The Road to Bayou Bridge
Oak Stand
Vegas Two-Step
The Way to Texas
A Little Texas
A Taste of Texas
A Touch of Scarlet
Novellas and Anthologies
The Nerd Who Loved Me
“Hotter in Atlanta” (a short story)
Cowboys for Christmas with Kim Law and Terri Osburn
A Wrong Bed Christmas with Kimberly Van Meter
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2021 by Amy R. Talley
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781542026031
ISBN-10: 1542026032
Cover design by David Drummond
This book is dedicated to the senior class of 2020, who missed so much in what should have been the time of their lives. Most especially, this book about growing up is dedicated to my own senior, Gabe, who will start adulting very soon, but pardon me if I hold on a bit longer to the little boy who curled up in my lap and wanted me to snuggle him (and scratch his back).
I love you, Beebs.
CONTENTS
AUTHOR’S NOTE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Please note that this story includes some sensitive subject matter. While this material largely occurs off the page in characters’ backstories, please be aware that there is discussion of substance abuse, depression, suicide, sexual abuse, and rape.
CHAPTER ONE
August
Chase London woke with a raging headache and no clothes. Never the best way to wake up, but at least she was awake. By rights, she could be dead. Which sometimes didn’t seem so awful. The quiet darkness of death often sounded better than the color-soaked world of criticism and disappointment she normally inhabited.
Yeah, things suck when death looks like a better option.
She swallowed the acridness in her mouth because, well, what else was she going to do? Spit it out? She wasn’t even sure where she was. She fluttered her eyelids and tried to bring the world into focus.
High ceiling above her. Bed beneath her.
But whose bed?
She moved her fingers against the fabric beneath her. Decent thread count, so there was that. She opened both eyes, blinked away the blurry, and turned her head slowly because she could hear heavy breathing beside her and had no clue who it might be.
The man lying next to her seemed to be naked underneath the tangled top sheet. His shaggy, violet-streaked hair looked spiky from sweat. He breathed through an open mouth, junkie purple shadowing his closed eyes, track marks dotting spread arms that lay palms up like an offering. A narrow chest, slim hips, and tattoos that wended their way around his body, disappearing beneath the shroud of the sheet only to appear again on a thigh, calf, or foot.