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Author: Steph Campbell
Age Group/Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Published: 15th January 2014
BLURB
Shayna Gillan is on a mission: start fresh in a new state without the small town gossip that has haunted her since her bad girl days of high school.
Carter MacPherson has long been the most together member of his crazy family--until now. With a secret threatening to crumble everything he's worked for, he wishes he could forget the recent past, too.
The last thing Shayna and Carter are looking for is a relationship. It's best to be alone while they sort out their issues.
Friends. That's all they can ever be.
But even the best laid plans always have a flaw, and once Shayna and Carter cross the line between friendship and more, there's no turning back...
The only question left is--whose past will catch up to them first?
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Excerpt:
Seven months. That’s how long I’ve been in this... relationship, for lack of a better word.
You know, if I were the type of girl that kept track of those types of things, that is.
It’s not like I know how long we’ve been dating because it’s been seven months of bliss and I cherished each and every day. It’s not like I’ve been counting down, excited at the prospect of ending up in this swanky restaurant, hoping that he remembers what a special day this is, too.
Or better, that he has some expensive gift tucked away in his crisp, well-tailored pants.
Nope. I know this is my seven month anniversary because it was a reminder from my mother before I left this evening.
“Shayna, that boy may have something up his sleeve for tonight, and you’d better be ready for it!” she’d said.
“Like what? Bowling instead of fencing?” I asked with a sigh I quickly disguised. Operation Perfect Daughter was stretching into another grueling month. I knew I was doing it for all the best, noblest reasons, but I sometimes doubted Navy Seals went through this kind of endurance testing.
Mom pulled the pin from my hair, letting the long blonde strands fall loose. “You look better with your hair down. And no. Tonight is your anniversary, or did you forget?” She fluffed my hair with her fingers and looked at me in that dreamy way that let me know she wouldn’t really be listening to anything I said.
“Anniversary of what? Selling my soul?” I griped. I would have felt guilty if she looked crushed, but Mom didn’t even flinch. In fact, she smiled like it was some kind of funny joke.
“No, of dating Nolan,” Mom scoffed, shaking her head and tugging playfully on my hair.
“Oh, so sort of the same thing,” I mumbled. No matter how much my parents have tried to change me, the one thing they haven’t been able to work the kinks out of my snark.
“Don’t mumble, Shayna,” my mother sing-songed. “And put on a different dress. This could be a special night, and you’ll want to remember it as such. That dress won’t do.” She picked at the skirt of my perfectly fine floral print sundress and frowned.
My mom’s presence always made me feel like I was living in a different century.
“How long has it been?” I asked, swirling the brush into my bronzer and not meeting Mom’s stare.
“You mean you don’t know?” Mom looked at me in the mirror, her eyes trying to search mine so she could gauge whether or not I was kidding.
“Can’t say that I do,” I said evenly. I really had no idea. It hasn’t been a whirlwind romance. In fact, it was sort of been the opposite.
My mom sighed dramatically and shook her head like she was going to chalk it all up to me being so twitter pated in love or something. “Seven months. In my day, seven months was definitely long enough to hope for a….proposal.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively, and I put on way too much makeup, trying to concentrate on not deliberately gouging my eyes out.
Perfect daughters do not use their makeup tools to show how their spirits are being crushed.
My parent’s set me up with Nolan to help curb my wild behavior, but if I scored a ring out of it, that’d just a bonus for them. A big bonus. They’d finally feel like they could ease up on me a little. That I’d be safe.
I tried to keep my breaths even, to not let on that the thought of a proposal made me want to hurl into my vanity drawer.
The only thing that calmed me enough to walk out the door was the sight of my phone illuminating next to my makeup bag. A text from Carter, just saying hi.
I’d found his number in my car on Christmas morning. He’d left it with a note saying to call anytime. We may not have properly said good-bye on that night months ago, but we started texting back and forth often. We never said much, just a joke, a good morning, a picture of the ocean while he rested on the beach next to his surfboard.
And those things were enough to make me smile.
To make me feel a little less alone in this crazy charade I was living.
You know, if I were the type of girl that kept track of those types of things, that is.
It’s not like I know how long we’ve been dating because it’s been seven months of bliss and I cherished each and every day. It’s not like I’ve been counting down, excited at the prospect of ending up in this swanky restaurant, hoping that he remembers what a special day this is, too.
Or better, that he has some expensive gift tucked away in his crisp, well-tailored pants.
Nope. I know this is my seven month anniversary because it was a reminder from my mother before I left this evening.
“Shayna, that boy may have something up his sleeve for tonight, and you’d better be ready for it!” she’d said.
“Like what? Bowling instead of fencing?” I asked with a sigh I quickly disguised. Operation Perfect Daughter was stretching into another grueling month. I knew I was doing it for all the best, noblest reasons, but I sometimes doubted Navy Seals went through this kind of endurance testing.
Mom pulled the pin from my hair, letting the long blonde strands fall loose. “You look better with your hair down. And no. Tonight is your anniversary, or did you forget?” She fluffed my hair with her fingers and looked at me in that dreamy way that let me know she wouldn’t really be listening to anything I said.
“Anniversary of what? Selling my soul?” I griped. I would have felt guilty if she looked crushed, but Mom didn’t even flinch. In fact, she smiled like it was some kind of funny joke.
“No, of dating Nolan,” Mom scoffed, shaking her head and tugging playfully on my hair.
“Oh, so sort of the same thing,” I mumbled. No matter how much my parents have tried to change me, the one thing they haven’t been able to work the kinks out of my snark.
“Don’t mumble, Shayna,” my mother sing-songed. “And put on a different dress. This could be a special night, and you’ll want to remember it as such. That dress won’t do.” She picked at the skirt of my perfectly fine floral print sundress and frowned.
My mom’s presence always made me feel like I was living in a different century.
“How long has it been?” I asked, swirling the brush into my bronzer and not meeting Mom’s stare.
“You mean you don’t know?” Mom looked at me in the mirror, her eyes trying to search mine so she could gauge whether or not I was kidding.
“Can’t say that I do,” I said evenly. I really had no idea. It hasn’t been a whirlwind romance. In fact, it was sort of been the opposite.
My mom sighed dramatically and shook her head like she was going to chalk it all up to me being so twitter pated in love or something. “Seven months. In my day, seven months was definitely long enough to hope for a….proposal.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively, and I put on way too much makeup, trying to concentrate on not deliberately gouging my eyes out.
Perfect daughters do not use their makeup tools to show how their spirits are being crushed.
My parent’s set me up with Nolan to help curb my wild behavior, but if I scored a ring out of it, that’d just a bonus for them. A big bonus. They’d finally feel like they could ease up on me a little. That I’d be safe.
I tried to keep my breaths even, to not let on that the thought of a proposal made me want to hurl into my vanity drawer.
The only thing that calmed me enough to walk out the door was the sight of my phone illuminating next to my makeup bag. A text from Carter, just saying hi.
I’d found his number in my car on Christmas morning. He’d left it with a note saying to call anytime. We may not have properly said good-bye on that night months ago, but we started texting back and forth often. We never said much, just a joke, a good morning, a picture of the ocean while he rested on the beach next to his surfboard.
And those things were enough to make me smile.
To make me feel a little less alone in this crazy charade I was living.
AUTHOR BIOSteph Campbell grew up in Southern California, but now calls the Northeast home. She has one husband, four children and a serious nail polish obsession. She's repped by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
Steph's works include Delicate, Grounding Quinn and Beautiful Things Never Last; My Heart for Yours and My Fate for Yours (with Jolene Perry); A Toast to the Good Times (with Liz Reinhardt) and the bestselling new adult LENGTHS series with Liz Reinhardt.
Connect with Steph Campbell:
Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads
Giveaway:
Prize is for a dandelion wish necklace and a $20 Amazon giftcard. The giveaway is open internationally.
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