Genre: NA Contemporary

Word Count: 64,000

Pitch:

A summer road trip to Canada goes wonderfully awry when Roy meets Summer in Moose Jaw, but Summer has a crazy family and a big, hockey playing ex. She’s totally worth it though.

Excerpt:

Roy looked down at his phone and scrolled down through the new text messages. ­­Allie had texted him six times in the last minute. As he read, the truck’s right tires dropped onto the gravel shoulder of the winding mountain road. He jerked the truck back onto the pavement.

Cale sat up sharply. “Watch the road there, dude. I’d like to make it to Spearfish in one piece.”

Roy tossed his phone onto the seat next to him. “You ain’t gonna die. Calm down.” He shook his head and glanced in the mirror. He was tired of all this drama. He’d been checking his phone for her texts for a thousand miles.

“It was her again?” Cale slouched back in his seat placing his knee on the dashboard. “She broke up with you, and now she’s texting you all the way across South Dakota. Just ignore it.”  Roy removed his cowboy hat. The forested slopes of the Black Hills slid by as they left Deadwood behind them. He sighed.

“She says she wants to get back together.”

“Do you want to?” Cale shifted his bulky frame in his seat again. The wind blew his shaggy hair.

“I don’t know.” Roy said. “I’m tired of thinking about it. Shut the damn phone off.”

“Good plan. I want to survive ‘til we make it to Canada.” Cale picked up the phone. He looked at the screen and shook his head. “Good lord, how do you read all these damn emoticons?”

Mr. Boddy is located on a chair in the lounge blood trickling out of an unusual, small hole in his temple. An open bottle of wine is on the table and a cracked cork beside it.  Under the table a pocket watch looks to have been dropped. The engraving on the back reads … In honor of your many years in her Majesty’s service.