“Just go. I can’t stand the sight of you right now.”
He exhaled hard, then turned to leave, stopping in the doorway.
“This isn’t over, Isadora.”
“At least we can agree on that.”
He disappeared into the hallway, and I collapsed onto the edge of Braxton’s bed, sobbing uncontrollably. Three years of my life had been tainted because my father had threatened Braxton, forcing him to stay away from me. My own flesh and blood had been the cause of my misery, not my boyfriend. Flashes of all those times my father consoled me when he found me crying about Braxton, and all along, it had been because of him.
What a cruel irony that was.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Braxton said softly, placing his hand on my back. “I thought maybe if I could admit all that I could—and I was telling you the truth, Izzy—that you and I could fix things. And then, maybe, after all this time, your father would see that I wasn’t what he feared I’d become and let it go.”
“And then everything went to shit,” I said with a sniffle.
“Yeah. It really did,” he sighed. He pulled on my arm, turning me to face him, then took my face in his hands. “When I heard you outside the house, I prayed you’d just get in your car and drive away—”
“But you knew I wouldn’t, didn’t you?”
He nodded.
“You were worried that I’d done the same thing to you again.”
I breathed out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “For a second, yes, but then I thought more about it and how weird you’d been acting, and I just knew something was wrong.”
“I have never been more scared in my life than I was when he had you—threatening you. But you were so brave.”
“You told me that, right before I passed out next to you.”
“And I meant it.”
I smiled down at him, brushing his hair out of his face.
“So…what now?”
“Well, I think I’m going to be laid up here for a while. I have extensive physical therapy to look forward to with a delightfully unpleasant woman named Madge, who I just met. That should be a blast.”
“And my dad will be coming back…”
“Yep. That should go smoothly,” he joked.
I laughed, but it quickly disappeared.
“What are we doing to do, Brax? Seriously? I mean…how is this all going to end?”
“I’m really hoping with me not swimming with concrete feet.”
“Don’t even joke about that!” I shouted. The shooting pain in my head made me instantly regret that.
“I think that for now, we both need to get better, then we can sort it out. You’re an adult now, Iz. You can choose to do what you want.”
“Yeah, but Daddy won’t be paying the bill for it anymore.”
“You can get loans for school somehow. Finish college. Get a job.”
“And you?”
“I can work construction anywhere. We’ll sort it out.” He looked at me with a hopeful expression. “Maybe your dad will get over his issues with me.”
I scoffed.
“Not likely, Brax. You know him better than that.”
“Let’s see what tomorrow brings, okay? I know you can be persuasive if you want to.”
“I don’t want to see his face right now let alone talk to him.”
“We’ve been through a lot, Izzy,” he said, pulling me down to lie next to him. “How about we just lie here for right now, and you can tell me all about what it’s like to be a total badass.” I felt the rumble in his chest as he tried to withhold his laughter. I rolled over and shot him a glare, which seemed to only entertain him further. “You are. You should own that. But, if you’d rather, you could talk about how hot I’m going to be with my new scar.”
“Tell me again why I agreed to forgive you…”
He slid his hand along my face to bury it in my hair, pulling me close to him.
“Because I love you more than anything in this world, Izzy.”
He kissed me until I knew that somehow, some way, everything was going to work out. That we would find a way to be together no matter what life threw at us. For as long as I could remember, it was always me and Braxton against the world.
And it looked like it always would be.
It took him weeks to recover from his injury, but, much to his therapists’ surprise, he walked out of the hospital without so much as a limp. He was a fighter—always had been. And I was too, now. Together, we were a pretty unstoppable pair.
Though my father had tried to stop me, I moved out of his house that summer, taking an empty room at Tad’s rental. It was smelly and disgusting, but it was better than living with the man who had threatened to kill the man I loved. I wondered if he and I would ever be able to mend what had been broken. He was as stubborn as I was, which didn’t bode well for that outcome. But still, he was my flesh and blood. I couldn’t just walk away from him. I had to try, even if I knew I was destined to fail.
My mother returned two weeks later, unhappy to have been pulled away from her European vacation. She seemed genuinely surprised at what her husband had done but made no offer to help mediate the matter. Whether it was indifference or a healthy dose of realism, I couldn’t be sure, but either way, she wouldn’t be an ally. That much was clear.
Cut off from my family and the funds I was used to having, I struggled to pay my way that summer. Worse than that, I wondered how I would be able to return to school in the fall. Thankfully, my mother convinced my father to continue paying for my education. I never asked her how she leveraged him into that, and, frankly, I didn’t care. I knew that the sooner I had a degree, the sooner I would be financially free from them; something I never realized I wanted until that summer.
Perhaps that was the silver lining to everything that had happened.
Braxton joined me at Tad’s once he was able to leave the hospital. Unable to return to work for the city right away, he spent his time researching jobs near my college as well as apartments. It was the first year I was allowed to live off-campus, and it seemed like he had plans to join me. The thought made me smile. I couldn’t imagine having him to come home to every day, but something told me that I’d enjoy it immensely. Yes, things would be difficult at first for myriad reasons, but I had faith. Faith that our years of friendship would help us navigate the hard times, and that our newfound love will propel us forward, helping us keep our eyes on the future and off of the past. What was done was done and over with.
That summer had changed everything for me—for us both. Turned our lives upside down. Most of all it showed me that not everything was quite how I’d remembered it to be. That maybe that town wasn’t so awful after all. It had given me Braxton, and that was one hell of a gift.
He and I had a lifetime ahead of us. A lifetime full of firsts that I couldn’t wait to share with him. With him, I’d found my other half. My soulmate. My perfect match.
With him at my side, nothing else seemed to matter.
If you're dying to know more about me, allow me to put you at ease. I'm a sharp-tongued, sarcastic cancer, who loves vegetable smoothies, winter storms, and the word “portfolio”. I should NEVER be caffeinated, and require at least eight hours of sleep to even resemble a human being. At thirty-four, I just now feel like I can keep a straight face while saying the word “rectum” (which is actually a huge lie because I just laughed out loud while reading this to my husband). I live with my iPod firmly affixed to my body, drive too fast, and laugh/ cry at inappropriate times.
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Before the internet…before sext messages, selfies, like buttons, and d**k picks…epic loves and broken hearts played out offline, on mixtapes that became the self-made soundtracks of a gener
ation.
Love in the 80s: A New Adult Mix is a collection of ten contemporary romance, new adult, stand-alone novellas set in the 1980s.
Written by award-winning and bestselling authors, one digital novella will be released on the last Friday of each month January - October in 2016.
The title of each love story will be a hit song from the year that the novella represents. The totally awesome authors include: Casey L. Bond, Lindy Zart, Cambria Hebert, Amber Lynn Natusch, Misty Provencher, Rebecca Yarros, Rachel Higginson, RK Ryals, Cameo Renae and Chelsea Fine.
Love in the 80s: A New Adult Mix was created by UTOPiAcon founder, Janet Wallace, and is co-produced with award-winning book cover designer, Regina Wamba (together they are WaWa Productions).
Read on to check out, Love in the 80s: A New Adult Mix collection.
My name is Tina. I’m a freshman at USC, a good student and friend…
And I’m a victim.
Hot guys make my brain turn to mush. So, the fact that I was arrested then survived a massive earthquake only to be shackled to the fox next to me can all be overlooked, right?
Okay, so I was arrested before I met Luke. A tremor that caused a blackout at the LAPD precinct where we were being held. Although technically, I wasn’t shackled to him, I was handcuffed, but still. Any and all lapses in my usual—totally sane, I might add—judgments, are his fault. Totally.
I wouldn’t typically do the things I did. I’m no outlaw. I’m a college student.
Click here to read now.
The road trip from Minnesota to Pennsylvania and back is meant to be the final adventure before four friends go their separate ways in the fall.
Except nothing goes as intended, beginning with the unexpected addition of Catherine Tate, Jessie Keller’s new girlfriend. Sam Kent denies his attraction to her while simultaneously deflecting unusual interest from his pal Hannah Lopez. Dickie Dean is the socially inept book lover who surprises them all.
Amidst a malfunctioning vehicle, being caught in the middle of a robbery, beer drinking, mosquito attacks, and other teenage drama, the five experience courage, broken hearts, fear, and laughter. Most importantly, they make memories.
Click here to read now.
Watch out, girls. Here she comes.
There’s always that girl. She’s popular, beautiful, and has everything together. The one with the perfectly teased hair, arms full of colorful (but coordinated) bangles, and expertly painted bright-pink lips.
A teacher’s pet. Daddy’s girl.
Everyone loves her.
Because everyone is afraid to challenge her.
Kelly Ross is that girl. She uses her powers of popularity for good… her own good. She doesn’t care who she hurts.
She always gets what she wants.
Including your man.
When she walks down the hallway in her hot-pink heels and ruffled denim miniskirt, all the boys’ heads turn. And all the girls start whispering.
Man-eater.
There hasn’t been a single guy Kelly hasn’t been able to chew up and spit out.
Until now.
Kelly has finally met her match. He’s been there all along, and he’s the exact opposite of everything you’d expect.
Click here to read now.
Join the Love in the 80s Facebook event party for giveaways and surprises all year long!
Love the music—never the man.
At twenty years-old, Sabrina Caroline was America’s sweetheart pop star, until she took a year off to treat her social phobia that her cut-throat-manager/mom paid top dollar to keep quiet. Now as part of her comeback, she’s forced into collaboration with one of the hottest rock bands topping the charts—Birds of Prey—whose lead guitarist happens to be her biggest mistake…and her biggest regret.
Hawke Owens never imagined Birds of Prey would surpass the basement of the Duncan High School for Performing Arts, let alone score them a European tour. But success has its price, and for him, it’s being forced to work with the only girl who shattered his heart—Sabrina Caroline. She’s everything that he remembers and more, every memory and fantasy come to life. At first touch, their connection is electric, but it’s also as strong as her determination to follow her number one rule—she doesn’t date rock stars…even though she’s become one.
Loving her again is as natural as holding his guitar, but she’s destroyed him once, and this time the stakes are higher, more public, and the consequences life-altering. Against the backdrop of the birth of MTV, they’ll have to choose between the demands of their label, and the demands of the heart.
Available May 27, 2016
1983: Cruel Summer (Love in the 80s #4) Page 9