Summer I Found You
Page 18
“Kate.” He smirks.
“What?”
“You’re about to say something crazy.”
I laugh. “Probably.”
“Go ahead.” He twists his body and runs his fingers up my arm, stealing my thoughts for a moment.
“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. Sometimes I feel like it would be easier if I was missing an arm, and hiding the truth wasn’t an option. I should have trusted you with everything.”
“I had stuff to sort out too, Kate. And I did. Better we ran into this mess sooner and not later, right?” He inches closer.
Sooner instead of later. Because he wants us to have a later. “You’re sorted?”
“More of a work in progress.”
“Perfect, so am I.”
We sit in silence for a moment. His blue eyes locked with mine. This is it. He’s it. My heart’s wild, but in a way that makes me feel like this is real. And I’m still the girl I used to be, but I’m also so much more.
Aidan leans in, and his soft kiss melts every part of me, and this is nothing of what we were a couple weeks ago. This is who we are now. And who we will be. Together.
Acknowledgments
I have to thank my husband first because the moment I told him about Aidan’s backstory, he looked at me and said, “Yes. You have to write this book.” Even more props to him because I’m pretty sure I woke him up to tell him about it…
A huge thanks to Nyrae Dawn for tweeting about her favorite part, which may have involved a particular night between my two main characters, creating a stream of tweets begging to read the scene. And to my fab friends—Christa and Rhiannon—for reading the scene and also saying, “Yes. Finish this book. Get it into the world. And can I read it when you’re done?”
For my other awesome readers, authors Cassie Mae and Morgan Shamy, you boost my ego and I love you for it. And to Heidi Willis, my diabetic expert, you rock. My grandma didn’t live to tell me about her life with the disease, so I’m glad I had you.
Major thank-yous to the lovely people at Albert Whitman. They created a cover that captured the feeling of the book perfectly and have been nothing but delightful to work with. Also to my editor, Wendy McClure, I bow to your awesomeness. Editing made me love this story more, not less, and that’s a fabulous thing.
After my husband’s time in the military, I have such a huge appreciation for what our servicemen and -women do. We are truly in your debt. And thank you to the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization that moves mountains for people—or gives them the tools to move mountains on their own. Without your existence, I would not have finished this book.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Jolene Perry
978-1-4804-7559-5
Published in 2014 by Albert Whitman & Company
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