Catching Mr. Right by Carol Ross ~ Release Blitz

Posted February 5, 2021 by karenbaron in Blitz, Blog Tour, Book Excerpt, Contest - Giveaway, Romance, Series / 0 Comments

Catching Mr. Right

Series: Seasons of Alaska #7

Author: Carol Ross

Genre: Sweet Romance

Pages: 230

Release Date: February 1, 2021, by Harlequin Heartwarming

Summary:

They can’t both win…
Can they?

Louisiana angler Victoria Thibodeaux needs the spokesperson contract with Romeo Reels to keep her business going and give her daughter a better life. But her hard-won confidence sinks to the bottom of the bayou when her rival, Alaskan fisherman Seth James, arrives. With his smooth-talking charm, handsome Seth could steal both her job and her heart, unless secrets from her past catch up with her first…

Excerpt

SHE WAS WEARING the necklace.

Seth felt relief and affection mix in this odd way inside of him, like a chemical reaction bubbling over and making him want to laugh. But he didn’t. He’d never want Victoria to think he was laughing at her. Because he wasn’t. It was pure relief. And joy, because he couldn’t help but fixate briefly on the looking forward to things she’d listed. Like their first pizza, first date, first kiss…

Nodding slowly, he tried to process all this information. Good news, mostly. If he hadn’t talked to Henry, he might never have ended up here tonight. He owed Henry huge.

But first, he and Vic needed to clarify a few things. “That is very thoughtful of you,” he said carefully.

“I’m glad you understand.” She gave him a weak smile. “I have a lot of baggage, and that’s not fair to you to have to pack it around with me. It’s better this way. You need to focus on putting on the best performance you can.”

“Hmm. So, if you were to talk to me about all of this, would that somehow take away from you turning in your best performance?”

“No, of course not. The opposite, I think. At least, that’s how I felt…before. In fact, I couldn’t wait for you to get here.”

“Before what?” he asked, liking that last part an awful lot.

“Before I talked to my ex. I was already struggling with feeling overwhelmed and insecure about the show. And then he tells me this thing and, boom, it was like being slingshotted backward to our past. There’s a lot there, Seth. Things I can’t talk about. And now he wants to use Scarlett to help him get what he wants, just like he used me, like he uses everyone. And I can’t be there for Scarlett right now. The timing is so terrible that I would accuse him of doing it on purpose to sabotage me if I thought he was that clever.”

“I see. Well, I still think I should get to decide whether listening to my girlfriend’s problems, supporting her, maybe offering to help or at least provide some comfort, would affect me and my performance.”

“Girlfriend?” she repeated, her expression softening, her body visibly relaxing.

He shrugged. “You put the necklace back on. That suggests to me that you still have feelings for me, right?”

Tears were shining in her eyes. “Seth, I have all the feelings. In fact, I might have too many feelings. The reason I took it off was because I wanted to follow the rules we established and keep everything separate. But I don’t think I can do that, which is why I told you that we should just focus on our Romeo Reels time. When this is over, maybe we can… Try again.”

“Try again? Is that what you want? Or is that what you think is best for me?”

“Best for you,” she answered immediately. “Because, Seth, look at me, I am a hot mess. That’s not an easy thing for me to admit. I pride myself on always being prepared. Composed. But today was like a perfect storm of everything going wrong, and I… It’s been a struggle, a struggle that I don’t want to drag you into.”

“If that’s all that’s going on, then no.”

“No?”

“I don’t like this plan. I should get a say in this, too. And I want to try still. Not again. I want to be with you whenever I can. I don’t care if it’s five minutes in the evenings, or seventeen seconds in the morning, or touching your hand under the table, or passing you in the hall where I can just look my fill, or texting and calling if that’s truly all we have time for. But I want to know that you’re mine. Because I want to be yours, Victoria. Whatever that means right now. When I said that to you about keeping the time separate, I didn’t know I was going to fall for you as hard as I have. Or that our schedule would be quite so packed.”

“Oh.”

“We can carve out space for some of the things you were looking forward to. We just need to plan, yet also be spontaneous. Take advantage of opportunities that arise.”

She nodded, looking relieved and agreeable and so beautiful that he could not wait any longer to touch her.

“Like our first kiss, for example. Maybe now would be the perfect moment to cross that off your list.”

Other Books in Series

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Carol Ross grew up in small-town America right between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade Mountains, in a place where you can go deep-sea fishing in the morning and then hit the ski slopes the same afternoon. The daughter of what is now known as free-range parents, she developed a love of the outdoors at a very early age. As a writer, Carol loves to breathe the life she has lived into the characters she creates, grateful for the “research material” that every questionable decision, adrenaline-charged misstep, and near-death experience has provided.