Twenty-One Hours

By Alison Kent

Teri Stokes arrives in Crow Hill, Texas to help her parents pack up in advance of an approaching wildfire, only to find the one person she never wanted to see again, Navy SEAL Shane Gregor, in charge of the firefighting volunteers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Publishing
• Release date: May 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094419909

Alison Kent

Alison Kent was a born reader, but it wasn't until she reached 30 that she knew she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Five years later, she made her first sale. Two years after that, she accepted an offer issued by the senior editor of Harlequin Temptation live on the 'Isn't It Romantic?' episode of CBS's 48 Hours. The resulting book, Call Me, was a Romantic Times finalist for Best First Series Book.

Book preview

After

TERI STOKES stopped the rented box truck in front of her parents’ house, fearing she’d arrived too late. Not two hours ago she and her father had decided she’d pick up the truck in Austin, he’d recruit local manpower to load it, and the two of them, along with her mother, would get the family’s barn full of irreplaceable antiques out of Crow Hill.

But the wildfire eating its way across the drought-ravaged grasslands of their south-central Texas county wasn’t sticking to the plan. And now, counting the men at the controls of bulldozers and plows clearing brush and cutting firebreaks, and those on ladders wetting the barn’s tinderbox roof, she couldn’t imagine any local manpower remained to tap.

Meaning . . . she could get her parents to safety and say good-bye to the antique business that had been her mother’s life, or she could roll up her sleeves, take her turn swinging buckets with the rest of the brigade, and pray. Not much of a choice, really. This was her family. This was their home. This was where she belonged.

Jumping from the truck’s cab was like jumping into an open barbecue pit. Heat blasted her face, sucked the air from her lungs. She blinked against the irritating haze, scrunched her nose at the acrid scent. Both were strong enough to sting her throat, though the fire itself was still miles away.

Gale-force gusts whipped her hair, plastered her white cotton top to her torso. She dug an elastic tie from her bag and wound her hair into a knot, shoved her sunglasses tight against her head, and pocketed her keys. And that was when she saw him.

A laptop on the hood of a fancy pickup, a clipboard in his hand, a pair of dark green fatigues hugging an ass she dropped her tinted shades to see better. The black T-shirt stretched to accommodate his shoulders and his biceps drew another appreciative and admittedly lustful look, as did his strong jaw and cheekbones, the buzz cut of his dark blond hair.

He lifted his head in answer to another man’s call, then shouted and pointed toward the break of trees along the dry creek bed behind the barn. He knew what he was doing; the crew of volunteers followed his orders

Reviews for Twenty-One Hours

[Deb Pden · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Short and simple..to the point, all the whys,when's and how events took place. A book about second chances. Enjoy!