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I love spring, with the land waking out of its winter sleep as the sun’s warmth and spring rains bring new life and flowers bursting out everywhere. The itch to work in the garden to dig and weed and plant begins again and the trips to the garden center resume. Of course, spring also brings on the allergies and thunderstorms, and the weather swings madly: one moment you need to break out the short sleeves and sandals, the next, a parka and snow shovel, or a raincoat. But it’s all worth it as the grass greens, daffodils nod, and the trees flush into masses of white and pinks and sharp, fresh green.
Spring also brings me happy memories of love. My husband proposed to me in the spring, casually, over the Easter dinner I’d made him, by asking who’d I’d like in the wedding party. (He followed this up with a proper proposal on one knee on the beach that summer.) We married the next year on a cool spring day filled with soft showers of morning rain and bright afternoon sunshine and the dogwoods in bloom.
While my spicy contemporary romance Clear As Day takes place in the desert heat of summer, love is most definitely in bloom and faced with the weather changes and squalls of life. Kay Browning and Nate Quinn may have been friends with benefits over the past six years, but Nate’s ready for more. He believes love is forever, and Kay is his forever. But for Kay, love is only true in fairytales and friendship is all she will admit to as she hides the pain she carries from her past from everyone. Nate’s faced with just how hard loving can be and Kay finds denying love doesn’t keep it from happening to her. They now need to learn to really talk and listen to one another, take risks, and truly trust, if their friendship is to survive and the love they’d always shared grow and have a future.
Kay and Nate’s story debuted on April 4, 2012, from The Wild Rose Press and is available now in paperback and ebook. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. Thanks for visiting with me here at Guilty Pleasures.
Blurb:
What’s a girl to do when her summer lover wants forever?
Haunted by dark memories of her parents’ volatile marriage, artist Kay Browning keeps her heart locked behind a free-spirit facade and contents herself with the comfortable affair she has every summer with easygoing photographer Nate Quinn.
The only trouble with her plan? This summer Nate’s come to Lake Mohave to claim the lover he can’t let go. He’s done with the endless traveling and settling for temporary homes and temporary loves. Kay’s always been more than just a vacation fling, and now he must convince this woman, who sees love as a course to certain heartbreak, to take that leap of faith and learn how safe love with the right man can be.
Excerpt:
“Kay!” That male voice was not her imagination.
“Oh, shit!” She twisted and dropped into the water, sinking neck-deep.
Mother always said, among other things, that a lady never goes skinny-dipping and must always wear a proper hat. Kay was only half skinny-dipping, but she fervently wished she’d worn something a bit more substantial than a baseball cap and the bottom half of the quintessential teeny-weenie yellow polka-dot bikini.
Shit, oh, shit, oh, shit. She so hated when Mother was right.
Okay, time to find out who’d just gotten an eyeful. The guy had called her name, so she should know him. Oh boy, if she’d flashed old George…
She wiped water from her face, sucked in a breath against her pounding heart, and peeked around.
Nate.
She must be sun-dazed. Nate? With a beard? Hair curling over his ears? No way.
Just because a familiar slouchy fishing hat topped those unruly, sun-bleached blond curls and just because this guy possessed the same deep-water tan and footloose taste in clothes as Nate with his electric blue Hawaiian shirt, bright orange swim trunks, and beat-up deck shoes didn’t mean—
“Hey, babe. Now that I’ve finally caught your attention, how about a hug from my girl?” He opened his arms. “Am I coming in after you or are you coming out?” Only Nate’s voice held that mellow timbre like chocolate for her ears.
“Nate! What…” Giddy delight flushed over Kay, clearing her shock. She dashed from the water and into strong arms, a wonderful hug, and a better kiss that launched her mind into a blissed-out whirl of oh, yes and why?
The oh, yes won out until the need to breathe forced them apart.
Nate gave her a long look, his usually easy gray eyes holding a new, simmering heat.
Wow. Whoa.
Clear As Day is available at The Wild Rose Press, Amazon, All Romance Ebooks, and more links will be coming here: More Buy Links.
About Babette:
Babette James writes contemporary and fantasy romance and loves reading nail-biting tales with a satisfying happily ever after. When not dreaming up stories, she enjoys playing with new bread recipes and dabbling with paints. A teacher, she loves encouraging new readers and writers as they discover their growing abilities. Her class cheers when it’s time for their spelling test! She lives in New Jersey with her wonderfully patient husband and three extremely spoiled cats.
You can find Babette at:
Her website: http://babettejames.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BabetteJames
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BabetteJamesAuthor
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Loved the post, I love spring too!
My favorite memory of love blooming for me would have to be a man I fell in love with that I worked with. We saw each other every day for a few months and eventually he asked me out and while the relationship didn’t last forever it did last for a couple of years and I still remember him fondly.
Hmmm love blooming… I’d have to say my first love took me away for the weekend to Atlantic city then up to Bushkill falls. He made me feel special and it was the turning point in the relationship to serious blooming love. It ‘s a trip ill never forget.
It was spring time when i first met my husband 🙂
reginamayross@gmail.com
Love blooming- I met my husband in Prison- Iwas anurse and he was a guard. My friendthat I worked with said -when you go to the cellblock askfor Bis and the question for the day was. Are you going to cover my ass when the shit hits the fans (meaninjg a problem in the cell block)- His response was absolutely and he supervised my sick call with the inmates that day. It was September, but it was a beautiful spring-like day in N.Y. Some of the stories I could tell-I worked at Attica Prison.
I went to Paris with my college boyfriend and after we returned home, he picked me up from work and then told me to look in the glove box. Inside was a bottle of Channel No. 5. Love bloomed for me that day!
I remember I was leaving work after working a double shift. It has snowed and my car was covered and plowed in. This guy that I liked came over and helped me uncover and shovel. He asked me out and we went for a late dinner. The relationship lasted several months.
e.balinski(at)att(dot)net
Aww the crush I had on one of the boys in the neighborhood =)
I college I slowly feel in love with my best friend. I didn’t even realize it until one day we started planning our honeymoon. I do love love! jepebATverizonDOTnet
Love blooming…The first trip my husband and I took alone with no kids…to Vegas. It was more like love rediscovering. I loved it!
Mel
bournmelissa at hotmail dot com
An actual blooming of love – I was studying in Paris and one of my classmate and I really got along. After the month long class, I stayed behind in Paris and he returned to Puerto Rico. While we really liked each other and kept in touch for a while, we never felt that intoxication as we did in Paris – it’s just a magical city…
Nice excerpt. It was when we first met at school.
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
I don’t think I had “a blossoum of Spring” romance, but I had a couple of great summer romances, that lasted far into the year…
Great book.. I like the “friends with benifits” story.. Look forward to reading it.
superauntkx8_(at)live(dot)ca
No spring romance but an autumn one.
Enjoyed the excerpt. Sounds like a good story. Spring is one of my favorite seasons. However I have never had a crush or romance that started in Spring. Lol most of my relationships started in the fall.
Definitely love the butterflies in my tummy feeling whenever I see him that’s a fond memory for me!!!!
Love in Bloom… I remember him reaching out to grab my hand so I would not fall…we talked the rest of the evening. It was like we had already known each other for years but at the same time everything was new. We are two peas in a pod, my cosmic twin and I. 🙂
Phoenix
PhoenixCarvelli(at)gmail(dot)com
I loved the spring post! My love in bloom story involves my husband of 10 years. We met online and it took me forever to finally meet him in person. We met in a very public place and he brought me 2 dozen roses. I was 26 and he was the only man that had ever bought me flowers. It wasn’t soon after that he met my family and the rest is history with 4 kids. lol
Love blooming…that ‘all consuming, heart pounding, can’t think of anything or anyone else…gotta see him NOW or I’ll die’ first high school love. GAH…remember those?
barbbattaglia @ yahoo.com
My Memory would be the day i met my husband when we saw each other we knew we would be together forever. my email is butterfli262002@yahoo.com
My best memory is of my high school sweetheart, he went to another school about an hour up the freeway. We met at a track meet when he stopped me from stepping into the path of runners while I was on crutches. But when he knew I loved unicorns he would draw me beautiful pictures and write poems to go with them. Sigh
Z
No spring romance for me-I wish. Sounds like a great book.
E. Thompson
thompsonem3(at)aol(dot)com
I just wanted to thank everyone for your wonderful comments and hope you enjoy reading Clear As Day! And thanks so much to Guilty Pleasures for having me!
Thank you Babette for the great post!
Thanks to all who stopped by and left comments =)
Congratulations to reginamayross you are the winner of Babette’s post!