she’d met at a concert.
Declan’s father had given him and Dax a graduation gift of several hundred thousand dollars, therefore canceling the loan. Mr. Blay swore it had always been his intention to give each of his children a college graduation present, and the boys didn’t argue. Mr. Blay and Declan had formed a kind of truce, and while it wasn’t a total reconciliation, it was progress. Dinners at the Blay mansion were still a bit testy and odd, but I was content. Another mountain for us to climb, and we were armed and ready.
It was the best family I’d ever had.
As far as Colby went, he was in jail awaiting trial for first-degree attempted murder for me as well as a count of second-degree attempted murder for Declan. With the duct tape and penknife, it was going to be extremely difficult to prove his innocence. Senator Scott’s personal assistant had also come forward, revealing the blackmail scheme hatched by Karl and Mom, giving Colby plenty of motivation. His sentencing could be up to life in prison without parole. He and his father had done their best to get him out on bail, but because he was a flight risk, it had never come to fruition.
He’d been charged with rape as well, which has no statute of limitations in North Carolina, but the burden of truth rested with me, and my lawyers would have a difficult time proving it. There were pictures of me drunk at prom and the chaperones had tossed us out for being intoxicated. But I’d decided to tell my whole story in court, and Shelley and Blake would also testify. We didn’t know if it would be enough to convict him, but I was in it for the long haul. I was worth it. Declan had told me that a long time ago outside the truck stop, and now I believed it.
Declan came back from the refreshment stand with two bottles of water, his long legs crossing the park as a group of women across the fountain ogled him with hungry eyes—but he ignored them, his gaze locked on mine.
The gym had opened officially in February, and we’d had a huge grand opening party this past May. We were living in an apartment he’d had renovated in the back, and it was small, but for now, it was just us and it was enough.
He smiled at me as he sat down next to me and took my hand to hold it. We’d been coming here each afternoon to take in the pretty flowers and people watch.
Just then, a fluttering flashed across the bench and landed next to us. A dragonfly.
I let out a small gasp and went to nudge Declan, but he’d already seen it.
“She knows I found you,” he murmured and wrapped me up in a hug. We watched as the blue insect hovered around us, flitting from one side of us to the other for the longest time, until finally, she flew away …
The End
Dear reader, if you enjoy passion and angst, take a peek at the first five chapters of my New York Times Best-Selling book Very Bad Things (Amazon Top 5 Book and #1 in New Adult and College Age Romance).
Leaving behind her mansion and Jimmy Choos, Nora Blakely becomes a girl hell-bent on pushing the limits with alcohol, drugs, and meaningless sex. Then she meets her soulmate, but he doesn’t want her.
Sexy gym owner Leo Tate has one rule: never fall in love…until Nora shows up with her list of bad things. He resists the pull of their sizzling connection, hung up on their age difference.
Welcome to Briarcrest Academy, where the best things in life are VERY BAD THINGS.
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are they crazy?”
–Albert Einstein
WEISSNICHTWO.
Yeah, that’s not an easy word to say. Yet these often mispronounced staccato syllables have been ticking in my brain like the click of my piano teacher’s metronome for the past fifteen minutes . . . weiss-nicht-wo, weiss-nicht-wo, weiss-nicht-wo. I tapped my fingers to the beat.
This obscure word was coined by Thomas Carlyle in his satirical work Sartor Resartus, so it’s not surprising the organizers selected it for the Belltone National Spelling Bee. Even the best speller might be thrown off by it, maybe because the /w/ is pronounced as a Germanic /v/ or maybe they make the rookie mistake of forgetting to capitalize the beginning.
But four years ago, I’d made no mistake at that renowned spelling bee. I’d been