Happy Tuesday, everyone! I'm very excited to welcome one of my best friends and fellow writer, Constance Phillips, to my blog today. Constance's latest release was just this week, December 15th. She's making her contemporary romance debut with, All That's Unspoken, which is published through Turquoise Morning Press.
Please stop back here on Friday for a special edition of Fork It Up Fridays when Constance share's her heroine's cocoa recipe!
And now, let's find out more about All That's Unspoken:
Hailey
Lambert came home for the holidays to help her father. Instead, eight years
later, she is forced to face all that was left unspoken between her and high
school crush, Nate.
After eight years, Hailey is back in Caseville Michigan.
Just months after her mother’s death, her siblings want to put their father in
a nursing home and rent out the family farm. If that wasn’t enough, the
prospective tenant is Nate, the high school crush she left behind the day after
they acted on their mutual attraction.
After high school, Nate Jenkins planned to leave small town
behind, but life dealt him a different hand of cards to play. He’s now back in
Caseville, raising his daughter, and running his family’s diner. His daughter’s
speech disorder has been improved by therapeutic horse riding and if he can
lease the old Lambert farm, he can get her a horse of her own. The only
standing in the way is Hailey, the same woman who left him eight years ago
without even saying goodbye.
Can they get over all that’s unspoken between them?
***
Excerpt:
Only when she heard the bell above the door ring out, was
she able to unclench her fists and let out the breath that had tightened her
chest. She’d seen Nate lingering around the edge of the counter with her plate
of pancakes in hand but didn’t want him to approach her now.
She really didn’t have it in her to deal with him.
He came forward anyway, and set the plate in front of her.
After a hesitation, he asked, “Can I sit for a minute?”
Her eyes fluttered closed, but she gestured to the chair.
She heard it scrape against the old worn tile and could feel him just inches
away from her.
“I’m sorry your dad’s health is on the decline. I’ve always
really liked him. It stinks, you know.”
She took a deep breath; maybe they could talk as old friends
and ignore the complications of the night they’d spent together. “I don’t think
he’s that bad. Jake and Kelly are overreacting.”
He twisted his hands on his lap. “I can see how you would
think that. Some days when I see him, he’s sharp as nails. Others….”
Her phone vibrated against the table. The habit to check the
ID won out against the desire meet Nate’s stare. An eight-hundred number
flashed, twisting Hailey’s stomach into knots. Another bill collector wanting
to take the money she was trying to stretch just a little further, hoping to
get through a few more weeks. She hit the button to ignore the call.
“I overheard what you said about your dad wanting the
property to stay the same,” Nate said. “I’ll take real good care of the place
and won’t change a thing. I love that farm the way it is.”
That brought her attention back. “What are you talking
about?”
“I’ve been talking to Jake about renting the house.”
She took in his deep brown eyes and almost black hair. It
was cropped short like he was trying to beat-the-heat, even if the average
temperature this week was somewhere around ten degrees. Much shorter than he
wore it in high school. The neatly trimmed beard and mustache were new too.
He looked older. More settled.
How ironic.
They’d both thought this small town would smother them back
then.
For a fleeting moment it comforted her to picture Nate
cooking in her family’s kitchen, and then she realized it wouldn’t be her house
anymore. She’d be on the outside looking in. “It feels like everything is being
taken away from me.”
His body stiffened as he pulled
back. “It’s not like I’m stealing it. I’m going to pay you for it.”
“This isn’t about money!”
“Then what is it about?”
She reached for her purse and
fumbled for her wallet with trembling hands. “Everyone seems to think that just
because I don’t live here, I don’t have a voice, but you’re all wrong.” She
threw a twenty-dollar bill on the table. “I didn’t leave the planet, I moved to
New York. I didn’t abandon my family, but it feels like they think so. I’m sick
of being treated like an outside in my hometown, in my family home, in my own
life.”
She stood and tried to turn, but he
grabbed her wrist. Looking back would weaken her resolve—Nate had always had
that effect on her—but she did it anyway.
“Please, it would mean a lot to
Lori…and me.”
His daughter. The child he’d had
with someone else. She couldn’t stand the thought of the two of them in her
living room without her.
Why did it hurt so much?
It wasn’t as if he left her. She’d
pursued and claimed the future she’d always wanted.
Hadn’t she?
If everything she’d attained had
been all she ever wanted, why was it tearing her in two to know Nate had gone
on with his life without her? It wasn’t as if she’d expected he wouldn’t. She
should be happy he was settled. Instead, it made her long for that place next
to him even more.
A lump formed in her throat, making
speech impossible. Instead, she headed for the door.
“That’s right, Hailey. Run away.
It’s what you do best!”
His words stopped her, and she
twisted back. “I what?”
“Run. Away. When the pieces of your
life don’t come together like a neat little puzzle, you scatter them all around
you and stomp out of the room.”
She bristled at the venom in his
voice. “That’s not what happened.”
“Oh, no. You handled it so well,
just breezed out of town with no concern for those you left behind.”
They weren’t talking about her
father or her house anymore. This was about how she’d reacted eight years ago,
when the feelings got too real.
Just as they were now.
“I care, dammit!” She let out a long
exhale. “I always have.”
***
Thanks, Constance, for that awesome excerpt!!
And here's a bit about Constance:
Constance Phillips lives in Ohio with her husband, daughter, and four canine
kids. Her son, now on his own, is planning a wedding, reconfirming that romance
still lives and breathes.
When not writing stories of finding and rediscovering love, Constance and
her husband spend the hours planning a cross-country motorcycle trip for the
not-so-distant future…if they can find a sidecar big enough for the pups.
Website: http://www.constancephillips.com
Blog:
http://www.constancephillips.com/blog
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ConstancePhillipsRomanceAuthor?ref=hl
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/CPhillips
Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/phillipsconnie/
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