Allison Ashley

All of the fun, none of the heartache…as long as they stick to the agreement.

The proposition is simple: if ER nurse Claire Harper and her roommate, firefighter Graham Scott, are still single by the time they’re forty, they’ll take the proverbial plunge together…as friends with benefits. Maybe it’s the wine, but in the moment, Claire figures the pact is a safe-enough deal, considering she hasn’t had much luck in love and he’s in no rush to settle down. Like, at all. Besides, there’s no way she could ever really fall for Graham and his thrill-seeking ways. Not after what happened to her father…

Just as things begin to heat up way before the proposed deadline, Graham’s injured in a serious rock climbing accident—and he needs Claire’s help to heal. She’ll do whatever it takes to nurse him back to health…even if it means moving in to Graham’s bed and putting up with his little dog, who hates her. But with this no-strings arrangement taking a complicated turn, keeping “for now” from turning into “forever” isn’t as easy as they’d planned.

A Novel

The Roommate Pact

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Seconds later, Graham was groaning into her hair, wondering if this thing with Claire might be the thing that healed him, or if he’d end up broken in even more pieces than before.

“That’s the thing about feelings. They don’t always need to be expressed. Some are just meant to be felt.”

He’d avoided both for so long, it was nice to know it was okay to just sit with them sometimes. Feel, observe, soak it in. Maybe share it, maybe not.

”A ship is safe in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are made for.”

“Sometimes love likes to mess with us and remind us we’re not the ones in control.”

For what it’s worth, I understand your choice. It doesn’t make it suck any less, because I don’t see myself coming back from this. Will I date other women? Sure, but the same way I dated women before I kissed you. I’ll never come close to giving another woman my heart.

Because even if you don’t want it, I’ll never get it back. It’s just following you around like a pathetic, lost puppy. Sort of like Gertrude that first week after I moved out. I really think she got attached to you.

“Do we ever know with absolute certainty if the decisions we make are the right ones in the long run? All I know to do is look at what I’ve gone through and where I am now and decide based on that information. I’m not psychic. I don’t know what I’ll feel next week, next month, or next year.”

“They say love drives out fear. That it brings light into darkness. As long as I have a choice, I’ll choose love and light and hope the power of that choice, and the person that comes with it, does the rest.”

The Roommate Pact quotes

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