Celebrate the release of Building Forever with author Kelly Jensen and Riptide Publishing. Read an exclusive excerpt of this contemporary romance below and be sure to leave a comment to be entered in a giveaway of a $25 Riptide gift card! Good luck!
Building Forever Excerpt
In this excerpt from Building Forever, Charlie is at Philcon chatting with a fan. I love this scene because while Charlie does spend a fair amount of time in his head—he’s a writer, after all—this is the first time he actively considers his sexuality.
“So what do you do for fun?” Aaron asked.
This would be where Charlie mentioned his daughter—and perhaps a fictitious wife. Well, one that hadn’t sadly departed five years ago. The bio in the back of his books was brief. His abbreviated name—C.R. King—and a bit about the awards he’d won for previous books in the series. That was it. No location, no family. If it’d been up to him, he’d have used a picture of Herbert, and a paragraph about how his master had taught him to use the computer so he could tell the story of his people.
Charlie didn’t always mention his daughter and fictitious wife. Sometimes he flirted. Sometimes he went upstairs with the person he flirted with and got six months of sexual frustration out of his system.
Never with a guy, though, and he couldn’t figure out if Why not? or Why now? was the more important question. The answer to the first was easy enough. Fear of the unknown, or maybe even a sort of complacency. He knew he clicked with women. Men he wasn’t as sure about. As for why now? Heh. That answer was easy too. Simon. Meeting Simon had changed something within him. What he wanted and who he wanted it with.
But he was supposed to be thinking about what he did for fun. Two images immediately popped up. Phil’s face was one, Call of Duty frozen on the TV behind him. Simon’s face was the other. Simon in quiet moments, tending the cut under Charlie’s thumb, or poring over the collection of plans for the house.
Charlie cleared his throat. “Ah, Call of Duty?” Why had his voice risen at the end? Fun shouldn’t be a question. “We’re still playing Advanced Warfare. We played with Infinite Warfare for a while and I know everyone’s raving about World War II, but the campaign in AW is so fu—freaking amazing.” Aaand now he was geeking out.
“I totally agree! So many cool mission objectives too. How did you find the WASP drone?”
“Frustrating as hell. And the highway mission. Jumping from truck to truck?”
“God, yeah.”
“Phil and I spent hours on that one.” Mostly because one kept jostling the other right when they were supposed to jump.
“Is Phil your partner?”
“Huh?” No beer, spit, or choking. Just plain old confusion.
Aaron’s eyebrows crooked together. “Sorry, you kept saying ‘we’ and the whole thing with Jory, I made a leap.”
“Phil’s a friend. Um, my best friend.” And brother-in-law. “We started kindergarten together. I’m . . . I’m single.”
“Oh.” Aaron’s body language changed, the shift both subtle and obvious. He leaned forward, sliding the arm he had resting along the bar toward Charlie until their fingertips almost touched. “You know, we could borrow an Xbox from the hotel. They got a bunch in for the con—a couple too many.”
“You want to play Call of Duty?” Even as he asked, Charlie knew the question was stupid—because of course Aaron wanted to play Call of Duty. For five minutes.
What do I do? What do I do!
Swallowing, Charlie pulled his hand back along the bar, the small pink scar at the base of his thumb tingling. “I, um . . .” He glanced up at Aaron, trying to read his expression.
Why hadn’t he hooked up with a guy at one of these cons? He’d looked. He could remember thinking and wondering. Exchanging handshakes with men like Aaron, knowing on some level that he could ask them back to his room. It would have been the perfect situation in which to check his fear. Instead, he’d gone for the girl. Every time.
In the protracted silence, he studied Aaron’s features. Blue eyes, pale skin, red lips. Simon’s face, but not. He remembered again what Simon had looked like the day he’d bandaged Charlie’s hand, and the long moment when they’d stood there, touching, gazing at each other. When Charlie had nearly leaned in and kissed him.
Something inside clicked, and barely formed thoughts tripped from the end of his tongue. “Um, there is sort of someone. We’re not, ah, he . . .”
Okay, words weren’t working for him right now.
Also, he’d given his interest a pronoun.
He’d given voice to his interest.
This time his blush didn’t confine itself to the back of his neck. Was it possible to die of embarrassment with a side of confusion?
Aaron huffed out a soft laugh. “Oh, yeah, there’s someone.” He grinned. “How about if we stick to Call of Duty, then?”
Charlie relaxed. Breathed as though he’d forgotten what air tasted like. “Yes. Yeah, thanks. I’d like that.”
Aaron pushed back from the bar. “Just so you know, you’re still making all my dreams come true.”
Charlie blinked.
“I’m playing Xbox with C.R. King!”
Charlie laughed. “I could be really, really bad at Call of Duty. You could spend your whole evening teaching me how to actually play.”
“Even better. I can brag that I showed you how to get Maximum Overdrive.”
“Wait, you’ve gotten Maximum Overdrive? What are we standing around here for?”
Building Forever is the first in a series of standalone novels focused on older characters who think love has passed them by. I loved writing these second chance romances, and I hope you enjoy reading about the books—especially this one because Charlie and Simon will forever be the characters who started me on this journey.
About Building Forever
A new town, a new neighbor, and a new chance to build a forever.
Charlie King is doing fine. Sure, he’s a widower raising a teenage daughter who just got her first boyfriend, his book series isn’t writing itself, and he has a crush on his new neighbor — the guy next door. But everything’s just fine.
Simon Lynley is doing better. He moved to Bethlehem to fall out of love and rebuild his career. An affair with his neighbor isn’t part of the plan, but the attraction between them is too hard to ignore.
But when Simon’s ex follows him to Pennsylvania seeking reconciliation, and Charlie’s life starts to feel like a video on repeat, everything comes apart. Charlie worries that he’s failing as a father, and Simon is a distraction he can’t afford. Meanwhile Simon doesn’t know if he could survive being left again, and he hasn’t come all this way to make the same mistakes. But despite their fears, it’s only together that they’ll find the strength to slay old foes and build the forever they’ve been waiting for.
About the This Time Forever Series
Small towns and second chances.
Simon, Frank, and Brian think love has passed them by. Each is facing down his fiftieth birthday—Simon in a few years, Frank next year, and Brian soon enough. Each has loved and lost. But for these men, everything old really is new again, and it’s only when they return to their roots that they’ll find their second chances and the happily ever after they’ve been waiting their whole lives for.
This time it’s forever.
This series includes:
3. Chasing Forever — releasing December 10, available soon!
About Kelly Jensen
If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories about the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.
Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas, and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, cowritten with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.
Connect with Kelly:
To celebrate the release of Building Forever one lucky person will win a $25 Riptide Publishing gift card and a swag pack of stickers, art cards, and bookmarks! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on October 20, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!
