Please help us give a big warm welcome to Laura Haley-McNeil! Laura is here to share her newest Contemporary Western Romance Never Kiss Goodbye. Never Kiss Goodbye is the eighth book in her Crystal Creek Series. Welcome, Laura! We are all excited to hear much more about Never Kiss Goodbye.
About Never Kiss Goodbye:
A cowboy haunted by his past. A woman stalked by a deadly secret.
Pregnant and on the run, Lily Harkin will do anything to protect her unborn child, but no one can know her secret – a secret so horrific it could destroy her and anyone she meets.
Bronc rider Josh Merrick can’t forget the mistake that cost a woman her life. When he finds a frightened, pregnant woman, girl really, hiding in an abandoned horse trailer, he doesn’t just want to shield her. He sees this as his chance to right the wrong that haunts him day and night.
Josh can’t fight the love he feels for this sweet and gentle woman, but realizes her dark past isn’t far behind. In one terrifying moment, they face a danger that not only reveals a chilling truth, but pulls them into a battle for their lives and a fight against an enemy whose hold on them comes at a price they’d never imagined.
Never Kiss Goodbye Buy links:
Excerpt from Never Kiss Goodbye:
Chapter One
Lily Marie Harkin snapped awake. Denver’s June night heat bore down on her. She touched a trembling hand to the swell in her stomach. Fear kept her silent. Her head crunched against the bed of straw scattered over the horse trailer’s floor, and she stared into the darkness. She didn’t breathe. She didn’t move. The blood rushing past her eardrums drowned out the noise she’d just heard.
Footsteps?
Scratching?
Her heart jumped wildly. Had Glenn found her? Please, no. The prayer formed silently on her lips. She’d left him two days ago. She needed more time to hide or leave the country.
She took a ragged breath and shoved her thick-rimmed glasses up her nose.
The scent of hay hung in the air. And another scent―one she was afraid to identify—but the trailer had looked clean when she’d found the door unlocked and stepped inside.
A scraping noise sounded.
Lily’s head jerked. Her stomach dropped. If someone were out there … if Glenn were out there … She shivered. He’d always told her she couldn’t hide.
She glanced at the narrow window. Could she squeeze her pregnant body through the opening?
A crash blasted in her head. Air swept through the opened door. A light beam blinded her. A powerful form filled the doorway. From outside, came a dog’s high-pitched whine.
She stifled a scream, pressed into the shadows and bumped the wall. Her stomach tightened into a ball of pain. Terror caught her high in the throat.
She wrapped her hands around her stomach. He had found her. He would hit her, maybe hurt her baby, then drag her back to Louisburg Square, to Beacon Hill, to Boston.
If she screamed, would anyone hear? Would anyone help?
“Please …” Her voice faded. The fear ripping her insides dug deep. The ratcheting in her chest filled her ears.
“Hey, it’s okay. Don’t be afraid. I can help you.” The man’s voice was gentle, deep, and not Glenn’s.
She breathed in shock. She could almost believe this giant filling the trailer would help her.
But a deep sense warned her against trusting him. She wouldn’t trust anyone. Trust hurt.
The light beam dropped to the floor. An outside light formed around a cowboy hat and a man’s strong jaw. His features seemed scored by a master sculptor—the straight nose, full lower lip. A frown pressed between his brows. He was studying her.
Did the bruise on her face show in this dim light? She touched her face and stifled a gasp. It still hurt. She tightened her lips. She knew how she looked. The bruises on her arms where Glenn had grabbed her had faded but were still visible. She’d seen them this morning when she’d taken a sponge bath in the restroom at the bus depot.
A dog’s huge, sniffing nose edged around the cowboy’s muscular leg.
“Stand back, Tank.” The cowboy’s voice was low and firm.
The dog snorted. The quivering nose disappeared.
“I’ll leave. I was just …” She stopped. He didn’t need to know she’d only planned to stay for one night. He wouldn’t care. She tucked her legs beneath herself. If he grabbed her, she’d headbutt his stomach. It wouldn’t stop him—he was twice her size—but it might slow him down.
“How did you find this trailer? It’s tucked at the back of the Coliseum,” he said. He sounded as if he cared, but why would he?
“How did you find it?” The sharpness in her voice made her flinch, but if he could ask questions, so could she.
“I didn’t.” He gave a dry laugh. “My dog, Tank, did. Will you tell me where you’re going?”
She looked at him. The skin on her face tightened. Maybe her husband had hired a detective. This cowboy had a detective look about him. She stared at him, hard. She wouldn’t tell him anything.
“Okay.” He drew out the word. “You can’t stay here. It isn’t safe, and I have to go. I just got stomped in the arena. If I don’t soak in a tub soon, my muscles are going to lock in this adrenaline and I’ll ache for a week.”
Arena. There was a rodeo at the Denver Coliseum. She’d walked through the packed parking lot before she found this trailer tucked on the backside of the building. Did he just ride? Maybe he wasn’t a detective. Maybe he was a real cowboy.
“Tell me where you want to go,” he said. “I’ll take you and make sure you’re safe before I head back to the ranch.”
Was he trying to reassure her? He had such a relaxed and easy way about him, and she was so tired, she wanted to bask in the soothing tone of his voice. But Glenn had a smooth way of talking, too.
“I’ll stay someplace else.” Her breath caught. She may as well have told him she had no place to go. She rose to her feet but never stopped watching him.
He was tall, at least a foot taller than she, which wasn’t saying much. At five feet, she only towered above very small children. She hoped her own child would be tall.
“You’re not walking around this area by yourself. I’m surprised no one saw you.” His gaze dropped to the backpack where she’d stuffed two changes of clothes and eight thousand dollars—everything she needed, except her sketchpad. “Or tried to mug you. You picked the worst neighborhood in Denver to spend the night.” His mouth flattened. “Tell me where you’re going.”
“I can take care of myself,” she said firmly.
His gaze flitted over her face, over the bruise―proof she hadn’t taken care of herself two days ago.
His crystal blue eyes narrowed and his full lips pressed together.
“I had an accident.” She shouldn’t have said anything, but she felt the wheels turning in his brain.
He might have seen something―like her picture on the evening news. The television at the bus terminal had flashed photos of a smiling Bostonian woman with long, blonde hair, named Marie Anderson.
Lily no longer had long, blonde hair. Before she’d left her Beacon Hill home, she’d cut it and dyed it black. The non-prescription glasses covered half her face.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and he did sound sorry.
“You don’t have to be. I’m fine.” She tried to sound as if she didn’t care. Bruises healed—not quickly—but she’d taken the step to make sure she was never bruised again. Being pregnant forced her to make that decision.
“I’ll take your word for that.” The look in his eyes revealed what he really thought—he didn’t believe anything she said.
She wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t a good liar. If she had lied better, it might have spared her Glenn’s wrath.
“You don’t have to.” Her voice sounded cold. He hadn’t missed it. His eyes flickered and she wished she didn’t care what he thought. She’d never see him again. “If you can tell me where to find a shelter”—there, her tone sounded gentler—“I’ll stay there for the night.”
“You’re not staying at a shelter,” he said, his tone firm and gentle.
Her eyes widened. This stranger wouldn’t tell her what she could and couldn’t do. “Fine. Don’t take me. I’ll find one.” And how would she do that? She couldn’t ask someone. What if that person robbed her … or worse? She fought against the despair rising inside her. If the neighborhood were as bad as this cowboy said, she might find a mission or a church that took people in. It would just be for the night. Tomorrow, she’d find her way back to the bus terminal and buy a ticket to El Paso.
“Have you ever lived on the street before?” he asked. She must have looked shocked that he’d asked that question because he shook his head before she could answer. “Never mind. I know a place where you can stay. I’ll take you there.”
“Take me where?” Not that she knew too many places around here. She hadn’t been to Denver in years.
“To the Crystal Creek Ranch,” he said on a soft exhale.
About the Author:
A native of California, Laura Haley-McNeil spent her youth studying ballet and piano, though her favorite pastime was curling up with a good book. Without a clue as to how to write a book, she knew one day she would.
After college, she segued into the corporate world, but she never forgot her love for the arts and served on the board of two community orchestras. Finally realizing that the book she’d dreamt of writing wouldn’t write itself, she planted herself in front of her computer. She now immerses herself in the lives and loves of her characters in her romantic suspense and her contemporary romance novels. Many years later, she lived her own romantic novel when she married her piano teacher, the love of her life.
Though she and husband have left warm California for cooler Colorado, they enjoy the outdoor life of hiking, bicycling, horseback riding and snow skiing. They satisfy their love of music by attending concerts and hanging out with their musician friends, but Laura still catches a few free moments when she can sneak off and read.
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Hi, Madison! Thank you for hosting my book, Never Kiss Goodbye, Book 8 of the Crystal Creek Series. I had so much fun writing this book. It was an education because I learned about rodeos and the cowboys who ride the busting broncs. My hero, Josh Merrick, is a tough bronc rider, but when he discovers pregnant Lily Harkin hiding in a horse trailer, his compassion overflows. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect her from a past that has sworn to never let her go.
I hope your followers will have a chance to read Never Kiss Goodbye.
I appreciate the opportunity to share this book with your readers. Take care and God bless!
Laura Haley-McNeil