Clare came over and took Ben from Monty’s arms, then swirled him around. Ben squealed in delight under a beautiful, shimmering blue sky. Monty then pulled Grace in close and planted a long, sweet kiss on her lips. He leaned back and looked into her eyes, snagging her heart.
“I’m glad we moved into town,” he said. “I’ve had enough rivers to last a lifetime.”
Grace chuckled. “You’ve lost your thrill for adventure?” She couldn’t picture Monty content to sit around town and not go off exploring the wilds of the West.
“Are you kidding? Life with you is the greatest adventure I could ever have.” He added under his breath, “And I mean to live it to the full.”
Grace pulled him in close and smelled a whiff of his cologne as he pressed his clean-shaven cheek against her neck and sprinkled her skin with hot kisses. Her heart skipped at the touch of his lips.
“I certainly hope so,” she whispered back, holding him tightly and reveling in his strong, muscular arms encircling her. “I expect nothing less.”
The End
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the support and encouragement from so many. A heartfelt thanks to Marylu Tyndall for reading and instructing me in this genre that she knows so well. As always, her insights and edits were tremendously helpful. Thanks also to Pamela Walls, whose loving and supportive spirit got me through many difficult days.
A special thanks to my cover designer, Ellie Searl, of Publishista.com, for her great help and patience in creating the beautiful look of this book, inside and out.
I appreciate the assistance from Deni La Rue, Larimer County community information manager, and Lesley Drayton, archivist and director of the local history archive at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. Their resources and research helped me infuse my novel with authentic details.
Having lived in Greeley, Fort Collins, and other places along the Front Range for years, delving into the historical aspects of the region was enlightening and entertaining. My husband is to be thanked for many of the great plot ideas and his support and patience as I wrote long hours into the night. All those Westerns he made me watch with him over the years sparked my love for this genre (and gave us endless hours of entertainment).
Note from the Author
In my desire to bring the Western town of Fort Collins to life, I took many liberties in creating my characters. A goodly number of them are real historical people—such as Sheriff Eph Love and A. H. Patterson, Larimer County Clerk—and the historical data on them is practically nonexistent. I spent a lot of time researching the lives of these colorful characters who were foundational in the establishment of Fort Collins as a booming Western town.
I also attempted accuracy in the description of this town and region where I’d live for a number of years and which I enjoyed immensely. I chose this decade (1870s) to write about because it was a pivotal time for Colorado—a time when this wild and untamed territory was ushered into the “modern” era with the coming of the railroad and with achieving statehood in the year of the centennial (hence, why Colorado is called the Centennial State). In Colorado Promise, I wanted to note the plight of the Indians, who had been whisked off to other states, onto reservations, to make way for white settlers to take hold of the land. By the mid-1870s, most of the native tribes, as well as the herds of buffalo, were gone from Colorado Territory. A rich piece of this county’s history was fading away, and I wanted to capture it at a time before it vanished altogether.
Often in romance novels, historical accuracy is sacrificed on the altar of telling a love story. But I believe most readers appreciate attention to detail and want to get a sense for a place and what it was like long ago. I am greatly inspired by the prolific writer Zane Grey, whose sweet novels (especially Riders of the Purple Sage) showcased not only beautiful descriptions of the lands his characters roamed but showed me the heart of romance stories—which are filled with tenderness and inner conflict without needing to cross the line into excessive physical detail.
I hope you enjoyed this foray into Fort Collins’s past, and will check out the next full-length novel in the series, Colorado Dream. Shortly following will come a novella—Wild Horses, Wild Hearts—which will share the story of how Eli and Clare met. Following that will be the next novels in the Front Range series, set in Laramie, Wyoming.
Be sure to read Colorado Promise—you can buy it in print, or as an ebook on various online venues. Purchase your Kindle copy here!
~ Charlene Whitman
About the Author
Charlene Whitman spent many years living on Colorado’s Front Range. She grew up riding and raising horses, and loves to read, write, and hike the mountains. She attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins as an English major. She has two daughters and is married to George "Dix" Whitman, her love of thirty years. Colorado Hope is her second Historical Western Romance novel.