This is the couple I’m using on the book cover for book 2 of my SweetHart’s Cafe series.

I can hardly wait to share with you the cover of my next book. But just for fun, here’s the first chapter of An Unexpected Miracle.

Chapter 1

Olivia woke to the sound of a crash and breaking glass. She gripped the bed and held on for dear life. An earthquake? An incoming tornado? As she listened, her heart pounded wildly in her chest.

Patting the bed beside her, she felt for Daisy, her Savannah cat, who usually nestled beside her. She had left the bed and cried from somewhere nearby. In the dark, Olivia fumbled for the lamp beside the table. The door to the closet hung open a crack. Hissing followed a guttural growl. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or terrified. If Mitch was still alive, he would have tackled the problem.

She grabbed the flashlight sitting on the nightstand, not because she hadn’t found the switch to the lamp, but as a weapon against whatever Daisy was up against. Mitch would have grabbed his shotgun. A firearm of that magnitude would have been overkill in this circumstance. She hated to think of the poor intruder who faced the end of his barrel.

With one hand on the doorknob and the other with her fist wrapped around the flashlight, she yanked the door open.

Light from the flashlight spilled into the closet. Green eyes stared down at her from the top shelf, in her mouth Daisy held a rat. Olivia screamed and backed out of the closet, tripping over the cardboard box that her nearly black cat had knocked off the shelf to get to the rat, then landed on her behind.

Olivia crawled crab-like out of the walk-in closet and collapsed into a heap on the rug at the foot of the bed. “Good girl,” she mumbled. Isn’t that why she’d insisted on getting a cat in the first place?

Daisy leapt from the shelf onto the shoe rack, then over the box she’d knocked off the shelf and exited the closet. The dead rodent hung from her mouth.

“Ew, ew, ew…” Olivia retreated on her bum until her back hit the footboard.

Daisy dropped the rat on the carpet in front of Olivia. This wasn’t the first time her cat had brought her a “present” but never in the middle of the night and never one quite that big. Her over-sized cat stepped over the rodent and bumped Olivia’s head with hers, waiting for approval.

Olivia stroked the cat’s head and scratched under her chin. “You are such a good baby.”

Daisy purred her response, jumped onto the bed, and turned once in a circle before settling back into the covers. Sometimes Olivia swore her cat was more dog than feline. Daisy meowed once more, deep and throaty before settling against the pillow, leaving Olivia to deal with the death and destruction laying at her feet.

Daisy meowed again as if beckoning Olivia back to the bed. Not until Olivia took care of the murder scene. For a fraction of a second, she thought about picking the rat up by the tail but shuddered at having to touch it. Flipping on light switches as she went, she retrieved the broom and dustpan from the laundry room, then scooped up the intruder. Barefoot and in her pajamas, she hurried to the outdoor garbage bin and dumped the rat inside.

Locking the front door behind her, she returned the dustpan and went back to the bedroom. Daisy had already fallen asleep. How could anyone sleep after such mayhem?

Olivia flipped the switch, flooding the closet with light. On the floor lay the small box of memorabilia she’d kept for the last twenty-five years or more. She pulled the cardboard flaps back. The breaking glass had been the handblown piano she’d bought in Disney World when she’d gone with her family her senior year over spring break. Mitch had hated it and called it tacky. She had hoped someday to bring it out again, and she probably would have if she’d remembered it was still here. Now it stood as a broken symbol of her shattered marriage.

Thanks to Daisy, Olivia no longer felt like going back to bed. Her clock said four-thirty. Another half hour of sleep wouldn’t have done any good anyway. She picked up the container and took it into the kitchen to grab a pair of gloves before digging into the box.

She pulled back the lid to examine the rest of the contents. On top of the pile lay the belt buckle she’d won for barrel racing in the last competition she’d competed in. That was the last time she held hands with her childhood sweetheart. Either her palm or his had sweated so bad they had to keep wiping their hands on their jeans.

All that changed when Bethany announced her engagement to Zeke.

With a sad sigh, she closed the lid to the box. She’d have to deal with this all later. For now, she had to get moving or she’d be late opening the café.

After a quick shower, she donned her Miracle Café t-shirt, the one all her employees wore, and piled her wet hair into a messy bun on top of her head. She stroked Daisy on the head and kissed her goodbye. “Be a good girl and catch all the nasty things.” Then under her breath she muttered, “But don’t leave them on the rug.”

The café sat adjoined to the only hotel in Miracle, Texas. Most of the original staff she’d kept and then hired a couple of girls who’d graduated from their local high school. With her portion of Mitch’s life insurance money, it had given her the opportunity to purchase the restaurant. She wished it had been enough to cover the plans she had in mind to expand and rebrand.

When she reached the restaurant, Brianna and Armando stood on the sidewalk outside the doors, huddled together. Though it wasn’t that cold, Brianna had rather chummed up to the assistant chef, and he didn’t seem to mind the attention of the newest waitress.

Until she could figure out what had brought Brianna to their little town, Olivia was hesitant to encourage their romantic relationship.

Olivia unlocked the front door, and Hector, the head cook entered first. “You want me to try that Eggs Benedict this morning?”

Olivia pulled her black standard apron off its hook and tied it around her waist. Then, tucking her phone into the pocket, she threw over her shoulder, “Sure, but let’s not put it on the menu until I decide.”

“You got it, boss!”

Olivia straightened the napkins and sighed contentedly when the first jingle of the day signaled her first customer, that was until she saw who it was.

Her heart still ramped up its pace whenever he came into the restaurant, especially now that she was a widow and free to flirt with him. What had been holding her back? Finding that belt buckle in the top of the box reminded her of the huge crush she’d had on him in high school. Not that she needed the reminder every time he came into the café.

He greeted her with his half smile, his brown eyes looking tired. His hair had gone prematurely gray, but bits of brown still peeked through. His face had grown even more handsome with all the time he spent outdoors with his guests. The dude ranch part of the Bar-Z he’d added in the last couple of years seemed to be thriving, along with his yearly rodeo.

Her guts lay hog-tied in the pit of her stomach. Still, Olivia put on her best smile. “Morning Zeke.” That sounded pleasant, didn’t it? Then why was he looking at her so oddly?

He nodded and waited for her to show him to his seat.

Even though he’d married her high school friend, Olivia had stuffed her feelings for him so deep that even her cat wouldn’t be able to hunt them down.