You canât program loveâ¦or can you?
Kayleigh Renshaw has come up with the idea for a brilliant âcompatibility app,â a new kind of matchmaking software. All she needs is a programmer to help her bring the idea to marketâ¦and she knows exactly who she wants. But Niall Walshâa code whiz and her former best friendâhas been avoiding her since he returned from Afghanistan. In spite of their history, and some sparks that go beyond friendship, heâs proving reluctantâ¦. Is it her, or is something darker holding him back?
âThereâs so much I donât know.â
Kayleighâs eyes searched Niallâs, and suddenly she wasnât talking about the business, but about them, their kiss.
âKayleigh,â he murmured, and he seemed to be holding himself back, his arms rigid at his sides.
âNothing makes sense anymore.â
âLife isnât always logical.â Niall looked away, his eyes darker than sheâd ever seen them. âAnd neither is love.â
A long moment of silence stretched between them. It hung dangerously in the air, like the calm before a summer storm. This was exactly what sheâd been obsessing over since their kiss. If only Niall was a stranger and not her closest friend, someone she couldnât afford to lose if things didnât work outâ¦.
Dear Reader,
Romance is a tricky thing to find. It can lurk in the most unexpected places, like right beneath your nose! Such was the case for me and my husband of twenty years, Greg. We were friends for a long time, and I often wished I could meet someone like him to have as a boyfriend. Then one day it dawned on me. Iâd already met that person. Greg! Itâs funny how once youâve put someone in a category like âfriendâ itâs hard to take them out of it. Thereâs fear that maybe they wonât fit as well in the new category âpartner,â so many of us wait, reluctant to risk ruining the relationship and losing that person altogether.
It takes a big leap of faith and bravery to move your relationship out of the âfriend zone.â But when it pays off, you have both your best friend and the love of your life. I recently asked, âWhat are your tips for lasting love?â in our Wholesome Romance: Mills & Boon Heartwarming Goodreads group. I was amazed at how many of our fantastic group members (and itâs an open group, so please join us!) responded by saying that friendship was a key ingredient to long-term happiness.
When I wrote Someone Like You, I drew on the idea that although there is fear and trepidation in moving beyond friendship, it is the best predictor of lifelong joy. My main characters, Kayleigh and Niall, have been best friends since childhood. They have a special bond neither wants to put at risk by following their hearts. Yet finding true love takes real courage, which is, ultimately, the heart of this novel.
I would love to hear from you. And about your own love stories. To contact me, please email [email protected]. Thanks!
Karen
KAREN ROCK
is an award-winning young-adult and adult contemporary author. She holds a masterâs of fine arts in English and worked as an English Language Arts instructor before becoming a full-time author. When sheâs not writing, Karen loves scouring estate sales for vintage books, cooking her grandmotherâs family recipes, hiking and redesigning her gardens. She lives in the Adirondack Mountain region with her husband, daughter and two Cavalier King cocker spaniels who have yet to understand the concept of âfetch,â though they know a lot about love.
www.KarenRock.com
To Greg, my best friend and the love of my life. Iâm so glad I met someone like you.
CHAPTER ONE
KAYLEIGH RENSHAWâS PEN wavered as she crossed out the last two items on her to-do list: return engagement ring; quit job.
She dropped the pen and shivered, pulling her cardigan tight. These were the first steps toward her new life. She should feel good. Confident. Certain.
Her head dropped to her desk blotter. Oh, who was she kidding? She didnât know how to go forward, and she couldnât go back. Or wouldnât. Not after what sheâd seen. Her fingertips pressed against her eyelids as if to blot out last nightâs image. How could Brett deceive her that way?
Was she doing the right thing? She peered up at a family picture taken the summer before her parents divorced. Her older brother, Chris, smiled back at her from the photo, and tears blurred her vision. She straightened trembling shoulders. He wouldnât have wanted her to be weak, even if last night had shattered her.
While Chris had cannonballed into the deep end of life, sheâd always stuck to the shallow end, where her feet touched solid ground. Now sheâd been tossed into untested waters, and she floundered off balance, expecting to sink at any moment.