Please welcome a new friend,
Margo Bond Collins, who I met when we joined the COME LOVE A COWBOY anthology at http://amzn.com/B01D5876UK.
Margo is a fellow Texan and clever as can be. Here’s the information on her
book in the anthology, LEAVING NECESSITY. (I love the name of the town!)
LEAVING NECESSITY Blurb:
Can they strike love again?
At nineteen, Clara Graves left Necessity, Texas, to try to heal her broken heart. She swore she would never come back, and she's kept that promise. Until now. When she returns for her uncle's funeral, she inherits a small oil company that may keep her tied to Necessity for a few days longer than she expected. But as soon as she can close or sell the business, she’s pointing her boots toward greener pastures.
To this day, Mitchell MacAllan regrets letting Clara go without a fight. But his whole life was in Necessity, and leaving town wasn’t in the cards. As the foreman of Aerio Oil and Gas, he works hard to keep the townspeople employed and maintain the business, despite a recent downturn in petroleum prices.
Now Mac has less than a week to convince Clara that she should give Aerio a chance, and maybe even forgive him in the meantime. Otherwise, she will once again be leaving Necessity—and taking his heart with her, this time for good.
LEAVING NECESSITY Excerpt:
I’ve inherited an oil company?
Maybe she had
misheard. After all, her attention had drifted away a little in the midst of a
long list of small assets Uncle Gavin had left to friends. Not family,
though—Clara and Gavin were each the only family the other had.
Her eyes had
misted up a bit at that thought, until she was jerked out of her thoughts by
the sound of her name and something that sounded suspiciously like a business
name with “oil and gas” in it.
Clara stared at
the attorney sitting behind a desk at the front of the room, and had to remind
herself to close her mouth before she spoke up to interrupt the older man’s
reading of the will, waving her hand in the air a little to catch his
attention. “I’m sorry, Mr. Pritchard. Could you back up a little?”
He blinked at
her from behind rounded glasses. “Certainly, Ms. Graves. What part should I
repeat?” Clara had known John Pritchard for most of her life, and even when she
was a child, he had called her “Ms. Graves,” as if she were as important as the
adult clients of his law firm. She had adored him for that. But at the moment,
she wished he were less courtly, and more direct.
“The part where
it sounds like you said Uncle Gavin left me some kind of oil company.”
“Ah. Yes.” Mr.
Pritchard pushed those glasses up on his nose, scanning the papers in front of
him, then read the passage again. It said something about the company and its
holdings and rights and some other things that didn’t quite make sense to Clara
about the company’s vitality and viability and conferring with the company’s current
foreman.
“Just to
clarify: that means that Aerio Oil and Gas, LLC, belongs entirely to me?” She
tried to keep her voice from squeaking, but she didn’t entirely succeed.
“We can discuss it in detail momentarily, but
almost, yes,” the attorney replied. He raised an eyebrow at her, as if making
certain she was ready for him to keep reading.
Almost? What did that mean?
Slumping back
into her chair with a surprised whoosh, Clara nodded and waved her hand again,
this time motioning Mr. Pritchard to keep reading.
An oil company?
What had Uncle Gavin been thinking? When had he acquired an oil company? More
to the point, why hadn’t he told Clara about it?
She listened
with only half her attention as Mr. Pritchard finished out the reading of the
will.
The rest of it
was pretty simple. With the exception of a few mementos and monetary gifts left
to people like the woman who had cleaned his house every week for as long as
Clara could remember, Gavin Graves had left everything to Clara. Much of it was
specified in the will—the house and all its contents other than those otherwise
disposed by the will, an old Mustang he had restored years before, a new Dodge
pickup truck, and several bank accounts—but the document also closed by noting
that everything not otherwise mentioned went to Clara.
“Thank you all
for coming,” Mr. Pritchard said, standing. “In the next few days, I will be
contacting those of you to whom Mr. Graves bequeathed personal gifts.”
Clara kept her
seat as several townspeople came to offer their condolences, some for the
second or third time that day. A cynical part of her couldn’t help but wonder
how many of them were more interested in getting a better look at her after ten
years in order to add fuel to the gossip fire than their sincere expressions and
kind words might otherwise suggest.
That’s not fair, Clara. She could almost
hear her uncle’s kind voice chiding her.
With a sigh, she
finally stood up. “Tell me more about this oil company, Mr. Pritchard?”
The attorney
nodded. “Of course. But really, Mac will be able to tell you more.” He gestured
behind her.
When she turned
to look, though, all she caught was a bare glimpse of a dark-haired man in
jeans and a cowboy hat as he shut the door behind him.
 |
| Amazon buy link: http://amzn.com/B01D5876UK |
About the Author; Social Media Links
 |
| Margo Bond Collins, Author |
You can learn more about her at http://www.MargoBondCollins.net and
follow her on all the usual social media outlets (listed below).
For updates about publications,
free fiction, and other goodies, be sure to subscribe to her newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/03A21E5E161401F0
1 comment:
Hi ladies! Margo I loved the way the love story unfolded with not everything about their history being revealed at once. The details about the oil industry were interesting too. Great addition to this anthology.
Post a Comment