Not That Impossible

NOT THAT IMPOSSIBLE ISABEL MURRAY Copyright © 2023 by Isabel Murray All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. CONTENTS Not That Impossible Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Author’s Note Also by Isabel Murray Catch and Release Excerpt About the Author NOT THAT IMPOSSIBLE If this was your classic Cotswolds murder mystery (it’s not) and Jasper Connolly was a proper journalist (he isn’t) then when a dead body is discovered in a local man’s house, Jasper would write an award-winning front-page article, and his journalism career would finally be up and running. Instead, he gets scooped by his ex-English teacher, gets yelled at by his editor, and is starting to think that he’d be better off sticking to his actual career of being a personal trainer. Meanwhile, Detective Chief Inspector Liam Nash, the straight, married man who has never shown even a tiny bit of interest in Jasper? Turns out Liam is not straight, he’s not married anymore, he is definitely not a fan of Jasper showing up at his crime scenes…and he cannot seem to stop kissing Jasper. After years of thinking that his dreams of love and happily ever after were impossible, it’s starting to look like maybe, just maybe, Jasper was wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time. * * * Not That Impossible is a 75k-word romantic comedy about a wannabe journalist who might not wannabe anymore, and a grump of a detective who is finally getting over himself and going after what he really wants (it’s Jasper). There are also a couple of dead guys somewhere in the mix, but not all mysteries get solved. Besides, who even cares about that with all the kissing and stuff going on? This is a romance! 1 It was raining hard. I slammed my car door and jogged from The Lion’s tiny carpark to the porch, head down and shoulders up. It was mid-February, and it was miserable. Grey skies. Wet roads. Chill wind. All the Christmas lights in town had been taken down and packed away weeks ago. Even all the sales had finished, and with the sparkle of Christmas in the rearview and the promise of spring a good few weeks ahead, people were hunkered in to wait out the between times. It was lunchtime, but the day was dark enough, with a thick, soggy mass of grey clouds pressing down on the moss-tufted roofs of Chipping Fairford, that it made me want to climb into my comfiest sweatpants, make a cup of tea, and curl up on my sofa. Preferably with my soulmate and the love of my life, Detective Chief Inspector Liam Nash. Since Liam was married to a woman and had zero interest in being my soulmate, the love of my life, or snuggling up on my sofa, I’d take a good book in second place. Or Netflix. I hadn’t bothered to put my coat on for the short run to the pub, and I regretted it immediately. The warmth of my car was stripped away and the wind gusted cold rain straight into my face. I sped up, splashing through puddles and getting my socks wet. I didn’t even notice the couple rushing in from the side, until we all ended up trying to get through the door at the same time. I was taller than either of them by a good few inches, so I stretched an arm over their heads, pushed the door open, and scooted them in ahead of me. The man blinked up at me in surprise. The woman flashed a killer grin. I smiled back. I didn’t recognise her, but I recognised the man she was with—well enough to know they weren’t a couple. Unless Ray Underwood, the man of my best friend’s dreams, had made some big life changes, and I felt like Adam would have known about it if he had. Adam was about as obsessed with Ray as I was with Liam. He also had way more of a chance of a happily ever after, despite their uncomfortable history, as Adam and Ray were both gay, and neither of them were married. I paused on the mat by the door to wipe my trainers dry. One, because it’s polite. And two, because I knew from bitter experience that wet trainers and wooden floors don’t mix. Only the fact I can actually do a full split—although I prefer to warm up first and not have it happen as a surprise—has saved me from serious groin injury on more than one occasion. I brushed a hand over my wet hair, shook out the rain, and headed over to the bar. Ray and his friend had gone through to the restaurant area and I watched through the open archway as he fussily picked one table, then changed his mind and picked another, before going back to the first table. His friend seemed to find it all highly amusing. I ordered a sparkling mineral water from Zoe behind the bar. “Ice?” Zoe said. “Slice of lemon for you?” “Just ice, please,” I said. I took my drink over to a small table in the corner, one with a great view of the restaurant area. Ray’s table was in my direct line