Excerpt & Giveaway: Sea Glass Sunrise by Donna Kauffman
Sea
Glass Sunrise
The Brides of Blueberry Cove # 1
The Brides of Blueberry Cove # 1
By:
Donna Kauffman
Releasing
May 26, 2015
Zebra
Blurb
In
seaside Blueberry Cove, Maine, friends are just another word for
family, and big-city politics take a backseat to local pride. But the
real treasure on these shores is always love…
When
D.C. lawyer Hannah McCrae heads home for her brother’s wedding,
she’s dragging a lot of baggage along with her—and she doesn’t
mean suitcases. Betrayed personally, and humiliated professionally,
the last thing she wants is a new man. That’s fine with
square-jawed, rugged contractor Calder Blue. He and Hannah may be
wildly attracted to one another, but all he wants is to build the
town’s hotly contested new yacht club and mend a centuries-old
family feud. Yet thanks to resentments old and new, day after day the
pair wind up tangled in each other’s business—and maybe soon in
each other’s arms.
Every
bride needs something “blue”…
Excerpt
She was taller
than he’d initially thought when she’d been in the car. Somewhere
around five-nine, maybe five-ten. He didn’t know what kind of heels
she had on, but, regardless, she wasn’t much shorter than he was,
and he came in at six-one. Lithe and lean, not much in the curves
department, either. That much he’d accurately ascertained from his
blouse assessment earlier.
She paused as
she noted the sign on the side of his truck.
“Blue Harbor
Farm.” She looked back at him. “I thought you said you were a
contractor.”
“I am.
Family business. Fourth generation.”
“And the
farm?”
“First
generation,” he said with a smile.
“You?”
He nodded.
“Sounds like
a lot to juggle.”
“If you ask
my father, it’s a waste of time and money. If you ask my brothers,
a hobby that got a little out of control.”
“And if I
asked you?”
He kept his
smile in place, but his answer was serious and heartfelt. “The
thing that kept me sane through a hellacious divorce.” His smile
grew slightly. “Continues to keep me sane working with family.”
“I’m
sorry,” she said. “About the . . . hellacious part.”
She waved a
hand briefly, but said no more. She held his gaze, then looked at the
sign again, more, he thought, for somewhere else to look. Other than
at him. He wasn’t sure what she’d seen in his expression, but
banged up or not, she seemed a pretty sharp sort. So probably . . .
too much.
He saw her
eyebrows lift. “Calais?” she said. “You’re a long way from
home.”
“Not that
far. Hour and fifteen to the company office, hour-forty-five to the
farm.”
“Unique
town, Calais. Sort of umbilically attached to Saint Stephen across
the border in New Brunswick, right? Interesting blend of cultures.”
“Mais oui,
bien sur.”
She smiled a
little at that. “I guess you grew up speaking French and English,
living so close.”
“It’s
predominantly English on both sides of the border. I speak French
because my mother is French Canadian. I grew up with both languages.”
He opened the passenger door to his truck.
“You didn’t
have to do this,” she said, as he helped her up to the passenger
seat.
She levered
herself into the truck with a natural, graceful ease, making him
wonder if she was a dancer, or some other thing that elegant women
did with elegant bodies like the one she had. She required only a
little assistance from him, which was just as well, he thought.
Putting his hands on any more of that elegant body wouldn’t be
wise. She was the kind of distraction he never needed in general, and
definitely didn’t need right now.
She pulled on
her own seat belt, wincing a little as she did, then immediately
leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “But I’m very grateful
you did.”
“Not a
problem,” he said, palming the door, intending to close it.
“Hannah,”
she said, quietly now, so he knew she was in more pain than she’d
been showing, making him pause.
“I’m
Hannah. McCrae.”
“Calder
Blue,” he responded.
“Ah. Blue
Harbor Farm,” she added, as if recalling the sign on his door. “Any
relation to Jonah Blue?” she asked through barely moving bruised
lips, eyes still closed.
“Great-nephew.”
“I thought
I’d met all the Blues.”
“Different
branch of the family.”
She opened her
eyes then, and turned all that dark blue on him. Despite whatever
pain she was in, and whatever worries she might have, her eyes were
still surprisingly sharp, and quickly assessing. “You mean—as in
Jedediah Blue’s branch?”
“The very
same.”
“Your
branches don’t talk to each other. For like . . . a hundred years.”
“A little
longer, but that is true, yes.”
“How long
have you been in Blueberry?”
“Just
heading in, actually
She leaned her
head back and closed her eyes again, but her lips curved upward just
a hair and stayed that way, even when she winced at the pain.
“Something
amusing about that?”
“Not at all.
It’s . . . I just realized that your bombshell is going to be a lot
bigger than mine.”
Author
Info
USA
Today bestselling author of the Cupcake Club Romance series, Donna
Kauffman has seen her
books reviewed in venues ranging from Kirkus Reviews and Library
Journal to Entertainment Weekly and Cosmopolitan. She lives just
outside of DC in the lovely Virginia countryside, where she is
presently trying to makeover her newly empty nest into something that
doesn’t have to accommodate piles of sports equipment falling out
of her coat closet (okay, out of every closet...and under every
bed....), size 13 cleats and sweaty uniforms cluttering her foyer
(and stairwell, and laundry room, and...), and a kitchen that should
have come with a traffic light. And a pantry monitor. (Anyone with a
clever idea on how to repurpose lacrosse sticks into matching reading
lamps, she’s all ears!) When she’s not stripping paint,
varnishing an old auction house find, or trying to avoid bodily
injury with her latest power tool purchase, she loves to hear from
readers!
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