Happy Thursday, everyone! A lot of people have already guessed that my 2nd contemporary, Start Me Up, will be about Lori Love. The title kind of gives it away, as one reader said. Also, I've already mentioned on my website that Lori Love will be the heroine. 
But a surprising number of people have guessed that Lori's hero will be Quinn, Molly's older brother! Yea, Quinn! Who likes hot nerds? I do!
So without further ado, here's your sneak peek at Lori and Quinn's first flirtation. Quinn has dared to try to cover Lori's curls with an ugly stocking cap to protect her from the cold. She doesn't appreciate it. Okay, she appreciates it a little bit. 
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Lori pulled a few more curls back into sproinginess as she stared at the backhoe’s engine. She made very sure that she appeared irritated instead of slightly excited. Those hands she’d wondered about had stroked over her forehead, her cheeks. Elegant as they looked, Quinn’s fingers were slightly rough, raspy from the work he’d done here on the mountain.
But it had been a fraternal sort of touch. As it should have been. Quinn was her best friend’s brother. He thought of her as a little sister, if he thought of her at all.
“More likely the latter,” she muttered and forced herself to get to work.
“You say something?”
She jumped and banged an elbow on the angled hood. But Quinn didn’t notice. He was already back to staring down at his drafting table. “What are you working on?” Lori couldn’t help but ask.
He looked up, blinking as he always did when he surfaced for air.
She repeated the question.
“Oh, plans for the house.”
“But you’ve already started building.” She glanced toward the gray lines of concrete she could just make out at the edge of the meadow. “The foundation looks set.”
“Yeah, I’ve completed all the floor plans. Actually, I had everything done, but now I’m stumbling over the design details. I keep changing them.” He smiled in a self-deprecating way. “I do this every day for other people, but it’s much harder working on a house I plan to live in for decades. A brilliant new idea will come to me, then the next morning it’s clearly crap. I think I have a new sympathy for clients and their ever-evolving ideas.”
“That’s probably a good thing.” Lori looked around at the meadow and the trees and the blank expanse of sky suspended above the cliff. “You come here for inspiration then?”
His eyes lit up. “Exactly! The light, the color... shades and hues that change from minute to minute. I need to get the windows just right, the height and shape of them. The texture of the walls that catch the light. I need to know what the views will be in morning and afternoon and evening.” His hands gestured, and Lori greedily watched every arc, every twitch.
“That evening you were here,” he continued, “right after you left, the sun burst through the aspen, and I finally realized just the type of window I should place above the front door. The exact grade of stone to use on the fireplace where it rises up to the second floor. The light will... Shit, I’m sorry.”
Lori shook off the spell he’d cast with his bright eyes and deep voice. “What?”
“Sorry. I know I tend to go way past the boredom mark for most people. Not just computer engineers are nerds, I’m afraid.”
“No, I think it’s amazing! You look like you’re in love.”
“Oh.” He actually blushed. This tall, successful man standing in front of a log cabin in a flannel shirt. He blushed.
“It’s sweet!” Lori assured him.
“Yeah, great. Sweet. The ultimate nerd compliment.”
Lori couldn’t help but laugh. When he scowled, she laughed harder. “Give it up, Quinn. I’m not going to feel sorry for you. Even if you could convince me you’re a nerd, you’re still hot and rich and successful. Poor baby.”
Shaking her head, she set to work on removing the old starter. Maybe he was nerdy in the strictest sense of the word, but she knew plenty of girls in her junior high class who’d thought him tantalizingly mysterious before he’d gone off to college. Bookish and distracted took on a whole different meaning when the boy in question was also gorgeous and kind.
“Hot?” she heard him ask, and looked up to see him leaning against the porch rail watching her.
“Huh?”
“Hot. You said I was hot.” He kept his mouth serious, but his hazel eyes danced with laughter.
This time Lori’s face heated. She waved her wrench in his general direction. “I was just stroking your ego.”
“Well, nice work. It felt good, your stroking.”
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What did you think? There's no cover yet, and no pre-order button, so this really is a sneak peek. But you'll be the first to know when the cover is official! Don't forget, Start Me Up is on sale July 1st!
In the meantime, i've got a few goodies going on. You've still got the chance to win a $15 iTunes gift card! Just pick a theme song for Molly! Head here to read the details and post your answer.
Also, I'm donating a signed collection of all my single title books to benefit a good cause. For the chance to get signed copies of three books: To Tempt a Scotsman, A Rake's Guide to Pleasure, and Talk Me Down, please head here to bid before Monday, January 26th! Check here for details about the auction. Proceeds benefit a young girl and her family who lost their home in the economic downturn.
Here's author Gemma Halliday's story about Katy:
"Last summer I did a series of library talks, and during one of these I had the pleasure of meeting a super sweet, sixteen-year-old reader named Katy. She said she and her mother, Elizabeth, had read all my books and were huge fans. I liked her immediately. 
Katy is an aspiring author and illustrator, and even brought me the cutest laminated drawing of Maddie, the main character in my High Heels books! Fast forward a few months - just before Christmas, Katy and her mother became homeless. They were evicted from their apartment and have been living in hotel rooms (when they’ve been lucky) or their car (when they’ve not been so lucky) since then. Katy has been blogging about life on the streets, and you can read all about how this incredibly sweet mother and daughter ended up in this situation here:
http://destinationanywherebuthere.blogspot.com/As Katy states on her blog, “Homelessness has many faces. And sometimes it happens to have a computer.” Both Katy and her mother seem to have very positive outlooks, but it’s clear they’re in some real trouble."
Have a great Thurdaay, everyone!