Carly Fall Blog Tour and Giveaway-Time or Money promotion

Release Date: February 11
Blog Tour February 11 – February 20, 2013

Time or Money by Carly Fall: Short Summary

Click HERE for our review.

Carly Fall introduces us to Bridget and Mason in Time or Money, where missed calls, a broken cell phone, and a surprise that never came off on the most romantic day of the year, might just signal the end of their dreams.

Long Summary:

Mason Jackson knows his marriage to Bridget is in trouble. He’s been putting in exhausting hours for months to try to make partner in his accounting firm. He knows that it is putting a strain on his marriage, but he has trouble escaping the memory of the poverty of his childhood. He never wants his wife, or the children they yearn for, to know the struggle that he endured when he can provide a better life for them. But things are reaching breaking point; he and Bridget are more like roommates than a married couple. He needs to think of a way to get their marriage back on track and what better way than to make Valentine’s Day, Bridget’s favorite holiday of the year, a new start for their marriage? Mason puts in place plans for an elaborate evening designed to surprise Bridget.

Bridget is miserable in her marriage, and often longs for the days when they were dirt poor. They may have struggled financially, but at least she had her husband around. Mason is always working, and Bridget feels that he has chosen his work over her. She’s tried to talk to him about the way she feels, but he doesn’t seem to hear her. He just keeps telling her that once he makes partner then everything will be all right. But Bridget is sick of Mason forgetting the things that are important to her … like their anniversary a few months ago. She is at the end of her tether and decides that if he forgets Valentine’s Day, her favorite day of the year, then divorce just might be on the cards.

At the end of the day, this couple has only one decision to make: Time or Money?

***************

Excerpt:

Mason Jackson finished with the last loop of his striped blue and black tie and shimmied the knot up to his throat. He ran his hands over his gray button-down shirt and tucked it into his black pants.

Mason studied his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were blue; the same ocean blue as in his tie, and his thick, black hair needed a trim. There were a few gray hairs at his temples. He reached for the tweezers to pluck them out. He wasn’t quite ready for the older, distinguished gentleman look yet.

His nose bent slightly off-center, the result of a break when he played high school football, and his just-shaved skin was tanned from weekends on the golf course. He stood at six foot two, and his wife had described him as “ruggedly good looking.” What that meant, he wasn’t sure, but as long as she was happy with it, so was he.

Not quite as muscular as he had been in his twenties, at thirty-five he was trim and looked pretty good; there wasn’t a sign of that gut that seemed to plague many of his male friends and colleagues who were the same age. Even with his grueling work schedule as a chartered accountant, he managed to find time to exercise a few times a week.

Checking his watch, he figured he would make it to the office by seven. He was trying to make partner at his financial firm, and had been told that the more hours he put in and the more money he made for the firm, the better his chances. So for the past six months, he had been getting to the office early each morning and staying late.

He turned and looked at his bed where his wife, Bridget, or Ms. B, as he sometimes called her, slept soundly, oblivious to his gaze. Wrapped up beneath the dark-brown comforter in the fetal position, and looking as if she were trying to avoid the approaching morning, she reminded him of Pigs in a Blanket, his favorite breakfast from his childhood.

She definitely wasn’t a morning person. The sunlight that was starting to peek through the blinds glistened off her short, blonde hair. It looked a little lighter than usual, but he hadn’t noticed until now. He wondered when she had gotten it colored and chastised himself for not seeing the change sooner.

As Mason stared at the shining tips, he smiled as he remembered the first time he had laid eyes on her, which was at an AC/DC concert of all places. She was seated two rows ahead of him and had caught his eye right away. During the concert he had paid little attention to the band, his focus being on her and her then long, blonde hair that swayed across the middle of her back as she danced. At some point during the concert she turned around and smiled at him. When their eyes met, he knew he was a goner. After the concert, he asked her out, and they had been inseparable from then on. A year later they were married, and she had given him the surprise of his life on their wedding day when she had all of her hair cut off into the sexy blonde spikes she wore now. He loved the short hair more than the long, blonde waves.

His smile faded as he thought, yet again, about how long it had been since they’d spent any quality time together. They hadn’t made love in over two months. Their respective jobs kept them both so busy; it seemed like there wasn’t time to do anything but work, eat, sleep, and do it all over again the next day.

He’d been at the office until nine the previous night and had come home exhausted. He and Bridget had a stilted conversation in the kitchen about their days for ten minutes over a glass of wine, and then they had gone to bed. Mason was asleep within seconds. It seemed as though if they weren’t arguing, they had trouble talking about anything. There was so much tension and strain in the relationship, he felt like he had to be careful with every word that came out of his mouth. Frankly, sometimes it was just easier to not say anything at all.

Right now they were more roommates than a married couple, and roommates that weren’t getting along very well. There wasn’t the connection that they used to share.

Marveling at how far they had grown apart, he recalled the first months of their marriage when they lived in a small studio apartment. They were happy with macaroni and cheese for dinner, boxes of wine, and each other. He looked around the huge bedroom with its expensive Southwest decor; done in warm browns, rust colors, and deep yellows. The travertine floors gleamed white. It was about the size of the small apartment he grew up in. He was proud of his success and having risen above the poverty that plagued his childhood, but as he stared back at his wife, he felt utter loneliness shudder through him.

Mason loved Bridget now more than the day he married her five years ago, and he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. His heart literally hurt to think about that scenario. However, he did know that something had to give in the relationship. They had to find some way to reconnect, to become a couple again. Four years ago they had talked about starting a family, and he still wanted that. But for a family to happen there had to be a set of loving parents.

If they kept this up, Mason knew they were destined for a divorce that he didn’t want.

He sighed, running his hand through his hair. Yes, they needed some time to talk, some time to get reacquainted and, dammit, he needed to get his hands on her sweet little body and make love to her.

***********

ABOUT THE AUTHOR