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    Steel Glances (Rocky Mountain Novella Series #1)
    Steel Glances (Rocky Mountain Novella Series #1)
    Steel Glances (Rocky Mountain Novella Series #1)
    Ebook132 pages1 hour

    Steel Glances (Rocky Mountain Novella Series #1)

    By Rory Chambers

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    About this ebook

    Kristen's life gets more complicated as she deals with losing the only man she's really ever loved....her father, only to find out that almost everything she has ever known was a lie. Her only ally as she's running to save her life from someone trying to kill her is her father's neighbor, an ex-police officer and writer, who knows just how to get under Kristen's skin. Circumstances push the two together and they learn that they are more compatible than they first thought.

    This book is a novella, or about 27,000 words, and is filled with love, passion, intrigue and mystery.

    Sample Preview:
    Although it was a beautiful autumn day, it felt more like spring as Kristen Casey walked down the sidewalk. The only real difference was that the trees had shed their normal shades of green for more bold and brilliant ambers, oranges and reds.
    Kristen passed an elderly couple who gave her a sympathetic smile, which she politely returned. It was odd that a place so beautifully landscaped couldn’t be more appreciated by its visitors.
    The lawn had all been freshly mowed and the scent of fresh-cut grass was in the air. Kristen found herself transported briefly back in time to when she was in elementary school. She would walk from her father’s house everyday to school. For a short-cut, she would cut through an apartment complex where at least twice a week, they were cutting their grass. The smell, to her, meant that spring had arrived. Towards the end of the school year, she would always be so restless because all she wanted to do was be outside, where she could enjoy all that nature offered her. She’d give anything to be that naïve, playfully restless girl once more.
    But, she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was twenty-eight, and had learned the hard way that life wasn’t just full of sunshine and rainbows. And nothing demonstrated that better than where she was right now. Even though she was surrounded by sunshine, a bright blue sky, freshly mowed lawn and well manicured topiaries, she was also surrounded by pain and sorrow. Kristen looked around. She had a habit of reading the names and messages on the carved pieces of stone. She could only imagine how many lives were affected by all of the names before her.
    “I’m here, Dad,” she said as she placed the flowers she had been carrying next to her recently deceased father’s headstone.

    Be sure to sign up for the free newsletter at PorterlanceBook.com to find out about all the great releases we offer by Rory Chambers and our other best-selling authors, like M.D. James, Matt Zachary, James McCullough, and John Green.

    Books by Rory Chambers:
    Dangerous Reunion (Book 1: Class of ’92 Series)
    Surviving Las Vegas (Book 2: Class of ’92 Series)
    Secret Obsessions (Book 3: Class of ’92 Series)
    Class of ’92 Series (All 3 Books)
    Steel Glances (Book 1: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)
    Identity Crisis (Book 2: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)
    Legally Comatose (Book 3: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)
    Mountain Novella Series (All 3 Books)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPorterlance Books
    Release dateDec 3, 2013
    ISBN9781311654533
    Steel Glances (Rocky Mountain Novella Series #1)

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      Book preview

      Steel Glances (Rocky Mountain Novella Series #1) - Rory Chambers

      Steel Glances

      Rory Chambers

      Copyright Porterlance Books 2013

      Published by Porterlance Books at Smashwords

      All rights reserved. Except for the use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to the actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

      Other Books by Rory Chambers:

      Dangerous Reunion (Book 1: Class of ’92 Series)

      Surviving Las Vegas (Book 2: Class of ’92 Series)

      Secret Obsessions (Book 3: Class of ’92 Series)

      Class of ’92 Series (All 3 Books)

      Steel Glances (Book 1: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)

      Identity Crisis (Book 2: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)

      Legally Comatose (Book 3: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)

      Mountain Novella Series (All 3 Books)

      www.PorterlanceBooks.com

      Sign up for our FREE newsletter!

      Steel Glances

      Rory Chambers

      Chapter 1

      Although it was a beautiful autumn day, it felt more like spring as Kristen Casey walked down the sidewalk. The only real difference was that the trees had shed their normal shades of green for more bold and brilliant ambers, oranges and reds.

      Kristen passed an elderly couple who gave her a sympathetic smile, which she politely returned. It was odd that a place so beautifully landscaped couldn’t be more appreciated by its visitors.

      The lawn had all been freshly mowed and the scent of fresh-cut grass was in the air. Kristen found herself transported briefly back in time to when she was in elementary school. She would walk from her father’s house everyday to school. For a short-cut, she would cut through an apartment complex where at least twice a week, they were cutting their grass. The smell, to her, meant that spring had arrived. Towards the end of the school year, she would always be so restless because all she wanted to do was be outside, where she could enjoy all that nature offered her. She’d give anything to be that naïve, playfully restless girl once more.

      But, she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was twenty-eight, and had learned the hard way that life wasn’t just full of sunshine and rainbows. And nothing demonstrated that better than where she was right now. Even though she was surrounded by sunshine, a bright blue sky, freshly mowed lawn and well manicured topiaries, she was also surrounded by pain and sorrow. Kristen looked around. She had a habit of reading the names and messages on the carved pieces of stone. She could only imagine how many lives were affected by all of the names before her.

      I’m here, Dad, she said as she placed the flowers she had been carrying next to her recently deceased father’s headstone. It read:

      THOMAS J. CASEY

      BELOVED HUSBAND AND FATHER

      BORN MAY 25TH, 1958

      DIED AUGUST 10TH, 2013

      For a little while, Kristen just stood there. She was trying to feel her father’s presence. She concentrated with her eyes closed to see if maybe she could notice a shift in the wind or anything that would tell her that he was there and aware of her visit. As much as she wanted to find something to grab a hold of, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

      As she got ready to speak, tears began to form. She wiped them away, wondering why she was crying. It wasn’t as if she had never experienced death before. She could barely remember a time in her life where she hadn’t mourned over the loss of a loved one. But, this was different. This was her father. And, she knew why she was crying. It was because she loved him. He had been there through everything for her. He had worked hard to help her whenever she needed him. He put her through college and helped her through her divorce. Every memory she had involved him somehow. He was her rock, and now he was gone.

      Daddy, she began after scrubbing the tears out from under her eyelids and off her face. How are you? she asked before laughing. He was dead…that’s how he was. It was a habit, though. Since he had gotten older, she always asked him how he was doing when they talked on the phone or met for lunch. She had been worried about him…mostly about him being lonely.

      Since he retired, she constantly urged him to get out more. You should join a club or something, she would suggest, but he would always complain that he was too old and too tired to meet new people. Well, you can’t just spend the rest of your life in the house…cutting yourself off from everyone and everything.

      I’m here, out and about, at lunch with the only person that matters, aren’t I? he would answer with a twinkle in his eye that would make Kristen laugh.

      There were so many memories, but she would trade all of them just to have her father back again. I miss you, she whispered, no longer caring if the tears flooded down her face.

      She never considered herself to be a crier. In fact, she was often told by the men she dated that she was too strong and independent…almost unfeeling. They never understood that she was just trying to protect herself, but that was fine with her. She didn’t need them…any of them. She wouldn’t settle for any man that would try to change her. If there was one thing her father always taught her, it was that she should always be true to herself. Never be ashamed of who you are, honey, he told her as she and her husband split up.

      She and Kyle should never have gotten married, anyway. They were just out of high school and thought they were madly in love with one another. In truth, neither really knew a thing about the world, or how hard it was to be in it…away from the nest and all the protection being a minor living at home brought with it.

      It didn’t take Kyle long to cave under the pressure of working to support a family. He would come home in a bad mood and they would fight, constantly. After a year of trying to make it work, Kristen decided that it wasn’t the right life for her and filed for divorce. In spite of his behavior during the marriage, Kyle was hurt and accused her of seeing someone else. By the time the divorce was final; the two people that had once been best friends and so madly in love were no longer spoke to one another. And, it was her dad that was there for her. That gave her the strength to make the hard call. That gave her the strength to be true to herself.

      There were so many things she had wished she had gotten the chance to say to him before he died. She had never even thanked him for making her the person that she was. Although it wasn’t the same, she wanted to tell him now.

      Dad, you raised me from a little girl into the woman I am now, and I never even thanked you for that. I know I wasn’t the most cooperative girl in the world, she began. As a teenager, Kristen wasn’t always the easiest to get along with. For a while, she resented her father’s intrusions when it came to boys she liked. He was never the dominating, overbearing type, but did want to know what was going on with his little girl. But, she didn’t see it that way. She saw it as an invasion of her privacy. A privacy that she held onto dearly. More than a few arguments were started just because he asked her if she were going to a dance with anyone, or got a valentine from a boy. At the time, she felt justified. It never occurred to her at that time that he could ever die and she would feel guilty and ashamed of her behavior. But, he did die, and she did feel ashamed. She knew he had never held her typical teenage behavior against her, but she still felt the need to apologize. Better late than never.

      Kristen thanked her father for being such a good Dad and told him how much he had always meant to her. She was only sorry she wasn’t able to get him and her mom buried next to one another.

      Kristen’s father knew he would never be buried next to his late wife. She had passed away many years ago, at a time where he wasn’t able to purchase the plot next to

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