Welcome to the Exclusive Cover Reveal of author Kelly Jensen’s Building Forever, book one in the This Time Forever series, releasing October 15, 2018
About the Book
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.
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The Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
For all he didn’t consider himself a religious man, Charlie King had a particular reverence for Cheez-Its. Now and again, he’d worship a single cracker by placing it on his tongue like a communion wafer. As sucking the life out of one little square usually proved unsatisfying, he more often scooped up handfuls and shoved them in the general direction of his mouth. It could be a messy business; he often ended up playing catch with a stray cracker or two, which was exactly what he was doing when Simon Lynley walked into his life.
“Hello?”
Charlie glanced at the open kitchen door and spluttered through a mouthful of cheesy crumbs. Approximate translations might have been Hello, hold on, and Holy shit, are those contacts? His visitor’s eyes were an impossible shade of blue. Like the sky on a sunny day. Dark and light at the same time. Golden, but still blue. Celestial.
His wife’s eyes had been a greenish sort of brown, and simply one part of the whole that was her face. He could rhapsodize about her face, but then he’d been stupidly in love. Merry could have had a mole sprouting hair at the end of her nose . . .
Okay, maybe not.
His visitor’s eyes were extraordinary, particularly against a vague impression of fair skin framed by black hair, eyebrows, and a shadow of stubble . . . and Charlie was staring. Possibly gaping. Also, he was thirsty. Blue Eyes’ appearance had interrupted his chewing. Charlie grabbed a glass off the rack by the sink, filled it, and washed away the cracker sludge gathering around his molars. Then he figured he should say something.
He indicated the faucet with the empty glass. “Can I get you some water?”
Blue Eyes’ forehead wrinkled quizzically. “Ah . . . sure.”
Charlie handed him a glass of water. A fresh glass, not one sullied with cheesy crumbs. “Is this about the front porch? Listen, I know it looks old and it’s probably about ready to fall off the house, but I can’t afford to do that and the roof. I need a roof. I don’t need a porch.”
Blue Eyes gave him a blank look in response. Then Herbert started howling. Well, resumed howling. Charlie hadn’t actually registered when he’d stopped. The dog had been competing with the sounds of eighties rock and nail guns all afternoon.
“Is it the dog? I can take him out for a walk if the barking is bothering you guys. Oh, by the way, my daughter has to get out of the driveway—” Charlie checked the digital display on the microwave “—soonish. Sorry, I know we should have parked her car on the street last night, but my friend was blocking the driveway until late.” Friday nights with Phil and the Xbox were near tradition. “Then, between walking the dog and checking in on a neighbor who thought she heard something, I totally forgot.”
Blue Eyes hadn’t taken a drink yet. In fact, he’d paused with the glass raised halfway to his lips. “I’m not one of your contractors.”
Right, no Kendricks Roofing logo on his neat polo. No tool belt, no baseball cap. Just a stranger, standing in the middle of Charlie’s kitchen, looking at the glass in his hand as if he suspected the water was poisoned.
“Uh . . .” Charlie cleared his throat.
“I’m your new neighbor,” Blue Eyes said. “Moving in next door?” He tipped his head toward the door, through which Charlie could see the open gate in the hedge between their properties. Beyond that, the outline of a moving truck in the driveway.
“Huh.”
Blue Eyes frowned.
Charlie scrubbed his free hand on the side of his jeans and offered it up. “Sorry, took me a bit by surprise there. I’m Charlie. Welcome to the neighborhood.”
“Simon.” A warm hand folded around Charlie’s, and the touch was as shocking as that first glimpse of his blue, blue, very blue eyes. What the heck?
Charlie let go and rubbed his palm on his jeans again.
Simon watched, a serious little frown marring his brow.
“Sorry, I had Cheez-Its all over my hand, and I didn’t want to— Yeah, you already— Or I . . . Um . . .”
The brilliance of Simon’s eyes had dimmed enough for Charlie to appreciate the rest of him and . . . Simon was a really good-looking guy. Charlie hadn’t noticed a guy and thought Wow since high school—and that had only been because Billy McHugh, captain of the football team, had been physically perfect, and the envy of every guy at Liberty High.
He was staring again, wasn’t he?
“I’m going to get to the front porch soon,” Charlie explained, not sure where they’d left the conversation but somehow convinced Simon was there because of the noise, or his cheap-ass choice of roofing tile. “I’d have done the roof myself if my daughter hadn’t threatened me with an emancipation suit, whatever that is, if I got up there. She does not want to live in Florida with my folks. Something about frizzy hair and alligators. Not that I’m in the habit of falling off things, but it is kinda high up there. And a long way down.”
Simon was staring at him now and probably not thinking, Wow his eyes are so brown.
“This isn’t going how you expected it to, is it?” Charlie said. “It’s not too late to shove everything back in the truck and move again. No one wants to live next to the weird guy.”
Simon’s laugh was sudden and very, very welcome. Charlie inspected the floor rather than the way Simon’s eyes crinkled and twinkled. He’d done enough staring for one afternoon. Besides, the back of his neck itched—the sensation almost unfamiliar. He was blushing. Standing in his kitchen with a stranger, staring at his floor, and blushing.
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About the 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.
About the Author
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.
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