Cloud Waltzer by Tory Cates (English) Paperback Book

Description: Cloud Waltzer by Tory Cates "Previously published in 1984 by Silhouette Books"--T.p. verso. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description In the second sweeping Western romance in a series written by a Rita Award-winning author, a woman risks losing the love of her life by trying to keep her past a secret. ROMANCES AS ENDURING AS THE AMERICAN WEST! The magic of ballooning. The wonder of love. Award-winning author Tory Cates sweeps us away to the open skies of New Mexico with a story that floats into our hearts. Meredith Tolliver has cast off her old gray life as an investment banker. Enchanted by the warmth and bright colors of sunny Albuquerque, shes made a fresh, buoyant future for herself, turning her financial knowledge and her way with words into a new life as a reporter--far from the wintery secrets that weighted her down in Chicago. Shes happy with being single, too . . . until she meets the mysterious tycoon Archer Hanson. The conflicting rumors about him intrigue her as a reporter. Is he a self-made man? Or did he inherit his fathers millions? Is he a fair boss? Or is he a ruthless tyrant? But when the handsome Archer takes her for a ride in his hot-air balloon--the magnificent Cloud Waltzer--it is Merediths response as a woman that threatens her hard-won peace. Dare she respond to Archers rugged charm and soar away into the unknown with him? Author Biography Tory Cates is a Rita Award nominee who lives in Texas. Review The conflicting emotions in Cloud Waltzer are deeply affecting...passionately romantic with genuinely sincere feelings.--SingleTitles Review Quote "The conflicting emotions in Cloud Waltzer are deeply affecting...passionately romantic with genuinely sincere feelings." Excerpt from Book Cloud Waltzer Chapter 1 Meredith Tolliver searched through her closet, passing long, slender fingers over a variety of silks and delicate woolens. The fabrics, all in subdued shades of brown, khaki, and gray, were fashioned into exquisitely tailored suits and blouses, skirts and blazers. They sported labels and designs that subtly whispered messages of restrained elegance and unrestrained price tags. As she flipped faster and faster through them, the colors blended into one monotonous beige muddle of man-tailored blouses and vested suits. Meredith despised every one of them. Seemingly without her willing them to, her hands and eyes reached out toward the more recent purchases in her closet. She felt for the nubby cotton of the blouse shed bought in Santa Fe last week, where shed met the woman who had handwoven the simple top of eye-dazzling pinks and oranges. She yearned to wear the blouse with her corduroy wraparound skirt of periwinkle blue. Reluctantly, Meredith banished the idea of wearing the gaily colored clothes. This was most assuredly not the day for indulging her rainbow-hued fancies. She returned to the sober garments shed rejected. The trappings of my past life, she reflected, holding out the sleeve of a gray raw-silk suit. It was a life shed struggled valiantly to lay to rest, but still had to resurrect at times like these to sustain the new life she was in the process of building. She decided that the gray silk was as good a choice as any. She tugged it out of the closet. It was still encased in the plastic bag from the cleaners in Chicago where she used to take everything except her underwear to be laundered. As an investment banker who could make tens of thousands of dollars for her clients with a couple minutes of phone calls, Merediths time was far too valuable for her to spend it washing blue jeans. She ripped the bag off her suit and took it into the bathroom with her. The steam from her shower should unkink whatever wrinkles a half a year of disuse had crimped into it. Half an hour later she was fumbling in front of the bathroom mirror with a scarf as she attempted to knot it about her neck. Damn, she hissed under her breath as the slinky material refused to transform itself into the rosette bow she desired. She was out of practice. Cursing under her breath, Meredith wondered why she was even bothering. Then she reminded herself that if she was going to convince Archer Hanson to agree to an interview with her, she would have to look the part of the successful financial writer she was trying to become. Worse, though, than the recalcitrant scarf, the long stay in the steamy bathroom had yanked out every bit of the hot-rollered curl she had labored to apply to her stick-straight blond hair and it fell in a straight line to just below the curve of her chin. Shed always worn it long in Chicago because that was the way Chad had liked it. Each morning shed spun the pale rope into a chignon before going to work. Then, on those nights when she wasnt too exhausted and he wasnt too busy, Chad had unpinned the bun with a kind of ritualistic zeal, freeing the long, corn-silk blond strands. As soon as shed moved to New Mexico, Meredith had chopped off the blond extravagance of her hair, ordering the hairdresser to shape it into a blunt cut that would require no maintenance whatsoever. She ended up with a style reminiscent of the little Dutch boy on paint cans, but she loved the weightless, free feel of it anyway. "At last," she sighed as the scarf finally obeyed, flopping into an acceptable shape on her shirt front. With the triumphant breath that Meredith sucked in, however, the button on her skirt popped off, ricocheting across the tiled floor. Her annoyance at the lost fastener was short-lived. All she had to do to restore her spirits was to remember those hideous days when shed had to pin up the back of this very same skirt so that it wouldnt slide right off her. The memory caused Meredith to become inordinately pleased by this latest testimony to her recent weight gains. In any event, she didnt have the time now to deal with a missing button. She dashed out, picking up her jacket on the way. She simply wouldnt take it off, and no one would ever need to know about the popped button. As she stepped out the front door, she was surprise-attacked by a rush of emotion that she should have become accustomed to by now. But each time she stepped outside, she fell in love with New Mexico all over again. Even in the long line of spectacular days which had preceded it, Meredith knew that this particular day would be a standout. October the third. She engraved the date in her memory along with the image of a lustrous black raven winging its way across a crystalline blue sky. As she followed the birds flight it led her to an even more extraordinary sight: a gigantic striped orb wobbling up through the cool morning air. For a fleeting instant she couldnt imagine what it was, until she suddenly remembered--the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was starting tomorrow. Shed simply been too busy researching Archer Hanson to take any more than a perfunctory interest in the event. She interpreted her first sighting of a gaily decorated hot-air balloon as a good omen. She steadfastly refused to take it any other way--she would need all the luck she could muster for her meeting with Archer Hanson. * * * The headquarters of the Hanson Development Corporation was far out in Albuquerques North Valley, where orchards, small ranches, and expensive new subdivisions blossomed along the Rio Grande. Meredith always enjoyed this drive along the narrow, twisting road since it took her past one very special pasture that was fenced in with thick railroad ties. Inside this heavy-duty fence were living relics of the old West, a herd of buffalo. The sight of the beasts barrel-chested bodies never failed to delight Meredith. Today, however, she was too intent upon rehearsing the words that would convince Mr. Hanson to let her interview him to notice the shaggy creatures. She pulled up in front of the renovated adobe that served as the corporations headquarters and entered through an enclosed courtyard. "May I help you?" the receptionist, a brunette with a headful of doll-like curls, asked. "Yes, Im Meredith Tolliver. I have an appointment with Mr. Hanson." The receptionist ran a polished nail down the appointment calendar in front of her. "Im sorry." She looked up coolly. "But when you didnt arrive fifteen minutes ago at your appointment time, Mr. Hanson called in one of his foremen for a conference. He just arrived. Would you care to reschedule?" "No." Meredith shook her head, annoyed at herself and her silly scarf for her tardiness. "Ill wait until hes free if thats all right." "Suit yourself," the receptionist replied in what struck Meredith as a rather unprofessional tone. Meredith found a seat, almost glad for the delay. It would give her a chance to review the file shed collected on Archer Hanson. Or rather had attempted to collect. It was a pretty thin and sketchy affair, which was one reason shed been so intrigued by the man. From the articles shed culled from the financial section of the Albuquerque Journal, it was quite evident that Archer Hanson was a pivotal force in the states economy, possibly the pivotal force. It was hard to tell, though, because all either she or the Journal had been able to come up with were reports on matters of public record, such as the filing of the building permit for the multimillion-dollar convention center complex that had become the hub of downtown Albuquerque, or the opening of his solar research firm a couple of years ago. Though no one had ever put Archer Hansons whole story together, Meredith had traced back bits and pieces of it. Shed discovered that his father, Gunther Hanson, had made a fortune in the Texas oil fields in the sixties. The common assumption was that the old man had bankrolled his only son and that he was the one who had played puppet master to Archers career. Maybe that was another reason why this untold story appealed to Meredith so strongly. If anyone knew about the machinations of wealthy fathers, she did. The thought disturbed her, but she clung to it anyway. If her painfully gathered insights could help her capture this story, she couldnt afford to let them slip away just because they stirred up the old hurt. She thumbed through her notes again. They were long on the hard one-dimensional facts that could be culled from Dun & Bradstreet financial reports about Archer Hanson, the entrepreneur, and terribly short on information about Archer Hanson, the man. In all her preliminary research she hadnt even come across one photograph of him. Based on the fact that Hanson senior was in his mid-seventies, Meredith had reckoned that Hanson Junior must be in his early to mid-fifties. Without any conscious effort on her part, shed evolved a mental image of the man. To have accomplished what he had over the past years, he would have to be something of a workaholic. Given that assumption, Meredith had imagined a stoop-shouldered, bald man of enormous mental capabilities who had gone a bit to seed physically. She smoothed a nonexistent crease out o Details ISBN1476732566 Author Tory Cates Short Title CLOUD WALTZER Language English ISBN-10 1476732566 ISBN-13 9781476732565 Media Book DEWEY FIC Year 2013 Publication Date 2013-12-31 Imprint Pocket Books Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2013-12-31 NZ Release Date 2013-12-31 US Release Date 2013-12-31 UK Release Date 2013-12-31 Pages 304 Publisher Simon & Schuster Format Paperback Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137960136;

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