Today is launch day for my latest ebook Remember When and if you grab a copy for just 99c/ 99p you'll get special
BONUS CONTENT for FREE.
REMEMBER WHEN...
Harriet’s life is chaotic.
She’s lucky if she catches a rare glimpse of her husband as
they pass in the kitchen, they’re both working so hard. When Ollie had taken
over the running of the family business the Country Oaks, a seen-better-days
hotel in the picturesque Lake District, it had turned their lives upside down.
Now, fighting to keep the place from financial ruin takes all the time and
energy they can muster.
And don’t even get her started on her anxiety-inducing
teenage daughter who wants to go to the college Valentine’s Day dance with the
local bad boy.
When Harriet accidentally pokes a handsome stranger in the
eye with her umbrella and has to rush him off to get medical help, she finds
herself spending more and more time with him. He’s funny, charming and
attentive, everything her husband Ollie used to be… and Harriet feels her life
starting to spiral out of control.
As the Country Oaks prepares for a hectic Valentine’s
weekend, packed with loved-up guests, Harriet and Ollie are forced to face the realities
of their life, their marriage and their future together.
Can they rekindle the romance or has the spark fizzled out
and died, never to be lit again?
SPECIAL BONUS CONTENT
You’ll also receive:
· * Four short stories with romance at their heart.
· * Exclusive sneak peek extracts from four romantic
comedy novels by Zanna Mackenzie.
· * PLUS – a FREE romantic mystery book!
Sneak Peek.....
Chapter One
Alexa
polished off the last bit of her muffin. “So, what are your plans for Valentine’s
Day then?”
“I’ll
be working, while Ollie attempts to charm about forty women,” Harriet replied,
her own chocolate chip muffin untouched on her plate. She’d lost her appetite
lately.
“Forty
eh?” Alexa giggled. “That’s ambitious even for Ollie.”
“I
don’t mind. It’s part of his job.”
“Say
that as if you mean it,” Alexa challenged. She looked closely at Harriet as she
sipped her coffee. “Things are okay with you and Ollie, aren’t they?”
Harriet
sighed, pushing a lock of hair out of her eyes. An appointment with the
hairdresser to tidy up her unruly auburn tresses was long overdue, but she
never had the time - or the money - for such luxuries. “Sometimes,” she paused,
choosing her words carefully. “Mostly, I feel as though I’m there purely to be
a stand-in for the staff when they phone in sick; to sort the hotel accounts out,
oh, and to cook dinner for everyone. I wonder if my husband actually remembers
I’m his wife, not just another employee.”
“You
guys have been working like crazy since you took on the hotel from his
parents,” Alexa reasoned. “It must be tough.”
“I’m
used to us both working long hours, it goes with the territory in the
hospitality industry, but lately Ollie starts at about five in the morning and
finally collapses into bed at around midnight. I’m worried about him. I’m
also…” she paused, wondering if she dare admit to what had been on her mind
more and more often since Christmas. The full extent of her concerns about her
marriage.
“Also
what?” prompted Alexa.
Harriet
stared out across the lake, today it was shrouded in mist and drizzly rain. She
loved the Lake District and had been thrilled to move here from the grit and
grime of Manchester when Ollie had taken on his parents’ hotel just over a year
ago. Even if it had meant they’d had to sell their gorgeous home and move into
the less than salubrious three bedroom flat on the top floor of the hotel.
Alexa
reached her hand across the table and placed it on top of Harriet’s. “You know
you can tell me anything, but if you aren’t ready to talk, then I understand.”
“I
am worried about our marriage, truth be told,” Harriet replied quietly, picking
at the edge of a table napkin. “We’ve always done okay in our relationship despite
the unsocial hours we’ve both worked. Even when I took time off to raise the
girls, we still somehow managed to find time for each other. We talked, we
laughed… we kissed. Nowadays, we don’t do any of those things, and I miss them.
I miss Ollie. I miss the man I married. I know the responsibility of running
the hotel weighs heavily on his shoulders, it does on mine too. It’s a lot of
pressure, taking on the business your parents built from nothing.”
Alexa
let out a long breath, puffing her fringe out of her eyes. “Have you said
anything about all of this to Ollie?”
Harriet
shook her head. “No. He’s got so much on at the moment. He looks tired and harassed
enough as it is, and I don’t want to add to his already sky-high stress
levels.”
“Even
so, if you’re worried you should try to…”
“Look,
forget I said anything.” Harriet waved a hand in an attempt to end their
conversation. “Ignore me. It’s my imagination getting carried away with itself,
that’s all. We’ll be fine. It’s one of those phases. Every marriage goes
through them.”
“It’ll
just be from all the demands of the hotel, he’ll be exhausted. You know how he
is. You two will be fine. I’m certain of it.”
“Of
course, you’re right.” Harriet nodded and forced a smile. “I’m being silly.
I’ll try to persuade him to take an hour for dinner one night soon. I’ll cook
something special for us. Imogen is often out with friends straight from
college most nights, so it will just be the two of us, the perfect chance to
sit down and properly catch up with each other.
“Brilliant
idea. You make sure you do that,” Alexa said sternly. “So, going back to your
earlier comment about the forty women Ollie will have to charm on Valentine’s
Day, I’m presuming you have forty couples booked into the hotel restaurant and
he’ll be dishing out the red roses to all the ladies, along with that winning
smile of his?”
“Got
it in one. With Valentine’s Day falling on a Wednesday this year most people
have booked to celebrate on the preceding weekend. Which does mean there’s the
slimmest chance Ollie and I might even manage a rushed romantic meal ourselves
up in the flat on the big day itself. I’ve got my fingers crossed!”
“Do
not take no for an answer. Even if you end up eating at midnight,” Alexa said
before getting to her feet. “Sorry, sweetie but I have to get going, lots of
errands to sort before I head back to the office.”
Glamourous
Alexa ran her own recruitment agency providing temporary staff to local
hoteliers. The two women had met at a parish council meeting not long after
Harriet and Ollie had moved to the tourist hotspot of Allithwaite and they’d instantly
become firm friends.
“No
worries. I need to get moving and call in at the visitor information centre on
my way back to the hotel to drop off some more leaflets,” replied Harriet,
hugging her friend goodbye. “They rang us to say they’d run out and wanted a
new supply.”
The
visitor information centre was packed to the rafters with people seeking advice
on what to do on a rainy February day in the Lake District. Parents with
fractious children were perusing the display racks of leaflets in search of
places with the potential to keep their offspring amused. Harriet quickly
dropped off the hotel’s leaflets with Susie, the young girl who was on duty, and
headed for the door, finger poised on the button of her umbrella, ready to click
it open as soon as she stepped out into the now-torrential rain. A woman with a
double pushchair tried to negotiate the doors at the same time and the buggy
rammed into the back of Harriet’s heels. Pain ripped through her leg and foot and
she stumbled forward, off balance, her hand slipping on the button and the
umbrella springing open in the cramped vestibule.
“Ouch!”
At
first Harriet thought it was her own cry but swiftly realised it was a male
voice yelping in pain close by. She turned to spot a man clutching at his right
eye, doubled over in discomfort. Quickly, she closed the errant umbrella and
dropped it to the floor, realising its impromptu opening must have poked this poor
guy in the eye.
“Oh
no!” she gasped, racing to his side, hand to her mouth. “Are you all right?”
The
man muttered something under his breath she didn’t hear and suspected it
wouldn’t be a good idea to ask him to repeat.
She took him by the arm and led him back into the centre towards a bank
of chairs out of the way of the miserable, rain-soaked tourists.
“Sit
down and let me take a look at your eye,” she commanded.
He
did as instructed and she reached for his hand, gently pulling it away from his
face.
“My
umbrella really did get you, didn’t it?” She winched. “Your eye is all bloodshot and watering quite
badly. Let me get you to the doctors. It could be iritis.”
The
man managed a weak laugh. “Iritis? You just made that up. There’s no such
thing.”
“I
promise you, I didn’t make it up. Are you a local? I’m sorry, I don’t recognise
your face. Are you here on holiday? I think the doctor’s surgery keep a few
slots open for visitors who aren’t registered and just here on vacation and get
ill or injured.”
“I’ve
recently become a local again,” he replied, covering his eye with his hand and
grimacing again. “I grew up around here and moved back a few weeks ago.”
“Okay.
Are you registered with the health clinic in town yet?”
He
nodded.
“Right,
we’re off to the doctors with you then, are you all right to walk?”
“Honestly,
I’m fine, there’s no need for the doctors,” he protested and leaned back in the
chair, resting his head against the wall. “You could make up for injuring me by
taking me out to dinner one night this week though.”
Harriet
found herself smiling at his cheek and his bravado. “I’d say that’s flattering,
but as you can only see with one eye at the moment, maybe it isn’t quite so
flattering after all. Plus, I happen to be a married woman.” For a second she
wondered why she hadn’t said she was a happily
married woman. Slip of the tongue that was all.
He
looked her up and down through his one good eye and replied, “I can see you
perfectly well, but I confess I hadn’t spotted the fact you’re wearing a
wedding ring. Sorry if I offended you.”
She
smiled. It actually felt rather nice to be noticed by somebody, flattering,
even if it was a total stranger. “Forget about it. It’s fine. Right, I’m taking
you to the doctors, and no arguing.”
He
got to his feet and swayed alarmingly.
“Steady
on!” Harriet reached for his arm and peered nervously at him. “Do you feel
dizzy?”
“A
little,” he admitted. “My eye is throbbing like crazy. Maybe you’re right and
I’d best get it seen to.”
Linking
her arm through his so she could ensure he didn’t topple over, she said, “Let’s
go. Now.”
Want to read more? Fantastic!
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