Crazy Expectations – #MFRWHooks

Welcome to Book Hooks!  You’ll note at the bottom of this post, you can see all the other great books and authors who are participating and click straight to them (once you’ve looked at mine, of course!).

Today we’re again talking about book 2 of the Jane Barnaby Adventures, Losers Weepers.  Last week’s excerpt was all about Jane receiving some very outdated romantic advice from an elderly neighbor.  In this excerpt, she’s just run into her boyfriend who she hasn’t talked to in weeks – and she has to do some serious self-reflection…

This was not something Jane had expected when she woke up this morning.  Mark Bainbridge was sitting on her sofa, smiling up at her, and Muffin was in his lap, purring contentedly.  “Your cat seems to like me.”

“He’s not my cat.  And anyway, he likes everybody.”  That wasn’t true.  He’d hissed at a pizza delivery guy two days ago.  And he’d savagely clawed Big Eddie, the building superintendent, when the man had come up to fix a leak in the bathroom last week.  She wasn’t being fair.

Jane sighed deeply, shook her head and went on, before Mark could say anything, “I’m sorry.  I – you know what, I don’t know what I’m supposed to say, but that wasn’t very nice.  Muffin really only likes my friends.”

She sat down next to Mark, making a point of leaving a respectful distance between them.  Since when did she have to think like that with him?

He didn’t notice, or if he did, he was doing a good job of covering it.  “I’m always going to be your friend, Jane.  You have to know that.”  His eyes were locked onto hers; she couldn’t turn away.  He meant what he was saying.

Why had she flipped out two months ago?  What was so wrong about what he’d said?  She’d been telling him about the job at the museum, and all he said was how much easier it would be, now that she was just four hours away instead of twelve.  What was the problem with that?

He wasn’t looking away from her.  And now she felt the grip of his hands, holding both of hers.  She owed it to him to be honest now.  She owed it to herself.

The problem with his words two months ago was simple.  They weren’t what she was expecting.  Not that she’d been expecting anything before that moment.  “I thought…”

She caught herself before she finished the sentence.  She might owe him honesty, but what she was about to say was a little too honest.  She didn’t even want to admit to herself.  But she had to, didn’t she?

She had thought he was going to propose.  No matter that it was absurd.  They’d really only been properly together for a year and a half, and in that time, they’d only been on the same continent for three weeks.  And even if he was going to do it, which was insane, he wouldn’t have done it over the phone.  And she wouldn’t have wanted him to.  Who proposed over the phone?

He squeezed her hands, and still refused to look away.  “What did you think?”

Her self-control failed immediately.  “I thought you were going to ask me to marry you.”  His eyes went wide, and she felt him shudder.  Even Muffin felt it; the cat jumped off his lap and ran in terror behind the sofa, yowling as he went.  But to his credit, Mark didn’t let go of her hands.  “I mean, on the phone.  Two months ago.  I – I know that’s crazy, and it’s stupid.  And I wasn’t even thinking about it, I swear.”  Now she squeezed his hands, hard.  “I don’t mean it that way!  I would – I mean – oh, God, I don’t know.”

He knew.  He was relaxing already, and a smile was spreading across his lips.  The infectious smile that went all the way past his eyes up to his forehead.  “Jane, I love you.  You know that.”  He called her Jane.  He almost always called her Barnaby.  That told her everything she needed to know; told her more than his use of the word “love.”  But he was still talking.  “I always have, right from the start.  But I’m not ready for that.  And I don’t think you are, either.  We’re not there yet.”

No, they weren’t.  “You’re right.  I’m not ready, either.  I just – I guess I got it in my head that you were going to ask, I don’t even know why.  Maybe – I don’t know, I was thinking about Daddy and Cassie.  I knew they were getting serious, and I figured it was only a matter of time until he proposed to her, so I just kind of went there myself.”

Now he did, finally, pull his hands away and blink in surprise.  “Your father proposed to her?  Seriously?”

“Yes.  I mean, no, not then.  When we talked, he hadn’t done it yet, but I had a feeling he was going to.  He did finally do it last week.”  She was grateful for the change in subject.  That was far too much honesty and self-examination.  Much easier to talk about Daddy

Jane Barnaby had everything going her way: a prestigious internship at the Museum of Natural History, a fantastic Upper West Side sublet apartment, and helping plan her newly-engaged college friend’s wedding.

Until a casual lunch with her friend’s fiancé set off alarm bells, and sent her digging into the rabbit hole that is his past.

When that rabbit hole leads Jane and her on-again, off-again boyfriend to the English countryside, uncovering secrets dating back to World War 2, searching for priceless art treasures looted by the Nazis, and fighting off the thieves who will kill to get those treasures for themselves, will they discover the truth, or lose their lives?

You can find “Losers Weepers” on Amazon, at a list of other ebook retailers, and on Audible!