Today we say Hello and welcome to author Jackie Keswick , who stops by Love Bytes today to talk about her new Dreamspinner Press release “House Hunt”.
Welcome Jackie 🙂
Hi, I’m Jackie Keswick. Thank you very much for hosting a stop on the blog Tour for House Hunt, the third book in the Power of Zero series.
Falling in love is one thing. Deciding to do something about it is another. Jack and Gareth are now six months into their relationship and like many new couples they find that settling into everyday life together can be tricky. And it gets trickier still when you are forced to spend time apart.
I’ve been lucky in that respect. I’ve been married nearly a quarter of a century and we only had a period of about a year where we only saw each other at weekends. We were newly married then, and we found we had to go through this process of re-learning each other over and over every week. Some couples are apart much longer and catching up and staying connected – even with phones and email and letters – can be a challenge. I have great respect for any couple making a success of a long-distance relationship, which is why this became a scenario I wanted to explore in House Hunt, where Jack is sent on an undercover assignment, with no chance to communicate with Gareth or the boys while he’s gone. He has no idea how long he’ll be away, either. He has a job to do and he can come home when he’s done.
If you’ve followed Jack’s story, you’ll know that having a family is something rather new for him. Over the previous six months some of his priorities have changed, so it comes as no surprise that he’s not keen to leave Gareth, Nico and Daniel while he helps Lisa take down a drug dealer. He’s struggling to articulate why it bothers him so much, and it takes Daniel to pick him up on it:
“And that bothers you? That Lisa asked you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t wanna do it? I could be out there for weeks.”
“Okay, that sucks. But it’s not as if you’re gonna lose your family if you go, right? We’re all still gonna be here when you come back.”
That’s no doubt true, but as far as Jack is concerned, there’s more to the problem. There’s Gareth. Who might not be very impressed if Jack disappears for an unspecified time. They’re supposed to be a couple after all, right? Jack has no idea how to tell Gareth, only to find out that Gareth already knows. And that he has as many misconceptions about it as Jack has.
“Remember that discussion we had in the Weald about a code word?”
“Yes?” Gareth raised his head from the arm of the couch and looked at Jack. “You thought of one?”
“I could do with one right now,” Jack said softly, pulling loose threads from a rip in his jeans.
“Because of your undercover assignment?”
“You already know about it.”
Gareth sat up and his voice was careful when he answered. “I had four messages on my phone when I landed.”
“Do you want me to guess?”
“Julian, Raf, Lisa, and my mother. Not necessarily in that order.”
“Fuck.” Jack hated that everyone thought his business was theirs, but then something struck him. “Were you gonna say anything?”
“Not until you told me yourself.” Gareth’s hand wrapped around Jack’s nape and pulled him in for a soft brush of lips. “Until you tell me, it’s not real. You know that, right?”
Did he know that? Jack reveled in the touch, realized that he’d missed it during the days that Gareth had been gone. Not just the curling up in bed together at night and waking up wrapped around Gareth in the morning, but the little moments they shared in a day. Gareth putting a mug of coffee at his elbow when Jack had gotten too tangled up in what he was doing. Jack restoring e-mail and bookmarks Gareth had accidentally deleted before Gareth could even ask. Instructing Frazer in hand-to-hand while fighting each other. And Jack had no idea if Frazer ever learned anything in those training sessions that were more snark and bait and provocation than fight. What he did know was that evenings got interesting after they’d riled each other mercilessly during the day, and he was going to miss that like hell when he was gone.
Jack froze and Gareth’s hands stilled where they’d insinuated themselves under Jack’s T-shirt. “Jack?”
“What did you mean, until I tell you?” Jack queried, breathless from the revelation. “Did you think you had no part in that decision?”
It was Gareth’s turn to stare wide-eyed, and the fact that Gareth wasn’t thinking any further ahead than he was made it a balm for Jack’s fraught nerves.
“It’s a joint decision, idiot. Well—” Jack had the urge to create distance, sit up, move away—would have done so but for the effective deterrent of Gareth’s tight hold on his hips. He settled for returning to contemplate the rips in the knee of his jeans. He licked his lips and drew a breath. “—I’d want it to be a joint decision.”
Gareth understands duty and realities just as well as Jack and together they make that choice. Which doesn’t mean that it’s easy for Jack to walk out that door on the morning he has to leave. Far from it. Nor does it mean that he doesn’t miss curling up on the sofa with Gareth and a glass of wine when they have the house to themselves or the boys are in bed. He misses working with Gareth, too and misses watching him cook, misses the routine they’ve started to build.
He misses his bike and racing Gareth to the Strand in the morning. He misses his computers. And he misses texts with strange questions at all hours of the day and sometimes at night. Questions that make sense to few people besides Jack. Questions that only Nico and Daniel, still scared at times but fighting to put their past behind them, would think to ask.
This isn’t Jack’s first undercover gig. But he finds it difficult to keep focused on what he needs to do, finds it difficult not just to jump on a bus and go home. Because having a home to go back to makes staying away so much harder. Jack hadn’t known that. But it makes him appreciate so much more the life he’s trying to build with Gareth and the two boys.
Many couples who make a success of their relationship despite long or frequent separations will say the same: that they appreciate the time they have together and try to make the most of it. We also found that this was true…and as I’m writing my way toward Jack and Gareth’s HEA, I hope it going to be true for the both of them too.
House Hunt by Jackie Keswick
Series: The Power of Zero, Book 3
Length: Novel / 96k
Genre: Suspense/Mystery/Thriller
Release Date: 30th March 2016
Jack Horwood hates owing favors. But when a simple day out to treat Gareth to the best oysters in England leads to a discovery of drugs and counterfeit money—things that neither Jack nor Gareth have the jurisdiction to handle—he has to call in help. Help that doesn’t come cheap, and that forces him to do something he promised himself he’d never do again—walk away from Gareth and the family he’s starting to make for himself.
Three months undercover is a long time. After missing Gareth’s birthday, Jack is determined not to miss their first anniversary. But coming home and being home are two very different things. So when he is asked to assist with a corporate espionage investigation, Jack can’t say no, despite knowing it will impact his already straining relationship.
Except, of course, he’s walking into a trap….
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About Jackie Keswick
Jackie Keswick was born behind the Iron Curtain with itchy feet, a bent for rocks and a recurrent dream of stepping off a bus in the middle of nowhere to go home. She’s worked in a hospital and as the only girl with 52 men on an oil rig. She’s spent a winter in Moscow and a summer in Iceland and finally settled in the country of her dreams with a husband, a cat and a tandem.
Jackie loves stories about unexpected reunions and second chances, and men who don’t follow the rules when those rules are stupid. She has a thing for green eyes and tight cyclist’s butts and is a great believer in making up soundtracks for everything, including her characters and the cat.
Jackie’s current obsession is a green-eyed hacker-turned-vigilante by the name of Jack Horwood. The first two parts of his story, Job Hunt and Ghosts, are available from Dreamspinner Press and anywhere books are sold.
For questions and comments, not restricted to green-eyed hackers or recipes for traditional English food, you can find Jackie Keswick in all the usual places: Twitter | Facebook | Jackie’s Website |
Jackie brought with her a copy of book 1 in the “The Power of Zero Series”, Job Hunt
Leave a comment to enter the giveaway!
Good Luck 🙂
I love what I have read so far, now I’d like to read the entire book.
I have this series on my TBR list – sounds great! My husband and I had to spend the better part of a year separated for work reasons. Fortunately, we were close enough geography-wise that we could get together for a few stolen weekends and they were like the honeymoon all over. 🙂
Sounds like a good series.
Thank you for the interesting post and more insight on Jack.
I want this book! Great post, congrats on the release.
I haven’t read this series but it sounds good. Thank you for the giveaway.
I’m really intrigued!
sounds really interesting!
I just started reading Job Hunt and I love it. Can’t wait to keep reading the rest of this series.
I would love to read the series
Looks like an good series, and the third one sounds like an intriguing story.