Break Me (The Summer Series)

by James, Harper

  She looked at him for a moment, studying him. “Daddy, I don’t know if I didn’t say it or if you didn’t believe me, but I forgive you. I know you did something stupid. That will always hurt a little, not because you left but because, even though I know different now, the way you did it made me feel unwanted. Today I am celebrating my last year as a teenager, and I want you there. So”—she stepped back and held out a hand for him—“are you ready?”

  Tears filled his eyes and he ignored her hand, pulling her into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry, Gem. I love you. I love you so, so much.”

  “Good.” She choked on a few tears at the back of her throat, burning her eyes. “I love you too. Now let’s go eat some food.”

  Simon, Emily, and Ryan had joined the others downstairs, and she laughed as Kate tried to play it cool while Gray was anything but when he followed Emily out the door like a lost puppy. Yeah, this was perfect. Abe came up behind her and pulled her aside kissing her in the hall after everyone else was out the door. “I love you, Gemma Andrews.”

  “I love you too, Abe North. Always.”

  Look for Kate and Simon’s story, Ruin Me, coming early 2015.

  Acknowledgments

  First and foremost I want to thank my husband, Jake. I know this job takes up my time and my thoughts, but you always seem to find a way to break through. You are so amazing, and I love you more than you know.

  Theresa Wegand, you are the most patient editor in the world. I know it’s hard work, but I adore you for making me look so much more talented than I am. Thank you for everything!

  Emily Cutrer, you are my hero. Thank you for making my cover beautiful. Thank you for being my beta. Thank you for being my friend. I love you.

  Micalea Smeltzer and Regina Bartley, Thank you so much for reading through my drafts and helping me make them pretty. I love you, ladies.

  Laura and Chaz, thank you so much for bringing your adorable selves to my cover. You made the shoot magical, and I can’t thank you enough for helping me.

  Mom, thank you as always for being you. You are my go-to sitter, and I love you for loving me and my babies.

  Michelle, I love you and want to thank you for being such an inspiration. I am motivated daily by your hard work and dedication to whatever task is ahead of you.

  Paul, thank you so much for supporting me in everything I do. It means more than you’ll ever know.

  Taylor and Thad, I am so proud to be your sister. Thank you for letting me share this piece of me with you.

  Emmy, I love you so much, baby girl. Please don’t read this book until you’re much, much, much older, and even then, please don’t tell Mommy you did.

  Memphis, you are my gift from God. I love you and your perfect smile.

  Also By Harper James

  The following is an excerpt from Fight for Her, available now at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

  One

  Chloe

  Humming to herself, Chloe rounded one of the many corners of Jackson High School, headed toward the science lab. She usually didn’t make it down this particular hall at this time of day, so she tried to keep her head down and focus on the task at hand. Get the study guide, get home, cram, and get a good grade. It was a basic chant that was getting her through her day-to-day life. Good grades equal good scholarship. Good scholarship equals distance. Distance equals freedom. How was it that after years of idolizing her father she now counted the days until she was rid of him? Maybe if her mother were still here? Then, as if some cosmic hand were helping her back from that train of thought, she was snapped back to reality with the blunt force of a body slamming into one side of her and a locker slamming into the other.

  “Shit!” The human assailant grunted while the lockers rocked in response. “Damn it, Scott. What the hell?”

  Chloe was too busy trying to get her bearings, while slumped on the ground, to attempt figuring out who was crushing her left side and who “Scott” was. Before she could even locate the book she had dropped while plummeting, a hand had it clutched as another was reaching for her elbow, pulling her to her feet.

  “Are you okay?” Two voices said in unison. Lifting her eyes, she realized she was in the middle of a crowd she hadn’t noticed. The two boys in front of her showed genuine concern, and each, with pleading eyes, waited for her response.

  The taller of the two towered so far above her head that she felt like a small child as she looked up into his bright baby-blue eyes. His short brown hair enhanced his strong jaw and perfect complexion. Fear creased his eyebrows, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he waited for her to respond to his question.

  Chloe let her eyes wander over to the other boy and felt the breath leave her lungs. He was like a painting of a Roman soldier. He was shorter than his opponent, but that enabled him to look that much more muscular and stoic. His skin was a deep olive shade that made him appear as though he never left the sunlight, and his eyes matched the black shaggy hair that hung in waves around his face.

  Once Chloe let her eyes follow his outstretched arm to where his hand still held onto her just below the elbow, she was unable to focus on anything but his strong fingers cradling her. She chewed on her lower lip nervously and mumbled a “yeah” before grabbing her book from his other hand and, scarlet red with mortification, scurried down the hall toward her science class.

  ~*~

  Nate

  Nate couldn’t stop looking at his hand. It was as if the heat he felt inside himself from just touching her had singed him all the way to his fingertips. She was beautiful. She stood more than a few inches shorter than he did and about a foot shorter than Scott. Her hair had been so long that, when he’d helped her stand by gripping her elbow, it had brushed his hand and sent chills over his entire body. Her gray eyes had made him weak in the knees as soon as they pierced his own. But what was the most amazing about her was her mouth. Her lips were full and sexy. Just standing there, she looked as if she were waiting on a kiss. He found himself shaking his head in an effort to get the image of her chewing on her lower lip out of his brain.

  Mr. Davies arrived moments after she fled, and the hall quickly cleared. The principal now stood staring at Nate and Scott, waiting on an explanation. Scott would have to take this one. Nate was too dumbfounded to speak. He distantly heard Scott clear his throat and try to explain everything away, but Nate knew better than anyone that it was nothing but a waste of time. This would go no further. The principal would never be able to make anything stick to Nate Fennell. His life was a series of screw-ups fixed by his old man. Everyone knew it was pointless to try and get something close to Nate’s records. Daddy would have it erased within the week.

  “Very well,” he heard Mr. Davies say. “Head on back to class, and, boys, why don’t you try avoiding each other? It would make all of our lives a lot easier.”

  After a round of “yes sir’s,” they were on their way. Nate ditched his intended direction and hurried down the hall toward where she had disappeared. He had to see if he could find her. Who was she? Why had he never seen her before? And damn it, how could he see her again?

  ~*~

  Chloe

  “Phew, look at the red in those cheeks. Did you trip walking down the hall?” Mr. Jones leaned back against the lab table he had been preparing for his next class and crossed his arms over his protruding potbelly. One eyebrow rose over the rim of his too round glasses.

  “Actually, smartass, I didn’t trip. I was pushed then squished,” Chloe said as she rubbed her still sore shoulder.

  “What?” He barked out a laugh then shook his head as he turned back to his task. “Let me guess. You had the audacity to wear the same shoes as some other girl, and she was just not feelin’ it?”

  “Okay, first, don’t ever say ‘feelin’ it’ again. Second, I wasn’t in the fight . . . technically.”

  “Yeah,” he said as he rolled the chair back and gave her his full attention. “I’m going to need a little more information than that.”

&n
bsp; “Oh, you know if you try hard enough to be invisible one day it just might work.”

  “So am I really seeing you or are you just a figment of my imagination?”

  “Depends, if you have the study guide ready, then I am definitely here. If not, I’m a figment of your imagination, so in a few seconds when someone kicks you, I can assure you it was most definitely not me.”

  Chuckling to himself, he stood and smiled at her before he started for his desk. “You know there aren’t any other students in this building I would let talk to me the way you do.”

  “You know there aren’t any other students in this building you like as much as me either.”

  “Don’t confuse ‘like’ with ‘determined to get rid of.’”

  “Oh, you love me, but for the sake of the children, we can pretend I’m just another one of your minions.” Grabbing the guide from him, she gave him the cheesiest smile she could muster and turned for the door with a wave over her shoulder. She could faintly hear his grunted response.

  ~*~

  Nate

  Silently lecturing himself for not just following her as she fled from the fight, Nate turned to head back to the class he was now well over twenty minutes late for. He had searched the entire east wing of the school and found no sign of her. Maybe he had imagined her. She was freaking hot enough; it would be easy to believe she wasn’t real. His bag slid from his left shoulder and hung just above the ground, duplicating the droop of his head as he made his way down the long empty hall toward the commons area.

  Just then Mr. Jones walked out of his room. “Mr. Fennell, is there a reason you’re walking around my hall twenty”—he lifted his wrist and examined his watch, pulling it back and forth to adjust for his thick glasses—“three minutes after the tardy bell rang?”

  “I, uh, nope, just got a little lost. Actually, I was just headed to my room now.”

  “Uh-huh. Well, since you’re here and I have another student who wanted the study guide for her class early, I may as well give you the one for yours as well.” He turned and motioned to Nate to follow him into the room and around the corner to where his desk was situated. “Here. Study this and you’ll be fine.”

  “Thanks.” Nate started to turn and then stopped, crossing his arms and staring at Mr. Jones. “You usually don’t give these out early, what’s that all about?”

  “Well, she, the other student, is . . . persistent. I also know you’re trying to get the best scholarship you can, so I thought, ‘What the hell; help out the less fortunate.’”

  Nate raised a sarcastic eyebrow but said nothing and was met by an equally sarcastic grin from Mr. Jones. “Yeah, thanks.”

  ~*~

  Scott

  “Scott, please tell me that what I heard from Julie Hill was a complete lie.”

  Scott shifted in his chair as his twin sister’s eyes grew wider while staring over at him. “Well, what exactly did you hear?”

  “Oh, my God!” she half yelled, half whispered. “Do you know what will happen if anyone finds out? Mom and Dad will freak. Please tell me this isn’t going on your permanent record. How will you get a scholarship if schools find out that you’re getting into fights? Especially when an entire hallway saw you break some guy’s nose and some girl’s leg?” Only after she had finished asking her extensive list of questions did she pause long enough to breathe.

  Scott, who thought the day couldn’t get any worse, let out a groan and smacked his own forehead with his palm. “Since that’s not at all what happened, then I guess I shouldn’t have to worry about it.”

  “Well,” Olivia encouraged, “what exactly did happen?”

  “Uh . . .” Scott lifted his head and looked over at his twin sister. “I was walking down the hall, and Nate was standing there talking to some friends. He turned to head down toward his class right as I was passing and ran into my arm, making me drop my book. The next thing I knew I was in his face, telling him to watch where he was going because he wasn’t a”—Scott looked around and leaned closer to Olivia—“fucking god.”

  “Holy crap, Scott.” Olivia’s eyes were round, red flames on her cheeks. “I’ve never heard you say that word in my life.” Poor, sweet Olivia was a great friend and sister but a bit clueless about the real world.

  “That’s because I’ve never said that word in my life,” Scott lied. “I have no idea what came over me. All of a sudden I was just pissed off and felt all this pent up anger toward him. So when he told me to step back before I got myself into more trouble than I could handle, I shoved him as hard as I could toward the lockers. That was where the girl came in; she must not have noticed us like the rest of the crowd because Nate fell back against her and knocked her over.”

  “Well, is she okay?” It was so like Olivia to forget about everything else that mattered at that moment but the person who could have been, even the slightest bit, hurt.

  “Yeah, she was fine. Nate helped her up, and then she took off running.”

  “You guys probably scared her to death. You need to apologize to her and stop being stupid. Fighting with Nate will get you nowhere. It did you no good when you were ten. It’ll do you no good now.”

  “At least I lost it on him. You know the Fennells; it’s not as if anything will happen to me.” He shrugged. “They won’t want word getting around that they’re less than perfect.”

  “True.” Olivia’s lips puckered to the side as she thought for a moment. “So what did Davies say to you?”

  “Liv, I was with Nate.” Scott raised his eyebrows. “He told us to get to class.”

  “Figures.”

  “Hey Liv . . .” She turned her body toward him while keeping her eyes on the front of the room. Not listening in Mrs. Lawson’s history class meant certain detention, and there were no Fennells in this class to help the twins get out of it. “Did anyone mention who the girl was that we pushed?”

  “No. Why? Who was she?”

  “That’s the thing. I have no idea, but Liv”—he let out a slow breath before he continued—“can you do me a favor and find out?”

  “So you can apologize?” Olivia asked as she raised one eyebrow.

  “Uh, yeah.” Scott turned to his book, instantly fascinated. “I feel like I really need to find her and tell her I’m sorry.”

  “Scott?” Olivia whispered.

  He exhaled an exasperated breath. “God, Liv, she was so beautiful. I swear. I’ve been here for four years. I’m student council president and captain of the basketball team. How is it possible that I’ve never seen her before when, now that I’ve seen her once, I can’t get her out of my head?”

  Olivia’s eye went wide and her mouth dropped open. She had never heard her brother talk like this before. He had liked girls because he was supposed to like them, but it had never been a big deal. “She was that pretty, huh?”

  “You can’t even imagine, sis.”

  ~*~

  Chloe

  When she got home, Chloe pulled the chicken that she had set on a plate earlier that morning to defrost from the fridge. Once she had it seasoned and in the oven baking, she started in on her salad. She was addicted to salad. There were at least fifteen different dressings in her refrigerator and more supplies for toppings than any one person should need. Tonight, she was slicing avocado, peeling tangerines, and adding dried cranberries and candied pecans.

  When she heard the phone ring midway through dicing her baked chicken, she second-guessed whether answering was worth the trouble. Flashes of her father’s car in a ditch had her wiping her hands and reaching for the cordless. “This is Chloe.”

  “Are you forty or answering the phone for a lawyer?” Chloe’s friend Anna asked.

  “You know I’m not.”

  “Is your leg broken?”

  “You know it’s not.”

  “Am I your friend?”

  “You know you’re not.”

  “Funny. Is your cell broken? Because I swear we’ve all been texting you for an hour.”


  “Nope, just left it upstairs. What do you need Anna? I’m cooking.”

  “Fine, tell me why I’m hearing from half the school that Nate tackled Scott in the hall today and they both took you down in the process, breaking your leg and giving you a nose bleed?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes. Apparently you and Scott were so messed up by the time they finally pulled Nate off you that you had to go home. Is that why you weren’t at Mr. Jones’ room after school to get the study guide like the rest of us?”

  “Oh good Lord, there is so much wrong with that rumor I don’t even want to address it. However,” Chloe interrupted as Anna was about to complain, “to avoid dealing with your whining, I will tell you that I wasn’t at Mr. Jones’ because I got my guide earlier, which is why I was in the middle of the east hall when the quote-un-quote fight broke out.”

  Anna sighed in disappointment. Chloe tried not to be offended that her friend had hoped her leg and nose were broken. “Fine, go ahead. Lead your over-achieving, boring life. I’m going to go set the record straight like the proper gossip I am.”

  “Okay, have fun.”

  Chloe hung up and groaned as she went back to her chicken. She had spent four years avoiding any attention whatsoever. How was it that no one could figure out who she was when she had a father with a syndicated show that aired daily at 4:00 p.m. but now, after simply trying to walk down the hall, she was suddenly the center of the high-school gossip community? Her father’s show, The News Now, let him tell the stay-at-home moms of the world what they most likely already knew but with the bonus of a hunky, widowed, forty-something reporter to look at. Even more mind-boggling regarding her prior ability to remain anonymous was that she could do so with everything that had happened with her mother two years ago, but one run in with the school rich kid and the star athlete, and suddenly she was infamous? Not hungry anymore, Chloe wrapped up her dinner for later and made her way to her bedroom to start studying for Friday’s test.

  ~*~