Title:
Floured
Author: Lane
Martin
Release Date: Nov
12, 2015
Find on
Goodreads
Emily Barnes likes things
measured and timed, just like any baker. When she loses the apartment that she
needs to run her home-based muffin business, she's faced with a choice:
couch surfing at her very loud best friends' separated by thin walls or
house sitting an otherwise empty Upper East Side luxury apartment overlooking
Central Park. Obviously it’s a no-brainer for this smart
cookie.
Declan Hayes is used to people
asking things of him and saying no. However, for Maggie, his parent’s
cook and housekeeper, he would do just about anything, including going over to
his parent’s apartment to check on her pseudo niece who is staying
there. His plan was to get in and get out, but the second he saw her, something
changed. Something about her sparked the normally cold and dismal place to
life; she made it warm and inviting. He finally understood the phrase
“there’s no place like
home.”
Can Emily and Declan trust the
timing of their lives or adjust the lens from which they see them?
Hope, faith, trust
and...love?
Will
these things be enough for Emily and Declan to get the one thing they both
never thought they needed in
life?
It’s a good thing
they are “Floured” because life is about to get
sticky.
Aunt Maggie practically begged
me to apartment-sit while she was in California for a much-needed vacation. She
said that I would be doing her a favor, but I was on to her. She knew that I
didn't like depending on other people; it was the main reason that I
moved as far away from my family as possible. It's not that I
didn't love them—because I did—I just
didn't ever want to end up like my mother. She depended on my father
for everything. She gave up her life for him, and what did it get her? After
seventeen years of marriage, it got her nada, zip, zero, zilch. No, I would
never be that woman. My sister was headed down the exact same road, and
that's how I ended up in this mess in the first place. Once again, she
got involved with the wrong guy. If I had a dollar for every time she said,
“He's the one,” I would be rich. It wasn’t
that they weren't both smart and beautiful women; it was just that they
both seemed to still believe in white knights and happily ever afters. I used
to see my father that way, but when he traded in my mother for a younger model
and left my sister and me behind without a backward glance, it made me see
things differently very quickly. Now, I chose to believe that I am the master
of my own fate. I could save myself, thank you very much. Besides, who ever
said I needed to be saved? This was just a bump in the road, a little setback,
a wrinkle in time. You know what they say, that which doesn’t kill us
makes us stronger. When one door closes, another one
opens.
Maggie is not really my aunt,
but my mom and she had been best friends since junior high. I was closer to her
than I was my actual aunt, and I knew she would do anything for me, including
asking her employer to allow me to stay in their home while they were traveling
in Europe, and she was on the other side of the country. She was the
housekeeper and cook for a very prominent couple, and from the sound of it they
spent more time traveling than they did at home. Most people would probably
take advantage of the situation, but not Maggie. She was one of the most
trustworthy people I knew. She had worked for them for years and was desperate
to set me up with their son. She assured me that he had his own apartment and
rarely visited his mother and father. I’d read articles about him in
the business journal; he was very successful and had done great things to
expand the family business since taking it over, but I had no interest in dating;
I didn’t have time for it. I’d never even been to the
apartment before, but based on the posh Upper East Side address, I knew it
would be nice.
I closed the door to the
apartment with my giant fake designer purse slung over my shoulder, my suitcase
rolling behind me, and headed to the subway station. At least I would be able
to save some money for a new place while I stayed at the deluxe apartment in
the sky. Don’t judge me, you sang that line too. I got off at
Seventy-Seventh Street and walked the quarter mile from the station to the
building.
“Good afternoon,
Miss.” I almost lost it when the doorman greeted me in his green
uniform jacket with the matching captain’s hat. Why did my
grandmother subject me and Libby to watching reruns of the
Jefferson’s when we were kids? I began to panic, hoping I had some
cash in my purse, because if this guy was anything like Ralph he surely would
be expecting a tip. “Miss Barnes, I presume,” he said as he
followed me into the opulent lobby after holding the door open for me. How did
he know who I was? He must have seen the concern in my eyes. “Not to
worry, Miss Maggie said we should be expecting you.” Something about
the way he said Maggie’s name made me wonder if something was going
on between the two. “That and we don’t see a lot of
residents arriving on foot pulling their own luggage behind them,” he
said with a bright smile that instantly made me feel at
ease.
"Oh,
right."
"I'm Billy.
It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Barnes." He offered me his
hand, but instead of shaking mine, he raised it to his lips and kissed the back
of it. I couldn't help but blush at the sweet older man. I hope
I'm right about him and Maggie; they would be adorable
together.
"And they say chivalry
is dead, Billy. Please, call me
Emily."
"Very
well, Emily. Welcome. Here is the key to the apartment, fourteenth floor; just
use it to operate the elevator. All the arrangements have been made with
Eastern Express. They will be here in the morning, and I believe you will find
all of your deliveries already upstairs. If you need anything, just press nine
on the house phone, and it will ring my
desk."
I
entered the elevator and inserted my key that allowed me access to the
fourteenth floor. Wow, okay, so I might not have believed in fairy tales
anymore, but the apartment was magical. The elevator opened straight into an
elegant gallery that led into the formal living room which boasted high
ceilings, crown moldings, hardwood floors, and views of Central Park that were
to die for. The room was impeccably decorated—it looked like
something you would see in a magazine. I dropped my bags, raised my arms out,
and began to spin around in circles like a little girl. To my right was a
formal dining room; I could only imagine all the beautiful people that had sat
at the long table under the massive crystal chandelier. On the other side of
the living room was a library with an enormous desk and floor to ceiling
bookshelves filled with hardbound books—the room shared that same
magnificent view of the park as the living room. I felt like an intruder as I
began to explore the apartment for a bedroom. Maggie had insisted that I stay
in the main apartment rather than her quarters. What I could only imagine was
the master bedroom was right next to the library. Beveled antique mirrors
flanked the tufted headboard. I couldn’t help but run my hand over
the luxurious matelassé bedding. The room boasted a closet that was
probably bigger than my old apartment. No way was I sleeping in there. The next
room I entered was dark and very masculine. It had navy-blue walls and rich mahogany
furniture. I felt a bit like Goldilocks when I sat on the bed and decided that
it was too firm. I continued down the hall and found another bedroom. It, of
course, was beautiful, but I decided to keep on looking. A giant family room
was next. In comparison to the elegance of the rest of the apartment, it felt
the most casual, the most like home. Don’t get me wrong, the
television was the biggest one I’d ever seen and the brown leather
furniture was clearly expensive, but it looked like you could get comfy under
the cashmere blanket that hung off the back of the sofa. Just off the family
room was an average-sized bedroom. The room felt like a garden with linens that
were printed with blossoms and birds in pink and green. The room was just right.
A set of stairs led up to Maggie’s apartment that was beautiful in
its own right. It was a complete one-bedroom apartment, and I
couldn’t help but laugh when I saw a collage of photos of Libby and
me throughout the years. I returned downstairs and entered the kitchen. It was
my dream come true; a baker’s delight with granite counter tops that
were perfect for rolling out dough and commercial-grade stainless steel
appliances. I nearly fainted when I saw the two side-by-side double ovens.
Maybe I had died and gone to heaven. Inside the pantry, I
found all of the supplies that Billy had said were delivered. I was so excited
to begin baking that I ran to my earlier abandoned luggage and into my room to
change my clothes.
I never thought that I would
write a novel, although my English teacher my freshman year in college told me
that he would hunt me down if I wasn’t published by the time I was
thirty. Well, thirty came and went. I was busy being a wife and working mother
of two, and nobody came looking for
me.
I doubt my sister thought she
was about to change my life forever when she got me a book of “mommy
porn” for my birthday in 2012, but that’s exactly what she
did. After reading the first book in the trilogy, I rushed out and got the
other two books. I became obsessed and read the series several times before
learning about Fanfiction. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who
couldn’t get enough. The idea fascinated me and I thought,
“I can do that.” I was a nervous wreck when I posted my
first story, a one shot about my new favorite couple. One story lead to another
and then another. My readers encouraged me to write something that was all
mine, so that‘s what I did. Thank you to everyone who told me that I
could do it. It wouldn’t have been possible without
you.
I
love reading, writing, traveling, and spending time with my family.
Thank you for going on this journey with
me.
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