NINE LIVES by Anita Waller is an intricately plotted British police procedural/crime thriller standalone book. I always anticipate getting my hands on the latest Anita Waller thriller because I know I will not be able to put it down and I will be thoroughly surprised and entertained.
DI Erica Cheetham and DS Beth Machin are called to the scene of a young woman’s nude body found in the River Porter. While the body is autopsied, the coroner shows Erica the signature of a serial killer who has not been heard of for five years. Erica and Beth worked the previous case and now with more dead women being discovered, they are determined to catch their killer this time around with Erica in charge.
This is a step-by-step police procedural that takes the reader on the hunt right along with the detectives for a serial killer who seems to do everything right to avoid detection. Ms. Waller has written an intricate plot which makes you believe the killer may get away once again, but she also plays fair with red herrings and plot twists that lead you to the surprise killer on closer inspection.
Erica leads a team of smart and dedicated officers that are all brought to life and realistically portrayed throughout the story. I enjoyed viewing the personal home lives of both Erica and Beth and Flick is a wonderful character, also.
I highly recommend this crime thriller and its author!
Anita Waller was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in 1946. She married Dave in 1967 and they have three adult children.
She has written and taught creative writing for most of her life, and at the age of sixty-nine sent a manuscript to Bloodhound Books which was immediately accepted.
In total she has written seven psychological thrillers and one supernatural novel, and uses the areas of South Yorkshire and Derbyshire as her preferred locations in her books. Sheffield features prominently.
And now Anita is working on her first series, the Kat and Mouse trilogy, set in the beautiful Derbyshire village of Eyam. The first in the series, Murder Undeniable, launched 10 December 2018, and the second in the series, Murder Unexpected, launches 11 February 2019.
The trilogy has now been promoted to a quartet following the success of the first book; she is currently working on book three, Murder Unearthed. Book four doesn’t have a title, a plot, a first sentence… but she remains convinced it will have!
She is now seventy-three years of age, happily writing most days and would dearly love to plan a novel, but has accepted that isn’t the way of her mind. Every novel starts with a sentence and she waits to see where that sentence will take her, and her characters.
In her life away from the computer in the corner of her kitchen, she is a Sheffield Wednesday supporter with blue blood in her veins! The club was particularly helpful during the writing of 34 Days, as a couple of matches feature in the novel, along with Ross Wallace. Information was needed, and they provided it.
Today I am sharing my last blog post on the Harlequin Trade Publishing Winter 2021 Mystery & Thriller Blog Tour. My Feature Post and Book Review is for a new thriller – JUST GET HOME by Bridget Foley. This is a unique suspense/thriller by a new-to-me author that I could not put down!
Below you will find an author Q&A, a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Author Q&A
Q: How much research do you do before beginning to write a book? Do you go to locations, ride with police, go to see an autopsy, etc.
A:It depends on the story – research is one of my favorite parts of writing! For JUST GET HOME, I’d lived in Los Angeles for over a decade so I was pretty familiar with the locations… but I needed to do a lot of research into the foster care system as well as first hand accounts of earthquakes.
Q: What hobbies do you enjoy?
A: Weightlifting, Walking and Water coloring — probably because they’re all things I can do while listening to audio books!
Q: Do you write under one name for all books across genres or do you have other AKA’s?
A: Just the one name.
Q: Do you have pets?
A: My dear sweet dog passed away at the age of 14 at the end of 2019. I was advised to wait a month for every year we had her before getting a new companion. It’s odd, because while I missed her I didn’t long for another pet at all for that time… and then suddenly after 14 months I went dog crazy. It got to the point where I was slowing the car down to tell people walking their dogs how cute and fluffy their pups were. My children were mortified. So, no, we don’t have a new pup yet, but I feel sure it will happen soon.
Q: What’s your favorite part of writing suspense?
A: I’m an outliner, which I prefer because it means I get to use an entirely different part of my brain once I get to the drafting process. Since by then the heavy lifting of plot is done, I can fully immerse myself in the experience of the characters – which means I spend a lot of time holding my breath and sweating in my writing chair.
Q: Do you prefer reading and/or writing suspense with elements of romance? Why or why not?
A: I adore a good love story… but I haven’t cracked my version of one yet. My first novel HUGO & ROSE was a subversion of the ‘man of your dreams’ trope, so I suppose there were elements of romance in the book but not in the expected ways. JUST GET HOME is filled with desperate, aching love, but none of it is the romantic kind.
Q: From the books you’ve written or read, who has been your favorite villain and why?
A: I’ve found in life that most people are their own villains. There is usually no shadowy figure pulling the strings or arch enemy subverting plans – for many of us, when our lives go awry, we ourselves are personally responsible for whatever choices that led us there. Obviously that’s not always the case in life or in fiction, but as a writer I’m most creatively interested in characters who are grappling with their internal villains rather than an externalized source. So I suppose the answer is that my favorite villains are also my favorite heroes.
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Book Summary
When the Big One earthquake hits LA, a single mother and a teen in the foster system are brought together by their circumstances and an act of violence in order to survive the wrecked streets of the city, working together to just get home.
Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when a devastating earthquake strikes. Roads and overpasses crumble, cell towers are out everywhere, and now she must cross the ruined city to get back to her three-year-old daughter, not even knowing whether she’s dead or alive. Danger in the streets escalates, as looting and lawlessness erupts. When she witnesses a moment of violence but isn’t able to intervene, it nearly puts Dessa over the edge.
Fate throws Dessa a curveball when the victim of the crime—a smart-talking 15-year-old foster kid named Beegie—shows up again in the role of savior, linking the pair together. Beegie is a troubled teen with a relentless sense of humor and resilient spirit that enables them both to survive. Both women learn to rely on each other in ways they never imagined possible, to permit vulnerability and embrace the truth of their own lives.
A propulsive page-turner grounded by unforgettable characters and a deep emotional core, JUST GET HOME will strike a chord with mainstream thriller readers for its legitimately heart-pounding action scenes, and with book club audiences looking for weighty, challenging content.
JUST GET HOME by Bridget Foley is a completely engrossing and unique suspense/thriller by a new-to-me author that I could not put down! Starting with “The Big One”, this story brings together two disparate characters who are trying to survive the lawlessness, chaos and devastation to just get home.
Dessa is enjoying a rare night out with her best friend and fellow bridesmaids. When her babysitter calls to let her know her three-year-old daughter is sick, she immediately leaves for home. Before she can get to her car, the earthquake hits. With all communication down, Dessa races to get home not knowing if her daughter is dead or alive.
Fifteen-year-old Beegie is riding a city bus to escape an unhappy foster home until morning when the earthquake hits. She has had terrible experiences in foster care and awakens to being pulled from the bus by two men. All she wants is to get to her foster home and hide.
Dessa and Beegie are thrown together on the desperate city streets and form a fragile partnership to help each other to just get home.
You will need to put time aside to read this book because once you start, you are not going to be able to stop. Ms. Foley has written two protagonists that come to life on the page. Completely realistic, and at times disturbing characters, situations and an emotional rollercoaster takes you from page one to the end. Ms. Foley does not shy away from the dark issue of rape during this lawlessness, an uncaring foster system and racial issues. None of this is handled salaciously, but with a realistic outrage against the perpetrators and empathy for the victims.
I highly recommend these unforgettable protagonists and this emotionally well written story!
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Excerpt
Prologue
Assist the client in gathering possessions.
Beegie saw it written on a sheet Karen had in her folder. An unticked box next to it.
She knew what it meant. Stuff.
But it was the other meaning that soothed her.
The darker meaning. Possessions.
That was the one she worked over and over in her head.
Beegie imagined her case worker holding up a grey little girl, face obscured by black hair and asking, “This one yours?” Beegie would nod. Yes, that’s my monster. Together they would shove one snarling, demon-filled person after another into the garbage bags they had been given to pack her things. Soon the bags would fill, growing translucent with strain. When they were done, she and Karen would have to push down on the snapping, bloody faces of Beegie’s possessions so they could close the back of the Prius.
But Karen’s box remained unticked. She didn’t get to help collect Beegie’s possessions, real or unreal, because Beegie’s stuff was already on the street when she got home.
Two garbarge bags filled with nothing special. Her advocate standing next to them with her folder and its helpful advice for what to do when a foster gets kicked out of her home.
Nothing special.
Just almost everything Beegie owned in the world.
Almost but not all.
Whatever.
After Karen dropped her off and Barb had shown her “Her New Home” and given her the rundown on “The Way It Works Here,” Beegie unpacked her possessions into a bureau that the girl who’d lived there before her had made empty, but not clean.
The bottoms of the drawers were covered in spilled glitter. Pink and gold. Beegie had pressed the tips of her fingers into the wood to pull it up, making disco balls of her hands.
But she failed to get it all.
Months later, she would find stray squares of this other girl’s glitter on her clothes. They would catch the light, drawing her back to the moment when she’d finally given up on getting the bureau any cleaner and started to unpack the garbage bags.
There had been things missing.
That Beegie had expected.
But what she had not expected was to find two other neatly folded garbage bags. These were the ones she had used to move her stuff from Janelle’s to the Greely’s. She had kept them, even though back then Mrs. Greely was all smiles and Eric seemed nice, and even Rooster would let her pet him.
Beegie had kept the bags because she’d been around long enough to know that sometimes it doesn’t work out.
In fact, most times it doesn’t work out.
And you need a bag to put your stuff in and you don’t want to have to ask the person who doesn’t want you to live with them anymore to give you one.
But when Mrs. Greely had gathered Beegie’s possessions, shehad seen those bags and thought that they were important to Beegie. It made sense to her former foster mother that a “garbage girl” would treasure a garbage bag.
This got Beegie thinking about stuff. The problem of it. The need for things to hold your other things. Things to fix your things. Things to make your things play.
And a place to keep it all.
In Beegie’s brain the problem of possessions multiplied, until she imagined it like a landfill. Things to hold things to hold things, all of it covered with flies, seagulls swooping.
Everything she ever owned was trash or one day would be.
Seeing things this way helped. It made her mind less about the things that hadn’t been in the bag… and other things.
Beegie picked at ownership like a scab, working her way around the edges, flaking it off a bit at a time. Ridding herself of the brown crust of caring.
Because if you care about something it has power over you.
Caring can give someone else the ability to control you and the only real way to own yourself was let go.
So she did.
Or she tried.
Some things Beegie couldn’t quite shed. The wantof them stuck to her like the glitter. The pain of their loss catching the light on her sleeves, flashing from the hem of her jeans. The want would wait on her body until it attracted her attention and then eluded the grasping edges of her fingers.
Originally from Colorado, Bridget Foley attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television. She worked as an actor and screenwriter before becoming a novelist. She now lives a fiercely creative life with her family in Boise, Idaho.
Two mothers face the consequences of their choices in a gripping novel about friendship, family, and forgiveness by Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Jamie Beck.
Grace first met Mimi when she blew into their sons’ toddler playgroup like a warm bay breeze that loosened Grace’s tight spaces. Despite differing approaches to life and parenting, the fast friends raised their kids together while cementing a sisterlike bond that neither believed could be broken. But when a string of ill-fated decisions results in a teen party with a tragic outcome for Grace’s son, the friendship is ripped apart and an already-splintered community explodes.
Accusations are leveled, litigation ensues, and the people of Potomac Point take sides, all of which threatens Mimi’s business and her current custody agreement. Her sole salvation is a young cop who just might be her second chance at love. That fact only antagonizes Grace, whose marriage is crumbling beneath the weight of blame and the echo of past mistakes.
With their lives unraveling, the former friends stand to lose everything they love unless they learn to forgive—both themselves and each other.
FOR ALL SHE KNOWS (Potomac Point Book #3) by Jamie Beck is an emotional and powerful Women’s fiction story which while an addition to the Potomac Point series, it stands on its own.
Two mothers who are best friends with very different lives. A tragic accident will change everything as both are tested by one moment in time.
This story had me feeling so many different strong emotions and they often changed while reading all sides offered by all the characters. Grace’s rigid and unbending emotional handling of the accident and Mimi’s attempt to help Grace and her family in so many ways while also trying to change from being a more lenient parent kept me turning the pages. I did not want to choose who was right or wrong in their parenting styles because I have had to make parenting decisions myself that could go either way. This book does not just focus on the two best friends, but all the members of the families involved, with even the small community takes sides and plays a part.
One incident that is so life-altering and Ms. Beck’s writing guides you through the journey of everyone involved so smartly and realistically. This journey will take you through love, friendship, parenthood, forgiveness and hope.
I highly recommend this book!
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Author Bio
Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Jamie Beck’s realistic and heartwarming stories have sold more than two million copies. She is a two-time Booksellers’ Best Award finalist and a National Readers’ Choice Award winner, and critics at Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist have respectively called her work “smart,” “uplifting,” and “entertaining.” In addition to writing novels, she enjoys hitting the slopes in Vermont and Utah and dancing around the kitchen while cooking. Above all, she is a grateful wife and mother to a very patient, supportive family. Fans can get exclusive excerpts, inside scoops, and be eligible for birthday gift drawings by subscribing to her newsletter at http://eepurl.com/b7k7G5. She also loves interacting with everyone on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JamieBeckBooks.
Today I am once again on the Harlequin Trade Publishing Winter 2021 Women’s Fiction Blog Tour. I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE BOOKSTORE ON THE BEACH by Brenda Novak.
Below you will find an author Q&A, an about the book section, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Author Q&A
Q: Did you go to the library when you were in elementary school? If so, do you remember any of your favorite books or series from childhood?
A: The library in elementary school was where I developed my love of reading. I remember hating to read in the beginning, but once my teacher took us to the library and let us choose any book we wanted, I happened upon a shelf of classics. I picked up JANE EYRE and absolutely devoured it. Then I went back and got THE SECRET GARDEN and moved through that entire shelf within weeks. I remember thinking, “So this is reading!” And I’ve loved it ever since.
Q: What hobbies do you enjoy?
A: I love to play pickleball. My oldest son introduced me to the game and gave me a racquet for Mother’s Day, and I’ve been playing ever since. It’s such a fun/addictive thing to do. I also spend a lot of time with my two grandchildren. They’re not quite a hobby, of course, but if I’m not working that’s where I spend most of my time.
Q: What is your favorite food/dessert/cuisine?
A: I love Mexican food, and I’m fortunate to live in California, where it’s easy to find really great tacos. There are some smoked tri-tip tacos at a little delicatessen my husband discovered that are to die for. They only serve them three days a week, though, so we have to plan out our trips.
Q: Where would you choose to go on holiday if time and money were not of consideration?
A: Two years ago, I would’ve said Egypt, but I was able to go there the year before the pandemic started, and I absolutely loved it. I’ve always been fascinated by their antiquities. They have an absolute embarrassment of riches when it comes to relics from two thousand or more years ago. Now I would have to say India. I don’t yet know a lot about that, but it seems so exotic and wonderful to me–and I love the food. India is definitely on my bucket list!
Q: Is there a book you would like to write that would require in person research that would take you to a foreign country and if so, where would you be heading to do research?
A: Because I write women’s fiction, I would have to say France, Italy, Ireland or Scotland. I started my career writing English historicals, so I actually have traveled to a foreign country for research. (OF NOBLE BIRTH, HONOR BOUND, THROUGH THE SMOKE & A MATTER OF GRAVE CONCERN)
Q: Is there a genre that you have not written in that you might like to try some day?
A: I would love to write a long historical saga. I actually have one brewing in my mind, so…who knows? Maybe one day I’ll get around to writing it.
Q: Do you write under other pen names?
A: No. It’s hard enough to promote one name! LOL
Q: Do you have pets or animals you would like to have as pets?
A: I raised five kids, so I’m taking a break from being responsible for other people–even animals. But I have a grand-dog–a Chow Chow named Simba, and he’s so fluffy and mild tempered. It’s the same as having grandbabies. I get all the fun without the hard work! Ha!
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About the Book
For fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Mary Kay Andrews, comes New York Times bestselling author Brenda Novak’s newest standalone work of women’s fiction, a big, sweeping novel about family and the ties that bind and challenge us. In this novel, three generations of women from the same family share a house and work together at a bookstore in Colonial Beach over the course of a summer.
How do you start a new chapter when you haven’t closed the book on the last one?
Eighteen months ago, Autumn Divac’s husband went missing. Her desperate search has yielded no answers—she still has no idea where he went or why. After being happily married for twenty years, she can’t imagine moving forward without him, but for the sake of their two teenage children, she has to try.
Autumn takes her kids home for the summer to the charming beachside town where she was raised. She seeks comfort by working alongside her mother and aunt at their quaint bookshop, only to learn that her daughter is facing a life change neither of them saw coming and her mother has been hiding a terrible secret for years. And when she runs into Quinn Vanderbilt—the boy who stole her heart in high school—old feelings start to bubble up again. Is she free to love him, or should she hold out hope for her husband’s return? She can only trust her heart…and hope it won’t lead her astray.
THE BOOKSTORE ON THE BEACH by Brenda Novak is a women’s fiction story featuring three generations of women in one family. Each woman is facing emotional secrets and decisions which can break apart a family as well as heal it with understanding and forgiveness. This is a standalone read.
I am very torn about how I feel about this book. I love the setting and I love any book centered around a bookstore. The three women all have stories that would individually be emotionally devastating to themselves and their family and all the stories pull you in, but that is also what I did not like. It was too much drama for one family. The individual plotlines of the three women would have been enough to carry the story on their own. Also, it takes a while to get forward momentum on the problems and I was getting frustrated waiting for some sort of action.
The ending is bittersweet and I am not sure how I feel about it. I usually do not need an epilogue, but in this book, I do wish that there was one added.
This book is a lot of drama and for me a little too much in one story. It will appeal to those that like a lot of drama in their women’s fiction. I enjoy this author’s work, but this one is not my favorite.
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About the Author
Brenda Novak, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, has penned over sixty novels. She is a five-time nominee for the RITA Award and has won the National Reader’s Choice, the Bookseller’s Best, the Bookbuyer’s Best, and many other awards. She also runs Brenda Novak for the Cure, a charity to raise money for diabetes research (her youngest son has this disease). To date, she’s raised $2.5 million. For more about Brenda, please visit www.brendanovak.com.
Today is my turn on the Books n All Promotions Blog Tour and I am excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for BLOOD STAINED (Detective Claudia Nunn Book #1) by Rebecca Bradley.
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Blurb
Can’t find her.
Can’t catch him.
Can’t trust anyone.
The first in a gripping new Sheffield-set crime series starring Detective Claudia Nunn.
Detective Claudia Nunn’s colleague DS Dominic Harrison has been leading the case against a dangerous serial killer, who hunts his victims using a dating app. But now his own wife has gone missing.
Then a large pool of blood is discovered in their garage. And Dominic is the prime suspect.
Is Dominic being framed by a serial killer or will Claudia expose an even uglier truth?
BLOOD STAINED (Detective Claudia Nunn Book #1) by Rebecca Bradley is the first book in a new British police procedural thriller/mystery that I could not put down and read all in one sitting. This is an intense and intriguing new thriller with hairpin turns in its plot from a new to me author and I will definitely be following DI Claudia Nunn in her future books.
DI Claudia Nunn follows the facts no matter where they may go. Claudia is assigned to investigate a missing person report and interrogate the missing woman’s husband. The missing woman, Ruth is an undercover investigator and married to a fellow officer and a friend.
DS Dominic Harris has been investigating a serial killer, the Sheffield Strangler, who meets women in their forties with one or more children through a dating app for the last six months. Now he is being held and investigated for the disappearance of his wife and fellow officer by DI Nunn. Harris claims his innocence and swears he is being set up by the Sheffield Strangler.
As the hours pass, DI Nunn is working to find and save Ruth, exonerate DS Harris and solve the Sheffield Strangler case but will the facts lead to the solution expected?
I loved this story and the author’s intricate and tightly woven plotting that not once, but twice truly surprised me. The first surprise is the only reason I was slightly disappointed because it made the previous pages I had just read no longer feel truly realistic. (I cannot say why without spoiling it for you, but you can agree or disagree yourself.) This book is a page turner with the dual narratives of DI Nunn’s investigation in the present and DS Harris’ investigation in the previous six months intertwined throughout. The characters are interesting and fully fleshed. The ending is a huge surprise that has me anxiously waiting for the next book.
I highly recommend this first book in this new series and look forward to many more!
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Author Bio
Rebecca Bradley lives with her family in the UK, and two Cockapoos, Alfie and Lola, who keep her company while she writes. She drinks copious amounts of tea to function throughout the day and if she could, she would survive on a diet of tea and cake while committing murder on a regular basis. Rebecca served fifteen years in the police service and finished as a detective constable on a specialist unit.
Today I am excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review on this Blog Tour for CHANGING THE RULES (Richter Book #1) by Catherine Bybee.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section, the author’s social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway for a $100 Amazon gift card. Good luck on the Rafflecopter giveaway and enjoy!
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BookSummary
As an employee of MacBain Security and Solutions, Claire Kelly can certainly hold her own. Armed with an impressive set of covert skills, she’s more than prepared to tackle any job that comes her way…except one involving Cooper Lockman.
Cooper and Claire used to work together before his feelings for her sent him packing to Europe for six long years. But now he’s back and determined to ignore the still-smoldering heat that lingers between them.
Their current mission: go undercover together at a California high school to root out the mastermind behind a prostitution ring targeting young girls. The closer they get to the truth and the closer they get to each other, however, the deadlier their task becomes. As Claire and Cooper risk their lives to bring down their target, will their hearts be the final casualties?
CHANGING THE RULES (Richter Book #1) by Catherine Bybee is the first book in a new romantic suspense series featuring characters working for MacBain Security and Solutions that were introduced in the fifth and final book “Say It Again” in the First Wives Club series. Even with the crossover, this book is easily read as a standalone with background information given in the story.
Claire Kelly was taught an impressive set of covert skills at her private military boarding school, Richter in Germany. Given a home and college education by the MacBain’s, Kelly has now worked for MacBain Security and Solutions for six years while living with her best friend and fellow Richter graduate, Jax.
Cooper Lockman has been working in the European MacBain office for the last six years and has returned to the California headquarters in time for a new assignment with Claire. He left to give Claire time to mature and make her own life, but he is back and finds he still wants her.
Claire as a student and Cooper as a back-up track coach are working undercover in a local high school to root out a sex-trafficking ring with a mastermind who has eluded local undercover police. The more they uncover, the more dangerous their situation even as their relationship heats up.
I was so happy to see Claire and Cooper get a story. Claire is a character that can take care of herself and was trained in all covert skills and yet she is a caring and giving adult. Abandoned as a baby and still at times affected by that, she loves the MacBain and Hoffman families. Cooper is perfect for Claire. He is willing to give her up for six years, appreciates her skills and does not seek to change her. Ms. Bybee does a wonderful job of making Claire and Cooper’s romance grow naturally while also keeping the plot and suspense moving at a rapid pace with ever increasing tension. All the characters, past and present and the increasing suspense keep you turning the pages to get to the final solution.
I highly recommend this romantic suspense and I am looking forward to many more!
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Excerpt
Claire collapsed onto the living room sofa the second she walked in the door. Not only had she suffered a headache the entire day, Cooper ran her like a trainer working an Iron Man competitor.
“That sounds like a bad day,” Jax said as she walked around the corner of the kitchen.
“You don’t want to know.”
Claire flung an arm over her eyes to block out the sun.
She heard Jax walk in the room and then exhale as she sat down. “You’re right. I don’t give a crap what happened in school, unless it involved Cooper. What I want is the details of last night after I got out of the car.”
Before Cooper picked them up, Claire and Jax had agreed that Jax would give them a few minutes to have a private conversation. Now Claire regretted that plan.
“The long story, or the short story?” Claire asked.
“Whatever one you want to deliver.”
Claire’s arms slid off her head, and she pushed herself into a sitting position.
“Cooper has a thing for me.”
Jax sat silent, blinked a few times. “Okay, and?”
“What do you mean, ‘okay, and?’”
“Sorry, Claire, but that’s obvious. I think you’d have to be an idiot to not see it. Even the guys on the team see it.”
“What? Are they talking about—”
Jax stopped her with a shake of the head. “Of course not. But you can tell by how they look at the two of you that they know there’s an attraction.”
Claire pointed to her chest. “I’m not doing anything, it’s him.”
“Maybe it’s more him.”
She kept shaking her head. “No, it’s all him. I’m not instigating anything.”
“You flirt with him all the time.”
“I do not,” Claire huffed.
One look from Jax and she rescinded her statement. “Okay, we banter. But it’s always been like that. I have the pool stick, he makes some kind of phallic joke. It’s banter. Not flirting.”
Jax sat back, crossed her arms over her chest. Claire couldn’t believe her best friend was calling her out. “We’re friends. And last night he ruined that by telling me he’s had a thing for me since we met. Told me he left sunny California for dreary London because I was too young and naive to handle him when I first got here.”
Jax narrowed her eyes. “Is that really how he said that?”
Claire’s headache was coming back. “No. He said I was a child.”
“A child?”
Claire stood up from the couch, started for the kitchen. “He kept repeating that I was eighteen back then.”
Jax followed behind. “Which is true.”
Claire yanked open the fridge, pulled out a beer. “Whose side are you on?”
“Yours. Always. But I just don’t see where all the fire is about this. Cooper owns up to the flirting comments and puppy-dog looks he gives you, and you’re pissed because he walked away six years ago.”
Like picking a lock, the pieces slid into place and finally started to click. “But he’s my friend.”
“Trying to say you’ve never thought of him as more?”
“No.” Her denial was quick.
Jax started to smile. “You’ve never checked out his ass? The guy can fill out a pair of jeans.”
Some of the anger she’d harbored all day eased. “That’s true.”
“And that smile. When he’s belly laughing he has the tiniest dimples.”
Claire closed her eyes, pictured his smile. She hadn’t noticed the dimples, but now that she thought about it . . . She opened her eyes to find Jax staring at her.
“Sounds like you have a thing for him,” Claire said.
“Wouldn’t matter if I did, and I don’t, by the way, but it wouldn’t matter. The guy can’t stop looking at you.”
“God, what am I going to do with him?”
“I don’t think you have to do anything. It’s not like he asked you out and you said no and now it’s awkward.”
“You’re right. It’s worse than that.”
“You’re overthinking it.” Jax pushed off the counter. “You know what, let’s gussy up a little and hit a proper happy hour. We’ll talk in German and pretend we don’t speak English and shamelessly flirt.”
Claire abandoned her beer. “Now that is exactly what I need to do and get my mind off of boys.”
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About the Author
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee has written twenty-eight books that have collectively sold more than five million copies and have been translated into more than eighteen languages. Raised in Washington State, Bybee moved to Southern California in the hope of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the Not Quite Series, the Weekday Brides Series, the Most Likely To Series, and the First Wives Series.
