wife and not looking past his blond good looks, charming smile, and can-do personality. Why had she been so blind?
And when had things gone so wrong between them? When Reagan was born? Surely that had been the start. Until then, they’d been the perfect couple.
Swept up in love, she had quit college her freshman year to marry Jerry Lawrence. He’d thought her perfect enough to marry and establish his home. She had helped him, as his career took off, to entertain the right people and make the right decisions about where to live and what clubs to join. Always sacrificing, she’d stayed home because that’s where she belonged. That’s where he needed her.
She had been his rock. She grounded him. Or that’s what he’d said.
And that’s what she had always believed.
Until that night at dinner when he quietly said he was filing for divorce. No talk. No counseling. No arguing him out of it.
Kate had sat forward then, as she was doing now on her long drive home. Not understanding his words, she had opened her mouth and formed a soundless but as her gaze searched his stony face.
His meaning had slowly sunk into her dense, unprepared brain. That night she had been like a glob of her daughter’s homemade slime—easily stretched, torn, sculpted, and finally shattered. Jerry had devastated her world. More than that, he had destroyed her soul.
And now, she had to mold the pieces back together. Make the best of it for Reagan’s sake. She had to be strong for her daughter. Not their or his. She no longer thought of Rea as Jerry’s daughter. He had broken up their family. He no longer deserved the one bright, beautiful thing that had come from their ten-year marriage.
But the courts said he had rights, so she had to “exchange” Reagan with him on Friday nights during the school year and for six weeks during the summer. The trouble was Jerry traveled and taking Reagan as mandated was often “inconvenient.” That’s why tonight was the first exchange in what promised to be a long, drawn-out process.
Anger made her set her jaw. Damn him! He might not want her, but he wasn’t going to let her daughter think she wasn’t good enough for him. Kate would see he kept his promises to Reagan.
She sat back against the seat, stretching her arms out so that she put space between her body and the steering wheel. A grim determination poured over her. She would never let anyone tell Reagan she wasn’t good enough. She’d protect her daughter, even from her father.
Five miles later, Kate turned south off the Interstate, heading into the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. She was going home. Not the home she’d shared with Jerry and then Reagan on the hill overlooking the Ohio River in Louisville—the beautiful, rambling brick house she had so lovingly maintained for her family. No, she was driving to Eagleton, her childhood home, the town she’d escaped at seventeen when she’d been accepted as a student at the University of Kentucky.
Slinking home with her tail between her legs disturbed Kate. She had her pride. But when it came down to it that was all she had. Everything she owned, or thought she owned, belonged to Jerry, bought, and paid for through his efforts. Kate had never worked a day in her life. She had no money, just what Jerry earned and came into the family budget.
But it had been their money, their house, and their friends—for only as long as they were a couple. For only as long as he wanted her. As long as she played her role and kept up pretenses.
Now that was all gone and so was her identity. It had been hard to have her rose-colored glasses yanked from her eyes only to discover she was nothing without being Jerry Lawrence’s wife.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
My heroine must learn to stand on her own after a messy divorce. This was the first time since my divorce that I tackled the subject of a divorced heroine.
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Runs April 11 – April 18, 2023.
Winner will be drawn on April 19, 2023.
Author Biography:
The author of two popular Bluegrass romance series, Jan Scarbrough writes heartwarming contemporary stories about home and family, single moms, and children. Living in the horse country of Kentucky makes it easy for Jan to add small town, Southern charm to her books and the excitement of a Bluegrass horse race or a competitive horse show.
The Ghost Mountain Ranch series is a contemporary western series with a good blend of mystery and happily-ever-after romance. The Dawsons of Montana is another four-book contemporary western series.
Jan leaves her contemporary voice behind with two paranormal gothic romances, Timeless and Tangled Memories, a Romance Writers of America (RWA) Golden Heart finalist. Her historical romance, My Lord Raven, is a medieval story of honor and betrayal.
A member of Novelist, Inc., Jan self-publishes her books with her husband’s help.
Jan lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with one rescued dog, one rescued cat, and a husband she rescued twenty-three years ago.
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