The Resolution Pact collaboration is the first of 2019 and with everything we have planned I think it’s going to be one hell of a year. I can’t wait to experience everything it’s going to bring.
Of course as well as my writing partners I have a team of people I need to thank. Deanna, Lindsay and Tracy, thank you so much for dropping everything and beta reading this for me while you were knee deep in Christmas prep. Your support and feedback keeps me going.
Michelle, once again thank you for editing this last minute for me. It seems to be becoming a little tradition, keep an eye out, there’s going to be more!
And last but never least, my husband and daughter for putting up with me working on this throughout Christmas and not complaining…too much!
Find our favourite authors in one place!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookhangoverlounge/
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Experience the other resolutions now!
Resolution: Baby Batter by Frankie Love http://smarturl.it/BabyBatter19
Resolution: Baby Fever by Kim Loraine http://smarturl.it/BabyFever
Resolution: Bad Girl by Angel Devlin http://smarturl.it/BadGirl19
Resolution: Double Dare by Dee Ellis http://smarturl.it/DoubleDare19
Resolution: Eating In by Tessa Blake http://smarturl.it/EatingIn
Resolution: Exposure by Tracy Lorraine http://smarturl.it/Exposure19
Resolution: First Kiss by Kelli Callahan http://smarturl.it/FirstKiss19
Resolution: Free Fall by Fiona Starr http://smarturl.it/FreeFall19
Resolution: G String by Olivia Hawthorne http://smarturl.it/GString
Resolution: Good Text bu Deana Farrady http://smarturl.it/GoodText
Resolution: Road Trip by Sierra Hill http://smarturl.it/RoadTrip19
Resolution: Rock Out by Alexis Adaire http://smarturl.it/RockOut19
Resolution: Snow Job by Laney Powell http://smarturl.it/SnowJob
Resolution: Take Off by Dori Lavelle http://smarturl.it/TakeOff19
Resolution: Wanderlust by Rebecca Gallo http://smarturl.it/Wanderlust19
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Tracy Lorraine is a M/F and M/M contemporary romance author. Tracy has just turned thirty and lives in a cute Cotswold village in England with her husband, baby girl and lovable but slightly crazy dog. Having always been a bookaholic with her head stuck in her Kindle, Tracy decided to try her hand at a story idea she dreamt up and hasn’t looked back since.
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Falling Series
Falling for Ryan: Part One #1
Falling for Ryan: Part Two #2
Falling for Jax #3
Falling for Daniel (An Falling Series Novella)
Falling for Ruben #4
Falling for Fin #5
Falling for Lucas #6
Falling for Caleb #7
Falling for Declan #8
Falling For Liam #9 Coming Jan 2019
Chasing Series
Chasing Logan
Ruined Series
Ruined Plans #1
Ruined by Lies #2
Ruined Promises #3
Never Forget Series
Never Forget Him #1
Never Forget Us #2
Everywhere & Nowhere #3
The Cocktail Girls
His Manhattan
The Halloween Honeys
His Sorority Sweetheart
Second Helpings
Cheeky Trifle
Falling For Ryan
Falling Series #1
Keep reading for a sneak peek at my friends to lovers duet and the first book in my contemporary romance Falling series.
Chapter 1
Molly
It’s now midnight and I’ve been sat here on Ryan’s doorstep for nearly an hour. Although it was a scorching summer’s day, the heat has now worn off, the clouds have gathered, and it is lumping it down with rain. I’m trying to tuck myself into his little porch to stop me getting so wet, but with the wind direction it’s not doing much good. I’m soaked though. I’m thinking now that it was a silly idea to pick white t-shirts when I rebranded the coffee shop; thank God for padded bras so everything can’t be seen through the wet material.
By the time I’d cleaned and locked up the coffee shop, it was just gone ten. I love working at Cocoa’s and have done since I was sixteen. Hannah and Emma’s parents own it. Susan started the business after she finished university. She came into some inheritance and with the money Cocoa’s was born. The place was a huge part of my childhood. Hannah, Emma and I would go there after school to do homework or just chat about boys, and it pretty much stayed that way until we finished university. We still have a booth in the back corner dedicated to us.
I will forever be grateful for Susan and her husband Pete, who she actually met as a customer in Cocoa’s. It was love at first sight for them; not only did they give me a job, but they had taken me under their wing when I was much younger. They are wonderful people and I wish they were my parents.
Megan, who works in the evenings, had a phone call from her boyfriend at eight o’clock saying their little boy was really sick. I let her go home to be with him and finished up the rest of the night on my own.
Once I got in my car to drive home, all I could think about was having a nice hot bath with a glass of wine and snuggling into my bed. I live in a tiny one bed flat with my boyfriend Max. We’ve have been together on and off for the past three years, but when Hannah, who I had lived with above the coffee shop, decided eight months ago she wanted her boyfriend to move into the flat, I decided it was time I moved out and left them to it. Max had suggested I move in with him. I wasn’t thrilled by the idea to be honest, but at the time I didn’t have the energy to sort out finding a place to live. I hate being alone. I would have had to find someone who was renting out a room anyway, so it seemed like a sensible suggestion and I guess a logical step in our relationship.
So a week after I made the decision, we all moved. Me into Max’s flat, and Hannah’s boyfriend into the one she and I had shared for the past six years. Emma also lived with us for three of those but when she decided to stay on at university and do her Masters, she moved back home to save money. Not that it was a huge issue for her, as her parents owned the flat and refused to take any rent from us, but she was happier going home.
The short ten-minute drive to our flat seemed to take forever. I pulled up out the front and thought it was weird to be parking next to Max’s car. He had worked nights the whole time I’d known him, and I was expecting him to be working tonight. They were always messing about with his shifts so they had obviously changed it again at the last minute.
I dragged my body up the stairs to the third floor and let myself in. I shut the door behind me and saw that the only light on was coming from the bedroom. My heart dropped into my stomach when I heard voices and strange noises coming from down the hallway. As quietly as I could, I tiptoed towards the room so I could see what was going on.
When I got to the door, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Now, I knew Max was no angel, but I was under the impression that we had put the past behind us when we decided to live together and had become a monogamous couple. Yes, the past few months had been a strain, but still. What was happening before my eyes on our bed showed me clearly how wrong I was.
I needed to get out of there as soon as possible, so I slipped back down the hallway
, grabbed a couple of pairs of knickers that, luckily for me, were drying on the radiator, and I got out of the flat immediately.
I tried to keep myself together as I made a pit stop at a shop on my way to Ryan’s house. I didn’t want to be one of those crying emotional women standing down the alcohol aisle, trying to decide which bottle will numb her pain the best.
Once I paid for two bottles of my favourite wine and a crate of lager for Ryan, I made my way over to his new house. He only moved in two weeks ago, although it was months ago that he made the decision to buy the three-story town house in the new development that was going up on the outskirts of the city. It was basically a pile of bricks when he took me with him to see it for the first time, but I could see why he had fallen in love with it from the moment I saw the plot and the plans. It was going to be a modern spacious house, with amazing views across fields from the back, but from the front you could see all the lights from the city in the distance. Because it was yet to be finished, it meant Ryan had the chance to choose a lot of the interior to suit his taste. This was perfect for him, as he didn’t want to spend his whole summer decorating and making the house his home.
I parked around the back of the house by the garage so that when Ryan got home, he could still park in his usual spot out the front. This meant having to wait for him at his front door, which was fine until the weather changed.
When I’d text him earlier in the day to wish him a good last day of term, he said he was going out for a meal with his colleagues this evening but it wouldn’t be a late one as a number of his work mates were going on holiday together and their plane was stupidly early in the morning, so they had a curfew. As it’s now midnight, I’m guessing that didn’t really go to plan.
I’m starting to think I should have gone somewhere else. It’s not that I don’t have any other options but out of all my friends and family Ryan knows me the best, what we have been through this year has made us close. I think I could say he’d turned into my best friend somewhere in the last six months. I hope he feels the same and lets me stay.
The longer I sit here, the more I think that maybe I should have stayed in my car, but then I remember the layout of the house wouldn’t allow me to see when he’s back, and I really don’t want to spend the night in my car. I love my little KA, it’s been great for the past two years, but it really isn’t a suitable bed.
So I continue to wait him out, sitting here soaking wet and freezing cold with the images of what was happening on my bed flashing though my head. It’s not like I didn’t expect it to happen eventually. I’d had my suspicions for a while. I don’t even love Max; hell, I’m not even sure I really like him. I’m just so disappointed in myself for letting it happen, all because of my need to be loved and cared for.
Eventually, the tears that I was holding in come flooding out, so to add to my misery I now have black mascara streaks running down my cheeks and red puffy eyes.
Finally, I see headlights coming my way and Ryan’s white Honda Civic pulling on to his drive. At first, he looks shocked to see me, then he starts to look angry as he makes his way towards me. Maybe I did make the wrong decision coming here.
Continue reading: Falling For Ryan
Resolution: Exposure (A Resolution Pact Short Story) Page 4
