Winning Ruby Heart
It's a race to their beginning…Exposing world-class athlete Ruby Heart's cheating scandal five years ago made reporter Micah Blackwell's career. Falling in love with her now could end it. Yet watching her determination to return to the top, he can't resist the woman she has become. Working with Ruby to tell America her story, Micah falls deeper under her spell. But at a crucial moment, his feelings for her conflict with his job-the very thing that once saved him.Now he must choose between his skyrocketing career and the unlikely love of a good woman… .
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Itâs a race to their beginningâ¦
Exposing world-class athlete Ruby Heartâs cheating scandal five years ago made reporter Micah Blackwellâs career. Falling in love with her now could end it. Yet watching her determination to return to the top, he canât resist the woman she has become.
Working with Ruby to tell America her story, Micah falls deeper under her spell. But at a crucial moment, his feelings for her conflict with his jobâthe very thing that once saved him. Now he must choose between his skyrocketing career and the unlikely love of a good womanâ¦.
âYou didnât answer my question.â
Micahâs tone was deceptively mild. âWhat are you doing here, Ruby?â
âYou asked why I was running. I did answer that question.â
Micahâs face remained impassive, though his arms tightened about his chest, the line between his biceps and triceps clear. He had good definition, and she wanted to know what lifts he did and how he did them.
How would that ridge where the deltoid leads into the biceps feel under the pads of my fingers? And down the arm, on the brachialisâ¦? Ruby had to shut down those thoughts immediately. Wondering about his exercise routine could be justified as an athleteâs curiosity. The otherâ¦well, the other wouldnât and couldnât happen.
Few beginnings of books have as clear an âahaâ moment as Winning Ruby Heart. I was in my car, listening to Born to Run by Christopher McDougall on audiobook when I switched over to the radio in time to catch a piece on Lance Armstrong. Voilà , Ruby Heart was born. Iâd wanted to have a female athlete as a heroine for a long time, and running was the perfect sport. Thereâs an active amateur community, there are races all over the country and itâs feasible for Ruby to be twenty-nine and only starting to be at the top of her game.
I imagined Ruby, sitting in an interview chair and absolutely not understanding what sheâd done wrong, throwing mud on her reputation with every excuse. The man interviewing her was destined to be her perfect match. All it would take was a second chance.
If youâve read my books, you know I like to recommend a book in my letter (often itâs a cookbook) and this recommendation is my favorite so far. While researching spinal cord injuries, I came across the book Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence by John Hockenberry. Micahâs character was already established as a cosmic twin of Hockenberryâs. Confident and conquering, all wrapped up with a sense of humor and an eye for the absurd. What more could a reader ask for?
Enjoy,
Jennifer Lohmann
JENNIFER LOHMANN is a Rocky Mountain girl at heart, having grown up in southern Idaho and Salt Lake City. When sheâs not writing or working as a public librarian, she wrangles two cats and a flock of backyard chickens; the dog is better behaved. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, and runs regularly (when the dog looks up for it and itâs not raining, or too hot or too cold).
To the Romance Lovers Book Club.
The first Thursday of the month is always my favorite day.
Contents
THE WOMAN IN the neon green baseball hat looked familiar to Micah Blackwell. There was a loose-limbed smoothness to the way she milled among the other racers at the starting line that tapped at a memory in his brain. He drummed his fingers against the side of his wheelchair, waiting for her to turn her head and let the little bit of sun prying its way through the cloud cover onto her face. He wanted to see her eyes.
The woman, bib number 86, caught him staring at her. She twitched as if to dart off in another direction and then seemed to calm herself. The brim of her cap threw her entire face and neck into shadow when she turned her head from his gaze, and Micah saw the lips of the man next to her moving, apparently in response to number 86âs question. The movement of her head was smooth as she looked around, but the bounce of her pigtails on her shoulders exposed her nervous energy, as did the way she shook out the muscles in her arms and legs. Even the shaking seemed familiar.
Micah was so focused on the ripples of muscles in her sleek, powerful thighs that he almost missed her skittish look over her shoulder and the way she tried to ease through the other runners out of his sight. With only a hundred people in this race, the crowd wasnât so big that he couldnât follow the green bounce of the hat.
