Here are two bonus scenes that never made it into the final version of Settle My Heart, each centering on the main characters of my book, Nathan and Brittany. I hope you enjoy this further peek into their lives!
The moon shone down on the ranch, illuminating the barn, the wooden corrals, and the outbuildings. Far away, coyotes howled and yipped to each other, and in the barnyard a dog growled back at them, its hackles raised.
The wind rustled in the grasses and a lone tumbleweed rolled across the plains. The house stood outlined against the star-filled sky, dark and silent except for one window where the soft glow of a lamp beamed out into the night.
Christy Lindale tucked her two sons into bed, pulling the covers up to their chins. “Goodnight,” she whispered, giving them each a kiss. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” the boys echoed, their eyes following her hand as she reached over and extinguished the lamp’s light.
Christy crossed the dark room to the door, pausing just long enough to say, “Sleep tight.”
The door closed behind her, and the two boys lay quietly, listening to her footsteps descend down the hall. Another coyote howled and the younger boy shivered, crowding closer to his older brother.
“Are you sure coyotes never eat people?” Evan asked, hitching the covers closer to his chin.
“Positive,” Nathan replied. “Pa said so.”
“But—but what if Pa’s wrong?”
“Pa’s never wrong.”
Another mournful wail followed his words, and Evan shivered again.
“Here.” Nathan put his arm around his little brother’s shoulders and pulled him close. “I won’t let any old coyote get you.”
Evan slowly relaxed. “You’ll always keep me safe, won’t you, Nathan?”
“Always,” Nathan replied firmly.
And neither of the boys doubted that he had spoken the truth.
This is the day when things are going to start going right, Brittany promised herself, pulling a mixing bowl out of the cupboard. Mrs. Myers had rested well the night before. Mr. Myers didn’t seem as grumpy as usual, if the fact that he said, “Mornin’” instead of his usual grunt proved anything. The morning held all the potential to become the kind of day Brittany had been wishing for—peaceful.
Crossing to the cupboard, Brittany opened the door, the squeak of the hinges a now familiar sound to her ears. Only today something was different. Even after releasing the door and reaching for the flour for flapjacks, Brittany kept hearing squeaking.
What on earth? Brittany started to reach for the door, but then the sound stopped. Brittany frowned, then shrugged and pulled the flour off the shelf.
Out of the corner of her eye, Brittany saw motion at the back of the cupboard. Something brown—something fuzzy. Everything around her seemed to freeze as Brittany found herself staring into the beady eyes of a mouse caught in one of Mr. Myers traps.
She nearly screamed, but before the sound could escape, she remembered that the children were still sleeping. Dropping the flour, Brittany slammed the cupboard door shut and pressed both hands against it—as if the mouse was going anywhere.
A mouse! In the food cupboard! Brittany leaned hard on the cupboard and squeezed her eyes shut. If there was one animal she hated, it was mice. She had never been able to handle them, never, and she wasn’t prepared to handle one now. She couldn’t bear animals that invaded her personal space.
The sound of a throat clearing made Brittany open her eyes and look behind her. Mr. Myers. Of course he would be the one to show up.
Mr. Myers eyed her skirt and frowned, and Brittany followed his gaze. Flour had spilled out of the bag and now covered the front of her dress—just what she needed on top of everything else.
Mr. Myers cleared his throat again. “Flour costs money, in case you didn’t know, so you should use it for cookin’, not decoratin’ your dress.”
Brittany’s face warmed. “The flour spilled on accident, but there’s a mouse in this cupboard!”
“That so?” Mr. Myers’s face lost some of its hardness. “Did you catch it?”
“Catch it? Well, no, it was already on a trap.”
“On a trap?” Mr. Myers’s frown returned in full force. “Then what’s the problem, girl? Iffen it’s on the trap, it’s not causin’ any trouble.”
“But it’s still in there. How do we get it out?”
Mr. Myers looked at her as if she were incredibly slow. “We take it out.”
“But I’m not used to dealing with mice!”
“I can tell.”
Before Brittany’s temper had time to spark, Mr. Myers strode over to the cupboard. “Take your hand off.”
Realizing that he was going to remove the mouse, Brittany quickly backed away. Mumbling something that Brittany was sure she didn’t want to hear, Mr. Myers opened the door. Brittany turned her face away, not wanting to so much as look at the creature.
The sound of Mr. Myers’s retreating footsteps told her he was taking it outside, and when he returned, Brittany risked a glance at him. The trap was empty.
Silently, Mr. Myers began to reset the trap, and Brittany asked, “Do you have to put it in the cupboard again?”
“Depends. Would you rather have live or dead mice in there?”
“I’d rather have no mice,” Brittany returned.
Mr. Myers grunted. “Tell that to them.” Holding the trap in one hand, he opened the cupboard door. “Humph. There goes another one.”
“Another what?” Brittany caught a glimpse of brown fur in the cupboard, fur that belonged to a live mouse running loose, and this time she couldn’t contain her screech. It wasn’t her fault that at that particular moment, Mr. Myers was placing the trap in the cupboard or that he jerked at the sound and set the trap off on his own fingers. But judging the yell he let out, he sure considered her the guilty party.
To find the complete story, click here. I would love to hear what you think of it!