Broken Rules
Page 23
“I don’t know,” Fox said. “Eight, I think?”
“It was the loveliest thing,” Amparo said. “He arranged them by color—it must have taken him hours to sort out all the shades—and then created a spiral framed by branches he’d found in the woods.”
Sanyam squeezed Fox’s hand. “He has an artist’s eye, doesn’t he? Did he tell you about the gallery?”
Fox ducked his head at the pride in Sanyam’s voice as warmth spread through his chest, thick and sweet like honeyed caramel.
“What gallery?” Amparo demanded. “What’s this?”
“You know the mosaics I make,” Fox said. “Some guy named Navin Arya saw one, and he really liked it and asked me if I had any more. He said he could sell just about anything I made. There’s actually going to be a showing in a couple of months—” He hesitated. “Would you… want to come?”
“Of course!” Amparo said instantly. “Tell me when and where and I’ll be there!”
Fox smiled at her as Sanyam launched into a story about Polly. “—pretended to hate her at first, of course—”
“Of course,” Amparo agreed, nodding.
“But within a day, she’d abandoned me for him. Every time he stopped moving, she was there, wanting attention. She knew, right from the start.”
Fox looked up. “Knew what?”
Sanyam’s eyes were full of love. “That you were a keeper.”
Amparo sighed happily as a car door slammed outside and voices rose. “Everyone else is here, sounds like.”
Cricket and Dorian bounded inside first and took turns hugging both Fox and Sanyam. Even though they’d both apologized for that disastrous dinner, Cricket still held on a little longer than usual before pulling away to beam up at Fox.
“What were you guys talking about?” she asked.
Sanyam sat back down and tugged Fox into the circle of his arms. Fox melted against him.
“We were telling stories about Fox,” Sanyam said. “Good ones.”
“I can play this game!” Cricket exclaimed. “Fox, remember the time you bought me six months of riding lessons because I was going through a horse-crazy phase?”
“In my defense, your instructor was ridiculously hot,” Fox protested.
“Yeah, but you didn’t know that until after you took me there the first time,” Cricket pointed out, grinning.
Fox smiled, joy suffusing him until he thought he might drift away, tethered to earth only by Sanyam’s strong arms, and let the conversation swirl on over his head.
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MICHAELA GREY told stories to put herself to sleep since she was old enough to hold a conversation in her head. When she learned to write, she began putting those stories down on paper. She resides in the Texas Hill Country with her cats, and she is perpetually on the hunt for peaceful writing time, which her four children make difficult to find.
When she’s not writing, she’s knitting while watching TV or avoiding responsibilities on Tumblr, where she blogs about cats and writing, offers dubious life advice, and tries to keep her cat off the keyboard.
Tumblr: greymichaela.tumblr.com
Twitter: @GreyMichaela
Facebook: www.facebook.com/GreyMichaela
Email: greymichaela@gmail.com
By Michael Grey
COFFEE CAKE
Coffee Cake
Beignets
MENDED HEARTS
Broken Halo
Broken Rules
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Broken Rules
© 2018 Michaela Grey.
Cover Art
© 2018 Kanaxa.
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-500-2
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64080-501-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018930565
Digital
published July 2018
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America