Happy Monday!

Oh wow, I am so out of my routine. After saying I was taking December off for the holidays, getting myself back into work mode (when you're self-employed) is crazy hard! I've completely fallen off track with all the moving bits as an author you need to be on top of--emailing you being one of them!

I signed up to do a Book of the Month Club where I send you a FREE book every month and here I am with one and a half bloody days left of January to hit you with the link for this month's book ....

As you should, haha!

That being said. Here is the link for this month's book!

I promise I'll be better next month. Heck, I'll send it in my next newsletter so I don't forget! Here's to getting back on track, apparently that should've been one of my resolutions this year hah.

As for me and what I'm working on, I have a new release coming in 2 weeks so I'm finishing that up and getting it ready to go to you. ARCs will be available by next week so if you're not on my Booksprout team, now's your chance to get on it and get yourself a first copy of the book.

Until then, here's a sneak peek of the book ... Beware: unedited!

Chapter One: Rachel 

The calmness that followed the day’s chaos after seven hours with my students was always my most precious time. Some of my colleagues rushed out of the building the minute they were done, decompressing in the car, but I found myself enjoying the time I took to stay longer. I’d work on grading, finish planning lessons and finally get to finish my coffee.

Thank God for twelve hour hot coffee cups. 

My system worked because by the time I got home, I left work where it was—at the elementary school where I taught. I never had to bring home the stress of it unless I wanted and chose to. So, savoring the calmness of my classroom after three o’clock was magic.

I knocked all the papers together neatly and then laid them in the folder on the corner of my desk for tomorrow. Everyone did really well on the spelling test, which either meant I needed to step up my game or everyone was learning at the pace they needed. I hoped it was the latter.

Tucking my phone into my bag, I stashed away my water bottle and coffee cup before fishing out my keys and rising. Taking one last sweeping glance at the classroom, I was ready for the weekend. 

Pausing only to grab my coat at the door, I walked down the hall while tugging it onto my arms. The sounds of the drama club’s rehearsals echoed through the quiet building from the gymnasium and I smiled to myself, looking forward to their rendition of The Sound of Music. 

Pushing the front doors open, I stepped out onto the steps, only to come to an abrupt stop. 

“Olive.” 

My fourth-grader turned to look up at me, her backpack resting against her folded legs. 

“Has no one come to get you yet?”

“My mom texted that she was late,” she held up her phone. “Traffic, or something.” 

“Do you need a ride?” 

Olive looked back down at her phone, not replying for a moment before shaking her head. “No, she says she’s only a few minutes away. Thanks, though.” 

“Sure.” I smiled. Having lived in Sage River all my life, after completing my teacher’s degree, I’d never imagined ending up back here until an opening at the school brought me right back to the same place I’d done fourth grade to teach it. Sage River was so small everyone knew everyone and it went around town quicker than a bush fire when someone new showed up. 

Anywhere else it might’ve been strange for a teacher to offer her student a ride home, but here? We were all practically neighbors. 

“Any plans for the weekend?” I stepped down to the sidewalk and turned back to her. If it was only going to be a few minutes, there was no harm in waiting around with her to make sure she got to her mom safely. 

“We’re going camping, actually. In a trailer, though, since it gets so cold during the night this time of year.”

“That sounds fun. What kind of stuff do you do when you’re camping?”

“My dad has an ATV he’ll take me and my sister on. We do hikes, roast marshmallows, you know the normal stuff.” 

“I bet you’re going to have a great time, cold nights or not.” 

“I got a telescope for my birthday so we’re going to try and see Jupiter!” Olive’s eyes lit up with excitement and I smiled, making a mental note to add astrology to my lesson plan for science. I bet all the kids would enjoy that. 

“Well, if you do, draw me a picture of what it looks like. That sounds so neat.”

As I spoke, a car pulled up behind me and I turned as the window rolled down, revealing Eden. 

“Sorry, I’m late! Thanks for staying with her.” She smiled at me.

“It’s not a problem. Have fun camping!”

Olive rose, gathering her bag as she stepped down toward me. “Yeah, thanks for waiting. Tell your boyfriend I’m sorry for holding you up.”

“I’m sorry, my what?” Where on earth did she get the idea I had a boyfriend? 

Olive nodded toward the teacher’s parking lot and my eyes drifted to my teal Dodge Shadow. Sure enough, a man was leaning against my hood, watching us. 

“Oh,” I said, about to tell Olive it wasn’t my boyfriend when the door shut and they drove off. Now it was just me and the stranger at my car. 

Anywhere else in the world and I’d head back into the school to call for back-up. But this was Sage River. Maybe he was lost and needed directions …

But then again, how did he know it was my car and I’d be coming out soon?

Adjusting the weight of the bag on my shoulder, I tentatively took my first steps toward the car. Every honed female instinct inside of me screamed to stop walking that I was willingly sending myself into danger. I didn’t know this man and the closer I got to him only further confirmed his strangeness.

And yet my feet carried on like they hadn’t a worry in the world. Anyways, what was the chances I was going to be the next woman featured on Dateline?

“Hi, can I help you?” 

I stopped with about four feet between us. I figured if I did have to run, this was enough of a distance to get a head start. After all, I only had to get back to the school. Once inside, there were witnesses. There was no way he was abducting me from inside a building.

But I’m also not about to be abducted, I told myself. 

“Are you Rachel Carr?” He straightened out immediately, unfolding himself from the casual lounged position he was in. Now he stood easily over six feet, towering above me, with his stance in what I could only describe as an “at ease” position. Although, he was the only one at ease right now. How the hell did he know my name?

“Can I help you?” I repeated, although my mother once told me a non-answer was still an answer. 

“This is border-line stalker-ish, I know,” —you know? Then why are you doing it?— “But the librarian said I could find you here.” Why on Earth was the librarian giving out my workplace information? “The address you have here is old, so I wasn’t sure where else to find you.” 

He reached behind him and I tensed, preparing for a weapon when he retrieved a stack of weathered and wrinkled envelopes. From this distance, I had no idea what they were beyond the obvious, or why he thought they were mine. Although, ‘the address you have here’ suggested he thought that was either my mail or I sent it. 

“I went to this address first, you see,” —he looked down at the stack and back at me— “but like I said it was old. The new homeowner suggested I try the records at the library, but the librarian didn’t want to give out your home address—safety, I suppose. So, she told me you worked here.” 

My mind reeled as I tried to process this. The librarian had given away my work place instead of my address for safety reasons? I had half a mind to point out the inconsistency there. 

Instead, I forced myself to focus on what was happening right here. The librarian I could deal with at a later time when I wasn’t being cornered by a stranger who seemed to know me.

“I’m really confused.” I pointed to the letters. “What are those?” 

“Letters.”

“Yes, I got that. But what does that have to do with me?”

“You wrote these to me.” He stepped closer as I took a step back, holding my hands up. “Sorry,” he muttered softly, frowning to himself. 

“I didn’t write you anything. I have no idea who you are.”

He continued to frown, staring at me for a moment before finally holding the letters out. “You did. These are from you, sent to me—Elijah O’Donnell.” 

The rotation of the earth’s axis suddenly felt like it had sped up as I tilted sideways. Elijah moved to me just in time to catch me as I literally swooned right into his waiting arms. 

Staring up at him, my head continued to spin while I processed what was happening. “You’re not real,” I whispered up to him, feeling slightly starry-eyed. 

“I am, ma’am,” he replied back simply, still holding me in a half-dip. 

“No … I made you up. I sent the letters to no one, it was all a rouse. A stupid thing to get the girls off my back.” 

“You sent the letters to me. Elijah O’Donnell.” He said his name slowly like that was the part I didn’t understand. I got that—his name was Elijah O’Donnell and like my fake boyfriend he’d been in the military, but not just any branch. He was in the Navy. 

What were the fucking odds?

“And according to your letters … Well, I’d say we’re dating, wouldn’t you?” 

Distant memories of thoughts and expressions I’d confessed onto the pages of those letters never expecting anyone to read them let alone come and hunt me down rushed through my mind. My cheeks turned hot with embarrassment at all the personal, intimate things I’d expressed to him. 

“Oh, my God. You’re Elijah O’Donnell.”

He smiled, his lips stretching widely to reveal to rows of straight, white teeth that almost seemed to sparkle in the late September evening. 

“Pleasure to finally meet you, Rachel Carr.”

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