Love Defined Cover

So for those of you too lazy to click through to Amazon on my post on Wednesday (and it’s okay – I’m often too lazy to click on links. I feel ya’!) I give to you the official cover for Love Defined, coming on December 2nd!

I love how it ties in to the other two covers in the series. And also, it’s purple. I adore purple – did you know that about me? Since Love Defined takes place in March and April, the budding tree is simply perfect, I think. When we’re closer to December, I’ll post a list of places you can possibly win a copy and so forth (and if you want to help spread the world, I’d love it!)

And, I promised you a bit more of an excerpt — you can read the first snippet of chapter one here. And following is the rest of it.

July crept downstairs to the office and prodded her computer awake. How was Gareth able to sleep? Every time she closed her eyes, babies floated through her head. The images wouldn’t leave her alone while she’d flopped from one position to another, so she’d given in and gotten up. Three girls and two boys. There was no way to know for certain that those genders were right. But they felt right. And there was no point dwelling on it.

She hovered the mouse over her social media shortcut. Did she really want to see everyone’s happy family photos? Or read about how terrible their jobs were? Not really. She opened her email instead. June had written—probably asking for an update. She swallowed the lump in her throat. That could wait ‘til tomorrow. Her gaze traveled to her email program where the list of adoption resources she’d collected sat in a draft email. Butterflies swirled in her stomach as she opened it and began clicking the links, opening each in a new tab. There was no point in putting it off any longer. Gareth had kept up his end of the deal, now she had to keep hers.

Okay…what had June said was step one? Decide between international or domestic, right? July blew out a breath. Where did you even start trying to figure that out? She clicked on the tab for an international adoption agency. The words swam across the screen. She blinked furiously to clear the tears that pooled in her eyes. Why wasn’t “neither” an option? Because she’d promised Gareth, that’s why.

She slid open the middle desk drawer and rooted around for a pen and pad of paper. She’d approach this logically. And maybe, just maybe, having lists would prove once and for all that this wasn’t the right choice for them. She ripped off the top sheet and wrote “International” across the top before drawing a line down the center of the page. She labeled one side “Pros” and the other “Cons.” Then she repeated the process on another sheet of paper, except the label at the top said “Domestic.”

Pen in hand, she began to read.

**

“Wow. Someone was busy last night.”

July looked up from her coffee as Gareth shuffled into the kitchen, sheets of notepaper in his hand. “Couldn’t sleep, figured I might as well do something useful.”

He grunted, laid the papers on the counter, and grabbed the coffee carafe. “And?”

She shrugged. She’d made so many notes last night it was all just a blur. No matter what she did, the information simply swirled in her head instead of coalescing into something that resembled an opinion. And still she circled back to the fact that she didn’t want to adopt. It didn’t matter international or domestic. She wasn’t interested.

Gareth tugged a chair out from the kitchen table and sat, lining the papers up in front of him. “So…nothing? No leanings either way?”

July frowned and set her mug down on the table so hard that coffee splashed over the lip. “I’m still processing, okay? There’s a lot of information out there—too much, really—I don’t know how anyone decides that this is something they want to do.”

“Wait—woah. I was just asking.”

“Yeah, well. I was just answering.” July shoved her chair back and stood, half-heartedly mopping at the spilled coffee with a napkin. “I’m going to take a shower.”

Why couldn’t he just drop it? Did they have to jump right into adoption? Couldn’t they wait even a week before he had to start harping on it? She threw her clothes into the laundry basket and stepped into the scalding water. She heaved a sigh. He’d probably only brought it up because of the notes…but what had he been doing at her computer? And even if he’d just been looking for a pen or something, once she’d answered, he should’ve let it drop.

She stood under the showerhead, her blood beginning to boil as the conversation replayed itself in her mind. When she’d rinsed off all the soap, she cranked the handle to shut off the water, threw a towel around herself, and slammed open the stall door.

“Gareth!”

“Yeah?” A quizzical expression on his face, he looked up from his tablet that he was reading, reclined on their bed.

She stomped across the room and jabbed a finger at him. She wasn’t going to yell. Yelling wouldn’t solve anything. “Just because you’re in an all-fired hurry to adopt doesn’t mean I am. I did some research, sure, because I’m trying to keep up my end of our deal. But that doesn’t mean you get to push. Got it?”

His mouth dropped open.

July gave a curt nod and stormed back into the bathroom, shutting the door with a stern click.