Virtual Book Tour for A Crazy Homecoming by Cate Baylor

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 A Crazy Homecoming

By Cate Baylor

Crazy Texas, Volume 1

Publisher:  Cate Baylor

Release Date: August 1, 2013

Genre: Contemporary Western Romance

Length: 204 Pages

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Book Description: 

Getting fired over a workplace meltdown was bad enough, but getting dumped at the exact same time by her boyfriend-slash-boss was the ultimate humiliation. With no real friends in L.A. and perennially absent parents, Daphne Simms has no one to turn to. To heal her heart, she runs to the only true home she’s ever known—her grandmother’s rural Texas ranch, called Crazy. She knows ranch folks will be a far cry from those she's known in L.A., but she certainly doesn’t expect to be greeted by a cranky cowboy shoving a shotgun in her face.

Mick Williams has lived and worked on Crazy for twenty years. Though he’s utterly devoted to Daphne’s grandmother, he’ll be damned if he’s gonna let a city slicker like Daphne sashay in and disrupt his nice, quiet life. When the future of Crazy is threatened, Mick and Daphne must join forces to keep the ranch afloat, but the heat of their attraction makes working together more complicated than either of them imagines. 

When their physical and emotional connection deepens, Mick tries to turn away from the woman he’s convinced he doesn’t deserve, so Daphne has to pull out all the stops to convince him that the heart of Crazy is big enough for the both of them.

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Excerpt

As the sun dropped lower in the sky, Daphne decided to walk down to the pasture and check on the new calf. Walking down the road, she marveled at the different smells and sounds of the ranch. The green of the grass and yellow of the wildflowers took on a different, deeper hue this time of day. There wasn’t the deep sense of silence and slumber now as there was at dawn, but rather the pent up energy of a day that was winding down. 

When she got to the fence of the pasture, she didn’t see the mama and Honda, so she slipped through the fence and wandered towards where Honda was born. It took her only a few minutes to find them.

She stopped a few yards away, a bit unnerved by the sheer size of the mama. Honda was busily nursing and oblivious to Daphne’s approach. Mama, on the other hand, never took her big brown eyes off of the intruder. Although she acted wary, her eyes seemed friendly to Daphne, so she circled around to get a better view of Honda. 

I swear he's grown since this morning. No longer wet and slick, she could see now that he wasn’t black but a deep brown with a white spot on his forehead. His legs looked like wobbly little sticks that couldn't possibly support the head that seemed way too big for his spindly body. Damn, he's adorable! 

She was working up the guts to get closer when she heard, "Well, howdy." 

She nearly jumped out of her skin. She was so intent on the cows that she hadn’t heard Mick approach. Clapping her hand to her chest, she took a few deep breaths to recover.

"Whoa!" he said, reaching out to steady her. "I wasn't trying to startle you."

Her heart still hadn't settled, so she just waved her hand in acceptance of his almost apology. 

"Come to check on our boy?"  

Smiling she said, "Yes. I just couldn't help it. Has he really already grown? I swear he's grown."

"He's got a lot of growing to do these first few days and he's certainly got a good start." 

"How long will he and his mama be out here?" she wondered. 

"Oh, once he's a couple of weeks old, we'll probably move them back to the herd."

"How long will he stay with his mother?"

Surprised at her curiosity he answered. "We try to wait six or eight months before we wean a calf and decide whether to keep or sell it. The nice thing about him being born in the fall is that we'll have a couple of extra months. If we decide to sell him, he'll have more time grazing and growing, and will fetch more money at auction." 

Daphne gasped. "You mean he's going to be butchered?"

"That depends on what someone buys him for. I doubt it in this case. He's good enough stock that he'd make a good bull for breeding. On a ranch, selling stock for food is part of how we make a living." 

"Sure, I know," Daphne murmured. “I'm not used to having such direct involvement in the circle of life.” 

Mick noticed the shine of tears in her eyes and was immediately riled. "Why is that so upsetting to you people?"

"'You people'?" she demanded. "Do you mean women?"

"No," he said, as if he was trying to reason with a child. "I know plenty of women, your grandmother for example, who don't get squeamish about the fact that our food comes from animals. I mean people like you. Spoiled city slickers," he sneered.

That, in turn, got Daphne riled. "That's a nasty thing to say."

"What? It's true." He jabbed his index finger at her. "Just a second ago, you were getting teary eyed over the idea of Honda here becoming the next ribeye you eat."

"It's not a genetic defect or a character shortcoming, Mick. I've never been around animals, whether they're cows or goldfish. Choosing which animal becomes my next meal just hasn't been part of my world. I bet you'd be quaking in your self-righteous boots if you were faced with attending the opera or running a board meeting. I could just as easily make a similar wide-sweeping generalization about you being some overly macho hick. So shove it up your ass, shit flicker." And with that well aimed zinger she turned to walk away. 

Mick chuckled. "I think you mean 'shit kicker.'" 

She turned around ready to scream and swear some more but his expression took the steam right out of her. She thought he looked sheepish but wasn’t sure. Carrying on a conversation with this man was confounding and just plain irritating. She seemed to always end up putting her foot in her mouth or wanting to smash it into his. 

"Listen," she snapped getting revved up again. "I know that for whatever reason you don't like me or approve of me or whatever. But just because I'm a ‘city slicker’ who's never lived on a ranch, don't you dare assume I'm not smart enough or strong enough to understand and appreciate the life." He looked about as shocked by this outburst as she felt.

"My life fell apart, and when I needed to hide and heal, when I needed love and family, Nana was the one I came to. Nana was the one person I could come to. And she accepted me with open arms. She is my family and the most important person in the world to me, so I'm here for the long haul. It seems to me like that's something you're going to have to learn to deal with." 

Cate Baylor

Cate Baylor has been a technical communicator for over fifteen years. When she's not writing, she suffers from hobby addiction, which includes (but is not limited to!) reading, jewelry making, crochet, knitting, scrapbooking, cross stitching, and home DIY. She lives in Houston with her geeky husband, three neurotic cats, and a precocious Yellow Lab named Tex. She comes from a long line of Texan farmers who are likely rolling over in their graves knowing she’d much rather stay blissfully air-conditioned than suffer outside in the Texas heat. She's a die-hard Texans fan but hasn't decided whether she's willing to embrace the Astros as an American League team.

Connect with Cate on her web site or her Facebook page. You’ll also find her author profile on Goodreads and 

LibraryThing.