Changing Hearts
Terri E. Laine
Contents
Foreword
Please Note
Prologue
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
FORTY
FORTY-ONE
FORTY-TWO
FORTY-THREE
FORTY-FOUR
FORTY-FIVE
FORTY-SIX
FORTY-SEVEN
FORTY-EIGHT
FORTY-NINE
FIFTY
FIFTY-ONE
FIFTY-TWO
FIFTY-THREE
Epilogue
A Thank You
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Terri E. Laine
First Edition
Copyright © 2017 Terri E. Laine
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in form or any manner whatsoever by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or a book review. Scanning, uploading and distribution of the book via the Internet or via any other means without permission is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support for the author’s rights is appreciated. For information address to SDTEL Books.
All rights reserved.
Dedication
To the fans of the Chasing Butterflies series - I love you!
Please Note
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Prologue
If there was a moment, a day or time that defined my life, it would be this one. I couldn’t have been more than five or six years of age, unjaded by circumstance, when I found love for the first time.
The ring sparkled in my hands as I tried to ignore Mom and Dad fighting.
“I think it’s cute,” Mom said.
“You think anything he does is cute.” Dad stomped around the kitchen, searching for his coffee cup.
“It’s romantic if you ask me—something you’re not. At least we know where he gets it from.”
“I’d be more romantic if my wife wasn’t such a—”
“Dad,” my brother shouted.
“What?” he answered.
“Such a what?” Mom said at the same time. “Maybe I wouldn’t be so bitchy if you were home more often.”
“Some of us have to work.” Dad’s face was bright red with anger. “We weren’t all born with a silver spoon.”
“Will you play ball with me?” My brother tried to get a word in.
“Can’t. Go outside with your brother.”
Mom rounded the counter to confront our father. “It’s not like you have to work hard when you work for my father.”
“Don’t remind me, Helena. I get enough of that from my dear old father-in-law. He makes sure to punish me. To remind me daily how I have to prove myself worthy of you.”
“You asshole—” Mom yelled.
“Go outside,” Dad shouted at us.
We hustled toward the garage door. As soon as the door shut, I dropped the ring. My brother picked it up.
“What are you going to do with this thing?”
I took it from him. “I’m going to ask Julie to marry me.”
My brother stared at me. “Married? To a girl?”
I nodded.
“That’s gross. Will you kiss her?”
I shrugged. “Probably not yet.”
He seemed satisfied with my answer and bounced the ball to the hoop outside. I followed and waited for Julie to come home. In the meantime, I pocketed the ring and shot balls with my brother.
Sometime later, a car pulled into the driveway next door. Julie got out wearing a pink dress and a bow in her hair.
“What are you doing?” she asked across the short distance of our driveways.
I passed the ball to my brother and walked over, pulling the ring free from my shorts’ pocket.
When I reached her, I held it out. She took it from my hands and stared at it.
“What’s this for?”
I hadn’t exactly answered her first question, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“I want to marry you.”
She didn’t blink at my question. “Now?”
I shrugged. “Someday.”
The skies opened up, as Mom called it, and rain began to fall.
“Julie, come inside,” her mom called from the door.
She glanced over her shoulder before turning and running inside. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. She hadn’t answered me.
My brother either missed a shot or he was trying to get my attention. The ball came to a stop at my feet on the grass.
I picked it up and when I got close, I threw it at the backboard, where it bounced off and rolled down the sloping driveway. The rain was no longer a mist and was getting heavier.
“I’ll get it,” I said to my brother as the ball crossed the street and came to rest on the other curb.
I stomped down the drive and wiped water from my brow. I crossed the street and grabbed the ball. That was when I saw it—a body that wasn’t moving.
“Sawyer,” my brother called, just as thunder rang out.
I turned and tossed him the ball. When he caught it, he stared at me for a second. He hadn’t seen what I had. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
He nodded and ran toward our house for cover.
Cautiously, I walked where the shadows between the two houses were thick. A boy my age, bone white, lay face up, unmoving. I knew him. We were in the same class, though we weren’t friends. The other kids called him a freak because he barely spoke and only stared at people like we were the crazy ones.
“Hey,” I said. “Are you okay?”
The rain pelted down and I was soaked through. He didn’t move, though his eyes were open and staring at the sky.
I stood over him a second before crouching down and poking him with a finger. His skin was ice cold. His head snapped in my direction. I scrambled back from his zombie eyes.
“Ashton,” a voice, probably his mother, called, though I couldn’t see her.
When I glanced back, his eyes were locked on me before his body started to con
vulse.
I opened my mouth to call out, but the sounds of squealing tires stopped time as the boy named Ashton stilled, and somewhere inside my head I yelled as if that could change anything.
ONE
Sawyer - present
Parties at the frat house were always interesting. Tonight shouldn’t be an exception. Despite the fact that bodies were wall-to-wall, she walked into my line of sight too many times before I was sufficiently drunk. She prowled through the party like the thief she was. She’d stolen my attention in that too tight, too short blue dress, and I couldn’t get it back. Her pretty face crowned with golden hair turned a number of heads I wanted to bash in. Whenever she disappeared around a corner, in a crowd, I couldn’t settle until I had eyes on her again.
Damn me. One more year and I could stop worrying about her—obsessing, as Ash would say. But then again, all I did was take care of other people. Besides, wasn’t that it? She had her eyes set on him and that wouldn’t do.
I watched her head for the stairs and enough was enough. We would settle this once and for all. And God save any guy if she went into one of the rooms upstairs with anyone but me. I could almost see up her dress as she ascended, which pissed me off. Was she trying to make me jealous?
Ahead, she knocked on the bathroom door and waited a beat before going for the knob. I caught up in time to slip inside with her, closing the door behind us.
“What?” she cried, noticing me for the first time that night.
Her eyes went from surprised to shocked to pissed off in a matter of seconds. But damn me she was beautiful, especially when she was angry. It was probably why I went out of my way to get her there every time I saw her.
“Get out, Sawyer.”
Angrily, she pushed back her blond hair. Blue eyes so pale they were almost colorless turned to ice as she glared at me. I hated that look aimed solely at me. So I pushed back with truths of my own.
“Why? You’ve been baiting me all night. Now you have my complete attention.”
A flash of anger crossed her pretty face and I accomplished what I wanted. Folding her arms, she crossed them over her chest as her eyes narrowed to impossible slits. In response, I took a second to rake my eyes over her. She was thinner than the first time we’d met, and she’d been skinny then. It was as if she were disappearing right before my eyes. But that was something to discuss later.
“You’re delusional. Do you want me to get Brie to help you with your diagnosis?”
Brie was Chance’s—my friend and roommate’s—girlfriend and a psych major.
Stepping forward, I crowded her until she was backed against the door. Before things could get started, I had to set the record straight.
“If anyone’s delusional, it’s you. Dating my friends to get to me isn’t cool.”
Her mouth parted and I wanted to fill it. The idea of her on her knees sucking me off had me harder than granite.
“Close your mouth, Shelly. That’s how you catch flies.”
I didn’t notice her finger and its sharp nail until it stabbed into my chest.
“You are an asshole. I swear you think you’re God’s gift to women.”
The smirk came naturally because it was true. Hell, I’d been told all my life by women that I was a handsome devil—mostly my mom’s friends who came by the house. They weren’t shy, especially as I got older.
“Aren’t I?” I took her finger, brought it to my lips, and kissed it.
She pulled free with a scowl. “You’re a cocky bastard and you need to get over yourself.”
“Actually, my parents were married when I was born. That makes me legitimate. But I’ll give you an A for effort.”
Shaking her head, she said, “You’re a rich, self-indulgent, thinks-he-can-have-anything-he-wants douchebag.”
“Wow.” I clenched my jaw, biting back curses. “Douchebag? That’s a little harsh, don’t you think? Besides, you don’t know anything about me. You think you do. But you can’t imagine what my life is like.”
For a second old wounds and memories tried to surface, but I couldn’t afford to relive the past when my future stood before me. I tamped them down in time.
“Maybe I don’t. One thing is for sure: I hate you.”
That sparked a chuckle. “If that’s true, and we both know it’s not, you need to stop trying to date my friends to make me jealous.”
Jaw unhinged, she said, “You—”
Cutting her off, I held up one finger to count off my evidence. “First there was Kelley.” Her mouth clamped shut. “Tell me, did you fuck him?”
Kelley had moved in my place, becoming my fourth roommate and one of my best friends, junior year. The idea that she’d done something, anything, with or to him made me want to punch a hole through the wall.
Lightning fast, her hand came up to strike. Lucky for me, my reflexes were good from football and I caught it.
“You jerk,” she yelled, getting on her toes as if she had a prayer in meeting me eye to eye given how short she was compared to me.
“So are you going to deny you were with him?” I asked calmly, even though it burned in my gut to think she had.
“What do you think I am? Sluts like the ones you use? Besides, unlike you, Kelley is nice.”
I wanted to laugh. Kelley wasn’t that guy except when it came to his girlfriend, Lenora.
“Don’t lie to yourself, sweetheart. He wasn’t back then.”
“He was. He was a complete gentleman.”
I let out a bark of laughter. “Like when he told you to take a hike.”
“Let go of me,” she said, yanking at her arm.
“I will if you promise not to hit me.”
If her eyes were cannons, she would have gunned me down. I could almost hear the noise it would make as I’d become cannon fodder to her. But I let her go. She jerked her hand away, but I didn’t give her space.
“Let me out of this room, Sawyer.”
She was beyond mad. Time to get to the point.
“I will when you promise to stop playing games with Ash.”
She’d started granting him her smiles and conversation, while I only got her disdain. Some lines you didn’t cross, and Ash was one of them.
“Games.” It was her turn to laugh, but there wasn’t humor in it. “You’re one to talk. If anyone is playing games, it’s you. Everyone can see that Ashton is in love with you. The question remains: Are you in love with him?”
Gorgeous in a way that words couldn’t explain, she waited for my answer. So I’d give her one. Making my move, I covered her mouth with mine. The kiss was like liquid fire, like her. Brazen and bold, beautiful and sexy. I wanted her bad and tonight I dared to have her.
Her hips were bones, light under my hand. Worry crept in. There was something that wasn’t right. She hadn’t always been like this. Thin yes, skinny no. My protectiveness kicked in as a million questions popped in my head. But when her nails raked across my scalp and she leaned into me, into the kiss, I forgot the alphabet, language, speech.
It could have gone on forever if not for the heavy rap against the door.
“Fuck, Sawyer, let me in.”
A part of me wanted to ignore him. The other part couldn’t. Wasn’t he the reason I’d followed her into the bathroom?
Moving back, I tugged her with me, so the door could open wide enough to give him entrance. His ever-noticing eyes took in the two of us wrapped together, with her arms still looped around my neck.
“Shelly,” Ash said.
She turned around fully to face him. In the mirror, I could see guilt written across her face. Anger lanced through me. Everything in that moment felt all too familiar. Hadn’t this very thing happened before?
I leaned in and whispered a dare in her ear. “Go to him, if he’s what you want.”
She shivered in my hold.
“Sawyer, what the fuck?” Ash asked.
“Decision time,” I said to the both of them. To her, I added, “Do you want him or m
e to leave? Or maybe you want both of us, right here, right now.”
Ash moved, sandwiching Shelly between us, not realizing he’d done it. So in tuned to each other, he reacted to what he thought I wanted. Yet he hadn’t touched her.
“You don’t have to answer that. You don’t have to play his games.” He spoke as if in confidence only to her.
I, on the other hand, was ready for this farce to be over. “It’s not a game. She thinks you’re in love with me. Care to answer her, Ash?”
Slowly, he let his eyes meet mine. There was so much in his stare—too much to comprehend in only one night. He swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing, but said nothing. Instead, he stepped to the side, giving her room to flee.
She took one step as if to go, but I called out, “You can drop the act. You can stop pretending this would be the first time we’ve been together.”
That did it. She spun around, and her eyes blazed with hellfire. “You remember?”
The night in question, the one she hadn’t acknowledged, started to play in my head.
“Of course I do. There is little of you I could ever forget.”
Her head moved so fast to give startled eyes to Ash. Hair like golden, silken threads spun around with her movement.
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