Sunflowers in Bloom

By Nora Fares

What do you do when you're young, fairly smart, and have a great job in the city? If you're Nathan Alaric Chapman, you quit your job to move into an old, rundown cottage in the British countryside to write a fantasy novel. The pipes are rusted and the walls are peeling, but anything to follow your dreams, right?

 

Except now your friends are in the city—and you're here. Alone.

 

Thankfully, Lizzie's here, too.

 

Lizzie, the pretty, young woman who's been hiding in your attic the entire time you and your best mates had been moving your things into the cottage. Lizzie, who becomes the peculiar houseguest that never leaves. Lizzie, who defies everything from physics to you—if you're Nate, that is. Lizzie, who has a secret—one Nate and his friends swear to protect.

 

When faced with the hurdles of life, will Nate's love for Lizzie be enough to overcome it? A sweet, short, and charming romance, Sunflowers in Bloom explores what it means to truly be alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nora Fares
• Release date: Jun 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393760290

Nora Fares

Nora Fares first began writing as a child, publishing her first book, a book of poetry, at age eleven. She has since written a number of Young Adult and Children's books under numerous pen names. She now resides in the Alamo region of Texas with her husband and their cat, Casper.

Book preview

Sunflowers in Bloom

Nora Fares

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Dusky Rose Press

Copyright © 2019 by Nora Fares

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the author. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Author Contact: [e-mail]

www.norafares.com

Publisher Contact: [e-mail]

www.duskyrose.press

Contents

Dedication

1. One

2. Two

3. Three

4. Four

5. Five

6. Six

7. Seven

8. Eight

9. Nine

10. Ten

11. Eleven

12. Epilogue

About the Author

Acknowledgments

This is for you, Jason. May the flowers always bloom in your corner of the world.

Chapter one

One

On a balmy, purposeless spring weekend, the stone cottage received its first inhabitant in many years.

It was a small house with only two upstairs bedrooms, a lounge, a tiny attic, one bath and an old kitchen with a breakfast nook in the place of a dining room. The inside of the house was vacant and dusty, a testament to its age and lack of upkeep. The yellow wallpaper in the lounge was peeling, the colour browning around the edges like a used cigarette. The bedrooms had been freshly painted, but they were beige and unbearably boring, and the plumbing was suspiciously rusted. The only good things to be said about the house were in the exterior with its charming stone walls, hanging plants, climbing vines, blooming flower beds, and a lovely bright blue front door.

You won’t last a fortnight here, Ezra said. He wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his sleeve, but it only served to smear over his leather jacket. It was a wonder that he’d put it on after having moved furniture all day.

I don’t think it’s all bad, said Alfie, plopping down on an armchair. Nate only needs it for—ah, what did you call it?

Inspirational intervention, Ezra supplied for him, rubbing his temples. He casually leaned back against the wall of the lounge and closed his eyes.

Nate nervously scratched the back of his head, looking a little hopeless. The agent had shown him very nice pictures of the surrounding English countryside. In them, the house had looked quaint, just what he’d asked for. He should’ve taken the cheap rent as a red flag, but it hadn’t been the first rash decision he’d made lately. Quitting his job in the city had been rashest of them all.

He’s in shock, Alfie said when too much time had passed.

Definitely, Ezra agreed with a grin.

Piss off, Nate said, feeling a bit annoyed by how right they were. In fact, the idea of living alone in the time-worn cottage was starting to sound worse and worse by the second.

But it was too late to reconsider his decision. He’d already signed an eighteen-month lease and had spent the better half of his weekend moving in all his belongings with the help of Alfie and Ezra. All the furniture and boxes were in the home now. The typewriter was set up on an old mahogany desk in the smaller of the two bedrooms, which he’d converted into his study. Save for a few boxes that still needed unpacking, he was all set to pursue his dream.

We’d best get going then, Alfie said, checking his watch. It was half-past five. Queenie will need to be fed. Queenie was Alfie’s cat.

Mental, Ezra muttered, but he straightened himself from the wall and dug in his back pocket for the keys to the moving lorry. He jangled the keys in front of Alfie, motioning for him to get up from the armchair.

Nate was still debating what to do with himself. In a few moments, he would be completely and utterly alone.

"You listen here, Nathan," Ezra said, looking pleased by the dirty look Nate threw him for using his full name, something that he knew Nate loathed. You ring us if the spirit comes out to scare you. We’ll set her straight, won’t we, Alf?

Alfie pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and rolled his eyes.

Ezra had chatted up some locals at the pub in town the day before, learning that the cottage Nate had leased was, in fact, haunted.

"Oh yes, it’s positively dreadful. Poor girl died there