Rancho de Amor , livre ebook

Praise for RANCHO DE Amor
Dan Harder s Rancho de Amor turns a beguiling mystery about a romance novel into a warm and witty tale of finding love in some very unexpected places. Ingeniously devised and deftly plotted, it unfolds on a richly evoked Central California Coast of vineyards and cattle ranches, in a small town full of charming characters. As the lovers stumble over each other and themselves, this book-with-in-book offers another kind of happy outcome-a reader s delight in being swept away by a good story. -Steven Winn, former Arts and Culture Critic of the San Francisco Chronicle and author of Come Back, Como: Winning the Heart of a Reluctant Dog
Rancho de Amor by Dan Harder presents many satisfying surprises as his characters strive for success in both life and love. Vulnerable yet strong, they come alive on the pages. This is a wonderful book-and one I expect could make a terrific film! -Susan Terris, Familiar Tense
This mash-up of literary whodunit, romance, and fish-out-of-water caper defies genres, as Harder whisks us from Manhattan to cowboy country and back again; I m very happy to have gone along for the ride. -Deborah Bishop, Hello Midnight, An Insomniac s Literary Bedside Companion
Romance, roadkill, and wicked wit- -Yves Fey, Floats the Dark Shadow
It s a Romance and all, but it s got a good bit of us in there, too. -Brad Lundberg, cattleman/former manager of the Cojo/Jalama Ranches
Harder masterfully peels back the layers of the rarified publishing world to reveal its-and his-romantic heart. -Susan Vogel, Publisher: Pince-Nez Press, author of Becoming Pablo O Higgins
RANCHO DE Amor
BY D AN H ARDER
2020 by Dan Harder
Cover illustration 2020 by Gary Newman
Edited by Kristen Tate
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Harder, Dan, author.
Title: Rancho de Amor / by Dan Harder.
Description: [Berkeley] : West Margin Press, [2020] | Summary: In a last-ditch effort to save a New York publishing house facing imminent closure, editor Catherine Doyle travels across the country to the small town of Sisquoc, California, in search of the famous Loretta de Bonnair, an elderly recluse and breakout author of the bestselling self-published romance novel that has the nation in a fervor. Instead, she runs into nothing but dead ends with a handsome cowboy who she s not sure if she should trust -Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020014580 (print) | LCCN 2020014581 (ebook) | ISBN 9781513264301 (paperback) | ISBN 9781513264318 (hardback) | ISBN 9781513264325 (ebook)
Subjects: GSAFD: Love stories.
Classification: LCC PS3608.A72528 R36 2020 (print) | LCC PS3608.A72528 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014580
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014581
Proudly distributed by Ingram Publisher Services.
LSI2020
Published by West Margin Press

WestMarginPress.com
WEST MARGIN PRESS
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Marketing Manager: Angela Zbornik
Project Specialist: Gabrielle Maudiere
Editor: Olivia Ngai
Design Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
How could I not have written a good romance while living with and loving you, my ever-inspiring Ora?
C ONTENTS
C HAPTER 1
C HAPTER 2
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C HAPTER 38
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
C HAPTER 1
A t 6:17 on a cold November morning, Catherine Doyle finally gave up on trying to sleep and decided to confront the situation. She rolled out of bed, wrapped herself in a robe, and sat down at her desk. She was resolved-the relationship was never going to get better, so, instead of letting things stumble toward the inevitable, she would end it with one fell swoop-or, as it were, one irrefutable e-mail. She clicked compose, typed an address, coughed twice, sniffed once, and began:
Dear Ralph,
Love is supposed to be a moving experience, but so is falling off a cliff. Before we hit the ground, I think we should open our parachutes and find something that
She stopped, searched for what that something should be, then shook her head. As a book editor, Catherine was obsessively careful about how things were written, which was one of the reasons she wasn t a writer. She loved to read and, as an editor, help others to improve their writing, but the sloppiness that came with spontaneous creation made her uncomfortable. Reading her own writing was like walking into an art gallery where half of the paintings were hanging crooked on the wall. And she definitely didn t want crooked here. Nothing too angry, nothing too kind, nothing too clever-something simple, clear, and final.
She started over:
Dear Ralph,
Last Friday, you said that you felt cramped in serious relationships. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I want: a serious relationship. So, let s amicably call it quits and move on in different directions-without agony, regret, or endless discussion. Be well in whatever you do, wherever you do it.
Sincerely,
Catherine
She reread what she d written, and, satisfied with its clear and terse finality, she sat there for a few seconds in the blue glow of her monitor to let the moment and its implications settle in. Then, slowly and deliberately, Catherine hit the send button.
She closed her e-mail, got up, leaned on her desk in a confrontational pose, and announced into the surrounding darkness, I like how I live and where I live, and I don t need anybody else to make it better.
As if to soften the edges of her declaration, her cat, Emily, gently brushed against her leg.
Correction -Catherine kneeled down and tickled Emily s chin- I don t need anybody but you.
How much of this Emily understood was debatable, but she knew enough to purr.
C HAPTER 2
H aving gotten up earlier than usual, Catherine was able to take a long, cathartic shower. (She added a few tears to the water down the drain.) After fixing herself half a toasted bagel with jam, she fed her endlessly hungry cat, then strode briskly into a crisp Monday morning toward her favorite supplier of strong caffeine-Bleecker Street Brews.
On the way, she passed one of the few remaining bookstores in the neighborhood. The bookstore owner changed the display in the window every Sunday afternoon, a routine that made walking past this window a whimsical delight on Mondays.
Typically, five to ten different books would be choreographed in a frozen dance of clever commercial seduction-propped on boxes, dangling from strings, lounging on colorful, eye-catching posters. Last week s display had been well timed to attract a New York audience. It was an invitation to fantasize an escape from the imminent onslaught of sleet and snow. Decorated with coconuts, palm fronds, beach towels, and insistently sunny dust jackets, the display inspired the bundled pedestrian to imagine Costa Rica, visualize Casablanca, conjure Havana, consider Santa Barbara. Prominent in the middle of the window had been a handmade sign with the existential tease, You are where your mind takes you. Save yourself $2,000 and fly a book to someplace warm!
As she walked past the window this morning, Catherine saw that the escapist theme of the previous week had been replaced by an even more strident appeal to escapist fantasy. One book and one book only was on display-the new and wildly popular romance Rancho de Amor . Everything in the window had been color coordinated with the loud pink cover of this book. Pink, the frill-trimmed backdrop; pink, the cloth that wrapped the shelves and boxes on which the pink book sat; pink, the cascade of hearts tied to a series of pink strings. Word on the street was that the author, an aging recluse living somewhere in the middle of nowhere out West, had won some sort of prize for Rancho de Amor -her very first book-and now, less than a month after publication, it was on its way to becoming the bestselling romance novel in years.
The large and largely unexpected popularity of this book was even evident in Bleecker Street Brews. Catherine counted four people reading it, two of them while dabbing their eyes with napkins. It was good to see people reading, but Catherine couldn t help wishing that more of them would be reading and reacting as passionately to the books that she and her company published, books that she and her coworkers proudly described as serious new literature, books that she and her coworkers were having an increasingly hard time selling.
The personal repercussions of this fact hit her in the face the moment she walked into work. No sooner had she exchanged pleasantries with Ali, the Banter House Books receptionist, than Ali told her that the boss wanted to see her-first thing.
Oh Catherine nervously said. She loved and was loved at her work, though she knew that more than half the staff at the company had recently been laid off. Would she be next ?
Don t look so worried, Ali assured her. Vito would sooner fire himself than fire you. I ll bet he just wants to share his latest scheme.
You re probably right. Vito should never be allowed to have a weekend off, or we ll have to find him some all-consuming hobby so he doesn t have time to fret and fantasize.
Something like exotic stamp collecting, Ali suggested.
Or marathon race training.
Or, better still -Ali flashed a wick