Title Made to Love You
Author Nan Reinhardt
Genre Sweet Contemporary Romance
Publisher Tule Publishing
Book Blurb
She’s not looking for love, but a handsome veterinarian and a lost puppy have other plans…
Gorgeous and gifted, Annabelle Walker is a force of nature. A talented architect who has brought new designs and concepts to her family’s construction firm, Anna’s happy and doesn’t feel anything’s missing from her life, even as her siblings have all fallen in love this year. And then she finds an injured puppy on a bike ride.
Veterinarian Sawyer Braxton is lost while driving to his first day at Price Veterinary Clinic. He stops to ask directions of a bicyclist on the side of the road, and discovers three things: She’s beautiful, stranded with a flat tire, and holding an injured puppy. Sawyer’s fascinated, and it feels like fate as he offers the intriguing and vibrant woman a ride to the vet clinic.
It’s a meet-cute, and Annabelle’s definitely attracted, but she’s determined that this time, she really will take a break from men. Sawyer’s as stubborn as he is sexy, and he hits on a plan for a date—they’ll both foster the pup while it heals.
Excerpt:
Anna sat on a wooden bench outside the barn waiting for Sawyer to finish up with the horse. It wasn’t that she was squeamish. She could take pretty much anything, except spiders, but when he thrust his entire arm up into the hugely pregnant mare, the look in the horse’s dark brown eyes had sent a shudder through Anna. It was either leave the scene or succumb to her instincts and run into the stall to comfort the poor creature. She was fairly sure neither Sawyer nor Tuff…er, Ryan, would’ve appreciated her interference. Plus, she’d never been in a stall with a horse before. If she’d made a wrong move and scared Spring, it could’ve been dangerous for everyone, the horse included.
“You okay?” Sawyer ambled out, his brown hair gleaming with golden highlights in the sodium vapor light over the barn doors.
“I’m fine.” She dropped her head back against the rough barn wall.
He set his bag down on the gravel drive and dropped down beside her. “It can be disconcerting…seeing how we palpate a horse or a cow. Lots of times, people worry that the animal will kick me. I was safe though. She’s used to a vet’s touch by this time in her life, I’m sure.”
Anna opened her eyes and gave him a skeptical look. “It wasn’t you I was worried about. It was her. She looked so defenseless and scared with Ryan holding her head and you at the other end shoving your whole arm… Well, it was…disconcerting. That’s a good word.” She shook her head and blurted, “Females of all species are so vulnerable. Especially when they’re carrying children. It makes us defenseless in a way that is terrifying to me. And after they have the babies, they’re responsible for another helpless being.” She shuddered. “I never want to be so vulnerable.”
His brow furrowed as he clearly considered her words. “I think being able to create and bring another being into the world makes females incredibly powerful. To grow a whole person or colt or calf or even a litter of kittens inside you—to nurture little souls into life.” He blinked and leaned back as he stretched his arms as if to encompass female creatures everywhere. “That’s powerful stuff, Anna. It’s a force to be reckoned with.” He touched her cheek with one gentle finger. “It’s magical.”
Later, Anna would dissect and parse and wonder what in the world made her do it, but in that moment, she reacted purely on instinct—she kissed him. Framing his face with her hands, relishing the scratch of his five-o’clock shadow against her palms, she took his mouth in a move that startled her and sent zips and zings through every nerve. His lips were warm as he returned the kiss, turning toward her to deepen it, as it turned into another and another. They kissed hungrily, like two people who were starving for affection, and Anna’s brain—all those clear logical things she should have been thinking—disappeared like mist in sunshine.
Heaven only knew how long they might have sat lip-locked on the bench, but the question was moot because Ryan’s deep throat-clearing hustled them apart. “Sorry…I…um… Don’t mind me.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll go back in the barn. No worries.”
Horrified, Anna popped up and swiped the back of her hand over her kiss-swollen lips. “No, it’s okay. We— We’re done here.”
Ryan smirked. “Looked to me like you were just getting started.” He shrugged when she glared at him. “Just sayin’.”
Anna sneaked a quick peek at Sawyer, who grinned despite being red-faced. But he merely stuck out his hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Ryan. I’ll let John know that Spring is doing well. I imagine he’ll be out to check her again in a couple of days. Feel free to call the clinic if you need us for anything at all.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Ryan shook his hand while Anna stalked to Sawyer’s truck, fuming and humiliated.
Sawyer took his sweet time stowing his bag behind his seat, climbing in the pickup, and fastening his seatbelt. He shoved the key in the ignition but didn’t start the engine. Instead, staring straight ahead, he released a big breath and started to speak, but Anna held up one hand.
“Could we please get out of here?” Anna said, trying to keep her voice cool, but failing miserably.
Her hands were shaking, and dear God, Ryan still stood in the open barn door watching them curiously. This was going to be all over town in a matter of hours. Anna Walker and the new vet making out in front of Trudy Morrow’s barn.
She gritted her teeth and looked at Sawyer’s profile in the barn light. “Please,” she repeated, looking over at Sawyer.
“It was a kiss, Anna.” He met her eyes over the console and the desire that still lingered in his expression made her flinch and then, dammit, shiver. “Okay, it was a couple of kisses between two consenting adults. Great kisses, but nothing to be upset about. Frankly, I enjoyed them—a lot. I hope we have more…very soon.” He reached out and tweaked her braid. “I think you enjoyed them as much as I did.”
Anna scowled and leaned away from his touch. “Whether or not I enjoyed myself is beside the point.”
“What is the point?” Sawyer dropped his hand to the steering wheel.
“The point is…”Anna stopped, then began again. “The point is that…” She faltered once more because she had nothing.
What was the point anyway? Why should she care what anyone in River’s Edge thought about her going out on a farm call with the new vet and ending up kissing him in the barn lot under the spring evening starshine? The fact was that she honestly didn’t care, beyond having to bear up under merciless teasing from her brothers and cousins and probing questions from Maddie and Kara and Tee and Sam and the rest of her cadre of girlfriends.
The real point was that she didn’t want to fall for this guy.
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Author Biography:
Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of sweet, small-town romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, however, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled, woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 51 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.
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