“I might have shaken it up a bit. A toast to the happy couple.” He lifts his glass. “May the roof over your heads be solid, the foundation underneath stable, and the love inside eternal.”
“Well, shit. He kept it clean,” Mike quips, and they laugh.
“Cheers to you guys,” Blaze says.
“Here, here,” Amber says, beaming, and kisses her fiancé.
Mike had proposed to her in the hospital cafeteria the day Olivia and Josh drove to Oceanside looking for Lily. Amber called to invite Olivia and Blaze to dinner to share their good news but held off when she realized Olivia was in a panic to find her nephew after he left the car.
Olivia and Blaze eventually did join Amber and Mike for dinner. And just as Amber promised Olivia would one day pay her back for all those favors Olivia asked of her, Amber insisted on Olivia standing in as her maid of honor.
“I couldn’t be happier for you.” Olivia hugs her friend.
Hours later, after the champagne has been consumed, and the engaged couple has gone home for the night, Blaze kicks back on the porch with a glass of Knob Creek over ice and listens to the rain.
Olivia joins him, setting two shot glasses and the bottle of Fireball on the table between them.
Blaze sits upright. “I was wondering what happened to that. Thought you drank it with Miller,” he teases.
Olivia thinks of the last text she received from Ethan, several days after she sent him Dwight’s photos. Ethan didn’t see whoever was in his truck with Lily. But the pictures had to have been taken one of the times Ethan picked her up. They were parked in front of the 7-Eleven where Lily had worked. If he were to make a guess, he’d say it was Tyler Whitman. He’d never seen Lily and Tyler together, but he did run into Tyler once in the parking lot.
If only Ethan knew how right he was.
Olivia scrunches her nose at the liquor. “I really hate this stuff.”
“Then why’d you bring it out?”
She shrugs, unscrewing the top.
“I know why.” His eyes flash with heat. He stands up, grinning, and grabs her hand.
“All right, all right.” She laughs, yanking her hand away when he tries to draw her inside the house. They aren’t going to go do the horny-teen thing. Not yet, anyway.
Pouring two shots, she says, “I want to make a point that I’m serious about us.”
“Oh, I got that message loud and clear when you went in on the cabin with me.” They finally found a place on the lake. The house closes in a few weeks and she can’t wait for spring when Blaze starts the remodel. The place will be beautiful when he finishes.
She gives him his shot. “You said, and I quote, ‘That’s ours when you’re ready. We’ll get stupid drunk and—’” She grins wickedly, taps her glass to his, and tosses back the liquor. Blaze sucks air through his teeth and she cringes. “That’s nasty.”
“But you love me.”
“I do, very much.” Lips moist from the Fireball, she gives him a Hot Tamale–flavored kiss.
Blaze settles back onto the chair and kicks up his heels, resting his boots on the porch rail. Olivia sits beside him, drawing her legs underneath her. The air is winter crisp, but not intolerable. They watch the rain until it tapers off and the clouds part, revealing a star-speckled night sky. At some point, Blaze reaches for her hand.
“My heart is full,” he says quietly.
Olivia thinks of her brother and how much she misses him. She thinks of her mom’s deception and her dad’s betrayal, and her heart grows heavy. But then she remembers Lily and Josh and how they’re both in her life, and she couldn’t be happier about that. She’s battled her pain and fury over betrayal and came out a winner because she’s learned to put faith in those who deserve it. And she knows now how to handle herself if she does get hurt. Because loving someone, whether a sister, a friend, or the man beside her, is worth the risk.
Looking over at Blaze, her heart has never felt fuller. She adores him. She kisses the back of his hand.
“Mine too,” she whispers.
COMING SPRING 2022
No More Lies
Book 2 in the No More Series
AN EXCERPT FROM NO MORE LIES
Editor’s note: This is an early excerpt and may not reflect the finished book.
Jenna Mason crosses the Washington Middle School parking lot with her head down. If she looked up, she’d notice the small group of moms huddled around Beth Hopkins’s sports activity vehicle. She might pick up snippets of their conversation or notice that they stop talking when she walks by. She would see them staring, and she wouldn’t miss Leigh Duffy whispering in Beth’s ear or Beth’s shock. She would realize that she isn’t as invisible as she believes. Not anymore. But Jenna is pressed for time. She needs to find her son Josh before the bell rings. He left his homework binder behind, again.
She knows she’s enabling him. A responsible parent would let her son suffer the consequences of not turning his homework in on time. Some tough love would teach him to pack his book bag before bed and have it ready by the door come morning. Another parent would drop the binder off at the front office, but that would bring attention to both her and Josh. Marks on his grades would earn her an email from the teacher, something else she’s determined to avoid. The less interaction with anyone through any means, the less people will remember them when they disappear.
Jenna has spent her entire adult life flying under the radar as much as humanly possible without fully disappearing off the face of the earth. An impossibility now that her twelve-year-old convinced her to stay put. Somewhat. He wants a normal life. He wants to surf and skateboard, hang out at the park or on the beach. He wants friends, real friends he doesn’t have to abandon and never see again because Jenna forces them to move frequently and without notice. How many times has she picked Josh up from school, their trunk stuffed with suitcases and cardboard boxes, and left town? Too many to count.
Jenna cuts through the schoolyard. Kids congregate in their cliques like dolphin pods. They fiddle with their phones, Snapping and TikTok’ing or whatever it is kids do with their devices. Josh has tried to explain, but since she won’t allow him a smartphone (too easy to track), she hasn’t gone out of her way to learn more about social media. Though Josh has given her an earful about how embarrassing it is to be seen with a flip phone. He prefers not to use it than get mocked for having one, which is why he didn’t answer when she called him about the binder a few minutes after he left the house to walk to school.
She beelines to the lunch tables under the green and gold canopy, the school’s colors, where she knows Josh sits with his friend Anson before class starts. Anson sees her before Josh. He waves.
“Hello, Ms. Mason.”
Josh swivels on the bench. “Mom!” His eyes bug then dart around to see who’s watching. He hunches, trying to look smaller, invisible like her, but for a different reason. She doesn’t want to make a lasting impression. Josh just embarrasses easily. She knows it’s his age, but she can’t help blaming herself. He’d be confident like his father was at twelve if he weren’t afraid that she’d yank him from the life they’ve created for themselves over the last eighteen months.