Darby is Cayo’s redemption from a horrific act in his past that torments him. After being captured as a young boy by the Jicarilla Apache, he now tries to settle back into white society—but how can he? If he loses Darby, he loses everything.
Darby is determined to keep her promise to her mother, but will Cayo wait for her? In this stunning tale of love and loss, Darby comes to understand that no matter what happens, she will always be THE GIRL WHO LOVED CAYO BRADLEY…
Romano’s story sizzles with the tension of lovers—one struggling to blend Apache ways and white, the other torn between East and West—searching for a way to join two lives going in opposite directions.
— Ruth Hull Chatlien, Blood Moon, and The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte
The Girl Who Loved Cayo Bradley, a superbly crafted romantic page-turner, is a deftly spun tale of ill-starred sweethearts in the American West. Darby, a charming farm girl, and Cayo, Apache raised, a secretive man with a disturbing past. Sparks ignite, burning intensely despite cruel circumstances to separate them—an expertly woven story with witty dialogue, fast-paced plot, and stunning, enchanting prose!
— Michelle Cox, award-winning author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series.
EXCERPT
He knew people saw him as part Apache. Others claimed
he was left for dead by bandoleros, and
because of his aloof and stealth disposition, and the fact that he was shy and non-confrontational
like the animal, people believed that’s how he came to be named Coyote. Somewhere
along the way, Coyote’s nickname became Cayo. He didn’t care what people called
him as long as they did, and for sure he knew his name didn’t matter because he’d
never fit in anywhere. Once you’ve lived wild and free, it’s near impossible to
return wholly capable of fitting into refined society. He knew others like himself,
children who had been taken and lived with Kiowa or other tribes, and what he saw
in them he knew was the same for him. They were the same outcast breed he was, not
a trace of Indian blood, but Indian in the way they thought. He’d never completely
forgotten his own language, English, so when he finally decided to go back to living
the white folks’ way, he listened to speech, carefully repeated words, and held
himself close, like a gambler in a poker game, keeping his cards to his chest. He
shouldered these thoughts about himself and that other life he lived before as a
yoke on an ox. It weighed on him, but he could do nothing to shirk it.
