Happenstance: Part Two (Happenstance #2)

by Jamie McGuire

  “So humiliating me at prom was your idea?” I said, trying to keep my voice calm.

  He frowned, disappointed that I’d come to that conclusion. “No, of course not. I played into their jealousy. I antagonized Alder sometimes about it. I made sure she saw me steal glances at you. We got into a big fight one night. She said I’d never have a chance with you because you wouldn’t cross her. That’s when it hit me. So the next time you came up in conversation—which was often—I teased them. I said I could totally get you to date me.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  His expression pleaded for me to let him finish explaining. “Sonny said the same thing that Alder did, that you wouldn’t have the nerve. That was all I needed. That one moment.

  “I bet her that I could get you to go to prom with me. After one discussion with Brady, the Carrie movie came up. That’s when they tried to talk me into it. That’s when I said yes, but it was always my way of getting close to you without being harassed. Just so we could enjoy it.”

  “What about after prom?” I asked.

  “I was going to ask you the same question. What about after summer?” he said, intertwining his fingers in mine. “I’ll drive to Oklahoma every weekend if I have to. I know you have this idea of what life after Blackwell was going to be. But you can still be what you wanted to be when we started. I just want to be with you. I wanna leave Blackwell behind with you. I want to watch you become whatever you want.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” I said. “Neither one of us has a clue what we want to be.”

  He squeezed my hand. “All I am is all we are.”

  My bottom lip trembled. I’d been so awful to him, and now he was in a hospital bed, trying to make things right. “You shouldn’t be nice to me. I don’t deserve special treatment from you anymore.”

  “Do you have any idea how long I’ve loved you, Erin?”

  I smiled, tears burning my eyes. “As long as I’ve loved you.”

  He pulled me to him, and I lay next to him in his hospital bed, seeing the silhouettes of Veronica and Julianne in the doorway.

  Weston wrapped both arms around me and took in a deep breath, resting his head on mine. Soon he relaxed, and the quiet beeping of his heart monitor slowed to an even rhythm.

  Veronica hugged Julianne to her side, and they left the doorway, walking down the hall.

  I rested my cheek against Weston’s chest. The next weekend was prom, and two weeks after that was graduation. The only thing to worry about was the conversation I needed to have with Gina. Everything else felt like clean PJs and warm sheets straight out of the dryer. Weston and I would have the entire summer to spend together before we left for college, and for the first time, he felt like part of my beginning instead of a happy ending.

  Always a big thank-you to my husband, Jeff, and my children for their understanding and patience. Writing is not a nine-to-five, and often my creative juices are flowing on evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays. I have the most amazing support at home, and without that, for sure there would not be future Jamie McGuire books.

  Thank you to Cecil and Patty Stuever not only for their permission to set part of this story in their Dairy Queen, but also for answering some important questions.

  Thank you to author Teresa Mummert for reminding me that even though the things that inspire us are not always pretty, that shouldn’t stop us from writing them down and sharing them with others.

  Thank you to Autumn Hull for her incredible, never-ending support, and her company, Wordsmith Publicity, for the professional and seamless marketing.

  Thanks to Dan Bringham, my former principal, for answering some tough questions about the high school. It was seventeen years ago for me, and although he’s retired, he was eager to help and patient with my questions.

  Thank you to Jerry Mann. I remember very vividly the day I sat in front of his desk, and he made me a friendly five-dollar bet that I would look back on my high school years and wish I had them back. He has since passed away. He is one of the only things about high school that I wish we could have back.

  Jamie McGuire was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She attended Northern Oklahoma College, the University of Central Oklahoma, and Autry Technology Center, where she graduated with a degree in radiography.

  Her 2012 novel, Walking Disaster, debuted at number one on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal best-seller lists. She has also written the internationally best-selling contemporary romance Beautiful Disaster, and the Providence trilogy, a young adult paranormal romance. Her latest books include Red Hill, an apocalyptic thriller; A Beautiful Wedding, a novella; and Beautiful Oblivion, the first book in the Maddox Brothers series.

  Happenstance: A Novella Series (Part One) is a USA Today best-seller. Please be on the lookout for the third and final installment, Happenstance: A Novella Series (Part Three), and the completed series in a single printed version in January 2015.

  Upcoming works include Apolonia, a new adult sci-fi romance, on October 1, 2014, and Beautiful Redemption, book two in the Maddox Brothers series, due in winter 2014.

  Jamie lives on a ranch just outside Enid, Oklahoma, with her three children and husband, Jeff, who is a real, live cowboy. They share their thirty acres with six horses, three dogs, and Rooster the cat.