Can she let go of the past,
before it destroys her future?
before it destroys her future?
All Toby Lawson wanted was to go to college to
pursue her dream of becoming a teacher and to be free of her alcoholic mother
and the painful memories of finding her and the guy Toby loved kissing. But
when her mother nearly burns the house down, Toby must put her dreams on hold
and return home to care for her. The only time she isn’t lonely and miserable
is when she’s listening to her heartthrob, Elvis Presley. His music takes her
away, helps her escape from everything wrong in her life.
Noah Rivers has always loved Toby, but no matter
what he says, and even though she knows her mother initiated the kiss, and that
he didn’t kiss her back, she can‘t seem to get past what happened. He soon
realizes that the true problem lies in Toby’s belief that she’s not good enough
for him and in her fear that she will be just like her mother.
What will it take to prove to her that she deserves
to be happy, and that he would give anything to be the man to make her dreams
come true?
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Mapleton,
Tennessee, November, 1957
Toby Lawson closed her eyes and shut
out all sounds of the diner, except for Elvis Presley’s voice. He was crooning
about how she was the only one for him…no matter where he went or what he did…
he’d spend his whole life loving her…
Rough hands landed on her waist and
shattered the fantasy. She caught a whiff of hair tonic and too much cologne,
and she snapped her eyes open. Wes Markham’s hateful face replaced the image of
Elvis’ beautiful, crooked smile and smoldering blue eyes.
“Let me go.” She gritted her teeth,
keeping her voice low. If her boss, Mr. Winstead, knew there was trouble on
account of her, he’d explode. He’d barely let her have the job in the first
place. Everyone in Mapleton knew the Lawson women were trouble.
“Come
on, honey. If you like that hip swivel, Presley ain’t the only one who’s got
it. I got it too.” He released her with his left hand so he could run it over
his slicked down hair and gave her a big-toothed, wolfish smile. “Only we’d be
naked.” He shot a cocky grin over to his two companions—Chuck Stenson and Billy
Garfield—who were leaning against the jukebox making kissing and whooping
sounds.
Toby gripped his right wrist with one
hand, tightening her hold on the utensils she held in the other. “I said let me
go. Now!”
“Aw,
be a sport, Green-Eyes.”
The
bulge of his pelvis pressed into her abdomen, and she gasped in shock. Nausea
tightened in her esophagus. “Wes Markham, I’m warning you…”
She shoved against him, but he didn’t
budge.
He pulled her tighter. “Your momma’s a
whole lot friendlier than you are. They say the apple don’t fall far from the
tree, so how’s about you cut the pretense and we go someplace quiet? Winstead
won’t miss you for a few minutes.”
Her cheeks heated. She didn’t dare look
around. No doubt the customers were watching, listening. Elvis had stopped
singing and everyone in the place could hear what he’d said about her mother.
It wasn’t like they didn’t all know, though. Constance Lawson hadn’t exactly
kept her escapades a secret.
Toby clenched her teeth and brandished
the utensils. She spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. “Release me this
instant, or I swear, you’ll be pulling this steak knife out of your eyeball.”
He held her gaze for a split second,
then gave a laugh that was somewhere between nervous and furious. “Sure, sure.
Okay.” He released her and stepped back. “I was just foolin’ around anyway. I
got better things to do with my time than waste it on a used up chick like
you.”
Muffled laughter rose around her. Oh
God, she could crawl into a hole.
“How about you apologize to the lady,
then beat it?”
Toby whirled at the male voice. Noah
Rivers stood behind her, looking handsome and sharp in his police uniform—even
with his dark hair in the military buzz cut. Her knees weakened, and tingles
swept over her skin. She swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat.
She’d heard he was back, but hadn’t seen him until now. And what a time to have
a reunion.
Check out
End of Lonely Street and enter to win GREAT prizes…
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*** 10% of all of Alicia Dean’s net royalties for End of Lonely
Street will go to
The Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation http://www.graceland.com/epcf/
***
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Other than reading and writing, her passions are Elvis Presley, MLB, NFL
(she usually works in a mention of one or all three into her stories) and
watching her favorite televisions shows like Vampire Diaries, Justified, Sons
of Anarchy, Haven, The Mindy Project, and Dexter (even though it has sadly
ended, she will forever be a fan). Some of her favorite authors are Michael
Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Lee Child, Lisa Gardner, Sharon Sala, Jordan Dane,
Ridley Pearson, Joseph Finder, and Jonathan Kellerman…to name a few.Alicia says: "I’m excited to share my latest release from The Wild Rose Press on what would have been Elvis’ eightieth birthday. ‘End of Lonely Street’ is a Vintage Romance Short Story set in 1957, in the era when Elvis first burst on the scene. Like my heroine in the story, I am a diehard Elvis fan. (As you probably figured out, I took the title from a line in Heartbreak Hotel, which was Elvis’ first million selling record)."
Find Alicia here:
Website: http://aliciadean.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alicia_Dean_
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/aliciamdean/
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