by C. Lesbirel
“No.” She shakes her head.
“No?” My heart stops beating for a second.
“No, I mean yes. Yes, I’ll marry you,” she cries, and I gulp, lifting the helicopter higher.
“Thank God for that, or this would have been awkward.”
Before she can question what I mean, fireworks erupt below us, lighting up the sky in a rainbow of colors, and Heaven breaks down in tears next to me.
“This is too much,” she sobs into the mic.
“I love you,” is my only reply, and the full smile on her face makes me want to say those three little words every minute of every day for the rest of our lives.
THE END
TAKE ME ANYWHERE
COCKPIT SERIES, BOOK 2
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C. LESBIREL
BRITNEY BELL
Prologue
Ali
“It’s not just about the money. Don’t you see? I trusted you.”
My husband puts up the same old fight he always has, but this time I’m not backing down. I have to find a way to make him sign those papers. I never wanted something so badly in all my life. This isn’t about something ending, it’s about new beginnings.
I’ve dreamt of being free of him for so long.
It’s not that James is a bad person, he’s full of all the best intentions. But, you see, James -the James I married- hadn’t been around since about eighteen months ago.
The signs were all there before the wedding. Even as far back as our college days… I’d simply chosen to ignore them.
That was me, burying my head in the sand because of some silly, childish ideal that I had about love.
About relationships.
But, I was eighteen years old.
What did I know about relationships?
Nothing, apparently, because here I am, holding out a pen and practically pleading with my husband to sign on that all important dotted line.
Of course, he was holding out.
Not because divorcing me would be of any hardship on him, but because signing the papers would be like an admission of where his gambling addiction had gotten us.
An acknowledgement of how bad things had escalated to, and how quickly he had spiraled out of control.
We’d tried…correction, I’d tried everything to help.
And I mean everything.
CBT sessions, counseling, hypnotherapy. But, for those things to have a chance of success, the addict has to want it. Half the time it had been me who sat in the sessions by myself.
Me.
The one who’d set up our business in the first place and turned it into the success story it was. Things could have been so different between us.
Looking back, we were never destined to be the fairytale I was so desperate for.
Classic foster home kid pipe dreams, I guess. I spent my entire childhood dreaming of the day when my knight in shining armor would jump into my pathetic story and rescue me.
James wasn’t exactly the hero type, but he was fun, and he paid me the attention I craved back then.
Until we got married, then the fun became more of a living nightmare, and it was pretty clear that I was James’ good time girl, and the only long term commitment he would ever make was to his front row seat in our local betting shop.
Of course, we didn’t sign prenups -again, foster-home-kid-itis. I never thought I’d be in this position, but looking back, I think I needed this.
The whole thing. All of the success of Sweet Wok, my beloved restaurant chain that I’d been forced to sell, and all of the lows. The wishing, and waiting, for a love that was never going to come because James didn’t want to recover or stop. He was too far gone to notice everyone we had lost, and I had let things go too far for too long.
“You owe me this, James,” I remind him. It was true, and we both knew it.
With a sad smile, he lifts the pen and scrawls his initials.
The wave of relief that hits me almost knocks me off my feet, and I lean against the table to steady myself.
“Take care, James.”
“Go and fuck yourself, you bitch.”
It was a fitting ending for us. Me wishing him well, and him being a stubborn jerk about the whole thing, he was true to form, if nothing else.
He could have told me anything before he walked out of the room, and I wouldn’t care. I just stood holding the little piece of paper against my chest with a warm glow that I could already feel turning to hot fire inside my belly.
The flame was ignited.
New beginning awaits, and I’m finally free.
Find out what happens when a serendipitous meeting brings two healing hearts together at a time when they both need someone more than they care to admit.
~ Take Me Anywhere, Cockpit Series, Book 2
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THANK YOU & PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW
Thank you so much for reading Take Me Away, Cockpit Series, Book 1!
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WHAT’S NEXT?
Continue seeing the Parker siblings and come along for the ride to enjoy the journey all across the world throughout the rest of the Cockpit Series.
Cockpit Christmas, Prequel
Take Me Away, Book 1
Take Me Anywhere, Book 2
Take Me Completely, Book 3
Take Me Now, Book 4
Take Me Forever, Book 5
Take Me Home, Book 6
CONNECT WITH C. LESBIREL & BRITNEY BELL
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Visit the Cockpit Series Website for more details.
Acknowledgments
Allison at Allison Literary Services, you are the best content editor we could wish for, and we are so blessed to call you our friend. You always inspire us to work harder and write better, and we love you.
Shaun Walsh at Written Word PA Services, you are a true female boss and work so tirelessly to spread the word about our books, thank you. You are the best PA we could wish for. We love you!
Love2ReadRomance, you have been a Godsend, and your Indie Tool Box makes the difficult seem easy, which we are so grateful for.
Matador Designs, your creativity and attention to detail is amazing, and we are so happy with our gorgeous cover. Thank you so much!
6th Street Book Club, thank you for your attention to detail on proofreading. You rock!
To our families for supporting our passion as much as you do, you make everything possible, and we love you endlessly.
Our book sisters and street team, Karen, Angela and Tara, you are the best friends us girls could wish for. We love all three of you so much! Thanks for being you and supporting us so fiercely.
To Clare’s HEA Chasers and Britney’s Dreamers, thank you for taking a chance on our stories. We love and appreciate every single one of you and are so happy you’re on this journey with us... Thank you! We wish we could hug you all in person and hope to meet as many of you as we can one day soon.
To our author friends, you have no idea how much you inspire us to keep reaching for our dreams. We have nothing but love and respect for you. Thank you for kicking ass and for writing gorgeous stories that we can escape into when we need to.
Autumn Archer, we are blessed to call you our friend and can’t wait until the day we get to squeeze you in real life. Thank you for being an all-round unicorn.
LJ Evans and Britney Chavez, it’s not often we make friends later in life that make us think differently about the world. Thank you for being that friend and sunshine in our day.
Tasha, our love for you is bigger than the world, thank you for believing in us.
Blogger babes! You are literally a bunch of rockstars! We can’t thank you enough for reading our stories and supporting us the way you do. You give up so much of your time and work so hard all because of your passion for books, and we love you for it. Those early reviews a
nd visibility truly mean the world.
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Most importantly THANK YOU! Whether you have read all of our work before or are taking a chance on a new author, we are so happy you chose to meet the Parkers and hope you stick around for the ride. We are so excited to share the Cockpit Series with you! We know how many books are out there, and we can’t thank you enough for choosing ours. xoxo
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Before you go: You probably see it a lot, but that’s because it’s important. Indie authors like us need reviews to be able to keep on going. Amazon recognizes the authors with the most reviews and gives them more visibility... We would love for that to be us! Please consider leaving a review, it only needs to be a sentence of two to make a huge difference. xoxo