by Ines Vieira
I need to thank my beta reader Tonia Kiene for her honest and intuitive feedback. Especially concerning the Epilogue, having Isaac’s point of view made it all come together beautifully.
I have to thank my ‘buddy’, Elisa Silveira, my French Connection and beautiful beta reader. Nina, you were essential in making my dreams come true with all the hard work you put into this book. I can never repay you for the encouragement that you gave me these past nine months. Even though we are countries apart, I am honored to have you as one of my best friends.
To my copywriter Carol Tietsworth, I applaud your efficiency and dedication. Even though you had so much on your plate, you still made time for me and this labor of love. Saying thank you just doesn’t seem quite enough.
To my girls; From the ones that I grew up with to the ones that I see day to day: Dineia Pereira, Vanessa Agapito, Sara do Vale, Teresa Rebello, Irene Almeida, Sara Adamo, Saná Jussab, Jeanne Gonçalves, Catia Vargas, Claudia ‘Zaga‘, Anita Foxall and Alexandra Correia, what can I say? I love you all and you remind me every day that strong women prevail. You all have a permanent place in my heart.
To my beloved Mariagrazia Sammartino, thank you for letting me borrow your last name. In my vision, Sammartino’s needed to be elegant, sophisticated and exquisite. You are without a doubt one of the classiest women I know, so I hope I’ve done your surname the justice it deserves.
I would also like to thank all the wonderful writers that have inspired me and have made me live numerous lifes just by opening one of their books; Diana Gabaldon, Leylah Attar, L.H. Cosway, L. J. Shen, Amy Harmon, Kim Holden, J.J.McAvoy, Colleen Hoover, Elle Kennedy, Abbi Glines, Cora Brent, Linda Kage, Leisa Rayven, Reneé Ahdieh, Jamie Maguire, Jay Crownover, Alessandra Torre, Mia Sheridan, Melanie Harlow, Vi Keeland, Penny Reid, Penelope Ward, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Kristen Ashley, Jen Frederick, and Helen Hunting. Ladies, I am in awe of you!
Now, I would like to thank the people that have kept me sane through all this.
To my sister, Eli Colles, can you believe it? I knew you did, but I had my doubts. Thank you for not letting me give into them. You kept me lucid, even if only with a quick text, “Are you there?” LOL! Yeah, Babe, I’m always here! We will grow old together in some retirement home and be the life of the party! Thank you for knowing what I was always thinking even without saying the words.
Thank you to my family, my brothers, my sisters in law and nephews and niece, I love you all, but I especially need to thank the woman that gave me life in more ways than one, my mother. This book was very dear to me. I have tried to write all my life and nothing ever seemed good enough. It was only when I focused on a mother’s love and the love children have for their mothers did this story come to life. I will never be able to show my mother just how proud I am for being her daughter, but I hope that this is a start. Amo-te muito mãe.
I have thanked the women in my life, now I need to thank the men. The two men that have made life worth living.
To my beautiful baby boy, Sean. Thank you for your patience. It broke my heart every time that I had to tell you just five more minutes because mommy is writing. There will never be anything more important in my life than you Sean, and I hope that I can make you as proud of me as I am of you. You are my heart.
To my partner in life, Nuno ‘Noka’ Silva. From day one you believed in me most of all. That belief made me stronger, you make me stronger. I can face anything as long as you are by my side. You drive me insane and I make you crazy, but being with you have been the best years of my life. ‘Without you I’m nothing’ You are my soul.
Now, there is only one more thanks that I need to give out, but it's also the most important one. To the big guy upstairs. Lord, you have always had my back. I know that sometimes I’m not the easiest child, but you always seem to show me the way. Thank you for giving me the courage to go after the things I want in life, and giving me faith that you are always with me at every turn. I feel blessed and humbled. You are my rock.
Can't wait to see what else you’ve got planned.
Hope you enjoyed “When Life Gets in the Way”.
Here is a sneak peak on the upcoming books in this series:
When Sh*t Gets in the Way
When Hate Gets in the Way
For more news and updates on these books, follow me on:
www.facebook.com/InesVieiraAuthor
http://inesgvieira.wix.com/author
WHEN SH*T GETS IN THE WAY
JessQuaid
Crap!
Crap!
Mutha Effing Crap!
If I knew he was my ride, I would have found other means of transport. How the hell could I have guessed that Quaid was the one that I would have to spend the next four hours with, in a car, alone, all the way to Plymouth? I should have known. It was just too good to be true that I was able to get a ride straight home from Columbia without it being freaking Quaid Stevens. I had gotten his phone number off one of the college carpooling bulletin boards, and in no way, shape or form did it ever occur to me that it could be him. It didn’t even mention his name. Only his number. Even the texts that we sent back and forth gave no inclination that it could have been him. He had always signed it with a Q, which I thought might have been short for Quentin, or Quincy, never Plymouth’s home-grown pride and joy Quaid Stevens.
Crap! Mutha Effing Crap! My face must have shown my displeasure because the second Quaid laid eyes on me, it was clear that he wasn’t pleased either. I heard him mumble something under his breath and then walk over with the same sunken expression as I must have been wearing.
“Jessica, I presume?” he said not concealing his annoyance.
“Q,” I said matching his disdain.
“It’s Quaid actually.”
“Oh, I remember,” I said still irritated by the idea of having to actually go through with this. Money was tight and if I wanted to save a couple of bucks to get home for Christmas break, hitching a ride with Quaid was my only option.
“Do you, now? I really didn’t think I made much of an impression,” he said sarcastically with one of his eyebrows lifted, almost reaching his scalp.
“You didn’t, but it’s kind of hard not knowing who everyone is in Plymouth growing up. Too small a town.”
“I see you’re still a pleasure as always, Jessica. Although the opinionated girl I remember from back home was called Jess,” he said as he grabbed his bags and put them in the back of his trunk.
“Humph! I prefer Jessica now.” Opinionated... Like he knows anything about me. Opinionated my ass.
“Jessica it is then. Any other changes that I should know about?”
“I doubt that anything related to me should ever be a concern to you, Q. So no, no changes that you should be aware of.
“Never did like me much, did you Jess? He smirks back at me.
“Nope.” Never liked perfection and that’s exactly what Quaid Stevens was. Perfect. With his perfect hair and his perfect eyes, perfect flawless skin and chiseled shoulders. No, perfect people were a lie in my book, which means Quaid Stevens is nothing but a perfect deception. I never trusted perfect.
“Sure you still want a ride, then?” He said with his hands pushed into his front pockets looking like he would rather eat gravel than to spend the next four hours with me. For some reason, pissing Quaid off had officially made my day. Even if by some miracle I could afford to flake out on this arrangement, I would have gone anyway just to get on his last nerve.
“Yep,” I sneered and made my way to the back of the car to place my own bags inside. I heard him breathe out heavily and mumble something else under his breath.
« Mumble away Quaid. You’re stuck with me. »
Unfortunately, this meant that I was stuck with him too.
WHEN HATE GETS IN THE WAY
NickChloe
Chloe age 10
“Sorry guys, but I had to bring my little sister along. My parents are out and Gran is at one of her beloved poker games,” Ronnie says e
xasperated.
“That’s okay. Hi Chloe, do you want to stay here with us and watch some TV while we study, or do you want to go upstairs and bug Nicky?” Cass sweetly lowers herself to make eye contact with me.
Cass has always been my favorite of Ronnie’s friends. She doesn’t treat me like a ten-year-old brat like my big sister does.
“I’ll prefer to see what Nicky’s up to if that’s okay?”
“Sure sweetie, go on up. He might be with his earphones on, so just knock hard.” She winks.
When I reach Nicky’s room, the door is closed just as Cass predicted, but I don’t knock. I just let myself in since I know that this annoys him. Nicky is at his desk scribbling yet again. I never met a boy that loves to doodle as much as he does. I bounce on the bed and that gets his attention.
“What the hell, Chloe? I told you already, you gotta knock!” He says this every time, but I know that he loves it when I don’t listen and just do what I want anyway.
“What are you doing?”
“Drawing a picture for mom. It’ll be her birthday next week and I want to get her portrait right.” I stand up and look over his shoulder and sure enough, he has drawn every perfect detail of his mom’s face.
“It looks nothing like her.” I tease, but my smile gives me away and he knows that I love it when he draws like this. I have plenty of Nicky’s drawings tucked away in my own bedroom. Not all of them given to me by him, though. I sometimes have to get them out of the waste bin in his room. He is so consumed with perfection that he doesn’t see that some of the things he draws are even more perfect when they’re flawed.
“Are you staying for dinner?”
“Maybe, you never know. You know how our sisters get when they have to study for some stupid test. Who knows maybe we even have to sleep over. If we do, I’m taking your bed and you need to sleep on the floor.”
“Like hell! You’ll sleep with the rest of the girls in Cass’s room. The only one of us sleeping on the floor is you!” he chuckles.
“Well, that’s not very gentlemanly. Momma says that men have to treat their women with respect and kindness.”
“Well there you go, then. First of all, I’m a boy, not a man and you are not a woman, you’re a girl. And you’re not my girl, so all your momma’s wise words, won’t prevent you from sleeping on the floor.” He smirks.
“You listen here, Nick Mackenzie, you may be a boy now and I may be a girl, but one day we will be grown up. Are you saying that I’m not going be your girl then? Nick throws his pencil on his desk and looks at me incredulously.
“What’s wrong, Chloe? Why do you wanna pick a fight with me, today?” I huff out all my anger and sprawl on his bed, looking at the ceiling.
“I heard momma and daddy yelling again this morning. They’ve been at it the whole day. That’s why Ronnie brought me over today.” My voice sounds exactly like the small frightened little girl that I am. I can’t wait until I’m all grown up and don’t have to sound like this.
“Ah, I see. Move over.” Nicky says and lies beside me looking at the same white ceiling as I am. “So it’s not getting better, huh?”
“Nope. I hate it Nicky. They act like they don’t even know each other. I think that’s why daddy sometimes doesn’t come home at night. Momma is always yelling at him for it, but if momma yelled at me like she does with daddy, I wouldn’t want to come home either. I can’t wait until I’m all grown up so I can go any other place than home, just like daddy.”
“Where would you go?”
“Anywhere! I mean imagine, we can go to our old playground and spend the whole night there. Since it would be night time, we wouldn’t have to wait to go on the swing or anything, because everyone else will be asleep. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?” I can already imagine Nicky pushing me on the swing so high that I may even start to fly.
“Yeah, that does sound pretty great.” We’re silent for a while just looking at the ceiling imagining everything that we could do together once we’re old enough. We hold hands and imagine all the possibilities.
“Chloe?”
“Hum?”
“You know I lied before, right?”
“About what?”
“When we grow up...”
“Yeah?”
“You are gonna be my girl.”
“I know.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ines Vieira was born in Lisbon, Portugal, but has grown up all over. Having spent her childhood on the island of Bermuda, her first go to language is English, rather than her mother tongue. She then lived again abroad in the UK in her twenties, where she taught English as a second language. She is an avid reader and needs either a book or her beloved Kindle to travel with her everywhere at all times. She currently lives in sunny Portugal, with her husband and son and her one-click addiction.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHEN LIFE GETS IN THE WAY
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
DEDICATION FOR THE READER
CHAPTER 1
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 2
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 3
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 4
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 5
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 6
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 7
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 8
CASS
CHAPTER 9
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 10
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 11
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 12
CASS
CHAPTER 13
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 14
CASS
ISAAC
CHAPTER 15
ISAAC
CASS
CHAPTER 16
ISAAC
CASS
CHAPTER 17
ISAAC
CASS
CHAPTER 18
ISAAC
CASS
CHAPTER 19
ISAAC
CASS
CHAPTER 20
ISAAC
CASS
CHAPTER 21
ISAAC
CASS
CHAPTER 22
ISAAC
CHAPTER 23
ISAAC
CASS
EPILOGUE
CASSANDRA
SEAN
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
WHEN SH*T GETS IN THE WAY
WHEN HATE GETS IN THE WAY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
