Slightly Off Balance

by Kaylie Hunter

  “That was an important mission. I knew he was lying to me. The bastard.”

  “If you knew he was lying to you, you should have just dumped his ass,” I whispered, grabbing her arm and pulling her along at a quicker pace. “Come on. You’re moving too slow.”

  We followed the dark shadowy edge of the road, having parked about a mile back on a side street.

  “Tell me again why we couldn’t just drive up and ring the damn doorbell.”

  “How are we supposed to eavesdrop if we ring the bell announcing we’re there?”

  “You could just demand they tell you whatever is going on.”

  I snorted and turned back to face her. “You really think Reel, Uncle Mike, and Grandpa are going to admit whatever they are scheming? Please. In fact, this whole town has been acting shady. I’m not sure what the hell’s going on but I—”

  The ground under my right foot gave out, and I started sliding down the hill.

  “Shit—” Tansey yelped, trying to grab my upper arm as I clawed at the ground trying to stop my fall.

  She lost her grip, and I slid several feet down the steep hillside before my feet hit a hard root, stopping me. Unfortunately, my backside had been pointed out away from the hill, so when my feet stopped, my ass kept going, rolling me head over feet several times before I stopped with a splash.

  “Damn it!” I yelled.

  “Tweedle? You hurt?”

  “Hurt? No. Just squishy,” I moaned, trying to sit up and falling back over. “Eww, it smells.”

  “What did you land in?” she yelled from somewhere above.

  “Some type of water runoff.” I didn’t have a choice but to turn on all fours to try to get up. Rolling over and getting my knees underneath me, I slid again, face first into the stagnant water. I blew the water out of my face and forced myself up again. Half walking, half crawling, I made my way back to the edge of the bank and climbed up to the dirt road.

  “Oh my God. You reek!” Tansey exclaimed, backing away.

  “A little help here?” I said, holding out my hand for help up off the ground.

  “No way,” she laughed. “I’ll make it up to you. Six boxes of Klondike bars or a case of Snickers, but I’m not touching you.”

  “Some best friend you are,” I mumbled, forcing myself to my feet.

  I looked down at my left foot, wondering why the stones were cutting into my skin, and realized that I had not only lost my shoe but the sock as well. Damn it.

  Thoroughly ticked, I stormed in the direction of my grandpa’s house.

  “Maybe we should go back home so you can shower,” Tansey said, as she jogged along on the other side of the road. “I mean, do you really want to confront them when you smell like that?”

  “I’m too angry now to turn back,” I snapped, rounding the corner and seeing my grandpa’s house up ahead. “Good, they’re still there.”

  “No, no, no, please,” Tansey cried trying to keep up as I jogged across the yard and up the front porch.

  I ignored her pleas to turn back, and without ringing the bell or knocking, I threw open the door and stormed inside.

  “Ryan Reel Thurman, where are you?!”

  I turned to the right and my heart stopped. Resting on one knee with a ring in hand, Reel was waiting for me. Behind him appeared to be the whole town, waiting for my reaction.

  “ROD!!” Reel yelled, getting up and approaching me.

  “Not my fault, bro,” Rod said, jogging through the door and stopping next to Tansey, who stood several feet away from me. They were both plugging their noses. “You told me to stay back, so she didn’t see me. I was too far away by the time she started sliding down the hill.”

  Reel glared at him and then looked at me. “Are you hurt?” he asked, carefully plucking some type of green goo out of my hair with his thumb and index finger and dropping it on the foyer tile.

  I looked around again at all the people in the room. Despite trying to hold my composure, I was exposed when my lower lip started to tremble.

  “Tansey?” Reel said.

  “Clothes, I’m on it,” she said scurrying down the hallway.

  Reel reached out and lifted me in his arms, carrying me up the staircase.

  “Rod?” Reel called down below.

  “I’ll find you something to wear,” he chuckled.

  “Aunt Carol?”

  “We’ll clean this up,” she called out.

  I felt the tears start to flow and tucked my head into his shoulder.

  “You’ve done worse,” he chuckled. “Remember the time—”

  “Don’t you dare finish that line, Reel Thurman!”

  He chuckled again, but didn’t say anything as he carried me into a bathroom, placing me on my feet the bathtub. He reached down, turning the water on full blast, directed at my head.

  “I’m still dressed,” I complained, turning my face away from the hard water pressure.

  “Leave your clothes in the tub. I’ll have Rod burn them later.”

  Reel picked up a bottle of shampoo and took the cap off, dumping the entire bottle over my head and body.

  “Stop it. I’ll finish myself.”

  I started to strip my clothes off, and he closed the curtain, turned on the fan, and walked out. I heard him laughing all the way down the hall.

  I spent twenty minutes scrubbing with every soap, body wash, shampoo and conditioner I could find. By the time I got out of the shower, I smelled like a mixture of strawberries, jasmine and skunk. I looked at the clothes stacked on the counter and sighed. I didn’t keep many clothes at Grandpa’s house anymore. Awaiting me in the pile, along with a note that said, Sorry, it was all I could find, was clean underwear, my Metallica T-shirt, baby blue yoga pants, and a pair of flip-flops.

  “Hell with it,” I said to myself. “It’s not like you’re going to answer yes anyway, Sullivan.”

  This would be the fourth time Reel had asked me to marry him. I continued to say no and watched him get a little angrier each time. As far as I was concerned, he had been disappointing me for years and needed to step up his game if he wanted to marry me. Simply proposing wasn’t going to cut it after this many years.

  “You about done?” Reel asked from the other side of the door.

  Already dressed, I opened the door as I slid my feet into the flip-flops. When I looked up, I tried to keep my annoyed look planted on my face, but I was struggling. Reel always looked hot, but never more so than when he was still wet from a shower. He smirked and without saying a word, grabbed my hand and led me downstairs.

  All the windows and doors had been propped open, but almost everyone was holding their noses as watched Reel go down on one knee again.

  “One more time,” Reel grinned. “Deanna ‘Tweedle-Dee’ Sullivan, will you do me the honor?” he asked, holding the ring out.

  “Of course not,” I grinned down at him. “What kind of girl do you think I am?”

  Grandpa and Uncle Mike chuckled, clinking glasses, from their spot next to the bar.

  “Told you,” Uncle Mike laughed.

  “Rod?” Reel said.

  “Got it,” Rod chuckled, jogging over.

  Rod handed Reel a long black scarf. Stepping behind me, Reel tied it over my eyes.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Trust me,” Reel chuckled, leading me blindly off in another direction.

  Having run wild in my grandpa’s house since I was knee high, I knew when we passed the foyer, walked through the kitchen, stepped out onto the back porch, and crossed into the backyard. I could also hear everyone following behind us.

  “Hit the lights, Leo!” Reel called out.

  With the blindfold still on, I could see shimmering neon lights, light up the backyard. I tore the blindfold off when I heard the carnival music. Before me stood the Ferris wheel.

  “You didn’t,” I muttered, looking up at Reel.

  “I wasn’t about to wait a year for the carnival to come back into town, so I brought it b
ack myself,” he smirked.

  He led me to the Ferris wheel and helped me into the first bucket seat, sitting beside me and closing the door. Rod jogged up, checked the latch on the door, and then grabbed a nearby chain and padlock, securing the door extra tight. I laughed, appreciating the gesture.

  Leo flipped a switch, and slowly the Ferris wheel went up and around while everyone watched below. On the third loop around, the bucket stopped at the top.

  “Now, Deanna ‘Tweedle-Dee’ Sullivan, will you make me the happiest man on Earth?”

  “That’s a lot to ask of just one person.”

  “I think if anyone can pull it off, it’s you.”

  “Is that diamond real?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “You know damn well it is,” he growled.

  “What about all the conversations we haven’t had? Where will we live? How often will you be away for work? How many kids will we have?”

  “We will finish the upstairs and live there until we start a family. Then we will live in the house I’m having built on the street behind the bakery. And we will have as many kids as you want, or none at all. It’s up to you. As long as I have you, I’m happy.”

  “It’s up to me?”

  “Yes. But I do have one request,” he sighed. “I’d like Colby to move in with us. He can still work part time for Vince, but he needs you. And I’m pretty attached to the kid, myself.”

  “You mean it?”

  “It’s what I want,” Reel said. “What do you say?”

  I grinned but shrugged. I wasn’t ready to cave yet. “What about your work?”

  “I’ve already talked to Donovan. I’ll take the shorter job assignments so I can be home more, but I’d like to keep working. If it gets to be too much, I’ll quit, though.”

  “You’d quit a job you love for me?”

  “I’d do anything for you, Dee.”

  “What about the blue house?”

  “It’s being demolished next week. A small playground will be installed on the lot.”

  “Ryan ‘Reel’ Thurman?”

  “Yeah?” he said, cocking one eyebrow up.

  “You got yourself a wife. Don’t screw this up.”

  “Don’t plan on it,” he chuckled, leaning in to kiss me.

  The kiss was brief, and he leaned away after.

  “I know,” I giggled. “I still reek.”

  “It’s horrible,” Reel coughed as he laughed. “What the hell did you land in? A sewer?”

  He slid the ring on my finger, and everyone below cheered.

  “Till death do us part,” I whispered, holding my hand out to admire the ring.

  “The smell might send us both to an early grave,” Reel laughed, throwing an arm around me and kissing me again.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  TANSEY….

  I watched my best friend, high in the sky, surrounded by the neon lights, get engaged to the man she fell in love with when they were too young to even understand the meaning of the word. Tears flowed freely down my face and the faces of many of my family members.

  And that’s what they all were. My family. My father ducked out of my life before I was born. My mother, too consumed with depression, chose to die rather than to see me grow up. But the people who stood around me had taken me in, accepted me as one of their own, and helped raise me to be the woman I was today.

  A hand slipped into mine, intertwining our fingers. I looked over at Rod, standing strong with a jolly grin as he wiped my tears away.

  “We’ll have to hurry,” he whispered.

  “Hurry? To do what?”

  “Date. We have to be an official couple before they get to the actual wedding.”

  “I can’t date you,” I laughed. “You can’t be serious.”

  He pulled me by the hand away from the crowd, away from the lights. I didn’t know what he was doing, but something drew me along, something stronger than his grasp on my hand. When he turned to face me, for the first time, I didn’t see humor in his eyes. I saw passion. I saw desperation. I saw vulnerability. And then he kissed me.

  And that’s when I knew, as I leaned into his heated body, that I’d spend the rest of my life madly, crazily in love with Rod Thurman.

  Thank you once again to all my fabulous readers! I hope you enjoyed this book. It proved to be much harder than I originally thought it would be. The main character was so foreign to me, I had to work tirelessly to bring out her personality. Hopefully I did her justice. On the flip side, writing Tansey’s character felt so natural that I wanted to go buy paint and canvas and see what I could accomplish.

  Special thanks to Judy G. and Kathie Z. for your thoughtful notes during draft revisions. Much appreciated!

  If you enjoyed this book, be sure to return to Amazon to leave a review. I read each one of them. And you can ‘Follow’ me while you are on my page so you will receive notifications when new books are released.

  Thank you for your support.

  Link to leave review: www.amazon.com/author/kayliehunter

  I’m working on two other books at this time, but I’m not ready to share any details yet. If you are a new reader, you’re in luck because I have Kelsey’s Burden series available. Be sure to check out book one, Layered Lies. Kelsey’s hard-core, angry at the world, and ready to get even.

  Layered Lies

  Two years after her son was abducted, Kelsey Harrison rebuilds a new life for herself. She opens a store, makes new friends, and settles into a peaceful existence. At least, that’s what she hopes the world believes.

  Behind closed doors, Kelsey hunts her enemies, living a life of lies. She hasn’t forgotten, hasn’t forgiven. She searches for answers still.

  But when a stalker fixates on her friend, Kelsey struggles to find a way to keep everyone safe. Will she find the madman before it’s too late? Or will tragedy strike again?

  Book one of the five-book collection: Kelsey’s Burden Series.

  Updates for new releases will be provided via an emailed newsletter for those registered on my email list. To register, simply email me at AuthorKaylieHunter@gmail.com.

  Release information will also be posted on the following sites: Facebook page: Author Kaylie Hunter, Twitter: @BooksByKaylie, and on my Amazon Author Page (Follow Author feature)

  About the Author

  Early in the year of 2009, I bought a house in desperate need of remodeling. The price was right, and I had experience flipping houses before, so it seemed to be a win-win situation. But after several years of knocking out walls, running electrical, installing insulation and hanging new drywall, I was discouraged by all the work that still needed to be accomplished.

  Finding myself restless and more than a little depressed, I put away my tools, hung pictures up on the unfinished walls, painted the subflooring, laid out rugs, and moved my furniture into the main living area. I felt slightly better, but I knew it wasn’t enough. Life was passing me by. I wasn’t enthusiastic about anything.

  So I did what I do best—I made a list. I wrote down all the things that I’ve wanted to do, but never tried. Places I wanted to vacation. People I wanted to visit. And I racked my brain thinking of all the things that I’d put off.

  And when “Write a book” traveled from my brain, to my hand, to the ink on the page, I knew I’d figured out what I was missing. It was a goal that I had started and stopped on many occasions over the past twenty years, but had failed to accomplish.

  I didn’t finish my list, tossing it aside. I pulled out my laptop, not even considering one of the many first drafts I had packed away in boxes. I needed something new, something fresh. And I smiled for two days as I typed, having forgotten how exciting it felt to start a new story and to see where it took you.

  A few years later, the house remained unfinished. And though I knew if I completed the remodeling, I’d make a lot more money, I sold it anyway. The reality was that once I found my writing again, I was never going to stop. I was never going to set it aside to mud
the drywall or tear out the kitchen cabinets. I was never going to give up something that made me feel alive.

  So here I am—six books later, two more in progress—enjoying life again. If I were to sit down and write a list of things I wanted to accomplish, writing more books would be at the top.

  So find that thing you are passionate about, that makes you feel alive, and take action. Life’s too short to fill your time with things that don’t make you smile.

  Thank you for your support!

  Best wishes,

  Kaylie Hunter

  Kelsey’s Burden Series:

  Layered Lies

  Past Haunts

  Friends and Foes

  Blood and Tears

  Love and Rage