HERE
WITH ME by Heidi McLaughlin
October 2014
Contemporary Romance
Ryley Clarke
has grown up with the military in her blood, with both parents serving their
country. Ryley knows the risks of being married to the military. But when the
unthinkable happens, and her future husband is killed in action, Ryley can
barely survive... until Evan's twin brother, Nate, helps her pick up the
pieces.
After serving
on a special mission with the military for six years, Evan Archer returns home
to find the unthinkable - the love of his life, Ryley Clarke - engaged to his
brother, Nate. With Nate on deployment, Evan needs to figure out what
happened in his absence, and more importantly, how to win Ryley back from the man
he once considered his best friend, but now thinks of as his rival.
“It
does take time to heal, Ryley, and everyone has to do it at their own
pace.”
I
laugh out loud and adjust the way I’m sitting. I wish I hadn’t worn a dress
today, but Lois insisted and I’m at a point in my life where I just do as she
says, so I put on a yellow sundress and pulled my hair into a blue ribbon.
That’s as good as it gets for me right now. But sitting here, I want to be in
sweats. I want my white socks covering my bare toes and I want to be buried
under an oversized sweatshirt. I want to hide.
“Time
is my enemy. Time is the one thing I don’t have and can’t afford to lose.
Time…” I shake my head and toward the window. I bite my lip and close my eyes.
My mind is blank. I refuse to see their images. I don’t want to look, or
remember. “I need to find a way to stop time or reverse it.” I nod. “Reversing
time would be ideal. If I could do that, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.
My life… it’d be on the path that I created, that I worked hard for, but it’s
not. I’m standing in the center of the Interstate with traffic coming at me
from both directions waiting… desperately waiting for someone or something to
change everything that has happened in the last five years. So no, time doesn’t
heal anything. It just prolongs the hurt and pain.
“It
sounds like you’ve had a lot to deal with, maybe more than others. Do you find
solace in your friends?”
I
shake my head. “I have two very close friends. One is from high school, her and
her husband moved down here once the twins where stationed here. The other is a
military wife. Any other friends I had bailed. I’m sure they didn’t bail
because of me, but because of the military. You move on, ya know? They don’t
want to associate…” I stop and think about that word. “Associate isn’t the
correct word… it’s fear. They see what I went through and fear rips through
their body and they do what their body tells them, fight or flight. They all
chose flight because they all afraid they’ll go through the same thing one day.”
About the Author:
Heidi is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling
author.
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she now lives
in picturesque Vermont, with her husband and two daughters. Also renting space
in their home is an over-hyper Beagle/Jack Russell and two Parakeets.
During the day Heidi is behind a desk talking about
Land Use. At night, she's writing one of the many stories planned for release
or sitting court-side during either daughter's basketball games.
Connect with Heidi
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