Time or Money
Carly Fall
Release Date: February 11
Valentine’s Day Collection Tour – My World
Stop - Feb 13
Blog Tour
February 11 – February 20, 2013
Collection Summary:
Sometimes
Valentine’s Day is not all hearts and roses …
Love
Sucks … until it doesn’t!
A collection of individual short stories where the
most romantic day of the year redeems itself … eventually.
There are two male/female contemporary romance
stories and two male/male contemporary romance stories. To be released on the
four days leading up to Valentine’s Day.
Time or Money
Summary:
Mason Jackson knows his marriage to Bridget
is in trouble. He’s been putting in exhausting hours for months to try to make
partner in his accounting firm. He knows that it is putting a strain on his
marriage, but he has trouble escaping the memory of the poverty of his childhood.
He never wants his wife, or the children they yearn for, to know the struggle
that he endured when he can provide a better life for them. But things are
reaching breaking point; he and Bridget are more like roommates than a married
couple. He needs to think of a way to get their marriage back on track and what
better way than to make Valentine's Day, Bridget's favorite holiday of the
year, a new start for their marriage? Mason puts in place plans for an
elaborate evening designed to surprise Bridget.
Bridget is miserable in her marriage, and
often longs for the days when they were dirt poor. They may have struggled
financially, but at least she had her husband around. Mason is always working,
and Bridget feels that he has chosen his work over her. She’s tried to talk to
him about the way she feels, but he doesn’t seem to hear her. He just keeps
telling her that once he makes partner then everything will be all right. But
Bridget is sick of Mason forgetting the things that are important to her … like
their anniversary a few months ago. She is at the end of her tether and decides
that if he forgets Valentine’s Day, her favorite day of the year, then divorce
just might be on the cards.
At the end of the day, this couple has only one decision to make: Time
or Money?
Excerpt:
Mason Jackson finished with the last loop of his striped blue and black
tie and shimmied the knot up to his throat. He ran his hands over his gray
button-down shirt and tucked it into his black pants.
Mason studied his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were blue; the same
ocean blue as in his tie, and his thick, black hair needed a trim. There were a
few gray hairs at his temples. He reached for the tweezers to pluck them out.
He wasn’t quite ready for the older, distinguished gentleman look yet.
His nose bent slightly off-center, the result of a break when he played
high school football, and his just-shaved skin was tanned from weekends on the
golf course. He stood at six foot two, and his wife had described him as
“ruggedly good looking.” What that meant, he wasn’t sure, but as long as she
was happy with it, so was he.
Not quite as muscular as he had been in his twenties, at thirty-five he
was trim and looked pretty good; there wasn’t a sign of that gut that seemed to
plague many of his male friends and colleagues who were the same age. Even with
his grueling work schedule as a chartered accountant, he managed to find time
to exercise a few times a week.
Checking his watch, he figured he would make it to the office by seven.
He was trying to make partner at his financial firm, and had been told that the
more hours he put in and the more money he made for the firm, the better his
chances. So for the past six months, he had been getting to the office early
each morning and staying late.
He turned and looked at his bed where his wife, Bridget, or Ms. B, as he
sometimes called her, slept soundly, oblivious to his gaze. Wrapped up beneath
the dark-brown comforter in the fetal position, and looking as if she were
trying to avoid the approaching morning, she reminded him of Pigs in a Blanket,
his favorite breakfast from his childhood.
She definitely wasn’t a morning person. The sunlight that was starting
to peek through the blinds glistened off her short, blonde hair. It looked a
little lighter than usual, but he hadn’t noticed until now. He wondered when
she had gotten it colored and chastised himself for not seeing the change
sooner.
As Mason stared at the shining tips, he smiled as he remembered the
first time he had laid eyes on her, which was at an AC/DC concert of all
places. She was seated two rows ahead of him and had caught his eye right away.
During the concert he had paid little attention to the band, his focus being on
her and her then long, blonde hair that swayed across the middle of her back as
she danced. At some point during the concert she turned around and smiled at
him. When their eyes met, he knew he was a goner. After the concert, he asked
her out, and they had been inseparable from then on. A year later they were
married, and she had given him the surprise of his life on their wedding day
when she had all of her hair cut off into the sexy blonde spikes she wore now.
He loved the short hair more than the long, blonde waves.
His smile faded as he thought, yet again, about how long it had been
since they’d spent any quality time together. They hadn’t made love in over two
months. Their respective jobs kept them both so busy; it seemed like there
wasn’t time to do anything but work, eat, sleep, and do it all over again the
next day.
He’d been at the office until nine the previous night and had come home
exhausted. He and Bridget had a stilted conversation in the kitchen about their
days for ten minutes over a glass of wine, and then they had gone to bed. Mason
was asleep within seconds. It seemed as though if they weren’t arguing, they
had trouble talking about anything. There was so much tension and strain in the
relationship, he felt like he had to be careful with every word that came out
of his mouth. Frankly, sometimes it was just easier to not say anything at all.
Right now they were more roommates than a married couple, and roommates
that weren’t getting along very well. There wasn’t the connection that they
used to share.
Marveling at how far they had grown apart, he recalled the first months
of their marriage when they lived in a small studio apartment. They were happy
with macaroni and cheese for dinner, boxes of wine, and each other. He looked
around the huge bedroom with its expensive Southwest decor; done in warm
browns, rust colors, and deep yellows. The travertine floors gleamed white. It
was about the size of the small apartment he grew up in. He was proud of his
success and having risen above the poverty that plagued his childhood, but as
he stared back at his wife, he felt utter loneliness shudder through him.
Mason loved Bridget now more than the day he married her five years ago,
and he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. His heart literally hurt to
think about that scenario. However, he did know that something had to give in
the relationship. They had to find some way to reconnect, to become a couple
again. Four years ago they had talked about starting a family, and he still
wanted that. But for a family to happen there had to be a set of loving
parents.
If they kept this up, Mason knew they were destined for a divorce that
he didn’t want.
He sighed, running his hand through his hair. Yes, they needed some time
to talk, some time to get reacquainted and, dammit, he needed to get his hands
on her sweet little body and make love to her.
Buying Details:
The
list price for each book in the collection is $1.99, however all books in the collection will be discounted by
25% for the duration of the blog tour, and until the end of February, when
purchased on the BDP website, using this discount code: bdpvdttommw01
Author Profile:
Carly
Fall is a wife, a mother and a slave to Nicky the dog.
She loves to laugh, and thinks
chocolate and wine should be considered their own food group. She also wishes
Christmas happened twice a year.
Three years ago, she decided to
take a break from writing business material and dip her toe in the fiction
pond, and has loved watching her imagination come to life on the page. She is
the author of contemporary and fantasy romance.
Website Link: www.CarlyFall.com
A little about the
other books in the Valentine’s Day Collection:
February 12 - A New Dream by C.
J. Baty
C.J. Baty with her first published
work, A New Dream, gives us a glimpse
into the world of competitive skiing and what happens when one man's Olympic
dreams are shattered. Can Walt find something new to dream about in Curt, the
latest act playing at the ski resort? (m/m romance)
February 13 - The Gift by
Elise Marion
Elise Marion brings us back into the
glittering world of Avery & Dom from The
Secret Life of Avery O'Dea in The
Gift. Avery has always thought that Dom knew her better than anyone else.
Does the gift he buys her this Valentine's Day show that he really has no idea
at all?
February 14 - An Unexpected Party by
Henrietta Clarke
Henrietta Clarke introduces us to a tale of
misconceptions, a mother in denial, and some serious baggage in An Unexpected Party. Meet Peregrine and
Merry, two unlikely souls who meet at a speed-dating event. Problem: Peregrine
is very much in demand with the ladies, although he seems to be having trouble
tearing his attention away from a certain gorgeous waiter for the night. (m/m
romance)
Something about the
publisher:
Bottom Drawer Publications is a new publishing
house that specialises in romantic and erotic romance fiction across a range of
genres, with both het and gay characters. Our genres include: Contemporary,
Historical, Literary/Drama, Alternative Lifestyles, Paranormal/Sci-fi/Fantasy,
Mystery/Thriller and Steampunk.
Our books are
available for sale on our website as well as over 8 booksellers, including:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBookstore, All Romance, Rainbow eBooks, and
a range of others. All reading devices are catered for with a comprehensive
range of formats.
We are always on the
lookout for fresh and interesting manuscripts within these genres, and from
time to time will put out calls for anthology submissions.
Visit our website: http://www.bottomdrawerpublications.net for our new release
information and our writing submission guidelines.
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