Hey, hey, hey!
I’m getting ready to release my new adult romance, More Than A Friend Request. I keep seeing these Rafflecopters everywhere, so I thought I’d try one. If you’re interested in getting a sneak peek at this sweet, sexy, and short romance, enter to win.
Let me know what you think of the first chapter. 
Happy reading,
Julie
More Than A Friend Request:
Sometimes there is no escaping the past.
Hannah Jones is a relatively happy woman doing a job she loves, counseling high school students, owning her own place and working with her best friend. She seems to have everything she ever wanted. The only problem is she still wants the one who got away. Adam Cooper. The love of Hannah’s life and the man who broke her heart. She hasn’t heard from him in fifteen years and suddenly there he is asking her to be his friend on a social network. Faced with a choice, Hannah must decide if she should open herself to potential heartbreak once again and accept him, or hit decline and run as fast as she can.
Adam Cooper walked away from the one he loved fifteen years ago. But the passing time has done little to make him forget the sexy woman with wild hair and big brown eyes. Not a single day has gone by that he hasn’t thought about Hannah and wished she were back in his arms. Now, his little sister has convinced him to make an account on a social site and he can’t help but search for the woman who has invaded his dreams for more than a decade. He has the perfect job and the perfect family. There’s only one thing—or person—missing and he’s finally ready to get her back. But first, Hannah must be willing to accept his request.
From the author of the Double Threat Series and Against the Wall comes a story of just how far you are willing to go to accept the past and move on to the future.
Excerpt:
(Unedited)
Chapter 1
1 New Friend Request
Hannah tapped her phone like she’d done many times before to view the new friend request on her FaceSpace page. But little could have been done to prepare her for what she was about to see.
Adam Cooper would like to be friends.
Accept or Decline.
Adam Cooper wanted to be her friend. Her friend. After fifteen years, he wanted to be her friend. On FaceSpace of all places. No phone calls, no emails, no old-fashioned snail mail. He used a social network to initiate contact after what seemed like a lifetime apart. What? Were they fourteen?
Her head spun as she steadied herself long enough to plant herself in a chair at her kitchen table. Thankfully, it was a Saturday morning or else she may have gotten the request at work and wouldn’t have been able to hide this near hyperventilation. Maybe it was cardiac arrest because her heart was sure beating faster than ever.
Hannah stared at the screen of her phone that she gripped tightly in both her hands.
Adam Cooper.
Like any other woman with a FaceSpace page, she’d spent many nights trolling the pages searching ex-boyfriends, old flames, and all those who could’ve been. She’d come across Jason, who was her first kiss in fourth grade. She was genuinely happy for him when she discovered he was married with four children, two boys and two girls who were just as gorgeous as their parents.
When she located Luke, Hannah actually sent him a friend request. When they had ended their three month relationship after he moved to a different school in junior high, they remained in contact for years. Sometime in high school, they had lost touch but she’d always wondered what happened to him. Now, on occasion, they’d meet after work for drinks. On a platonic level, of course, since he came out to her. Talk about a waste of a good man. For women, anyway. For a man, he was quite the catch. He was stunning, well groomed, and well dressed. She guessed that should have been her first clue. At any rate, she was happy for him and his partner, David. They seemed more than content with the life they’d made together, with their catering business and a pair of his and his matching Old English Sheepdogs.
Hannah’s high school sweetheart had tried to friend her, but she ignored the request. There was no way in hell she was going to talk to that jerk online or any other place for that matter. You’d think after all this time, she would’ve gotten over how Ryan had cheated on her with one of her close friends, yet she hadn’t. And to top it off, she had no interest in reading more about how they were still together since they’d married right after graduation since she was knocked up. Fortunately for her, Ryan’s FaceSpace was private, so it saved her the grief of snooping and seeing just how happy they were.
But Adam. She had searched for him on FaceSpace many times. On occasions when she was lonely and feeling needy. Sometimes after watching a chick flick and getting caught up in happily ever afters. Or when she’d had one too many beers, and she’d thought about the one who got away. She thought about him all right. There hadn’t been a day since she met him all those years ago that she hadn’t let her mind wander with thoughts of him, his warm smile, and the tenderness of his touch.
And now there he was—wanting to be her friend. Wow. Hannah still stared at the screen, making no attempt to accept or deny the request. She just looked at his name on the screen, and sat while her belly did back flips with all the anxiousness that came with seeing his name in print. The more she looked at it, it was like she could feel his gentle hands on her. The way he would take her face in the palms of both his hands and hold her still while he gazed into her eyes—silently expressing his love and desire. She’d never once felt that kind of love again. It had been fifteen years since she’d last seen him, and she could almost feel the taste of his lips on hers. Sweet, warm, and delicious.
Tears filled Hannah’s eyes. Her face got hot, and she could feel her palms getting clammy. Why now Adam? Why now?
She tried hard not to think about their past but knowing he was trying to get in contact with her caused all the memories to come crashing back like the break of waves in the ocean, one after another, without any relief. There was no stopping the images of his gorgeous face from popping up in her mind. They’d always been there, so vivid as if he were standing right in front of her.
Hannah clicked her phone off, blacking out the screen and set it down on the table. She needed a cup of coffee. Maybe a vanilla latte would ease her mind, and her stomach, for awhile. On second thought, she was going to need a little more than some caffeine to do the trick. She decided the caffeine alone would make her mind race even more. She settled on toasting a bagel, and then slathered the thing with gobs of raspberry cream cheese. She was going to need coffee and sweets to deal with this.
She took her breakfast back to the table and started with a sip of her latte. She couldn’t resist any longer. She turned on her phone and brought up the FaceSpace app. Yup, she hadn’t dreamed up the whole thing. It was still there. A friend request from Adam Cooper. She placed it face down on her placemat, and dug into the bagel.
With each bite, she thought about Adam. She could picture the first time she met Adam clearly, like she’d just seen him moments before. Her college roommate, Leila, had been dating Adam’s brother for months. There were many nights when the two girls would stay up talking about how exciting it would be for the roomies to date brothers, twins in fact. The more they talked about it, the more nervous she got. Hannah didn’t have much luck in the boyfriend department. She could count the number of boyfriends she’d had on one hand, and she didn’t even need to use all her fingers. Yet, her roommate was about to set her up on a blind date. Well, not entirely blind. She knew what he’d look like since she’d seen his brother almost every day for the last several months.
When the day finally came to meet him, Hannah was a nervous wreck so Leila talked her into a shot of tequila to calm her nerves. And when Adam finally walked into her dorm room, she regretted not taking more than one. Saying the guy was hot would have been the biggest understatement of all time. He was on fire. A real scorcher. His brother did not do him justice. They were definitely not identical twins.
Adam was close to six feet tall, and had a strong build. He had thick dark wavy hair. It was longer on top, short on the sides and in the back. It didn’t look gelled or anything. It was a perfect effortless mess she immediately wanted to run her fingers through. She had laughed out loud when she thought about how she hoped she’d get the chance to tug on his locks in a night of passion. When he’d asked her what was so funny, she waved him off in embarrassment. He had caught her stare with a raised brow, and she got lost in his almond-shaped hazel eyes. In those first few minutes, they seemed to be paralyzed in the moment, staring each other down. They just smiled like fools, even when his brother and Leila tried to spark conversation.
At dinner, they sat side by side and when their thighs brushed against each other, they both flinched like they had just touched their tongues to a nine volt battery. Hannah had never felt such an instant connection with anyone in her life. She was sure that the feeling was mutual. She knew he was feeling something too. Why else would he have responded to her touch in such a way?
When she finished her bagel, she turned her phone over and clicked it on again. This time, she tapped on his name, bringing up his profile page. She tapped on his face to enlarge the photo. There were those eyes. He was wearing sunglasses in the picture, but she could still see through the tint to make out those long lashes and his sexy stare. He was grinning, like he’d been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. His angular face was still thin, and he was tan. She could imagine him surfing one early morning and then spending the rest of the day on the beach playing volleyball and reading a book. The passing years had been kind to him. If Hannah didn’t already know his age, she would have thought he was younger, maybe in his late twenties even.
She backed out of the screen and tapped again to bring up his personal information. She scrolled down the list of attributes till she found the one she was looking for. Single. Thank god. He was single. How could that be? How could a man like him still be single? She was still single, but she was a woman and it was a lot more difficult to find the right man. But he was Adam. He could have had any woman he wanted.
Hannah licked her lips as she read more. It was like feeding a hunger that she had suppressed for way too long. She needed more and she was going to get it. She rushed to her office and powered up her desktop computer. The screen of her cell phone was way too small to investigate Adam Cooper.
She scanned all the things she knew about him. His hometown, high school, college, and degrees. She snickered when she saw that he admitted to liking Britney Spears. She knew that about him, but she would have never thought he’d put it out there for the world to see. She paid close attention to the things she didn’t know, things that were new since she’d seen him last. She choked up a bit when she took note that they shared some of the same favorites like the book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and the movie, The Holiday with Kate Winslet and Jude Law. She could picture snuggling up to Adam on her sofa and watching the flick together. She could also imagine blasting Britney and dancing all over the house with him. He’d always been fun and care free like that.
She glanced at the top of her screen, to the icon telling her she still had a new friend request. She was well aware of it. Her entire body, mind, and soul was on full alert, yet she had no idea how she was going to respond.
Adam stared at the screen of his laptop waiting for a notification. Surely, she’d gotten the request already. Every damn person in the world had smartphones these days. And they all chimed when something like a friend request on FaceSpace came through. So what was taking her so long?
Maybe she was one of the few people on the planet that didn’t have 100% access 100% of the time. But he doubted it. He knew Hannah, and he knew her well. She was a social butterfly and he knew she probably set her phone settings to update every two minutes, even if it did drain her battery at warp speed.
He’d finally grown a pair and sent her the request and now it was utterly painful to wait. Adam had been debating on whether to send the thing in the first place. He only recently signed up on the site because his baby sister had recently moved an hour and a half away and she wanted to stay in touch. It was a short drive, but his sibling made it seem like she was going to be on the other side of the world. He knew her frequent weeknight visits would stop, but he also knew they’d talk all the time. Even so, she practically begged her big brother to sign up so she could share all her thoughts and photos with him whenever she wanted. Now he was second guessing his decision to sign up on the site, even for his sister. He knew that once he did, he would start looking for Hannah. Something he’d been trying to avoid since the last time they saw each other after his graduation.
Had it really been fifteen years? How did he let all this time pass without one single word? Not even a damn email? How easy would it have been for him to send her a measly email for crying out loud? It’s not like he didn’t know her address. Or where she worked. Or what she’d been up to for a decade. He may not have searched for her on FaceSpace but he’d Googled her many times. He’d always been touched that she had become a high school counselor. He could see her making such an impact in her students’ lives. He would have loved to have a counselor like her when he was kid. He wouldn’t have ditched so much, that’s for sure. He would have wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.
He was surprised they hadn’t run into each other in all these years. They lived so close to one another. There had been many times he thought he had spotted her at a grocery store or at a movie theater and was disappointed when it wasn’t her. He secretly wished he’d bump into her, giving them the chance to reconnect. Rather than using a social network like he was now. God, he was such an idiot.
Adam refreshed the page, thinking maybe he’d missed something and Hannah had accepted his friend request. However, there was no such luck. She had yet to respond. Maybe she wasn’t going to.
That couldn’t be. She was probably pacing the floors at her house, trying to decide what to do. She was probably doing the same exact thing as him. Reminiscing. Just seeing her face on the thumbnail photo on the site sent him reeling. His breath hitched and he felt his chest tighten. It had been quite some time since he’d seen her, but she still had the same effect on him.
Adam remembered the first time they met. When his brother, Aaron, and his brother’s girlfriend set up the blind date, he was furious. He had no intention of keeping some ugly roommate company so his brother could get laid. That just wasn’t in his plan. Sure, he wanted to meet someone. He was pleased that his brother had found what he thought was love, although Adam wasn’t sure non-stop sexual encounters everywhere and anywhere at all times of the day were considered love, but hey, who was he to judge. He liked Leila. She was nice and she put a smile on his brother’s face so he had no reason to complain. But…and there was always a but…he really didn’t want to be set up. Especially with Leila’s roommate. If things went south, and he was sure they would, he was going to have to deal with some sort of fallout from his brother and his girl. No thank you.
Things changed though. From the second he walked into Leila’s dorm room and spotted Hannah, he was toast. A total goner. He’d heard of people falling head over heels before but he didn’t think he’d ever experience it. The way she had smiled at him, with such a sweet innocence about her made his heart melt. After her big smile, her eyes caught his attention next. They were big brown eyes he could get lost in. She had insanely long lashes that made her eyes open up to him even more. And all that hair. Wow, she had thick, wavy brown hair that fell passed her shoulders. She could have been one of those models for commercials that he had seen advertising hair products.
In the midst of devouring all her beauty, he could sense immediately how nervous she was. She had what looked like a napkin in her hand and she was twisting it around her fingers, something that he’d come to find out was her trademark way of fidgeting whenever she was anxious about something. Thinking back on that first night made Adam smile. He wished he could have a do-over of the last fifteen years to include the woman he fell so hard for and ultimately, and so stupidly, let go. He ran his fingers through his own thick hair contemplating that last thought. Well, he wouldn’t redo them all. He had one thing to be grateful for during his time away from Hannah.
But now, he wanted nothing more than to see her again. To hear her voice. To have her in his arms. He clicked on her name again so her profile would show up. It still showed a pending request. He had the option to take it back but he wasn’t that much of a wimp. He stared at the screen and gazed into her big eyes that were looking back at him. He felt like she could see him through the fiber optic lines of the internet. He knew it was crazy, but she could always see him, or through him. He smiled at her, imagining her smiling right back. She was absolutely glowing in her photo and Adam wondered what—or who—made her look so happy. She looked perfect. Her face had filled out a bit and she had grown into a gorgeous woman. He couldn’t wait to see the rest of her.
If only she’d respond to his friend request. Maybe that was a bad idea. Maybe he should’ve just called her. But that seemed too aggressive. After all that time, he couldn’t just pick up a phone and say, “Hi, it’s Adam. Remember me? Wanna go to dinner?” No, that wouldn’t work. At least this way, if Hannah was interested in seeing or talking to him again, she’d accept him as her friend first. And then he could figure out how he was going to pursue it further. Or if he even could. Hannah’s profile was blocked and Adam had no idea if she was single, what her interests were, or anything else of a personal nature. Maybe that’s why he had tried to friend her. Seeing her picture wasn’t enough. He wanted to know more and the only way he was going to find out anything was if he could see her page. If only she had left it unblocked, then he could have stalked her in private. That would have been enough, right? No, Adam knew reading about Hannah wasn’t enough. Nothing would be enough until she was his again.
Adam threw up his hands with a loud sigh. Patience was not a strong suit for him and all this waiting was driving him mad.
“What’s up, Dad?”
Adam looked up at his mini-me, standing in the door way with a bowl of cereal in his hands. “Nothing, just getting a little testy in my old age.”
The young man walked over and said through a mouthful of cereal. “You got that right. Eleven, Dad, really? I can’t believe I have to be home so early. Any chance we can get that curfew extended?”
“Listen, Danny, you’re only thirteen not eighteen so let’s just leave it alone before you don’t go anywhere at all.” Adam felt guilty being so harsh with his son, but he was a little irritated at the moment and they’d beat that conversation to death the night before.
Danny plopped himself down on the desk and peeked at the screen. Adam made no attempt to hide what he was looking at.
“So her name is Hannah Jones?” Danny wiggled his brows at his dad.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Danny leaned in again to get a better view at the image of Hannah on the screen. “Well, I’ve seen her picture in your wallet for as long as I can remember, and always wondered about her.”
“Oh,” was all Adam could think to say.
“Is she my mother?” Danny asked softly, lowering his eyes to meet his dad’s.
The solemn look on Danny’s face hurt Adam to his core. He had talked to his son about his mom so many times and explained why he didn’t have any pictures of her. While the truth wasn’t pretty, he always prided himself on being completely honest with his child. There were never any secrets between the two. At least none that he kept. “No, she’s not. I’m sorry, bud.”
“Then who is she?” This time he sounded only curious and the color flooded back to his cheeks.
“She’s a girl I knew in college.” He looked back at her picture with one corner of his mouth rising in a half smile.
Danny patted his dad on the shoulder. “By the goofy look on your face, I’d guess she was more than just someone you knew. Old girlfriend? The one who got away?” He hung his air quotes over the last two questions.
“How did you get to be so smart?” Adam asked. “Wait, I know, you probably got your wit from the same place you got your amazing good looks.” He sat back in his chair and pretended to brush dust of his shoulder.
The two chuckled before Danny questioned him some more. “So what happened? Why did she get away?”
Adam ran his fingers through his hair and tugged at the ends in frustration. “I blew it, kid. I just blew it.”
“Is she married? Does she have any kids? Where does she live? What does she do? ” The questions just started flying out of his mouth.
Adam was taken aback by his son’s inquisitiveness. Just minutes ago he was going crazy waiting for a friend notification on his computer. Now, he was being interrogated by his teenage son. “Let’s see. She lives around here. She’s a high school counselor. And I have no idea if she’s married or if she has kids.”
“So how are you gonna find out?”
“Well.” Adam paused. Sure, he’d always been honest but did he really have to spill his guts about his love life, or lack thereof? “I haven’t spoken to her in fifteen years and I just sent her a friend request a couple of hours ago. Now, I’m just waiting to see if she even acknowledges me.”
Danny nodded his head in approval. “Friend request. Good thinking, old man. So what happens when she friends you back?”
“I don’t know.” He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his desk and stared at Hannah’s photo again.
“Well, you’re gonna get her back, right? Assuming she’s available.”
Adam raised a brow at his son. “I’d sure as hell like to try, but I can’t do that until she at least accepts my plea for friendship.”
It was as if it was on cue. The speakers of Adam’s computer chimed and they both looked. Their eyes shot from the screen to each other. Adam looked terrified while Danny was as giddy as a kid in a candy store.
“Well, it looks like you’re going to get your chance, Dad. Now start typing.”
