Name of Editor: Juli’s Elite Editing
Name of cover designer: Phycel Designs
Word count: 50,065
Official genre of book: romance
Fire alarms, car accidents, and wildfires. Those used to be the biggest things Ryan had to worry about. Not what he was going to have to say to a judge in order to be able to see his own daughter more than once a month. The politics of divorce only served to spin up his temper and make him a cold-hearted bastard to his fellow firefighters, his friends, and even his family.
In the middle of all of this drama, Ryan found a friend. A friendship which exploded in his mind once he found out she was a widow; her husband having been killed while deployed in the Middle East. Ryan felt like Lindsay was a living piece of his soul.
Can Lindsay hold him together through the trials of having his daughter abducted? Can she show Ryan that love is what binds people together, especially during a time of strife, showing him the way to happiness?
His cell phone rang at ten minutes to eleven that evening. “Jeffries,” he said answering it.
He couldn’t understand the person on the other end. They were intermittently yelling and crying – all he knew was it was Wendy’s voice on the phone. So he waited patiently for her to finish whatever fit she was having at that moment. It was normal for her to just scream and yell on the phone, not making a lot of sense until she thought she had said what she wanted. He could live a long life without her constant drama scenes.
“You done?” he asked, when the voice was quiet.
“Yes,” she said. “I want you to bring Kristen home to me tonight.”
“She’s sound asleep and it’s eleven o’clock,” he countered. “I’ll drop her off at school in the morning.”
“I’ll call the police. I’ll tell them you kidnapped her.”
The threat didn’t even faze him. “Go right ahead, Wendy. I’ll have Kristen’s school come and testify that you continually neglect to pick her up after school. It’s starting to become a habit with you. What the hell is that all about?”
“Fine,” she said, a huffy tone in her voice and ignoring his question. “You’re an asshole, Ryan.”
She hung up the phone and Ryan smiled to himself, knowing he had won this battle, small that it was. He leaned his head back against the couch, closing his eyes against a raging headache. Never again, he said to himself. I will never let a woman in my life again. Just not worth it. Ryan was thirty-three, six-foot-five, two-hundred-twenty pounds, with red hair and green eyes – not like he had issues with women admiring the way he looked. He’d catch women watching him all the time; he just wasn’t ready to jump into anything after all of the chaos he’d gone through with Wendy. It would take a very special woman to change his mind. He liked being able to do as he pleased without having to worry about any repercussions.
Jeanine Binder grew up in a small town in California on the outskirts of Palm Springs, where the Hollywood celebrities liked to vacation. After thirty years, she packed up, moved to Arkansas where she still lives today. Her hobbies include her writing, reading good books, and seeing exotic places (loves to go on cruises).
Writing has always been a passion and hoping the next twenty years will bring many enjoyable books for others to read.
Website
Goodreads
Real Time ~ A Fine Line
