Excerpt!
I didn’t say anything in response, too wrapped up in the feeling of being in a Travis-shaped cocoon. His arms were around my middle, holding me tight to him and his legs were bracketing mine. Warmth enveloped me and I could feel his chest rise and fall with each breath.
After a while, Travis nudged me and I realized I had fallen asleep. “Let’s go to sleep, gorgeous.”
He unwrapped himself from me, gave me some clothes from his dresser, and left the room for a moment while I changed.
When he entered, he said, “We’re going to have to share the bed unless you wanna sleep on the couch where my dad can talk to you.”
We both got into his bed. There was silence as I watched him lying on his side with his back to me until he turned on his back. Travis let out a sigh and ran a hand over his face. I wanted to know how this guy who walked around with death over his head could treat me so kindly and make me feel so safe. How was he a part of the Casey gang when he had a home here he could’ve run away to? More than that, how was he a part of the gang when he had a home with his mom that he could’ve run away to with Ben?
“Go to sleep,” he groaned. “Stop watching me. It’s creepy.”
I gave him a soft smile when his eyes flitted in my direction. “Will you tell me why you joined the gang?”
“No.”
“Why?”
His eyes moved away from me and focused on the ceiling for a second before he closed them like he was about to sleep. “You don’t have to know everything and I don’t want to tell you right now.”
I perked up at his word choice of ‘right now’. “When?”
Too wrapped up in the thought of knowing eventually, I army-crawled closer to him. I leaned onto his chest with my forearms, my head above his, and my hair draping around us.
“Ask me again in five minutes,” he said, unmoving.
I looked at him skeptically. “Will you be asleep in five minutes?”
The sides of his mouth quirked up into an almost-smile. “No, but I’ll be pretending to be asleep.”I didn’t sleep much after that. Not because I was trying to wiggle answers out of Travis, but because I was too busy thinking about the people I had met here — about Finn’s laugh, Annabeth wanting a kitchen table just to be normal, Travis’ gentle hands, Ben every time he held the door open for me. All I could picture for Cameron was his glare so I didn’t give him much thought. I tried to picture all of them back home with me, not just Travis. I tried to picture them anywhere but in Melkin and it was surprisingly easy. I knew I would eventually leave Melkin. What if I could take them with me when I left? Would they all go?
Lacey Carson dreams of experiencing the world outside of the mundane town her father limits her to. “Go big or go home”? Lacey is already wrapped up in her comforter before that question can be finished. Her fight or flight instinct falls hard in one direction only.
Insert Travis Miller. He’s a little too loud, a little too violent, a little too focused on Lacey. He only knows how to go big.
When the opportunity presents itself for more adventure, Lacey jumps in head first before Travis can say no. It may be a little more than she bargained for as she learns about the ups and downs of independence, her own strength, and the crime world she quickly becomes immersed into.
Check it out on Goodreads!
Buy your copy from Amazon
J.S. Christine has been writing novels since 2011 and graduated with a degree in Creative Writing. She strives to give readers worlds they can relax in with characters they can call their friends. Her novels typically travel down the obstacle-ridden roads of self-discovery with music blasting in the car’s speakers and the occasional explosion off to the side. Her first novel, Sparked, was self-published in 2016. When she isn’t writing, she can be found binge reading books, burning cookies, attempting to run, or teaching her three cats how great popcorn is.
No comments:
Post a Comment