Foolproof Love #1
Dear Reader,
It’s been quite the journey to get this book into your hands. The Foolproof Love series was actually my first contracted category romance, way back in 2012, before Wrong Bed, Right Guy was ever a twinkle in my eye. It was originally supposed to be on the Indulgence line. Adam was a cold billionaire and Jules was a bartender. The book was good, but it just didn’t work. In the intervening years, the story has worn many different suits, and none of them fit until I realized that my heroes simply must be cowboys.
Many things changed about this book, but Jules and Aubry’s relationship never did. They are my single favorite lady relationship I’ve written to date. And Adam… Well, I hope you fall in love with him the same way I did. I fondly call this series my Dirty Talking Cowboys and he more than earns the title!
So settle in, clear your schedule, and let me introduce you to a little town in Texas called Devil’s Falls. Our hero is a bull-rider and our heroine owns a cat café…
You’re in for a treat!
Katee
To Kari. For our mutual love of growly country singers and dirty-talking cowboys.
Chapter One
“Tell me again why we’re going out into the middle of nowhere for a bonfire? That’s like holding up a sign begging some ax murder to come along and mass murder us.”
Jules Rodriguez kept her eyes on the road—sad excuse that it was. Her truck rocked and shuddered as she muscled down the deep ruts. “We’re not going to get mass murdered.” Though her best friend, Aubry, had a point about it being in the middle of nowhere. They’d been working their way off the main road for almost twenty minutes, and there wasn’t so much as a taillight in sight. She pushed down the knot of anxiety for the seventeen millionth time today.
“How do you know?”
Across the bench seat, her best friend had her knees pulled up to her chest and was staring out the side window like she expected that ax murder to come sprinting at the truck at any second. She wore her favorite pair of black jeans and one of her nerdy T-shirts with puns most people didn’t understand, and she’d even picked out a pair of red tennis shoes instead of her normal boots.
Probably because she thinks she’s going to have to run for her life at some point.
Aubry pointed at the passing trees. “I think I hear banjos.”
“You live in Devil’s Falls. I would think you’d be used to the banjos by now.”
Aubry frowned, her pale face standing out against the darkness of the cab. Despite living in Texas for years, she managed to avoid anything that might resemble a tan. “I do my best to pretend they don’t exist.”
“Denial. It’s not just a river in Egypt.” She finally caught sight of light through the sparse trees. “There!”
Aubry pushed back her long, fire engine–red hair and snorted. “Who invited you to this thing again? Because if we’re not going to be mass murdered—and I’m still not convinced on that note—they could be luring us in for some sacrificial killing.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you have a deeply troubled obsession with murder?” Jules pulled in next to the open space at the end of a line of trucks. She recognized most of them from around town—Devil’s Falls wasn’t exactly a place hopping with new people. The last person to move in from out of town had been Aubry, and that was five years ago. “Besides, a sacrificial murder requires a virgin, and that ship sailed for both of us years ago.”
“Good point.” Aubry let loose a melodramatic sigh as she turned off the engine. “Remind me why we’re doing this again?”
“Because Grant’s back in town.” Jules hadn’t seen him since he dumped her ass on his way out of Devil’s Falls after graduation—he hadn’t even come back for holidays. Nine years later and his parting words were still ringing in her ears. I don’t want a life that’s going to bore me into putting a gun in my mouth and pulling the trigger before I hit thirty.
She clenched her hands around the steering wheel, counting to ten twice. It didn’t do a damn thing to stop the anger eating away at her. There wasn’t a single thing wrong with Devil’s Falls and the life she had here. Wanting to settle down and raise a family here—eventually—while being surrounded by the people she loved was a good thing. It didn’t make her boring.
A subject she and Grant disagreed wholeheartedly on.
“Yeah, you mentioned that jackass showing up earlier, right before you started pummeling that poor loaf of bread at the café. Personally, I’m still waiting to hear what your plan is.”
She didn’t have one, not that she was going to let that stop her. It never had before. “I just want a look.” Maybe he’d gained the freshman fifteen—and another twenty for law school. Or something. Something to prove that she was better off having been dumped so unceremoniously.