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Back Beautiful Graves Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. CONTENTS
  4. START READING
  5. PLAYLIST
  6. PROLOGUE
  7. PART 1
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. TEN
  18. ELEVEN
  19. TWELVE
  20. THIRTEEN
  21. FOURTEEN
  22. FIFTEEN
  23. SIXTEEN
  24. SEVENTEEN
  25. EIGHTEEN
  26. NINETEEN
  27. TWENTY
  28. PART 2
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. EPILOGUE
  39. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  40. PREVIEW: PLAYING WITH FIRE
  41. PROLOGUE
  42. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A threesome. They were great. I didn’t think about you. Not for a minute.

I swallow down a scream. I want to tear the walls down. To break everything within reach. I want to stumble out to the street, a crazed woman, grab a rando, and fuck him in an alleyway as payback. But I can’t. Because he had to watch me run off to a romantic Puerto Rican vacation with his brother. Because I still wear Dom’s engagement ring.

From: Ever Lawson

To: Joseph Graves

Glad to hear you’ve been enjoying yourself.

From: Joseph Graves

To: Ever Lawson

Your sketch is great. Keep sending me stuff.

From: Ever Lawson

To: Joseph Graves

Yeah. You, too.

TWENTY-FIVE

TWENTY-FIVE

Weeks pass.

Joe and I slip into a routine. We email back and forth. I sketch. He writes. I critique. He offers helpful suggestions. We keep it strictly professional. Almost like coworkers. We don’t mention Dom. We don’t mention us.

We’re playing it safe. Avoiding anything explosive. By the end of September, he’s written no fewer than sixty thousand words in his book, Winds of Freedom, and I have a finished sketch of Mom’s gravestone and a few other drafts for my portfolio.

In the evening, I email Joe that I’m going to ask Dad if we can update Mom’s gravestone.

Obviously, I don’t want to disturb her. I figured out a way to install the new one on top of the old one. The dimensions should work. What do you think?

He doesn’t reply back.

Instead, he calls.

It throws me off kilter to see his name on my phone screen. This is a breach of our unspoken agreement, and I don’t know what to make of it. We’ve been so careful these past few weeks. We’ve veered away from anything that could reignite our feelings toward each other, even though on my part, those feelings have always been there. Excitement floods me. I don’t realize how desperate I’ve been to hear his voice until I swipe the screen and notice that I’m shaking.

“You think it’s a bad idea.” I try to keep my voice even.

“No,” he says, sounding out of breath and just as excited as I am. My heart melts into a pool in the pit of my stomach. “It’s a rad-ass idea, and we both know that. I’m about to finish my book, and I have you to thank for that. It’s time I do something for you. Remember when I saved you?”