Promising Love

November 17, 2021

Promising Love

Promising Love

by Sara Ohlin

Contemporary Romance

When a glamorous spa owner seduces the grumpy neighborhood bartender, passion smolders…

Ruby Naylor, confident, successful proprietor of Spa La La, has been crushing on Lachlan MacGregory for ages and finally throws herself at the grumpy bartender as he’s helping her tipsy butt home to her apartment above his pub.

Ruby is the only woman Lachlan has ever loved—from afar. When she makes a pass, he finally admits he’s wanted her for a long time. He leaves her that night with three promises—a kiss, a special connection between them and an epic tomorrow.

Unfortunately, when tomorrow arrives and Lachlan is smacked with the knowledge that she’s already in a relationship with two men, he feels he has nothing to offer her.

His day gets worse when his addict father is on his doorstep again, demanding money. The thought that he could end up sick and miserable like his father eats at Lachlan, making him focus on what has never let him down, his successful pub in the burgeoning Corvallis neighborhood.

Learning that Ruby is not taken, Lachlan finally goes all out to win her back. With his heartfelt apology, it’s easy for Ruby to forgive him—she believes in joy, in romance, in happy ever after. What she never expected was how vulnerable Lachlan could make her feel.

Can their love withstand life-shattering events to lead them into a beautiful future?

Excerpt:

Ruby turned on the faucet, and a long black figure jumped from above her, streaked through the water and let out a large meow before it flew off the counter and slid down the hall. “Shit!” Ruby screamed.

“Ruby?” Lachlan yelled. He rushed into the kitchen and flipped on the light. “You okay?” Lachlan stood in the doorway, sweatpants on and nothing else, holding a skinny black cat. “Scared me.”

“I’m okay, just startled.” It took her a moment to catch her breath. He towered over her, a cat tail swishing over his broad, naked chest. “You have a cat?”

“Baby.” Lachlan scratched behind the cat’s ears. The creature arched under his touch and stared at Ruby. Skinny but healthy, the black cat had two white front paws and bright green eyes.

“You named your cat Baby? That’s what tripped us earlier, when we…when we…” Holy cow. Her cheeks flushed, thinking of how they’d gone at each other earlier, barely inside his house.

Lachlan’s face relaxed into a slow, tempting smile, as if he knew exactly what she was picturing. “Sugar Baby, actually.” He sounded a tiny bit annoyed at the animal but the expression on his face when he stroked his cat and the way the cat rubbed against his hand was pure love. Oh my God.

“Some days she has more salty than sweet in her, so she gets called Baby.” Lachlan smirked at the skinny cat. “She sneaks all over the place, demands food and plays in the water that comes out of the faucet. Goofball. I was too distracted earlier or you wouldn’t have tripped me,” he cooed to his pet. Insulted, or victorious—Ruby couldn’t tell—the cat streaked out of his arms, darted across the floor and disappeared.

She looked up and their eyes met. That zing, that connection buzzed.

About the Author

Puget Sound based writer, Sara Ohlin is a mom, wannabe photographer, obsessive reader, ridiculous foodie, and the author of the contemporary romance novels, Handling the Rancher, Salvaging Love, Seducing the Dragonfly, Igniting Love, Flirting with Forever and Promising Love.

She has over sixteen years of creative non-fiction and memoir writing experience, and you can find her essays at Anderbo.com, Feminine Collective, Mothers Always Write, Her View from Home, Under the Gum Tree, and in anthologies such as Are We Feeling Better Yet? Women Speak about Healthcare in America, Take Care: Tales, Tips, & Love from Women Caregivers, and Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Although she’s the author of many essays about life, grief, motherhood and the connections we make through delicious food and shared meals, Sara loves creating imaginary worlds with tight-knit communities in her romance novels. She credits her mother, Mary, Nora Roberts and Rosamunde Pilcher for her love of romance.

If she’s not reading or writing, you will most likely find her in the kitchen creating scrumptious meals with her two kids and amazing husband, or perhaps cooking up her next love story. She once met a person who both “didn’t read books” and wasn’t “that into food” and it nearly broke her heart.

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