Everyone thought we’d be the ones who made it through high school. The ones who’d get married and stay married forever. The example of how young love can work.
We thought so, too.
Too bad life had other plans.
It’s been three years since Hayley and Nate broke each other’s hearts. Three years, and a lot has changed. Hayley’s a freshman in Bushwick University, and the only things keeping her sane are stress baking, and her a cappella group, Twelve Beats in a Bar.
Nate’s a Marine, stationed in Afghanistan. The only thing that’s keeping him sane is the last picture he has of him and Hayley, and the hope that maybe when the hell of deployment is over, he can find her again and apologize.
One explosion will change everything.
When a bomb kills all of Nate’s unit, leaving him missing a leg and eyesight in one eye, he’s sent back home to Texas. Texas, where he loved Hayley more than he could possibly imagine ever loving anyone else.
With seemingly endless amounts of free time and needing something to distract himself, Nate starts making YouTube videos, imploring Hayley to come back to him, and come back to Texas.
Hayley’s life is wrapped around the Beats, making sure she doesn’t flunk out of biology class, and babysitting Ohio’s smallest monster, Brandon. She doesn’t want to admit it, but she misses Nate more than anything.
It’s too bad she doesn’t know just how much he misses her, too…
EXCERPT
He turned around, and his eyes
connected to mine. “Hey!” he called. “You!”
My eyes widened. “Me?” I pointed to
myself.
“Yeah.” He was far enough away that
he was calling. “What’s your name?”
Why was he talking to me? Was this
some kind of joke? I glanced nervously at Josh, trying to see if this was for
real. I couldn’t tell.
“Hayley,” I said quietly- loud enough
for him to hear if he was listening close enough, but quiet enough that I could
deny I was talking to him if I needed to.
“Hayley!” he called back, grinning.
“What’s your stance on ice cream? Positive or negative?”
“Why?”
“For science.”
“What kind of science?”
“Does it matter?”
“Well, if it’s for curing cancer or
something, I’ll tell you the truth. If it’s for something else, I might not.”
“You would lie to science?”
“You can’t lie to science,” I said.
“Science isn’t a person.”
“Yeah, it is,” Josh said. “Science is
the skeleton in the lab.”
“I thought his name was Fred.”
“His full name is Fred Skeleton
Montgomery FisherHell the Twelfth,” Harrison said. “But I wasn’t actually
talking about him. C’mon, Hayley. How do you feel about ice cream?”
“If I tell you, will you let me do my
homework?”
“Deal.”
“I feel positive about ice cream.”
“Yes!” crowed Harrison. “One more
question.”
“No.” I tried to bury my grin as I
bent my head down to concentrate on my English assignment.
“Pleeeeeease, Hayley.”
“You said you’d let me do my homework
after the ice cream question.”
“But science!”
“No.”
“You’re a tough one,” he said,
standing up. Wait. What was going on? Where was he going?
The next thing I knew, he was
standing above me, blocking the sunlight completely. “You’re blocking my sun,”
I said, not looking up from my homework.
“What is science going to do without
your answer?” he said, leaning down toward me. “It’s going to cry itself to
sleep tonight because you don’t care enough to answer the question.”
“You’re crazy, you know,” I said,
trying not to giggle. “Maybe you should talk to science about your feelings.”
“If I’m that crazy, talking to
science would only make things worse.”
Huh. That actually made sense.
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, science’s
best friend. What’s the second question?”
“How do you feel about Rocky Road ice
cream?”
“I like it.”
“A lot or a little?”
“What does it matter?”
“Well, those morons over there claim
loving Rocky Road is unnatural.”
“You should find new friends,” I
said.
About the author:
KK Hendin's real life ambition is to become a pink fluffy unicorn who dances with rainbows. But the schooling for that is all sorts of complicated, so until that gets sorted out, she'll just write. Preferably things with angst and love. And things that require chocolate.
She spends way too much time on Twitter , and rambles on occasion over at her blog:
wow, huge giveaway. I'm loving the cover & the expert. Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI would love to have these books! I love the elements that are in these books!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds wonderful. Love the cover. Thanks for having the giveaway.
ReplyDeletesounds like such a sweet romance. so true to life too. thank you for the giveaway
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so sweet, thank you for the sweet giveaway too
ReplyDelete