Emily Barnes likes things measured and timed, just like any baker. When she loses the apartment that she needs to run her home-based muffin business, she’s faced with a choice: couch surfing at her very loud best friends’ separated by thin walls or house sitting an otherwise empty Upper East Side luxury apartment overlooking Central Park. Obviously itâs a no-brainer for this smart cookie.
Declan Hayes is used to people asking things of him and saying no. However, for Maggie, his parentâs cook and housekeeper, he would do just about anything, including going over to his parentâs apartment to check on her pseudo niece who is staying there. His plan was to get in and get out, but the second he saw her, something changed. Something about her sparked the normally cold and dismal place to life; she made it warm and inviting. He finally understood the phrase âthereâs no place like home.â
Can Emily and Declan trust the timing of their lives or adjust the lens from which they see them?
Hope, faith, trust and…love?
Will these things be enough for Emily and Declan to get the one thing they both never thought they needed in life?
Itâs a good thing they are âFlouredâ because life is about to get sticky.
With a sigh, I leaned against the door jam and looked around the now empty apartment. Natalie sniffled through the phone. Leave it to my bleeding heart best friend to be crying when I was the one being evicted. âAre you sure that you donât want me to come over?â
âIâm fine, Nat. Gabe just took off, and Iâm about to leave too.â Thankfully Gabe is able to store the few things I own at his familyâs business until I find a new place to live. I don’t feel that bad about it because I do employ them to make all my deliveries for my company. I donât know why Iâm not more upset; maybe itâs because I knew it was the risk I was taking when I made my decision. Helping my sister was the right thing to do, even if it had led to the bright-green notice being attached to my apartment door. I can say for sure that I never want to experience this again. The pitiful looks I got from the neighbors wouldnât be playing on my highlight reel any time soon. âThis place was a shit hole. Iâll find something better.â
âAre you sure you donât want to just stay with us?â Iâd already had this conversation with both Nat and Gabe, and I didnât want to have it again. I loved my best friends, but there was no way I was going to stay with them. Natalie was my roommate starting freshman year, and we quickly became inseparable. To others, we were the odd couple, but somehow we just clicked. I was the one from California, but she was the one with the blue eyes, blonde hair, and bohemian vibe. Natalie was fun loving, always the life of the partyânot that I wasnât fun, I was just more reserved, a little slow to warm up. I met Gabe in Social Foundations I, and when he asked me out, I couldnât resist his boy-next-door charm and dimples. We didnât make a love connection, but I knew instantly that he was perfect for Natalie. Gabe was as easygoing as Nat.
âIâm sure, Bridezilla.â She wasnât really that bad, but no way in hell would I stay with Gabe and her when they had a lot of plans to finalize for the wedding. Besides, the walls in their apartment were paper-thin; Iâm kind of surprised they hadnât been evicted. Iâm still not sure why they ever thought getting married on New Yearâs Eve in New York was a good idea, but itâs what they wanted, and as maid of honor it was my job to go with the flow and keep the bride happy.
âWatch it, or Iâll switch your dress to the eighties throwback with the puffy sleeves, and youâll be styling crimped hair and blue eye shadow.â I knew she was kidding. We both fell in love with my gray strapless dress with the perfect amount of bling the minute we saw it, just like we did hers. Yes, she had definitely experienced âthat momentâ, and we all cried right along with her.
âItâs your wedding.â I knew images of her wedding album were running through her head when we both began to laugh.
âYouâre such a bitch.â
âBut you love me anyway.â I truly did.
âYou know I do. If you change your mind, you know where to find us.â
âYeah, I do. Thanks, Nat, and thank Gabe properly for me when he gets home.â The little nymph picked up instantly on what I was implying, and I could tell that she liked the idea.
âOh, you so know I will. He just walked in. Iâll talk to you later. Au revoir.â Nat was practicing her French for the Parisian honeymoon they were taking. I hit end on the phone and took one final look around. Things couldnât get much worse, so that meant they had to get better. Right?
I never thought that I would write a novel, although my English teacher my freshman year in college told me that he would hunt me down if I wasnât published by the time I was thirty. Well, thirty came and went. I was busy being a wife and working mother of two, and nobody came looking for me.
I doubt my sister thought she was about to change my life forever when she got me a book of âmommy pornâ for my birthday in 2012, but thatâs exactly what she did. After reading the first book in the trilogy, I rushed out and got the other two books. I became obsessed and read the series several times before learning about Fanfiction. Apparently, I wasnât the only one who couldnât get enough. The idea fascinated me and I thought, âI can do that.â I was a nervous wreck when I posted my first story, a one shot about my new favorite couple. One story lead to another and then another. My readers encouraged me to write something that was all mine, so thatâs what I did. Thank you to everyone who told me that I could do it. It wouldnât have been possible without you.
I love reading, writing, traveling, and spending time with my family. Â Thank you for going on this journey with me.
