Food=love in my books.

So, I’ve decided to share recipes that have some connection/significance in my books and/or my life–and I’ve asked my writer friends to join me.

Today’s recipe comes from my dear friend (and former Superromance buddy) Jean Brashear. Jean is from Texas. They do food up right in Texas–and they do romance up right, too. Be sure to check out her brand new book, TEXAS DREAMS: The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs Book 3.

 BUY

I can sorta picture you reading Texas Dreams while you snarf down a big ol’ piece of Hershey Bar Cake. 🙂

Join the fun in a new tale in Jean’s popular TEXAS HEROES series that brings all three branches–The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Spring and Morning Star plus The Marshalls–together in a heartwarming homecoming that’s all about family, and all about love:

 Take two reluctant brides and two frustrated grooms, mix with both clans of Gallaghers and season with a SEAL or three, a movie star, a Hollywood Barbie and a country music giant–and you get a recipe for family mayhem, laughter and a tear or two.

Watch as Sweetgrass Springs matriarch Ruby Gallagher and her granddaughter Scarlett, aided and abetted by the irrepressible Maddie Rose Gallagher, try to pull off surprise wedding plans for each other in the worst-kept secret in Texas.

EXCERPT:

“I need to plan a wedding,” Ruby Gallagher blurted into the phone without even a hello.

“Ruby, that’s fantastic!” Maddie Gallagher responded. “Arnie must be thrilled.”

“Arnie?” Ruby paused. Debated between a chuckle and a frown. These young ones needed to stay out of her love life. “Not you, too. I’m talking about Scarlett’s wedding, goose.”

“Oh.” But her great-nephew’s wife quickly recovered her enthusiasm. “Poor Arnie, but Ian will be happy, I know.”

“Heaven knows the boy has had to wait long enough. Don’t know what my granddaughter’s waiting on.”

Maddie snickered. “Pot, meet kettle. How many years has Arnie been waiting on you?”

“Don’t you get smart with me, young lady. There will be consequences.”

“Consider me duly terrified,” Maddie responded. “Given that my five-year-old is nearly as tall as you, my knees are quaking, I assure you.”

“Not fair the Gallagher men get all the height,” Ruby grumbled.

“You and Scarlett are the only pygmies, best I can tell.”

“Enough of that impertinence. Do you want to help me plan this wedding or not?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I do. I was just telling Boone we need a family get-together soon. What better excuse? When were you thinking? A spring wedding?”

“Not hardly. I was thinking Thanksgiving.”

“You don’t lack ambition, do you? How about Christmas instead? What does Scarlett want?”

“She wants to get the old courthouse renovated for her new restaurant. Then she’ll focus on getting that up and running. Then she’ll want lord knows…and Ian is too patient with her.”

“Is he complaining?”

“The man is goofy in love and too nice for his own good.”

“So…” Maddie began. “Basically, Scarlett’s grandmother wants Scarlett to hurry up and get married?” She paused. “That’s never worked with you, and Scarlett comes by her stubbornness honestly.”

“I’m hanging up now,” Ruby grumbled.

Maddie burst out laughing. “Okay, okay…but it’s late enough that Scarlett’s friends from New York would have a hard time booking tickets for the heaviest travel time of the year. How about early December?”

Ruby had never been on an airplane in her life. “I never thought of that. All right. So, you’re in?”

“Absolutely. And Perrie can do the cake. She’s turning into quite a pastry chef. My sister Lacey could help with flowers, I bet.”

“Veronica Butler owns a flower farm,” Ruby reminded Maddie. “She’ll handle the flowers.”

“Absolutely. Lacey has many other skills—she could organize the wedding of the century in a week, I swear. All that socialite training didn’t go to waste. She’s a whiz at planning social galas and charity functions. I’ll call her. We need to come down for a girls’ weekend.”

“If you show up here, Scarlett will get wind of it.”

Silence fell.

“Ruby.” Another pause. “You cannot mean to say you’re planning her wedding as a complete surprise. Seriously?”

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to bring Ian in on it.”

“You are something else.” Her quick laugh hovered somewhere between horrified and intrigued. “You can’t do that to her.”

“Didn’t your little town of Morning Star pretty much put your wedding together?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“And wasn’t it wonderful?”

“It was, but nobody sprung it on me. Do you honestly want to incite Scarlett’s likely reaction? She’ll freak. At best, you’ll wake up and find yourself married one morning, you know you will. She’ll get Judge Porter to marry you in your nightgown, fast asleep.”

“Judge would never do that, unless he wants me to evict him from my boarding house. And there’s the little matter of my agreeing to it.”

“And your point would be…?”

Ruby sighed. “All right. I just…I want to see her settled while I’m still here.”

“You’re going to live forever, Ruby. We all insist on it. Sweetgrass can’t do without you, and neither can the family.”

“No wonder Boone is still crazy for you, sweet-talker.”

Maddie chuckled. “It’s true, though. But back to Scarlett—maybe if we could put a plan together to show her instead, so she’d see she wouldn’t have to start from scratch? That might make things more doable if lack of time is all that’s holding her up. Lacey and I could compile a timeline, and I know Perrie will be onboard. We’ll talk to Veronica and Scarlett’s cousin Rissa, as well. Since you can’t easily get away from Scarlett, operating the diner together, we can put a rough outline together, run it by you, then you let me be the bad guy and spring it on Scarlett.”

“I wasn’t planning to give her advance notice.”

“At all? Ruby, you can’t do that.”

“Of course I can. It’s my right. I’m old.”

Maddie burst out laughing. “What you are is incorrigible.”

Ruby barreled on. “Ian will help you with her when the time comes. He has a way with her.”

“I just bet he does,” Maddie responded drily. “There’s something about those good-lookin’ cowboys…”

“It’s not that she doesn’t want to marry him. She just has this notion that she has to get the events center running first, as if I’ll kick the bucket next week and she has to assure me Sweetgrass will be taken care of beforehand.”

“She’s hungry for family, Ruby. She adores you.”

“She’s the blessing of my life.” Ruby’s throat went tight. “I thought I would never have a family again after my daughter Georgia ran away.”

“You have all of us, Ruby. And everyone in Sweetgrass considers you family.”

“Do I hear a sniffle, young lady”? Maddie was a soft touch, with a heart as big as the world.

“Of course not. Would I dare get weepy in front of you?”

“Are you breeding again, Maddie Rose?”

“What a sexist thing to say.” But the smile was there in her voice. “Yep. Knocked up bigger ‘n’ Dallas, but only Boone knows. As if those hellions of ours aren’t plenty already.”

“You talk a good game. I’m happy for you, sweetheart.” Ruby knew Maddie had been all alone until she’d inherited Boone’s ranch out from under him. She, like Scarlett, had been hungry for family. If not for her, the existence of Boone and Mitch’s half-sister would never have been discovered. Lacey and her husband Devlin were now deeply ingrained in the Gallagher family.

“Thank you. So, see, I won’t be dragging my heels on this wedding because I have an ulterior motive. I want to be a bridesmaid while I’m still hot. Pregnancy boobs without the belly.”

Ruby had to laugh. “You are a caution, honey. Boone needed some shaking up. Boy was always too serious.” His career in the SEAL Teams had not been a joyride, nor had his life with his father, after his mother had died.

“He doesn’t have that problem now, I promise.” Free-spirited Maddie had blown into Boone’s life like a spring storm, and the man was crazy about her.

“So we’re set, right?”

“I will start calling as soon as we hang up. But you should still tell her.”

Silence ensued.

Maddie sighed. “I’ll get back with you in a few days, okay?”

“Thank you, honey. You’re a good girl.”

“Practically a saint, I tell Boone every day. Talk soon, Ruby.” With another bawdy laugh, Maddie disconnected.

 Hope everyone’s holiday shopping is going well. If you’re looking for a fun gift ON SALE this week, check out my single title romantic comedy ARE WE THERE YET?, which will be part of the Kindle Countdown Deal beginning tomorrow, Dec. 11. Just 99¢ for 2 days. And add Judy Banger’s first Christmas as a newlywed, IS IT CHRISTMAS YET? for another 99¢, and you’ve got the whole package. 🙂 

Merry, Merry!

Deb