Title: Meet Me in River’s Edge
Author: Nan Reinhardt
Genre: Sweet Small Town Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Book Blurb:
He ticks every one of her “never again” boxes…
Jo Weaver loves her job as a boat mechanic for her family’s marina in River’s Edge, Indiana. But when she’s pulled away from her high school reunion with her sisters to fix a stranded yacht, she can’t restrain her irritation. Jo doesn’t like wealthy men who think they can have whatever they want, and she has no intention of falling for rich and charming again.
Born into the international Briggs Hotels empire, Alex Briggs has never felt comfortable with his life of privilege. Abandoning his family’s business to pursue medical research, he’s far more at home in his lab. When the yacht he restored himself breaks down on the way to an important conference, Alex begrudgingly goes in search of a boat mechanic and falls, literally, into Jo Weaver’s arms. The fireworks he feels are impossible to ignore.
Jo does her best to keep Alex in the business zone, but he keeps slipping into something more. Can she trust her fragile heart, especially when Alex and his life-altering research are so far from River’s Edge?
Excerpt:
Meet Me in River’s Edge Excerpt: First Kiss
Nan Reinhardt
She glanced up. “It doesn’t matter what age you are, Alex. You’re a customer. Besides, I don’t really date much, and when I do, I tend to go for older—” She clamped her lips shut.
He blinked, and shook his head to clear it, and came back to what she’d started to say. “Like that Sinatra wannabe at the dance?” He didn’t know if it was the dinner jacket or the longing in Joanna’s eyes when she’d looked at him, but something about the guy had really bugged him. “Are you dating him?”
“No.” Her answer was clipped.
Alex couldn’t decide if she was pissed because he asked or pissed because she and Sinatra weren’t a couple. Either way, he wanted to know because, if she was firmly attached to a hometown dude, well, then Ari was way off base. But the urgency of her nudges made him believe she wasn’t. Joanna Weaver was an enigma—a beautiful, smart enigma. Someone had hurt her bad enough, though, for her to be closed up like an abandoned building. And he wasn’t sure he had enough of the Briggs charisma to unlock that door.
Jo gave Boris a final pat and then rose and moved several feet away along the railing to the overlook. “Why on earth would that be any of your business?”
“It isn’t, except that I want to ask you out, but if you’re involved with anyone here, I probably should respect that boundary and turn around and go back to my boat. Any nice guy would, right?”
She nodded, her eyes wide. “Yes, any nice guy would.”
He shrugged and went for broke. “You’ve already decided, though, based on such insignificant factors as the size of my boat and the fact that I come from money, that I’m not a nice guy.” He pointed at her as she started to shake her head. “Don’t deny it. You decided I was a worthless river rat as soon as you laid eyes on the Carpe Diem. And you still aren’t sure, are you?” He eyed her, aware that he was making her uncomfortable, but that was okay because, frankly, he sorta liked the idea that she was uncomfortable. “You know, Ms. Weaver, I’m tempted to quote The Philadelphia Story to you—you know, the line about deciding about people before you know them?”
Her eyes widened and she held up one hand. “Hold on! Seriously? You’re going to give me a lecture about preconceived notions?”
He couldn’t help it . . . he cracked up. “I was actually considering giving it my best Katharine Hepburn reading, to tell you the truth, but yes, I was going to quote Tracy Samantha Lord because you have a serious case of Macaulay Connor reverse snobbery, Joanna, my sweet.” He crossed the overlook to stand toe-to-toe with her. “That said, I’m delighted you’re an old movie buff. See? One more thing we have in common.”
Her brow furrowed and her lips tightened as she gazed up at him, and although he worried that he’d taken it a step too far, that she’d turn and run, she didn’t. Instead, she put her hands on his chest, rose on tiptoe, and kissed him full on the lips.
Too startled to even move for a moment, Alex dropped Boris’s leash and closed his eyes. Everything else—the river, the view, the milling walkers, even Boris—became background noise to the sensations rushing through him at the soft touch of her lips on his.
And oh, Ari, is it ever magic . . .
But then she broke away, stared deep into his eyes for a moment, and, suddenly, spun away from him and fled down the River Walk.
“What the hell—” He blinked. “Wait! Where are you going?”
She stopped in her tracks, then slowly walked back to where he stood, a panting Boris flopped down next to him.
“You kissed me!” He was too shocked to say much else.
Crossing her arms over her chest, she tapped her foot—it was a small foot, just like the rest of her—on the concrete and gazed at him. “I can’t believe you called me a snob.” The corners of her mouth turned up slightly, and she said slowly, “I am incredibly confused right now because I’m so damned attracted to you, I can’t even think straight when I’m around you. I kissed you to know if it was purely physical.”
His head was spinning, but his heart was singing. “Well . . . is it?” He grinned. “Because I’ll take that. It’s a start.”
She sighed. “I don’t know. You drive me crazy, Alex Briggs, and my sisters would tell you I don’t have all that far to go to get to completely crazy.”
She hadn’t moved away from him. They were still close enough that all he had to do was lean down . . . He did and touched his mouth to hers in a gentle exploratory kiss that sent that same shiver skating down his spine again. She unfolded her arms and snaked them around his neck, sliding her fingers into the hair at his nape. Lightly, he set his hands on her waist and tilted his head to deepen the kiss. She let him in, her tongue tracing the seam of his lips—
A bark and a scuffle of leather and steel chain on concrete pulled them apart as Boris took off down the River Walk, barking like crazy at a woman with a pair of tiny dogs on leashes.
“Oh, dammit! Boris! Get back here!” Alex released the delectable woman in his arms and hurried after the dog, pausing just long enough to glance over his shoulder to see Jo on the overlook doubled over with laughter.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Facebook Party:
I will be giving away a box of goodies, including a gift card, a signed copy of Meet Me in River’s Edge, a handmade bracelet and other swag on my blog on August 17 and at the Tule Book Club Facebook party.
Tule Book Club FB Group, August 17 at 7 pm EST
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 50 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.
Social Media Links:
Talk to Nan at: nan@nanreinhardt.com