My book, A Leap of Faith, a COVID-19 lockdown love story, is now complete and available to read for free on Wattpad. You can find it by clicking on this link.

Here’s the blurb…

Sophie and Tom are in the early stages of a relationship. Events around the world have just pushed the fast-forward button on everything.

Can they negotiate these new troubled waters? Will an intense physical attraction conquer all? This couple are about to find out if a tick on a ripped torso equals long lasting love in this modern love story for lockdown times.

And the first chapter:

March 22, 2020

Things I don’t know about Tom:

• What he takes in his coffee. If he likes coffee.
• Who he voted for in the last election. Though I think I can guess.
• When he came to Scotland.
• His romantic history. A childhood sweetheart? A steady girlfriend up until now? Serial monogamy? Sexual encounters too numerous to list?
• If he has siblings. His position in the family. (As the youngest child in a family of high achievers, I place a lot of stock in older/younger sibling dynamics and how that shapes you.)
• His second name.

And yet today we are moving in together. More specifically, Tom will pack his bags into an old Ford Focus, drive the 35 minutes it takes to cross the city (less now we are in lockdown?) where I will welcome him with open arms. And try not to bleat, “Wipe your feet!” if he doesn’t do it automatically the second he enters my home.

Modern life, eh? That old Abba classic keeps playing in my head, Take a Chance on Me. Those who know me queue up behind me, their expressions a mix of astonishment and concern. “Sophs! You’re, like, the least impulsive person ever! Why are you doing this?”

My brother nods his head fervently. My sister threatens a visitation. One where we conduct a two metres apart conversation. It takes place. I stand in the doorway and she yells at me from the garden gate, teenage daughter in tow, her phone in hand. She glances up briefly. “Yo, Aunt!” I sketch her a wave and hope it counts as cool in her world.

“Sophie!” my sister shrieks. “What do you know about this guy? He’ll have Googled you, you idiot! I bet he’s rubbing his hands together in glee.”

Her words are nothing I haven’t already said to myself. I Googled myself to check. Nothing to find under Sophie Dalziel, except an Instagram account filled with innocuous pictures and a dull LinkedIn profile where a few years in my 20s were not accounted for.

My mum’s face shimmers in front of me. Dark hair streaked with grey and wide-tipped glasses she pushes up her nose all the time. Her mouth twitches. “Well,” she says, “this is a turn up for the books! Devil may care. I love it!”

In my head, she blows me a kiss. My eyes prickle. Sorry, Mum. Sorry, sorry.

I thank Josie for her concern. Darla winks at me. Sixteen-year-old approval. I wait until her mother has turned to point her key at the car and wink back. Darla lifts her phone and mouths something at me. ‘Tell me what happens, yeah?’ my best guess.

The timing couldn’t be better though. As Josie’s ginormous pristine Land Rover pulls away, a dusty black Ford Focus slowly edges its way along the street, its driver alternately peering down and up—the universal look of someone using his phone to find an address.

I wave. The car stops.

“Tom!” My enthusiasm is double, treble, quadruple what it might have been. Blame it on Josie.

“Welcome to my humble abode.”

He gets out of his car and swears—the f-word too loud in our now traffic-subdued streets. “Jesus!” he says, the Irish accent turning it into Jayzus. “I’d no idea you were this grand.”

Things Tom doesn’t know about me.

Everything.

A Leap of Faith can be read for free on Wattpad.

Copyright ©Emma Baird 2020