Sunday excerpt "Falling for Jack"
It's Sunday here in NZ and what a good day for an excerpt.
From "Falling for Jack." You can get it on Amazon here.
I have already started "thinking about" Emily's story, and that should be a lot of fun, revisiting Robyn, Sage and the guys...
Excerpt:
The minute she stepped inside, Sage ordered, “So what’s been going on with you and Fletcher?” She sat cross-legged on the couch.
The minute she stepped inside, Sage ordered, “So what’s been going on with you and Fletcher?” She sat cross-legged on the couch.
“Nothing.”
“Ha,”
Sage said disbelievingly.
Robyn
sighed. “Jack’s from my old home town, Kopane, up north. We
weren't friends, we just knew of each other.” She stopped. It still
blew her away he'd known who mousey, studious Robyn Taylor had been
when he'd had plenty of girls throwing themselves at him. “He was a
few years ahead of me at school though.” Best to leave the details
of his past out. “And last night I bumped in to him when I was
working at the charity dinner and we got talking; he loaned me his
car to drive home and he just came back to pick it up.”
They
both went through to the kitchen, and Sage said, “I guess as your
friend I have to believe you. But as for the rest. Let’s recap.
Jack’s been going out for a while now with Charlotte Bodie, which
we all knew. But what we — and one assumes Jack — didn’t know
is that she'd been playing around with Brad Randell on the side and
now, Charlotte has left Jack for him.”
“What?”
Harriet suddenly screeched from the couch. “Charlotte has left Jack
Fletcher for Brad Randell?”
Robyn
and Sage exchanged glances and Sage said, “Did you hear nothing
that went on here the last quarter of an hour? I thought you were
just pretending to be asleep.”
Harriet
struggled up. “Why? What happened?”
“He
was here. Jack Fletcher.” Sage nodded at Harriet's shock. “Robyn
knows him. Personally.”
Harriet's
hand splayed across her chest. Her voice was faint. “You know him?
He was here? Mother, why didn't you wake me? I totally love reading
the gossip.”
“That,”
Sage pointed at her, “is why I didn't wake you. You should be
focusing on your studies and not reading trashy gossip websites.”
Harriet
staggered to her feet, draped her duvet around herself, and hopped
over to the table. “Why was he here?”
“To
drive his car home,” Sage said. “Apparently.” She took the
newspaper from her bag and turned back to the entertainment pages.
Harriet’s
eyes widened. “He stayed the night?”
“She,”
Sage threw a disbelieving look at Robyn, “claims he did not.”
“Of
course he didn't stay the night.” Why on earth would a man like
Jack take an interest in her? Exasperated, she peered closer at the
photographs again. One showed Jack and Charlotte a month back at a
Business Association function, another pictured Brad and his wife,
Emily. Emily, according to the caption, was indeed pregnant.
“Isn’t
Emily Randell a doctor?”
Harriet
rolled her eyes. “Duh. She's the one that treated Brad's leg after
the injury that blew his All Black career to smithereens. Now he’s
got a sports management business.”
Sage
hissed, “I’ve never liked him. That poor, poor woman.” She
tut-tutted with all the experience of a woman who knew far too well
what she was talking about. She jabbed the picture of Brad. “All
money and no brain, all they care about are their looks and I bet
he's had surgery, look at that jaw. I don’t trust anyone who has a
gym membership.”
Harriet
opened her phone and checked. “Well, its front page on the news
websites and social media is already going nuts. They’re all
trending on Twitter.”
Robyn
bit her thumb and thought back to Jack’s house, that beautiful but
empty house. Who did he have in his life to turn to in moments like
this? It had been Jack and Charlotte the past six months and of
course, his small circle of friends. Brad, she knew, because he was
the high profile one, the former sporting hero, but there’d been
another one as well. Ethan someone-or-other.
“Mum,
we’re still hungry,” James reminded her, and Robyn snapped out of
it.
No
doubt he had a network of friends and she had no idea what she was
talking about. But even so. Remembering that remoteness in his
expression troubled her when it shouldn't have. She didn't know Jack
Fletcher. Making assumptions was wasting time she didn't have to
spare.