Country born and bred sportsman goes to the big city!

Emily’s Cowboy features my cowboy rugby league player Gareth. While I was married to a professional rugby league player I opened my house to a few young men from the country trying to make it as rugby league stars. So I had some firsthand knowledge of the pressures and temptations life in the big smoke has to offer these boys. Rugby league players are usually retired by the age of thirty so most are in their late teens when they hit the big time.

I remember when this book was first published I was a little anxious, I’d written a seen about a bushfire and as it happened Australia was hit with a spate of devastating fires just as Emily’s Cowboy released. Just recently Aussies have had to deal with this problem again as fires raged through parts of the state I live in. Just watching the trees go up in flames always reminds me of writing that scene.

** Rated 5 cups by Coffee Time Romance. http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/emilyscowboybook5bydonnagallagher.html

It’s such a cliché — country boy moves to the big city to follow his dreams, leaving his girl and everything he loves behind ““ but that’s exactly what Gareth Andrews has done. Playing rugby league is Gareth’s dream and he’s signed with one of the best teams in the competition – The Sydney Jets. Of course that has meant a move to the big city and leaving Emily Mackenzie and everything he loves behind. Not that Gareth hasn’t begged her to join him in the city he has, on bended knee — but Emily needs to stay in Gunnedah and help her father on the family farm until her brother’s stint in the armed forces is over. But Gareth knows it’s more than that. Emily is hiding away, embarrassed by the scars that mar her body in a constant reminder of the bushfire that nearly took her life.

Can love give Emily the courage to face strangers again when her father is badly injured and Gareth shows up at the hospital to support her? Or will she let her fear and shame get the better of her and break her one true love’s heart for a second time?

Excerpt from Emily’s Cowboy.

“Ooh”¦ You’re Gareth Andrews! You play for the Jets.”

The high-pitched female voice screamed in his ear as the woman spilt her drink over his shirt. God, he hated groupies, wished they would just leave him be. Gareth tried a smile but only managed a grimace in the squealing woman’s direction as he wiped at his wet shirt with the napkin he’d picked up from the bar he stood at. All he had wanted was to be served his beer, but now he had to deal with this.

“Yep, that’d be me. Nice to meet you, love, but I’m not looking for any company right now,” he replied quickly, gruffly. He had found that directness was the best option when dealing with this sort of unwanted attention. After dropping the soggy paper towel back on the bar and retrieving his change from Mick the barman, Gareth grabbed his beer. He spun on his heel and made a quick retreat to the private area that Mitch “Rook’ Harris had set up in his nightclub, Jetstream, for his fellow Jets teammates.

Gareth could see that the area was full tonight after the team’s””his team’s””latest victory. All the usual suspects were in attendance. Coach Brodie James and his wife, Caitlin. Assistant coach Jon “JT’ Thomson, taking up a lot of space with his gigantic presence, and Mandy. Most of his fellow teammates””guys like Deano, Mark, Joseph, Josh and their significant others””all mingled about, enjoying themselves. Gareth greeted them all with a nod before quickly moving to join the one person in the city he felt closest to””the Jets’ physiotherapist, Phillipa Rogers, Pippa to her friends.

“Hey, Cowboy! Caught some attention at the bar tonight, I see.” Pippa’s friendly teasing at his ordeal made him smile””a genuine smile. She understood his discomfort at the notoriety that came with playing first grade rugby league. She knew the story of his broken heart, his longing for the girl he had left behind, his Emily. It wasn’t long ago that she had shared that connection with him, had had a longing of her own, but that was all sorted out now that she and Rook had officially become a couple, after years of secretly yearning for each other. They had even announced their engagement, started planning a wedding.

“Give it a rest, Pippa. It’s your fault, you know. Before you and Rook patched things up I had you to protect me, keep me safe and out of the clutches of the marauding groupies. You left me defenceless, a poor country boy naïve to the demands of the forward city womenfolk.”

“Oh, poor Gareth, my heart bleeds for you, mate.” Gareth heard the familiar sound of Rook’s voice behind him. “Men the world over would kill for your problems. Don’t blame my woman for abandoning you. Find your own to save you from the groupies””this one’s mine.”

“Yeah, Rook, I know”¦first world problems. Still can’t believe she picked you over me. You’re getting on in years, buddy, and yet here I am still in the prime of my life. Maybe I’m still hoping to win her over for a bit of pity love.”

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