Chapters (48)
- Cover
- PRAISE FOR ALEXA MARTIN’S PLAYBOOK SERIES
- Titles by Alexa Martin
- Dedication
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Epilogue
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
There are things in life that we can’t control. No matter how many positive affirmations we say or books we read or podcasts we listen to. Nothing I could’ve done would’ve stopped my dad from dying. It’s a fact of life. Death comes for us all. And even though I feel like I’ve been stuck under the weight of the rubble that collapsed on me, I still managed to keep going and fought for the things I could have power over. Yeah, it hasn’t gone exactly as planned, but I’m still doing it. And I need to appreciate that.
I need to appreciate myself.
With fall settling in, the sun is starting to set a little earlier each night. The sun fades behind the mountains, and the pink and orange clouds wisp across the sky above the perfectly maintained fields. In this moment of calm, a sense of peace I haven’t felt in ages settles over me and I know that one day, I’ll be okay again.
Gentle footsteps pull my attention from the view in front of me.
“Hey,” Quinton says when I catch sight of him. “Everything alright?”
“Yeah, just taking in the view.” I keep my gaze on the changing sky as the clouds dance across the horizon.
“It is pretty amazing.” He closes the distance between us and stands beside me, taking in the view with me. “We had good ones in Dallas, but the mountains take them to another level.”
“I forgot you’re from Dallas. My mom’s family lived there, I visited when I was a kid. It seemed nice from what I can remember.”
I—admittedly—don’t remember much besides missing my dad and not feeling like I fit in. I remember going for Thanksgiving break one year and just feeling lost the entire time. After my mom died, my dad had a really hard time being around her family. I still don’t know if it’s because it made him miss her more or if he felt guilty that he couldn’t protect her. But when they invited us for Thanksgiving that year, he mysteriously had to go on a work trip and sent me by myself. I hated it. None of the food I normally ate at Thanksgiving was there, they didn’t listen to any of the music I listened to, I got in trouble for using the hand towels in the bathroom. I was with family, but I felt like a stranger.
I didn’t go back and they never came to Colorado to see me.
Such is life.
“Yeah, it’s nice. I’m not sure it prepared me for these Colorado winters everyone keeps warning me about, though. Atlanta’s winters were pretty mild too.”