Lexi Ryan Guest Post and Excerpts!

Ok guys like I promised we have a Guest Post from Lexi Ryan!

The Here and Now Series

By Lexi Ryan

"Do you know what is retrograde amnesia? Because I just learned about it and I have this story idea ... "This was few years ago on call with my critique partners.   The conversation was supposed to be about the book I was finishing, but I was distracted by this shiny new story idea.

The kernel of the idea was there, born from my fascination with retrograde amnesia. A woman wakes up in the hospital and is engaged to a man she remembers (though she does not remember getting engaged ... doesn't remember anything from the last year, in fact). She's in the days approaching her wedding ... but there's this other guy. This guy who seems to know things about her life that no one else does. This guy who's in love with her ​​and doesn't want her to marry her fiancé. This guy she does not remember and yet somehow feels connected to.

I carried this kernel of a story idea with me. I was not sure what I was going to do with it or whose story it was. I never know much about my plot when I start writing. Instead, I start with emotion and character, and I was fascinated with how it would feel to wake up and think you had to perfect life, think you'd finally gotten everything you wanted ... but have no memory of how you got there.

Meanwhile, I was also carrying the character of Hanna with me.   Hanna who has struggled with her ​​weight her whole life, who's totally in love with a guy she grew up with but believes herself to be completely unworthy. Hanna I first met while I was writing Maggie's story (now Unbreak Me ), and I knew from the beginning she needed her own story.

Then, one day while I was writing a scene in Wish I May that had Hanna pining for Max, the puzzle pieces floating around in my head clicked together. Since I'd already written about Max and already "met" Asher's musician friend Nate Crane in my mind (I know, writers are weird), the premise of the rest fell into place. I knew that I not only needed to write this amnesia sexy love triangle for Hanna but that it had so many twists and turns it was going to take me more than one book to tell it. And so the Here and Now series was born-a series where the main character has to choose between the two incredibly sexy guys that want her. How do you make the right choice for your future when you can't remember your own secrets?

I hope you'll check out Lost in Me , book one of the Here and Now series.

Lost In Me Playlist

Anna Nalick- Breathe (2am)

Barenaked Ladies- Odds Are

Dave Matthews Band- The Space Between

Matchbox Twenty- If You're Gone

Shakira, Rihanna- Can't Remember to Forget You

Sarah Bareilles- I Choose You

Jason Mraz- I Will not Give Up

Nine Inch Nails- Something I Can Never Have

A Great Big World- Say Something

PM Dawn- I'd Die Without You

Jason Walker- Down

Macy Gray- I Try

James Blunt- You're Beautiful

Lexi's playlist on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/user/writerlexiryan/playlist/5y8YBssSSFIRx8WjEmQfrN

Excerpt:

When Asher leaves the stage, Nate stays behind, strumming chords to a song I don't recognize. He lifts his gaze. For five painful beats of my heart, our eyes lock. There's so much in his eyes. Pain, anger, frustration. I see it all there before he refocuses on his fingers and starts to croon the lonely lyrics of his song.

I'm nobody's hero, baby. Try not to fall too deep.

I'm nobody's angel, love, but you were crying in your sleep.

I'm useless, empty, nothing, sugar. Wait around and then you'll see.

You thought you'd find your answers, but now you're lost in me.

The words tap into me, loosening something in my chest until I feel like anyone looking at me can see my confusion and the inexplicable aching of my heart.

And when he lifts his head and watches me as he sings the last verse of his song, I don't move. I don't hide from those eyes that know too much. I don't run from that face that could destroy my whole world. I stand transfixed, the words rolling through my veins like they're part of my blood.

After the final chords he strums, he puts down his guitar and leaves the stage without explanation or promise to return.

My feet are following him before I've decided what to do. He heads up the stairs and out the back, through the french doors and onto the patio, where he keeps going until he hits the path in front of the river.

He's trying to escape me. I should be happy, right? The past can stay in the past, and whatever mistake I made with this rocker can be left behind with it. But I can't let him walk away without answers.

"Stop!" I rush down to the river, my heels sinking into the rain-softened earth. "Who are you?"

He turns slowly, the confusion back on his face. "Is that supposed to be funny? Pretending there was nothing between us wasn't enough? You need to pretend you do not even know who I am? "

"I-" Oh my god. The hurt in his Eyes. "I don't know who you are, "I say carefully. "But maybe I should? I was injured and I have amnesia, so I honestly don't know you. "And If that doesn't sound like a line from a lifetime movie, I'm not sure what does.

"Amnesia? You're kidding me. "

"I'm not." He starts toward me, and I hold out a hand to stop him. "I'd prefer you to stay over there. Please. "

He pulls back, watching me. "Amnesia," he repeats.

"Yeah."

"You don't know who I am." It's not a question- more a realization.

"I don't know who you are or why you would crawl into my bed in the middle of the night. I don't understand why-"My breath catches and fat, hot tears spill onto my cheeks. Suddenly this is all just too much. "I don't understand," I repeat, and leave it at that.

"You don't remember anything? Do you know who you are? "

"Yeah. I remember everything up until about a year ago, but the last eleven months are just ... gone. "

He drags a hand through his hair, and I'm struck again by how gorgeous he is. Dark messy hair, dark intense eyes. His T-shirt clings to his sculpted arms. Tattoos peek out from the sleeves. No matter how hard I look, I can't remember being with him. So why do I have this feeling in my chest like my heart knows something I don't?

"Do I know you?" I ask.

He lets out a huff and stares at the starlit sky. "Yeah. You do. " When he drops his gaze back to meet mine, his eyes are moist with unshed tears. "I'm the idiot who's in love with you."

In love with me? "But I'm engaged."

"That I saw," he whispers, His gaze flicking back to my hand. "Can I ask? Did that happen before or after the amnesia? "

"Before."

"Fuck." The word isn't screamed or thrown like a stone. He breathes it-the exhaling sound like so much disappointment.

To me, Nate's a stranger, but to him, I'm ... what?

We just stare at each other, him looking heartbroken and angry, me trying to piece it all together in my head and make some sense of this. I'm engaged to Max Hallowell. I'm not the kind of girl who would get engaged to one guy when she's been sleeping with another.

Am I?