Happy Saturday everyone and welcome to Elaine Robertson North and the blog tour for her novel, I Can’t Tell You Why.
Having an affair is inconceivable to Dani and yet she’s having one with Alex. He’s married, he’s an actor and she’s his agent.
Then Dani meets Sean, a paparazzi photographer with a formidable reputation. It’s a profession that makes him unpredictable at best. A dangerous trait when his motivation to expose becomes personal.
Dani knows she’s made mistakes. She also knows she’s not the first person who wilfully hurt someone they love and is simply unable to explain why.
Elaine has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
***** beginning of extract*****
Dani is having an affair with Alex. He’s an actor and also married with children; she’s his agent. Their complicated relationship becomes even more so when Dani starts spending time with Sean, a paparazzi photographer. In this extract, Dani is heading home from an event with her two best friends, where the two men in her life – and Alex’s wife – have met for the first time.
Dani decided she’d well and truly had enough and leaving Sean to finish up his final obligation – a catch-up with the charity’s publicity team – she headed for the cloakroom for her coat. Much as she wanted to be alone, she couldn’t think of an excuse quickly enough to avoid sharing a cab with Billy and Amanda who had appeared beside her.
Within minutes, she found herself sitting in an uncomfortable silence next to Billy in the back of a cab with Amanda sitting opposite them, looking from one stony face to the other, wondering if she should attempt some conversation. She took a deep breath and smiled.
“Well that was fun!” She waited. Nothing. Not even a glance in her direction. Maybe she should just focus on Dani? She looked at her but her face was giving nothing away.
“You okay Dani?”
As the cab sped past a street lamp momentarily flooding them with light, Amanda couldn’t miss how Dani’s eyes were glistening, a clear sign that her friend was most definitely anything but. But those glistening eyes remained in a fixed stare, focused firmly out of the window while her body language was literally yelling a desperate plea to be left alone. Accepting defeat, Amanda sat back.
She had tried.
The silence continued until the cab pulled up outside Dani’s flat. She opened the door and, without a word or so much as a backward glance, she climbed out, closed the door behind her and headed inside. Billy watched her go as Amanda moved to sit next to him. She took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze as the cab pulled away again. “You okay?”
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