Marrying the Mechanic: A Small-Town Clean Romance
Shanna Hatfield
(Summer Creek, #7)
Publication date: October 24th 2024
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
A heartwarming journey of love, growth, and the bonds that tie hearts together even when life leads down unexpected paths.
Mechanic Jace Easton grapples with the sudden changes happening around him. His younger sister, Tassie, has always relied on him, but now she’s off traipsing around the globe with the prince of her dreams. As Tassie prepares to step into her future, Jace is confronted with the harsh truth that she has matured, and so has her best friend, Deena. The deepening attraction he feels for Deena—a pull that becomes increasingly difficult to ignore—leaves him further unsettled and struggling to accept his new reality.
Deena Durant may earn her living welding farm equipment, but her true passion lies in crafting metal sculptures. Alongside her artistic dreams, she clings to the hope that Jace might eventually see her as more than his sister’s friend. Until then, she conceals her feelings and does her best to encourage him as everything familiar shifts into unchartered territory.
When Jace and Deena work together to help Tassie’s dreams come true, will they discover their own path to true love?
Marrying the Mechanic is a celebration of unexpected love, personal growth, and the power of relationships in a wholesome, small-town romance.
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EXCERPT:
“Have you talked to Tassie recently?” Deena asked as they headed out of town.
“Last Sunday. She and the prince were on their way to dinner with one of his brothers.” Jace glanced over at Deena, who seemed to get prettier by the minute. “Why? Have you heard from her?”
“Just a few texts and photos. She sent one yesterday of her and Eli with two of his grown nephews. They were heading to Paris for a festival.”
Jace felt a prick of annoyance that Tassie kept Deena more updated on her travel plans than she did him. Then again, he couldn’t blame his sister. Most of their communication started and ended with him asking when she was coming home and reminders to be careful and safe and to not trust strangers.
He probably sounded like a lame recording set to repeat.
No wonder Tassie only called him once a week and rarely sent a text. It was his own fault for acting overbearing and no doubt coming off as angry, even if he was. Tassie wasn’t the one who’d stirred his ire. Most of that ferocity was directed at himself, with a substantial portion attributed to the stupid prince with the charming smile who had turned everything in Jace’s world upside down.
Well, maybe not everything.
Deena was her own kind of surprise. Jace had yet to decide if the changes in her were of the good or bad variety.
A touch drew his gaze to where Deena’s hand rested on his forearm. He debated shaking it off or covering those long fingers with his own dirty paw. Instead of following either inclination, he focused on her sunglasses even though all he could distinguish was a reflection of himself.
With his face red from the heat and too much time in the sun, compounded by his current embarrassment, it was a vision he didn’t really need to see.
“Don’t beat yourself up if Tassie is doing her own thing,” Deena said with a note of encouragement in her smooth voice. “This is what she’s always wanted. What’s she’s dreamed about her entire life. All we need to do is be happy for her. Right?”
“Right,” Jace said, although he’d rather offer a dozen reasons why Tassie was going to eventually come home with a broken heart. Her experiences with Eli were going to make it that much harder to live in Summer Creek when this … whatever was going on with his sister and the prince, came to an end.
Deena’s eyebrow lifted above her sunglasses again, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking. She refrained from commenting, though, and pulled a U-turn in the road, stopping behind his service rig.
“Want me to wait for you to make sure you get it running?” she asked.
“No. I won’t keep you longer than I already have, but thank you for the ride both ways. I appreciate it.”
“No problem, Jace. Call if you can’t get it to start, and I’ll come get you.”
He would rather chew glass than call Deena for help in his current frame of mind, but he swallowed down the refusal and nodded at her. “Thanks. Have fun at the baby shower.”
“I intend to. Bye, Jace.”
He hopped out, lifted the tools and creeper from the back, then let Cleo deliver a sloppy lick to his cheek. It was the closest he’d come to a kiss for a long, long time.
Author Bio:
Whitney loves to laugh, play with her kids, bake, and eat french fries — not always in that order.
Whitney is a multi-award-winning author of romcoms, non-fiction humor, and middle reader fiction. Basically, she writes whatever the voices in her head tell her to.
She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband, Jimmy, where they raise children, chickens, and organic vegetables.
Gold Medal winner at the International Readers’ Favorite Awards, 2017.
Silver medal winner at the International Readers’ Favorite Awards, 2015, 2016.
Finalist RONE Awards, 2016.
Finalist at the IRFA 2016, 2017.
Finalist at the Book Excellence Awards, 2017
Finalist Top Shelf Indie Book Awards, 2017
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