Decide (Declan Reede: The Untold Story 0.5)
by Michelle Irwin
Strap in, get ready to start your engines and see where it all began.
From an early age, Declan Reede’s only goal was to race in the ProV8 Championship Series. One thing he couldn’t anticipate was that a blistering kiss shared with his best friend, Alyssa Dawson, might derail his plans.
While he knows things between them will never be the same, it’s impossible to predict just where the road will take them, or how rocky it might get.
Will he decide to fight for love or follow his dreams?
From an early age, Declan Reede’s only goal was to race in the ProV8 Championship Series. One thing he couldn’t anticipate was that a blistering kiss shared with his best friend, Alyssa Dawson, might derail his plans.
While he knows things between them will never be the same, it’s impossible to predict just where the road will take them, or how rocky it might get.
Will he decide to fight for love or follow his dreams?
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Excerpt:
The thrum of the engine filled my veins and I came alive with the press of the accelerator. Just like I had for the whole season, I was feeling the car. It was nothing but an extension of me. The race, the season, it was all mine for the plucking. Turning seventeen had given me a new maturity behind the wheel and I’d taken every advantage of it for the last couple of months. Even though I was up against wannabes at least twice my age, there was no one who could touch me. So far, of the six rounds we’d raced, I’d earned a podium in them all. Three of those were in first place.
The car hugged the turns, with barely any body roll as I floated through the bends. In the car, I was at home. Nothing ever made me feel as powerful and potent as I did behind the wheel. With the narrow view of my visor, I was free. I was able to dream of the day my fantasies came to life. Unlike half the wash-ups on the track, I had the potential to make it onto the professional circuit.
I just needed the right person to notice me.
That didn’t mean I was sitting back and waiting for someone to chance across me. It was already October and I only had a little over a month left to plan my next step after I graduated school. In the hope of securing a contract with a team, any team, I’d drawn up a portfolio detailing my successes in both the karting and sports sedan series I was in and sent it to every racing team I could.
There was one I wanted to attract the attention of more than any other though: Sinclair Racing. Their Holdens were the most formidable on the V8 track, and I’d dreamed of being in one of their cars long before I’d ever jumped behind the wheel. Even when I’d started in karts, it was with dreams of a place with Sinclair running in my head. It was their logo I imagined on my race suit when I kitted up for a race.
The only drawback with Sinclair was their location. The team headquarters were in Sydney, which meant that I’d have to move if ever I was lucky enough to be granted a position.
Alyssa and I had never really discussed whether she’d be willing to move if my dreams did come true, mostly because she didn’t actually believe they would. We rarely spoke about my racing at all outside of how inconvenient practices, races, and my dream was to the time she wanted to spend with me. Her every action proved to me that she saw my racing as nothing more than an expensive and time-consuming hobby. For some, that might have been the case, but not for me. There was no doubt in my mind that I would make it one day. Someday. Somehow. And even if I did fail, it wouldn’t be for lack of trying.
The car hugged the turns, with barely any body roll as I floated through the bends. In the car, I was at home. Nothing ever made me feel as powerful and potent as I did behind the wheel. With the narrow view of my visor, I was free. I was able to dream of the day my fantasies came to life. Unlike half the wash-ups on the track, I had the potential to make it onto the professional circuit.
I just needed the right person to notice me.
That didn’t mean I was sitting back and waiting for someone to chance across me. It was already October and I only had a little over a month left to plan my next step after I graduated school. In the hope of securing a contract with a team, any team, I’d drawn up a portfolio detailing my successes in both the karting and sports sedan series I was in and sent it to every racing team I could.
There was one I wanted to attract the attention of more than any other though: Sinclair Racing. Their Holdens were the most formidable on the V8 track, and I’d dreamed of being in one of their cars long before I’d ever jumped behind the wheel. Even when I’d started in karts, it was with dreams of a place with Sinclair running in my head. It was their logo I imagined on my race suit when I kitted up for a race.
The only drawback with Sinclair was their location. The team headquarters were in Sydney, which meant that I’d have to move if ever I was lucky enough to be granted a position.
Alyssa and I had never really discussed whether she’d be willing to move if my dreams did come true, mostly because she didn’t actually believe they would. We rarely spoke about my racing at all outside of how inconvenient practices, races, and my dream was to the time she wanted to spend with me. Her every action proved to me that she saw my racing as nothing more than an expensive and time-consuming hobby. For some, that might have been the case, but not for me. There was no doubt in my mind that I would make it one day. Someday. Somehow. And even if I did fail, it wouldn’t be for lack of trying.
AVAILABLE AUGUST 27TH
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Author Bio:
Michelle Irwin has been many things in her life: a hobbit taking a precious item to a fiery mountain; a young child stepping through the back of a wardrobe into another land; the last human stranded not-quite-alone in space three million years in the future; a young girl willing to fight for the love of a vampire; and a time-travelling madman in a box. She achieved all of these feats and many more through her voracious reading habit. Eventually, so much reading had to have an effect and the cast of characters inside her mind took over and spilled out onto the page.
Michelle lives in sunny Queensland in the land down under with her surprisingly patient husband and ever-intriguing daughter, carving out precious moments of writing and reading time around her accounts-based day job. A lover of love and overcoming the odds, she primarily writes paranormal and fantasy romance.
Michelle lives in sunny Queensland in the land down under with her surprisingly patient husband and ever-intriguing daughter, carving out precious moments of writing and reading time around her accounts-based day job. A lover of love and overcoming the odds, she primarily writes paranormal and fantasy romance.