Shell Shocked: A Gen X Love Story

My electrons instantly became aware of her proximity, all traces of awkwardness vaporizing as the magnetism kicked in full force. I unbuckled my seatbelt and lunged at her, muscle and sense memory overtaking me. I snaked a hand around the back of her neck and kissed her more aggressively than I’d intended. She met my intensity head on and tangled her hands in my hair, angling her body toward mine as much as she could. Everything else faded from my reality. There was only her. Twenty five years after his face papered the walls of her bedroom, Shelby Ristow is about to meet her celebrity teenage crush. And as soon as 80s soap opera star turned reality TV host Jake Ford walks into her salon, she discovers he is still perfectly capable of making the butterflies in her stomach perform advanced flight maneuvers. It's not long, though, before Shelby finds her nostalgia and nervousness taking a backseat to the undeniable chemistry sparking between them. When an audition video from a vivacious pinup style esthetician vying to be featured on his show “Dare Me To Do It” catches his attention, Jake Ford can’t deny his immediate interest in Shelby Ristow. Now meeting her in person, looking every bit the technicolor temptress her video promised, he is thrown off his game in the best possible way. There is only one problem. She is married.Months later Jake learns that a tragedy has left Shelby single, and he jumps at the chance to reconnect with her. Drawn together by an intense physical attraction and something else– something undefinable, the two begin a scorching affair. Almost immediately, however, the aftershocks of past trauma has Shelby falling apart at all kinds of inopportune moments. Meanwhile, Jake, grappling with his own history in his own way, is more than happy to pick up her pieces.When the path forward requires honesty from Jake and trust from Shelby, can they each reconcile events from the past and find their way? Or are they just providing what the other needs in a fated connection not meant to last? Read more