Love on Target by Shanna Hatfield Series: Pink Pistol Sisterhood, #2, #2
on April 10, 2023
Genres: Historical Romance, Adult Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction
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Will romance hit its mark when true love is the target?
Desperate for a fresh start, Rena Burke journeys from Texas to Oregon with only her father’s pistol and a plodding old mule for company. She takes a job working with explosives at a mine, spends her free time emulating her hero Annie Oakley, and secretly longs to be loved.
Saddle maker Josh Gatlin has one purpose in life and that is his daughter. Gabi is his joy and the sunshine in his days. Then he meets a trouser-wearing woman living life on her own terms. Rena is nothing like his perception of what he wants in a wife and mother for his child, but she might just prove to be everything he needs.
When tragedy strikes, will the two of them be able to release past wounds and embrace the possibilities tomorrow may bring?
Excerpt 1:
To make sure she hadn’t lost the skill, she arranged the cans on fence posts on either side of the heart she’d painted on the bark, took out her pistol, moved back several yards, and loaded rounds into the cylinder.
After widening her stance, she lined up her first shot, released a breath, and pulled the trigger.
The sound of the bullet pinging the target rang out as the can flew backward off the post. Rena shot the remaining cans, then smiled with satisfaction as she climbed over the fence to retrieve them. She set them back up on the posts, and rested for a minute on the top pole of the fence, face turned to the sunshine as she soaked up the warmth. Then she hopped down and riddled the cans full of more holes before she stowed her gun in the gun belt and draped it over a fence post. Reverently, she lifted the pistol with the delicate pink handle from where she’d set it on a stump.
“Promise of true love,” she whispered, rubbing her thumb over the handle before she loaded five shots in the revolver and took aim at the target she’d painted. “True love. What an absurd notion. Laura really should mind her own business and cease meddling in mine. If she thinks this gun will lead me to romance, she needs to have her thinker checked for defects. Instead of dreaming of true love, setting love on a target seems like a much better idea.”
She blasted five holes in the middle of the white circle she’d painted inside the heart on the slab of bark, taking a great deal of satisfaction in blasting holes into something that represented romance and love, at least in her mind.
“Now that’s some fine shooting, Miss Burke.”
Rena yelped in surprise and spun around, the pistol still in her hand, as she pointed it at the intruder who dared to interrupt her target practice.
Excerpt 2:
“Are you a nymph?” the youngster questioned, clearly frightened as she backed away.
“No. I’m not a nymph or a sprite, but might you be a fairy?”
The little girl shook her head, sending her curls flying into a state of greater disarray. They already looked like they’d been whipped with an eggbeater, but the child was adorable with her big blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and stubborn chin. She wore a pale blue dress trimmed with blue and yellow flowers embroidered across the yoke and around the hem. A pair of sturdy black boots looked impossibly tiny on her small feet.
The little one tilted her head. “I’m not a fairy, but I want to be a princess when I grow up.”
Rena hunkered down so she didn’t tower over the child and smiled. “When you become a princess, will you live in one of those big, drafty castles with a moat and a dragon that breathes fire?”
“No. I want a big house with white fluttery curtains, and a yard full of smelly-good flowers, and a whole room full of beautiful dresses, and a piano, and someone to play it for me. And I want my papa to live next door and come have breakfast with me every morning. We’ll have bacon and berry jam on biscuits every day!”
“You can’t go wrong with bacon or biscuits. That’s quite a wish list, but if you are a princess, I’m sure you can make it happen. Does your …”
“Gabi!” a man’s voice boomed through the silence around them. The sound of fast-moving footsteps preceded the arrival of a man who looked so much like the child, Rena had no doubt he was her father. “Gabi!”
He dropped to his knees and pulled the little girl to him in a hug that looked like it might squeeze the air right out of her, except that the man appeared to be careful in not holding her too tight.
“Are you well? Are you hurt? Why did you scream? What’s going on?” His questions peppered the air as he ran a hand over his daughter’s head, across her shoulders, and then picked up her tiny hand to examine it.
“I reckon that’s my fault, mister. She woke me up and caught me by surprise, and I pulled my pistol out of reflex. My apologies for frightening her.”
He appeared shocked as he realized Gabi wasn’t alone. He lifted his daughter in his arms, then faced Rena.
Excerpt 3:
“We’re almost somewhere, Scout.” Rena Burke patted the neck of her faithful mule as she stared between the slats of the stock car where she traveled on a rocking train bound for Portland, Oregon.
She’d argued with the stationmaster back in Colorado until she’d given herself a headache about riding with Scout instead of taking a seat in a passenger car. When she’d refused to defer to his commands, the man must have realized it was pointless to tell her otherwise. He’d finally relented and allowed her to stay with her mule. Once he’d elicited her promise to remain in the stock car, the stationmaster had given her a discounted fare.
If Scout hadn’t been worn out past endurance after carrying her from Amarillo to Denver, she wouldn’t have splurged on the expense of boarding the train. However, it wasn’t just Scout’s weary state that had compelled her to pay the fare. Weeks of traveling alone coupled with a handful of frightening encounters along the way due to beasts with four legs, as well as some with two, had removed any doubt about continuing the trip on a train.
The last thing Rena wanted was to sit among people who gave her curious glances or disapproving glares. Just because she chose to wear trousers and her father’s old brown hat didn’t mean people should automatically judge her. Then again, the stares might be aimed at her because of the limp she couldn’t hide no matter how hard she tried.
Thoughts of life before she’d acquired the limp made her maudlin, so she returned her attention to watching out of the stock car slats as the train entered what appeared to be a prosperous town. She’d fallen asleep last night after dark and had only awakened an hour ago. Dawn was just beginning to stretch across the sky, but it was light enough she could see houses, businesses, and wide streets as the train screeched to a stop.
She heard someone, presumably the conductor, raise his voice above the racket. “Welcome to Baker City, folks. Welcome to the queen city of the Inland Empire!”
At least the man’s loud announcement assured Rena she had arrived at her destination to disembark the train.