Monday 18 July 2016

Monday, July 18, 2016 - ,

Rescuing Lilly & Montana Escape

a western romance omnibus
by Hallie Miller
Published: Jul 05, 2016
Words: 81,581
Category: western, romance
Orientation: M/F
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OPENING EXTRACT
Lilly stared down the seemingly never-ending highway ahead of her wondering how she had got herself into this situation. She always did things without completely thinking through her idea. After her parents passed in a car accident, she'd started dating a guy to fill up the void in her life, unsure whether it was love or loneliness that formed the basis of their relationship. It all seemed fine at first, but after a year or so all the excitement and joy seemed to fade. What happened to falling in love forever and till death do us part? No one seemed to stay together these days anyway, so maybe it was worth giving marriage a shot with someone who you could just deal with as opposed to someone you truly loved.

As she glanced at the clock on the dashboard, she noticed it had been over an hour since she had seen road signs for any sort of life. She realized it would have been smarter not to drive across country in the middle of the fierce July heat, but it was necessary to get out of the relationship. Her actions were based on that moment when she realized she couldn't deal with it anymore and there just might be a possibility of something better out there - somewhere. For the past three months, she had contemplated whether or not to be honest and tell Nathan how she really felt. But it really wasn't anything that was his fault that caused the rift between them. Granted, there were little things like occasionally chewing with his mouth open and little phrases he used that would grate on her nerves, but he didn't do these things intentionally and really shouldn't be blamed. It truly was the fact that they just weren't close anymore. Morning and night they passed each other lifelessly, saying 'Goodnight' and 'Have a good day'. That was the extent of the excitement in their relationship, whereas she wanted someone who would sweep her off her feet, take care of her, protect her, and cherish her. She sighed, thinking maybe she had watched too many Disney movies as a child - they had painted a picture in her mind of the ideal man and the ideal relationship, and real life bore no comparison. Damn you, Disney.

Sweating from the July heat, Lilly reached for the small cooler she had packed to pull out a bottle of water. "Damn!" she cursed, realizing all the bottles were empty, and began worrying about how much this trip was going to cost. Even though Nathan said he would pay the last month's rent of their lease, she still had plenty of credit card bills to pay, not to mention car insurance and a cell phone bill. She had always told herself she would take the credit cards out of her purse and keep paying a little over the amount due every month and eventually they would be fully paid; however, they never left her purse as there was always a range of tempting shoes or clothes on offer - and if she didn't buy them right then, she would never see them again.