I have been having a lot of fun with contemporaries. And I couldn't resist trying out another one for April Fool's Day.
Bottled Up is the story of two high school sweethearts who lost touch with each other, but can't seem to drop the feelings they had.
This was a STRETCH for me. LOL. I couldn't run from my own high school experience fast enough. Seriously... there might be skid marks in the road as I burned rubber out of that place. So it was super fun to imagine a world where true love smolders in the wake of a young romance.
I had a blast working on this collection of stories again this year, and I hope I can drag these folks along with me for many more April Fool's Days to come.
Enjoy the following blurb and excerpt from
Bottled Up.
A clogged drain. A pretend plumber. An April Fool’s Day to
remember.
Good looks don’t last forever, and neither do modeling
careers. When Nate’s time in the sun ends, he goes back to school. Trouble is,
in order to pay for his last semester he’s going to need to get naked.
When a four month modeling contract took Nate Dallas on an
adventure around the world, he was too young to realize he was an idiot to
leave his Blue-eyed Betty behind. After one night of passion he let her love
letters fade in his pocket instead of fighting for a trip home.
Betty Townsend never forgot about Nate. He’d sent her the
world in envelopes filled with sea shells and sand. She saw stars when he
kissed her under a sparkling spotlight on stage. And she felt her heart break
when he never returned to her.
When Nate shows up at Betty’s door, big wrench in hand, she
can’t believe her first love is the one her friend hired to fix the sink.
Once Nate recognizes Betty, stripping is out of the
question. So is leaving. He can’t throw this chance away. The heat between them
is undeniable, but when Betty finds out her first love is covered in glitter
down to his g-string, do they stand a chance at rekindling the love that never
really burned out? Or will fate make fools out of them again?
The following is an excerpt
from Bottled
Up:
Her brain had fried the second she’d realized it was Nate.
She’d completely forgotten about the glossy paper with his oily pecs on it
hanging over the frozen foods section of her home. The ad was an oldie, but a
goodie, and the black sand he was standing on filled one of her bottles. The
vitamin supplement wasn’t the reason the VitaBoost ad was pinned up with a
magnet. It was a memory.
Nate was damn near naked and
holding a huge barbell in front of his…
A laugh came from the kitchen.
“Ang, I gotta go.”
Her friend was sputtering as she ended the call, but it was
Betty who was stumbling for words when she walked into the kitchen and found
Nate holding the picture of himself.
He cocked his eyebrow at her, and a dimple popped on his
left cheek. It was something she’d fantasized about endlessly. But not while he
was holding up proof she’d been pining for him after all this time.
“I didn’t even think they printed this anymore.”
They didn’t. She’d found an old magazine at a half price
book store and snatched it up when she’d seen his face smoldering out at her.
“This is really embarrassing. It was a motivation pic for
me,” she lied. “I’m on a diet…and…could I have that back?” She reached for the
magazine page and he pulled it behind his body at an angle that she had no hope
of reaching.
Well, she could reach it if she scaled him like a climbing
wall. Her eyes dropped to what would be a hell of a foothold before she got her
bearings and put her hands on her hips.
“You know you’re attractive.” Betty cleared her throat.
“Attractive enough to not bother with me when you made it big and took off
around the world.”
“You can’t know how sorry I am that I left things the way I
did.” He handed her the picture back. “I thought you might have been keeping it
for another reason. It’s not every day I see a picture of myself stuck to my
ex’s fridge.”
“Were we together long enough to call it a relationship?
Don’t worry about it, Nate. We were kids. Kids grow up, right?” She didn’t have
time to feel foolish when he pulled his lips between his teeth. She felt the
burn she’d never lost for him start to smolder. She should be mad at herself,
but all she could really feel was longing. Remembering the job that had taken
him away before they’d had a chance to explore each other, she closed the gap
between them. She had to ask: “What would have happened if you hadn’t left?”
Nate’s hand rested on her face. He tilted her chin up and
suddenly Betty was back in school. She was performing on stage, and Nate was
still her Romeo. Only he didn’t have to leave for another country now. He was
really here.
“I didn’t want to leave. By the time they got me back in the
states, you were already in college, and…”
She had tried to forget about Nate in college. She’d gone
out on dates. But they’d never made her feel the butterflies she’d felt with
Nate. No one had her laughing with joy as she read a letter. No one else sent
her souvenirs of the world. Now Nate was here, and it should be awkward.
Instead his hand touched her and she couldn’t remember why she’d given up. He
tucked a stray hair behind her ear and licked his lips. Her stomach fell out of
her hoo-hah and flopped around at her feet like a fish out of water.
God, he was gorgeous.
But even with his stunning hazel eyes and adorable dimple,
she realized she was keeping him from doing his job.
Betty coughed and stepped back. She ducked out of whatever
spell he’d spun around her and waved her arm in the general direction of the
sink. “I suppose I should let you get back to work. I promise, there will be no
more pictures of yourself to distract you.”
Well…there wouldn’t be after she went to the bathroom and
took the other one down.
What do you think? Want more? You can get Bottled Up at
And you can get your hands on links for the ENTIRE April Fools For Love collection at
I can't wait for you to read them all. No foolin'.
