Hey everyone! Here is a small scene teaser from my upcoming debut novel After The Break. I chose the first moment Liam sees Skylar. Felt like just the right first scene to share!
Hope you enjoy!
©Copyright @ Andrea Joan 2016
Six years ago, I would have been running in the late afternoon, when the island was alive with tourists and friends alike. I was friendly with everyone; no one feared me like they do now. Six years ago I had a much different reputation in Eastsound, the town golden boy destined to make a name for myself in the boxing game. But now things are much different. My reputation has been tarnished by my quick temper, and when I fucking snap, everything goes dark. I lose control.
And in a close-knit town like Eastsound, the gossips in it live to remember your failures over your triumphs and never forgive your past. Not that I want or need their forgiveness. I deserve their condemnatory punishment.
As I turn a corner onto Main Street, named that because it’s literally the only street in the small town of Eastsound, I feel my shoe loosen around my foot. The goddamn thing is untied.
“Fuck!” I fucking hate when my concentration is broken because all the good memories associated with those smells dissipate from my mind as the momentary lapse in concentration allows a chance for the darkness to descend.
Reluctantly I bend down to tie my shoe and hear a door creak open a short distance away. I glance up instinctively and see her. She walks out onto the balcony from a room on the second floor of The Lighthouse Inn like a living fantasy. I take a few steps forward toward the edge of the sidewalk to get a better look. Because I know. I fucking know this is a sight I would be happy to have seared into my memory from now until the day I die. My breath, which just moments ago had been hard and fast from running, halts in my chest as if time and existence has frozen around me because even the universe can sense how fucking spectacular her presence is. She’s quite simply beautiful, breathtaking, and somewhat familiar.
Shit. I know that face. I don’t even need a photographic memory to remember who she is. I just need to not live in a fucking cave. Everyone knows her. It’s Skylar Barrett. I know she’s been filming something around here, the whole island has been talking about it for months, but never thought I’d see her. My sister used to watch that stupid Mandy Mayhem every Saturday morning. It was fucking torture.
And here she is to torture me again, only this time in a very different way, because she’s all grown up. Her auburn hair drapes messily over one shoulder as she stares out at the ocean. She must have just woken up as she appears to be wearing something she slept in and there is a tranquil vibe about her, a type of calmness that comes before the day fucks you up. A pink tank top fits tightly to her petite body and a pair of white shorts hang off her hipbones.
Fuck me, she has the most perfect body I’ve seen on any woman. Ever. Trust me when I say I have seen a fucking lot. Unfortunately I’m too far away to see her facial features, more importantly her eyes. Beautiful eyes are my Achilles’ heel. That’s what drew me to her. I shut my eyes to get the image of her out of my head as quickly as fucking possible.
Once upon a time I would have made some grand gesture, like scaling the balcony and asking this girl out on a date, and she would have said yes. Most chicks do, and in less than three hours after meeting one I can have my name replacing God’s while they scream it in my bed.
Or theirs.
Or a bar bathroom.
Or the back seat of a car.
Or the front seat of a car.
Or the hood of a car. I’m not picky.
But this chick, this woman, she is one you wife the fuck up. As quickly as possible. And yes, I can tell this just from looking at her. I’m one hundred percent certain I’m not Skylar Barrett material either. I’m not relationship material in general. I can’t go down that road again. It will hurt too much in the end, and it will end.
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