Title: What We'll Leave
Behind (Left Behind, #0.5)
Author: Len
Webster
Genre: Contemporary
Romance
Release Date: June 23, 2015
Synopsis
One chance meeting on a white beach in
Thailand would set their story in stone.
Eighteen and
fresh out of high school, Stevie Appleton is about to embark on a form of
freedom she has never known. When offered the chance to go to Thailand to
celebrate the end of high school, she takes it. What she doesn’t know is that
saying yes would lead to meeting him.
Having just
finished his Bachelor, Julian Moors can’t wait to party away the last three
years of university. All he wants from his holiday in Thailand is to relax on
the beach, drink and have the time of his life. However, the moment his eyes
land on the beautiful blonde reading on the beach, he knows he can’t stay away.
All his other wants no longer matter. What does matter is getting to know the
girl behind the mockingbird.
Enter Stevie
and Julian’s memory vault.
No names. No
past. Just right now.
Seven days to fall
in love.
Seven days
until their end.
Seven days
until they both wake up heartbroken.
And four more
years until they meet again.
Buy The
Book
Excerpt
She shook her head
at her own stupidity. This Julian was attractive. Really
attractive. And this really attractive male—with his Australian
accent, light brown hair, soft, blue eyes, and an impressive body—sat next to
her. With a sigh, Stevie took her hat off and set it on top of her
bag.
“So, what do
we do now?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the clear water.
“Well.” He
paused. “What do you want to do today,
Stephanie?”
Stevie
cringed. No real names. If he ever tried to find her, he’d find it hard. She
never used ‘Stephanie,’ so she’d go undetected.
Exhaling, she
picked her hat up and put it on before lying back on the hot sand. Then she
covered her forehead with the backs of her wrists and stared at the blue sky.
After watching a cloud slowly move an inch, she closed her eyes.
“What do you
want to do today, Julian?” she asked, enjoying the way the
sun warmed her skin.
Julian.
Julian, I don’t want your
surname.
We’re ‘holiday’ friends.
He didn’t
respond, but she would force it out of him. If they were to stay on the beach
all day, then so be it. It was a much better option than being locked out of
her hotel room as her roommate got laid. The first thing she would do when she
returned to the resort was call housecleaning to somehow disinfect the room and
change the sheets.
Something
obstructed the sun and created a shadow behind her eyelids. When she moved her
face, the shadow followed her. Stevie’s eyebrows knitted and then she opened
her eyes. She flinched when she saw Julian hovering over her, his nose close to
hers.
“Dude!” she
squealed as she slapped his jaw away. Then she sat up, holding her
hat.
Julian
chuckled like a six-year-old.
“What’s so
funny?” she asked, dusting the sand off her arms.
“When you
freak out, it’s hilarious.”
She glared at
him. “You’re kind of annoying. You know that, right?”
He smirked and
then nodded. “I do. It’s what I’m known for,” he explained, placing his hands
on his hips.
“That’s not a
good thing.”
“It’s what got
you to talk to me, didn’t it?”
Damn. He’s right.
She rolled her
eyes. “Shut up.”
Julian took
his hands off his hips, dug them into the sand, and leant in close, his face a
whisper away from hers. Then he squinted at her, as if to decipher her
thoughts.
“What?” she
asked, pulling back.
He had pursed
his lips before he sat back on his rear. “You’re different.”
Pressing her
lips together in a fine line, Stevie picked her bag up. “Gee,
thanks.”
“You’re
welcome.”
“I was being
sarcastic.”
Julian nodded
along. “That’s what friends do.”
How
can I be ‘friends’ with an idiot?
“Julian!”
someone yelled.
Stevie craned
her neck to see a group of men near the shore. With their wet bodies and hair,
it was clear that they had just come from the water. They waved Julian over,
and Stevie heard him release a frustrated exhale next to her.
“I gotta run,
Blondie,” Julian said, standing up.
She tilted her
head up to meet his eyes. His really nice eyes. “I guess
it was good meeting you.”
Julian slowly
grinned, and her heartbeat didn’t miss the gesture. It was the perfect fluidity
of movement. Like calm beach water. The way his soft, blue eyes lightened had
her swallowing hard. Really attractive was starting to worry her. Really
attractive was really out of her league.
Friends.
He
said that.
He
wants that.
We
can be that.
“It was really
good to meet you, too, Stephanie,” he said so genuinely that her stomach filled
with butterflies. To the point where it could be hailed as a sanctuary rather
than a display. So many butterflies.
Butterflies
that made her sick.
Butterflies
caused by him.
Butterflies
brought to life because of a stranger.
Stevie smiled,
trying to forget her silly thoughts. She pulled her iPod out of her bag,
wanting to listen to music more than she wanted to return to her hotel
room.
“Listen,”
Julian said, gaining her attention.
She stopped
untangling the headphones from around the iPod and raised a brow at him.
“Yeah?”
“You know of
the moonlight parties they have on this beach at night?” he asked, scratching
his right arm as if he were nervous.
Staring at the
way his nails were digging into his skin, she couldn’t help but smile at the
thought that maybe she made him nervous. She hadn’t made anyone feel that way
before. And with that, she filed that away as a victory for her
self-confidence.
I’ll
take what I can get.
I
don’t think Julian has really looked at the women on this
beach.
I’m,
like, a negative ten in comparison.
I
could have sworn a Victoria’s Secret model was around.
I
should tell him that… Friends share that kind of info,
right?
Hey,
Stevie?
Yeah?
Shut
up.
She cleared
her throat, trying to act casual. Because, well, that was what they were.
“Yeah, I’ve heard about them.”
His smile now
showed his perfectly white and straight teeth. “So, I’ll see you here
tonight?”
Her body
flinched. “What?”
Julian placed
a hand on top of her head and moved her head to make nods. “Oh, so, that’s a
yes. I’m so glad. I’ll see you tonight, Blondie. Wear something nice, ’kay?”
Once he removed his hand from her head, he raised his hand to signal to his
friends.
“Uhh, oh-kay?”
Stevie replied, confused about what he meant.
Then he
winked. Cool, calm, and carefree. A wink that sent shivers down her spine. A
wink she scowled at.
“I’ll see you
tonight, Stephanie!” he said with a hint of excitement in his voice before he
left her alone on the beach.
Stevie turned
her head and watched him as he picked his towel and bag up and walked down the
beach with his friends. Just as she was about to look away, Julian spun and his
eyes met hers. He seemed almost relieved to have caught her staring. And when
he smiled almost gratefully, her heart clenched and caused a tiny fault in her
breathing.
“Oh, no,” she
breathed.
Because she
knew why her heart had decided to play the victim rather than a champion. It
was him. Plain and simple. Her body had ignited at the thought and nearness of
him.
Attraction, you are an absolute asshole, you
asshole.
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AmazonUK: http://amzn.to/
Amazon AUS: http://bit.ly/1GoL8Nh
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iBooks: http://apple.co/
KOBO: http://bit.ly/1IUm8BB
B&N: http://bit.ly/1GXCsSG
Len Webster is
a romance-loving Melburnian with dreams of finding her version of 'The One.'
But until that moment happens, she writes. Having just completed her BBusCom
from Monash University, Len is now busy writing her next romance about how a
boy met a girl, and how they fell completely and hopelessly in
love.
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