Almost Ready

As the oldest member of my generation, and the only one with enough bedrooms for out of town guests - I have hosted Thanksgiving for the better part of the last decade.  Through those years, the table has grown. 

A few years ago I bought my dream table at a consignment store that with the three leaves is 11 feet long and can seat 14 people. If I squeeze nothing but really skinny people I can stretch it out to 16 but it really works best for 12.  We are having 18 adults this year. So we had no choice but to add another table. 

I freely admit I toiled over this for days and days - how to make it work. Should I make an addition with plywood and table legs? Should I buy a folding table? Do they even make 42" wide folding tables?  - and then yesterday morning it hit me - our old kitchen table - the same height and width of my dining table - is upstairs in my hubbies office for his research work.  Only now it's in what used to be my living room, butted up against my dining table 🙂. 

I have never been more thankful for whichever architect first came up with the formal Living/Dining combination!  All we had to do was line our living room furniture against the walls and extend the dining room into the living space. It will work fabulously - though I can't help but think as the kids grow and marry, I may need a house with a bigger dining room! LOL.  Does anyone actually make a dining table that seats twenty or so people for anyone besides the Queen of England?? LOL 😁

Since I'm woefully behind on so much - thought I'd share the intro to the hero in book three (Just One Dance) for the new series (the one I'm editing now) - hope you like him ! 

Here you go: 

     Pepper limping home was the crown on a miserably hot and unproductive day. If today’s mishaps were an indication of how tonight would go, Jared Gold was in serious trouble.
     “Uh oh.” Older than dirt, with legs as bowed as the St Louis arch, there was no man on this planet that Jared would trust with his horses as much as he trusted Randy. “What happened?”
     “Good question. We’d barely ridden the first small section of fence on the east pasture when she started favoring one side. I climbed off and checked her shoes, but didn’t see anything. I’m guessing she’s got a stone bruise. Before we went out this morning I cleaned out some pebbles from her shoes, but you know how it goes.”
     Salt and pepper brows buckled under loose locks of cayenne red hair. “You wear your boots out walking her all the way back?”
     “Just about.” Jared patted the horse’s neck and scratched under her jaw. “Didn’t want to take any chances.”
     “Smart man.” Randy smiled and reached for the reins. “I’ll take a look at her. You’d better be gettin’. Your mama has called me three times in the last hour, looking for you.”
     “Blast.” Jared snapped his fingers and glanced at his phone. Almost five thirty and two missed calls from his mother. “Tonight’s that stupid gala. Promised Mom I’d step in for Dad.”
     “So she said, but isn’t this the fundraiser for building homes for troubled or disabled vets?”
     Jared nodded.
     “Doesn’t sound stupid to me.”
     “No.” Jared blew out a long sigh. He stood corrected. The ranch foreman had been like a second father to him since coming on board with the Golden Creek ranch over twenty years ago. Jason Gold was a great dad but had no interest in the ranch that had been in his family since Texas was its own republic. Everything Jared knew about horses and ranching he’d learned from Randy. Everything he’d learned about being a man and a decent human being had come from both his biological and ranch families. “It’s a great cause. One I’d be happy to cut a nice check for. It’s the dinner and endless superficial chatter that’s going to be a stupid way to spend my night.”
     “Understood.” Randy was a cowboy through and through. He’d never survive a night buttoned up in a tuxedo and sipping champagne. Though the way Jared felt at the moment, he wasn’t all that sure he’d survive a night dressed like a penguin, making nice to Houston’s social elite either. 
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Hope you enjoyed it!  Books one and two will be available for discounted purchase on my website any day now - so keep your eyes open!  And until next week - May you have more than ever before to be thankful for!