Unlucky in Love ( Lucky #1) (18 page)

EPILOGUE

A few months later, Kristen stood at the large windows and watched the first snow slowly fall over the city. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself, happy to be warm in her yoga pants and a thick sweater.

When Aiden’s arms came around her, she sighed and rested her head back against his chest.

“Happy?” His rich voice sounded next to her ear.

She nodded lightly. “More than I ever dreamed I’d be.”

He pulled her closer. “Tomorrow’s the first day in the new building.”

She turned toward him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “Nervous?” she asked. He looked comfortable in an old pair of jeans and a worn sweatshirt.

He shook his head slightly. “Excited is more like it.”

She took his face into her hands. “That makes two of us.”

He smiled and brushed a finger down her cheek. “You aren’t nervous about impressing your new boss?”

She laughed. “Not in the least.” Reaching up, she placed her lips on his and felt her entire body relax.

“I know he’s going to love me, more than I’d ever dreamed possible.”

SNEAK PEEK AT
Sweet Resolve
, THE NEXT BOOK IN THE LUCKY SERIES

Coming Summer 2016

Amelia rushed through her front door, almost knocking over her little brother, Joel. Instead, she ended up falling backward and landing on her butt, hard. The pain shot up her back, causing the tears that had been in her eyes to flood down her cheeks. After quickly yelling at him to get out of her way, she bolted up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door shut behind her.

She threw her bag across the room and leaned against her door, wincing when she bumped her bruised backside on the door handle. She knew it wasn’t her little brother’s fault that she’d fallen down. She hadn’t seen him because her eyes had been too full of unshed tears. Just the thought of the boy who had caused her the ultimate embarrassment had her vibrating with anger.

Closing her eyes, she flipped around and rested her forehead against her bedroom door as more tears washed down her cheeks. She’d never been so humiliated before. It had been his mission to embarrass her ever since he’d moved in down the street during her kindergarten year.

It wasn’t as if her life would have been all peaches and cream even if she weren’t being bullied by a boy half her size. She sighed and opened her eyes to look around her room. There were still boxes shoved in the corner and piled high in her closet.

She had been awakened in the middle of the night a few days ago by the sounds of her mother packing up all her things. “Mom, what are you doing?” Amelia had asked groggily.

“Oh, Amy,” her mother croaked out her nickname. Her mom had rushed over to her, crying as she tried to explain. But she hadn’t made any sense sitting next to Amy babbling as tears rolled down her face. But then Amy had heard one word she did understand.
Divorce
. Even though she was only eleven, she’d felt much older after her mother told her that she and her father were getting a divorce.

When what was happening finally registered in her sleepy mind, she’d instantly thought of Kristen, her best friend in the whole world. They’d known each other since kindergarten. She couldn’t possibly move away from Kristen. Amy had begged and pleaded with her mother that night while the distraught woman had rushed around tossing clothes and items into boxes.

Finally, her father had walked in and taken her mother’s arm, and together they had left the room. Her father had glanced back at Amy as she cried on the edge of her bed.

“It’s okay, sweetie. Go back to sleep. We’ll talk about all this in the morning.”
Her father’s voice had soothed her then.

Less than a month later, her father had moved into a small apartment in downtown Golden, Colorado. Even though her parents still weren’t officially divorced, she found it difficult to get over the fear that, at some point, her mother would sweep in and finish packing up her things and they would move far away. Because of this, she’d kept everything in boxes, unsure of what would happen next.

Amy walked over and flung herself on her bed. But, as bad as her family life was, it still didn’t scratch the surface of what had been done to her on the bus ride home. Her back teeth clenched at the mere thought of him.

He teased her about everything. For the past couple of years it had been her height. Amy was tall for her age—she was taller than most of her girlfriends, which meant that she towered a foot above all the boys in her class also.

She rolled over and hugged her pillow to her belly. Her silent tears slid across the bridge of her nose and fell to her pillowcase.

Kristen would have normally been there to defend her against the bully, but her friend’s parents had picked her up early that day for a dentist appointment. Amy wished she’d been the one to go to the dentist instead. She hated this boy more than going to Dr. Stein’s office.

By tomorrow morning, everyone in her entire school would know what he’d done to her. Then there would be no stopping the flood of humiliation that was sure to follow her all week long. All of a sudden, moving away didn’t seem so bad.

She glanced down at the boxes, then over at the picture of her and Kristen on her nightstand. Shaking her head, she decided that nothing could ever be bad enough for her to move away and give up her best friend. Especially anything Logan Miller could ever do to her.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo © 2015 Daryl Sanders

Jill Sanders is
The New York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author of the Pride, Secret, West, and Grayton Series romance novels. She continues to lure new readers with her sweet and sexy stories. Her books are available in every English-speaking country as audiobooks and are now being translated into six different languages.

Born as an identical twin to a large family, she was raised in the Pacific Northwest and later relocated to Colorado for college and a successful IT career before discovering her talent as a writer. She now makes her home along the Emerald Coast in Florida where she enjoys the beach, hiking, swimming, wine-tasting, and of course writing.

Connect with Jill on Facebook:
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Twitter:
@JillMSanders
or visit her Web site at
www.JillSanders.com