The cab pulls to the curb. I unlace my fingers from Leo’s. “So you’re saying you’re not a quitter,” I whisper. My heartbeat thrums in my head.

“That’s it. Basically. And that I’m in love with you.”

My breath catches at this simple phrase, one I know he doesn’t take lightly. “That reason works for me.” I grab his shirt. “Now shut up and kiss me.”

Daddy opens the door and sends the cab away.

Leo lowers his head. “Whatever the woman wants.”

The Fiction of Forever A Stand By Me Novel #2

Coming Soon

Gunner Parrish knows better than anyone that forever is a lie. Even families don't stick around in the long run. Especially the ones you love the most.

Moving back to the place of his happiest memories is the best decision he's made in...well, forever. He could love everything about his new life if it weren't for one thing--Kiley Vanderbilt. The spoiled little brat who grew up into a sizzling siren. All grown up and making his life miserable.

Kiley plans to match him up with the girl of his dreams on the reality show Forever. Gunner plans to choose the cash prize instead. She needs a wake-up call and he’s just the man to sound the alarm.

A girl used to getting her way. A guy who’ll never surrender his heart. One believes in forever. The other believes in today. Tune in to the show Forever to find out who wins.

Preview of Chasing Luck (Serendipity Book #1)

PROLOGUE

It’s bizarre how one crazy psycho can break a heart and mind into an unforgiving pile of pieces.

No superglue solution for the aftermath of tragedy.

Mom’s law office was usually the most boring place ever for a seven-year-old. I’ll never forget the wail of a shrill alarm pulsing through the twenty-five-story building, kicking my heart into a race with my rapid breathing. I looked at my mom and covered my ears at the hateful sound. She glanced up from her paperwork and grabbed the desk phone. Mom closed her eyes, irritated. We were only supposed to be at her office for ten minutes. She’d said fifteen at the most.

Red lights blinked in time with the screech of the alarm. She shook her head, rose, held out her hand. I placed my hand in hers while looking at her perfectly lipsticked mouth. She was tall today in her high, spiky heels. I studied her moving lips, but I couldn’t hear anything over the screeching and voices.

She bent, placed her lips to my ear. “Fire alarm. Come on.”

“Okay.” I yelled. I giggled when she playfully swatted my behind. We had a fire alarm just last week at school. Jenny Millard got into trouble for letting the class hamster out of its cage so it wouldn’t die in a fire.

In the hallway, people flurried past us. They darted out of offices quickly, holding purses and briefcases. A man at the end of the corridor yelled. He motioned like a crossing guard on high speed, but I couldn’t tell what he was saying until we reached the end. As we walked down the hall, I looked through the glass interior walls at the remaining people inside each office—rule breakers who didn’t follow directions.

I hoped they got in trouble. People who didn’t follow rules deserved to get in trouble.

“Stay calm. This is not a drill. Exit now. Leave your things and take the stairs.” Mom’s boss yelled louder than the alarm. I watched him run a hand over his hair and down his neck. He tugged on his necktie until he pulled it loose.

Mom squeezed my hand a little tighter. She smiled down at me, reassuring with her lips, but her eyes had me worried. Someone yelled, “Bomb.” People began running, crowding, jamming. We reached the elevator. The man said to take the stairs, but people didn’t listen. They were crowding into the already full elevator. I knew how to follow directions from school. Had these grownups been in my class, they would know how to walk in a “calm and collected fashion,” as Mrs. Wallace said. Mom and I were walking to the stairs when a loud crash sounded and the building shook. A picture slid down the wall beside the elevator and crashed to the floor. Glass spidered into a web on the surface of the image.

People screamed near me. I knew this wasn’t like the school drill. This not-a-drill was scary. Mom squeezed my hand hard and that made me want to cry. I dropped my new Hello Kitty purse. Colored pencils and candy spilled out and rolled. I bent down to retrieve it but Mom pulled me up with a jerk.

“Malerie!” My mother yelled in a tone she rarely used. A tone she’d used when I’d almost stepped in front of a car. A tone from the day when I’d used the kitchen knife to cut a rope. A tone that made my throat tighten.

A big man stepped on my chocolate-covered candies and his foot rolled on a pencil; he wobbled to balance himself before he too spilled onto the floor.

My eyes filled with tears. My purse would be dirty now. I would come back for it later. I almost tripped as my mother moved into a crowd of bodies at a doorway leading to the stairwell. I tried to hold on, but the tall people were shoving and squishing me. She held my wrist so hard I could feel her rings biting into the skin on my arm. I tried to twist toward her, but the people were too big. I couldn’t see my mom. My face pressed into the back of a man wearing tan pants and a brown belt.

Then the pressure on my wrist was gone. Gone forever.

CHAPTER 1

MALERIE

ELEVEN YEARS LATER

“How she looks to the stars, each and every night. Praying for a love returned, a wish granted, a nightmare ended. How she dreams it with all her might.” ~ Jelly Bean Queen

Eighteen birthday candles does not a bonfire make. If I had a bonfire, I’d burn the fatal acceptance letter from MIT.

Bring on the matches. Burn, baby, burn.

I sit across from Uncle JT in Alessandro’s Restaurant thinking pyro thoughts about the letter in my hand. The letter threatens to ruin the life I’ve carefully protected. A life where I rarely leave home and always, always know the plan. Plans are important for people like me. I know who I’ll see, where I’ll be, so I can be sure I have limited exposure to any danger.

I don’t do adventure.

“You can’t force me to go to college a thousand miles away.” My voice strains like a sapling about to snap in a hundred-mile-an-hour wind.

“Then why did you apply?” JT takes a sip of red wine and relaxes into his you’re-being-unreasonable smile.

“You asked me to apply.”

“And the problem is?”

“I thought I’d have a better chance of marrying the lead singer of Jelly Bean Queen than getting accepted into MIT.”

His brows bunch together. “I don’t know about this singer, but I do know you can go to the best school for computer science. You’ll be fine. It’s natural to be nervous.” JT reads the cell phone he’s hidden to the left of his plate.

But I won’t go. He’s dead wrong.

I chew the inside of my mouth and beg him with my eyes to understand. “You know I want to go to college. But I can live at home. Technology is crazy-good these days. I can attend classes online for a computer science degree and never leave home.”

He doesn’t even look up.

He types something into his Blackberry.

I squirm in my seat, willing him to look at me. “It’s a dangerous world. That’s why I’ve been homeschooled. Right? I’ll be safer right here. And won’t you miss me?” I fight the urge to jump out of my seat, grab the cell phone, and fling it across the room.