Title That First Year
Author Margaret Kay
Genre Women’s Fiction, Family Saga, Literary Fiction
Publisher Sisters Romance
Book Blurb:
From #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Margaret Kay, That First Year, a story of love, loss, family, and resiliency, with hope, tears, and laughter.
Elyse Laramie created a happy, loving home for herself and her three children, who now, as adults, are successful and living independent lives away from home. Her marriage to her high school sweetheart, Tim, had grown into something that neither of them wanted it to be, but it wasn’t something that either of them wanted to end. Elyse had always secretly hoped the future would bring about a change that would rekindle that spark between them and renew what had become a platonic relationship.
Her oldest daughter, Claire, is married with two young children of her own. She is building her career in the same field as her father. Kade, the middle child, is a paramedic, living with his girlfriend of two years. Kelsey, the youngest, is getting ready to graduate from college.
Then…a terrible accident changes everything.
In the aftermath, life goes on and brings new roles, new or renewed romantic relationships, and new challenges to each member of the family.
Grief experts advise someone coping with the recent loss of their loved one to make no major life decisions or changes during That First Year. For the Laramie family, life had other plans. This is each of their stories during That First Year.
Excerpt
It Arrives
The design was beautiful, sleek, Asian inspired. It was onyx with inlaid mother-of-pearl in a traditional floral tapestry pattern he would have loved. It was cool to the touch and heavy in its weight. Elyse Laramie clutched the urn to herself as she watched the woman from the Solace Crematorium and Funeral Home retreat down her long driveway, the wheels of the black SUV crunching the gravel. The chrome on the car’s bumper gleamed in the early afternoon sun.
It was a stunning spring day. The sky was cobalt blue and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. The trees and bushes had filled in with dark green leaves and beautiful, brilliant purple- and salmon-colored blooms. They gently swayed in the seventy-degree breeze. The vibrant colors were breathtaking, surreal, life bursting forth; a stark contrast to the life suddenly lost.
When the SUV disappeared behind the wall of purple leaf plum trees and flowering quince shrubs at the end of the drive, only then did she move within her spacious, two-story foyer. Beneath her bare feet, the beige ceramic tile was cool. The tile color matched the paint on the upper portion of the entry walls. The white wainscoting below flowed up the grand staircase that looped around the entire entry, ending on the second floor at the entrance to her master suite, where Tim had seldom slept.
She set the urn on the black entry table beneath the ornate, white wrought iron mirror to the spot she had prepared for it. Dangling from her hand were the four necklaces with charms that each held a small portion of Tim’s ashes. Cremation jewelry. Who thought up such a thing? She set the necklaces beside the urn.
Beside the urn to the right was her favorite photo of him, taken with her cell phone four and a half months earlier, on Christmas Day. She had printed it on high-grade photo paper and placed it in an eight by ten black frame. On the other side of the urn was the family photo taken the same day. The five of them together. That was a rare event. It was in an identical frame. She admired the balanced appearance the two black picture frames gave the urn presentation against the rich beige wall. A short white candle in front, she thought. That would finish the display beautifully.
She lifted the family photo, her eyes scanning each of her family members’ faces. Tim looked genuinely happy, his arms around each of his girls. Claire to his right, the spitting image of her father in both personality and appearance. Black hair, brown eyes, olive complexion, just like Tim and his mother. Kelsey, Elyse’s mini-me on his left; her same auburn-brown hair, sparkling green eyes, high cheekbones, full lips, and a wide, beautiful smile.
Kade, their middle child, the tallest of all five of them, a mix of both his parents. He had Tim’s hair and complexion, Elyse’s personality, eyes, and lips. He stood towering over them all by nearly a foot. He had his arm draped over Claire’s shoulder, the new dragon tattoo on his forearm peeking out from under the rolled up white shirt sleeve. Its yellow eyes appeared to glow, drawing her gaze.
Elyse smiled, remembering how Claire had berated Kade after the photo was taken, angry he hadn’t rolled his sleeves down. She’d said his ink ruined the picture, which led into a tirade by Claire about how disgusting tattoos and tattoo parlors were. Elyse wondered how she had raised such a judgmental prude. Elyse was neither judgmental nor was she prudish, and neither was Tim, that she knew of.
Her eyes shifted to the wall to the right, zeroing in on the other family picture taken that day. It was in the middle of the many family photos she had displayed in the large grouping of frames. This picture included Claire’s husband, Matthew, who had the same olive complexion, brown eyes, and black hair, as both of their young children did.
Kade’s sleeve was rolled down in that shot, she noticed. Her eyes shifted to Kelsey, Elyse’s arm around her. Around her twenty-two-year-old. Kelsey had told her that day that she would not be home after she graduated from Old Dominion University that June. She had decided to stay in Norfolk for the summer and then she would settle wherever she went to grad school. Elyse’s last child had officially flown the coop. She was proud of all her children. She raised them to become successful adults who could stand on their own two feet, and they were. It was just that, as much as she hated to admit it, she was closest to Kelsey, and she missed her.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub)
Author Biography:
Margaret Kay is a wife to her best friend of forty years, a mother of two adult children, a grandmother, and a dog-mom who makes her own dog food. She counts herself as fortunate that she has turned her passion of daydreaming about characters and storylines into books that people want to read. Margaret has to date published 15 books in the Amazon Best Selling Shepherd Security Series out of 24 planned and has written several short stories that are included in charity anthologies. A Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Romance/Family Drama novel, That First Year, that also ranked Amazon’s Best Sellers List, rounds out her current published work. She has many other story ideas, in several other genres planned.
Check out my website for more info: https://www.sistersromance.com/
Social Media Links: