Jade's Reads: Nobody's Obligation by Rebecca Barber

Ava Jacobs is a shy accountant by day, aspiring romance writer by night—and her first novel just got published…

Romance isn’t a big component of Ava’s life. That is, her real life. As the monotonous nature of crunching numbers and drawn-out board meetings slowly eats away at her, the only bright side to her otherwise mundane routine lies on the black and white pages of her debut romance novel. Her inspiration? A long-time infatuation—Tyler Andrews.

Until the Olympic swimmer read her novel and connected the dots…

Tyler Andrews is used to being the center of attention. But when his sister throws a romance novel in his lap, he’s surprised to be the inspiration for the hot, hunky hero. He has no idea who Ava Jacobs is, but he’s not at all happy with her using his likeness to spice up her steamy scenes. When he finally tracks her down, it’s her likeness that intrigues him.

It takes just one romantic dance at a company banquet to spark disaster…

When Tyler’s manager arranges a daring publicity stunt and offers him as an auction item at Ava’s fundraising banquet, the bids come in quick and hot. Little did Ava expect the winner, a work colleague, to donate Tyler as Ava’s date. With all eyes on the Olympic athlete, Ava can’t refuse a romantic dance. But even though Tyler was the inspiration for Ava’s steamy novel, she refuses to accept his attention if it’s not real.

Will Tyler lose the one woman who caught his interest? Or will Ava push him away in an effort to prove she’s…

Nobody’s obligation.

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For Ava Jacobs it was just another monotonous day in the office. After a hellish morning complete with ladders in her panty hose, spilt coffee and a too long, too unproductive meeting the last thing she expects is to meet the object of her affection. For the quiet and conservative Ava, Tyler Andrews had been her lifelong crush and her inspiration. Typical accountant by day, aspiring romance author by night, Ava’s first novel had just been published.

When Tyler Andrew’s sister, Katie, thrusts a book in his lap and suggests he reads it, Tyler’s filled with a fury he didn’t see coming. Filled with frustration and fury, Tyler decides that his had enough of everyone invading his personal life and decides to confront the author who seems to think she had the right to. What he didn’t count on was her reaction.

By the time Ava is summoned to the meeting room, pushing the door open, the moment her eyes lock with the man of her dreams she faints to the floor. With the help of her best friend and co-worker, Amanda, Ava pulls herself together and attempts to confront Tyler again. While Ava had taken a moment, Tyler had been forced to ensure the blunt, honest truth by the men who worked alongside Ava who acted more like father figures than work colleagues.

After a half hearted attempted apology, Tyler no longer feels any animosity towards an obviously nervous Ava. Happy with the outcome he heads home and back to his life. But barely minutes down the road he realizes that there is something about this girl that he can’t quite understand. Something he needs to. Turning the car around he returns to find out more. Scheming with Ava’s boss, Matthew wasn’t hard and soon enough he’d whisked her away to a lunch at a winery on the edge of town. Working on the Principal that once he had the chance to get to know her the attraction would fade, Tyler pulls out all stops.

But the attraction doesn’t fade.

When they coincidentally end up seated beside each other on the flight to Los Angeles, where a disgruntled Tyler is being “pimped” out by his management team to spend time on cross promotion with the American team and the darling of their sport. But when they fall asleep wrapped around each other, a fellow passenger leaks the photos to the media and by the time they land at LAX the vultures are waiting.

Attempting to shield Ava, Tyler goes defensive and is gob smacked when Ava gallantly steps forward and puts the press back where they belong, before boarding her connecting flight to New York for a well earned holiday. With his mind caught on the feisty brunette, Tyler’s time in Los Angeles is a nightmare and he is in a hurry to return home.

Unit he gets there.

Arriving at his gated home he finds the Australian media camped out on his doorstep desperate to find out what is going on. Refusing to answer, Tyler bunkers down and his sister Katie arrives to dig a little further and uncover what is going on in her brother’s head.

Ava has the time of her life travelling and falls instantly and irrevocably in love with New York City. After a long, exhausting flight Ava climbs on the bus to take her the rest of the way home. Despite the chaos and excitement that New York provides, Tyler Andrews was never far from her mind. And as Ava sat on the bus, her head resting against the window there he was. Standing on the footpath at the airport. Desperate for him not to see her, Ava turns away from the window and burrows her head.

By the time Ava returns to her life, everyone is asking what’s going on. They saw Tyler in the office, they know about the lunch and now they’ve seen the photos of them together on the flight. Denial after denial Ava’s completely over hearing about Tyler Andrews but her best friend and current receptionist, Amanda, won’t let her forget about it. But life was never that kind to her. Instead, while she’d been enjoying her well deserved break she’d been nominated to organize the company gala ball.

Focusing all her attention on what everyone just assumed would be the best ball ever held, Ava threw herself headfirst into organizing and before she knew it the night was here. Everything was going as planned until her boss, Christopher, introduced the special guest auction item. A date with none other than Tyler Andrews. It took all of Ava’s strength not to throw up. Standing beside Tyler, Ava didn’t think it could get worse. But she was wrong.

Jake, a colleague and a friend joined the bidding and soon won the auction but when he laughed and announced that he didn’t want the date for himself, but would be donating it to Ava, her heart sunk and Ava faltered. When Tyler wrapped his arms around Ava and pulled her onto the dance floor she lost all conscious objection and fear of people looking at her and simply enjoyed the moment. Until Tyler opened his mouth. When Ava politely informed him that he didn’t need to take her out on a pity date, Tyler declared that he always stuck to his obligations. Disgusted at herself, Ava storms off leaving Tyler standing alone in the centre of the dance floor.

Ava wouldn’t return his calls and Tyler was becoming increasingly frustrated. He had to make this date happen but he didn’t know what to do so he went to his friend and co-conspirator Jake for advice and with Jake on his side Ava didn’t have a choice. After a simple, sweet date and everything that Ava could have asked for, dinner and movie at Tyler’s place they innocently fell asleep on the lounge. But the next morning Ava freaked out. Again.

Amanda tried to get Ava back under control and calm but it wouldn’t work. She refused to talk about him or to him and Ava had managed to convince herself that everything that had happened was wrong and the only reason that Tyler was paying any attention to her at all was out of pity. Amanda reminded Ava that they had tickets to his upcoming meet and for the first time Ava was thankful for such crappy seats.

But when they got there the seats weren’t so crappy. Unbeknownst to Ava the scheming had been happening behind her back and she now sat front row. But before the racing could even start she was summoned to the rooms below where she was reunited with Tyler. After a brief meeting and declarations and apologies all was resolved and they were on the same page. They were officially together. Tyler goes out to races and wins. Ava climbs back into the stands and cheers on her man.

Rebecca, one of four kids to her parents who are both primary school teachers, was born in Wollongong on the south coast of Australia before moving to the country with her family. After a few years of embracing all that country life had to offer, the family relocated to Port Macquarie with its white sand beaches. After a brief period enjoying the sun and the surf they finally settled in Canberra where Rebecca still lives today. But all through her childhood a notepad and a book where never far away. These days Rebecca is an avid reader, and when she isn’t buried in a book or cheering on her beloved football team she’s spending time with her husband Robert and their overly spoilt dog Levi.