Beautiful Suzy Cowan has loved her husband Michael since high school. Yet the passions of bygone school days are not enough for a maturing young woman in need of more.
Seeking to discover and enrich herself, she is lured into an affair. Experiencing facets of intimacy she never knew existed; Suzy is torn between emotional starvation and a moral conscious that is unwilling to live a life of lies and deception. Determined to explore the full spectrum of what seems to be an exciting future, she is convinced there is but one choice… divorce the only man she has ever loved, ripping apart her family. Yet when all is lost and divorce is almost final… a trance of hope is found.
This is compelling love story explores the power of love, the grace of forgiveness and the depths of two lovers’ hearts, desperate to live beyond broken promises and shattered dreams.
Excerpt
Monday morning before the rising sun in a cold functional bathroom, 28-year-old, Michael Cowan, stared into a K-Mart “special” mirror. With a firm grip of both hands his muscular arms stiffen as he leaned his 210-pound frame against the cultured-marbled countertop. Eyes half open he stared down into a dripped stained basin. Slowly, he lifted his eyes up towards the mirror only to see a redheaded reflection he hardly recognized. Every faculty of his being resisted what lies ahead, with each day resembling the day before, full of internal conflicts.
Forced by necessity to be on time for work, he turned to close the bathroom door. As he watched the door, move almost in slow motion. It became a startling reminder of how he began to perceive his life, small, insignificant and closing in from all sides.
Just when the door was inches from being fully closed, his attention was drawn to something in the adjacent room. Despite the dimness of the bathroom light beyond the partially opened doorway. Michael’s eyes came into focus, and proceeded to study the shapely contours of a motionless form beneath the sheets of a queen-sized bed. Lying in a perfect state of contentment was his high school sweat-heart, and wife of four years. Right then Michael’s thoughts about his daily routine, if only for a moment, seem to vanish. His reason for pushing through another day was renewed, as he stood in admiration of his one and only love, Suzy. Admittedly, he was not an outwardly expressive man, nonetheless, his commitment and devotion to her ran deep. It was during moments like this that caused him to wish he were more expressive of his inner feelings towards her.
Locked into a visual embrace, a flow of snapshot images floated gently through his mind. Memories of when first they met, the first date and, of course, the very first time they kissed. Then all of a sudden, his concentration intensified when his nostrils detected her alluring perfume that still lingered from the night before. With each breath he took with every whiff he inhaled enraptured his senses. Now transfixed on her curvaceous hips that laid just a touch beneath the covers, he could all but feel her soft firm body wrapped in his arms. Caught in this moment of pleasure, his mind was escorted up and to her lips. Never before had he felt or tasted anything so sweet, so smooth, so exciting, or as intoxicating as Suzy’s kisses.
The longer he gazed at her the more he wanted to rejoin her in the warmth of their bed, until he could take it no longer. He then swung open the door and stepped into the bedroom. As he approached her bedside, his attention was abruptly interrupted by the red digital numbers of the alarm clock just beyond the view of Suzy’s head. Snapped back into the reality Michael knew he had to go and rushed back to continue his routine.
Before exiting the room, he took one more long affectionate look at Suzy, leaned over and gently kissed her cheek and whispered, “Love you. Have a good day.”
Suzy somewhat acknowledged with a slight movement of her shoulder in conjunction with a faintly audible, “Unh-uh.”
Passing through the doorway into the hallway, he thought back to a time of how it once was. How Suzy would rise from bed as he emerged from the bathroom, wrap her arms around him, and plant a wet kiss on his cheek; followed by more kisses and hugs before climbing back into the comfort of their cozy bed. Purposefully moving down the hallway his thoughts quietly slipped through his lips, “Well, I guess things must change.”
Professional Reviews
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, The Midwest Book Review
“50/50 Split…is an entertaining and engagingly written novel…highly recommended as a remarkably intimate and highly gripping tale of deceit, marriage and enduring love.”
A search for the ghost of a chorus girl chorine haunting a costume designer’s Manhattan apartment leads to an encounter with an eccentric, mischievous witch with the ability to send folks back through time…in this case, the 1919 Ziegfeld Follies.
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
