Land of Enchantment
By Jodi Payne and BA Tortuga
Book Link (It's in KU right now): http://bit.ly/BuyLOE
Blurb: East meets west. City meets country. Though there’s no denying opposites attract, can a college kid from New Jersey and a New Mexican cowboy learn to speak the same language, let alone trust each other?
When Mason Wild heads west to escape his past, he doesn’t have a plan or a penny to his name. Luckily he finds a job with a roofing company run by a rodeo cowboy who’s kind, easy to work for, and even with his jaw wired shut, hotter than July in the high desert.
Bull rider Levi Yost knows what it’s like to be down on his luck. He’s not much older than Mason, but he’s been around the block a few times, or at least around the rodeo arena. He takes a chance on the kid, giving him a job and a place to live on his ranch. The two of them discover a surprising amount of common ground, but trouble has a way of finding each of them. Mason has to learn to be fully honest with Levi, who in turn has to realize he’s not just riding out for himself anymore.
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Mason Wild’s first stop
after leaving New Jersey was a rest area west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
where he met a truck driver in the men’s room who was headed down Interstate 81
toward Roanoke. It was the farthest away from home he’d ever been.
He had a little money on
him but not much, and he had to stretch it pretty far because it was slow going
finding rides after that until he’d passed through Knoxville and Nashville and
landed in Jackson, Tennessee. By then he was a kind of hungry he’d never been in
his whole life. He asked around, found some day work, and stayed there two
days, keeping his head down and moving rocks around. It was shit money, but it
was better than nothing, and nobody cared what his name was.
From Jackson he hitched a
ride to Memphis. He was doing his best to be a good passenger, be polite like
his mom taught him and just keep his stupid mouth shut. That was hard. He
usually liked people and could talk about whatever when he wanted to, but right
now he didn’t want to be too memorable.
Outside Memphis, he
finally found a truck driver who was on a long haul. The guy was headed all the
way to El Paso, and Mason figured what the hell, that was pretty damn far away,
right? On the way, while the driver talked on and on for hours, he looked out
the window as everything he understood disappeared in the rearview mirror and
the world around him got flatter and drier. It felt like he spent weeks in that
truck.
When he got to El Paso,
he lucked into a stretch of work gutting some houses in town, but man, that was
a long week. It was hot out and not only did the guys he was working with all
seem to know each other, but they all knew what they were doing too. He knew
some Spanish—you didn’t grow up in North Jersey and not know some Spanish—but
apparently only enough local slang to figure out when he was being made fun of.
Still, he was pretty much the biggest guy on the job, and he managed to hold
his own even if they didn’t like his sneakers.
Mason hated them lately
too. Everybody he knew wore sneakers at home, but out here, not only did he
stand out as a city kid, but they were totally useless. He demolished a kitchen
with a couple of guys one morning and stepped on a screw sticking up out of a
cabinet door. It went right through his sole but luckily not into his foot.
After that he spent half his time making sure he didn’t step on anything else
or drop anything on his toes either. He couldn’t afford to do the hospital
thing.
He was pretty sure he had
enough money for some decent boots now, though, and he decided he’d buy some at
his next stop—not that he knew where that was yet. But he was running out of
real estate and he’d better figure something out soon. He couldn’t travel much
farther away than he already had.
From El Paso the
interstate only went north. He found a guy headed up 25 through Albuquerque,
and hitched a ride, hoping he could bail somewhere near civilization.
It was an amazing
drive—the grays and the tans and pinks seemed to be everywhere, the mountains
and mesas like a whole foreign landscape.
“You know where you’re
headed, kid?” The old cowboy didn’t look the slightest bit worried about
picking him up. In fact, “Almon Ryder from right outside Dallas, pleased to
meetcha, I do have my conceal carry permit,” looked like he might enjoy a bit
of a fight.
“No.” Mason glanced over
at him, wondering how polite the old guy expected him to be. He wasn’t planning
on fighting anyone again. Ever. “Uh… no, sir. I’m just looking for work. You
know.” Not too friendly, keep it to small talk. He’d gotten pretty good at
riding in the passenger side of a semi and mostly pretending he wasn’t there,
but a pickup was closer quarters.
“I do. There’s always
work for guys that are willing. I’m going to see my son at UNM. He plays
baseball there.”
Mason had no idea where
that was. Baseball was awesome, though. “Yeah? That’s cool. Is he on a
scholarship?”
“Yeah. He’s a good kid.
My youngest. I have eight.”
“Sons?”
“Children. Seven of them
are girls.”
“Holy crap!” He winced.
“Uh. I mean, wow. That’s great. You’re totally outnumbered. And lucky. You’re
very lucky.” He rolled his eyes. He should be keeping his stupid mouth shut.
“Sorry.”
“I am totally
outnumbered, kid. I lost my wife to breast cancer five years ago, with three
still in school. Thank God for the oldest girls or the youngest might have
starved.” The huge laugh boomed out, filling the cab.
Whoa. Small world. “I’m
sorry, man. I lost my mom two years ago, same thing.” What a horrible time that
had been. His whole senior year. “What was your wife’s name?”
“Sueann. She was a good
woman. I’m sorry about your momma. It ain’t right.”
“Sueann. That’s a pretty
name.” Nope. It wasn’t right. He used to think there was a bigger plan, but he
wasn’t so sure anymore. He was just glad he didn’t have to break Mom’s heart
when he left home. “So your youngest is in college. Where’s your oldest?”
“Married with four babies
in Dallas. She’s an ER nurse. Her husband does something on the computer for
work. He’s good to her and loves those babies, so I suppose I won’t have to
kill him.”
“Uh. Well, that’s good, I
guess?” Jesus. Everything he’d ever heard about Texans was true. Other things
were true too, like this guy was super friendly and kind, but the whole
gun-toting, bigger-than-life, major-accent thing? Totally true. And awesome.
He’d never met anyone from Texas before now. Or wait, one of the truck drivers?
The guy who’d driven him from Harrisburg to Roanoke… no wait, he was from
Georgia.
His stomach growled.
Loud. He looked out the window and pretended like he didn’t notice.
Almon grinned over at
him. “You too, huh? There’s a McD’s up here. I’ll buy you a burger. You ain’t a
vegetabletarian, right?”
He cheeks got hot. He
hated handouts, but he wasn’t exactly flush at the moment. “Not me. If it’s
food, I’ll eat it. That’s really nice of you. Thanks.” Vegetabletarian.
Awesome.
“I hate eating alone, and
I been down on my luck once or twice.”
“I’ll figure it out. I
can work. I don’t know how to do much, but I’m big enough and I learn fast.” He
had no choice, right? Thank God he didn’t have eight kids to feed. Whoa.
“Then you’ll be fine.”
Almon pulled off and parked. “Let’s go in. Christ, my ass is too old to make
this drive for a ball game.”
Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48080929-land-of-enchantment?ac=1&from_search=true
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