Hummingbird Hollow
Inn the Hollow
A bed and breakfast located in a small, lush hollow near Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
The lush, green hollow is, for unknown reasons, a mecca for hummingbirds. The owner loves them, and the inn's landscaping includes many hummingbird baths, feeders and flowering bushes known to be favorites of the tiny birds. Inn the Hollow is becoming rather famous locally for not only it's beautiful locale, and the hummingbird gardens, but for the Hummingbird Pancakes Toni serves her guests every day of the week. Its dining room is open to the public by reservation only, and only on weekends.
Toni
Toni is short for LiTonya, a Native name meaning "hummingbird darting." She's not a fanatic about her heritage, but it comes out in her at unexpected moments.
Toni's home in is, in fact, the only building of any kind in Hummingbird Hollow, except for the outbuildings that belong with the home/B&B—Inn the Hollow. Built by her several times great grandfather for his Native wife, the original home was designed much like an Indian lodge. That structure has grown, over many years and generations of Littlebirds, into a large multi-winged home…far too big for Toni—thus the B&B.
Toni believes that when and if God is ready for her to marry, he’ll send a man for her. She’ll know him, and she’ll love him.
But that’s before big, bearded, shaggy-haired Dax Hendrick roars into the hollow on his noisy machine, spitting filth into her hollow and scaring off her beloved hummingbirds. Toni takes one look into the man's ridiculously blue-green eyes and wonders what on earth God was thinking. This uncouth creature is "The One" she's supposed to marry. She was right about one thing. She knows him. But she was wrong about something far more important. She will never love him!
Dax
Dax can't figure it out. Why in the world did he feel such a doggoned urge to come to this place? Over the course of the last six months, every time he knelt to pray, he saw this pretty little hollow with its haphazardly built home surrounded by a literal army of hummingbirds. He saw the lovely woman with shiny raven hair brushing her hips as she walked through the gardens. He witnessed the tiny birds resting on her shoulders and lighting on her outstretched hands. He looked into eyes the unexpected color of fresh spring moss.
And he had to find her.
Now he’s found Toni and Inn the Hollow, with its uneven walls and creaky floors that don’t quite meet in the corners, and he's wondering if he imagined all the prayer-pictures. He’d sure thought it was the good Lord trying to lead him to this woman, but darned if she doesn’t look at him like something she scraped off the bottom of her moccasins. Not once in all his life—before he left the corporate world and took to the mountains to escape a fallen and faulty humanity—had any woman ever looked at him like that.
Since he bought his little piece of dirt in the woods and built himself a home there, he’d had little reason to care about how women saw him.
He cares now. But nothing he does or says seems to change Toni Littlebird’s opinion of him.
How’s a simple man to reach the hard-rock bottom of a stoic Native American heart?
Toni Littlebird believes God has created someone especially for her. When she meets him, she’ll know he’s The One, and she will love him. But that’s before Dax Hendrick roars into Hummingbird Hollow on a noisy, crippled Harley, spitting stinky filth into the air and scaring away Toni’s beloved hummingbirds. Dax sports over-long hair, an unkempt beard, and a condescending attitude toward her ancestral home. Toni takes one look into his mesmerizing blue-green eyes and…she knows. This uncivilized creature is “The One.” She’d been right about knowing him, but wrong about something far more important: She will never love him.
Why God sent Dax to this beautiful place is a mystery, and it’s clear he can’t expect any answers from the lovely but unsympathetic owner of Inn the Hollow—a haphazardly constructed dwelling that goes against every professional rule in Dax’s area of expertise. He hopes to get the green light on getting out of there before the uneven corners, crooked floor slats, and random construction wither his architectural creativity.
Is it possible that, between God’s gentle leading and a lesson or two from the fascinating hummingbirds that populate the hollow, Dax and Toni will open their hearts to each other? Or will their stubborn wills ruin God’s beautiful gift of love?
Hollywood agent Cass Townsend makes a more-than-satisfactory living helping talented, “wannabe” actors become stars.
Thanks to a younger brother who made it big in Hollywood and then estranged himself from his family, rugged Texas horse rancher Ryder Hayes sports oversized chips on both very broad shoulders toward celebrities. He’s not convinced any good at all can come out of Hollywood.
She’s prim and proper to a fault. He’s laid back and fun-loving, with a streak of pure mischief. Ryder’s a good man, but not a Christian—not by a Texas mile. Cass can’t remember missing a single Sunday service since childhood.
They’re the epitome of polar opposites, and never the twain shall meet…or so the saying goes. But things don’t always happen quite as one might expect in Hummingbird Hollow.
Teela is happy teaching dance, leading a praise dance team at church, and loving little Kinsley. On a rare vacation with the child she now considers her own, Teela visits Hummingbird Hollow, expecting only to stop for a day or two of rest before continuing the cross-country road trip she has planned for the two of them. But Inn the Hollow isn’t just any bed and breakfast…and the man she meets there isn’t just any man. Still, Teela has vowed to focus all her energies on her daughter, and she won’t let a handsome face and charming manner sway her resolve.
Booth Meadows—successful therapist to Hollywood’s rich and famous—is fed up, worn down and burnt out. On a spur-of-the-moment break, he trails a friend to Hummingbird Hollow, and is delighted to find one-time celebrity Teela Vincent staying at the same bed and breakfast. Booth has admired the beautiful dancer since he spotted her on a television competition dance show a couple of years ago. But he must do so only from a distance. She needs a husband who can be a good dad, and Booth has a long bloodline of reasons to never be a dad.
What will happen when these two burning stars collide?