Excerpt One
The story was outlandish.

At turns, both unbelievable and absurdly awful.

All the same, the story was true.

Leaning forward in her chair, her body braced as if for impact, Miranda Monroe watched as her words sank in. She canvassed the face before her. The high cheekbones tautening, those green eyes narrowing, clouding with confusion, with disbelief as they stared so questioningly back at her.

Waiting, Miranda carefully studied the face of Sam Church.

Her best friend and emotional benefactor. Her anchor.

He looked… gobsmacked, she decided. That was only to be expected. She turned her attention to the cocktail glass in front of her next; it was bleeding with condensation. Absently, Miranda stirred the quickly melting ice—but it was a lost cause. Especially since she had no intention of actually drinking her drink.

Probably should have been an odd choice, then, for her to end up at The Oasis Bar and Grill.

“That doesn’t—what are you talking about?”

Miranda smirked fatalistically as she peeked back up at Sam. “You know, I think those may have been my first words as well.”

“Noel got married.” His voice was incredulous.

“Mm. Yes. To Kourtney.”

“In New Hampshire?” He repeated.

“While on a business trip,” Miranda reminded him through numbed lips. All the same, the ache in her stomach intensified, restricted her breathing as she forced herself to relive the horror of those words again.

“Apparently,” she added, for good measure, “it seems that for the first time in his life, Noel decided to make an exceptionally grand gesture.”

Marry one woman while still dating (while still living with) another woman.

“Are you—are you okay?” A stupid question, to be sure, but Miranda couldn’t blame Sam for asking it. It was a hard situation for knowing what to say.

….

It was supposed to be her.

Miranda was supposed to be the one marrying Noel. (Granted, he hadn’t technically asked but it had been an unspoken though long-expected part of their future.) Four years; that’s how long they’d been together. Pictures of them dotted the walls and shelves of their apartment—a perfectly happy couple smiling back at the camera. Furniture they’d agonized over and purchased together filled every nook and cranny of the place—marking it theirs and theirs alone.

And then, in one instant, an instant in which she’d had no say, they simply, they simply weren’t dating anymore. She was left alone. He was left with someone else’s ring on his finger.

Tears misted Miranda’s eyes. A few slipped past her lids, inking down her face. She brushed them away impatiently, sniffed the rest back in place.

He’d never let on. Never let on that he’d fallen in love with his co-worker. Miranda’s teeth ground together as a picture of Kourtney floated before her eyes. Long, willowy frame; stylishly arranged dark hair always draped just so over her shoulder; large oval eyes with an open, honest face. The snake.

Miranda had liked Kourtney. She’d welcomed her into their home. Into their social circle. Stupid fool that she was, she’d thought nothing of her and Noel’s inside jokes or shared smiles. She’d chalked it up to professional camaraderie. Frankly, she’d enjoyed not having to listen to his lengthy stories about this client or that one—she’d enjoyed the reprieve from acronyms and talk of policies and procedures she knew nothing about. She’d been happy to let them carry on without her.

She just hadn’t realized then what that meant.

(This excerpt is an abridged version of what appears in the book.)

 

Excerpt Two

Just like that, Miranda announced her newly single status.

Greer was on her feet and moving in an instant. One hand slapping the door to her office closed, the other took Miranda by the elbow before forcibly sitting her down in one of the two chairs in the room. Between the shock of being manhandled by Greer and the realization that, at last, the news had broken, Miranda found a split second to be relieved: Greer hadn’t pulled a grotesquely sorrowed face as she’d hauled Miranda to a seat; indeed, she’d looked fierce. Protective even as she perched herself on the edge of her desk. “What happened?”

Leaning forward, Greer interrupted her own question: “Are you okay? Do you need a hug? I’m told I’m an excellent hugger. Only you’ve never appeared…well, it doesn’t matter. Would you like one now?”

Biting her lower lip, Miranda shook her head politely. Damned if she wasn’t on the verge of laughter. The opposite reaction she’d expected to have in this long-imagined moment. Then again, she was speaking to Greer. “I’m okay. Thank you.”

“What happened?” Greer asked again.

Miranda glanced down at her fingers, the nails of one hand chipping at those of the other. Her voice was low but blunt: “He found someone else.”

Greer sucked in a breath, one hand going instinctively against her heart at the words. “Oh. Oh, I’m so sorry, sister.”

“It gets worse. He, ah, he married her.”

Out of her peripheral vision, Miranda watched Greer’s eyes bulge. “Wait. What? I’m confused.”

“Join the club.”

“How long ago did you and he break up?”

“Ah.” Miranda inclined her head in understanding. “Yeah. After the fact.”

“You mean, he married someone else while still dating you?”

Miranda let out a breath. “Yup.”

“And you weren’t a throuple?”

Miranda rolled her eyes. “Definitely not. Nor were we in an open relationship, if you were going to ask that next.”

Greer looked ready to bite something. “What a dick.”

“Yeah.” Forcing her gaze to lift, to settle on Greer, Miranda gave the woman a tight look. “It’s rather…hard to talk about. For obvious reasons.”

“Lordy, ducks. I am so sorry.” At the words, Greer was off her desk and squatting down in front of Miranda. Reaching forward, she tipped Miranda’s chin up with her index finger. “Men are absolute beasts. Why do you think I’ve always gone for women?”

Miranda gave a watery chuckle.

 

 

Excerpt Three

“You know, maybe it was a good thing that I kissed you. Getting that old crush out of my system. Once and for all.”

“You had a crush on me?”

“Yeah. Sure. A long time ago,” Miranda stressed. Judging by the incredulity emblazoned upon his person, Sam had never once, not even in the most remote region of his mind, considered the possibility of them. Which meant he’d most certainly never once, not even in the slightest way, considered Miranda in that light.

Which was doing excellent things for her ego.

“When?”

“I don’t know. College, probably.”

Sam laughed. “You must have been really bad at flirting.”

Miranda gave him a look. “Cute.”

Sam laughed harder. But all he said, this time more to himself than anyone else was: “Well, well.”

Though her face felt too hot, Miranda doubled-down, playing her part to the hilt. “Hard to be so studly, huh?” She refused to be baited into talking seriously about this. She refused to let the conversation spiral any more out of control than it already had.

Sam scoffed. He picked up his fork, turned back to his breakfast. “Something like that.”

“You poor thing.”

Sam took another bite of his eggs. Miranda followed suit, picking up a piece of bacon. She was in the act of swallowing when he said: “Okay, but what happened on Friday? Don’t kid yourself. That’s not what it’s like to kiss me.”

Miranda was thankful she didn’t choke. She offered him a nervous flick of her eyes. Humor was etched across Sam’s lips and eyes but still… Miranda couldn’t shake the feeling that, underneath the shiny veneer of it, there was a shimmer of truth, of invitation embedded inside his words.

She gulped. From the moment she’d woken up the morning before, Miranda had lived in terror that she and Sam wouldn’t be able to bounce back from The Kiss; ten minutes ago, she’d been scared that she’d pushed it too fast and hard, trying to make an inside joke out of it too soon. What she hadn’t expected was that she’d tempt him.

Miranda wasn’t sure how to respond, what to say. The ground felt shaky and unfamiliar. So, she settled on something noncommittal. “Cocky.”

“Which showed impressive restraint on my part—”

“You’re a true gentleman.”

“Because you aren’t the only one who’s wondered.”

That stopped Miranda cold. Suddenly, she couldn’t catch her breath. Suddenly, she couldn’t seem to keep the façade going. “Huh?”

Impulsively, nervously, Miranda’s tongue flicked out of her mouth, running across her bottom lip. Her stomach seized when his eyes caught the action, when his mouth kicked out to one side in reaction. Something was happening between them. She could feel it crackling in the air around them.

“Sam?”

His eyes contracted at the quiver in her question, at the panic lining the letters of his name. A nerve ticked in his jaw, the veins in his neck stretching taut—alive with some unknowable emotion—but otherwise, his body remained perfectly still, seemingly frozen. And then, in a flash—a flash so quick Miranda would later have cause to wonder if she’d imagined the whole thing—his features smoothed out, Sam’s body relaxing in his seat. A low laugh floated out of his mouth. “I mean, sure. The thought probably crossed my mind once or twice. Then again, when we met, I was something of a horndog.”

Miranda blinked. Cleared her throat. Clung to the joke he’d set up for her. “Past tense?”

Sam grinned. Still there was something off in the way he spoke. In the way he wouldn’t look at Miranda. “Past tense.”

For the second time, she wasn’t sure how to respond—she wasn’t sure what, exactly, he meant by past tense? His horndoging ways or his thoughts about her? For the first time in memory, she found it difficult to verbally spar with him.

“Right, right,” Miranda murmured emptily. She wasn’t sure what else to say. Though she was the person who’d started this whole thing, nothing was going according to plan. She’d been trying to tease her way back into a sense of renewed normalcy between them but it’d backfired.

Sam had wondered about her? That wasn’t a renewed sense of anything.

He’d been flirting with her, too. She was almost sure of it. Not just friendly banter, either, but flirting with intent. 

Miranda had never encountered that Sam before—the one who made women practically throw their panties at him. Yeah, sure, she’d seen the effects of his charm in action, of his singular attention on other girls, but she’d never been caught in the web herself.

Which is exactly what happens when you play with fire. You get burned.

(For clarity, this excerpt has been edited/modified from what appears in the book.)

 

Excerpt Four

“I guess, I just figured… well, you’ve been working a lot of nights recently, so…” Taking a hurried sip of wine, Miranda hoped that hadn’t sounded quite as nagging as she suspected.

Sam yawned. “Yeah, Kellie was on vacation. Thank God, she’s back now.”

Miranda felt neatly put in her place. There she’d been thinking he’d stayed away this past week because of her. Between the roller rink and the kiss and…the palpable but unfamiliar tension mounting between them.

Except. Clearly, it hadn’t had quite the same effect on him as it had on her.

For some reason, that stung.

“Yeah? Where’d she go?” Though Miranda had only a passing acquaintance with Kellie, the twenty-something hot mess that Sam had hired a few years ago as his mainstay night bartender, she’d always rather enjoyed that girl’s rough-edged but honest lifestyle.

“She and some girlfriends went down to Florida. Something about a celebratory breakup for one of them,” Sam commented dryly. “Only Kellie.”

“Booze and debauchery,” Miranda added, swirling her drink. The night was becoming softly feathered at the edges, thanks to the alcohol. Just enough to bring a hint of rosiness to her cheeks and a feeling of calm to her senses.

Sam laughed at the comment. “Yeah, from what she said, the girls got kicked out of one nightclub for starting a fight and another one for trying to buy drugs.”

“You know, I could almost feel envious.”

Sam shot her a suspicious glance. “Yeah?”

“Sure,” Miranda said. Snuggling down more firmly in her chair, she shrugged. “It’s vibrant at least.”

“Getting booted from bars?”

“Maybe not classy,” she was quick to amend. “But it’s…filled with the heartbeat of lively living.”

“Feeling old, Miranda?” he chided.

“Not old, exactly,” she considered. “Just…tame.” Greer’s words came back to taunt her in that moment. She was a woman who lived life safely. Even when she’d been being daring and adventurous in her life with Noel, she’d only done it to follow along with everyone else. She’d done it because it’d been expected and that was actually far less daring than saying no.

Reaching over, Sam tugged on her ear. “Well, now I think you’re forgetting a few things about your own past, there missy.”

“Please,” Miranda said, waving her free hand in the air meaninglessly. “I never did anything even remotely rebellious. I’m a librarian for goodness’ sake.”

Sam was quiet for a moment. “You don’t want to be a librarian?”

“No. No, that’s not what I meant.”

“You wish you had a DUI on your record?”

Miranda gave him a sharp look. “Obviously not.”

“So, what do you wish?”

“I wish…” Miranda took a deep breath and then admitted: “I wish I dared to risk things more.”

Throwing an arm over her shoulders, Sam tugged her closer to his chest. “You know what I think?”

“What’s that?”

“That you’re great exactly the way you are.”

“Aww. Thanks, Ma.”

“Seriously,” Sam argued, dousing the lighthearted moment with a note of earnestness. “You’re always so determined to reinvent yourself that I think you forget how awesome you are, just being you.”

Mildly offended, Miranda escaped out from under his embrace. “I’ll have you know I think I’m more than just awesome. I’m the very cat’s meow. And what do you mean, reinvent myself?”

“I mean, sometimes I think you don’t know exactly who you are.”

Miranda gave him a knowing look. “Let me guess, this have something to do with me and Noel?”

“You were bored, Miranda.”

She blinked. “You think I was bored in my relationship?” That seemed like a bold, biting thing to say.

“I think you were bored in the life you’d built with him.”

“Wow.” Yet even as she swallowed the hurled insult, a small voice in the back of Miranda’s mind wondered if Sam wasn’t right. Otherwise, how could she have missed the signs of what was happening between Noel and Kourtney? How could her friends have so easily dumped her, left her behind? How had Sam been able to so quickly take up prominence in her thoughts? Shouldn’t it have been harder?

(For clarity, this excerpt has been edited/modified from what appears in the book.)