Over the course of one wild road trip,
feuding childhood sweethearts get a second chance at love.
LOVE STORY
a Love Unexpectedly novel
Lauren Layne
Releasing February 14th, 2017
Loveswept
Over the course of one wild road trip, feuding childhood sweethearts get a second chance at love in this charming rom-com—a standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Blurred Lines and Good Girl.
When Lucy Hawkins receives a job offer in San Francisco, she can’t wait to spread her wings and leave her small Virginia hometown behind. Her close-knit family supports her as best they can, by handing over the keys to a station wagon that’s seen better days. The catch? The cross-country trip comes with a traveling companion: her older brother’s best friend, aka the guy who took Lucy’s virginity hours before breaking her heart.
After spending the past four years and every last dime caring for his sick father, Reece Sullivan will do just about anything to break free of the painful memories—even if it means a two-week road trip with the one girl who’s ever made it past his carefully guarded exterior. But after long days of bickering in the car turn into steamy nights in secluded motel rooms, Reece learns that, when it comes to Lucy, their story is far from over. And this time, they just might have a shot at a happy ending.
Although listed as a title in the Love Unexpectedly Series, all books in the series stand alone.
“Spock, we’re giving you Horny!” my mom blurts out,
apparently fed up with my denseness.
Her utterance is too much for my siblings to handle and
they both burst out laughing, retreating into the kitchen to rejoin the party
where there’s wine.
Oh what I wouldn’t give for wine right now.
“I, um . . . you’re giving me the car?” I ask.
“Because yours broke down,” my dad explains, walking
forward to thump Horny’s dented hood.
“And this one’s . . . not broken down?” I ask
skeptically.
Look, it’s not that I’m not grateful. My parents are
trying to give me a car, I appreciate the sweetness of the gesture, it’s just .
. .
Here’s the thing about Horny: he barely
got us three kids through high school. I mean, Horny is the car that sputtered
and shook making it the 3.2 miles to Jefferson High, no matter who was behind
the wheel.
I’m even going to come all the way clean here and say
that early on in my freshmen year, I was embarrassed
showing up in Horny. Then I realized I was lucky to have a car at all, and well
. . . I dunno, I guess Horny became a part of us Hawkins kids’ charm, because
the station wagon was practically an institution from Craig’s high school reign
all the way through Brandi’s.
But poor Horny quit working years ago. Much to Brandi’s
chagrin, he gave up the ghost a mere two months before her high school
graduation, and I spent the last bit of her senior year being picked up by my
parents.
“He’s going to take you to California,” Dad says, giving
the car another thump.
“Really?” I step forward and run a tentative finger along
the familiar panel. He’s had a bath, so at least that’s something. “Because
last I knew, he wouldn’t even make it out of the garage.”
“Yeah, well, we neglected him for a while, but he’s right
as rain now,” Dad says, puffing out his chest as though Horny’s a fourth child.
“Like, as in he actually starts?”
“Purrs like a kitten,” my mom says with an emphatic nod,
even though I know she doesn’t even like cats. “We didn’t believe it, but we
took him to church on Sunday and there were no issues.”
I literally
bite my tongue to keep from pointing out that this is hardly a feat. Sacred
Presbyterian is 0.8 miles away from the house.
“You took Horny into a shop?” I ask, starting to warm to
the idea of having a car again. I’m a little touched, actually. Money is tight
for my parents. Dad’s a PE teacher, and Mom gives a mean winery tour, but the
gig’s never paid much.
“Not exactly, it was more of a bartering situation,” Mom
says.
“Yeah?” I say, going around to the driver’s seat, already
giddy with the prospect of telling Oscar I’ll be able to come see him in Miami
after all, even if I won’t exactly be riding in style.
“Reece agreed to fix him up.”
I’m lowering myself into the car as my dad says this, but
I reverse so quickly I hit my head. My skull doesn’t even register the pain,
because I’m too busy registering the hurt in my heart
at the familiar name. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Reece,” my mom says, giving me a bemused look. “He’s
always been handy with cars.”
“He fixed up the car in exchange for what?”
And then I feel—I actually feel—the
air change around me as the side door to the garage opens, and a new presence
sucks all the air out of the space.
I don’t turn around. I don’t move. But I feel his eyes on
me. Over me.
“Reece is headed out to California too,” my oblivious
mother chatters on. “It worked out perfectly actually. Now you two can ride
together, and your dad and I don’t have to worry about you alone in the middle
of nowhere with a twenty-something-year-old car.
They think the car is going to be the problem here? It’s
not the car that’s toxic to me. It’s him.
Reece Sullivan. My brother’s best friend. My parents’
“other son.”
Slowly I force myself to turn, and even though I’m
prepped, the force of that ice-blue gaze still does something dangerous to me.
He winks, quick and cocky, and I suck in a breath, and I
have to wonder . . .
I wonder if my parents would feel differently about their
little plan if they knew that their makeshift mechanic is the same guy that
popped my cherry six years earlier under their very roof.
And then broke my heart twenty-four hours later.
Lauren
Layne is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen
romantic comedies.
A former
e-commerce and web marketing manager from Seattle, Lauren relocated to New York
City in 2011 to pursue a full-time writing career.
She lives
in midtown Manhattan with her high-school sweetheart, where she writes smart
romantic comedies with just enough sexy-times to make your mother blush. In
LL's ideal world, every stiletto-wearing, Kate Spade wielding woman would carry
a Kindle stocked with Lauren Layne books.
win
a Gourmet Chocolate Champagne Box and a Set of 4 Edge Champagne Glasses from
Crate and Barrel
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