Prologue
Louisiana, 1878
Cosmo bent his head around the corner of the door, peering as much as he could through the candlelight to what was happening in the front room of the house. Beside the table covered with lace doilies and candlesticks that were thrust lazily into brass holders, his father had an old trunk open and was pushing the contents around inside. His movements were so sharp and harried that, with each item he dropped in the trunk, the brass candle holders jumped on the table, making the candle flames quiver on top.
Cosmo’s head was barely tall enough to reach the door handle. It meant he could arch his neck through the gap between the door and the frame just that bit more, watching his father with narrowed eyes.
What is he doing?
Billy hadn’t noticed him—not yet at least. He was so busy concentrating on what he was doing that he was not aware his young son was watching him as a red-tailed hawk would watch a mouse scurrying back and forth through the scrub.
All at once, the frantic movements fell still. Billy had reached into his pocket and pulled something out, leading Cosmo to push his tiny body through the gap of the door, trying to take a better look at what was in his father’s hand. It glinted for a moment in the candlelight, with the flame’s orb bouncing off the metal surface. When Cosmo heard the familiar ticking, he realized just what it was. It had to be his father’s pocket watch, the well-made and solid metal timepiece was something he never went anywhere without. Billy checked the time upon the watch and placed it in his pocket once more.
“No time,” he muttered to himself, half closing the trunk as he marched across the front room. “Zounds, no time at all.” He moved so swiftly from the table and hurried toward the front of the house that Cosmo felt safe coming out from his hiding place. He tiptoed to the table where Billy had been packing and peered over the very edge, just tall enough to balance his nose on the table surface, the better to watch what his father was doing.
In the corner of the room, Billy opened a cupboard. He took a water canteen and a cloth saddlebag, shoving errant pieces of food inside. He hardly seemed to care if he knocked over old glasses and cups as he went, he was in such a panic to move as fast as he could. In the little candlelight there was, Cosmo could see sweat beading on his father’s forehead. It ran down the dark black skin, balancing on his even darker eyebrows for a second, before seeping toward his brown eyes. Billy wiped the sweat beads away with the sleeve of his checkered shirt, marring it with dampness.
Cosmo’s eyes never left his father. This was not the way the night was supposed to go. Hours before this, Cosmo had climbed into his bed, tucked up tightly by his mother, Aliona, with the promise that Billy would return home soon from work. Cosmo had been so impatient to see his father that he had resolved not to go to sleep until his father had come home. At the sounds, he had clambered out of bed to greet his father, only to find him in such odd behavior, that Cosmo hadn’t yet found his voice.
“Soon, very soon,” Billy was still muttering to himself. He reached for his jacket that he had slung over a hook on the back of the door. He put it on over his shoulders, so hurried in his movements that he flapped the tattered lapels, before reaching inside and pulling something heavy and mechanical out.
Cosmo’s eyes widened in shock.
A gun!
Cosmo had seen enough of them waved about in the streets of their town. Just the other day, a friend of his had stolen a pistol off his father, and they had pretended to shoot each other in the street. That was until Billy had caught them and snatched the pistol away, insisting that pistols were no game. That pistol had been returned to the rightful owner. This one, clutched in Billy’s hands as if it were the last chunk of bread a starving man had left, was one Cosmo had never seen before.
What’s a traveling salesman doing with a gun?
Billy hastily put the gun back in his jacket and turned toward the table, ready to collect his trunk. Cosmo’s hands curled over the edge of the table surface, ready to hide once more, but he was too slow. The resulting creak of the wood made his father stumble to a halt, nearly tripping on the patterned rag.
Billy’s dark eyes shot to Cosmo’s own, and the two of them froze.
“Cosmo?” Billy’s voice was just a whisper. The deep voice so much huskier than normal that Cosmo barely recognized his own name on his father’s voice. “What you doing out of bed, boy?” He glanced toward the doorway that adjoined to the bedrooms. Evidently seeing it was now open thanks to Cosmo’s escape, he moved toward it, closing it once again. The way he leaned upon it with more sweat dribbling down his dark nose and dripping off the end like a faucet made Cosmo curious.
“Was that a gun?” Cosmo asked, pointing toward the jacket where Billy had hidden the weapon. Billy didn’t answer. He merely lifted a finger and pressed it to his lips, urging Cosmo to be quiet. “A game?”
“Yes, a game.” Billy nodded hastily and crossed the room once more. He flung open the trunk on the table beside Cosmo and thrust in the canvas bag with the water canteen, then buckled it tight once more. “This game is to be as quiet as we can. All beer and skittles, though. Not so happy a game.”
Cosmo’s small brows furrowed, not understanding what his father meant, but Billy made no effort to explain himself.
“Cosmo, you find your father some paper now.”
“Ma has some.”
“No.” The word was sharp though softly sad. “You’ll find it in that cabinet over there. Don’t wake your ma. She needs her sleep.”
Cosmo nodded and hurried to a cabinet in the corner of the room, retrieving some paper that he had been playing with earlier that day. Across the back were the letters he had been practicing from school and his mother’s corrections, showing him just how to write. When Cosmo brought it back to the table, he found his father knelt beside it, ready to lean on the surface, with an ink pen in his grasp. He took the paper and began to write across it, his hand moving with such speed that Cosmo likened it to a mouse trying to make an escape from a cat. Cosmo bent under his father’s arm, trying to peer at the letter, but he was no good at reading. He could do the odd letter, but nothing more. The paper might as well have been smudged with ink for all it meant to him.
“That’s done,” Billy murmured, closing the paper on the surface before he wrote one word across the front. Cosmo knew enough letters to be able to recognize his mother’s name across the top, Aliona.“Thunderation, it’s time,” Billy muttered to himself as he stood up, leaving Cosmo behind. The young boy reached for the note.
Cosmo gasped when his father’s hand flattened his to the table on top of the note.
“Not for you, boy,” he said, his tone so soft that Cosmo whipped his head up, looking back to his father. “For your ma, yes?”
“Yes.” Cosmo nodded as Billy released his hand and stepped back.
“Now, come here.” Billy picked up Cosmo. It was so sudden that Cosmo yelped in surprise, startled as his father embraced him tightly. It had been some time since his father had held him in such a way. Hugs were few and far between with the way Billy traveled all the time as a salesman. Even when he was home, he would sometimes say that Cosmo was getting too big for hugs, but not today it seemed.
Cosmo’s small hands came up to hold onto his father’s jacket, clinging to him. He held on for as long as he could before Billy put him back down on his feet again.
“Now boy, I want you to make me a few promises,” Billy said as he knelt, moving his head height to Cosmo’s. “You will be good for your ma, won’t you?” Cosmo nodded in agreement. “Good. And no more playing with guns. You understand? Someone will give you a jessy for it, someday, otherwise.” Cosmo nodded once more, wrinkling his nose when he didn’t understand his father’s words. “Now, say goodbye to your father.” Billy offered a wink and got to his feet.
Cosmo’s mouth was dry as he followed Billy toward the door, carrying his case under his arm. In the doorway, Billy stopped and looked back, slowly taking Cosmo’s shoulder and pushing him slightly away.
“Don’t you follow me now, boy. You go back to bed.”
“When will you be back?” Cosmo asked, watching his father’s face closely. At once, the expression changed. Those eyes had became narrow slits, and Cosmo could have sworn there was a wetness on his father’s cheeks that no longer belonged to sweat, but to something else.
“Happy trails, son.” Billy leaned down and embraced him one last time, kissing him on the forehead. It wasn’t long enough for Cosmo. When his father stepped out of the door, he tried to follow him, but Billy pushed him back in again, being careful to lock the door behind him so that Cosmo couldn’t follow.
Cosmo hurried to the window, clambering on his knees on the nearest stool, to peer out. His father had a horse tacked up—a new horse, one Cosmo had never seen before. Its nose was facing down the street, in the opposite direction of the train station. As Billy stepped up to the horse, he lifted a hat to his face. It was the old black hat Cosmo had seen so many times, with a tear in the front rim and a mark in the side, as if someone had drawn a scratch there with an apple peeler. Billy hid his face from view with the hat, so that moonlight bounced off the rim, then he moved down the street. There one minute and gone the next, the only signs that he had been there at all were the hoof marks in the dust.
Cosmo backed up from the window. Something was wrong. He couldn’t understand it, but that letter had to be read. He moved to the table and snatched it up, then ran toward the bedrooms. When he burst into his ma’s room, he got an earful.
“Cosmo! What did I tell you about waking your ma up in the middle of the night? I need my sleep.” She pushed back the covers nevertheless and leaned on the rickety bedhead as Cosmo waved the letter in front of her. “What’s this? An odd time of night to be practicing your writing.” Then her eyes shot to the letter. She took it so quickly from Cosmo’s grasp that she must have recognized the handwriting. As she hurried to open it, her body moved forward off the bed as tears began. They were sudden, and they wracked her body. Cosmo could remember crying like that when he had fallen off a horse, yet his mother was not injured.
She flung the covers back completely and hurried out of the room, moving so fast that Cosmo slipped more than once on the floorboards to keep up with her. When she reached the front room to find so many things missing, her cries became worse.
“Ma?” Cosmo called to her as she sank down into a chair by the table, bending over the letter as if it had knocked her in the gut. “When’s he coming home?”
“He’s not coming home, Cosmo. He’s gone for good.”
Chapter One
Louisiana, 1894
“You working on your birthday? Ha! You’ll be dull before you’re old at all.”
“Thank you, Waldo, for that flattering description.” Cosmo held in a laugh as he lifted his head from the workbench where he was working. Across the top, there were a myriad of different pocket watch parts. To his left, there were some particularly expensive parts, some silver, some gold, with inner workings and cogs so fine and delicate that he had to work with a pair of spectacles balanced on his nose to see them. “Work needs to be done.”
“That dog won’t hunt,” Waldo cried from the doorway to the shop. “You need to have a few laughs in your life, even if it is at work. Stop for five minutes, man. You need a little lightness in your life.”
“Lightness? I’m perfectly happy as I am,” Cosmo said, getting to his feet and gesturing to his situation. “Need I remind you that I own this shop?” he asked, watching as his old friend winced.
“Yes, I remember. Your shiny shoes and fancy clothes say as much. Those shoes shine so much that the ants must see their reflection in them.”
“What ants?” Cosmo asked, whipping around to see his friend pointing down at the floorboards behind him. Cosmo turned and kicked the ants away with a wave of his foot, urging them back into their hiding place beneath the floorboards. He owned a nice shop and turned over good clientele that would pay great sums for the privilege of owning one of his watches. He didn’t need ants and the like sullying the room. “That’s better. Now, what were you saying?”
“Take a break for five minutes,” Waldo pleaded, pointing at the spectacles on Cosmo’s nose. “You need an excuse to laugh on your birthday.” As Waldo disappeared back into the shop, tipping his head back so far that his fair hair danced across his forehead, Cosmo smiled slightly and looked down at his workbench once again.
I am happy with life.
So what if he had to persuade himself that it was true every now and then? Surely, he had no reason to be sad, not with the shop doing so well, and the money he earned kept himself and his ma in a comfortable life.
Taking off the spectacles, he tossed them to the workbench among the parts and walked into the shop. The glass-fronted shop had so many cabinets nestled within that were covered in glass, there didn’t seem to be a surface that would not shine or reflect his mirror image. Everywhere he looked, he could see another glimpse of himself, dressed smartly in his waistcoat, with the shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows. His caramel-tinged skin was easy to see, and dark brown eyes stared back through the glass-cabinets back at his own face. With the dark brown hair curling around his own forehead, it was evident how much of a mix he was of his parents.
Not that I think of him anymore.
“That’s better!” Waldo cried as Cosmo appeared in the shop. “Good timing, too, for I think you have a visitor.”
“A visitor? You mean a customer?” Cosmo said pointedly as a figure could be seen hurrying toward their door across the busy street.
“Have you seen that customer’s face yet, Cosmo?” Waldo said with a smirk. “Something tells me she is not here to look at the watches. That biddy finds every reason to come here.”
“Don’t call her that.” Cosmo found a warning tone creeping into his voice as he found a cloth nearby and wiped his hands on it, getting rid of the last specks of oil he had been working with.
“Protective of her, are you?” Waldo asked, standing to his feet and making a move to the doorway to the workshop.
“And don’t tease me either,” Cosmo said, though he smiled all the same as Waldo laughed.
“I’ll give you some privacy.” Waldo clapped Cosmo on the shoulder before disappearing into the workshop and out the back, leaving Cosmo alone just as the door opened and the bell over the shop rang sharply.
Mattie.
Cosmo felt his smile take up place instantly as Matilda walked into the shop. She was dressed finely today, in a dark blue gown so well made that she seemed cautious of it, walking with a hand on the skirt. Her light brown hair was bundled at the back of her head in such a way that loose curls kept teasing the sides of her neck, emphasizing its slenderness. Those bright blue eyes shot straight to Cosmo as she stepped through the door, making his heartbeat quicken.
I need to stop this.
“Cosmo!” Mattie declared excitedly as she hurried into the shop, holding onto a basket as she moved. She came so close toward him that Cosmo found himself moving to the side, hastening to put one of the glass counters between them. He did not miss the way her smile faltered for a second, clearly seeing what he had done. “Oh, erm…”
“Mattie,” he said instantly with warmth. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Is it not your birthday?” she asked, smiling once again. “I have come to wish you well.”
“You seem to find excuses most days to come wish me well,” he said with a smirk, leaning on the counter between them.
“Well, at least today I have a good excuse, don’t I?” She smiled with the words, in such a way that Cosmo found it impossible to resist. “I have brought you a cake too.” She reached into the basket and pulled it out, wrapped up tightly in a cloth, and pushed it toward him across the cabinet.
Cosmo looked down at the cake uncertainly, feeling his smile begin to waiver. Flirting with Mattie may have been fun, but how could it ever lead anywhere? Cosmo had made a vow to himself long ago not to hurt her, and he had no intention of doing so now.
“It’s just a cake, Cosmo,” she muttered quietly. “You don’t need to look at it as if I have brought sickness into your shop.”
“I know, thank you.” He took the cake hurriedly, trying to think of a way to get her out of his shop. “Well, if that’s—”
“Do you have any plans for the rest of today?” Mattie looked nervous to his mind as she spoke. A blush began to creep across the top of her freckled cheeks, and up her nose too. The effect was rather adorable, making Cosmo itch to lean forward and brush one of the curls back behind her ear. To stop himself, he firmly planted his hands in his pockets.
“Not yet,” he said warily.
“I was wondering…” She shuffled her feet, breaking their gaze as she shot a look down at the cake between them. “Maybe you could come for a drink in the saloon later? I won’t be working, so…” She trailed off, biting her lip.
He could imagine taking her up on the offer all too easily. He could go to the saloon where she worked and they could chat for hours over sharing a drink, maybe even with their feet bumping together under the table as they had done before, but it was a risky idea.
Cosmo wasn’t blind. Not only was he aware of how his heartbeat quickened every time he was in Mattie’s company, but he saw how he affected her too.
I will not be the one to break her heart.
“I am not sure I could.” Cosmo turned and walked back in the direction of the workshop, hanging in the doorway. “I have lots of work to do. I think I’ll just be working late.”
“Oh…” Mattie stepped back from the counter instantly, her face turning red once more, though it seemed to be for a different reason. “I see.”
Cosmo was aware of something out of the corner of his eye. He angled his head to look into the workshop to see Waldo waving wildly at him.
“Are you mad?” Waldo was mouthing. Cosmo shot him a narrowed glare and looked away, turning his focus back to Mattie.
“Never mind,” she mumbled, before trying to lift her gaze and offering a smile once again. It was pointedly weaker than any before it. “I’ll go since you’re busy. Happy returns, Cosmo.” That smile faded far too quickly, and she turned to leave the shop.
For a second, Cosmo inched forward. His body was ready to run after her, to tell her that he was sorry, and that of course he would love to get that drink, but his mind won out, and he stayed exactly where he was. The moment the bell rang above the door, showing she had left once again, Waldo jumped forward.
“You are fit to be tied!” Waldo cried out, meeting him in the doorway.
“What?” Cosmo said with a shrug as he peered out of the window, checking that Mattie was truly gone before stepping back into the main part of the shop. She had walked off down the street, hanging her head, barely meeting the gaze of anyone she passed.
“Cosmo, may I speak boldly with you?”
“You always do,” Cosmo said with a smirk of humor as he sat behind the counter. “What’s the point in asking for a blessing now?”
“Fair point.” Waldo nodded and stepped up to the other side of the cabinet, striking a closed fist on the glass surface.
“Careful. You want to break my shop?” Cosmo asked, pushing his friend’s hand off the cabinet.
“Better that than break that head of yours to knock some sense into you,” Waldo said, pointing his finger at Cosmo.
“You threaten violence to everyone you meet. It hardly frightens me these days.” Cosmo gestured to Waldo to take a step back. Waldo may have been full of bravado, but he had never lifted a finger to a soul, especially as he worked quite happily and calmly in Cosmo’s shop most days. The most violence he could muster was stamping on the ants that would creep in through the floorboards.
“Why are you rejecting Mattie?” Waldo’s question made Cosmo fall still. He was not aware the matter was so obvious to see.
“That is not what is happening,” he said slowly, trying to wriggle his way out of it.
“No? She made you a cake.” Waldo found the cake on the cabinet and slid it between them. “Can we open it, by the way?”
“If it will stop that trap of yours from talking, yes.” Cosmo unwrapped the bundle and pushed it toward Waldo.
“Little chance of that.” Waldo stuffed some cake in but kept talking anyway, shoving the sponge into the pocket of his cheek. “If I had a girl like Mattie chasing after me, do you know what I’d do?”
Cosmo found himself standing to his feet, his body strangely tense at the idea.
“You go through girls the way you do cake.” He pulled the cake away from his friend once more. “Do me a favor and don’t turn your eyes on Mattie. She’s better than that.”
“Why should it matter to you if I did? Seeing as you aren’t interested in her and all.” Waldo’s words were coupled with a rather triumphant smile, making Cosmo lean on the cabinet between them, not humored in the slightest. “See? I have touched a nerve.”
“A little one,” Cosmo confessed. When Waldo reached forward to take another chunk of cake, Cosmo pulled it out of reach.
“Why are you turning her down, Cosmo?” Waldo asked, softening his tone a little. “The two of you at one point seemed well on your way to courtship. What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Cosmo turned away, taking the cake with him to stop Waldo from eating anymore. “We will not be courting.”
“Why not? Does she have any secrets? Any skeletons in the closet you can’t handle?”
“She’s a fine woman.” Cosmo found the words falling from his lips before he could stop them.
“Fine as a fair bred mare, eh?”
“Do not talk about her like that.” Cosmo flicked his head back to Waldo, seeing he had fallen for the bait as Waldo smiled triumphantly once more.
“Defensive of her, aren’t you?”
“No.” Cosmo placed the cake in a bag at the side of the room and turned back around, folding his arms across his chest. “Mattie and I… it just would not work.”
“Why not?”
“Because it wouldn’t.”
“What’s holding you back? Hmm?” Waldo was clearly not going to let the matter drop. As he walked toward Cosmo, still insisting on having and answer, Cosmo walked away around the shop. It resulted in a rather odd game of cat and mouse, with Cosmo pretending to open cabinets and tidy some of the watches as he went along, before closing them and moving on, attempting to escape his friend. “What’s wrong with Mattie?”
“Nothing, there is nothing wrong with her.”
“High praise!”
“Hey,” Cosmo said with a warning tone that seemed to go unnoticed by Waldo.
“She likes you, Cosmo.” Waldo stopped in front of Cosmo, halting him from continuing his path around the shop anymore. “What do you think of her?”
“What do I think?” Cosmo was wrongfooted. He looked back to the door of the shop, checking it was firmly closed, before his eyes fell on a distance path in the town. He could just catch a glimpse of Mattie still walking through the street. She had been stopped by a gentleman and they were talking together. The sight of her beside another man riled him so much, that he found the truth falling from him. “I think she is sweet natured, possibly the kindest woman I’ve ever known. She’s funny too, good humored, and…” Realizing how much he was complimenting her, he trailed off.
“And? She is a beauty too?” Waldo encouraged him on.
“I’m not answering that.” Cosmo walked away from his friend. “You promised me a laugh if I came out of my workshop. I think I’ll just go back in again.” He hovered in the doorway to the workshop, where Waldo called after him, bringing his feet to a stop.
“You could have a laugh if you went with Mattie for that drink this evening.” Waldo’s words made Cosmo shift his feet uncomfortably.
I can’t do that to her.
Cosmo cared for Mattie deeply in truth, more so than he would admit aloud to anyone, least of all Waldo, but what was he to do about it? He knew what blood ran in his veins. He knew what had happened between his mother and father. He could not guarantee he would be beside her forever, and he couldn’t bear the idea of making Mattie cry and grieve, the way that his own mother had grieved his father walking out on them.
The bell over the shop rang once more, shaking Cosmo out of his thoughts. Waldo turned around to greet their customer, so warmly that their argument seemed a world away. Cosmo tapped his head against the doorframe with frustration, praying it would clear his head of thoughts of Mattie.
“What can we do for you today, good sir?” Waldo called out, clasping his hands together. “Silver hunter? Or a gold half hunter? Quite the fashion, I assure you.” He waved an arm in the direction of the cabinets when their customer lifted his hands, showing he was bearing a parcel.
“Postmen like me can’t afford these fine watches,” the lad said with a laugh. “I have a delivery. For Mr. Cosmo Webster.”
“That be the grumpy one back there, with the face like a bag of spanners.” Waldo pointed in Cosmo’s direction.
“Hilarious,” Cosmo muttered without humor and stepped forward to take the parcel. “Here, for your troubles.”
“Thank you, sir.” The delivery boy took the change Cosmo had offered him and hurried out of the door once more.
“What’s that?” Waldo asked as he set about tidying the shop. “A present?”
“Probably from one of my cousins or something,” Cosmo said as he took the stool behind the counter again, peering at the writing across the brown paper. It wasn’t handwriting he particularly recognized.
“Come on, then, open it up. Maybe whatever is inside will put a smile on your face, unlike poor lovely Mattie, who could not do such a thing.” Waldo’s words were muffled as he bent into a cabinet to tidy the watches, but he still earned a glare from Cosmo for it.
She always makes me smile. That is the problem.
Cosmo kept the thought to himself as he pulled open the packaging. Inside, he found a small box had been bound up in newspapers to cushion the delivery. He unfurled them all across the counter before a small velvet box fell into his palm. He knew such a box. He was surrounded by many similar boxes that lined his cabinets. Lifting the lid slowly, he tilted his head to the side, examining what was inside.
“What is it?”
“A pocket watch,” Cosmo answered, slowly lifting it out of its case.
“Ha! What a dreadful gift for a pocket watch maker.” Waldo laughed raucously at the idea. “I at least hope it is a rare thing.”
Cosmo turned it over, finding as his eyes settled on the engraving on the reverse plate, that his body turned cold. He could practically feel his heartbeat slowing down in his chest, making his hands sluggish as he lifted the watch closer to his eyes.
“I do not believe it,” he murmured to himself.
“What?” Waldo asked, moving to the other side of the counter to see it better.
Cosmo ran the pad of his thumb over the engraving, checking it, but his eyes were not deceiving him. On the back were two firm initials, engraved so boldly and beautifully that it was impossible to miss.
The initials were B.W.
For Billy Webster.
“The Watchmaker’s Perilous Adventure” is an Amazon Best-Selling novel, check it out here!
Cosmo Webster is a hard-working pocket watchmaker who leads a peaceful life. After his father abandoned him and his mother years ago, he vowed not to allow his heart to attach itself to anyone; even to his one true love. Everything changes when on his birthday, a gift once belonging to his father turns up at his door. Determined to put his and his mother’s demons to rest, Cosmo finds himself on a journey of discovery that will be full of danger and deceit…
Will Cosmo eventually come to regret his decision to embark on this extremely dangerous journey?
When Cosmo finds his father, he will understand that there is more to the story of why he left everything behind. Very soon, Cosmo will find himself trying to face a criminal worse than the devil. Even though his father insists that Cosmo returns home to save himself, the brave man doesn’t want to lose his father for a second time. Cosmo is now a part of the same danger his father is trying to escape…
Sometimes life forces you to make impossible decisions…
In a wild race across California, and with the threat of death hanging on every corner, Cosmo will have to act without a second thought. When he finally learns the whole truth about his father’s past, Cosmo will be faced with the dilemma of whether he believes him at all… With their relationship fractured and the peril looming up, will Cosmo be able to turn over a new leaf with his father? Or will evil and chaos prevail?
A pulse-pounding drama, which will make you turn the pages with bated breath until the very last word. A must-read for fans of Western action and romance.
“The Watchmaker’s Perilous Adventure” is a historical adventure novel of approximately 60,000 words. No cliffhangers, only pure unadulterated action.
Hi there, I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek of my latest story! I will be impatiently waiting for your comments below.