Miss ManKiller E-Book

K.D. Elizabeth

• Herausgeber: Vivre Libre Media
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Three years after a highly public accident and subsequent banishment from the sport, former professional triathlete Sara Jo Ramsey is still fighting a painful injury. Holed up in her beautiful but run-down estate, Sara lives alone, interacting with the outside world only when absolutely necessary. When her best—and only—friend announces she’s getting married, Sara’s days of hiding abruptly come to an end. Before she knows it, Sara is pulled into a world of engagement parties, bridal showers, and bachelorette extravaganzas. But the thing about weddings? They tend to bring up old memories. Memories Sara has spent ages trying to forget. If only she didn’t need to be the maid of honor. If only the best man wasn’t restoring her estate. If only he wasn’t so damn attractive. Gavin Harris has always been alone. By choice. But even the greatest of man-whores needs a best friend, and when Gavin’s friend proposes to his girlfriend—without telling him—Gavin’s previously ordered life is unexpectedly and unpleasantly uprooted. Watching his best friend marry turns out to be harder than he’d imagined, especially when, as a wedding present, Gavin agrees to take over as the head contractor for a major restoration project. The house itself might be a restorer’s dream, but the woman inside? Not worth the headache. If only he hadn’t agreed to be the best man. If only he didn’t have to fix the maid of honor’s house. If only he hadn’t spent two years avoiding her.

Leseprobe

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Miss ManKiller Copyright © 2018 by K.D. Elizabeth

All rights reserved. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission in any form is a theft of the author's intellectual property and not permitted. If you would like permission to use material from the book (except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews), please contact the author at [email protected]. Thank you for supporting indie authors.

The use of this book is permitted for noncommercial purposes only.

First Edition: October 2018

Vivre Libre Media and the author are not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the either the publisher or the author.

The author is available for speaking events. You may reach out for more information at [email protected].

ISBN: 0-9839608-6-0 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-0-9839608-6-7 (paperback)

Proofreading: Dominion Editorial

Cover Design: K.D. Elizabeth

Print and E-book Formatting: K.D. Elizabeth via Vellum

Contents

1. Gavin

2. Sara

3. Sara

4. Sara

5. Sara

6. Sara

7. Gavin

8. Sara

9. Sara

10. Gavin

11. Gavin

12. Gavin

13. Gavin

14. Gavin

15. Gavin

16. Sara

17. Sara

18. Sara

19. Sara

20. Sara

21. Gavin

22. Gavin

23. Gavin

24. Gavin

25. Gavin

26. Sara

27. Sara

28. Sara

29. Sara

30. Sara

31. Sara

32. Gavin

33. Gavin

34. Sara

35. Sara

36. Sara

37. Gavin

38. Gavin

39. Gavin

40. Gavin

41. Gavin

42. Sara

43. Gavin

44. Sara

45. Sara

Epilogue

Author’s Note 1

Author’s Note 2

Preview of The Season Bright!

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Review Miss ManKiller!

Join the Newsletter

Join the Street Team

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by K.D. Elizabeth

For my abnormal psychology professor

1

Gavin

Rule 2: Bros before hos.

My best friend was fucking his girlfriend again. They were sneaky about it, to be sure, but Lena had crept away ten minutes ago, and now Travis had disappeared, too. It didn’t take a genius to realize they were screwing each other’s brains out in his childhood home with hundreds of people downstairs.

I’d give him shit for it if I wasn’t hideously jealous.

But that secret would go to my grave. Oh, no. I would die before I gave that kind of ammo to anyone, most of all Travis. Especially when for months and months now he’d done nothing but needle me to shack up with some girl. Literally, anyone would do.

Well, he was the one with the model girlfriend, not me, and in this little town, pickings were slim. Particularly when you had already gone through all of them in high school like I had.

You might be tempted to call me a man-whore. That would be correct. I like women. Sue me.

Still, even I wouldn’t stoop so low as to fuck a girl in my own parents’ house on the Fourth of July. And believe me, there had been a couple of close calls in my life, so I’d know.

I took another swig of my beer, wondering when I had become such an asshole. I used to be a nice person. Some days, I liked to think I still was one. But sometime over the last few months, a weird kind of frustration had settled over me, casting a pall of dissatisfaction over every aspect of my life. The worst part was, I had no idea how to fix it.

This shit needed to end. Starting with that girl over there.

I’d never met her before. That was for certain. I’d remember those legs when I was eighty-five and senile, especially since I had every intention of wrapping them around my waist while I thrust inside her in, oh, half an hour from now.

But seriously, who was this chick? I’d lived in Spring for almost thirty-five years, the entirety of my life, and I would have remembered her. I took another leisurely gaze down her impressive chest, tiny waist, and flaring hips, before lingering for days on those legs. She caught me looking. I winked at her lazily.

She’d have to be impressively clueless to miss that hint. It hadn’t even been a hint, really. Unless she had the IQ of a house-plant, she now knew I wanted to taste her.

But I was no chump. You never walk right over. Instead, I ambled back to the bar, downing the rest of my beer as I went. The bartender, who’d quickly become my best friend after I gave him a couple of large tips, silently slid another beer across the bar-top with a nod. I grunted my thanks and slipped another ten into the tip jar. The Grants’ parties were always open-bar, but they fully expected their guests to treat the staff properly. They never had a shortage of employees.

Leaning against the bar, I took a swig of the cold drink and gazed at the girl again. The bartender saw where I was looking and froze, eyebrows lifted in respect. I nodded affably; most men were terrified of approaching the prettiest woman in the room. I’d long ago overcome that fear. After many spectacular failures, of course.

“I’m guessing she’s a Chardonnay kind of woman,” I mused.

The bartender’s lips narrowed in thought. “No. Riesling. Sweeter.”

I shrugged. “You think?”

“Yeah. She seems nice. Something sweet, just like her.”

I barely prevented myself from rolling my eyes at this sappy shit. Sure, she probably was nice. I didn’t give a shit. I only cared about whether she’d fuck me. And of course, she would. The drink hardly mattered—it just gave me an excuse to approach her.

“If you say so. Give me a Riesling. She doesn’t like it, though, and no more tips.” The bartender paused, glancing at me then relaxing when I winked at him.

I was an asshole, but not that kind of asshole.

Armed with my beverages, I cut through the crowd, weaving around them effortlessly as I stalked my prey. She had separated herself from her group, almost as if trying to make it easier for me to join her. I smirked; sometimes, life was too easy.

Her eyes lit up when I finally joined her. She gave me a pretty, innocent smile, utterly devoid of any artifice. I grinned back in genuine delight. Nice girls were, well, nice. Preferable, really.

Don’t get me wrong; I’d still fuck a woman even if I’d never bring her within a five-mile radius of my sweet, eighty-three-year-old Gammy, but nice girls had the added bonus of being tolerable to listen to while you’re fucking them. I might even enjoy the conversation. Maybe I’d just received a sign from the universe that my life had finally reversed its downward spiral.

But then she opened her mouth.

“Hey, Gavin.”

I blinked. How did this girl know my name? I was almost entirely certain I’d never seen this girl before my life, but apparently, we were on a first-name basis? Not good.

“You looked like you could use a drink.” I extended the glass of Riesling toward her. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her head tilted to the side, clearly studying me. Slowly, she took the glass I offered her. She stared down at the drink, not taking a sip.

“What is it?”

“A Riesling. Should be a little sweeter than Chardonnay. You seem like the kind of woman who likes a little sweetness.”

Now her eyes definitely narrowed. Had I said something wrong? Was she one of those non-boozy types? I couldn’t handle that, even if she was a nice girl. I couldn’t handle anyone too pure-of-heart for my miserable soul.

“You really don’t remember me, do you?”

I glanced around, searching for the hidden camera. This had to be some sort of practical joke, right? Why else would a literal stranger claim to know me? I studied her more closely. About five minutes ago, I’d sworn I’d never seen her before. But I’d been wrong before. Terribly wrong.

“Uh, you got me.”

She snorted, shaking her head. “I thought so. It’s Nadine. Ring any bells?”

It took an embarrassingly long time to put it together. But once I did, horror quickly followed. This girl I’d been planning on bending over the nearest table as soon as possible, was none other than Travis’s little cousin. I gaped at her, squirming when she laughed out loud at my startled expression.

This was little Nadine? I did the mental math; she had been a freshman in high school the last time I saw her. And that was, what, six years ago? Christ, was this girl even legal?

“Oh, Nadine. Wow, long time no see. You seem like you’re doing well.”

Nadine laughed, her pretty blonde hair falling over her shoulders. “You could say that. I’m staying with the Grants for the summer. Never knew they had so many parties, though.”

“Yeah, no one likes to miss their Fourth of July party. Glad to hear you’re enjoying it.” I eyed the glass of wine I’d just given her.

She followed my gaze. “Yeah, I’m technically twenty.”

Faster than I thought myself capable, my hand shot out and grabbed the drink I’d given her a moment before. “I’ll just take that, thank you.”

No way was I going to be responsible for corrupting this child. Travis would kill me, stuff my carcass, and then proudly hang it up outside his house for the world to see. And deservedly so. I did not need that kind of drama in my life. And besides, I remembered seeing her in fucking diapers.

Fucking hell. I’d never screw this girl in my life. And I had been so excited to find a potential new playmate. Woman. Whatever. Anyway, it would be a cold day in hell before I did anything to fuck up my friendship with Travis.

Even if, these days, he might do differently.

But I’d already started this ball rolling, and now Nadine was operating under the impression that we were going to shoot the shit for a while. I didn’t want to be a dick to her, but I also didn’t want to be chained to her for the rest of the evening. Who knew, maybe pigs would start flying, and an attractive, single, mysterious woman would show up.

A man could hope.

“So maybe we’ll see more of each other this summer, since I’ll be around. I remember you guys were like older brothers to me growing up, especially since I’m an only child.”

Christ, I hoped I didn’t see a lot of her. The occasional party like this one, sure, but if I had to have a college girl—who I couldn’t screw, mind you—follow me around for the summer, I’d go nuts.

Nothing is a more effective cock-block than a sister who’s not even your sister. I lifted the stupid Riesling to my lips and drained the glass in one go. I was not drunk enough for this shit.

Nadine watched me chug the wine—not actually a pleasant experience—eyebrows raised. I placed the glass on a table nearby and winked slowly at her. Her face turned crimson. This girl might be dead to me sexually, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t still charm her.

I charmed everyone.

“Couldn’t let it go to waste, now could I?”

“S-sure, yeah.”

I threw an arm around her shoulders, hugging her exaggeratedly, then releasing her and motioning to the crowd with a flourish.

“Well, Nadine, my dear old friend, it has been positively lovely to see you again. However, I simply couldn’t rob you of the opportunity of meeting these fair people, especially since you’ll be here for a while. And so, with the heaviest of hearts, I must solemnly bid you ado.”

Nadine laughed again, shaking her head. She wagged a finger at me—fuck, if only she was literally any other woman on the planet—and said, “You always were a clown. I’ll see you around, Gavin.”

I winked again and then disappeared into the crowd. My gaze snagged on the bartender; apparently, the dick had watched my spectacular crash and burn. His shoulders shook with repressed laughter. I flipped him off good-naturedly and kept moving, the ever-present boredom weighing on me like twenty of those cement bags I frequently lugged around on our construction sites.

For fuck’s sake, something interesting happen for once.

I’d just rounded the corner into the dining room when I quite literally slammed into Travis. I grunted, his chin clipping me on the nose. We lurched apart.

“Shit, man, sorry,” Travis said, reaching out to steady me.

I grunted, rubbing my nose.

“Hey, have you seen Lena?”

I frowned at him. “Weren’t you fucking her, like, three seconds ago? I mean, I know she’s already got you by the balls, but this is getting ridiculous, now.”

Travis gave me a shit-eating grin. For some reason, I wanted to punch it off his fucking face. I bit my lip, ashamed and confused why I’d had such an assholish desire. Oh, wait. That would be because I had become an asshole.

“Seriously, Gav, have you seen her? I went to get something, and now I can’t find her with all these people.” Travis scanned the room, absently patting his pants pocket.

“She’s wearing a bright red dress. Something tells me you’ll find her,” I said dryly.

Travis clapped me on the shoulder, still searching for Lena. “Yeah, true. See you later, man.” And then he disappeared.

“Happy Fourth,” I muttered. This had been our only interaction today. We used to spend this party getting shitfaced and playing cornhole for seven hours.

Needless to say, that was one of many traditions that had ended post-Lena. Would I ever get my friend back?

I downed my beer then stared at the bottle, debating the stupidity of getting a third drink in ten minutes. Fuck it. I had literally nothing else to do—or anyone to talk to who wouldn’t make me want to claw my eyes out in mere seconds.

I began pushing my way through the crowd again when a commotion erupted outside. Excited cries sprang up from the people on the patio. The rest of the party inside began pushing for the doors. Curious, I followed, grinding to a halt when the crowd parted to reveal Lena, hands covering her mouth as she stared at Travis, who’d dropped to one knee before her.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

“Lena Douglas. The moment you came into my life…well, almost the moment you came into my life,” Travis said, pausing as everyone chuckled. Travis’s initial war with Lena when she moved in next door had become legendary in Spring. “You have made me happier than I ever could have possibly imagined,” he continued. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I want to spend the rest of my life living up to that honor.

“You are the kindest, most beautiful, most challenging women I have ever met. In the two years we’ve been together, you’ve shown me how to love, how to dream, and how to be the best man I could ever be. I love you more than anything in this entire world.

“Would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

Everyone turned their attention to Lena, who was staring at Travis in shock, tears of happiness streaming down her face. She nodded, dropping her hands long enough to shout, “Yes!” before Travis launched upward and swept her into his arms, kissing her. The crowd cheered as he twirled her in a circle, then gently lowered her to the ground in order to slide a rock the size of a fucking golf ball on her finger.

The crowd surged toward the couple with words of congratulations. Lena stared at them all in a daze. Travis began shaking hands, his other arm firmly wrapped around Lena’s waist, as if he would never let go for the rest of his life.

And I supposed he wouldn’t.

Something happened to me as I stood there, staring at my best friend, the friend I’d known since my literal birth, the friend who hadn’t even bothered to fucking tell me he wanted to marry his girlfriend. Their happiness tore apart my soul; in all my days, after everything we’d been through, I’d never seen Travis even a tenth as happy as he was in this very moment.

In that instant, it became suddenly so clear, so obviously, stupidly, infuriatingly clear, that my best friend’s life had surpassed mine. We were moving in two different directions. He was experiencing what I would probably never experience myself. There would be no going back to the way things had been before Lena—like I had expected. Hoped. Never again, for the rest of our lives.

The finality of the moment slammed through me, and pain, pain like I’d never experienced before in my life, cracked my chest wide open, stabbing my heart and stealing the very breath from my lungs.

2

Sara

The Triathlete’s Pen: In exciting news, Sara Jo Ramsey penned a multimillion dollar deal with Nike today …

My eyes flew open. No. Not again. Pain shot down my spine, rooting me to the bed. I tried wiggling my toes but failed. Complete paralysis gripped me, as it always did when the fire screamed down my back. The old panic returned. My mouth opened and closed uselessly as I tried to gasp for breath.

I closed my eyes, scrunching my face up as if that might actually help me concentrate. Sucking my lower lip into my mouth, my teeth sank into the flesh. This deliberately caused pain distracted me. A useful trick.

The constriction in my lungs slowly released. I inhaled for three seconds, held my breath for four, then exhaled slowly for seven. Repeating the process as if in prayer, my eyes slowly reopened, my heart rate slowed, and I could finally function once more.

The nightmare had been a real doozy, as usual. After three years of it, I knew better than to expect anything different. I slowly pushed myself up from the bed, staring down at my once-toned legs in disgust.

It had been five weeks since I’d had the nightmare. Some small, secretive, but stupid part of me had thought I’d kicked it for good. Apparently not. Smith would not be pleased. And when I told him about it, he’d make me discuss my feelings.

I hated feelings. I had for three years, now. There were a lot of things I hated after all the shit that had happened. After the accident. After Michael. After everything.

I would not use the cane today. Not that I needed it, as Smith repeatedly assured me. But every time the nightmare occurred I was painfully—literally—reminded that my body was not whole, would never be whole again, and that I’d better get used to it. And when that happened, the cane tempted me.

But no. I’d put it in my garage for good six months ago. I wouldn’t break the streak now.

I’d just resigned myself to another day of gingerly walking around this empty house when a bell rang. I blinked, trying to place the sound, which I’d never heard before in the five short weeks I’d lived here.

It rang again, and I finally figured it out. The doorbell. Idiot. It had probably awoken me from my nightmare in the first place. Without a thought, I climbed out of my bed and shuffled through the dark room toward the source of the noise.

Only after I’d traversed the long hall, clambered down the spiral staircase, and halted before my front door did I realize that no one knew I lived here. Well, no one except my parents, but they lived three hours away.

No. Surely—

The bell rang a third time. Clearly, the person on the other side had no intention of leaving. Sighing, I grasped the knob and slowly pulled the heavy door open. It swung open to reveal Lena Douglas.

“Sara!”

“Lena …”

“Happy Fourth of July! I saw that you didn’t make it to the Grants’ party.” Lena stood on my porch, grinning widely, but I noticed the tiny lines around her eyes.

Shit. I’d forgotten all about it. Hell, had the Fourth already passed? What day was it?

I searched for a suitable excuse. “Yeah, sorry about that. Thanks for inviting me, but I couldn’t make it. My family always has a party on the Fourth.” This was both the truth and a shameless lie. My family always had a party for the Fourth of July—the granddaddy of all grilling events—but apparently, I hadn’t attended that, either.

Lena bit her lip, obviously doubting my excuse but not knowing enough about my family to call me out on it. She only knew that my parents lived three hours away in a small town near the border of California.

I preferred it that way. Fewer questions. And pity.

Lena fiddled with her water bottle. I smiled despite myself when I realized she was decked out head-to-toe in her Thrived fitness line. Lena really had done a great job on her line. Nearly two years after its launch, it had grown into one of the largest apparel brands in the Southwest. Without a doubt, she’d be going national soon.

Still, something seemed off with her. I squinted but couldn’t find anything in particular. My body might be ruined, but my powers of observation had only sharpened.

“Well, anyway. I haven’t seen you in a couple weeks. We’ve missed our runs, so I figured I’d just pick you up. Nice place, by the way, although I had to go all the way to the assessor’s office to find the address. Thanks for that.” Lena stepped back, scanning the property. I shifted on my feet, recognizing the calculating gleam in her eyes.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that. I’ve been running.” Kind of. I had done about three miles last week.

She gave me a withering look. “Sara. You know we agreed we’d go on a run every week. I intend to keep that commitment. Do you?”

Well, shit. When she put it that way, I seemed like a shitty friend. That first day, two years ago, when I’d finally accepted her offer to get coffee, I’d figured it would be nice to have an acquaintance, someone to know I existed in this town in case I got injured again. But we’d become friends. It had only happened because Lena had willed it into being. I certainly hadn’t made the effort.

I was a shitty person. I could go on a run with her, pain be damned. I’d probably be able to hide it if my back started hurting again, right? Ha.

I sighed, capitulating. “Let me change.”

“No need. Just wear these!” Lena chirped, tossing me a plastic bag she’d pulled out of her large purse. I noticed the Thrived logo on the bag and glanced at her, eyebrows raised.

Lena rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Sara. It’s been two years since I started this company, and you still refuse to buy anything. I get that it’s upsetting because you’re not a star athlete anymore, but you need to stop punishing yourself. You can still wear athletic clothes. My mother wears them, and she hasn’t worked out since 1989.”

I chuckled despite myself. “Fine, fine. I’ll give you money later.”

“Absolutely not.”

I absolutely would. I’d stick it in a pocket of her purse, if necessary. Perhaps this was better. I could wear these clothes on our runs, and then she’d get off my back about my refusal to wear them.

But I wouldn’t wear them otherwise. Lena may find it no big deal, but she didn’t know Nike used to sponsor me. Even looking at athletic gear reminded me of my abysmal failure.

I made to close the door so I could change, but Lena gave me another one of her are-you-kidding-me looks. I sighed again; this was why I’d told no one about this place.

“Uh, why don’t you come in while I change,” I said, stepping back to allow her inside and already regretting the decision.

“Okay,” Lena said, practically bowling me over in her haste to get inside. Yep. I’d tried to prevent this exact thing.

“Make yourself at home,” I mumbled over my shoulder as I made a beeline for my downstairs bathroom. The sooner I changed, the sooner I could get her out of my house before she got any ideas. Ideas that would inevitably cause me trouble.

But any plans I had to shuffle her out were forgotten the moment I pulled the clothes from the bag. Lena had chosen a matching running top and shorts from her RunThrive line. Jet black, with a lime green stripe running up the outside. My fingers ran over the mesh fabric; no doubt the material would wick away any moisture quickly. Another glance inside the bag revealed a sports bra, lime green with black piping around the cups and down the racerback.

Okay, yeah, pretty cute. Not half bad, really. Something I might have worn before.

Maybe I could do this after all.

3

Sara

trirunner.com: When asked about her secret training weapon, Ramsey replied, “I’m nothing without my family.”

Lena jumped guiltily when I jerked open the bathroom door to discover she had been shamelessly going through my refrigerator.

“You don’t have a lot of food in here.”

“Says the person who literally starved herself so much she almost died from it.”

“Hey, I’ve gained ten pounds! And the starvation didn’t nearly kill me, the horrific car accident did.”

I waved my hands negligently. Pure semantics. Still, Lena had put on some much-needed weight, now that she didn’t have to model on Instagram 24/7. Judging by the few times I’d run into Travis in the years since her accident, he didn’t mind her slightly curvier figure. Too bad she couldn’t have taken my extra pounds when she gained the weight.

“Hey, you should really answer your phone. It rang non-stop the whole time you were in the bathroom.”

Whirling around from where I’d been making my way toward the door, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, noticed its dark screen, then squinted at Lena in confusion.

“No, idiot. That one.” She nodded toward the wall, where the landline that had come with the house was hooked up.

As if on cue, it rang shrilly. I glanced from Lena to the phone. She stared at me, eyebrows raised.

Only one person had that number. Well, two, technically, but essentially one. And I had zero desire to discuss anything with her in front of Lena. The phone kept ringing. Lena folded her arms over her chest and glared at me mulishly.

Fine. My fingers snatched the phone off the hook. I instantly jerked the phone away from my ear when the screeching began.

“Sara? SARA JO RAMSEY! You better be alive, or so help me, I’ll kill you.”

“That would rather defeat the purpose, Mom.”

“Oh, thank God. I’d been convinced you were lying in a ditch somewhere. Harold? HAROLD? It’s Sara. She’s alive.”

Knowing this conversation could devolve into an hour spent talking to my father before Mom even returned her attention to me, I said, “Well, yeah. I’m good. I’ll just be going—”

“You hang up that phone, and I’ll be in the car within two minutes to come visit you. I still have a mind to do so. I kept telling your father that if you didn’t call in the next few hours, we’d be making the trek down.”

“That would be highly unnecessary. I really am fine. I should let you get back to whatever you were doing.”

“Now, stop this. We deserve an explanation. You were going to join us for the Fourth. Everyone was wondering where you were.”

“Everything is fine. I spent the Fourth at a friend’s party. I had so much fun; I completely forgot I was supposed to drive up,” I said, avoiding Lena’s narrowing gaze.

“And which friend was this?” Mom said suspiciously.

“Lena. You remember Lena, right?”

“Oh yes. Such a nice girl. She’s with that nice boy, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well … I suppose that’s all right, then. I’m glad you had fun.”

“Uh huh. Yep, a blast. My phone died, and I forgot to charge it. I just got your messages now.”

Another pause. “Am I to believe that your phone died, and you forgot about it for three days?”

“Mom, I’ve just been busy, okay? You know I’m not attached to my phone. Not anymore.”

“Right. Well, I’m going to accept this story of yours. But you better believe I expect you here sometime this month. You can bring Lena and that man of hers.”

Um, yeah, no. I loved Lena and her boyfriend, wished them all the happiness in the world, but I could only handle them in small doses before my heart hurt so painfully I thought I might die.

“I should be able to make it up soon.”

“I’m holding you to that!”

“Yes, yes. I know. Okay, I have to go now.”

“But—”

“Lots to do! Love you, bye!” I hung up, slamming the phone onto its cradle. I swung my attention back to Lena. “Okay, let’s get going, then. Do you have a place you want to run?”

Lena looked like she wanted to call me out for lying to both her and my mother, but after noticing my closed expression, she said instead, “I was thinking the river walk.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll follow behind you in my car.” That way I could escape more quickly.

Lena frowned. “I don’t mind driving you back here. I would rather have more time to talk to you.”

I opened my mouth to come up with some other sort of excuse, but Lena glared at me with enough determination to dissuade me from bothering. Fine. I’d just let her talk; at the end of our run, she’d feel like we had done the whole friend thing, and I could go back to my lair in peace.

“Okay. After you.”

Lena kept up a constant stream of chatter as we loaded into her car and set off toward the center of town. I stared out the window as we drove, barely listening to her. Maybe I shouldn’t have picked a house so far away, if it meant I’d essentially be a prisoner every time someone drove me into town. I hadn’t seen a house for five minutes.

“And then I told him, you better not eat that dinosaur!”

“Huh?” I jerked around to look at her.

Lena laughed and shook her head. “I knew you weren’t paying attention. For the last minute, I’ve been describing my recent visit to Jurassic Park, and the only thing you said was ‘Sounds like fun.’”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I wasn’t talking about anything important, anyway.” She started to make a right-turn, her hands sliding across the wheel.

And then I finally, finally figured it out.

“Holy shit. Is that a ring!” I yelled.

“Finally!” Lena shrieked. “Oh my God, it was killing me. I came over here to tell you, but I don’t want to be that asshole who goes on and on about her engagement.”

“When did this happen?” I stuttered, feeling like the world’s worst person for being so out of the loop I hadn’t noticed right away.

“At the party three days ago. He did it in front of his entire family. I was shocked! I almost fainted, I swear.”

I was not shocked. Actually, no, I was. Shocked Travis hadn’t done it months ago, that is. The guy was obsessed with her. Not in a creepy way, but in a how-the-hell-had-I-snagged-such-a-catch kind of way.

“I’m happy for you. Have you picked a date?”

Lena paled. “Geez, I haven’t even thought about a date. The whole thing has thrown me for such a loop that I’m still trying to get used to the idea. I mean, it’s still weird wearing the ring.”

“Yeah, that is quite a rock,” I said, trying my best not to notice how eerily similar it was to the one I had buried in a box somewhere in my garage.

Pain suddenly stabbed into my back, radiating fire up and down my spine. I jerked my head out the window so that Lena wouldn’t notice my face scrunch up in agony. I bit my tongue viciously until I drew blood, focusing on the metallic taste until I could breathe again. Slowly, my back returned to normal, and I wilted against the seat.

Shit, twice in one day?

“Sorry about that,” I finally managed. “I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye.”

“It’s okay,” Lena said quietly.

I needed to salvage the situation. “So, Travis must be thrilled.”

Lena’s eyes lit up in excitement. “Oh my God, he’s been so excited it’s almost ridiculous. He won’t leave me alone for even thirty seconds. I constantly catch him staring at my hand with this smug expression on his face.”

“Yeah, I can see him doing that.”

“You have no idea. I needed to get away from the insanity.”

“Well, you might as well take some space while you can. You’ll be with him for the rest of your life, after all,” I said as we pulled into the parking lot next to the river walk.

Lena remained silent a very long moment before responding, almost in awe. “The rest of my life. You’re right.”

4

Sara

TTC Regional Monthly: Her trainer first noticed the scrape during Ramsey’s transition off the bike. “You think a little blood’ll stop me?” he recalls her scoffing.

The run started out fine.

For a while, I even thought I’d get away with it. I hadn’t gone longer than three miles in years, a pitifully small distance in comparison to what I used to bang out before breakfast.

Intellectually, I knew I had healed—at least, the doctors and Smith had been assuring me that for about three years now—but the crippling pain I experienced whenever I tried told me otherwise. I figured if I could make it a mile down the walk and a mile back without completely embarrassing myself, I’d take it.

Lena had other plans.

“I haven’t done this route in ages! Let’s go the whole way. If I recall correctly, there’s a bend in the road up ahead that’s great for photos. We can model these new designs for the company Instagram.”

I stared at the path, searching for a way to say “no way in hell” without appearing pathetic. The path was three miles long; if we went all the way down, we were looking at six miles round-trip. As if I could do that.

“Um … that seems a bit far for me.”

Lena didn’t give me another moment to protest. “Oh, it’ll be okay. When I said run, I really just meant to get out for exercise in general. We can walk however much of it we want. It’s so nice out, don’t you think? You can walk for a couple hours, right? Any running we do will just be a nice bonus. And if we get too exhausted to continue, I can call Travis to pick us up. He’s around since it’s Saturday.”

I sighed, unable to deny such a genuine attempt at being accommodating. Nodding toward the path, I motioned for Lena to proceed. She gave me a curious look before heading out, eyebrows raised in surprise when I started running.

Don’t get me wrong; it was a very, very slow run. Practically a shuffle, but a run, nevertheless. Lena didn’t say anything, instinctively knowing the moment would be ruined by talking.

I made it for about fifteen minutes before I ran out of breath. Sensing my exhaustion, Lena stopped along the road and pointed at something across the river.

“Hey, did you see that? A heron just swooped down and got a fish!”

“Huh,” I said, trying to hide how hard I gasped for air.

“Pretty.” Lena began again, this time walking. I walked next to her, thankful for the reprieve. When I felt like I wasn’t about to die, I began running again, this time even more slowly. I might as well have been walking.

Lena followed my lead. Sometimes we walked, sometimes we ran until we made it all the way to the end of the path. When we could go no farther, Lena held out her hand for a high-five, which I gave her, grinning. It hadn’t been that terrible. Of course, we had to repeat it again to get back to the car. I suspected I’d do most of it walking.

We’d only made it a third of the way back to the car when Lena pulled me over off the path. I followed her between the greenery, jaw dropping when we finally cut through the grass to reveal the river, swirling far below us. Somehow, the path had sloped upward without my noticing. Now we stood on a cliff.

The water moved below us lazily. We were the only two people on the walk at this time of the day. It was entirely calm and silent. Peaceful. I hadn’t felt such peace in a very long time. I closed my eyes and inhaled, dragging the sweet summer air into my lungs.

“Sara?”

I exhaled slowly, my back to her. “Yeah?” I said, keeping my eyes closed.

“I was thinking … well, I was hoping, you’d be my maid of honor.”

My eyes flew open. I stilled, body tensing. The river, which had seemed so lovely mere moments before, now swirled ominously, turbulently, mimicking my sudden nausea.

I glared at the river, trying my best to stay focused on the present, but despite my best effort, my mind returned to another conversation—this same conversation—I had had years before. Except in that one, I had been doing the asking. How things had changed. I swallowed hard, willing away the memories.

“Sara?” Lena said softly.

My miserable existence wasn’t Lena’s fault. She had no idea that the man I had very nearly married had deserted me after my accident.

I couldn’t be cruel and deny Lena, even if the memories it dredged up would kill me. Plastering a smile on my face I prayed wasn’t sickeningly false, I slowly turned to face her. Lena kicked a small stone, unable to look at me. I hated myself for causing even a moment’s pain during her exciting time.

“I would be honored,” I said, barely forcing the words out of my mouth before my throat closed entirely. Lena’s head jerked up, and she stared at me in surprise.

“Really?”

“Yes, of course. I wouldn’t want to miss out on this special time in your life.”

Lena smiled and leapt forward, drawing me into a tight hug. I slowly hugged her back, glad she couldn’t see my face and the effort I made not to burst into tears. Lena released me and then pulled her phone out.

“This is so exciting! We should take a selfie to celebrate.” Before I could say a word, she held the phone up in front of us. I barely had time to arrange my face into something vaguely resembling a smile before she snapped the photo.

“Travis will be pleased. He kept telling me you wouldn’t be interested.”

“And why is that?”

Lena’s fingers froze on the screen. She glanced up at me guiltily. “He didn’t mean anything by it. He just said you seemed like a private person and that I shouldn’t make you feel obligated to do something you wouldn’t want to do.”

Chalk one up for Travis. He didn’t even know the half of it.

My mind raced with what I’d need to begin planning. “Anyway, since you don’t have a date yet, there’s not much for me to do at the moment. Do you have the other bridesmaids picked out? What about the guest list and color scheme? Or is this going to be a long engagement and we don’t need to work out the details right now?”

Lena stared at me. I sucked my lips into my mouth, immediately regretting my outburst. That word vomit had implied I had experience with weddings. Which, of course, was true. But the last thing I needed was for Lena to start asking questions.

“Uh …” Lena said hesitatingly, “I’m not sure. We haven’t really discussed it.”

They’d need to start soon if they had any desire to get married this century, but I didn’t say that. Instead, I started pushing back through the grass to return to the river walk.

“Okay, then. Just let me know when you get a better idea.”

I started my decrepitly slow run again, surprised the short rest had given me an energy boost. Either that, or I was running on pure adrenaline and dread for what I’d just agreed to do.

Lena caught up to me, and we continued our run-walk. I made it about another half mile when sudden, crippling pain shot up my spine. I actually tripped over my own damn feet, sprawling face-first on the ground. Only years of experience falling had my hands coming up in time to protect me from the brunt of the fall. I landed with a thud, grunting as the air flew out of me.

“Sara!” Lena yelled, falling to her knees, hands flittering over me anxiously. “Are you okay?”

I was not okay.

The pain flashed horrendously. I stayed where I had fallen, incapable of moving. Every inch of my being screamed that I was dying, that I’d spent the rest of my short life sprawled on the ground right here. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard Lena yelling at me, but I couldn’t respond, couldn’t worry that she was seeing me this way.

I glared at the asphalt an inch in front of my nose. I focused my entire attention on a tiny pebble, staring at it without blinking. Slowly the rest of my vision narrowed until only the pebble remained. I counted to thirty, then fifty, then a hundred, and by the time I reached two hundred, I realized that I was breathing again, and that the pain had faded away. Slowly, half-expecting the pain to return with a vengeance, I rolled onto my back and pushed myself to my feet. I wavered a bit, half-expecting another wave of pain.

But the pain had gone, and with relief, I realized that it wouldn’t be coming back. At least, not immediately. I finally snapped out of my daze when Lena’s hands landed on my shoulders, and she shook me.

“Sara! Are you okay! You’ve been on the ground for like five minutes!”

I winced, embarrassed. “Yeah … I just had the wind knocked out of me. Couldn’t breathe and wasn’t able to respond. Pretty clumsy, huh? What a joke.”

Lena relaxed slightly, some of the tension leaking from her tall frame. She stared at me worriedly, clearly torn between wanting to say something and not wanting to push it.

“God, Sara. You really scared me. That … that wasn’t because of your accident, was it? I swear, I had no idea. I never would have suggested—”

I held up a hand to stop her. What I could not bear, the absolute last thing I would tolerate, was for her to find me anything but normal. Whole. Unbroken. I’d specifically never told her the extent of my injuries—physical and psychological—so that we’d never have this very conversation. I couldn’t bear it if she continued looking at me like that, especially if I was going to be her maid of honor.

“Really, I’m fine. I just tripped over a rock. I’m not as surefooted as I used to be, that’s all.”

Lena bit her lip in worry but eventually nodded. I breathed a sigh of relief. Disaster averted, mostly.

“Okay, but we’re walking the rest of the way back.”

“Fine by me.”

We walked the remaining mile and a half back to the car. By the time we finally arrived, I was shaking with exhaustion, now that the adrenaline had worn off and the exercise had utterly fatigued me. I opened the passenger door to climb in but Lena grabbed my arm and jerked me around.

“Sara, your knee!”

I glanced down; blood dripped down my shin from the skinned knee. Whoops. It had been a while since I’d fallen while running—run enough, and you were bound to at some point. I had forgotten to do even a cursory examination after I dragged myself off the ground. It must have started bleeding while we made our way back to the car. I’d been so preoccupied by the pain in my back that I hadn’t even noticed the injury to my knee.

“Well, that sucks,” I said.

“We need to clean that up.”

“It’s just a scrape. I’ve had worse.” And I definitely had. “I’ll take care of it when you drop me off at home.”

“What, are you nuts? You live out in the middle of nowhere. This is going to swell. I don’t want you getting an infection.”

“Really, it’s fine. I used to get skinned knees all the time.”

Lena studied me, a mutinous expression on her face. “That may be true, but I wasn’t your friend, then. My house is closer; I’ll get you cleaned up.”

I wasn’t your friend, then. Lena’s words rattled around in my skull as she drove us to Travis’s house. She had lived there ever since moving in during the repairs on John Masterson’s house two years ago.

Had any of my friends from my previous life ever insisted on taking care of such a simple scrape? I doubted it; triathletes prided themselves on their toughness. We’d rather let it grow into a nasty but impressive scar than actually try to heal it.

“Once we clean this up, we can shower, and then you might as well stay for lunch,” Lena said as we pulled into the drive.

I frowned. That smelled suspiciously like spending the day with someone. I didn’t do that anymore. Even if I was now this woman’s maid of honor. I wracked my mind for a suitable excuse.

“I don’t have any clothes. I’m gross. Besides, I wouldn’t want to intrude on you two lovebirds.”

“You can borrow some of my clothes. We’re practically the same size.”

I glanced at her, wondering if she’d lost her mind. She pointed first toward my shirt, then hers. I studied us both more closely. While I was fatter, Lena was taller. Our proportions weren’t that far off.

Hmm. Should I be encouraged or depressed by such an observation?

Lena continued, “Besides, you’re not interrupting. If I know anything, that’s Gavin’s car in the driveway, so it looks like I already have company, anyway. You might as well get some food out of it.”

My eyes flew to the house, suddenly towering over me ominously. I hadn’t seen Gavin in months. I made every effort to avoid the man. Not that there was anything wrong with him, per se. But Gavin was a blinding sun. Attractive. Charming. Confident to the point of cockiness. Everything that I used to be. I couldn’t fly so close to such a sun; my already singed wings would never survive it.

But I had no opportunity to change her mind, because the front door suddenly opened as Travis and Gavin stepped out onto the porch.

5

Sara

starzzsonline.com: … Sara Jo Ramsey was seen last night stumbling out of Illicit Nightclub with her newest beau …

“Hey, princess. Did you guys have fun?” Travis said as we stepped onto the porch. He reached out and pulled Lena to his side, kissing her seemingly without a care in the world about her sweatiness. I tried not to wrinkle my nose; we were pretty ripe.

Lena let him kiss her briefly before she pulled away. “It was fun—until Sara got a little banged up.”

Travis finally tore his attention away from Lena long enough to notice the gore on my leg. His eyebrows rose in surprise. “Whoa. You okay?”

I waved my hand, trying to appear unbothered. “Yep. Just fell. No worries. As soon as I get it cleaned up, I’ll be out of your hair.”

“No, you won’t. You’re staying for lunch,” Lena snapped, grabbing my arm tightly as if she planned to handcuff me to her just so that I wouldn’t run away. She’d do it, too.

We’d see who won in the end. I could be a stubborn bastard when my pride was on the line.

Lena began towing me toward the front door. Gavin, who had been leaning against the frame in silence while this all played out, dragged his eyes up from where they’d been studying my legs. When he caught me looking, he grinned and winked at me. I rolled my eyes, telling myself he looked horribly unattractive.

“Hey, Gavin. You two have fun while I was gone?”

Gavin’s grin widened as he stared down at Lena, not budging an inch from where his large frame took up the entire doorway. “You bet we did. I just cleaned out your fiancé’s wedding fund at the poker table.”

Lena ground to a halt and glanced uneasily from Gavin to Travis. I stopped as well, head cocked. Some undercurrent of … something ran between Travis and Gavin. I caught Travis glaring at his friend before he smoothed his face into an inscrutable mask. Huh.

Gavin, never one to miss something, noticed his friend’s irritation and chuckled. “Just joking, princess. You know I’d never do such a thing. Not that Trav actually has a wedding fund, mind you. I imagine he just spent everything he owned buying that rock for you.”

Lena’s fingers tightened on my arm as she stuffed her left hand in her pocket. My eyes narrowed. I hadn’t seen Gavin in a while, but I didn’t recall this … coldness.