Karen Rock – Someone Like You (страница 1)
You can’t program love…or can you?
Kayleigh Renshaw has come up with the idea for a brilliant “compatibility app,” a new kind of matchmaking software. All she needs is a programmer to help her bring the idea to market…and she knows exactly who she wants. But Niall Walsh—a code whiz and her former best friend—has been avoiding her since he returned from Afghanistan. In spite of their history, and some sparks that go beyond friendship, he’s proving reluctant…. Is it her, or is something darker holding him back?
“There’s so much I don’t know.”
Kayleigh’s eyes searched Niall’s, and suddenly she wasn’t talking about the business, but about them, their kiss.
“Kayleigh,” he murmured, and he seemed to be holding himself back, his arms rigid at his sides.
“Nothing makes sense anymore.”
“Life isn’t always logical.” Niall looked away, his eyes darker than she’d ever seen them. “And neither is love.”
A long moment of silence stretched between them. It hung dangerously in the air, like the calm before a summer storm. This was exactly what she’d been obsessing over since their kiss. If only Niall was a stranger and not her closest friend, someone she couldn’t afford to lose if things didn’t work out….
Romance is a tricky thing to find. It can lurk in the most unexpected places, like right beneath your nose! Such was the case for me and my husband of twenty years, Greg. We were friends for a long time, and I often wished I could meet someone like him to have as a boyfriend. Then one day it dawned on me. I’d already met that person. Greg! It’s funny how once you’ve put someone in a category like “friend” it’s hard to take them out of it. There’s fear that maybe they won’t fit as well in the new category “partner,” so many of us wait, reluctant to risk ruining the relationship and losing that person altogether.
It takes a big leap of faith and bravery to move your relationship out of the “friend zone.” But when it pays off, you have both your best friend and the love of your life. I recently asked, “What are your tips for lasting love?” in our Wholesome Romance: Mills & Boon Heartwarming Goodreads group. I was amazed at how many of our fantastic group members (and it’s an open group, so please join us!) responded by saying that friendship was a key ingredient to long-term happiness.
When I wrote Someone Like You, I drew on the idea that although there is fear and trepidation in moving beyond friendship, it is the best predictor of lifelong joy. My main characters, Kayleigh and Niall, have been best friends since childhood. They have a special bond neither wants to put at risk by following their hearts. Yet finding true love takes real courage, which is, ultimately, the heart of this novel.
I would love to hear from you. And about your own love stories. To contact me, please email karenrock@live.com. Thanks!
Karen
Someone Like You
Karen Rock
KAREN ROCK
is an award-winning young-adult and adult contemporary author. She holds a master’s of fine arts in English and worked as an English Language Arts instructor before becoming a full-time author. When she’s not writing, Karen loves scouring estate sales for vintage books, cooking her grandmother’s family recipes, hiking and redesigning her gardens. She lives in the Adirondack Mountain region with her husband, daughter and two Cavalier King cocker spaniels who have yet to understand the concept of “fetch,” though they know a lot about love.
To Greg, my best friend and the love of my life. I’m so glad I met someone like you.
Contents
KAYLEIGH RENSHAW’S PEN wavered as she crossed out the last two items on her to-do list: return engagement ring; quit job.
She dropped the pen and shivered, pulling her cardigan tight. These were the first steps toward her new life. She should feel good. Confident. Certain.
Her head dropped to her desk blotter. Oh, who was she kidding? She didn’t know how to go forward, and she couldn’t go back. Or wouldn’t. Not after what she’d seen. Her fingertips pressed against her eyelids as if to blot out last night’s image. How could Brett deceive her that way?
Was she doing the right thing? She peered up at a family picture taken the summer before her parents divorced. Her older brother, Chris, smiled back at her from the photo, and tears blurred her vision. She straightened trembling shoulders. He wouldn’t have wanted her to be weak, even if last night had shattered her.
While Chris had cannonballed into the deep end of life, she’d always stuck to the shallow end, where her feet touched solid ground. Now she’d been tossed into untested waters, and she floundered off balance, expecting to sink at any moment.
A light knock sounded on her office door, and she pushed a snarled curl behind her ear before dabbing at last night’s mascara. “Come in!”
The door swung open, and her coworker and roommate, Gianna, peered around the edge. Her concerned face brought a stinging rush to Kayleigh’s eyes, and her nose burned. She waved Gianna inside and uncapped her water bottle. The long swallow did little to banish the dryness in her tight throat.
“Is it true?” Gianna threw her long coltish shape into a desk chair and leaned forward, her brown eyes searching Kayleigh’s. “About you and Brett?”
“How did you hear?” Despair swept through her. Kayleigh had just left her boss and fiancé’s vacant office. How could word have gotten out so quickly? She touched the empty space on her left ring finger, her stomach knotting.
“Pam. She found your resignation letter and ring.” Gianna nudged the tissue box closer. “The whole department is talking about it.”
A groan escaped her that Brett’s assistant had found the envelope. Now everyone would pity the woman whose life had imploded. “I marked the envelope private.”
Gianna squeezed Kayleigh’s hand. “Sweetie, in Pam-speak, private means open. You know that.”
Kayleigh kicked off her heels and hugged a knee to her chest, cursing herself for not thinking about that. But then, she hadn’t been thinking clearly. “I should have put it inside his desk...and padlocked it.” Gianna’s bark of laughter bolstered her. “Guess twenty-four hours without sleep plus jet lag makes you forgetful.”
Gianna’s razor-edged bob swung as she leaned closer and rested her elbows on top of Kayleigh’s desk—former desk, as her resignation was effective immediately. She gazed across the tastefully decorated room at the framed print of an Impressionist painting, its blurred strokes no longer coming into focus. None of this belonged to her anymore. It was the ghost of her former existence.
“Weren’t you supposed to fly back today?” Gianna glanced at Kayleigh’s desk calendar. “I wasn’t expecting you last night, or I would have guessed something was wrong when you didn’t show up at the apartment.”