Launch Day!!

I can’t believe this day has finally arrived! I’m releasing Amy. My heart couldn’t be happier. I actually saw a new review on Goodreads last night, and a smile spread wide across my face. Someone read Amy!! And liked it! Well, she did say Amy drove her a little crazy with her naiveté. But she is naïve. Haven’t you known someone who was…to the point  you wanted to palm their face and say ‘wake up!’

Anyway, she does wake up and that’s the point of the story. I hope so many of you enjoy the book. I was so pleased to have continued her story into the second book, “Leaving Amy.”  I have decided to release this in April, so no one has to wait long to see where it goes with Amy.

But first…”Waking Amy.” Enjoy this excerpt and remember today is the release! I thank you in advance to the moon and back!!

“I’ll have a whisky sour, please.” He told the bartender.

I looked at him, amazed that fate had such a sense of humor. I laughed.

“What’s funny?” He sipped the drink the prompt bartender had sat down in front of him.

“It’s just that we’ve already danced together, had a heated discussion in a bathroom hallway, and here we are again. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

He moved closer to me, situating his entire body to mirror mine. He couldn’t seem to get close enough. My eyes fell on the stitching of the inside seam on his pants. “Fate is funny like that.”

“My thoughts exactly.” I tried on a look that would best soften the blow of what I was about to say. “I don’t mean to be a buzz kill, Tom, but have you missed the fact that I’m wearing a diamond on my left ring finger? I don’t want to give you the wrong impression of me.”

“I did see it. I see it now. But when it didn’t bother you, I thought, why should it bother me? When I didn’t see one on your friend’s finger, I figured there was a story behind you, and a ring wasn’t the main component.”

I laughed as though I had just seen the wolf’s tail hanging out from my grandma’s nightgown. “It’s not that it bothers me or not. I’m married and I’m not out looking for anything. The guy I was with last night is just a friend.”

He tilted the glass back and finished off his drink. Was he playing a dial tone in his head during my speech about not being interested in bed sheets and notches?

“So, you’re here to just have a drink?” His tone questioned my honesty.

“Sadly, yes. I lack alcoholic beverages at my house.”

“And last night? Were you there because your home doesn’t have a dance floor and a bride and groom? Who was the guy? By his tone and sense of ownership toward you, he was obviously someone who also didn’t care about your ring finger.”

My story suddenly had more holes than a hooker’s stockings. Or so I imagined. “He is a friend. And we were just out.”

“I see.” He signaled for the bartender to refill his glass.

“I know it looks and sounds like I’m some type of confused, married call-girl, but I assure you, last week I didn’t even know that guy or own this dress.”

“Have you eaten dinner?” Again, am I invisible here? Are you missing a hearing aid?

            “I haven’t. I’ll probably eat later. Did you hear me?” I leaned over to him, waiting for recognition. I could smell his aftershave and it trapped me momentarily.

“Would you like to grab a table and we get something to eat?”

Suddenly, I remembered where I was, or rather who was likely to be dining there. Talking to Tom and inhaling his manly smell had taken my eye off the door. For all I knew, Mark and Ashley could be here already. I tried to see through the fuzzy partition to the other side. The smell of food from the kitchen taunted my appetite. I was starving, but to have dinner with this guy would give him the impression I didn’t mean that gibberish I had just said. And it would jeopardize my plan of not seeing my sister in the main dining room. “I think I’m going to pay my tab and go.”

“Please don’t.” He put his hand on top of mine. Sincerity somehow found its home on his face.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to have dinner.”

“Because you don’t eat, or you don’t think it’s a good idea to eat with me? I’m harmless, I assure you. Just ask that table full of people over there. They’re my friends, and they can vouch for my reputation. I’m nothing but a gentleman. Now, what do you say? Sit across the table from me and eat. I promise not to cross the center line.”

He was too charming for his own good…or mine. I found myself basking in the attention of this fascinating, older gentleman. Enjoying his infectious smile and wondering why he seemed to be enamored with my company. It wasn’t as though I wasn’t supposed to be out. So what if I picked the same restaurant as my whore sister and her choice in hand-me-down men. Served both of them right to see me having a little fun.

“Well, if you put it like that, I’d be ridiculous if I didn’t. I guess I could share a table.”

https://www.amazon.com/author/julieanndove