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Next to You

Page 26

by Julia Gabriel


  That's what she was going to do. In her fog-shrouded field, doing what she always did was the safest way to avoid injury. Doing something out of the ordinary, say driving to Middleburg for drawing lessons, could lead anywhere. Over a cliff. Into a ditch. Stuck in a dead end.

  She inserted the key into the ignition and turned. As she backed up the driveway, a hard knot of irritation—at Luc Marchand, at Tricky Dick Macintyre, at herself, at the entire damn world—tightened in her chest.

  At the top of the driveway, she looked away from the rearview mirror and down toward Luc Marchand's lawn and the stone wall. She remembered the coolness of the stone through the thin cloth of her pants, the liquidy thing her insides had done, and how edible Luc Marchand had tasted. She had wasted a perfectly good Saturday morning. And yet, as she drove the winding country roads leading back to suburbia, everything looked sharper—the rough bark of trees, the hard glint of cars, the splintered wood of fences—and more in focus than it had in years.

  About the Author

  Julia Gabriel writes contemporary romance fiction. She lives in New England, where she teaches writing at a university and divides her time between writing, reading and quilting.

  Find out about new releases, read exclusive excerpts and more! Sign up for Julia's email newsletter at http://www.authorjuliagabriel.com.

  Connect on social media:

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  Also by Julia Gabriel

  Falling for the Prodigal Son

  Cupcakes & Chardonnay

  Next to You

  Drawing Lessons

  Wild Beautiful Man

  Trademark Acknowledgements

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Atlantis

  Audi

  Badgley Mischka

  Ford

  Formica

  Habitat for Humanity

  Honda

  KFC

  Lexus

  Maserati

  New York Post

  Porsche

  People

  Ritz Carlton

  Spaghettios

  Spyder

  Sub-Zero

  Taco Bell

  Vanity Fair

  Volvo

  You Tube

 

 

 


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