Above Rubies
His chivalry was strangling her. He thought he was helping her—and in truth, he was. She was in desperate straits. But as honorable as he was, he was also breaking her heart. Her attraction was drowning him. When World Champion rodeo cowboy Rossen Rockland and his friends rescue a young runaway who has been abused by her foster father and take her home to his parents’ ranch, he expects her to turn out to be a pain in the neck. And sometimes she is. It doesn’t take him long to figure out that she has way more than her allotment of troubles—and far more than her share of gifts. Lovely, talented, and ravingly brilliant, Kit Star is too young, unbelievably humble, and oh, so loveable. Knowing that she needs his protection and time to grow into her potential, Rossen also figures out that what she really is, is a pain in the heart. Watch for more of the Rockland Ranch Series!Excerpt:
At the studio, Kit was
surprised at the level of security they had to go through to get into
the building. There was a cluster of people outside the main doors
waiting to get a glimpse of whomever would be recording that day, and
Kit and Joey were almost overwhelmed by the jostling they received when
their group tried to walk through. Nick smiled at the fans as they
pushed through with the help of two security guards, but the smile never
quite reached his eyes. Cameras popping in her face left her nearly
blind momentarily and Nick took her elbow and put up a protective arm as
one of the others helped Joey get through the crush. When they were
finally safely inside, they were greeted by yet another set of locked
doors guarded by armed men. This time they were escorted through
without the physical mobbing.
As they emerged into the
safety of the interior of the building, Nick apologized, “Sorry about
that. We usually just drive into the underground parking, and no one
can bother us inside the car, but they're doing some kind of maintenance
on the concrete and we’re stuck going in the front doors for awhile.
The press is having a good time with it.”
Nick was still jovial,
but it was obvious that the hassle had been frustrating and once inside,
he wanted to get right to business. Dr. Mitchell settled Joey in a
booth with a man named Ian who wore a headset and sat in front of ten
thousand lighted buttons. Then he took Kit into the actual studio and
fitted her with her own headset and electric guitar. They were off to
one side and he quickly went through the music they were going to be
playing that morning. Kit tried to just focus on the music and ignore
her nerves.
Shortly, the other
musicians and a backup singer came in and got set up. There was Nick on
the guitar, as well as Kit and Dr. Mitchell, and Mrs. Mitchell on
keyboards. One of the two men who had come in with Nick was his
drummer, Shane, and the other was a singer named Joss who played a
number of instruments. Before the day was out he played six different
things ranging from the mandolin to the alto sax. Shane was about half
kooky, with a perpetual smile and enough energy for ten people. Kit
liked him instantly and enjoyed his nutty enthusiasm as he mixed a
passion for music with a screwball sense of humor. As they worked, it
became apparent that he both tempered the work atmosphere and kept up
the intensity at the same time.
Joss was so mellow she
almost wondered if he was on something, except there was no way he could
have been drugged and so utterly with it musically, at the same time.
Kit didn’t hear him make a mistake the whole day. He was a machine,
just a very low key one.
As they began Kit was
sickeningly uptight, but within just a few minutes, as she became
confident she could do everything they needed, she loosened up. She
decided being a part of a band was much more fun than just playing
alone. There was something about working together to create the music.
The complexity and depth were immensely satisfying. The
all-encompassing sound and the rhythm and passion of the musicians fed
an emotion that was almost a physical high. She soon found herself
immersed in the music and was dancing and playing along with Nick as
they worked.
She knew he’d been
watching her. She would have expected nothing less from any boss. And
when he came and stood beside her, she looked to him for suggestions and
instruction just like the others did. Once in a while, if he got too
close, she would back away from him, and a time or two she saw something
in his eyes she wasn’t completely comfortable with. When that
happened, she dropped her own eyes to focus on her instrument for a
moment.
They played consistently
through three different songs, working until they were near perfect
enough for Ian, the sound guy in the booth with Joey. It took a few
times through, but Kit was surprised that they could polish a song in
such an amazingly short time. Her respect for the musicians around her
grew as the hours passed.
They began to have
trouble on the fourth song, but it was with the back-up singer, not the
instrumentalists. Kit could sense that Nick and the others were
frustrated with the woman, who became more and more put out as they
asked her over and over to sing it the way they wanted. Kit couldn’t
even read music, but she understood what they were asking long before
the finicky vocalist. Finally, Nick raked his hand through his messy do
and asked Kit quietly, “You don’t by any chance sing do you?”
Kit glanced at the woman who was now glaring at her as she replied, “A little.”
“Do
you understand what we’re after here?” Kit wordlessly nodded her head.
“Okay. Let’s try it with Kit singing and see if we can get past this.
From the top. One, two, three, four.”
Kit began to sing the
part, her clear voice a perfect blend with Nick’s and Joss’s, and the
piece came together on the very first run. Nick gave Joss a silent
glance that held some meaning Kit didn’t understand, and spoke over his
headset to Ian. The pouty backup singer snarled something
unintelligible, glared at Kit and left, leaving Kit as slightly unsure
of herself as she had been at first. Nick gave her a reassuring smile,
struck a chord and they continued on as before. Kit didn’t figure out
until that night when she and Joey had a chance to talk, that the
singer had been sacked and sent home. And, it was a day or more later,
before she understood that they intended to keep her singing if she
would.
They played until six-thirty
California time, when they decided to call it a night. As they pushed
through the crowd at the doors and climbed into the limo for the ride
back to the hotel, Kit suddenly realized she was tired to the bone. The
intensity of the work, coupled with her initial nerves, had worn her
out and as she settled into the plush seat of the luxury car, she felt
her weariness kick in.
Nick and the guys asked
them all if they wanted to go to dinner together, and then out to a club
after. The four of them said yes to dinner, but declined the night on
the town later. Kit was tired enough as they pushed through another
bunch of cameras and fans to get into the restaurant, where they were
rescued discreetly by the staff and led to an out of the way table, that
she wished she would have declined dinner and gone back to the hotel
hungry.
Nick and Joey realized
she was tired and kept the conversation going on around her at dinner
without a lull, content to let her eat and watch in relative silence.
She still had little appetite and struggled to eat even a minimal meal.
Walking back out to the limo with both a superstar and his
entourage of fans, Kit marveled at how far away this morning in Wyoming
felt, and even how normal the crush of onlookers had become. This time
as she was seated next to Nick in the limousine, the brush of his
shoulder and thigh against hers didn’t even seem out of place. She'd
come a long way in one day.
Nick helped them out of
the car himself at the hotel with a tired smile. “See you at eight.”
His and Kit’s eyes held for a brief moment and then she turned to walk
away into the revolving door. She made it to their room, showered,
prayed, and talked to Joey for a few minutes before nodding off with
thoughts of Rossen and Mimi in her head.
Praise for Above Rubies:
I absolutely could not put this book down. It had me laughing, crying, angry and pretty much every other emotion. I can not wait for the next one in the series to come out. Keep them coming!!! ~Addicted to BooksThis is the second book in the Rockland Ranch Romance Series. It can be read as a stand alone or copies of Peace River can be supplied if you would also like to review it.
Peace River (Book 1)
The police didn't understand the danger, but she did. Her father had always been abusive, but now, with a ten million dollar Thoroughbred farm on the line, and a powerful bookie leaning on him, her father had become out of control. But how do you get away and take a world famous stallion with you? Carrie was getting desperate when a handsome and honorable but thoroughly cynical rodeo cowboy from Wyoming happened to show up with a horse trailer. He didn't ride a white horse, but he was definitely a knight in shining armor.
He'll protect her from the mob, but can she survive falling in love with a bull rider?
Praise for Peace River
"Give me a clean romance, humor and a good looking cowboy and I'm a happy girl. LDS fiction isn't always my favorite but I really enjoyed the characters and adventure in this book." ~Carol - Goodreads"There was plenty of action, adventure and danger to keep me guessing just how everything was going to turn out. I didn't want to put it down until I finished! Jaclyn Hawkes is one of my favorite LDS romance authors. You really can't go wrong with any of her books that you pick up!" ~Cathy -Goodreads
Author Jaclyn M. Hawkes
Jaclyn M. Hawkes grew up in Utah with 6 sisters, 4 brothers and any number of pets. (It was never boring!) She got a bachelor’s degree, had a career and traveled extensively before settling down to her life’s work of being the mother of four magnificent and sometimes challenging children. She loves shellfish, the out of doors, the youth and hearing her children laugh. She and her fine husband, their family, and their sometimes very large pets, now live in a mountain valley in northern Utah, where it smells like heaven and kids still move sprinkler pipe.
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