About the Book
Raise your hand if you’re ready to move to Jetty Beach!
Yeah, me too. This place, and it’s cast of characters, has been so much fun. I definitely have a thing for good but naughty heroes (noticed that yet?), and Jetty Beach seems to be full of them.
When I got to the end of the previous book, Could Be Forever (Finn and Juliet’s story), I was wondering what to do next. I knew I’d feature Lucas, and I knew I’d feature Becca. And then it hit me… the best friends of Finn and Juliet could SO hook up with each other.
But Becca was with Brandon, and that just wouldn’t do. I knew from the start that Becca’s long term relationship was going to fall apart. Poor thing. She might not have seen it coming, but it was for the best. The first idea I had for this book was actually the opening scene, when Becca gets dumped and pukes on Brandon. I wrote that before I was even sure what the rest of the book was going to be about.
I really liked Becca. She’s a little less sassy than some of my other heroines, but I like that she’s finally taking a stand for herself. I tried to convey that although she needed Lucas to help her grow, she was standing on her own two feet by the end. Even when she’s unexpectedly faced with Brandon, and his new girlfriend, she knows deep down that she can handle it. Having Lucas with her helped, but she wouldn’t have fallen apart without him there. That was a cool moment for her.
But my favorite part of this book was Lucas. Specifically, watching Lucas fall in love with Becca, and be so totally oblivious to it. “Gee, I haven’t been sleeping around. That’s weird.” Call it what you want, buddy. From the moment you met her, you were hooked. You just didn’t know it.
I loved how he saw Becca for who she was, right from the start. He did help her when she locked her keys in the car, but it wasn’t because he wanted to scoop her up and baby her. He was just being neighborly. If she’d been sitting there with her phone in her hand, he would have assumed she could handle it herself.
And I think that’s one of the things about their relationship that made it work. He did assume she could do things for herself. He liked pushing her, and making her try things that scared her. But he never for a moment thought that she couldn’t get on without him. He saw her as a perfectly capable person, and seeing herself through his eyes helped Becca realize he was right.
Plus, it was utterly adorable to watch him fall for her. By the time they go to her parents’ anniversary party, he has it SO BAD for her. He thinks he has everything under control. He has it all worked out. But he’s crazy about her.
How can someone be so in love and be so clueless?
Well, he’s a GUY, let’s be honest about that. Guys are not always super in touch with their emotions. And Lucas inherited (and/or learned) at least some emotional repression from his dad. Plus, Becca didn’t blast into his life. His previous experience with love was a lot more tumultuous. Becca was soft and quiet and sweet.
Poor dude never had a chance.
A note about Becca’s first surfing experience. That scene is based on something that actually happened to me. I don’t usually (as in, never before this) lift personal experiences so directly and put them into a book. But this one just worked, so I went with it. My boyfriend took me surfing in high school and right after I caught my very first wave, he jumped off his board so he could swim over to me, and it flew up and smacked me in the head. I rolled off my board and he had to fish me out (pun intended) and carry me back to the beach. Fortunately, I was not seriously injured—and neither was Becca.
I hope you enjoyed another story in my favorite beach town! And yes, I do know who is next, and yes, it is Gabriel. I know, I know, his story is a long time coming. But rest assured, a book about Gabe is on my writing schedule. And I will do my absolute best to make it worth the wait.
Thanks for reading!
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About the Author
Claire Kingsley writes smart, sexy romances. She’s in love with love, and finds inspiration in the stories of broken people who find love and healing together—with a generous dose of steam.
She can’t imagine life without coffee, her Kindle, and the sexy heroes who inhabit her imagination. She’s living out her own happily ever after in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and three kids.
Join Alpha Ever After, my Facebook reader group. Come hang out with me!
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Could Be the One: (Lucas and Becca) (A Back to Jetty Beach Romance Book 2) Page 19