Blog Tour: Abruption by Riley Mackenzie
Title: Abruption
Author: Riley Mackenzie
Release Date: Jan 3, 2016
Find on Goodreads
Everyone has a plan.
Dr. Guy Hunter secures his dream
fellowship with a beautiful free spirit by his side. Two unexpected
blue lines don't even shake his resolve—he is on his way to having
it all. Until he isn’t.
Abruption: a sudden breaking off
Jules Chiappetti loves her boisterous
over-involved Italian family but is determined to pave her own way.
An MBA and boardroom job is her ticket out. Until it isn’t.
Abruption: an unexpected event
Four years later, Guy is consumed by
the challenges of being a single father, still struggling with the
aftermath that derailed his life and left his son with special needs.
He doesn't realize his world went dark the same day his wife's did,
until Jules, his son's new nurse, shows him the light.
“I’m not playing games, Dr.
Hunter.”
I backed up until I was leaning on the
opposite counter, crossed my legs, and folded my arms against my
chest. “Then explain to me why I haven’t heard from you all week.
I get it was our first date and it turned into a really shitty night,
but I thought we ended on a high note.” Jules’ eyes widened and
she bit her bottom lip. Yeah, she thinks it ended on a high note
too. “I text, I call a few times, and not once did you think to
pick up the phone or text back. I’m the first to admit that I’m
rusty in the dating department, actually if you want to know the
truth, I haven’t dated since my wife died. I’ve hooked up, not
going to lie, but I haven’t dated someone with the
intention of getting to know them. You’re the exception. So I’m
asking, what’s with the games?”
“I needed a minute.” Her voice was
low and trailed off. So much so, I thought I misheard. Then she broke
eye contact and scurried away, opening cabinets and drawers for
plates and silverware.
“A minute, as in four days?” We
apparently had a different definition of a minute, so I needed
clarification. Suddenly, the anger I thought I was over began to
resurface. “Look, Jules, I’m sorry I don’t have the luxury of
tiptoeing around your feelings here, so I’m going to come straight
out and tell you that your minute doesn’t work for me.
And it sure as hell doesn’t work for my family. I’m not trying to
pressure you into anything, but I have kids, kids that already know
you. Kids that already like you. This was not news when we hooked up.
So if you aren’t into it, into me, or you decided all of a sudden
you have an issue with my baggage, I need to know and we’ll end it
now.”
Before they get too attached.
Liar. Before I get too attached.
Damn, she was making me soft. She froze
mid-plate grab and pivoted back around with her eyes squinted
together at a peculiar angle. This expression was a new one and not
one of my favorites if I had to compare. “Baggage?” She dragged
out the word and cocked her head more to one side. Shit. “You think
I consider Maxine and Finn baggage?” The tide changed, and I sensed
she wasn’t exactly feeling me right at this moment. “Is
that what you’ve been thinking all week? Seriously ... seriously?”
The second seriously hit an octave I’d yet to hear from
her and probably could do without hearing again, so I opted to use my
northern brain and keep my mouth shut. “How could you even think
that? Not for one point one second. Do you hear me?”
Nope, still not answering. That was a
trick question.
“Have I ever given you any
inclination that I had an issue with Finn or Max, ever? No. Never!”
She answered for me, loudly, and she was pissed. “I adore your
children, and I’m just as attached to them as they are to me.
That’s why we needed a minute. Everything was moving so
fast. You don’t even know anything about me and you opened your
home to ... to me. You called me a natural, for God’s sake. You
have no idea. So I didn’t know what to do with that, and you needed
time to think about all that. I’m not sure either of us were ready
for what we already let happen, never mind more. That’s why I
didn’t call.”
Oh, we needed a minute. What were
we, French now? I was tempted to call her on it, especially on the
half of what she said that made no sense, but the look in her eyes
stopped me. There was a vulnerability there, a softness, so I let her
have that play. For now.
“Tell me, are you sure now?” I
asked with a bite. She turned her back to me and unwrapped and plated
the breakfast sandwiches.
Don’t think so, doll. You got your
answer, my turn.
I walked up behind her, pressing my
front to her back, pinning her in. She involuntarily shuddered,
sucking in a bit of air when I kissed the spot where her neck met her
collarbone. “Are you sure, Jules?” This time I asked against her
skin.
Her entire body stiffened and she
whispered, “No.”
Fuck.
Riley Mackenzie~Authors
Yep. That's an “s.” There are two
of us!
We’re East coast girls separated by
Long Island Sound who met in Physician Assistant School and have been
besties ever since. We can safely say that thirteen miles of water
does not get in the way because we talk or text, no exaggeration, at
least 150 times a day. No, really, we do—about everything and
nothing. Shockingly, we never (we mean never) run out of things
to say. Umm, ever. We definitely laugh A LOT and we’re a tad
sarcastic. And if we’re being totally honest, one or two people
might have, on occasion, used our names and ‘dramatic’ in the
same sentence. But it’s hard to trust the sources since they
married us.
It only took twelve years, two
husbands, five kids, two dogs, and a two-week vacation in Cape Cod
later to decide the romance world needed a splash of medicine. Write
what you know.
So you can easily find us at 4 o'clock
on Bank Street beach with a glass of cold Prosecco brainstorming. And
guaranteed if we bump into you, literally, it’s only because our
iPhones are glued to our hands (totally out of our control) either
writing or editing our next novel (and yes, it is possible to do from
your iPhone, we mastered it … damn those straight quotations).
When we are not working on our book or
reading the latest angsty romance on our kindles, you basically name
it and we have it going on. Soccer, lacrosse, golf, swimming, dance,
gymnastics, football, chess, baseball, basketball, skiing, ice
skating, school, homework, and more school.
Oh yeah, did we forget to mention our
careers in medicine?
Needless to say, we realized fast that
something had to go, so we opted for sleep. It’s completely
overrated (yet so AMAZING) and delirium makes everything funnier.
Good thing we share a brain and can pretty much complete each other’s
sentences (definitely weird, we know).
So that’s our story, who we are …
just add AUTHORS to the list!
Comments
Post a Comment