Welcome to another Teaser Tuesday, the blog series where I tantalise you with snippets from works-in-progress, past and upcoming releases, and occasionally let writing buddies play around too.

This week we’re going back in time to Heart of the Valley.

Some of you may be aware of the terrible crush I developed on Lachie, the hero of this book. Sigh. WHAT a man. Honestly, it’s a toss-up between Lachie from Heart of the Valley and Tristan from April’s Rainbow who I’d marry, should either be real and I wasn’t, you know, attached and very much in love with my Jim.

But what some of you may not know is that I once bumped into a real life Lachie in a pub in Newcastle. We’d ventured down for lunch and there, at the bar, was this enormous, fit-looking bloke with long legs and broad shoulders and brown hair. Immediately my brain went ‘OhmyGodit’sLachie!’ which was impossible because my Lachie isn’t real and this bloke clearly was. Very, very nicely real. Of course, this meant some subtle stalking investigation was in order. Yup, there in the pub was Lachie in the flesh and he didn’t even know it.

No, I did not go up to Lachielookalike and tell him he was a fantasy man from one of my rural romances. That would have been just a touch too weird.

But I wanted to.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s a little teaser from one of my favourite books, Heart of the Valley.

‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I’ve lost jobs before. There are others around.’ He smiled and leaned in close. ‘The most important thing is you.’

She stared at him. He wore that expression again, the one that made her wonder, made her heart do that excited dance and set her tongue sticking in her mouth. For a few seconds he held her stare before breaking away to shove his hands in his pockets and look back at the paddock, leaving Brooke overwhelmed and electrified by that intangible something she thought had passed between them.

©Cathryn Hein

Heart of the Valley is a book that will make you barrack madly for the hero and heroine, reach for the tissues in parts, and sigh and smile with satisfaction at the end, and it can be yours right now from Amazon, iBooks, Kobo or Google Play. For print copies, visit Booktopia or Bookdepository.com.

Want to learn more about Heart of the Valley? You’ll find story behind the book, reviews, and more excerpts on its book page on this website.