Only a couple of more weeks

…until the next Red Hot & Blue title SMALLTOWN HEAT is back out

I really enjoyed reworking this one. Revisiting it as I reedited and proofed it made me remember how much I loved this series the first time around.

As with the other Red Hot & Blue books, if you own the original (released by Samhain) there’s no need to rebuy. I did not add or change anything substantial to the original (except for the new cover!)

But if you have already read Smalltown Heat, or any of the other Red Hot & Blue titles, and loved them PLEASE tell your friends, leave reviews, post on social, and help new readers find the series. Authors always appreciate it!

“steamy, smartly written and incredibly funny” ~Guilty Pleasures

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Please enjoy this EXCERPT from “Bobby” in SMALLTOWN HEAT

Bobby Barton sat in the farthest corner table in the diner with his back to the wall so he could watch the door. His friend Jared Gordon sat opposite, coffee mug in hand.

It was a sad day when a man, an officer of the law no less, had to sneak out of his house in the middle of the night just to have a moment of private conversation with a buddy.

While absently playing with the sugar packets on the table, Bobby laid out his plan. “So tomorrow, five-thirty a.m., I’m heading to the lake to go fishing. If she wants to be with me every waking moment I’ll show her exactly how awake I can be. You wanna come?”

Jared winced. “Not really, but I will. You sure are going to a lot of trouble to make your producer’s life miserable. What’d she ever do to you?”

“You mean besides her and her cameraman trying to follow me every damn place I go, including to the men’s room?”

Jared laughed.

Bobby shook his head. “Sure. It’s real amusing for you. Your producer is your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, which means I can’t let anyone know she’s my girlfriend so her network doesn’t fire her.”

He sighed. “All right. So we agree this damn reality show has put a kink in both our lives?”

“Damn straight.” Jared nodded. “But it’s only for eight weeks, and it’s good for the businesses around here. At least that’s what you told me when you were trying to convince me to agree to it in the first place.”

Jared was right. Bobby had been all for the idea in the beginning, and it was good for the small businesses in town.

Mac had even had to add an extra shift at the diner when he started staying open into the wee hours of the morning to accommodate the television crews who were taping late.

It turned out the local honky-tonk in town was providing quite a bit of grist for the television mill. There was a crew at the bar until closing every night.

That was why Bobby was safely free of cameras at the diner at the moment. The camera crew assigned to the diner during the day usually moved to the bar until closing each night, hoping to capture drunks at their worst.

His own personal hell—uh, crew—had gone back to their rooms at The Hideaway for the night, thinking he was tucked safely away, asleep in his bed at home.

That was exactly what he’d wanted them to believe, before he snuck back out like a teenager breaking curfew.

“She is cute though.” Jared’s comment cut into Bobby’s ponderings about why they’d ever agreed to the taping of this damn TV show.

He glanced up at his friend. “Who? Your girlfriend Mandy? I should hope you think she’s cute since you’re sleeping with her.”

Jared rolled his eyes. “I was talking about your producer. Christy. Don’t seem like such a hardship having that pretty face shining up at you day and night.”

Bobby groaned. Yeah. She was cute. She was also as tenacious as a pit bull and had the nose of a bloodhound. “Maybe under other circumstances I’d agree with you. But damn it, Jared, do you know all I had to do to wrestle that tape of me punching Cole at the ball field away from her?”

Jared grinned. “You still have it? I’d love to watch that. You, Mr. Cool, losing his head.”

Bobby scowled at his supposed friend.

Jared shook his head at him, still grinning. “Oh, stop giving me that look. All right. Tell me, what’d you have to do to get the tape? Was it good?” Jared waggled his eyebrows.

Bobby sighed and ignored Jared’s insinuations in favor of more bitching. “I had to agree to let them ride with me from now on during my shifts. I’d been able to at least get away from them when I was in the patrol car answering calls around town. I’d convinced them it was the sheriff’s policy, no civilians in the car. But now that’s over.”

“Hmm. A tape of you, the local deputy, punching out the famous pitcher Cole Ryan at a little league game, or you sitting in your car drinking coffee while taking a radio call that old Mrs. Brown’s cat got stuck in a tree again.” Jared made a weighing motion with his hands and cocked a brow. “I don’t know. Is that producer of yours not the sharpest tool in the shed?”

Bobby shrugged. “All I know is I would have promised them anything they wanted to get that tape. I couldn’t let Lizzie and Mikey go through that kind of embarrassment. That whole situation has been strange enough as it is.”

Jared blew out a breath. “Tell me about it. Who the hell would have guessed Cole was Mikey’s father? You know, there was a time that I was afraid it might be Jack. After Mikey was born, I actually counted the months from the last time Jack was home on leave.”

“Believe me, I did the same thing. But if it had been Jack, I needn’t have worried about killing him myself. Mary Sue would have done it for me.”

Jared laughed. “You got that right. Mary Sue considered Jack her property back then.”

“When I first found out Lizzie was pregnant, I’d even considered it could be you for a little while, until I figured out it was Cole,” Bobby confessed to Jared.

“Wait a minute.” Jared slammed his coffee mug down onto the table. “You knew it was Cole all this time? Ten years and you never told me?”

Bobby nodded and got very interested in drinking from his own mug.

Jared raised a brow and shook his head. “Well, I guess I know who to go to next time I need a secret kept. You’re a frigging vault.”

He shrugged. “Hey, she’s my sister. I needed to protect her and her baby.”

“Sheesh, Cole’s lucky you didn’t drive out and kill him right there on the pitcher’s mound the minute you knew.”

“There were times I almost did. In hindsight, it’s damn good I didn’t. I never imagined Lizzie was keeping Mikey a secret from him. Poor guy didn’t even know he had a son.”

“Women.” Jared shook his head.

Bobby let out a snort. “Yup. Can’t live with ’em—”

“Can’t get laid without ’em.” Jared finished the sentiment in a way that had Bobby choking on a swallow of coffee.

Bobby laughed. “Not what I was going to say, but yeah, that too.”