Update: Pippa Greathouse's latest book is out today – March 16 –The Return of Lucy Grace.

He had grown up; handsome; respectable; trustworthy. But had she grown up at all?

Blurb

Gracie Kennedy had come across “Billy the Bully” Becker the first time, in the woods, when she was seven. He had frightened her terribly that day but had ended up taking her home. To a little girl, lost in the woods, that was what made her believe in him.

Coming home, after years of being away at art school, she was determined to make a success of her life, despite the fact that Strasburg was still a small town. Small, it might have been; to Gracie, it was home.

Now called “William,” Billy was a deputy in the sheriff’s department, and he was given some of the most challenging cases to solve. He was grown, well respected and looked up to—by everyone but Gracie, that is. Yes, he had grown up; but he was not at all sure that Gracie had. She had come back full of disrespect and quite unladylike language, something he was not at all inclined to put up with. And Gracie was about to find that out.

Publishers Disclaimer: The Return of Lucy Grace contains stern discipline of a rebellious young lady. If this is not to your liking, please refrain from purchasing this book.

Buy link: Amazon

Excerpt:

It was then that she saw his badge. "You—Billy, you are on the Sheriff's Department?"

“That surprises you? And no one calls me Billy anymore. It is William, now. I grew up.” His eyes narrowed. “I am not sure, however, that you did.”

“How dare you insinuate that I—”

“Answer me, Lucy Grace.”

She tilted her chin up, defiantly. “Yes. It does surprise me.”

His answering expression showed amusement. “I see.”

“And I do not have to answer to you, Billy—William—Becker. Go to Hell.”

William’s brows rose. “Is that what they taught you when you went away to school? To swear?”

“So what if they did? I do not have to answer to you, or anyone else.”

“Oh, do you not?” He stared down into her face.

She remembered seeing him in the woods, when she was seven, and thinking how fierce he looked then. He looked no less forbidding now. Her eyes widened.

“Watch your mouth, Gracie. I shall not tell you again. The next time I shall smack your bottom. And afterwards I may take you down to the stream to wash your mouth out with soap.”

She stared, and then looked away.

“I do not need you to tell me what to do, William Becker.” She said, irritated.

“Then control that mouth of yours, yourself, Lucy Grace. Or I shall do it for you.”

More about Pippa Greathouse:

Pippa Greathouse has been writing since the fifth grade, after each student was given an assignment to read aloud a story to the class of her their writing. One horrified teacher later and a class of students who thought the horror story was “cool,” and she was hooked.

She is married, and has two fantastic children, who have grown and left the nest.

Since then, the writing has continued. She now is an author for Blushing Books, and still loves what she does. Her favorite genre is writing historical fiction romances, where men are “strong, Alpha men” and their feisty ladies respond to that. And historical fiction is perfect for that! However, she also loves writing contemporary romantic fiction.