The Packing List, a romance anthology featuring twelve original, never-before-seen stories from bestselling authors, is now available in print and ebook! One hundred percent of net proceeds will be donated to sexual and reproductive health care organizations. The Packing List is only available for a limited time so grab your copy before it’s gone for good!
This exclusive collection brings you sizzling, later-in-life love stories where seasoned characters tumble into red-hot temptation, unexpected passion, and daring new beginnings that redefine desire. Every tale tempts you into wanting more and these happily ever afters smolder right off the page.
My story, The Sun in Her Eyes, is my first historical and my first sapphic story:
✨ THE SUN IN HER EYES: Newlywed MaryAnn Callahan believes she’ll be content with her sensible new life on a Kansas farm until her husband’s sister steps out of the sunlight and leaves her dazzled.✨
Here’s an excerpt:
THAT NIGHT, after dinner, as the wash water heated and the men retired to the porch, Roslynn began to help MaryAnn clear the table.
“You don’t need to do that,” MaryAnn protested as Roslynn wiped off the cutlery into the slop bucket. “Take your leisure; you’ve been working all day.”
“And you haven’t?” Roslynn asked. She motioned to the porch with a butter knife, where the men sat in chair-rocking silence. “Always amazed me how they think guiding a plow with the help of men and horses is harder than hauling wet laundry to the line all by yourself.”
MaryAnn was about to protest again when Roslynn said, “Besides, we’re sisters now.” She looked at MaryAnn from under those thick, spiky lashes. “Sisters should get to know each other, don’t you think?”
MaryAnn carried the stacked crockery to the sink, glad her trembling hands didn’t drop it all to the boards.
Over the next several evenings, their words came out in trickles. Roslynn seemed unused to getting to know someone when she’d known the same people her whole life, and nobody had ever been much interested in what MaryAnn had to say. Roslynn learned that MaryAnn was the middle of seven children. MaryAnn learned her husband’s first name was Samuel. Samuel had been on the edge of manhood and Roslynn just a babe when the Great Flu wiped out the rest of their family. Roslynn loved blackberries and despised okra; MaryAnn preferred the Virgen de Guadalupe over the man on the cross.
One evening, she was formally introduced to Tucker, the grinning dog with the terrifying canines, and Cat.
“Cat?” MaryAnn asked skeptically, on her knees beside Roslynn as she shook Tucker’s paw.
“Cat,” Roslynn replied, very serious. “I yelled ‘Cat’ a second before the thresher ate her up and she’s been following me around ever since.”
At the summons, Cat came padding across the floor, stood on her hindlegs, and rubbed her head against MaryAnn’s chin.
MaryAnn giggled as she stroked Cat’s sinuous back.
Roslynn cleared her throat. “They can be your pets, too,” she said shyly, “if you want.”
MaryAnn blinked away tears as she met Roslynn’s shining eyes.
Sometimes, there were no words at all, just the two of them being together as they cleaned up. To the men, it would look like two women learning to work in concert and live in harmony. To MaryAnn, it was exquisite torture, a growing demand inside her taking up so much space that there was no room for words. Roslynn there, right there, in her newly-mended overalls with MaryAnn’s neat crosshatches down her fulsome thigh. There, with her small, rough hands moving out of the tepid soap water a second before MaryAnn’s could enter it. There, smelling like grass on her skin and sun in her hair, the animals moving around them and weaving them closer together.
✨I hope you love The Sun in Her Eyes as much as I do! ✨
Other authors included are:
Karen Booth
J. Calamy
Kate Canterbary
Michelle Donn
Sarah T. Dubb
L.B. Dunbar
Jess K. Hardy
Mia Hopkins
Cindy Kehagiaras
Melanie Moreland
Maria Vale
💖 cover by @katiegoldingtx
All of the net proceeds from The Packing List will be donated to sexual and reproductive health care organizations. This anthology is not being conducted on behalf of these organizations nor do these organizations endorse this anthology or collective effort. They have, however, graciously agreed to accept the funds.
