A Thanksgiving Dilemma (Excerpt Only) - BWWM Romance

Chapter 1 - Karen

Karen's gut screamed at her that something was wrong.

Her eyes popped open in the pitch-black bedroom, and she felt out for her iPhone to check the time and confirm what she already suspected—it was the middle of the night.

Three-thirty-three a.m. exactly—way too early to be up for no reason after falling asleep just three hours ago.

She tried to remember—did she have coffee or an energy drink or something right before bed? She usually had no trouble going to sleep after a cup of coffee but had discovered that sometimes the caffeine took a while to kick in, resulting in her being able to wake up much earlier than usual. Wide awake too—a big deal for someone who wasn't a morning person.

But even this was a bit too early.

She took a deep, steadying breath while determined awakening energy coursed through her. Deciding it would be a useless fight against her body to try to force it back to sleep, she pried herself from the bed. She headed toward the stairs, picturing various early breakfast options and wondering how to kill the unexpected extra time.

Maybe she'd just go back to her job search—she could sit at the dining room table, nursing a coffee and picking at scrambled eggs while fiddling with her résumé or googling work opportunities on her laptop.

She had a ton of time left to live in her sister's home—Tamara was gone for two months—and though her sister had made it clear she could stay as long as she needed, Karen wanted to be back on her feet sooner than later and regain her independence; she didn't want to mooch off of anybody, and she certainly didn't want to stay in Tamara's place after she came back and was actually living there again.

Karen loved her younger sibling, but it wouldn't be long before they started clashing about something or other—the two of them were just too different.

It'd been pure luck that around the same time that Karen lost her job and had to give up her apartment, Tamara had decided to jet set around Europe for eight weeks, leaving Karen a solid home to rebound in. It was in a different state than the one she'd lived in for the past five years, but Karen didn't mind the move, considering everything that had fallen down around her. A new place was just what the doctor ordered.

Perhaps that's what this waking up early thing was about—after spending two days housesitting for her sister, the unfamiliarity of her settings had gotten to her, and this was her body's way of showing alarm at being in a strange place—or maybe it was signaling the beginning of her body's adjustment.

As she made her way down the stairs, carefully holding on to the banister, she wondered why she couldn't shake the almost ominous feeling that had come with being awakened.

Instead of ignoring the feeling, she held onto it, wondering what it could mean, processing the possibilities. The thought even crossed her mind that someone might be in the house—a burglar or some other kind of intruder.

Her heart began to race a bit as she paused, listening carefully while she cursed herself for not grabbing a weapon from the bedroom to bring with her just in case. She scouted out a vase or some other heavy object nearby that she could bring across someone's head if they tried it.

She let a few seconds pass, and in the quiet, Pacific Northwestern night, she heard nothing out of the ordinary. She found herself relaxing, feeling silly and paranoid. Her sister lived in a nice neighborhood—not that burglars didn't find those—but it was highly unlikely. There hadn't been any reports of crime in the area lately, and why would they pick this house? All of the houses in the neighborhood were pretty nice.

Although, now that she was thinking about it, had Tamara made some stupid post on Facebook or Instagram or something about being away for a while, pretty much sending out an open invitation to rob her place while she was gone?