Congratulations Pamela Cook on
the release today of
The Crossroads
Read an excerpt!
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…
One family. Three Women. Will the lies they tell and the secrets they hide lead to more heartache of will fate bring them together before it’s too late?
Rosie O’Shea dreams of seeing the world. But right now, the Outback hotel she inherited from her husband is falling down around her ears, her bank account is empty and family duty means she’s staying put.
The only thing keeping Stephanie Bailey sane are the rides she takes on their sprawling property, even if the earth is red and barren as far as her eye can see. Drought has forced the sale of almost all their cattle and her husband is getting more and more distant. The last thing she needs is the complications her brother-in-law brings.
Sydney girl Faith Montgomery is single, out of work and at the age of 31 has just discovered she is adopted. Furious at being lied to for her entire life, she lands a job at the Crossroads Hotel so she can track down her biological mother without revealing who she is. When Cameron Bailey walks into the bar his curious blend of country charm and city savvy has her falling hard.
A story of deceit, betrayal and love that proves that in the end you can choose your family.
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Excerpt from The Crossroads by Pamela Cook
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Eventually she eased their pace back to a walk. Perspiration beaded her forehead and she slanted her hat a little further back on her head. She loosened the reins and let the horse pick his way through the scattered boulders, black basalt remnants of the volcano that had erupted millions of years ago and spewed its contents far and wide. Some parts of Strathmore were so littered with them it looked like another planet, but here the rocks were more spread out, as if they’d been tossed across the dark red soil in some sort of weird abstract artwork. She let out a long, deep sigh and let the tension she’d been storing since the conversation with her surprise visitor dissolve. Bandit slowed in response. She rubbed a hand across his withers and rested the reins in her right hand, moving the other to sit loosely in her lap.
What the hell had Cameron been doing here?
Three years and not a word from him. No phone calls or texts at Christmas or birthdays – not even for Jake. But then that hadn’t all been his doing. Bryce had made it clear that he wasn’t welcome on the place, that if he didn’t want to help out and share the workload he could bugger off. It was like a scene from one of those old western movies, only the brawl had been right here on the property.
‘This place is sucking us both dry, Bryce!’ Cam had yelled. ‘And not just financially. We need to get out now while there’s still something to salvage. Something worth selling.’
Bryce had been scarlet with rage. Before Stephanie knew what was happening, he’d clenched his fist and knocked his brother to the ground.
‘Stop it, Bryce!’ she’d screamed. ‘Stop it, both of you.’
The air around them quivered, the two men eye-balling each other; Cam from where he lay on the ground, propped up by one elbow, blood dripping one drop at a time onto the dirt outside the barn; Bryce, his chest heaving, his body braced for battle, standing over his older brother.
Stephanie held Jake tightly in her arms, her palm against his cheek, and waited.
Without a word Cameron hauled himself to his feet and wiped at his bloodied nose before bending to pick up his hat from the ground. He dusted the dirt from the brim, placed it back on his head, turned and walked away. And that had been the last they’d seen or heard from him.
Until now.
He looked older, the lines on his forehead perhaps a little deeper, but he still had that same soft light in his grey eyes, the same determined jut of his squared jaw – the one thing the brothers had in common. In every other way they were different, each a replica of one of their parents. Bryce had his father’s dark curls, his milky-brown eyes and solid build. Cameron was taller, wiry, with his mother’s fairer hair and complexion. If you didn’t know them, you’d never pick them as brothers. Brothers who had once been inseparable and were now bitter enemies.
All because of this place.
She pulled Bandit up beneath the shade of a gidgee tree and looked down the gully into the dry creek bed. Rocks, sand and scrub. She closed her eyes and tried to remember when it was last in full flow – the sound of water rushing through the gorge, tumbling over boulders, the cool dark green swirl of it between the gully walls, the sharpness of the breath it dragged from her as she dived into the depths of the waterhole. The memory was there, but faint, like a weakened pulse.
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