Publication: July 21, 2015
ISBN: 1511770600
ASIN: BWGUY2DS
Length: 242 pages
Genres: Adult, Romance
Length: 242 pages
Genres: Adult, Romance
Blurb:
Jake and Andrea met once. When Andrea was in college, Jake came with her brother Ben who was visiting on leave from a deployment in Afghanistan. Now, years later, Jake gets a job in Ben's home town to be close to his best friend. He hadn't counted on Andrea. The attraction he'd felt then was still there. And this time he wasn't headed back to a war zone were he could very well be killed.
Andrea is drawn to the man who calls Ben brother. Something about him speaks to her, but she's not sure what. She falls into things head first, but when something makes her question how fast things are going she slams on the brakes. Can the two of them figure out what's going on with them before it's too late?
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Later in the evening, after people
started to leave, Jake asked Andrea to dance. It was a slow song and he had his
arms around her. He leaned in until his lips brushed against her ear. "I'd
like to take you home with me."
Andrea smiled. "I’d like to
take you up on that but I need to stay, at least until Ben and Jeanie leave. I
have to help Mom load the gifts. She's going to take them home and keep them
for Ben and Jeanie until they get back."
"That's fine. I can hang
around and help."
"That's really sweet of
you, but you don't have to. I'm sure you have to be up early tomorrow."
"Actually, I'm off. There's
nothing stopping me from staying out all night if I want."
"Well," her face
heated. "I also don't want my family thinking I would pick someone up at
my brother's wedding and go home with him." She looked down so he wouldn’t
see her blush.
"No problem." He
smiled against her ear. "I'll hang around and help. When we’re done we can
leave separately and meet somewhere else. We can go to my place or we can go out
for coffee. I don't know about you, but after all this," he motioned
around them, where the flashing lights and loud music vibrated through their
bodies. "I'm going to need to decompress for a bit before I'm anywhere
near ready to sleep."
She looked up at him a moment,
seeing his point. "What part of town do you live in?"
"The northwest side,
why?"
"So I don't tell you to
meet me someplace in the opposite direction." She fell silent for a few
seconds as she thought about places that would be open when they finally got
out of there. "In the Ranch district, that's what that side of town's
called, I don’t know why. There's a Denny's on the corner of Maple and
Waterson. You know where that is?"
He thought for just a second.
"It's in the shopping center with Grant's Market isn't it?"
"Yeah, I think so. Let's
meet there. We can have some coffee, eat something if we feel like it and
unwind a little. Then, we can decide where to go from there."
"That works. I’ll look
forward to it." He placed a gentle kiss on her ear.
The music ended and they made
their way off the dance floor, each going separate ways. Jake went to Ben,
Andrea saw them standing together talking while she made her way to her mother.
“How are things going?” She sat
down beside Sophia.
“So far so good.” Sophia looked
around the room, watching for anything that might need her attention.
“Where’s Dad.”
“He’s around here somewhere. I
saw him over there talking to Eddie Cruz a little while ago.” She motioned to
one side of the large room. “Is the car ready for Ben and Jeanie to leave?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll check on
it.” Andrea went out to see if the car was ready. She smiled at the balloons
attached to the top and trunk. She thought the groomsmen had decorated it well
and let her mother know it was ready.
Less than an hour later they had
loaded the newlyweds into the decorated rental car and sent them on their way
with shouts of good luck and have fun. People started drifting away faster
after the couple of honor were gone. Within an hour there were less than ten
people left. Andrea started cleaning up, picking up the abandoned plates and
cups scattered around the room and depositing them in a large trash can she dragged
with her, until her mother made her stop.
"We'll get this done in the
morning, dear," Sophia said "Let's just get the gifts loaded and call
it a night."
Andrea looked around and seeing
that all the plates of food were gone, she nodded. "Alright, Mom. Do you
want to back the car up near the door? I think that will be easier than hauling
them all the way out."
"Will you do that for me? I
don't trust myself to back it in, not in the dark." Sophia held out the
keys to her car.
"No problem." She
accepted them and headed outside.
Between Andrea, her parents,
Jake, and a couple other friends who had hung around to help, they made quick
work of stacking the gifts into the back of Sophia's car.
Closing the trunk, Andrea turned
to Sophia. "Do you want me to follow you home and help unload these?"
"No, I'm going to pull the
car into the garage and not worry about unloading them until tomorrow. I think
your father and I can manage it."
"All right." Andrea
started to walk away but turned back. "What time do you want to meet here
to finish the clean-up in the morning?"
"Not too early. I plan to
sleep late tomorrow."
"So about nine?"
"That sounds good."
Sophia agreed.
"I'll be here, too,"
Jake interrupted.
"You don't have to do that,
dear." Sophia told him.
"But I do. I can't leave
you two to do all the work. Those tables are heavy and you're not moving them
by yourselves. Besides, Ben told me I could adopt his family and I won’t let
you do all this work alone. You're just going to be stuck with me." He
grinned, letting them know he was as serious as he was teasing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR :
Melissa was born and raised in Arizona, she's spent her entire life living across the southern half of the state. She's found that, along with her husband and three children, she prefers the small towns and rural life to feeling packed into a city.
She started reading at a very young age, and her love for series started early, as the first real books she remembers reading is the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Through the years she's found that there's little she won't read, and her tastes vary from westerns, to romance, to sci-fi/fantasy and Horror.
She's been writing since 2009, and enjoys nearly every minute of it.
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