Happy Valentine's Day--Love, Excerpts and Field Trip Prizes!!!

Love, like books and every other favorite thing we can't live without in our secret heart of hearts, means different things to different people. But one day a year, we're all looking inward and outward and giving love it's due--whatever part of our life we let it touch.

I'm up late/early a lot as a writer. Like this morning. Couldn't sleep, so why not let my mind spin one more story while the rest of the world is snoozing away in shadows and peace. My company while I dream? Breakfast and Tiffany's is in the DVD. It's the kind of emotionally honest love story that gets me every time, the way I hope my books and this blog catch you every now and then. Brushing up against the parts of love that talk to you where your deepest heart listens, all wrapped up in a story that makes you laugh and cry and smile fondly. When you walk away from a story like BAT, you feel a part of your own truth a little more deeply. You hold the love in your life just a littel closer. Here's hoping The Perfect Daughter leaves you with just a touch of the same thing this February;o)

That's what I want this Valentine's Day to be for all of us--a touchstone to remind us of the light that love brings to us every time we let it in. So tell us...what will love mean to you today? Quirky, funny, sexy, family...we want to hear it all.

Where is your heart on this day of feeling things deeply? Whether you're married, dating, single...doesn't matter. Your heart is what's key--that and how you share it with the world. Writing is one of my greatest outlets. Being there for my family and friends is another. Listening. Trying to understand. Not leaving a single person I care about feeling alone when they need a comforting touch the most.

You, my online friends, have become part of my heart. You're my Valentine every day you take a minute to share a comment or a high-five or a giggle. So, let's rock the blog today with your stories of love and Valentine's fun!!!

What's going to make this day special for you?

Scroll down for new winners from yesterday, along with the next scene from The Perfect Daughter, which should be in stores all over the country today!!!

Today's blog prize here? --The trendy pink Guess evening bag. Over on Romancebytheblog.blogspot.com, I'm guestblogging all day, and also giving away the white XOXO Heart Bag with Matching Wallet. So slip over there sometime today and comment with the Bellas for your chance to win. RBTB is always a blast of a party!!!

Don't forget to come back tomorrow--that amazing black/silver Nine West bag will be up for grabs, and we'll be gearing up for my Noveltalk.com chat tomorrow night at 9:00. Oh, of course there'll be another excerpt to read!

Yesterday's randomly drawn winners from our comments:

Principessa, the $5 Borders Gift Certificate is yours

Sharon, you'll receive the cosmetic bag set

and CrystalG, you'll receive the red XOXO heart bag

Email me your snailmail addresses, ladies!!!

Only one last thing to share with my Valentines... Hope you enjoy more of Matt and Maggie's story!!! Here's the fourth scene from The Perfect Daughter--

********

"We got 'em," Callihan said as he loaded the last of their suspects into the back of one of the responding squad cars.

"Not all of them." Matt stalked away, the night's humidity gluing his shirt to his skin.

They'd cornered six gang members at the crack house. All of them sporting variations of the number 13 tattooed on their forearms, branding them members of La Mara Salvatrucha, MS 13--a criminal haven for Latino immigrants nationwide. But none of them had been Luis Flores, the bastard who'd led the ambush two weeks ago.

Luis was going down. Whatever it took, however many basement dives they had to raid, the ex-con's ass belonged to Matt.

Whatever it took.

Including being there an hour after the raid, instead of back at the apartment talking Maggie into to staying.

It was better if she got out now, he kept telling himself. She'd have ended up hating him for what he couldn't walk away from. For caring about her, but not enough to change how he did his job.

It's like you won't quit until you've made up for what happened to Bill, even if you have to self-destruct to do it.

Her warning heckled him as he reached the unmarked car anyone with half a brain could tell was department-issued. He had grown overly possessive of the details of the MS 13 cases, micromanaging when he should have been delegating, haunting the precinct on off-duty hours hoping for a lead and an excuse to head back out on the street.

He dug out his cell phone. Maybe Maggie was still at the apartment, packing her things. Maybe she'd calmed down enough to talk.

And maybe you've hurt her enough, Lebretti.

He was no one's idea of a romantic hero. You had to have experienced that kind of all-consuming love, before you could give it away to someone else. And the only thing he'd ever felt any kind of lasting attachment to was the job. Certainly not to the emotionless, barely civil grandparents who'd raised him out of obligation. After his coked-out mother OD one final time, his grandparents had sprung him from going into the system as an orphan. He'd give them credit for integrity, if little else. They'd fulfilled their responsibility to him. They'd fed him, beat him when he skipped school, threatened to kick him out the one and only time he'd tried drugs himself.
But love? They hadn't had it in them. Not for him.

Maybe it was genetic. Maybe it wasn't his fault that he hadn't been able to give Maggie enough of whatever she needed.

Damn it.

He speed-dialed their number. The machine picked up, and Maggie's funny greeting washed over him, saying that she hoped he, or whoever else was calling, had a good day.

How was he supposed to do that, now that she was gone?

She'd be with her parents tonight, or with one of her friends. He could find her and try to get her back. Smooth talk himself into another few days. A week or two. But Maggie clearly wanted out now.

Finally, he had the power to give her exactly what she needed.