WG2E All-For-Indies Anthologies: Viva La Valentine Edition (4 page)

Her bestselling romantic comedies are all
about sexy, sassy, smart, career-driven women and the men who
complete them. They’re a bit chick lit with a gone-country
twist…and now a humorous mystery, comedic caper twist too. She’s
agented, and her Bootscootin’ Books — think Sex and The City meets
Urban Cowboy — debuted August 2010, on Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes
& Noble’s Nook and at Smashwords, with
BOOTSCOOTIN’
BLAHNIKS
, followed by
STOMPIN’ ON
STETSONS
and
BUCKLES ME
BABY
. Now, The Bootscootin’ Characters are gettin’
“cozy”…as in Comedic Caper cozy, with the release of
THUG GUARD
and
LIP GLOCK
,
Books One and Two of her new, Cozy Cash Mysteries, featuring all of
your fave Bootscootin’ characters plus tons of quirky new
characters too.

She’s been both a featured author and her
books have been top picks — including one of the Top 10 Books for
Mother’s Day 2010 — for such superfab Ereader-centric Blogs as
Kindle Nation Daily, Pixel of Ink, The Frugal eReader, Indie Books
List, Only Romance, Bargain eBooks, and coming soon, a featured
spot on Ereader News Today. Her blog posts on the Indie Epub World
have been picked-up by fantabulous blogs like Bufo Calvin’s I Love
My Kindle. She can be spotted all-week long on her new grog
The WG2E
, a
writer’s destination site for all-things-Epublishing. She often can
also be found hangin’ on both the Kindle and Nook Boards and has an
active blog of her own on her website at
http://ddscottville.blogspot.com
.

Also a Writer’s Go-to-Gal for Muse Therapy
and now
the Amazon #1 Bestselling Author of
MUSE THERAPY:
UNLEASHING YOUR INNER SYBIL
, D. D. debuted her Muse
Therapy Online Classes in 2009 and her Live Workshops in 2010.
Thanks to the fabulous endorsement of Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle
Nation Daily, there’s a ton more fun and fascinating MUSE THERAPY
adventures in development.

D. D.’s first two short stories — The Mom
Squad Mini-Mayhem Mysteries —
FLUID
FULFILLMENT
and
LICENSED FOR
LOVE
— released in October 2011, and the first Cozy Cash
Mystery Christmas Novella
HULLABALOO AND HOLLY TOO
came out
in November 2011 as part of the
MADNESS UNDER
THE MISTLETOE
Christmas Anthology. The D. D. Scott
Special Edition Ebook Boxed Set followed in December 2011 and
included all three Bootscootin’ Books plus the first two Cozy Cash
Mysteries. D.D.’s busy now writing her third Cozy Cash Mystery
CARATS & COCONUTS
, which will release in January 2012
along with a total of 16 additional releases throughout 2012.

Declaring 2011 to be “The Year of the E-Book
& Cross-Pollination”, D. D. co-founded and launched
The
Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing
(
http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com
),
your destination site for Everything E-Publishing. Whatever you
want to know and/or cuss and discuss about E-publishing, it’s right
there at The WG2E waiting for you!

When she’s not writing, she’s busy luuuvin’
on her real-life hero “Sweet Man” and their beloved shelter-rescued
dog Buckley and his new playmate Siggy the Affenpinscher.

For updates on her books, her sexy, sassy,
smart neurotic writer’s life blog, and for a schedule of her
appearances and Muse Therapy Sessions, visit her website
http://ddscottville.blogspot.com
.

By Talli Roland

‘Twelve dozen roses, please. The red ones.’
The man wiped his flushed face, then pointed to a bucket of wilting
flowers.

Olivia forced a smile, biting back a response
that a dozen
was
twelve, so if he wanted twelve dozen, that
would equal … Well, it would equal one hell of a lot of roses.
Possibly way more than they had in Spence’s Supermarket, even today
when they’d ordered in extra to meet the Valentine’s rush.

The man shot her a shy smile as she tried in
vain to fish twelve fresh-looking roses from the bucket.

‘This is my first Valentine’s Day with my
girlfriend,’ he said. ‘I want to make it extra special.’

Olivia nodded, trying to keep her face
neutral. A glob of slimy green water dripped from a rose’s stem
onto her beige trousers, and frustration swirled inside. Great –
now she’d have to change before Jonathan got home, just on the off
chance he’d planned something for tonight. She knew that in all
likelihood, he’d be tired and stressed after a long day at work,
seeking the comfort of the sofa and the latest football match
replays. But maybe this year would be the one when he’d finally
present her with a bouquet of flowers – one of those expensive
arrangements, tied with a satin bow; nothing like these second-rate
roses – and take her chin in the way that made her heart flip over,
look into her eyes … and finally,
finally
say he loved her?
Two years they’d been together, and she’d yet to hear those three
little words.

‘Er, how much?’ the man in front of her
stammered. Olivia gave herself a little shake, realising she was
just standing there holding out the stems.

‘That will be sixty pounds, please.’ Obscene,
really, given these flowers would probably be curling up and brown
by tomorrow. Still, it was the gesture that counted, right?

Or was it? Olivia chewed her lower lip as she
watched the man scurry out through the shop’s sliding doors to the
busy London street. Jonathan did loads of little things that showed
he loved her. Every morning, he made her coffee before she left for
her shift at Spence’s. He always washed the dishes she left lying
around in the sink, forgotten, and he was a star at vacuuming.
Whenever she had a killer migraine, he was unfailingly kind and
patient, endlessly bringing her wet towels to place on her pounding
forehead. He did love her; she felt it all the time. So why oh why
couldn’t he just say those three
bloody
words and get it
over with?

‘Anything big planned for Valentine’s
tonight?’ Her co-worker Tina waggled her eyebrows as she came to
relieve Olivia from flower-stand duties.

Olivia gathered up her tatty handbag and took
a swipe at the glob on her trousers again. Nope, it looked like
that spot was there to stay. ‘Oh, you know. The usual, I guess.’
She shrugged, trying to look like she didn’t care. ‘You?’

‘My boyfriend just called!’ Tina said
excitedly. ‘And when I’m off in a couple hours, he’s going to take
me for a champagne ride on the London Eye. He’s rented a whole
capsule just for us.’ She clasped her hands to her heart. ‘I can’t
believe he did that. Do you know how much those things costs? I
certainly got lucky with him.’

‘That’s fantastic,’ Olivia said, hoping her
words sounded more enthusiastic than begrudging. God, a champagne
ride on the London Eye. On Valentine’s Day! In her mind’s eye,
Olivia could imagine swooping up over the city, taking in Big Ben
and Saint Paul’s as tiny bubbles tickled the back of her throat.
Unexpectedly, tears pricked her eyes, and she dropped her head
before Tina could notice. ‘Well, I’d better get home! See you
later.’

As she pushed through the crowds of shoppers
on Camden High Street – every second man wielding a bouquet of
flowers – toward the flat she shared with Jonathan, anger thumped
inside, growing and growing with each step. She wasn’t asking for a
champagne ride on a city landmark, as much as she’d like it. No,
all she wanted was to hear that the man she loved – and the man
she’d been living with for the past year – loved her! For God’s
sake, that wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

Maybe … maybe the time had come to put a
stake in the ground. To see how he really felt, for once and for
all. She wasn’t going to hang around waiting any longer.

Olivia swung open the door, full of
determination. Good, it was still dark, which meant Jonathan hadn’t
come back yet. She’d have a nice bath, pour herself a glass of
wine, and when he returned she’d sit him down and ask – in a calm,
cool voice without any hysterics – if he loved her. And if he
didn’t? Olivia pushed the thought from her mind. He did. She knew
he did. She just needed to hear it.

As she hung up her coat, her ears cocked at a
sound in the kitchen. ‘Jonathan?’ Was someone there?

There was a crash and a bang, and then she
heard him swearing. ‘Hi, hon!’

What on earth was he doing? And why was he
home already? Well, at least she could get this over with. Taking a
deep breath, Olivia strode into the kitchen. ‘Jonathan, we need to
talk. I —’ Her mouth flopped open mid-sentence as she took in the
sight before her.

Every dish they owned was spread out on the
counter. Steam rose from something bubbling on the hob, while foamy
liquid boiled over the sides of a pot, hissing as it met the hot
burner. A strange smell tainted the air, something like … well,
Olivia couldn’t even identify it. And in the midst of it all, her
usually cool, calm boyfriend was darting from oven to counter and
back again like a caffeinated gopher.

‘What are you doing?’ Olivia finally
asked.

Jonathan gave her a sheepish grin. ‘Making a
mess of things. I wanted to cook you a nice dinner tonight. I know
I’ve been a bit tied up with work lately, and, well … I wanted to
make it up to you. I’ve been slaving away for hours here. But I’m
afraid it’s better suited to the rubbish bin than our dinner
table.’ He grimaced as he glanced around the kitchen. ‘What did you
want to ask me?’ He came over and put his arms around her waist,
drawing her up against him.

Olivia looked into his eyes. Jonathan didn’t
even seem to realise today was Valentine’s Day. Suddenly, all her
anger and frustration drained away as it hit her that she didn’t
need a special gesture on one day of the year. And she didn’t need
to hear those three words, either. All she needed was the knowledge
that Jonathan loved her enough to show it. Nothing he said could
compete with that.

‘It’s okay,’ she said, resting her head on
Jonathan’s solid chest. The thud of his heart filled her ear, and
she smiled. ‘Actually, it’s more than okay. It’s perfect.’

ABOUT TALLI ROLAND

Talli Roland has three loves in her life:
chick lit, coffee and wine. Born and raised in Canada, Talli now
lives in London, where she savours the great cultural life (coffee
and wine). Her debut novel,
The Hating
Game
, was a bestseller and shortlisted for Best Romantic
Read at the UK’s Festival of Romance, and her second,
Watching Willow
Watts
, is a customer favourite. Build A Man is her
latest release. Talli blogs here and can be found on Twitter
here.

By Chicki Brown

Chapter One

Who do you think you’re kidding?
Jan
Davis threw her car into gear and headed for GA400.
You can’t
possibly be considering this? He’s practically a boy, for crying
out loud.

“He’s not
that
young,” she protested
out loud, as if someone were actually sitting in the front seat. “A
lot of women are involved with younger men these days. If he’s
interested in me, why shouldn’t I?”

Because you’ll look foolish, that’s why.
Act your age and don’t embarrass yourself,
the voice
warned.

She slammed another fifty cents into the
greedy gaping mouth of the tollbooth, annoyed at having to feed the
DOT’s legalized slot machine.

“Mmm, it was a nice thought anyway,” Jan
answered her invisible accuser.

The rest of the way home down I-75, she
reflected on the events of the evening. From the moment she’d tied
on her apron, Mac Sinclair’s piercing dark eyes followed her. At
first she thought he simply wanted to see how she prepared the
food, but when she caught his gaze trained on her legs and not her
hands, she knew he wasn’t merely admiring her culinary skill. The
thought that this young man, blessed with classic good looks and a
Hershey’s Kiss chocolate complexion, found her attractive made her
nervous and clumsy. He sat and studied her while she tried to keep
her hands from shaking as she chopped onions and peppers for the
sauce. Uneasy under his scrutiny, she decided to fill the silence
with small talk.

“How long have you been living here,
Mac?”

“A little over six months.” He stroked his
smooth, clean-shaven face.

“So, what do you think of Atlanta?”

“Love it. I’d come here on business several
times, so when my company offered me a promotion working in their
Buckhead office, I left L.A. and made Atlanta my home.” He took the
last sip of his Red Bull energy drink and flashed a devastating
grin.