My Secret Book Project: The Cowboy's Fireman

So a few weeks back my friend Katharina made a comment about how she and another friend of ours liked firemen and cowboys and that if I wrote a book about either of them they'd be happy.  Well, as you know The Tate Pack Series is about shape-shifting cowboys in Wichita Falls, Texas.  Books 1 & 2: Unthinkable & Inconceivable are already finished and published.  Books 3-5: Unassumed, Impossible, & Untouchable are WIPs.

But, when Katharina made that statement my mind began to spin stories.  At the time I had drafted a story about a fireman already but that story was quickly thrown out and a new story took shape in its place: The Cowboy's Fireman.  Affectionately termed TCF by me.

Here's the blurb:

Everyone in Princeton, Missouri knew that Fireman Reginald "Reggie" Mayr hated Kenton "Kent" Hunter, the co-owner of Mercy Ranch.  No one knew the details of how the rivalry between the two former friends began, but everyone knew that it existed.  It was quite the source of entertainment for the residents.  So when one of the barns at Mercy Ranch catches on fire and Reggie is one of the firemen on duty, the town awaits with baited breath for the two men to finally come to blows.


Reggie didn't know why Kent was still holding a grudge against him for being to scared to stand up to the guys that were bullying him, especially since he'd tried apologizing, but he knew that he was justified in his anger towards the cowboy.  He and Kent had grown up together, been best friends, and when Reggie's grandmother had passed, Kent hadn't shown up at the funeral.  So when Reggie races out to a fire at Mercy Ranch he plans on putting out the fire and then finally having it out with the town's favored son.  But when he has to rescue Kent from the burning structure and Kent makes a startling confession will Reggie be able to let go of his anger, hurt and resentment enough to have a relationship with his rival?


Kent had always loved Reggie.  Since the day he turned ten all he'd ever wanted was to belong to Reggie and have Reggie belong to him, but when he needed Reggie the most, Reggie wasn't there and after that Kent buried his feelings and turned his back on his friend, making him his enemy.  Years had gone by and Kent never saw signs that Reggie had ever changed from the young boy desperately seeking approval and popularity from everyone and for that reason Kent could never take the chance to be with the one man he'd always loved.  But when he's rescued by Reggie and confesses all, Kent is amazed to discover that the boy of his fantasies has become the man of his dreams.


But has too much bitter rivalry, hurt, anger and resentment clouded the chance that these two men have with each other?  Will they ever be able to get past their childhood expectations of a perfect friendship in order to have an ever lasting love?  Or are they doomed to forever be rivals?