THE PROBLEM WITH HEARTACHE by Lauren K. McKellar - Excerpt + Giveaway
The Problem With Heartache Synopsis:
The problem with heartache is that there’s no one-size-fits-all relief package. You can go to classes; you can try to embrace change. But when you wake up at two in the morning, a smile on your face because you’ve dreamt about the could have—the should have—nothing will console you.
Because seconds later, you remember.
And remembering can rip you apart.
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Kate will do anything for her family. It’s why she took the job with Lee. It’s why she’s attempting to forget her pain. But it's hard to forget, when you're desperate to hold on. Even if Lee Collins is the perfect package.
Lee will do anything for the ones he cares about. It’s why he hired Kate.
It’s why he keeps his secrets; and it’s why he cannot, will not fall in love. Not with Kate—not with anyone.
Ever.
The one thing he can’t forgive.
The one thing she can’t forget
It was a photo, a big, full-colour photo of Kate and me. It must have been taken the night before at the club, because I didn’t remember seeing that nook near the lift, and I sure as shit didn’t remember rubbing my face in Kate’s boobs. There were three pictures all together, a sequence shot that made it very clear that it was indeed me with Kate, and each one looked more incriminating than the last. In one, it almost looked like she was holding my head there, pressing me against herself, while I knew she was in reality probably making sure I didn’t spew on her perfectly formed tits, I couldn’t help but give a small smile.
Then I found the note.
This goes to the hottest gossip mags in town if you don’t bring me 10 grand. Carry it with you at the press conference in three days’ time. Wait for my further instruction.
Blood boiled up through my veins, its fiery tendrils licking at my soul. The air was burst from my lungs and I span, slamming my fist into the wall next to me. My knuckles cracked on impact, and chips of paint flickered down to the ground. It stung, but not enough to counterbalance the raw knife of pain slicing through me. How dare they? God, the media harassing me was one thing, but I couldn’t have Kate implicated in this too.
“Fuck,” I whispered, and pressed my forehead to the wall. I was hung-over, fighting an attraction to the girl I couldn’t have, and now this. What the hell was I going to do?
Some moments were so low you thought they couldn’t get any worse. When everything had reached its depth of depravity, or horror, of downright nasty and that the only way was up, my friends, because how could you sink any deeper than hell?
I looked up. Down the hall I saw Lottie, shaking her head at me as she walked into her room, an expression of disappointment on her face.
Then I saw Kate. Her skin was pale and there was a look of fear in her eyes that was so very real, I could almost touch it. I’d scared the living fuck out of the only person I’d told the truth to.
I’d killed my brother.
I did the only thing I could.
I punched the damn wall again.
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Lauren McKellar Bio:
Lauren K. McKellar is an author and editor. Her debut novel, Finding Home, was released through Escape Publishing on October 1, 2013, and her second release, NA Contemporary Romance The Problem With Crazy, is self-published, and is available now. She loves books that evoke emotion, and hope hers make you feel.
Lauren lives by the beach in Australia with her husband and their two dogs. Most of the time, all three of them are well behaved.
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