Blog Tour Stop, Excerpt & Giveaway: It’s Complicated by L.A. Witt

ItsComplicated

Welcome to the Riptide Publishing/L. A. Witt blog tour for Tucker Springs #7, It’s Complicated!

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a choice of one ebook off my backlist (excluding It’s Complicated) and a $10 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern Time, on May 4th, and winners will be announced on May 5th. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.


complicatedTitle: It’s Complicated by L.A. Witt
Tucker Springs Book Seven
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, M/M, Romance
Length: 205 pages/Word Count: 52,000

Summary:

After their umpteenth breakup, Brad Sweeney and Jeff Hayden are living apart and starting over from scratch. The morning after a promising first date, they’re more optimistic than ever that they can make it work this time . . . until Jeff’s ex-wife and business partner calls to announce she’s pregnant with Jeff’s baby. Brad’s already competing with a demanding business for Jeff’s time. Now there’s a baby on the way, and worse, he’s afraid Jeff is still carrying a torch for the woman who’s carrying his child.

Jeff is desperately trying to keep his life together, but before he can even get his head around the news that he’s going to be a father, his ex announces that she wants to leave Tucker Springs. Now he either has to take over her role at the shop while ferrying the baby back and forth from Denver, or move the business—and himself—with her.

Brad and Jeff knew reconciliation wouldn’t be easy, but they’re rapidly running out of room for compromise. And sooner or later, something has to give.

Read my review HERE.

Purchase Link: Riptide Publishing


Excerpt

Christine tapped her pen on the catalog of baby things. “There’s, um, something else we need to talk about.”

My gut dropped.

Oh fuck. What now?

I coughed to get the air moving through my constricting throat. “Uh, okay?”

The pen tapped a little faster, and she kept her eyes down.

I coughed again. “So, what’s up?”

“The thing is . . .” Christine stared at the pen. “It’s something I’ve been meaning to bring up for a while now.”

My stomach clenched. “Okay?”

“I’m thinking about stepping down.” The pen stopped. “Selling my half of the partnership. To you, to someone else, just . . .” She sighed. “Just getting out.”

I swallowed. “Why?”

“I need a change of scenery. It’s not just the shop. In fact, it really isn’t the shop at all, but I . . .” She looked me in the eye. “Basically, I want out of Tucker Springs.”

“Anywhere in particular?”

“Denver,” she said without hesitation. “To be closer to my family. This is a nice town and all, but it’s . . . I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here.”

“So you’re, what? Going to pack up and move before you have the baby?”

“I don’t know when,” she said. “But soon. Maybe a few months after he’s born.”

I started to respond but paused. “He?”

She shrugged. “Well, better than ‘it,’ I guess.”

“Oh. Right.” I hooked my thumbs in my pockets. “Then how do we do this? With the baby?”

“I’m not sure, honestly. When he’s that little, it might be too much to have him shuffling back and forth all the time. I don’t know. I really don’t.”

I rocked from the balls of my feet to my heels. “We’ll have to work out some kind of custody agreement, then.”

Christine nodded. “I know. If you want to have the attorney who handled our divorce do it, I’ll pay half.”

“Okay. We can do that.” It wouldn’t be that simple. I knew it, and I had no doubt she did too. But I was still reeling from the idea of her moving away with the baby and leaving me with the business to run. Way too much to get my head around all at once. I eased myself into the pleather chair behind my desk. “Why do you want to leave?”

“Tucker Springs isn’t my home, Jeff. It never has been.” She set her pen down and folded her hands. “And to be honest, I’d rather not raise my kid where he’ll feel like I have for most of my adult life.”

“What do you mean?”

“I stick out like a sore thumb.” She hugged herself as if the thought made her skin crawl. “Outside of Denver, Colorado is about as white as it gets. I’m not sure how I feel about my baby growing up as the only black kid at his school.”

I couldn’t even begin to understand what that was like, so how could I argue with her? “Um. Okay. Well, there’s time. Let’s not make any decisions this minute.”

Her expression hardened. “This isn’t a snap decision. This is something that’s been eating at me for a long, long time. Way before a baby came into the equation.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I didn’t want to leave you high and dry. And I do care about this place.” She looked toward the door, as if she could see through it to the bustling shop on the other side. “But I can’t stay here. I want to go someplace where I’m not so conspicuous.” She was quiet for a moment, then faced me again. “Bottom line? I want to go home.”

***

“She wants to do what?”

At least we were in Brad’s dining room instead of a restaurant; otherwise his voice would’ve turned every head in the room.

I picked at the chicken on my plate. “She wants to move back to Denver.”

Brad pushed out a long breath. “So, what does that mean for you?”

I lifted my head and looked him in the eyes.

What does that mean for me? Or what does that mean for us?

I reached for my wineglass. “I don’t know yet. I’ll probably buy her out and run the shop myself until I can bring in another business partner. Or at least a manager. Something.”

“I thought you had an assistant manager in training.”

“We do. But I’m not sure he’s ready to fill her shoes. Not yet, anyway.”

Brad swirled his wine, watching the liquid instead of looking at me. “You really think you can run the shop without Christine?”

“I don’t know what choice I have.”

He set the glass down and met my eyes, head tilted just slightly. “You practically break out in hives if she says she’s taking vacation or if she calls in sick. That shop isn’t a one-man show, and you know it.”

“You have any other ideas?”

He lowered his gaze. “Not really, no.” He drummed his fingers beside his plate. “What about the kid? What are you guys going to do if she’s in another city?”

“Go back and forth, I guess.”

He looked at me through his lashes. “You’re really going to shuttle an infant back and forth every week or every few days or whatever? Seems like that’d be hard on everyone involved. Especially the kid.”

Sighing, I picked at my chicken again.

“I don’t want to make this about me,” he said quietly, “but I think it’s fair for me to be concerned about how this is going to affect us.”

“Of course it is. And I’m concerned about that too.”

He stared down at his plate. “I guess it feels like we’ve just started getting our shit together, and now someone else is calling the shots.”

“Christine’s not calling the shots for us.”

“No.” With a pained expression, he met my eyes. “Just your kid and your job.” He swallowed hard. “And where you’ll be living.”

“Living?” I jumped like he’d zapped me. “Brad, I’m not going anywhere.”

Lips quirked, he cocked his head, throwing me that trademark “oh really?” look.

I reached across the table to take his hand. “I’m not leaving. Christine and I will work this out.”

The “oh really?” faded in favor of nervous, borderline panic. His eyebrows pulled together, and he bit his lower lip the way he only did when he was trying to keep his cool but was freaking out on the inside. It was a look that said, You two will work it out, but what about us?


Author Bio

L.A. Witt is an abnormal M/M romance writer currently living in the glamorous and ultra-futuristic metropolis of Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband, two cats, and a disembodied penguin brain that communicates with her telepathically. In addition to writing smut and disturbing the locals, L.A. is said to be working with the US government to perfect a genetic modification that will allow humans to survive indefinitely on Corn Pops and beef jerky. This is all a cover, though, as her primary leisure activity is hunting down her arch nemesis, erotica author Lauren Gallagher, who is also said to be lurking somewhere in Omaha.

L. A.’s backlist is available on her website, and updates (as well as random thoughts and the odd snarky comment) can be found on her blog or on Twitter (@GallagherWitt).


Giveaway

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a choice of one ebook off my backlist (excluding It’s Complicated) and a $10 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern Time, on May 4th, and winners will be announced on May 5th. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.

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Follow the rest of the tour HERE.

9 Comments

Filed under Blog Tour, Contest, Excerpt

9 Responses to Blog Tour Stop, Excerpt & Giveaway: It’s Complicated by L.A. Witt

  1. Trix

    Thanks so much for the excerpt!

  2. Christine LaCombe

    This is a new series for me, I haven’t had a chance to read any of them yet but they all sound great. Thanks for the giveaway, loved the excerpt.
    lacombejc at suddenlink dot net

  3. Jess1

    Good excerpt and could understand Christine’s reasoning for leaving.

  4. Timitra

    Nice excerpt

  5. Marie

    Thank you for the excerpt and the opportunity to win! This is one of my favorite series to read.

  6. Lisa G

    I have read most of the others of this series – I wasn’t really sure where this book was headed but after following the blog hop and all the great excerpts I’m once again looking forward to reading this!

  7. Excellent excerpt. I’d love to read It’s Complicated in its entirety.

  8. H.B.

    Sounds like an awesome book.

  9. Max Thomas

    Thanks! Sounds like another solid LA. Witt novel!