The Live Oak Series

Escape! Her stalker was out on bail. She was sheltering in place in her condo like a prisoner. He was free to walk the streets and she didn't dare go out for fear of another attack. Her life was in shreds because of one man's obsession for revenge when she was promoted above him. Miranda Major picked up her handbag, walked out of her home, and got into her car. The interstate stretched in front of her. An escape to a future she never expected with a man she had met before her life had been shattered. Only she would land in a mud puddle, her hair dripping from the rain pouring down when that man astride a big gray horse was staring at her. Archer Channing had been sleek and elegant in his suit when she had first met him, nothing like the rugged male who dismounted with fluid grace and offered her a hand out of the puddle. Miranda hadn't had a destination in mind. What had prompted her choice of this place? The farming community of Live Oak was so far removed from the sophistication and polish of South Florida that it could have been on another planet. Archer was a favored son of one of the oldest founding families. She was a woman with no family and danger was right on her heels. Archer, a man she barely knew offered her help and shelter. With Archer, she could finally be Randi, not Miranda. More, he showed her just what a small town could do when faced with a threat to one of its citizens. It didn't seem to matter that she hadn't been born in Live Oak. It mattered that Archer stood beside her ready to fight with her against the man who wanted her dead. With Archer came his friends and the justice of small-town law. Had Randi finally found a home? A family? A place to put down roots?

"Run," Randi whispered. Lucy sprinted for the door, fearing that at any moment she would hear a gunshot, killing the only family she had. Randi, her best friend, her sister of the heart had put herself between the man with the gun and her. She ran for help, to Archer, the man Randi loved. Alex, Archer beside him, caught her as she leapt off the porch and into his arms, words pouring out of her. The men moved into action as the gunman dragged Randi from the house and into a pasture housing a cantankerous donkey. The animal attacked. Randi escaped. When it was over, Lucy sat in the living room, trying to relax as her world changed with each breath she drew. For Randi's sake, she had come to Live Oak. She was wearing boots and they weren't the dressy kind. These were real boots with mud on them. She woke up to cows mooing and that damn donkey that just saved Randi's life braying. The man beside her, Archer's best friend, Alex Weston was a fine example of the male of the species and if he hadn't been Archer's friend, she just might have taken him up on the challenge he represented. However, he was a farmer and she was a city girl. Live Oak was an okay place to visit if she didn't mind giving up lattes, her shoe boutiques, and expensive restaurants. Yes, Alex had picked her up in his own plane when he had brought her north from South Florida. In spite of driving a tractor in his own fields, he didn't match her idea of a farmer. Although handsome as a sexy film star, he was still not her type of man. She was not a woman built for home and hearth. His roots were buried deep in the north Florida soil. What's a woman to do? Especially when that woman had to rebuild her life from the ground up in a new city, with a new job in an area of the state about which she knew very little. Add in finding and making a new home and her plate was overflowing with complications. Alex was the biggest complication of all. He made her question her life and all her decisions. He challenged her and she so loved a challenge. Most important of all, he understood the games she played and showed her just how well he could play games too.

Lydia North turned visions into homes and businesses. Her company, North Enterprises, built to last, to be kind to the environment and to lift an area into the future while still paying homage to the past. Archer Channing and Alex Weston had a vision for the agricultural community of Live Oak. Now it was her vision too. This time she wasn't just building, but investing financially in the future. Along comes Max Greene, ready and willing to buy into the concept that Archer and Alex have for Live Oak's step into the twenty-first century. He's in the mood for a change and decides he wants to be more than a behind the scenes money man. He wants to get his hands dirty. It has been years since he had done manual labor but a man doesn't forget his roots. But first, he has to convince a tiny female dynamo with inky black hair and a body to send even a dead man's blood pressure skyrocketing that he could get the job done. He solves the first problem but the second is a bit more difficult. How did he convince a woman who needed no man to protect and support her that he wanted to walk beside her, not have her walk behind him? Lydia recognized a challenge when Max stared her in the face. She had cut her teeth on the males of the species and thought she knew all the moves. Max showed her more about herself than she thought existed. From the first, he accepted the woman she was, the woman who rode a motorcycle to unwind, who lived in a motorhome instead of a house and climbed onto heavy construction equipment as though she had been born an excavator. When Lydia set a goal, a hurricane couldn't stop her. When Max built his success, a bomb didn't destroy him. Are their differences greater than their strengths?

RJ Ryder is a war veteran with a past that has cost him his future. He lost his right leg and the ability to father children in a landmine explosion in the Middle East. When Lydia North dares him to fight for his future, he takes her job offer as second in command of her growing construction company. In the first weeks of work, he is almost involved in accident on a building site. Nancy Jackson slams into the man Lydia has brought into the company, shoving him out of harms' way. Not realizing Nancy has no idea of his injury, he is furious. An uneasy alliance develops between them, aided by the geographic distance between them and the demands of their positions with North Enterprises. RJ is the head of the office part of the company and Nancy heads the work crews on the job sites all over Florida and South Georgia. Professionally, they complement one another.   The Live Oak Project, one of North's most ambitious undertakings, throws them together in ways that can't be ignored of made easier by geographic distance. They have to deal face to face. Two of the sons of the founding families have formed an alliance to bring the small town of Live Oak into the twenty-first century while keeping intact the heritage that matters so much to those who have created the community. When a bit of thievery at the new job site turns into a stakeout to find the thief, RJ and Nancy are suddenly confronted with an abused child and a dying dog. United to save the child and the pet she loves, they embark on a journey that is filled with one crisis after another. The damage in the aftermath of a hurricane. An angry judge. Lydia's father who needs something from his daughter. The missing father of the abused child. The child's identity. The huge amount of work involved in bringing the Channing-Weston vision for Live Oak to fruition. Add in another wedding and two honeymoons into the mix and it is a recipe for controlled chaos, filled with tears, laughter and changes. The two opponents and sometimes friends, find that all their differences are outweighed by the way they can solve problems and beat the odds. The law wants one thing and they are determined to have another at all costs. They assemble an army of friends in this community that they are working to help. All the characters of Book,1, 2, and 3 make their contributions. They have seen these two in action and have joined the fight to save Honey and BeBe.

The series continues with the story of Jennifer and Cody. Jennifer has started her own business with her best friend. She has successfully pulled several weddings and looks forward to creating memorable celebrations for her friends, family and neighbors in Suwannee County Florida. Cody is the county Sheriff and has loved Jennifer since high school. Now that she has returned from the big city he wants to have her back in his life as his friend, lover and future companion for life. They just have to survive the raging revenge from a school classmate.   Cody Cross made a picture with the sun streaming over his lean body in his habitual jeans and plaid shirt. His boots were scarred but the gun on his hip looked as new as the day it had come out of the box. Sunglasses hid his gray eyes but she knew the easy smile on his face would be there in the foggy depths   He leaned against his vehicle and waited. Long legs, curves in all the right places and that sexy switch of unbound dark hair still had the power to give him ideas that hadn't dimmed in the years and distance that had separated them.