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Ginger Ring

~ Small town romance, big time love.

Ginger Ring

Monthly Archives: October 2013

Happy Halloween!!!

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Ginger Ring in My Thoughts

≈ 1 Comment

I celebrated Halloween a little early by going on a ghost hunt/tour called Caves and Graves last Friday night. Earlier this summer while doing some research for the Gangster’s Kiss, a 1920’s romance I am working on, I found a nearby place that did gangster tours. It’s called the Wabasha Street Caves http://www.wabashastreetcaves.com/ and if you are ever in St. Paul it is definitely worth doing. We had such a great time that I knew we had to come back for the Ghost tours.

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The tours are actually tour theatre. There are actors that portray parts. On the gangster tour, your guide will be different character from the era such as John Dillinger, Dapper Dan, or the Kissing Bandit. Our tour guides for the Graves tour were Nurse Ratchet and Keith Urban Legend. They were great!!

On the tour you ride around on some very nice deluxe buses. There are three spots in St. Paul that are on the list of most haunted places and we visited all of them. The first spot on the tour was a famous old mansion called Fourpaugh’s restaurant. http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/mn/forepaughs_restaurant.htm  We didn’t go in as it is a working restaurant but our bus stopped outside and the guides told of the history of the mansion and the spooky happenings that have taken place there.

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For about the next hour we traveled on the bus to visit other ghostly places around St. Paul. Some places were still there and visited quite often by ghosts while others were places that the buildings had been torn down but the ghosts still visited the new inhabitants. The ghosts were spirits left behind due to suicides, murders, accidents, and in one case a very stupid burglar.  He tried to rob a meat shop by plummeting down a 60 foot chimney with a 40 foot rope. It wasn’t the fall that killed him but the fact that someone started the furnace the next morning while he was still hung up. Apparently his fingers were worn to the bone as he struggled to climb the chimney and get out. Ewwww, right? The ghost use to work in the meat shop and was a boxer earlier in his life. To this day people occasionally see him shadow boxing. Recently the owners of the building found an old boxing poster. People that have seen the ghost boxing identified him as the man in the poster.

We also stopped by an old movie theatre from the 1950’s that I would love to visit. It is haunted by several ghosts, including a little girl that had been murdered nearby a long time ago. Visitors had often seen a little girl wearing a brown dress and red shoes which is what the girl had been wearing. In later years, a red shoe belonging to the girl was found in a previously empty room and is now on display in a glass case in the lobby of the old theatre.

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In the middle of the tour, we returned to the caves for some ghost tales and ghost hunting. The caves were beautiful and lit by candle light. Keith Urban Legend told some ghost stories about different sightings that had taken place in the caves by tour guides and guests. I loved the stories of ghosts in gangster attire walking around. I would love to meet one of those. In am earlier post about the gangster tour I told about the legend of a few gangsters that are believed to have been left behind in the caves after a gunfight.

After the ghost stories we saw some slides of ghost images that have showed up on pictures taken of the caves. These are some of the orbs that showed up on my pictures during the gangster tour and they also showed up on the pictures I took that night. We were encouraged to track the ghost with an app called spud pickles. The app picks up orbs and words. I only picked up orbs on my app in one area, the area that had a tunnel and where several people had seen a ghost. Oh I forgot to tell you that the caves where the second place listed on the most haunted site list.

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We returned to our bus and travelled to some more sites and made a stop at the Calvary Cemetery.  http://www.catholic-cemeteries.org/calvary.aspx Call me weird but I love visiting old cemeteries and this one goes back to 1856. Not only are the tombstones fascinating but this is also the burial place for many of the famous people you hear about on the gangster tour. We learned about some of the early types of tombstones and the significance of them. If you see a lamb on a tombstone, that was a Victorian marker for a child. Ivy meant eternal love. I am so using the ivy thing in my Work in Progress. This was a fascinating place and I hope to return here sometime, during the day, when I can take a closer look as some of these historic markers.

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One of the things I love most about these tours and traveling through St. Paul is that the city has some fabulous historic old buildings. One of the best streets for sightseeing is Summit Avenue and the site of our third most haunted place. The place is 476 Summit Ave. http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/mn/griggs_mansion.htm This place is home to not one but about 13 to 14 ghosts. It was thought that it had a speakeasy in the basement and there are several gangsters still hanging out there. It’s been visited by several psychics and ghost hunters. There is also another house across the street with ghosts and the nearby James J. Hill mansion has also had sightings.  Summit Avenue is very haunted and another place that I will be visiting and exploring again soon.

Well that’s what I did to celebrate Halloween. What will you be doing?

Welcome Catherine Bybee

24 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Ginger Ring in Guests

≈ 1 Comment

I got behind in my reading so I am not quite done with Not Quite Enough but I already know it will be getting a five star rating from me. The book has all the elements I love in a story and this one has a subject close to my heart. My sister is a nurse. She travels around the world to help out whenever tragedy strikes. She spent several weeks in Haiti after their terrible earthquake and has recently been helping set a clinic in Central America.  Thanks again Catherine for a wonderful book. I can’t wait to share it with my sister!!!

NQE Cover

Life as an ER Nurse

There is something that happens to nurses and doctors who work in the ER together… add to that team the EMT’s, the Fire Department Paramedics, and even the local Sheriffs that frequent the space, and you have quite an impressive team. Lots of hero material for my books there, I tell ya. I miss the bond that happens with that team and quite honestly the adrenaline that went along with the job. You see, the best and the worst of people in the ER. Though I don’t miss seeing the hard end of that life, death of the young, tragedy both accidental and intentional, I do miss being a part of making the wrongs of the world right.

It would be really easy to talk about the hard moments that will never, ever leave me… the first time I had to tell a family member that we (the doctors and nurse) couldn’t save their loved one, the death of a child, horrific images of child abuse. Those parts of the job were very hard.

I don’t miss the politics and short staffing. There was nothing worse than watching the lobby stack up with patient after patient and know they would all be waiting for hours unless they were having a true emergency. I don’t miss how aware I was of the abuse of our medical system and how it impacted those who didn’t abuse.

But there was so much joy there too, the funny moments that kept all of us coming in every day. The ‘lost condom’ phone calls to the things we fished out of ‘certain places’ that shall remain nameless. For people who have never worked in an ER it’s often hard for them to understand the smiles on the faces of the employees. We laughed a lot, maybe it was our defense mechanism for all the awful things we had to deal with, but I miss that part. The laughter.

Like my character, Monica of Not Quite Enough, the years of my life spent helping others through the good, the bad, and the awful were priceless. They shaped me and made me both thankful for what I have in my life and also gave me the backbone to endure just about every emergency in a calm and collective way. It was a joy to revisit that part of my life in writing Not Quite Enough.

CATHERINE BYBEE

Bybee Author Photo

EXCERPT

Monica glanced up at the gray skies and frowned. “So, Trent,” she began again. “Are you the only one shuffling the foreign medical staff around the island?”

He shook his head. “There are a few others. Why?”

He kept his eyes on where he walked and avoided her questioning gaze.

“Just wondering.”

He didn’t buy that. “Just wondering?”

“Seems like anyone could drive me to the clinic.”

He walked her behind the hospital and up a short path to where his helicopter waited. “Anyone could drive you.”

She hesitated when she saw her ride. “I thought you said you were driving me.”

“I am. After a short flight to where my car is parked.”

She turned a full circle. “Can’t we just drive?”

Trent moved in front of her and removed his sunglasses. “It’s a short flight back to the airport, then a thirty minute drive. That’s if the roads are cleared.”

“Can’t we just—” Her ice blue eyes never left his.

“I didn’t kill you the first time, Monica. I won’t this time either.”

She swallowed.

“It was better thinking you volunteered to take me instead of being the only person capable of it.”

Actual fear hid behind her eyes. “Why’s that?”

“I prefer flirting to flying.”

A slow, easy smile met his lips. He knew then irrevocably that Monica thought about him at some point during her short stint on the island.

He replaced his sunglasses and reached for her hands. “How about a little of both?”

BIO:

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee was raised in Washington State, but after graduating high school, she moved to Southern California in hopes of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned novels Wife by Wednesday, Married by Monday, and Not Quite Dating. Bybee lives with her husband and two teenage sons in Southern California.  

NQE tour graphic

 

CONTACT LINKS:

http://www.catherinebybe.com

catherinebybee@yahoo.com

catherinebybee.blogspot.com

twitter.com/catherinebybee

 

NOT QUITE ENOUGH

The Not Quite Series, Book Three

Montlake Romance, Contemporary

October 08, 2013, First Edition

Paperback & Kindle

“Bybee’s gift for creating unforgettable romances cannot be ignored.”

 –RT BOOK REVIEWS, TOP PICK, 4 ½ STARS

Monica Mann has made it her life’s work to save lives. After an earthquake and tsunami hit the shores of Jamaica, she volunteers her trauma skills with Borderless Nurses. Calculating and methodical, Monica creates order out of whatever chaos she finds.

Until she finds the perpetually barefoot, impossibly masculine Trent Fairchild. No one can pin him down. No, really. He’s a pilot and manages a small fleet of choppers on his adopted island home. Hopelessly drawn to one another, they manage to slip away from the wreckage to get a little closer. And they get a lot closer than expected when aftershocks from the earthquake trap them in their own life-or-death scenario. Paradise has brought them together. Now will it tear them apart?

 

 BUY LINKS:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Not-Quite-Enough/dp/1477809597/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1379425197&sr=8-1

B&N:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/not-quite-enough-catherine-bybee/1115410359?ean=9781477809594

BAM:  http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Not-Quite-Enough/Catherine-Bybee/9781477809594?id=5626188019237

BOOK DEPOSITORY:  http://www.bookdepository.com/Not-Quite-Enough-Catherine-Bybee/9781477809594

 

Catherine is having a giveaway so please click on the below link to find out more!!! 

 http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/8a854410/

Brothels, Battlefields, and Ghosts! Oh My!

20 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Ginger Ring in My Thoughts

≈ 6 Comments

Do you believe in ghosts? I do. I saw one once, well actually there were two and a ghost horse. Lol Ok, before you start to think this ginger girl has a screw loose. I have a story to tell you.

About ten years ago I traveled to Montana. My boyfriend, Patrick, and I decided to go there and elope. Being a huge history buff, I made sure that a stop at Little Big Horn battlefield and memorial site was on the schedule. It was a warm July afternoon when we made our visit. The actually battlefield covers a large area but the visitor center, Custer’s last stand, and cemetery are located in one spot.

When we got there we spent some time looking at artifacts, memorials, and then decided to walk down to a ravine that is part of the tour. Warning signs to stay on the trail or risk rattlesnake bites caught my attention right away. I was sure to not stray. As we walked the quarter mile trail down to the ravine, I began to not feel right. The more I walked, the worst I felt. My heart was pounding. I was short of breath. It was if I was climbing the hill instead of traveling down it.

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As we reached our final destination, I was extremely cold and shaky. The small ravine at the bottom of the hill had storyboards that told the events of what happened there but I had no interest. I was agitated, nervous, and wanted to be anywhere but there. Not wanting to cause I fuss I tried to tough it out while Patrick read the information that was posted. I am lucky that Patrick likes to visited historical places almost as much as I do but unfortunately he spends way too much time reading and studying things. To try and hurry him along by any means only leads to extending that time. I have learned to grin and bear it.

As time went on my anxiousness continued and I needed to escape, from what I didn’t quite know. I told Patrick I was going back up the hill. I turned and was met head on by a solder running from an Indian atop a horse. I basically jumped out of their way to avoid being trampled. It happened in the flash of an instant but I saw the three figures as clear as day. The soldier was a young man in blue and a little shorter than I. If you have ever seen old uniforms in museums, you will immediately notice how much smaller people use to be and this guy maybe came up to my nose. The horse was a brown and white paint with a dark, thick mane. The warrior on his back had long, black flowing hair and was holding a club or tomahawk.

Was I seeing things? I was obviously suffering from heatstroke or something and returned to my boyfriend’s side. We left the area and began our trek back up the hill. It took us twice as long as I had to stop several times to sit and rest. Strangely enough, the closer I go to the top of the hill, the better I felt. It was the complete and exact opposite of our trip down. As we reached the visitor center I felt like a new person. I rested on a bench outside the center as Patrick went to get me some water.

As I sat there, I still couldn’t wrap my head around what I had saw and felt. A park guide was giving a talk on a nearby patio so I listened to the lecture he was giving about a famous warrior name Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux Medicine man. Black Elk, at the age of twelve was involved in the battle of Little Big Horn and later survived the battle of Wounded Knee. He led a very interesting life including becoming a member of Buffalo Bill’s Wide West Show and traveled to England to see Queen Victoria. Black Elk missed the boat home to the US and ended up traveling throughout Europe. When I finished drinking my water, I did some shopping (shopping to me is buying books) and I left with an arm load of guides and history books, including Black Elk Speaks.

As we drove off, I told Patrick about what I had experienced in the ravine and laughed it off as heat exhaustion. I remember saying it didn’t even make sense as the ghosts were going the wrong way and the brave on the horse had unbraided hair. Any western I ever seen had Indians in braids riding horses covered in war paint. He corrected me and said that according to the information boards posted the soldiers were chased into the ravine and killed. I still shrugged it off and reminded myself to drink plenty of water the next time I went exploring in the Montana sunshine.

A few months later I was reading my book about Black Elk and I read a passage that made my blood run cold. The passage was about this famous battle. It was from a warrior talking about the battle of Little Big Horn. In the passage he explained that the battle happened so fast that they didn’t have time to paint their ponies or braid their hair. I may have been hallucinating but my vision was historically correct! Did I really see ghosts on the battlefield? I was starting to believe that I did.

Montana has a lot of ghost towns and ghosts. I have been working on a contemporary romance in which a publisher plays match maker by pairing two writers together for a book in the hopes that they will find true romance. Both of them have lost the loves of their lives and have yet to put the pieces of their lives together. They decide to write a story involving the history of the area and take a tour of the historic Dumas Brothel in Butte.

The Dumas was one of the country’s longest running brothels and is haunted. Patrick and I also visited there on our trip. It is a fascinating building as it is one of the few brothel type architectural buildings left. It has two floors and a basement where the cribs are located. The higher the floor you were on the higher your status, believe me you did not what to work in the cribs.

On the first and second floor each prostitute had her own room but what made this place so different is that the windows are on the inside. The customer would walk along the halls, look in the window and see which girl he was interested in. The place is very spooky!! Numerous times tourists have seen images of ghosts appear in their pictures. There is one ghost in particular that still haunts the second floor. A woman that worked there had fallen in love with a customer, a married businessman that promised to leave his wife and take her away. On the night they were supposed to leave, she sat waiting. She was all dressed to leave and her bags were packed. He never showed. The next morning the other women of the house found her dead in her room from suicide. The characters in my story encounter a different ghost while there but she also came to the same tragic end.

Patrick and I didn’t see any ghosts while we were there but even today my husband and I still remember the bad vibe the place had. It was eerie, creepy, dark, and haunting. While reading the guest book there, I noticed others had had the same impression. Words such as sad, lonely, and spooky could be found in the book.

When a person thinks of places that are haunted it is rarely a new building. They almost always surround a place with a past. Hospitals, old hotels, historic homes, and battlefields seem to be the most popular. Are these places filled with so much energy and emotion that we cannot help but absorb them? Have you ever smelled the perfume of someone that wasn’t in the room? Felt a cold touch on your skin? Are the footsteps or voices heard at night real or your imagination? And are some people able to sense these things while others don’t?

It has been ten years now since I was at Little Big Horn but to this day I can still feel the fear of the soldier running for his life. I can hear the pounding of the horse’s hoofs on the hard dirt. I can still see the determined look on the brave’s face to kill his enemy. If I was feeling faint that day why do I remember it in such detail and why was it historically correct when I knew nothing of the story before I got there?

Halloween is just around the corner and it always brings up the subject of ghosts. Are they real or just in our imaginations? After reading my story and close encounter with the ghostly kind, what are your thoughts? Did I have heat stroke in the hot Montana sun or have a ghostly vision? Have you ever sensed a ghost or been in a scary sensation?

Comment below for the chance to win a copy of my ebook Getting Down to Business. Please leave your email address if you want to enter the contest and I will use Randomizer.org to pick a winner.  The contest will run until Monday October, 21, 2013 at 8pm Central time.

http://amzn.to/16V3vif

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Welcome Liz Crowe

15 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Ginger Ring in Guests

≈ 1 Comment

Today I am excited to welcome Liz Crowe. A fellow Midwesterner with a great new novel titled Good Faith coming out soon. The story has all the elements that make a story sizzle!!!

Strong personalities—volatile marriages—stressful careers—conflicting goals—difficult children.

Contemporary challenges facing close-knit families form the crucible that forges a new generation.

Brandis, Gabriel, Blair and Lillian emerge from the entanglement of their parents’ longstanding emotional connections, but one’s star will burn brighter – and hotter – than the others.

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000039_00071]Three families—Gordon, Frietag, and Robinson—share complex connections previously established in the best-selling Stewart Realty series. This stand-alone, final novel explores the characters coping with mature marriages and challenging, adolescent children. Through shared experiences, their inherent strengths and fragilities as individuals and as couples are revealed forming the basis of relationships for the next generation.

Brandis Robert Gordon emerges as the golden boy from the crowd of children that have grown up together, the apple of his family’s eye, the kid the other kids follow — even when he heads over a cliff.  He is being raised by fiercely focused parents who are determined to succeed at everything they do, even if it means unconscious neglect of their children’s emotional needs. Brandis’ star shines bright, blinding family and friends to his inner weaknesses until it’s too late.

Good Faith is, at its core, the story of this young man’s all-consuming struggles with success and failure. It is also a saga of his personal odyssey—his ultimate quest for normalcy, when everything around him seems destined to thwart that goal.

The intertwining relationships amongst Brandis, his best friend Gabe Frietag, Gabe’s younger sister, Blair, and her friend, Lillian Robinson, bracketed by the equally compelling lives of their parents and siblings, form the framework of this complex novel.

By the time Brandis fully grasps what Blair, the girl he’s known his whole life, means to him, he has embarked on a life journey plagued by multiple addictions. Recruited to play Division I football as a freshman starting quarterback, after years of dedicated effort towards that very goal, he attempts to focus and be the man his parents and girlfriend expect him to be. But his personal demons already have a firm grip on him, and his downward spiral threatens to drag everyone he loves into the vortex with him.

Blair Frietag has never considered herself strong or independent—she’s just “Gabe’s nerdy sister” and “Lillian Grace’s best friend.” But she is harboring a life-long obsession with Brandis Gordon. When he finally comes to her, she welcomes everything about him—the good and the bad—nearly destroying herself in the process. Because Brandis’ love is conditional and anchored in dependence, she must accept or reject her role as enabler. By the time she acknowledges the fact that her desire to help him overpowers her inability to do so, it’s nearly too late.

After being told that the man he considers his father is actually not, Gabriel Frietag’s final years of high school devolve into angry confusion. The fact that he has started to question his sexuality only compounds his misery and frustration. The love/hate relationship with Brandis, which began while the boys were small, is sorely tested by Brandis’ increasingly bad choices and is finally severed, thanks to what Gabe considers Brandis’ unhealthy dependence on Blair. In an uncharacteristic move, Gabe rejects everything he knows and loves, and accepts a scholarship to

play soccer for a college on the West Coast, hoping he can break from the painful confines of his childhood home. But his connection to Lillian Grace Robinson, another instrument in their life-long quartet of friendship, remains seemingly unbreakable.

Lillian is Blair’s companion from birth. A shy girl at first, “Lilly-G” seems destined to live forever in Blair’s shadow. But as she observes her friend’s descent into emotional turmoil with Brandis, Lillian comes to terms with her powerful feelings for Gabe. This realization of her own inner strength molds her into the touchstone everyone reaches for: their anchor in the storm, the friend they are all lucky to have, while remaining the one who will forever hold Gabe’s heart in her hands — no matter how far he goes seeking escape.

The Gordon, Frietag and Robinson ties are born of circumstance, necessity and emotion. Yet the choices of the second generation seem destined to destroy all they have built together. When the shocking loss of one of their strongest members comes at the precise moment when healing seems within reach, it threatens their tenuously rebuilt bonds. The tragedy forces everyone to open their eyes to the fickleness of fate and to rely on each other once more.

Good Faith holds up a literary mirror to contemporary life with all its temptations, joys, and sorrows. The plot’s twists and turns are designed to reflect the volatility of human nature, with all its hopes, dreams, and unexpected setbacks.

More than just another coming-of-age tale, this compelling new novel from best-selling author Liz Crowe is told with sympathy, humor and a real-life voice that will not easily be forgotten.

FB-Cover-Reveal

Excerpt

That morning his father had roused him from a sound sleep. He’d blinked, confused, by the angle of the sunlight. He rarely slept much past eight since he usually had some sort of training or the other.

“Let’s go son. Time for lunch.”

Brandis had dragged himself up, his limbs feeling like they weighed a thousand pounds each. His brain buzzed with a strange sort of energy, his typical state, and not at all welcome considering it normally didn’t hit him until later in the day. The conversation his father began as soon as they were seated at their usual diner did not help.

“So, listen, Brandis. These girls…Katie’s friends from college….”

Brandis sipped his ice water, waiting for his father to finish the thought. His heart pounded, and his face flushed hot with embarrassment.

Jack sighed, as if exasperated that Brandis didn’t pick up the thread on his own, leaving him to carry on with the awkwardness about to ensue. Then he leveled his gaze, his face open, not angry or judgmental. “I think that you may be in for some…I mean, they’re…shit.”

“If you are gonna tell me where babies come from again,” Brandis said, after deciding to ease his father’s obvious distress. He cocked an eyebrow and half a smile. Jack seemed to relax somewhat as Brandis continued. “Don’t bother. I already know.”

He flashed his brightest smile up at the middle-aged woman who stood at their table, coffee pot in hand. She blinked rapidly at him, and at that precise moment, Brandis got his first flash of…something…about his power. Up until now he’d merely been “Brandis the trouble maker, the causer of strife.” Suddenly, he felt strong, amazingly so, stronger than even the man sitting across from him, a taller, older version of himself. His body tingled all over, as he tested the smile out again on the woman, making her slop some coffee out onto the table. His father frowned, but then chuckled as the woman walked away after they gave their orders.

“Son,” he said, leaning back and cradling the coffee mug to his chest. “Your adventure has only just begun.”

“Huh?” Brandis picked up his cup but didn’t drink any. He hated coffee, but had ordered it in a burst of need to be more like Jack. As he sipped the bitter stuff, he was transported back years before when he and his dad would spend every single Saturday morning together, eating breakfast at this very diner. He had adored the man, he remembered distinctly. His chest hurt at the simplicity of their relationship then. He looked away from Jack’s deep blue, knowing gaze.

The subject changed of its own accord, and Brandis let it. Although part of him wanted to ask for advice, a much bigger part would not allow the words past his lips.

They ate, discussing the upcoming football season and Brandis’ part in it. The recruiting company Jack had contracted last year to video his every move would start up with the first game. He’d made varsity again, technically as backup quarterback to a senior boy. Brandis didn’t see this as a setback and had every intention of starting under center by the second or third game.

Finally, when they pushed their empty plates back and sat looking at each other, Brandis felt more comfortable in his father’s presence than he had been in a long time. Jack said, “I am pretty sure at least one of those girls sleeping in the basement is determined to change the status of your virginity for you probably as soon as tonight.”

Brandis choked on the last sip of lukewarm coffee. His face burned, and his body tingled again. “I’m…it’s…uh….” He clutched the napkin in his lap unable to meet his father’s eyes.

“No need to say anything. Let’s just say your mother is an astute reader of female intent. While I was busy admiring your sister’s friend’s ass, she apparently read the girl’s mind or something.” Brandis’ face flushed even hotter.

He resisted the urge to protest, to proclaim his innocence of such things. Because he wanted it back—those mornings between them, father and son, man and boy, not this awkward, man and almost-man bullshit. Because while the thought of one of his sister’s college friends popping his cherry remained a pleasant fantasy, it also made him feel older than he wanted to be right then.

“So, I bought a box of condoms this morning,” Jack went on. “Put some downstairs in the side table drawer and the rest in your room. Use them please.” He sipped the last of his coffee, looked as if he were about to get up, then leaned forward, touching Brandis’ wrist. “Have fun. Don’t be an asshole to women. Let every experience teach you…something. Because you are nothing as a man if you don’t learn from every woman you…love.” Jack looked out the window onto the nearly empty parking lot. Then he turned back, tightened his grip on his son’s arm. “God, you are so…young.” His face fell a moment, then he perked up again, his eyes twinkling. “Okay, so, your mother told me to tell you not to let them corrupt you. But all I’m gonna say is this: always wear protection, no matter what, no matter how much you don’t want to. And don’t let your mom catch you in the act. I’ll handle her otherwise.”

Then he let go, stood and smiled, draping a friendly arm around Brandis’ shoulders as they exited the restaurant.

“You really didn’t tell me you were admiring Katie’s friend’s ass, did you, Dad?”

“No, son. I most certainly did not. You obviously misheard me.” Jack winked as he stood by the passenger’s side of his classic Corvette convertible and tossed the keys to Brandis. “Remember what I told you. Don’t ride my clutch.”

About Liz Crowe

 liz

Amazon best-selling author, beer blogger and beer marketing expert, mom of three, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great Midwest, in a major college town.  She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse. While working as a successful Realtor, Liz made the leap into writing novels about the same time she agreed to take on marketing and sales for the Wolverine State Brewing Company.

Most days find her sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, unless she’s writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for her latest publications.

Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”).  More recently she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels, which are more character-driven fiction, while remaining very much “real life.”

With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and many times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate, and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.

If you are in the Ann Arbor area, be sure and stop into the Wolverine State Brewing Co. Tap Room—but don’t ask her for anything “like” a Bud Light, or risk serious injury.

www.lizcrowe.com

www.brewingpasssion.com

www.a2beerwench.com

www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor

www.twitter.com/beerwencha2

www.facebook.com/groups/lizcrowefans

Liz is also having a giveaway so please click the link to find out more.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/5c50474/
If you are in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area the weekend of November 15 and 16 please stop in for Stewart Realty Series Party!!!  It will be a blast!!

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