Anyway. So. Pieces of Stronghold. Gonna start off with a teaser from part of the book about Jared & Leigh. =) Enjoy!
(Just an FYI, this section starts off with a text message)
What time does a duck wake up?
Before her water bottle had finished filling up, she'd gotten a reply.
I don't know.
Giggling harder now than she had when she actually had received the joke text, she typed in the answer.
The quack of dawn!
She was going down the stairs to the basement and the exercise room when her phone rang. Glancing at the screen, she blinked in surprise and grinned, a little butterfly of excitement fluttering in her stomach.
"Hello?"
"The quack of dawn. Seriously." Jared's rich, deep voice was heavy with amused mockery.
Leigh laughed. "Aren't you at work?"
"Yes."
"And you called me to scold me for a joke?"
"It's a really bad joke."
"You laughed and you know it."
He chuckled and she couldn't help but smile in return. Leaning against the bannister at the bottom of the stairs, she tried to tamp down the slightly giddy feelings that always seemed to swirl inside of her when she talked to him. They'd become friends pretty quickly, bonding over the fact that both of them had recently gotten out of relationships that had spanned more than half a decade. No one else in their groups of friends really understood what that was like... most of them thought that Jared and Leigh were better off without their exes. Leigh didn't exactly disagree, but no one else seemed to get how hard it was or why she still missed Michael sometimes.
Jared got it.
It made her feel a special connection to him. She was also totally willing to admit that she had a schoolgirl crush on him. Having a crush felt nice. None of the guys she'd dated or slept with had made her feel all giggly and teenager silly like he did. It was just a silly, harmless crush that helped distract her whenever she was feeling particularly depressed about Michael. It was safe to flirt with Jared, because he knew that she wasn't looking to jump into a relationship, and neither was he. They just liked to tease and flirt and make each other smile. There had been so little happiness in her life since she and Michael had broken up - even before that really - which managed to pierce the bubble of misery she'd been living in, so she clutched at whatever bright moments she could.
"Admit it," she insisted, still grinning. "You at least chuckled."
"Yeah, okay I did."
"I knew it!" she crowed, pumping a fist into the air. Making Jared smile on a regular basis was one of his goals. As miserable as she was without Michael, Jared missed his ex just as much, and he had the added guilt of having hurt her when he broke up with her. She could empathize, because by the time Michael had broken up with her, she'd had thoughts of breaking up with him, because she'd known that he was taking her for granted and that she'd become unhappy. Of course, she'd hoped that instead of breaking up, he would have recognized that he needed to put more effort into their relationship and making her feel special and loved. Instead, he'd broken up with her first.
But she could imagine having gotten to the point Jared had. So she liked to make him smile when she could. It made her feel good to help him.
"You're like a five year old," he said, but it didn't sound like he meant it as an insult. Leigh took it as a compliment. It had been a long time since she'd felt this carefree. Michael had squashed her moments of loud brevity and silliness, wanting her to be more the model of the businessman's wife that he thought he needed. That was definitely something that was going to have to change if they ever got back together. There was no way she was going to squeeze herself back into that suffocating little box that she'd put her personality into for him.
"Just wait," she told him, still grinning. "I bet I can find worse ones. And you'll laugh at all of them."
"I'm sure I will." Even though she couldn't see him, Leigh was pretty sure that he was smiling. She could hear it in his voice. "I have to get back to work. I'll see you Thursday?"
"Yep, I'll see you then, although we'll probably talk before then."
"I'm sure we will."
"Because I'm going to send you more jokes."
"Okay. Bye Leigh." She could practically hear the amused grin on his face.
"Bye."
Wheee I'm all giddy and smiley thinking about Leigh and Jared too! :) really looking forward to their story I think more than any other because these two deserve it the most. Sure Andrew got his heart broke but these two just got tortured for years by their crappy exes. Ahh well, best save that rant for another day.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have a bright spot for the end of busy season. It's been 60+ hour weeks for i can't even remember and Wednesday can't get here fast enough. We get a 4 day weekend as a reward - hope you get something similar!
LOL their relationship is actually based on how hubby and I got out of our previous relationships and into one with each other, so it's even nicer to hear you say that LOL.
DeleteWe get Thurs and Fri off as a reward =) Thurs was a surprise, usually they only give us Fri, but I''m also taking off Mon & Tues for a trip so I ended up with a 6 day weekend! It cannot come soon enough!
Cannot wait!!
ReplyDeleteYAY!
DeleteLooking forward to your next Strongold novel!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I am too =) Having a lot of fun writing it!
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