"The wheel stuck on some random rock. The acrid stench rising from the carcass would make an undead vomit. She'd thought she would be used to it by now, but no, after a third of a mile, she still smelled the dead bugger. Rose cursed at the wheelbarrow, gritted her teeth, and forced it through the trellis shrouded in tiny pink roses into grandmother's yard. She pushed it back behind the house, out of sight, and threw a tarp over it just in case.

Grandma Éléonore was in the kitchen, drinking tea. "I heard you lost your job," she said the second Rose stepped into the kitchen.

Why me?

"And I hear you have a fellow staying with you. According to Marlene, who heard it from Geraldine Asper, who heard it directly from Elsie Moore, he is some sort of looker."

Poor Rose. Hee.

I really need to finish this bugger. The Hellhounds thing is due July 1, so I've got a month and a half to nuke Rose or else. I've been putting about 3K on it every day for the past week or so, but I'm concerned it doesn't have the same forward flow as the Kate books. My crap tends to accelerate toward the end, but the romantic element in this on is purposefully pronounced* and it steals screen time from the main plot.

I need to sell this series. Oy.

Still sore about having alpha men shut down.
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*I want a stab at the cross-over romance market.