After losing Daran and my daughter, I’d built a protective bubble around myself. I hadn’t let my friends in, I’d denied my family and I certainly hadn’t let love in. My mission in life had been success in my career and I couldn’t imagine anything – or anyone – being more important than that. How wrong I was! I’d discovered the value of friends, I’d found the importance of family and I’d realised that a career gave the financial means to live, but it wasn’t what life was all about. I can honestly say that I’ve never felt as happy and fulfilled as I have since running my own business, based locally, and not working every hour that God sends.
But, more than that, I’d let love in. I hadn’t looked for it, yet it had unexpectedly found me, and I was so glad that it had. I’d found my king of every single moment and I knew that, for Ben and me, it really was going to last until the end of forever.
The End
Acknowledgements
I can’t quite believe my third full-length novel has just been released. What an amazing fifteen months since my debut novella, Raving About Rhys was released, followed by the trilogy (Searching for Steven in June 2015, Getting Over Gary in March 2016, and now Dreaming About Daran).
All the books are romance stories, but the trilogy includes a further theme of friendship and how it changes over time and circumstances. Friendships fascinate me. How is it that some friends stick around, no matter what different paths their lives take, yet others move on like a changing season?
Susan, to whom I’ve dedicated this book, is to the friend I’ve known the longest. We can’t remember exactly when we met. Maybe age 8-10? We lived in different parts of town, went to different primary schools, were only in one GCSE class together at senior school, attended different colleges, and went to different universities, finally settling in completely different parts of the country. Yet we stayed in touch for all that time which, in the days before social media, included writing long, descriptive letters to each other whilst at university. Oh, the excitement of going to the pigeon holes and finding a letter had arrived from my best friend!
Susan’s been there for me during dodgy haircuts, questionable fashion choices, and boyfriend disasters. We’ve drunk far too much cider together before going out clubbing, stunk out every shop in Middlesbrough after drenching ourselves in Body Shop Vanilla, Dewberry, and White Musk perfume, and spent sleepless nights on Ranger Camp when our supposedly heat-reflective “moonbags” turned out to be the coldest, flimsiest sleeping bags in the history of the world ever. Good times! She’s read all of my books, even though romance isn’t the style of book she’d normally choose, which I find really touching. She even beta-read Daran for me and provided some really valuable feedback, so it’s definitely fitting that I dedicate this book to her and thank her for her support both now and over the past thirty-six years or so! I’ll also take this moment to say “hello” to her mum, Beatrice, who has also read all my books and been a massive supporter of my writing. Thanks, Beatrice!
The second person I want to massively thank is my cousin, Lisa. (Actually, she’s my cousin’s daughter so I believe that makes her my first cousin once removed, but that sounds ridiculous so let’s stick with cousin!) Anyway, Lisa is a nurse and she’s given invaluable guidance on everything from how a nurse would introduce themselves to a patient, to medical terminology, to how quickly a patient would be encouraged to walk after an accident. Google is a good friend to a writer, but there’s nothing to beat real life knowledge. If there are any mistakes in any of the medical aspects of this book, I can guarantee it’s me being a muppet and misinterpreting what Lisa told me rather than her inaccuracies! Thanks, Lisa. Hope there’s a family get-together again soon so we can drink wine and have a giggle about sleepy bees! ;-)
As always, thank you to my wonderful beta-reader team – Joyce (my mum), Clare, Liz, Sharon, Jo and newbie Susan – for taking the time to read Daran and giving me honest and helpful feedback to help make him even better. Sorry I kept you up till the early hours reading again, Clare, although that’s such a massive compliment that you couldn’t put Daran down!
Thanks go to my husband and daughter for not moaning about the hours I’ve spent with my fictional friends instead of them, my writing family ‘The Write Romantics’ for being there through the highs and lows of writing and life in general Dreams do come true!
My final thanks go to everyone who has bought/borrowed/read/reviewed any of my books, promoted my writing, and/or attended the various library talks I’ve delivered across North Yorkshire. Your support and encouragement is amazing. I hope you enjoy the final chapter of the trilogy and that you’re ready to meet a new cast of characters in the next book.
Dreaming About Daran (Whitsborough BayTrilogy Book 3) Page 35
