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Read an excerpt from READY FOR YOU:
“We ordered a late-night pizza and spent some time going through my piles of drawings. It was something I’d never shared with anyone, but I shared it with her. “These are really good,” she said. “They’re all right.” “Garrett, you should be doing this every day,” she urged. “And what about you, Miss Accountant?” I countered. “I’m not an accountant anymore.” After we cleaned up, she made a call to Liv and asked if she could check on Sam. I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation because she ducked into the bathroom, but I did her say, “Shut up, Liv!” a few times, so I was sure Miss Prescott had an opinion about where Mia was spending her evening. As she was finishing up her phone call, I padded into my bedroom and slipped into a pair of loose-fitting sweats. Mia had seen me naked many times over, but I figured dropping my pants in front of her wouldn’t give her a good impression of my intentions for the evening—not that I would mind if she offered. I was just slipping a T-shirt over my head when she came in. She took in my change of clothes and looked down at her black dress. “I don’t have anything to wear,” she said. “I have a T-shirt you can change into.” I pulled open a drawer and handed her an old college T-shirt. Then, I sat down on the bed and waited to see what she would do. Her eyes drifted down to the shirt and back to me. She took in my casual position on the bed, realizing I wasn’t making any attempts to vacate the room for her privacy. She hesitated a moment longer and then swiveled around in the direction of the bathroom. I wasn’t sure if I was more relieved or bummed. I wasn’t positive I’d be able to handle watching her strip down bare in front of me right now, but seeing her flee at the thought of getting undressed in front of me still hurt. Mia returned no less than two minutes later with her black dress tucked in her hands. She nervously stopped at the doorway and looked around as if she were unsure of how to proceed. “Come here,” I murmured. Her dress fell to the floor at the door, and she came to my side as I sat at the foot of the bed. Against my better judgment, my fingers reached out for her, curling around her bare leg and up her thigh. Her breath caught, but she didn’t stop me. “Garrett…” she started to say. “Shh…just allow me this. Just for tonight. We’ll go back to being friends tomorrow, but tonight…just help me remember.” I could see the split decision swirling in her steady gaze. I knew this decision would end me. I knew I’d most likely never recover from a second blow to the heart by Mia Emerson.
Read an excerpt from READY TO WED:
“I can’t believe they wouldn’t let me carry on my garment bag!” I said with a huff. “Well, it was quite large,” Logan said, pointing to our gate and taking a seat in our designated area. Maddie immediately pulled out a book from her backpack of activities that we’d packed for her, and she began reading – or pretending to read. Either way, she was quite, and I thanked the heavens for the few minutes of peace. I loved her more than I’d ever though possible, but man, could she talk. I guessed I shouldn’t be surprised, considering who had given birth to her. I wasn’t known for being quiet. Especially when I was nervous, I’d babble a lot. “It wasn’t that large! Okay…it was, but crap, they let that duded in front of us bring his guitar.” I pouted. “Hey,” Logan said, pulling my chin level so that our eyes were locked. “It will be fine. Nothing can ruin this week, okay? By the end of this weekend, you will be mine. I wouldn’t care if you were in a burlap sack, Clare. The only thing that matters is that you say those vows and bind yourself to me for eternity. Got it?” “Yes,” I said, a bit breathless. “Good.” He gave me a quick wink before pulling Maddie onto his lap. He took over reading for her, pointing to the words and helping her sound them out. I just watched, loving the picture perfect the two of them made. I would have never guessed, walking into that emergency room several months ago when Maddie had fallen and given herself a concussion, that I would wind up here. Logan had not only healed Maddie that day, but he’d also been healing all of us ever since. About thirty minutes later, the announcement came that our flight was boarding. We packed up Maddie’s things and headed for the gate to check in. With Maddie bouncing up and down in his arms, Logan ran his free hand down my cheek, his eyes suddenly filling with emotion. “Ready to go get married?” he asked. “Absolutely.” Smiling, he grabbed my hand, and we walked toward our future.
Read an excerpt from WHEN YOU'RE READY:
“I’d really love to discover some of those hidden talents.” Oh, hot damn. What did I just fucking say? Shit, I should not be allowed in public anymore. I had just dropped the lamest pick-up line ever, in the middle of the home improvement store, right in front of Clare’s daughter, no less. Thank God Colin hadn’t been around to witness that little slice of failure. I would never have lived it down. Dear God, this woman made me crazy. I never expected to see her or Maddie again. I tried to make myself forget about that night in the hospital, telling myself she deserved better. And she did. But as hard as I tried, those searing green eyes kept making their way back into my thoughts, reminding me of a woman who had shown me another path. A path that could have been possible if I were a different man. If I were capable of giving myself over to another, but you have to have a whole heart to do that, and I’m pretty sure mine was never fully formed. But looking up at those now familiar eyes, I felt the tension ease in my chest, and the ice loosened a bit. Seeing Clare again felt exactly the same. It gave me a deep sense of being connected and tethered. Having come from the family I did, it wasn’t something I’d ever felt with anyone, and therefore I was having a difficult time trusting myself around her. I tried returning to my life, resuming my normal routine, only to be haunted by her face; a constant reminder of what I could never have. After the quiet little pub the other night, I went downtown, finding a spot that was the exact opposite of the one I had just left. I played the part of carefree bachelor, buying rounds of drinks, doing body shots with a few overly eager women. I had every intention of following one of them home. By the end of the night, after most people had made it home, I had a young brunette pushed against the dirty brick wall of the bar, waiting for a cab to take us to her apartment. I didn’t know her name, and I didn’t care. I wouldn’t be around by morning anyway. My hand slid down her bare thigh and pulled it around my hip. She looked at me, seductively licking her lips, her not so subtle way of giving me permission to do whatever I want, wherever I want. It was then that I looked into her eyes and saw...nothing. The brown eyes staring back at me were full of lust, but nothing else. They were the same blank eyes that I had been looking into ever since Melanie. Since her, I’d survived by seeking out women who gave nothing in return. Because it was all I could give back. Knowing the eyes staring back at me weren’t the ones I wanted, I pushed away from the brunette as the cab pulled up to the curb. Cursing under my breath, I didn’t even give her an explanation, just threw her some cash and walked away. "Well, we should let you get back to whatever you were doing. I’m sure you are busy," Clare said. “No, actually. I was mostly done. I just needed a small part for my sink,” I answered, holding up my purchase while nervously wrapping my other hand around the nape of my neck. All right asshat, stop being creepy. Time to leave. "I could help you,” I blurted out. “I've been known to be handy on occasion. I could help you shop, and then install it for you.” The words continued to free-fall out of my mouth, without any sign of stopping.
From Chapter 17 of The Storm by Virginia BerginThe prof, the soldier, and the driver bundled out immediately and plonked themselves down in the funny little potted plants and seating area they had—so you could make-believe you were at home on the sofa, chatting about which car to buy (or what to do about the apocalypse, in this case). The discussion pretty much reminded me of radio programs my mom and my stepdad would have on: people going on and on about stuff. Angrily. It got even angrier when Beardy claimed that the people in charge wanted to use the cure as some kind of international bargaining thing (“More like a card game!”)—though quite what trinkets they might want in exchange was not known to him (most probably nuclear missiles, a few countries, oil reserves, that kind of thing).To be honest, I wasn’t really listening that closely. Every time it felt like my brain was tuning into a thought, I’d just tweak it back to the matter at hand: gotta get out of here, Ruby.The Princess, whose sign did not show her name but said “Nil by Mouth,” watched from the side door of the ambulance as, in near darkness, I worked my way through every car in there; each one, same thing: battery dead—and no jumper cables to be found. Useless.I splopped plastickly-rubberily past the discussion panel, ignored: ghost girl in a biosuit. There was a dinky coffee machine and a store of creamers, so I grabbed the lot of them, went back to the ambulance, and—ah! Saw the machine they use to start stopped hearts with. I dumped the creamers and inspected it. It’s basically a giant battery pack, isn’t it?I had a go with it on a car.It didn’t work.Mighty cross about that.I took it back to the ambulance (lights still on inside) to get a better look at the instructions—like maybe it was possible to turn the thing up?—when the Princess tapped me on the arm.“Yeah, yeah, just give me a sec,” I said.It’s all probably sounding a little weird to you, the whole situation and the not even speaking to the kid—it sounds a little weird to me—but I tell you, I was so trying to keep my brain tuned in on what I needed to do. Anything else at all could not be handled.I didn’t get the instructions, but I thought it was worth another go anyway. The Princess tried to pull me back—“Yeah—one sec!” I jumped out of the vehicle and—she slammed the door shut behind me. “What the—”Headlights from the road rippled along the line of cars. I hadn’t even heard the engine. I ducked—way too late.Prof Beardy, the soldier, and the driver—they’d ducked too.I peeked—saw the taillights of a big, dark army truck disappearing.“We need to get out of here,” the driver—who’d stopped blubbering but was still freaking out—said.Yeah, I thought. Need to get out of here. I ditched the heart-starter, and as I speed-crawled/splopped plastickly-rubberily for the ambulance, I had a genius moment. Hanging on the wall by the “Let’s pretend we’re at home on the sofa choosing our car” area was a huge road map of Britain, so you could see all the places you could go once you’d bought your fancy car.I dragged over a spare chair and tried to pull the thing off the wall. It wouldn’t budge. There was some random mini-tree in a pot, a thing that had probably once looked totally plastic and now looked totally dead. So I grabbed it by the trunk and swung the whole thing at the glass. Big smash. Big mess. I tore the map out. Unfortunately, it was stuck down at the edges, so there were quite a lot of places we wouldn’t be going to.I turned around and…there they all were, staring at me: the prof, the soldier, the driver.“I just want to go home,” I told them, trying to scrumple the map into a more manageable size. “Please just let me go.”I felt my frightened heartbeat.“I’ll keep my mouth shut. I won’t tell a soul. I promise you! I just want to go home. Please. Please! Just let me go.”“I could take you,” said the driver, getting to his feet.“Siddown,” said the soldier. He sat.“I’m just a kid,” I told them.I am so not. I was. Once. That’s gone.“I don’t know how I got like this! I promise you I don’t!”“Clinically speaking, she is no longer relevant,” said Beardy.Another set of headlights—army truck—blasted us.I stood and I pointed at the gleaming ambulance. The elephant in the fancy car showroom. “They’ll see that,” I said. “Next truck that comes past, they’ll see it.”The soldier, who was the only one I really needed to pay attention to (gun), nodded.“Get out of here, kid,” he said. “Take the back roads.”
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