A single tear fell from her eye, so I reached forward and wiped it away, letting my hand linger against her face. She inhaled a deep breath. I didn’t want to stop touching her. I wanted to pull her close and kiss her until we no longer knew where I ended and she began. She reached up and put her hand on mine, lacing our fingers together before letting our hands fall.
“Jayce Sterling.” Her voice was quiet and shaky. She cleared her throat. I hoped my smile encouraged her to keep going. “It’s always been you. Since the day you slid that ring made of clovers onto my finger when we were kids and maybe even before that. You surprise me. You empower me. You challenge me. In ways no one else ever has. I fell in love with you as a girl and as a woman I fall in love with you still. Every day. Again and again. I promise to support you, to encourage you, and to never keep anything from you. And maybe… if you’re lucky… one day I’ll even let you win an argument.” The room filled with laughter. I still couldn’t take my eyes off her. “No matter what obstacles we’ve faced or how much time has passed, I know that our love will never fade. It’s forever. We are forever. And I will love you always. With every beat of my heart.”
Her eyes never left mine. She was beautiful and perfect in every way. I still couldn’t believe I got to marry my best friend, the woman I’d loved my whole life.
The pastor prompted us for the rings. Then the moment I’d been waiting for since I saw her walk down the aisle—“You may now kiss the bride.”
And I did. I kissed my wife like no one was watching. Until there was no longer a her and a me. Until there was only us. The way it was always meant to be.
The End-ish…
I am so happy you’ve enjoyed Claire and Jayce’s journey! I have really enjoyed getting to know them too. I hope you’ll stick around for an exclusive sneak peek at book two, Kane, featuring the one and only Bennett Kane.
Thank you so much for all your support. My dreams couldn’t come true without you!
Korie
If reading books had an archnemesis, it would be writing reviews for those same books. I had a fanatical love/hate thing going with book reviews. I loved writing them for my blog because the sixty-thousand people that followed me and opened their browser every Thursday morning looked forward to them. And I hated them for that very same reason. People read (or didn’t read) books because Rie’s Reads told them to. Which was a lot of pressure on a girl. That’s also why I vowed to always be honest. Even the worst books had something redeemable about them, and I always made sure to end my reviews on a high note.
I didn’t get paid for blogging. Reading was just something I’d always loved to do. Why not share that love and enthusiasm for books with the rest of the world?
As much as I wished reading could be my full-time job, that sadly was not the case. In the real world, I ran my parents’ coffee shop. And it was ten minutes till go-time. I could set my watch by the usual rush of the “my blood type is coffee” crowd. Six-o-two. Every single morning. Except weekends. On weekends they waited till after seven.
Common Ground was the only coffee shop/café in Hickory Falls, Georgia. My parents opened this place when I was a little girl. As far back as I could remember, everyone from age five to eighty-five came here to have a seat at the round wooden tables and eat freshly baked brownies and drink freshly brewed coffee. It was located on the corner of the two main streets in town, which meant that there was a perfect view of the city square through the black and white buffalo check curtains. There was no Starbucks or Cheesecake Factory in Hickory Falls. Kind of hard to fit all that in a town with only two stoplights. It was just our little café and Mabel’s Table (aka the best homemade burgers east of the Mississippi). We weren’t big, but we were cozy.
I soaked in the last moments of silence that I’d have for the next few hours and inhaled the scent of pastries and coffee. The morning sun began to spill in through the windows. I’d helped my mother sew those curtains almost ten years ago. I couldn’t believe they’d held up all this time.
My only co-worker, Alyssa, filled a glass canister of sugar on the last of the round, wooden tables. I sat in the corner with my laptop in front of me and favorite coffee mug full of French vanilla coffee. This was when I shared my thoughts with the world—early in the morning before our small town came to life. Soon, all the tables would be full, and the faint overhead music would be drowned out by morning conversation and laughter. I finished my latest book review and first cup of coffee.
Rie’s review: The Girl Next Door
I really wanted to like this book. I mean, in “the way your friends talk up the blind date they’ve set you up on” wanted to like. But sadly, this one had me wishing someone would call with a fake emergency and put me out of my misery. They didn’t. And I ended up fighting my way through the pages with a machete in one hand and a box of Dove chocolates in the other. Survival skills 101, y’all. Here’s where I tell you why: the main character was absolutely intolerable. There was never a moment where I didn’t want to punch her in the face. Seriously, she popped pills to sleep then she popped more to stay awake. Then, you guessed it, more pills because she couldn’t handle the reality of being awake. At one point I wanted to perform an intervention. How could her family possibly think that’s okay? Which brings me to my next point: the secondary characters were flat. Bring out the butter and maple syrup flat. The plot held my attention, though, so there’s that…
I mean, this was the granddaddy of suspenseful plots. The only way it could’ve been any better is if someone would’ve murdered the pill-popping protagonist.
One of the book’s seriously redeemable qualities is the writing. Imagine your blind date having the sense of humor of a bag of rocks, but man did he have a gorgeous smile. Or set of abs. Or whatever you’re into. That was this book for me. I really enjoyed the author’s voice.
So, my advice to the author would be: Keep trying, Bennett Kane. You’ve got potential. I like your style. It might even earn you a second date.
Sterling Page 15