(Posting some blogs from the Fatal Affair blog tour in case you missed them!)
We all have one, don’t we? That person (or two) from the past who might’ve been “the one” if circumstances had been different. Do you ever think about what might’ve been different with him or her? What your life would be like? Who your friends would be? What your children might be like? Where you’d live? Would you still be in love all these years later? Or is it probably for the best that he or she “got away”?
I’ll confess to occasionally pondering these questions, but certainly not out of any sense of displeasure with my current life. As a writer, I’m all about scenarios and what ifs. How can I run those scenarios for my characters and not for myself? After all, life is made up of a series of choices that lead to a destination. At some point in our lives, we all find ourselves at that fork in the road Robert Frost so ably describes in his poem, “The Road Less Traveled.” It’s interesting (at least to me) to imagine what might’ve been had I taken a different road. One thing I know for sure: I wouldn’t want any other husband or children. They are the right ones for me, the family I was meant to have.
In my new book, Fatal Affair, released June 21 from Carina Press, I got the opportunity to explore the “one who got away” theme. Six years before the book opens, Nick Cappuano had a memorable one-night stand with Sam Holland. They never saw each other again until the day Sam walks into Nick’s boss’s apartment—after Nick finds his boss, U.S. Senator John O’Connor, murdered in his bed. Later, when Sam and Nick have the chance to delve more deeply into their earlier liaison, they learn that someone deliberately conspired to keep them apart. Now they not only have to contend with a high-profile murder case, but their romantic past comes roaring back to taunt them with what might’ve been—and what can’t be—at least not when they are both mired in the investigation.
It was great fun to write about this couple and how they connected on every possible level years earlier only to be denied a chance at love. When they meet again under the worst possible circumstances, it quickly becomes clear that the connection they shared so long ago is still very much alive.
Do you ever think about the one who got away? Would you welcome the opportunity to see him or her again? Do you indulge in thoughts of what might’ve been or do you prefer to leave well enough alone?
