Category: Romance Publisher: Passion in Print
ISBN-10: 9781608202041
Type: Fiction
Pages: 287
Copyright: December 2010
ISBN-13: 9781608202034
Martin Cartwright's neighbor receives disheartening news. She's dying. As far as Martin can tell, Addison has never looked better, but when daily sightings of his beautiful neighbor become few and far between, Martin realizes Addison isn't too keen on living. And he decides to help her get on with dying.
Martin plans to scare Addison into living. Unbeknownst to him, someone is watching with similar goals. Only Drake Valentine's interests in the lovely Miss Deveraux vary from Martin's ambitions. Soon, Addison must choose between living in the shadows of sickness and stepping into the darkness where she's always been drawn.
Excerpt
Addison Deveraux stared at her family physician for several minutes, unable to speak and incapable of processing the information he relayed. She focused on the white walls around her. She skimmed over the medical licenses and board certifications, eventually narrowing her gaze on the overstuffed plastic brochure rack housing material about common medical problems. The entire time, she remained faintly aware of her doctor's monotone voice. An avid movie enthusiast, Addison disconnected from the moment and recalled a recent flick she'd watched.
She remembered one scene in particular where a woman learned of her life-destroying health circumstance. Thanks to modern day technology, the character slipped into a mind-boggling funnel surrounded by noise typically found in a seashell. The echo intensified and the room scrambled into spinning pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
On the big screen, the actress sobbed. The doctor calmly provided information about the disease for which she'd been diagnosed and the woman finally zoomed in on those fated words: "You're dying."
Addison blinked. "I am?"
"Addison," Dr. Michaels began gently, "Haven't you heard a word I just said?"
She swallowed. "No, I was..." Thinking about dying.
"Addison, this isn't something you should take lightly," Dr. Michaels stressed, leaning over his desk. An older man with salt and pepper hair, Dr. Michaels wore tinted large-rimmed glasses and resembled someone who might have been chosen to portray a physician delivering detrimental news. If only he were an actor.
Addison watched his mouth move. His words hummed all around her, beating into her ears like a hollow drum. "Treatment is something we should discuss together. This isn't the end and that's it."
Boom. Boom. Boom. The maddening tempo gained momentum.
Advice slipped from his lips but the words ran together in a never-ending slur. "Think of diagnosis as a transition. By the time you've processed the information I've given you, you'll be ready to face the days ahead. In the end, you'll be much better off."
She gulped. There it was. The dreaded statement, You'll be much better off.
How many times had she attended a funeral for one of her grandmother's friends and heard the same thing? Mary Lou Cornell went to a better place. Dan Bradley was much better off after both arms and one leg were amputated.
Carla Sue Davis found Jesus after living on the streets and working for some pimp who decided to repay her years of servitude with continual beatings. And Barbara Jo Jones faced death the same way she'd faced living; always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
No indeed, Addison refused to walk down the same road chosen by Granny Myrtle's best friends, or her cousin Gertrude, who for some reason received her bad news and decided to kick the bucket, before the bucket smacked her upside her head. No way. Addison planned to do a little better for herself. She'd die on her own terms.
The way Addison met death was her decision. Since she had a choice in the matter, she planned to go on out there and greet death-take her fate by the horns and ride the daylights out of it. Yep, it was time to get on with dying.
Synopsis
Zeke Milligan is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He is desperately in love with Lynn, but a dark secret from his past continues to rear its ugly head. Worse yet, he persistently punishes the love of his life for events that took p
