By: Len Webster
Publication: January 2015
Contemporary Romance/New
Adult
SYNOPSIS
One
blink,
One
breath of air,
One
moment in time …
Could
change your life forever.
Growing
up, Peyton Spencer fell in love with the boy across the road, Callum Reid. As
the years went by, it only made sense that they would wind up being completely
and utterly infatuated with each other. That was, until the morning Peyton
wakes up to find Callum packing up and leaving the small town they lived in.
Left heartbroken and with no explanation, Peyton spends the next four years of
her life without him, ensuring they never cross paths again.
At
seventeen and months after Callum leaves her, Peyton buries her parents—feeling
more alone than ever before. Now at twenty-one, she’s inherited the family
hotel, The Spencer-Dayle. Just when she thinks life couldn’t get more
complicated, the one person that shattered her heart, soul and belief returns.
For Peyton, his return opens up all her old wounds and resurfaces the memories
she’s tried to forget.
He’s
not the same boy she once fell in love with. He’s guarded and keeps secrets
close to him. Peyton knows her life will begin to unravel.
Untold
truths will finally come to light. Whether or not Peyton wants to hear it, the
truth will undoubtedly break her heart all over again.
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EXCERPT/TEASER:
“I’m
hoping you still like Vegemite and cheese sandwiches. You had it all there so I
assumed,” Callum said as he sat in the chair in front of Peyton.
He gave her
a faint smile before he stared at the candle; the flame reflected in his eyes.
Not liking the circumstances she was in and the pressure in her chest, Peyton
leant forward and blew out the flame he intently looked at.
“What was
that for?” he asked. The light from the other candle on the table made his
cheek visible.
Peyton
sat back and gave him a shrug. “I’m not one for romance and these candles are a
red alert for me. I’d rather we eat in the dark since my first want of you
leaving my house isn’t happening.”
“Fine,”
Callum said before he leant forward and blew out the last candle on the table.
Only the light from the candles behind him made some things visible. “I’m not
trying to romance you, Peyton. I don’t want that.”
She
rolled her eyes, not caring if he could see or not. “Me either.”
“You
don’t?”
She
smirked at the curiosity in his voice. She didn’t want him to; purely because
she knew her heart couldn’t withstand him for much longer.
“No,
Callum Reid. You are the last man I want romancing
me.”
She was
just able to see a smile on his face. And that didn’t make her feel satisfied
with her response at all. She couldn’t figure him out. She gave him what he
wanted and yet he wouldn’t take it. He was far too much of a mystery. A
challenge her heart wanted to conquer and claim.
A tremble
coursed through her. She blamed it on those feelings the seventeen-year-old she
had been had harboured for him. Not the twenty-one-year-old. No. That Peyton
hated the man that sat in front of her.
“Glad we
can agree on something. You know you can be pretty stubborn, Peyton. Always
have been. Guess with time it’s gone from pretty stubborn to definitely and
proudly stubborn,” Callum pointed out.
Crossing
her arms over her chest, she glared at him. “I’m not stubborn. You’re a challenge
not worth my time. Been there done that. I’m over you.”
There was
no quick reply like she expected. Instead she heard the sound of a matchstick
and then the candle to her right was lit and then the one to her left. Callum
blew the matchstick out and placed it on the table.
She
missed the darkness that consumed him. The light provided a detailed look of
anguish on his face. Peyton’s breathing became shallow, hardly reaching her
lungs.
“How’d
you get over me, Peyton?”
She heard
the break in his voice. He didn’t seem to notice it but she had. That
vulnerability made her heart leap, filling it with useless hope.
“It was
easy.”
“How
easy?” he asked.
Peyton
sensed the hurt in his question.
“It was a
simple task,” she stated as she sat up and uncrossed her arms. She picked up
the sandwich and took a large bite. She internally cursed him for remembering
one of her favourite foods.
“Do
tell,” he said with a raised brow.
“What’s
to tell, Callum? It’s simple. You ripped out my heart, crushed it in your hands
and forced it back in my chest. You left me with a gripping ache for four
years. That’s how I got over you… because I had to. Because life made me.”
Her
throat tightened and she found it difficult to hold back a sob, but she’d be
damned if he saw her like he did in the forest. Never again.
“How did
life make you get over me?”
Peyton
put the sandwich back on the plate and stood up, looking down at him. He had
grown since her. He’d experienced more and saw things she hadn’t. She closed
her eyes for a moment before she stared at him. The regret on his face was one
she winced at.
“Because
life… God… the universe… any higher power out there killed my parents and broke
me more than you could have. Grieving their deaths made it easier to forget
you. I didn’t just get over you. I forgot you. I had to.”
Lie. Death made me remember you more.
AUTHOR INFO:
The
truth is, Len Webster is a romance-loving Melbournian with dreams of finding
her version of ‘The One’. She calls Australia home, but secretly wishes a man
with a beautiful accent would whisk her away. She’s been called a hopeless
romantic and a firm believer of happily ever afters, which she doesn’t object to.
When
Len isn’t acting as the voice of her characters, you can find her drowning in
business textbooks as she slaves over her Bachelor degree. She spends more time
than she should daydreaming of her next Europe adventure or swooning over Mr.
Darcy.
Len
can be found sitting at her University library, earphones in, and writing
instead of studying. If she could, she would own a cupcake bakery just for an
endless supply of red velvet cupcakes. Her best friends are a hot cup of tea, a
warm jumper and her MacBook, ready to write to her heart’s content.
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