Title: Country Gold
A Wilder Sisters Novel
Author: Heatherly Bell
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Cover Design: Elizabeth Mackey
Release Date: September 17, 2018
Blurb
Fame
tore them apart…
A scandal ended the careers of the Wilder Sisters, the chart topping country
rock band. But Lexi Wilder is okay with that, thanks for asking. She's
been on the road since roughly forever, and even if the scandal has followed
her home to Whistle Cove, California, Lexi is going to enjoy the break. After
all, there's quite nothing like the beautiful sandy beaches of Monterey Bay to
calm a woman's soul.
Luke Wyatt never asked to trade fame and fortune for the only woman he's ever
loved.
Now that he's finished a punishing year-long national tour, all bets are off.
He's coming back to his hometown of Whistle Cove for the quiet, the beaches,
the inspiration, and the girl. Not necessarily in that order. There's
pressure from Nashville to deliver more country gold like the #1 song he
co-wrote with Lexi Wilder.
But Lexi
can’t forgive Luke for choosing fame over her…
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Playlist
She’s My
Kind of Rain by Tim
McGraw
In Case
You Didn’t Know by
Brett Young
Make You
Miss Me by Sam Hunt
Sober by Little Big Town
Die a
Happy Man by Thomas
Rhett
She’s
Everything by Brad
Paisley
Make me
Wanna by Thomas
Rhett
Excerpt
She
recognized the deep voice, the smooth sound of whiskey if it could speak. Lexi
whipped around to face Luke Wyatt. Her heart hiccupped at the sight of his long
and lean body braced against the side of her cottage. One corner of his mouth
tipped up in a half smile and he studied her with those deep and fathomless
dark eyes.
Her mouth
was dry. Knees? Liquid. “W-what are you doing here?”
“Wasn’t
going to give you the chance to say you don’t want to see me.” He moved away
from the side of the house and took a step toward her. “Tour’s over. I’m home.”
Despite her
churning gut, she found her voice. “We have no vacancy. You’ll have to stay
somewhere else.”
He went
brows up. “Just checked in.”
When she
didn’t speak, but simply swallowed and blinked, trying like hell to regain her
balance, he filled in the silence.
“Still mad
at me. Still won’t talk to me.”
She was so
not prepared to deal with this today. With him. “Why would I be mad? You
mean because you wrote an entire album all about our private life? Every
single private and personal thing about us. After everything I’ve been through
with Sabrina. No, why would I be mad about that?”
“Baby,” he
said, squaring his shoulders. “It’s what songwriters do. We write about our
life, the pain and the joy.”
“I’d
rather keep my private life private.”
“I’m
sorry,” he said. “I was hurting. You wouldn’t take any of my calls. You wouldn’t
come see me.”
“You didn’t
seem to be hurting. You were all over my TV set, cozying up to gorgeous models
and reality TV stars.”
She’d seen
the woman practically on Luke’s lap at a televised awards show. And he was mad
she hadn’t called him back? If he’d been hurt when she stopped taking
his calls, he sure in the hell got over it quickly enough.
He took a
step toward her making her take one back. No, no, no. Already she felt
her body buzzing from being this close to him for the first time in a year.
“Give me a
break, Lex. You know what this life is like. I didn’t even know that
woman.”
Lexi did an
internal face palm. No, no. It would not go this way. Check her out letting
loose with all her pent up hurt and anger the minute he showed up, giving Luke
every indication of how much she still cared about him. If she didn’t care at
all, maybe the rumors of these women wouldn’t bother her so much. So she’d
already blown her cover in the first twenty seconds of seeing him. Get a
grip.
She’d
expected to do much better than this if she ever ran into him again, say in
Nashville while visiting Miranda Lambert to collaborate on some songs. Lexi
would have another hit song by then. Maybe she’d be dating another handsome
country singer not named Luke Wilder. She’d be over him by then.
Chalk it up
to running into him so unexpectedly but this wasn’t how it was supposed
to go. He shouldn’t still look so good to her, his beard making him look like a
strong mountain man. Like a man who would take care of his woman.
For Luke,
it turned out his career came first. Not her.
But the
thing to do here was pretend it didn’t make a difference whether he stayed or
left. Pretend he had that little effect on her. Maybe it wasn’t too late to
salvage what little was left of her pride.
“I’m
sorry.” She shook her head. “I’m being rude.”
He quirked
a single brow. “Yeah?”
Score one
for Lexi. She’d shocked him. Good.
“Of course.
You’re a paying guest and I’m usually not so…so…”
“Pissy?” He
gave her another smile, this one lifting both corners of his mouth and
demonstrating he still had the power to render her speechless when he laid on
the charm.
“Yeah.
Pissy.” She let out a half-hearted fake laugh and waved hand in the air. “Rough
day. You know how it is. Sisters.”
His brow
furrowed. “And how’s Sabrina doing?”
Luke had a
front row seat to the implosion of the Wilder Sisters. He’d been performing
alongside them at the stadium in Oklahoma when Sabrina had her public
mini-meltdown. Even though their demise as a band had meant his opportunity for
stardom, Lexi didn’t doubt he’d been sorry about the way it had all happened.
When she’d
been worried about Sabrina, whose entire life from the time she’d been ten had
been the stage, Luke had held Lexi every night until she fell asleep, assuring
her that Sabrina would survive this. They all would. And she’d fallen even
deeper for the man. Luke reminded her there would be life after all the
speculation and rumors. Because Luke Wyatt knew a lot about scandal. He
understood what it was like to feel like you had to apologize just for being
allowed to breathe the same air as everyone else.
“She’s
okay. Still walks around with ear buds in all the time, singing and dancing.
It’s in her blood. But I don’t think she wants to get back up on a stage
anytime soon. None of us do.”
He nodded,
as if he understood all too well. “And you. Are you still writing?”
The wall
was still up and there it would stay. If anything, she’d wallpaper it. But she
was a Wilder first and foremost, and yes, they could put on a show.
She
shrugged and got ready to lie. “Here and there.”
“I’m
supposed to write a few more hit songs.” He held up finger quotes. “They want
me back in the studio next week. So I thought I’d come here and relax. See if I
can find some inspiration.”
His gaze
took a slow slide down the length of her body and she almost felt…naked. She
was so not going to be his inspiration. Not this time. He’d taken enough
material from her already.
She took a
breath and went for deep sincerity. “I hope you find what you’re looking for,
Luke.”
And with
that she opened the door to her cottage and closed it in his face.
Author Bio
Heatherly
Bell drinks coffee, craves cupcakes, and occasionally wears real pants.
She lives
in northern California with her family.
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