Tatted Cowboy

Laura & Luke

by

KASEY MILLSTEAD

TATTED cowboy (laura & luke)

Tatted Cowboy

Dedication

Dedication

Other titles by Kasey Millstead

Acknowledgements

Authors Note

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

EPILOGUE

rogue cowboy bonus excerpt - Prologue

CHAPTER ONE

All rights reserved.  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased or publicly performed or used in any form without prior written permission of the publisher.

Thank you for respecting the work of this Author.

Tatted Cowboy is a work of fiction.  All names, characters, places and events portrayed in this book are either from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, with exception to Artists named, and their song lyrics, and direct quotes from movies whose titles have been named.  Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Copyright © 2014, Kasey Millstead

Cover design © Arijana Karčić, Cover It! Designs

Editing by Amanda L Pederick – Picky Bitch Editing

www.thepickybitch.weebly.com

To Jovi

You taught me the hard way that life is too short.

Five and a half years with you wasn’t long enough; but for a parent, forever isn’t long enough.  I love you with my whole heart.  I miss you even more. xx

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

Ray Bradbury

Come to Me

God saw you getting tired,

And a cure was not to be.

So he put his arms around you,

And whispered, ‘Come to me.’

With tearful eyes we watched you,

And saw you pass away.

And, although we love you dearly,

We could not make you stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,

Hard working hands at rest.

God broke our hearts to prove to us,

He only takes the best.

-Anonymous

You were one of the first people I told when I published my first book and you were always one of my biggest supporters.

You bought every book I published in ebook
and
paperback, determined to have them all signed on a shelf dedicated to me!

You believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself.

You will always be "Jovi's Miss Bicki". He loves you, and for that alone, we would have loved you, too. But there are a million other reasons why we think the world of you. You just have that something special.

We'll miss you forever, Miss Bicki

xx

Steele Investigations

Sapphire

Emerald

Down Under Cowboy Series

Cowboy Town (Eden & Jackson)

Sky Cowboy (Ava & Jeremy)

Cowboy Dreams (Jules & Clay)

Cowboy Christmas (A Henley Christmas Novella)

Tatted Cowboy (Laura & Luke)

Stand Alone Novels

Fighting to Stay

Illicit Desire

Vengeance is Mine

COMING SOON

Cowboy Struggles (Ava & Jeremy – a Novella)

Rogue Cowboy (Sienna & Zeke)

Cowboy Redemption (Kennedy & Kye)

Cowboy Endings

INFERNO

Troy – God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you... 

To my four beautiful babies – I love you beyond measure.

To Mel and Wurry, I think “
I II III IV III II
” says it all. Mwah.

Thanks to Meri for listening to me rant and rave and for letting me bounce ideas of you.

Thanks to my mum and dad, the best parents,
ever.
  And an extra special thanks to my mum who implanted a deep love of reading in me at a young age by reading The Adventures of Blinky Bill & Nutsy to me every night when I was a little girl. 

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

Stephen King

Thank you to Emily, again, you’ve gone above and beyond for me.  Never underestimate the depth of my appreciation for you and everything you do for me.  I’ll never be able to thank you enough!

Kylie at Give Me Books blog – You. Are. Amazing!  You’ve become a great friend and I can’t wait to work with you more. Your dedication, hard work, professionalism and honesty is an inspiration.  You are one of the most devoted and enthusiastic bloggers I’ve ever met and I’m so glad I found you.

Thank you to the super talented Ari at Cover It! Designs for creating such a beautiful cover.  You always do a beautiful job for me.

Desiree, my Personal Assistant, thank you so much for
everything
you do!  You’ve been amazing and the work you’ve done for me has taken a weight off my shoulders!

To my Vixens – You’re all awesome and I love each and every one of you!  You brighten my days and always give me a laugh, plus I like the way you #Cockvince me ;)

To each and every blogger that participates in my cover reveals, blog tours and book blitzes – THANK YOU!!!  I wish I could list you all individually, but that would be a novel on its own!  Thank you for everything you do.  Your hard work never goes unnoticed and it’s appreciated from the bottom of my heart.

To the girls in 101 – Wow! You ladies are such knowledgeable, friendly, helpful people.  I’ve learned so much since I found y’all, and I’m so very grateful. <3

Lastly, thank you to each and every one of you that reads this book.  You are making my dreams come true.

www.kaseymillstead.com

www.facebook.com/authorkaseymillstead

www.twitter.com/kaseymillstead

Goodreads.com – Kasey Millstead

If you liked Tatted Cowboy, please consider leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Tatted Cowboy

One moment was all it took for my entire life to shatter.

One moment.

I had everything . . . and then, I had nothing.

When all you’re left with are the pieces of your broken heart, there’s nothing you can do, except try to rebuild. So, that’s what I did.

One moment was all it took for me to feel the first flutter of hope I’d had in a long time.

One moment.

He barrelled into my life, covered in tattoos and surrounded by an aura that enraptured me, determined to be the glue that held every broken piece of me together.

I wanted to push him away, because I was scared to lose anyone else I loved.

But, I wanted to hold him close because without him, my life was empty.

Tatted Cowboy was incredibly emotionally hard for me to write. 

On the 29
th
of August, 2011, we lost our beautiful son, Jovi, in a drowning accident.  He was five and a half at the time.

Because of that, I put off writing Laura and Luke’s story for a long time.  Even though Laura’s story is different to my own, some of her thoughts in Tatted Cowboy run parallel with my own. 

Losing a child is the most devastating thing a parent can experience.  There are no words to describe the absolute, mind blowing, soul-consuming pain that you feel…always. 

It never leaves. 

Time does not heal.

You just learn to live a new normal.

I was hesitant to write this story because I didn’t want to take my mind to a place I wasn’t sure I could come back from.  But, I knew writing this would also be therapeutic in a way.

I hope I’ve done Laura and Luke justice.

As I said, Laura’s story is not my own.  Most specifically, my marriage has survived.  It’s not a secret that up to 80% of marriages end in divorce after losing a child, so I know my husband and I are in the minority. 

If you have lost a child and your marriage has ended, I hope you read Laura and Luke’s story and realize there’s a happily ever after for everyone.

I don’t want to carry on with any “mumbo jumbo” but, I just want to say this in the hope it may help just
one
person.

If you have lost someone you love, specifically a child, I hope you can try and be happy for the time you had with your loved one.  I whole heartedly believe every person is given a specific amount of time to spend on Earth and if your child only had 1 year, 5 years, 20 years or however long,
how lucky are you that they chose to spend that time with you!!
  Concentrate on that.  Revel in the great memories you have, whether it was that feeling of nervous excitement for six months of pregnancy before you lost your child, or X amount of months or years before they passed on,
you have happy memories
.  So, celebrate those times.  Because,
thank god
they chose you to be in their life.

I wish with every fibre of my being that my son was still here.  But, I can’t even begin to describe how thankful I am he chose me to be his mummy.  I have five and a half years of beautiful memories with him that will last me a lifetime.

Death doesn’t mean
The End
.  It’s not the be-all end-all.  It just means we have to wait a little longer to hold our children in our arms again.  And the best things in life are worth waiting for.

Love,

Kasey xo