Camy Tang's Blog, page 110

Bayerische socks

I must admit, I am inordinately proud of these socks! The patterns are Bavarian motifs and I absolutely love them! They took me a long time to finish, but that was partly because I wasn’t knitting much during the latter part of last year.













My knitting notes are on Ravelry for any of you who are interested: http://ravel.me/camytang/bs

Poll: ebook readers/iPads/Tablets

I saw this question on Goodreads and thought I’d ask this here:



If you have BOTH an ereader (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc.) AND a Tablet (iPad, iPad Mini, etc.) or a smarphone, which do you use predominantly for reading ebooks? And WHY?



I have an iPad, iPhone, and a Nook Simple Touch. I really like the e-ink screen of the Nook, but I have to admit that turning pages is easier on my iPad and iPhone because the screen is more responsive. I will usually prop up my iPad and read using my Nook app, and I’ll be able to eat or knit (something simple) while I read.



If I go on my exercise bike, then I’ll usually use my Nook Simple Touch since it’s a nice size to read on.



However, if I’m out and waiting in line or something (like at the post office) I’ll usually whip out my iPhone and start reading on my Nook app while I’m in line. It’s nice always having my books with me!



So how about you? And be sure to say exactly why you use what you use to read!

Hush puppies

I don't think I blogged about this yet. I finally made hush puppies!









I had always heard about Hush Puppies but never tasted them, so I decided to make them. I used this recipe since it looked super easy.



They tasted great! I really liked the texture of the cornmeal. It was tender without being tough.



Any of you have a good hush puppy recipe you want to share?

Excerpt - GUARD DUTY by Sharon Dunn

Guard Duty

By Sharon Dunn



"If you tell, you die."


As a potential murder witness, rookie K-9 police officer Valerie Salgado is living with a death threat and caring for her young niece. And things get worse when FBI agent Trevor Lewis comes to Sagebrush, Texas. In exchange for her help on his case, Trevor offers Valerie protection, but Trevor has more walls around him than a maximum-security prison. And now Valerie must convince him that she, her niece and her K-9 partner would make the perfect family for him, if they can stay alive….


Texas K-9 Unit: These lawmen solve the toughest cases with the help of their brave canine partners



Excerpt of chapter one:



"K-9 unit 349. Convenience-store robbery, corner of State and Grand. Suspects are on the run."


As she pushed the talk button to respond to dispatch, rookie officer Valerie Salgado felt that strange mixture of fear and excitement that came every time she responded to a call on patrol.


"Copy. I'm about five blocks from that location. Any idea what direction our perps were going?"


Dispatch responded. "Clerk doesn't know which way they ran. Three males. Two Caucasian, one African American. All dressed in dark clothing."


For the past few months, every call had an extra sense of danger attached to it. A rash of robberies, drugs and murders that had been escalating in Sagebrush for years had recently been linked to a crime syndicate with an unknown leader.


Valerie hit her siren and sped up.


Maybe this was just a run-of-the-mill robbery, but maybe it was another symptom of a city under siege.


In the back of the patrol car, Valerie's K-9 partner, Lexi, paced from one window to the other, emitting an almost ultrasonic whine. The only one more excited to catch a criminal than Valerie was her two-year-old Rottweiler.


Dispatch came across the line. "Clerk says that two of the men were armed."


Valerie took in a deep breath to calm her nerves. "At least we know what we are dealing with, huh, Lex?"


The dog whined as though she understood.


As she neared the convenience store, Valerie scanned the streets and sidewalks for any sign of movement. Now that it was 10 p.m. and dark, it would be easy enough for the robbers to blend into surroundings if they were smart enough to walk instead of run. Traffic was light, and most of the shops were closed. The all-night burger joint up the street had attracted a little bit of a crowd.


Valerie pulled into the convenience store parking lot. The clerk was easy enough to spot, a distraught fifty-something woman pacing by the store entrance. Valerie got out of her patrol car.


The woman came toward her, eyes wide with fear. The unnatural hair color and heavy makeup revealed rather than hid the woman's age.


The clerk wrapped her arms around herself. Her gaze flitted everywhere. The robbery had shaken the poor woman up. Valerie wanted to hug her and tell her it was going to be all right. But that was not what cops did. Instead, she pulled a notebook out of her utility belt.


She hoped her voice conveyed the level of compassion she felt for what the clerk had just been through. "Ma'am, I'm Officer Salgado. Can you tell me what happened here?"


The woman combed her fingers through her hair. "They took over three hundred dollars. My manager is going to fire me." Her agitated state made her south Texas drawl even more exaggerated.


"How long has it been since the robbers fled the store?"


The clerk closed her eyes as though she were struggling to answer the question. "Umm…they made me lay on the floor facedown." She let out a heavy breath. "I waited until I was sure they weren't going to come back. I…I…called as quickly as I could." She put a trembling hand to her chest. "Maybe five minutes."


Valerie felt torn between desiring to comfort the clerk and wanting to catch the thugs who had terrorized her. Picturing her own mother having to go through something like this made her resolve even stronger. The best comfort she could give this woman would be to see that these perps went to jail.


Valerie glanced up the street. Flashing neon signs for budget hotels stood in contrast to the dark Texas sky. In a pursuit, five minutes was a big lead time.


She cupped the woman's shoulder with her hand, hoping to provide some reassurance. "You go back inside and wait. My dog and I will get these guys."


"Thank you, Officer."


Valerie opened the back door of the patrol car, and Lexi jumped out.


"Get 'em," Valerie commanded, leading the Rottweiler toward the entrance of the convenience store. It would take only minutes for Lexi to pick up on the fear odor that people in flight emitted the second they took off running. Though people couldn't smell it, the scent was extremely distinct to a dog trained to detect it.


Lexi placed her nose to the gravel, trotting in wider and wider circles, returning to the store entrance a couple of times.


Across the street, a dark car with tinted windows came to a stop.


As Lexi worked her way toward the edge of the store parking lot, Valerie glanced at the car. No one got out. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as a chill ran over her skin. For weeks now, she had had the sensation of being watched, of eyes pressing on her from dark corners.


The reality of the long arms of the crime syndicate had come home to roost for Valerie. Though she didn't know it at the time, while heading in to the pharmacy a few weeks ago, she'd seen the woman who had most likely murdered Andrew Garry—a local real-estate agent and one of the crime syndicates middle managers. She'd glanced at the woman briefly as she passed her on the dimly lit street outside a vacant building by the corner drugstore. Valerie didn't act on her suspicions that night, but something about the lady in the hooded jacket seemed off. Though she couldn't ID the woman outright, Valerie had the feeling that she would know her when she saw her and that she'd seen her somewhere before. It was just a matter of time before something in her brain clicked.


The initial death threat had come the next day only hours after Kip the cadaver dog and his handler had found Garry's body, confirming her suspicions about the woman she'd seen outside the vacant building. Her police email had been hacked into. The threat flashed on her computer screen… If you testify, you die…maybe even sooner.


Living with a death threat had become even more complicated. Valerie had recently become guardian to her eighteen-month-old niece, Bethany, after her sister Kathleen's death over two months ago.


The department had offered her protection during her off-duty hours. On duty was a little harder, but she noticed that another patrol car always seemed to be close. Sagebrush P.D. looked out for their own. She felt safe while working as long as she had Lexi with her.


Lexi stopped, lifted her head and barked twice. She'd found the trail. "Good girl. Let's go."


Lexi ran hard, leading Valerie up the street. On the opposite side of the street, the dark car with the tinted windows remained. It was probably nothing. She had to let her unfounded fears go. She couldn't do her job if she was suspicious of everything.


Increasing her pace, Lexi pulled through to an alley that led into a residential neighborhood.


Valerie pushed the talk button on her shoulder mic. "I'm on State Street headed south pursuing suspects. I could use some backup."


"Captain McNeal is within a couple of blocks of your location," came the reply from dispatch.


It was unusual for her supervisor to be out on patrol at this hour. As captain of the Special Operations K-9 Unit, Slade McNeal had more than the lion's share of paperwork. Since his beloved K-9 partner, Rio, had been kidnapped by the syndicate, he had limited his time on patrol, utilizing Rio's father, Chief, when needed. A snitch with a long rap sheet had revealed to police that Rio was taken by the head of the local crime syndicate to find something in the Lost Woods, a huge forest on the outskirts of Sagebrush. The snitch was later found dead. The syndicate's structure was such that no one knew the identity of the leader, a man simply known as The Boss.


The loss of Rio over two months ago had been a blow to the whole department. These dogs weren't just useful resources—they were partners and beloved pets. Even though one of McNeal's well-to-do war buddies, Dante Frears, had offered a substantial reward of $25,000 for Rio's return, so far none of the leads had panned out.


Lexi pulled hard on the long canvas leash. Valerie couldn't trouble herself now with what McNeal was up to. After all, she had criminals to catch.


Lexi led Valerie through backyards and over fences, past living rooms with illuminated television sets and houses with dark windows. Though she saw no signs of the suspects, Lexi's persistence told her they were headed in the right direction. The scent trail that a person in flight left was like a glow-in-the-dark line to a dog's keen nose.


Lexi stopped suddenly in a yard that had stacks of roofing shingles piled on the walkway and a ladder propped against the roof. Valerie had noticed another ladder on the opposite side of the house, as well. The dog circled and sniffed the ground again. She'd lost the scent.


"What's going on, girl?"


In the distance, she heard the alto barking of a German shepherd. That had to be McNeal with Chief. The insistence of the barking suggested that Chief was onto something.


Valerie talked to dispatch through her shoulder mic. "Be advised. I am at 620 Kramer. Something is up with Lexi. The trail may have gone cold."


Agitated, Lexi ran back and forth in the yard, stood by the ladder for a moment and then put her nose to the ground again. What was happening?


She watched Lexi pace the yard, running in all directions. The dog stopped, lifted her head and let out a single "Woof." She still had some kind of scent, but it was confusing her.


Chief's insistent barking reached her. He had definitely alerted to something. But what…? As the realization dawned on her, Valerie pushed her talk button. "I think our suspects split up."


"Copy that. We are sending another patrol unit your way. ETA is about five minutes."


The bushes in the yard across the fence shook. Valerie lifted her head just in time to see a man emerge. The look of fear and guilt on his face told her everything she needed to know.


"Stop! Sagebrush P.D."


The man took off running.


Lexi yanked on the leash, barking and pulling wildly as the man ran around the back of the house. Knowing she couldn't crawl over the fence as fast as Lexi could jump it, Valerie clicked Lexi off the leash. The dog leapt over the fence and bounded after the suspect, her rapid-fire bark a clear sign that she was hot on the trail.


Her heart pumping, Valerie gripped her gun, prepared to run out to the sidewalk and through the gate to meet Lexi. She heard a scraping noise right before something crashed hard against her shoulder, knocking her to the ground.


Dazed by the impact, she stumbled to her feet. Shingles and a busted-open box spread across the walkway. She looked up. Was the second perpetrator on the roof? Had each of the three suspects run in a different direction?


Lexi's barking pressed hard on her ears, but grew farther away. The dog could handle herself. With her shoulder aching and still a little fuzzy headed, she hurried most of the way up the ladder using the roofline for cover.


She lifted her head up a few inches, catching movement by the chimney. "Sagebrush P.D. Drop your weapon." She ducked just as the whiz of a pistol shot shattered the night air. She fired off a round.


Silence.


She lifted her head a couple of inches. The suspect had come out from behind the chimney, aiming his gun at her.


He slipped on the sharply angled roof, falling on his side and dropping the gun. The gun skittered across the shingles and fell to the ground below. This was her chance. She didn't want him escaping down the ladder she'd seen on the other side of the house.


Valerie scrambled up the ladder, attempting to balance close to the top rung and aim her gun at the same time. "Put your hands up."


The man lifted his hands partway and then dropped them, dashing toward her. All the air left her lungs as fear enveloped her and she whispered a quick prayer. He intended to push the ladder away from the roof. She couldn't crawl down fast enough. She grabbed the ladder with her free hand as the man bolted toward her. It had been a stupid mistake to go up the ladder. She'd break her back if she fell that far.


The suspect's feet seemed to be pulled out from under him, and he was slammed facedown on the roof. Some unseen force pulled him backward away from her. As the suspect scrambled to his feet, she saw the silhouette of a second man, tall and broad through the shoulders.


The second man landed a blow to the suspect's face, knocking him on his back. The perp kicked the man's feet out from under him, and he slid down the steep angle of the roof toward the edge. He caught himself, pulling his body back up toward the suspect who sought refuge close to the chimney.


Valerie climbed onto the roof. Seeking to balance, she lifted her gun. "Put your hands up."


This time, the assailant complied. "I don't want to fall off here."


Neither did she. Valerie looked down and behind her. How on earth was she going to get this guy off here without killing herself and without giving him opportunity to run away?


The man who had helped her apprehend the perp stepped out of the shadows. "Officer Salgado, why don't you crawl down and wait at the bottom?" The man's hand went to a holster on his belt. "I'll stay up here and make sure this guy doesn't get any ideas."


She had no idea who this man was or where he had come from, but everything about him said law enforcement, and he knew her name. Still, this whole thing might have been a setup from the syndicate to get at her. "Who are you?" she shouted across the rooftop.


"FBI Agent Trevor Lewis. I rode in with Captain Mc-Neal and saw that you were in trouble."


He sounded legit. She didn't have a lot of choices and would have to check his I.D. later.


"Okay. I'll go down the ladder first," she said.


Agent Lewis held up his own gun. "I'll make sure this guy doesn't try to get off the roof by way of that other ladder."


She descended the ladder and waited while the suspect followed her. When his feet hit the ground, she pointed her gun at him. "Turn around, on the ground facedown, sir."


A look of hostility compressed his features, his lips curled. "I don't wanna go to jail. I'm innocent." The suspect stepped toward her with his hands out to grab her.


She adjusted her grip on the gun. "I said facedown on the ground, now."


"Do what the lady says," came the strong bass voice from the roof.


The perp tilted his head, grimaced and dropped to the ground.


Valerie pulled the cuffs from her belt. "You're innocent? Like everyone decides to shingle their roof at ten o'clock at night." She was still mad at herself for having climbed up the ladder. She'd broken a cardinal rule of training by putting herself in a vulnerable place.


Agent Lewis climbed to the bottom of the ladder. "At last, we meet." As Valerie stood up from cuffing the suspect, he held out his hand to her.


Why would an FBI agent want to greet her? Along the street, another black and white came to a stop, the additional backup dispatch had sent.

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Also, don’t forget that it’s Free Book Friday over at Harlequin.com--if you order two or more books, you’ll get their weekly featured book for free!



This week, the featured book is The Unspoken by Heather Graham.

Excerpt - CRITICAL CONDITION by Sandra Orchard

Critical Condition

By Sandra Orchard



There's a murderer in the hospital, and nurse Tara Peterson is determined to prove it. With mysterious deaths in the cancer ward, anyone could be next. But no one wants to believe her…except undercover agent Zach Davis. The murderer wants Tara's suspicions silenced, permanently. To protect Tara, Zach lets her in on his secret, and unwittingly into his heart. Tara and her three-year-old daughter are like the family he lost years before. Zach will risk everything to keep them safe, no matter the cost.



Excerpt of chapter one:



Detective Zach Davis turned up his collar against the brisk October weather and joined the hospital staff gathered outside Niagara's newest cancer wing. The sooner he proved a murderer wasn't behind the recent deaths at Miller's Bay Memorial, the sooner he could escape.

He couldn't imagine why a couple of deaths in a palliative-care unit—a ward where people go to die—would warrant an undercover investigation. But his former partner Rick Gray had needed a detached officer from out of town and had refused to take no for an answer.

Not that Zach had felt like explaining why this was the last place he wanted to be. He'd never told Rick he'd been married, let alone that his wife had died of cancer. As far as Rick was concerned, the five months Zach had spent posing as a computer-store owner made him the perfect candidate for his new cover as an information-technology consultant. End of discussion.

At the front of the crowd, Dr. Whittaker—the namesake of the hospital's new addition—slid giant scissor blades around the obligatory ribbon and offered the media a smile as polished as his two-hundred-dollar shoes.

As spectators jockeyed to be the first through the doors, Barb, the real IT consultant, bumped her arm against Zach's. "Come on, let's get started." The petite brunette hadn't questioned her boss's request to let Zach learn alongside her. He just hoped she'd be too distracted by her own work to notice what he really did.

He followed Barb into the happy hum of staff sharing cake and juice with patients, smiling and clothed in bathrobes and brightly colored caps. The kind of caps that masked chemo-razed hair.

His stomach knotted into a hard, tight ball.

He'd held his palm to spurting bullet wounds, wrestled drug-crazed addicts, immobilized the fractured bones of abused wives. But not one of those encounters had hit him like this, with an unnerving sense that if he looked one of these patients in the eyes, his grip on his emotions would completely unravel.

Someone—a nurse—cupped his elbow. "You okay? You've gone white."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." An antiseptic odor coiled through his nostrils, raking up memories of nightlong vigils at his wife's bedside. Lord, why have You brought me here? I don't want to remember.

"You'd better sit a minute. You don't look so good." The nurse ushered him to a chair along the wall. "I'll bring you a glass of juice." Her compassionate voice pulled his thoughts from the edge of a dark abyss.

His colleague had kept walking, but now, her three-inch heels clicked quickly toward him. As she drew closer, her puzzled scowl softened.

Zach scraped a hand over his face. "That bad, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. I take it you don't like hospitals?"

He shook his head. "Just cancer wards."

"You lost someone close to you?"

Zach let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah." Close. The word didn't begin to describe what he'd lost. His wife had been everything to him. His best friend. His confidante. His very being.

The nurse hurried back with a cup of juice. "This should bring back your color. You'd be surprised how many visitors we have who get a little faint. You'll be okay in a few minutes."

He doubted more time here would do the trick, but he kept the thought to himself. Undercover work was all about attitude. With the right attitude, even in uniform, he could convince the wariest drug dealer to sell him a fix. He'd never allowed a situation to get the better of him. And he sure didn't intend to start today.

He downed the juice, crushed the cup in his hand and rose to his feet. "Thanks, I'm good to go, Miss…" Seeing the woman's doe-size brown eyes smile up at him, Zach backed into the chair's arm. A jabbing pain to his thigh anchored his feet.

"Peterson." She tilted her head as if questioning whether they'd met before. "Tara Peterson."

He blinked, then swallowed to clear the roar from his ears and the image of his dead wife standing two feet away, arm outstretched in greeting.

Not his wife. The mouth was wider, the reddish-brown hair wavier and longer. She looked a few inches taller, too. But, those eyes.

Zach blinked again, and chalked up the leap of his heart to the woman's uncanny resemblance to his wife.

Forcing a smile, he extended his hand. Then her name clicked in his brain and turned his "pleased to meet you" to paste in his mouth.

This was the nurse who'd reported the murders.

Tara glanced at the ID badge hanging from his neck, and then to Barb's. "I guess you two are the IT specialists we were warned about."

"Warned?" Zach repeated, scrambling to regain his equilibrium.

Tara chuckled. "Sure, we finally got the hang of the last system, and now you're going to change it on us again."

"I thought your present system was over five years old?" He looked to Barb for confirmation.

Barb rolled her eyes and mouthed, "Stone age."

"I heard that." Tara's grin belied her offended tone. "You computer gurus just like to torture us. But if there's anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask."

Zach nodded his thanks. He liked the woman's playful sense of humor. She didn't seem like the type to cry wolf. Maybe his reluctance to take the case had made his negative assessment of its merits too hasty.

Zach shadowed Barb for most of the day to acquaint himself with the job. Then he forced himself to return to the cancer ward, where the alleged murders had occurred. Implementing a new software system gave him a perfect excuse to question staff, not to mention peek at their online activities.

As he passed the staff lounge, a commotion erupted.

"You have to let this go," a female voice soothed.

"I won't let it go. Someone murdered those people." Zach recognized Tara's voice and the flint of pain behind her words.

"The coroner disagrees," the other woman responded.

"For all we know the murderer paid him off."

Zach tensed. The last thing he needed were rumors of a killing spree spreading through the hospital.

"You're talking crazy," a different woman spoke up.

"Am I? Someone shoved me into the bed. Clearly, he didn't want to be seen."

"Are you sure you didn't just trip? You hit your head pretty hard."

"No!" The slap of a hand against a table punctuated the denial. "How many times do I have to tell you? Someone murdered Mrs. Parker. Her husband begged me to stop the killer."

Zach rushed to the door. Tara might as well have painted a bull's-eye on her forehead. He needed to get her out of there before she made the situation any worse.

Two nurses and a doctor were in the room with her. Tara reached for a lunch container in the fridge and deposited it into a cloth bag on her arm. Absorbed in the discussion, no one acknowledged his arrival.

"I was there and I didn't hear Mr. Parker say anything," the older nurse said. "How about you, Dr. McCrae?"

The young resident standing at the counter with his coffee shook his head. "Afraid not." He took a sip from his mug and shot Tara a sympathetic look.

"Well, I know what I heard." Tara's voice sharpened. "And if the police won't—"

"Miss Peterson…" Zach tapped on the door. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need your help."

Looking a little stunned, Tara lifted her gaze to his. "My help?"

"With the computer setup for your nurse's station." When she hesitated, it was all he could do not to grab her by the wrist and yank her out of the room. Something he should've done the instant he'd heard the word murderer come out of her mouth.

"Please."

"Yes, of course." She followed him to the door, and he motioned her to go ahead of him.

Dr. Whittaker passed them with a cursory glance. "What was all that yelling about?" he asked, stepping into the staff lounge.

"Tara was ranting about the murderer again," one of the nurses said.

Zach couldn't make out Whittaker's riled response—something about bad press—but Tara must've heard, because she clenched her fingers into a fist.

"I can't believe the police aren't doing anything," she muttered.

Zach steered her to the privacy of the empty nurse's station. "About what?" he asked, since she had no idea why he was really here. He couldn't believe that she'd all but thrown down the gauntlet for a murderer to come after her.

Maybe he should have taken Rick up on the option to let her in on the operation.

Clearly heartened by his interest, Tara seemed to forget about his computer questions and explained in detail what happened the night of Mr. and Mrs. Parker's alleged murders.

He nodded as if it were all news to him. "I can see how important finding this person is to you, but you might not want to broadcast your intentions."

Her face blanched. "You think he'd come after me?"

"It sounds like you're the only witness."

"But I didn't see who shoved me," she insisted.

"He—or she—wouldn't know that. Chances are that he didn't even know whom he'd shoved out of his way until…"

Tara's bottom lip trembled. "Until I opened my mouth."

Offering an empathetic smile, Zach nudged her toward a desk chair. "You weren't exactly keeping your voice down."

Her teeth dug into her lip, stilling the tremble, and the vulnerability in her eyes—those enormous eyes he couldn't tear his gaze from—completely undid him.

She sank into the chair. "What am I going to do?"

"I'd suggest stop talking about what you saw."

"I can't. You don't understand…. There have been other suspicious deaths."

The anguish in her voice had him debating whether he'd be better off letting her in on his undercover operation. If she kept up these tirades, she'd not only give the supposed murderer a reason to silence her, she'd make Zach's job a whole lot tougher. "Suspicious how?" he asked, pulling a chair next to hers. He scrolled through a couple of computer screens so they'd appear to be looking over the new software.

"Sudden, inexplicable fevers. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Parker's death last week, we had an incident a couple of months ago, and another, Ellen Clark, the night before last. But the police still won't believe me. If only I'd done more to convince them…" Her voice hitched. "I might have saved her."

Rick had told Zach about Miss Clark. The woman had been presented in the E.R. with the same symptoms as Debra Parker.

"The doctors and nurse who tried to resuscitate Mrs. Parker say I'm crazy." Tara's fingers did a frenetic dance along the edge of the table, and Zach had to resist the urge to still them. "They say the high fever triggered the seizure that killed Debra. But they can't explain the fever."

"How do your colleagues account for the husband's death?"

"Dr. Whittaker figures that witnessing his wife's seizure triggered a heart attack and made Mr. Parker spout the—" Tara made air quotes "—nonsense about stopping a killer. But someone else was in that hospital room." She held up her bandaged wrist. "That's how I got this. And he's already struck again. Don't you see? That's why I can't stay quiet."

That's what Zach was afraid of. Maybe the smartest thing would be to tell her he was a cop.

"Do you realize you're the first person who's taken my concerns seriously?"

Zach lowered his voice. "I'm sorry you've been made to feel that way. And I am concerned, especially if this person has figured out you're a witness." He recognized the moment his implication sank in.

Tara's determined expression wilted, but then she suddenly bolted to her feet. "My daughter."

Zach's heart skidded to a halt at the thought of a killer going after her child. "Where is she?"

"The hospital daycare. You don't think—?" Tara raced to the elevator without finishing the thought he could guess all too well.

He rushed after her.

The elevator doors closed before Tara reached them. She slapped the button, and when they didn't reopen, she took off down the stairwell.

"Tara, wait," Zach called after her. He'd wanted to scare some sense into her, not scare her senseless. He had to tell her who he really was.

At the bottom of the stairs, he caught her arm and hauled her to a stop. "You need to calm down." He gripped her shoulders. "You don't want your little girl to sense your fear, do you?"

The air swooshed from her lungs. "No, but—"

"Shh." He touched his fingertips to her lips, and a jab of awareness pinged through him. What was he doing?

Her eyes grew even larger, if that were possible.

Instantly, he dropped his hands to his sides. He wanted to tell her she wasn't in any danger, but after hearing her account firsthand, he wasn't so sure anymore. "I need to tell you something."

A door above them banged open.

Instinctively, Zach stepped between Tara and the stairs. A couple of housekeepers hurried down a flight and exited on the next floor. "Let's talk outside," Zach suggested.

"Not until I get Suzie." Tara's voice edged higher.

Zach cringed. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have in front of her daughter. "She'll be safe in the daycare."

Tara glanced at her watch. "My shift finished ten minutes ago—she'll be expecting me." Tara yanked open the stairwell door and strode to the daycare center.

Zach waited in the hallway, debating whether he should call Rick before disclosing his true occupation. But one glimpse of the rosy-cheeked tot Tara swept into her arms had him deciding he'd rather remind Rick, after the fact, that he'd given Zach that option. When Tara emerged carrying the girl on one hip, Zach gave the child a goofy grin. "Hey, Suzie, my name's Zach. How old are you?"

The tot smushed her baby finger and thumb against her palm and proudly displayed three fingers.

"Three, wow! You're a big girl."

Her golden ringlets bobbed as she stretched herself taller, straining the seams of her yellow jumper.

"Careful, honey," Tara singsonged in that sweet, high-pitched tone women seemed to use with anyone under two and a half feet. "Mommy's wrist is sore. Remember?"

Suzie thrust her arms into the air and flung herself toward Zach.

Swallowing his surprise, he scooped her into his arms. "I got you, you little munchkin. We're giving Mommy's boo-boo a rest, are we?"

"I'm sorry." Tara reached for the child.

"That's okay. I don't mind carrying her for you."

A strange expression flitted across Tara's face, followed by a manufactured smile. Her arms dropped to her sides. "Thank you."

Considering her contradictory response, he didn't know whether to apologize or say "you're welcome." So he led the way to the back exit. A mirror hung by the door. Zach tapped Suzie's reflection. "Who's that?"

She splayed her palm on her chest and gave herself a huge smile. "Me!"

"You," Zach agreed with a chuckle, mesmerized by the chocolate gaze so like her mother's.

Suzie lunged for the glass, almost toppling out of his arms. He caught her just as her chubby fingers smacked against his startled reflection. "Dak!"

His heart suddenly felt too big for his chest. "That's right. My name's Zach." He glanced at Tara's reflection, but she seemed intent on avoiding his gaze. He half expected her to make an excuse, take back her daughter and leave.

But she opened the door and led the way to a picnic table at the edge of the daycare's playground. Clearly, she was desperate for a compatriot to her cause. She dug a notepad and crayons from her oversized handbag and then patted the seat beside her. "Come and draw, honey, while the grown-ups talk."

Suzie bounced in Zach's arms, apparently a three-year-old's signal for put me down.

Order:

Print books:

Harlequin.com

Harlequin.com (Large Print)

Barnes and Noble

Barnes and Noble (Large Print)

Amazon.com

Amazon.com (Large Print)

Christianbook.com

Booksamillion.com

Booksamillion.com (Large Print)



Ebooks:

Harlequin.com

Nookbook

Kindle

Booksamillion.com

Kobobooks.com

iTunes



Also, don’t forget that it’s Free Book Friday over at Harlequin.com--if you order two or more books, you’ll get their weekly featured book for free!



This week, the featured book is The Unspoken by Heather Graham.

Large Rectangle in Spider Net with Modified Border

I had finished this lace shawl a long time ago, but I hadn’t yet blocked it since pinning takes SO long.



(Blocking the process where you soak it in water with some baby shampoo, then soak in water to rinse, then gently squeeze between a towel to dry and then pin it on a blocking board to open up the stitches. The wool yarn will stay in that opened up shape until it gets wet again.)



I finally got around to blocking this and got my pictures up! If you’re a knitter and interested, here’s the link to the shawl on Ravelry.



















I have to admit I’m rather proud of this, although I’m disappointed I didn’t have enough yarn for the original border in the pattern, which was really pretty.

The life of a married couple

I walk into the TV room to put something away. I happen to see the mixed martial arts fight that Captain Caffeine is watching.



Me: “Ugh! He’s covered in blood! Aaack! He’s still bleeding! I can’t watch this!”



I leave the room in a hurry.



The Captain turns around. “Did you say something?”

Green smoothie take 2

After my first foray into green smoothies, I made them for a while but then stopped. But then my cousin talked about how his cholesterol dropped when he started juicing, so I took up my green smoothies again. It’s hard for me since it’s cold here in California, and I don’t like drinking cold smoothies when I’m cold. (Captain Caffeine, on the other hand, tends to “run hot,” so he’s always happy to have ice in what he drinks.)



Anyway, I’m also trying to be good and use up the veggies and fruits we get from our organic coop. A couple weeks ago, Captain Caffeine brought home some grapefruit from a coworker and I also wanted to use that.



Grapefruit pith is bitter, so I squeezed the grapefruit juice into our Blendtec juicer. Then I added two apples (cored and sliced), a handful of kale leaves (stalks removed), a ginormous spoonful of honey, and a couple tablespoons of cashew butter.



I got the idea for the nut butter because my mom always loved the Ono Ono strawberry shake from KC Drive Inn in Hawaii, which adds peanut butter to the strawberry shake. I didn’t think it would taste that good but I ended up really liking it. So in making this shake, I thought, why not add some nut butter and see?



Viola!







Yes it looks like a swamp but it actually tastes good. The cashew butter gives it a slightly nutty taste that pairs decently with the citrus.



Any smoothie recipes you like?

Turkish coffee from Miracles of Marble Cove series

I mentioned before that I’m one of the authors in the Miracles of Marble Cove series published by Guideposts. It’s been a lot of fun because the series is heartwarming women’s fiction with a light mystery thread that runs through all the books.



For book #17, Steps of Faith, I have a character who is very well-traveled and a bit exotic (Jeff’s mother) who’s being visited by one of the main characters, Beverly, who is not quite so exotic. I wondered what a woman like Jeff’s mother would like for coffee--certainly not plain old coffee. Then I remembered Turkish coffee, which I’d heard about somewhere.



I looked it up and decided to write that into the book, but I also had to try it first! I tried with a small regular pot but it didn’t turn out so great. So I got a cheap Turkish coffee/milk warming pot on Amazon and followed the online instructions for making Turkish coffee.



I fine-ground the beans and put them in my cezve pot with cold water, sugar, and ground cardamom. I gave it a good stir and then heated it slowly over low heat, which is what the websites recommended, but it took WAY too long so I increased it to medium heat. I also did not get the foam that most websites say you should get.









I found out later in another website that if you don’t stir before the coffee boils, you get foam, so I’ll try that next time. That other website also said to use a higher temperature, which also might help me get foam.



Here is my Turkish coffee! I liked it a lot because of the sweetness and the spices. Captain Caffeine didn’t think it was bad, but he didn’t care as much for the spices.







I think the espresso cups I used (courtesy of Captain Caffeine) are just darling! :)



Anyone else like Turkish coffee?

Chopsticks and knitting

Hahahahaha! Captain Caffeine sent me this cartoon. The Asian and the knitter in me loves this one:



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Source: lefthandedtoons.com via Camy on Pinterest

My parents taught me to use chopsticks at an early age so they’re pretty comfortable for me. Did you know there are differences between Japanese and Chinese chopsticks? The Chinese ones tend to be blunter and more slippery whereas the Japanese ones are pointier and sometimes have a textured tip to make it easier to grab food. My mom will eat salad with a chopstick, which I have to admit is a bit easier than a fork, for me.



Any of you knit? Any of you use chopsticks?