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Back First Comes Love Save as PDF
Chapters (92)
  1. First
  2. Love Connection
  3. Zero
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. One Month Later
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Six Months Later
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-one
  27. Twenty-two
  28. Twenty-three
  29. Twenty-four
  30. Six Months Later
  31. Twenty-five
  32. Twenty-six
  33. Twenty-seven
  34. Twenty-eight
  35. Twenty-nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-one
  38. Thirty-two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. I Have Never
  41. One
  42. Two
  43. Three
  44. Four
  45. Five
  46. Six
  47. Seven
  48. Eight
  49. Nine
  50. Ten
  51. Eleven
  52. Twelve
  53. Thirteen
  54. Fourteen
  55. Fifteen
  56. Sixteen
  57. Seventeen
  58. Eighteen
  59. Nineteen
  60. Twenty
  61. Twenty-one
  62. Twenty-two
  63. A Christmas Date
  64. One
  65. Two
  66. Three
  67. Four
  68. Five
  69. Six
  70. Seven
  71. Eight
  72. Nine
  73. Ten
  74. Eleven
  75. Twelve
  76. Thirteen
  77. Fourteen
  78. Fifteen
  79. Sixteen
  80. Seventeen
  81. Eighteen
  82. Nineteen
  83. Twenty
  84. Twenty-one
  85. Twenty-two
  86. Note from the Author
  87. Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
  88. Two
  89. Three
  90. Four
  91. Also by Camilla Isley
  92. About the Author

I launch into our fake narrative. “Diego was auditioning for a commercial I was producing, and when I called him in to tell him he got the part…”

“I told her I’d rather have a date,” Diego ends the story for me.

I love that we appear like one of those couples who can end each other’s sentences. It’s cheesy and soppy, but it’s making me feel all warm and fuzzy, as if what Diego and I are saying was actually true.

Julia arches an eyebrow. “Really?”

Diego casually twirls his finger around a lock of my hair and stares right into my eyes. “Couldn’t let the prettiest producer I’ve ever met slip through my fingers.”

Okay, this is not the lengthy and super-detailed list of all the reasons he wanted to date me I’d asked him to come up with, but strangely, it’s more than enough. It’s the way he says it, and the way he looks at me as he speaks. I’m sold. And so, it seems, is everybody else.

“What was the ad for?” Julia asks.

“Deodorant,” we say in unison, sharing a secret smile.

“MOM!” One of Mandy’s boys—Jarred, Jake, Johnathan, I don’t know, they all have J-starting names—barrels into the room. “I want to open my presents.”

Mandy’s sitting next to the tree. She wraps one arm around his legs and pulls him toward her to kiss him on the cheek. He can’t be older than four or five. “Go call your brothers and cousins and we can all open our presents together.”

“Yaaayyyy,” he yells, running away.

I can’t help but think, Tasmanian devil. How does she handle three of them?

The kids flood into the room shortly after, followed by the old folks. Those of us who were perched on the sofa or armchair leave the more comfortable accommodations to them and find new spots on the rug, so that almost every inch of the living room’s floor is now occupied.

Once everyone’s settled, the complicated gift-distribution operation starts. All the packages under the Christmas tree get passed around, along with the presents my relatives brought with them. We don’t each buy a gift for everybody else—Mom buys the presents for the extended family circle, with one gift per family plus a toy for each of the kids. Still, there are a lot of wrapped boxes passing hands, and delirious quantities of colored paper being torn and scattered around.

I reach into the red-and-white-striped plastic bag where I stuffed my presents for everyone and start handing them out. Now I feel super silly for having spent so much time researching the perfect gift for Paul. Luckily, I didn’t go too overboard with it. He’s still getting a book like everyone else, only a bit more special.