EXCERPT
“Hi Gammy!” Tristan sang out, looking
beyond the phlebotomist who was packing up the blood vials.
Whirling around, Marissa found her mother
and watched as she moved in to embrace her grandson.
Her parents had been divorced since her
childhood, and it was normally a strain to have both of them in the same area.
However, they were supportive. Her father showed up just minutes after Tristan
was wheeled into the surgical area.
Coffee and the comfort of couches down the
hall beckoned the rest of them, but Marissa remained in the room, unpacking a
stuffed tiger from Tristan’s gear. ‘Tiggy’ was in her hand when Olivia returned
less than a minute later.
“Want something to eat with your coffee,
Rissa?” When Marissa shook her head and moved to the window, her friend
persisted, “You coming down to the waiting area?”
“How is a paternity test done?” Ignoring
the question, Marissa asked her own.
Concern darkened Olivia’s normally bright
blue eyes. “Don’t think about that right now, okay? You have enough to deal
with–”
“Is it a blood test?” Clutching the stuffed
beast, Marissa persisted.
“No, I’m sure it’s a swab test.” Olivia assured
and studied the tiger.
“Oh.” Relieved, Marissa placed the king of
the jungle on the window ledge while answering the original question. “I can’t
eat right now.” With reluctance, she trailed Olivia to the family lounge area
and sank into a chair, submissively allowing her friend to mix her coffee.
Conversations between her best friend and
her family commenced while Marissa alternated between staring into her cold
coffee and at the wall clock. The surgeon had estimated Tristan to be out of
surgery and in recovery within ninety minutes.
Her realization of the chatter around her
dwindling to a stop was meaningless until she noticed all three heads pointed
one direction; six eyes fixated on one common focus.
“I’ll be damned!” The swear was just under
her father’s breath.
Her mother’s lips formed a silent ‘O’.
This entire scene played out in less than a
few seconds. Sending her gaze along the same geometric plane resulted in a
debilitating case of déjà vu.
Shocked, yet obsessed, she watched Jack saunter
closer and closer.
The hood was down on an unzipped jacket
that hung over a casual shirt. His raven hair was slicked back into a ponytail,
which was mostly hidden, sandwiched between the hoodie and his shirt. A cap
jammed onto his head covered most of any remaining hair and shaded his face.
Like the day they had met, his long legs were clad in jeans, and prestigious
sneakers encased his feet. The stuffed animal drooping in one arm was enormous.
Jack had yet to notice his stunned
audience. Just before reaching the connecting hall that the large waiting
lounge opened into, he paused, resting a hand on the ledge of the nurses’
station.
The young woman’s flush was obvious even
from a distance, and as she pointed, Jack’s head twisted.
A nanosecond later, his dark gaze locked
with hers.
“You
came…” Rising, Marissa crossed to meet Jack just as he hit the large open
entry.
Her parents and Olivia were still gob
smacked, and Jack dipped his head their way in a courteous, yet uneasy, nod.
With a slight tip of her own head, she
indicated her wish for him to follow. Slowly, she started down the hall,
ignoring her mother who lunged from the chair obviously wanting an
introduction.
Written on her parents’ faces was
recognition, not of who he was, but of who
he was. The resemblance to Tristan was strong, especially with his hair pulled
back. Factoring in the toy he carried, they had done the math, figuring out he
was the missing father of their grandson. Olivia, groupie that she had once
been, most probably knew his face from the rock media sources she had once fed
on.
One foot in front of the other, buffed
linoleum tile after tile, the clunk of her ankle boots was matched by the soft-soled
squish of his sneakers. They continued this way, only stopping once they were
closed inside the hospital room. Earlier, the room seemed vast and empty once
Tristan, along with the bed, was rolled out. Now, with Jack’s presence, the
walls seemed to close in.
Ambling over, he set the ginormous plush
toy next to the tiger.
“I called you.” His firm words were spoken
as he turned, and his eyes met hers gauging her reaction.
Cowardly, she could not hold his gaze and
instead studiously studied the floor. “You didn’t leave a message.”
“I didn’t have a message.”
Now she looked up, needing his expression
as an aid in this combative exchange. “So why did you call if you had nothing
to say?”
“I have a lot to say. I said I didn’t have
a message. I wanted to talk to you…”
“Really? What could we have to talk about?”
And then she went further, daring to mock his hurtful words in their one chilly
phone conversation. “We were only together once, or was it twice?”
“Je–” The sight of innocent plush animals
in the window seemed to cut his curse. Possibly, he was counting to ten because
in roughly that many seconds later, his eyes bounced back to her face. “I’m
sorry about that. About when you called. But when you drop something like that
on me out of nowhere! What did you expect?”
“I kinda expected most of it! I just didn’t
expect to get hung up on like a bill collector!”
The words flew from her lips without any
thought. When they reverberated in her head, it embarrassed her to the extreme
to have used that analogy. He would never understand collectors calling after a
stressful workday or the degrading calls interrupting Tristan’s sweet chatter
during dinner.
“I sure as hell didn’t expect to get
re-routed to your lawyer like some stranger!”
“You kinda are a stranger…”
Until now, she had thought the term ‘seeing
red’ was just that. But at this moment, the room seemed to shade with her fury.
“Get out!”
“Were, I mean. Not are. Were–” Jack hastily
attempted to correct the obnoxious answer but epically failed.
“Get out!” The scream ringing from the
depths of her soul sounded exorcist-like as it reverberated off the walls.
Always she had been a strong person through
everything thrown at her. Through her less than ideal childhood; through losing
her college scholarship; through catching a cheating fiancé in the act; through
a pregnancy with a rock star’s child; through the physical problems that child
was born with; through cheapening herself by repeatedly looking for some sort
of nirvana, which she never knew existed until experiencing it with a man who
she could never be with– the same man who had just pushed her to this breaking
point.
As the mother of his child, she had never
felt like a stranger, even while living separate lives. Yet, apparently, she
was. Any connection between them beyond a small child was all in her
fantasizing mind.
“No.” Arms folded over his chest, he stood
daring her to say those two words again.
“Please go…” It wasn’t her intention, but
the plea was dangerously close to a grovel.
“I gave you a chance to be more than a
stranger and–”
“You gave me a chance?” Derisively, she
parroted the self-inflated words.
“I wanted you to come to LA and you
wouldn’t…” His hands fell to his side, but his gaze remained strong and
slightly challenging.
Truly, she must have cracked, because the
hysteria faded, and a quiet calm pervaded her emotions. Imitating his stance of
a minute or so ago, she crossed her arms and sent him a smug smile. “Did you?
How badly did you want me there?”
“Pretty bad.” His admission was hushed and
humble, and his eyes held hers.
Movement registered in her corner vision,
and unwillingly she dragged from his hypnotic brown gaze to the door easing
open. Her mother’s head slipped through just before the rest of her. “Marissa,
darling, is everything okay?”
“Yes, thanks mom.” It was possible her
parent had lingered outside the door long enough to hear their raised voices,
but more probable, her mother sought an explanation and an introduction.
Marissa wanted to turn away pointedly until she left. But, after the initial
shock and condemnation of the wild ways that made her an unwed mother, her
parents had both stepped up. So, she remained patient with her mother’s nosy
nature. “Could you give us a few minutes more?”
The door fell shut, and in unspoken
agreement, neither she nor Jack picked up the conversation until a safe
half-minute passed.
“Think about it. How badly would you have
wanted me there?” Softly, she repeated the question to make the point.
“I thought about it a lot before inviting
you, and a lot after you said no…” Comprehension caused his jaw to go slack,
and his astonished gaze rested on her face before dropping to her stomach. “You
were pregnant then.”
“Very.”
BLURB
Is the cure for a breakup a hookup?
Marissa Duplei has one mission at the Hang Fest. Pick herself up, dust the
ex off, and get dirty with someone else. However, sexy, inked-up,
metal-musician Jack Storm is not the average girl’s revenge fling.
A tour bus bang.
A one night stand gone awry.
A secret to keep at all costs.
Could it all lead to love?
SERIES
Six Silver Strings Series:
G Strings Set (Available)
Jack Who? : Perfect Storms
Weathering Jack Storm
Snow Storms
D Strings Set (Available)
Rising Sun
Half Moon
Rock Stars
E Strings Set
A Shit Storm (Coming March 13, 2015)
BOOK LINKS
Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iTunes / Play Google
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Gillis resides in
Texas, with her husband who is the inspiration to her fictional men, her son
who is the light of her world, and a spoiled chocolate lab, Bailey.Writing is a passion and she strives in her books to blend a perfect mixture of fantasy and reality.
Her love for music, bands, and concerts inspired her Silver Strings Series.
When she is not writing those little voices out of her head while listening to music, she is making her own noise on drums or guitar.
Lisa can be contacted on
facebook profile and page:
website:
https://www.ligillis.com/
twitter:
@ligillis
And many other social media sites
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