Late Last Night

By Lillian Darcy

It’s May 1996 and Marietta High School English teacher Kate MacCreadie is almost at the end of her rope, torn between the demands of her work and her heavy involvement in helping her younger brother Rob and his wife Melinda take care of their five young children on the MacCreadie family ranch.
When Marietta’s fine-looking new sheriff, Harrison Pearce, pulls Kate over for her third traffic violation in as many months, they both know it’s a sign that something has to give.
Kate finds it almost a relief to be told by this calm, strong man to get her life in order, and then she just keeps on seeing him - at school after there’s been a suspicious break-in, on the evening of the prom when he’s off duty and driving his nephew and friends to the event in one of his brother’s gorgeous vintage cars.
Late that night, after prom is over, a tragedy at River Bend Park brings Kate and Harrison together yet again, and this time, in the highly charged atmosphere, Kate discovers that she never wants to let him go. But with his divorce still fresh, is Harrison ready for someone new?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tule Publishing
• Release date: Jan 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781940296128

Book preview

Author

What others are saying...

––––––––

Lilian Darcy’s writing is wonderful, and the characterizations are rapier sharp.

-New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney.

"It’s the writing that grabbed me... reading [Cafe du Jour] is like talking with a friend."

-Jayne at DearAuthor.com

"[Saving Gerda] was dark and yet it drew me in, pulled back, made me long to get back to it... My eyes are filling up as I type this... Stunning, stunning book. I am totally in awe."

-Liz Fielding, multi-award-winning author of Liz Fielding’s Little Book of Writing Romance, from Amazon

"Lilian Darcy really brings the town of Marietta, Montana, to life with vivid descriptions that will have readers kicking up dirt, smelling the food from the concession stands and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Marry Me, Cowboy is a fresh and fun novella that makes for a quick and satisfying read."

-Chris Read of Romance Junkies

Darcy handles serious subjects with heartrending humor and laugh-out-loud wit. Her characters are a rare and refreshing mix of honesty and sincerity, and their love scenes are powerfully emotional.

-Debbie Haupt in RT Book Reviews on It Began With a Crush

Excellent storytelling and a strong conflict will keep readers turning the pages...

-Melanie Bates in RT Book Reviews on A Marriage Worth Fighting For

I totally loved this book! Whether you’re a first time Lilian Darcy fan or a returning reader you will be pleasantly surprised at just how powerful her writing can be.

-Sara of Harlequin Junkie on A Marriage Worth Fighting For

"[Café du Jour is]... warm and witty, an excellent read."

-Dianne Dempsey in the Melbourne Age newspaper

"I would give [Café du Jour] six or seven stars if I could."

-Amazon UK reviewer

"Captivating novella. Marry Me, Cowboy had me hooked from start to finish."

-Amazon reviewer

Late Last Night

© Copyright 2014 Lilian Darcy

The Tule Publishing Group, LLC

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1-940296-12-8

Keep Up with your Favorite Authors and their New Releases

For the latest news from Tule Publishing authors, sign up for our newsletter here or check out our website at TulePublishing.com

Stay social! For new release updates, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and reader giveaways:

Like us on

Follow us on

Follow us on

See you online!

Dedication

––––––––

For my American family, with love.

Dear Reader,

Welcome back to Marietta. I’m taking you back in time with this story – not all that far, just to 1996. ER was screening every Thursday night on TV. The movie Sense and Sensibility had recently been released, and Pierce Brosnan was playing Bond. Cell phones were still a rarity. And yet things weren’t that different to the way they are now.

When you read the three longer women’s fiction titles that are coming up in this River Bend series, you’ll see why I needed to write Late Last Night. There’s so much you need to know about the fateful 1996 prom night at Marietta High. If you’d had to learn it all through flashbacks and character thoughts, you wouldn’t have had the full picture. And who better to show you the story through their eyes than Marietta ’s sheriff Harrison Pearce and high school English teacher Kate MacCreadie. You haven’t met Harrison before, but if Kate’s name sounds a little familiar, it’s because she’s the aunt of Jamie MacCreadie, hero of Marry Me, Cowboy. You’ll even have a glimpse or two of Jamie in this book, when he was a little devil of a kid, already crazy about rodeo.

Hope this story makes you want to come back for the rest of the River Bend novels.

All the best,

Lilian Darcy

Chapter One

March, 1996

––––––––

Really, rock music wasn’t what it used to be.

Kate fumbled for the tuning knob on the pickup truck radio and came up with a country station. She liked country, but not today when she was late and tired and stressed after a long day of teaching. The meeting after school with Neve Shepherd’s parents had gone on much longer than she had thought it would, and then she’d had several more tasks to complete after that.

We’re worried that her boyfriend is a bad influence, Neve’s father Gary had said at one point.

Jay Brown, Annette Shepherd had put in. Do you teach him, too?

Yes, I do. Kate already knew that Neve and Jay were dating, and she’d resisted blurting out her instant response—Jay a bad influence on Neve? No, it was the other way around. Neve was getting seriously out of control.

Careful with the speed limit, Kate.

She needed rock, and she needed it LOUD, and the Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters just weren’t the same as the bands she’d loved in her teens. Blondie, the Eagles, the Police, the Stones. Those were bands.

I sound as if I’m forty.

Which she wouldn’t be for ages. Not until three years into the next millennium. She was only thirty-two, for heaven’s sake. Meanwhile, if she didn’t find a song she liked, she might start screaming instead.

She twiddled the tuning knob once more, finally found a halfway decent song, started singing with no style and no tune at the top of her voice—it worked a little, as a stress release—then saw the flashing red and blue lights in her rear-view mirror and her heart sank into the pit of her stomach.

Please, no! Not again.

She slowed and pulled over, pressed her forehead against the hard curve of the steering wheel and groaned while she waited for the long arm of the law to step out of his vehicle and arrive beside her.

This couldn’t be happening. And yet it was.

A minute later, he appeared in his dark uniform at her window and she wound it down, the battered pickup not being a recent enough model to have push-button windows. It was the sheriff himself, not a mere junior deputy, and not the highway patrol. Sheriff Harrison Pearce had been with the county for just over a year, and had now pulled her over four times in less than three months for traffic violations. She’d run one stop light in town, and was caught speeding twice out here on the highway, but this time she didn’t even know what she’d done wrong.

I wasn’t speeding, she said, before he could open his mouth. He loomed beyond the open window, big and unmoving, the uniform clinging to strong shoulders and well-worked thighs. "I wasn’t."

You know, Miz MacCreadie, he said in a slow Montana drawl, we gotta stop meeting like this.

"I know we do. Why is it always you? Between the police department and the sheriff’s office and the highway patrol, there have to be other officers on the roads, you would think." She shut her mouth quickly, before she began to sound completely hysterical.

I mean that. He wore a sober, serious expression that made the planes of his face look as if they’d been carved by a sculptor in a thoughtful mood. He had dark eyes and dark hair and the kind of short, neat haircut that looked terrible on any man who had a badly shaped head.

Sheriff Pearce’s head was very well-shaped indeed.

Almost as well-shaped as his body.

Unfortunately.

I wasn’t speeding, Kate said.

That is a plus, he agreed. He sounded calm, and almost kind. But your tail-light is out. He put a hand on the roof of the pickup and leaned in a little.

One tail-light? she said.

I’m sorry, Ma’am. It’s still a violation.

I—I’m sorry, too, but I really didn’t know it was out, and I’m late getting home.

Step out of the vehicle, and I’ll show you.

She stepped. Well, she opened the door with a slightly shaky hand, and stumbled out on tired, impatient legs. Every minute she was delayed here would only increase the likely chaos when she arrived home.

Sheriff Pearce walked her around to the back of the pickup, his stride even and long. See, it’s your left light, and these roads are pitch black at night. What if someone thinks you’re a motorcycle when they try to pass you?

It’s not pitch black yet. It was a plea, not an argument.

Will be, soon, he pointed out, still sounding kind rather than stern. The last fiery edge of the western sun had dipped below the jagged and snow-capped horizon of the distant Tobacco Root Mountains some minutes ago.

She shivered, standing in the cold. There were still thick patches of snow in the ditches, and she wasn’t wearing a coat. Could I get the tail light fixed, and then bring the vehicle in and show you?

He was silent for a moment, and she breathed in the calm of him. She’d met him a couple of times outside the context of her shocking and heinous driving record, and she’d never seen a ruffle or a chink in the aura of strength and peace he gave off.

It was amazing. It was wonderful. If he could bottle it, she would be in the market for a steady supply. Her own life and state of being was anything but calm,

Reviews for Late Last Night

[M A. I. · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was a rather short love story. It was sweet, it got to the point and it basically did what it was meant to be. Given how short it was, I connected a lot with the characters and their love story, their chemistry and all. But I'd also add that I would've rather have a full-lenght novel for this that felt like a novella.
There were elements that I really liked but others felt all over the place and a bit meaningless. But all in all, it was an enjoyable read and I'd like to read more books written by this author. Although I don't know if I read things in order or not.