The It's Kind Of Personal (Complete 6 Book Series)ies

by Anna Brooks

  “You’re supposed to wait to do that.”

  He chuckles and pulls back then rests his forehead against mine. “I’ve waited for you my entire life, Mary.”

  Acknowledgements

  I can’t start my acknowledgements without thanking my husband. He’s put up with so much from me ever since I started writing, and I couldn’t do this without his support. So, thanks babe. I love you. Of course I’d like to thank my kids and the rest of my family for their support and encouragement.

  To all my critiquers and beta readers, I can’t thank you enough for all of your help and advice during this book. Megan, Kelly, Marianne, Nikki, Nancy, Kishan, Jen, PM, Polly, and Becky. You all are so wonderful and I appreciate you more than you can ever know.

  My AOI girls for always having my back, giving great advice, and encouraging me when I question everything. They push me when I doubt myself and there are no words to describe their support. I wouldn’t be where I am without them. I love you guys. #TheAwesome

  And to all of my friends who have backed me and shared my work, thank you so, so much. To Erin Spencer: Because you are fabulous and I love you.

  Also a big thanks to Kishan for helping me with the therapist questions I had. KJ for answering my hospital and nurse questions. And Investigator Castillo for answering the huge list of police/detective questions. I appreciate you all taking the time to help me. Thank you.

  To everyone at the clinic who read my book(s). You guys humbled me when I saw it being passed around and loved hearing what you thought. I’ll miss you all!

  The bloggers. Your endless work to get the word out there about my books has blown me away. I’m essentially nobody in this indie world, but you don’t make me feel that way. Especially to Day Reader Reviews, Three Chicks and Their Books, Escape N Books, Summers Book Blog, Give Me Books, and the One-Click Addict Support group. I know there are so many more that I didn’t mention. Please know that I appreciate your support and all the hard work you put in. If it weren’t for you, I couldn’t do what I love. Thank you.

  It astounds me the support other authors give me by answering my questions and sharing my work. This community is incredible, and there are so many magnificent people who have been there for me. I’d like to give a special shout out to KC Lynn. I absolutely adore her and her writing, and have found that she is just as wonderful of a person as she is a writer. KC, thank you. From the bottom of my heart.

  Kari at Cover to Cover Designs: Thank you for another beautiful cover. I’m so appreciative of all of your hard work. Especially how quick you are when I need something changed.

  Jenny at Editing 4 Indies: You are so great to work with, and I can’t thank you enough for the amazing work that you do. I’m so lucky to have found you.

  Bree at Vivid Words Editing: You are a miracle worker and I love what you add to my books. I’m blessed to have found you. Thank you so much for working so quickly and efficiently.

  Stacey at Champagne Formats: Seriously, you are just the best. Not only with the formatting, but all the changes I throw on you last minute. I just can’t thank you enough. You are appreciated so much.

  Karen at Sparkle Book Tours: Thank you for doing my cover reveal. It was more than I expected and I appreciate it so much.

  Nazarea at Ink Slinger PR: Thank you for putting together my blog tour. I’m so grateful for everything you have done for me.

  And the band Breaking Benjamin for recording the song “So Cold.” Because to me, it fits this book perfectly and was inspirational while I was writing.

  Last but certainly not least, to my readers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

  One weakness can change everything.

  Meara and Liam were friends before they could talk, in love since they could drive, and planning their future before they graduated high school. In order to start the life they’ve always dreamed of, Liam just has to finish his tour with the band.

  He doesn't want anyone else. Liam's only ever had eyes for Meara, and he can't wait to finally get home to her. But when his dark secret is exposed and his entire world crumbles around him, he has no choice but to let her go.

  Meara would wait for him forever. She knows that Liam will always be hers, especially now that she has an unexpected surprise for him. But just when the life she's waited for is in her grasp, she discovers something that destroys her fairytale ending.

  Can two people who are destined for each other find their future with mistakes between them? Will their love be able to repair the heartbreak and lies?

  One night was all it took for everything to fall apart.

  Can one moment be all that’s needed to repair it?

  Prove Me Right

  Copyright © 2015 Anna Brooks

  Published by Anna Brooks

  Cover design by Cover to Cover Designs

  Editing by Editing4Indies

  Formatting by Champagne Formats

  Proofreading by Vivid Words Editing

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form without written permission except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.

  Dedication

  To my Grandma.

  For everything you have taught me and for being as excited about my books as I am.

  I’m so blessed to have you in my life.

  Chapter 1

  Fourteen years old

  Meara

  “WHAT DO YOU THINK it feels like to be in love?” I ask my cousins.

  Charlotte shakes her head and sticks her tongue out. “I don’t wanna know. Boys are gross.”

  “Oh, come on, Char. You can’t tell me you don’t think there’s a boy in your class who’s cute,” her sister challenges.

  “Well, maybe. But every time I start to think that, they do something stupid like fart or burp. And then all their friends laugh like it’s the funniest thing in the world. They’re gross.”

  Caroline and I laugh because it’s true. Boys are gross, but they’re also cute. And some of them can be nice. Sometimes they’re even sweet.

  “Not all of them are like that, though,” I whisper.

  “Ohh … Meara has a crush on someone,” Char chants.

  Caroline rolls her eyes. “You don’t have crushes at fourteen.”

  “What do you have then?” I ask her.

  “You just like someone. You feel something for them.”

  “How do you know, though? How do you know if you more than just like someone?” I lie on the floor of my treehouse and look at the stars we painted on the ceiling. These stars are what I use to make wishes, and lately, my wishes have all been about one person … one boy.

  “I guess, well, it’s like I was telling Char the other day. You feel kind of dizzy. But you know that if you fall, they’ll be there to catch you.”

  I sit up abruptly and gasp at her words. “Yes! That’s totally it.”

  “Who do you loooove, Meara? Liam?” Charlotte teases me and I glare at her.

  “You’re still too young to understand. I know two years ago I didn’t.” I sigh and think about what it’s like when I see him. “My stomach gets all knotty … in a good way, though. I kind of feel like I’m going upside down on a roller coaster. It’s hard to explain.”

  My aunt interrupts our conversation when she comes out back and yells that it’s time to go. They leave me by myself with thoughts I don’t fully understand.

  Liam is my friend. Our mothers are best frie
nds. He’s my older brother Pierce’s best friend even though there are only a couple of months between Liam and me. I can’t love him. I don’t. Do I? A dry laugh escapes my throat. “Who am I kidding,” I mutter to myself. I’ve loved that boy for years.

  “Are you talking to yourself again?”

  I scream and throw a pillow at him. My heart pounds not because he scared me, but because Liam scares me. What he makes me feel, how he looks at me. The things I think about us doing together. How I want to be around him every second of every day. How when I’m not with him, I’m thinking about him, dreaming about him, or having a fantasy about us together.

  “No.” My throat is raspy, so I clear it and try again. “No. I’m not.”

  “Sounded like it. Nobody’s here and you were talking so …” He raises his eyebrows at me, and I try to remain confident.

  “Maybe your ears are hearing things with all that banging you do. You probably busted your eardrums and don’t even know it.” Oh God, did I just say that? I hope the embarrassment I feel for saying something so stupid doesn’t show on my face.

  “Hey, those drums are the only things that make me … I mean, they’re gonna make me rich one day … just watch.”

  I lie back down and he settles next to me. Our arms brush against each other. This isn’t unusual. We hang out a lot. It’s not the first time we’ve been alone in the treehouse.

  I know I’m too old to hang out in here, but I’ve changed the decorations and it’s so cool. Not immature at all. Lots of bright pink and black.

  My heart starts to beat against my chest so loud I’m surprised he can’t hear it. His fingertips rub against mine, and I pull my hand away, resting it on my stomach while the other one clenches in a fist I hope he can’t see. He turns on his side, but I continue staring at the ceiling. I can see out of the corner of my eye that he’s watching me. I can feel his gaze on my face.

  “Meara?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Look at me.”

  I turn my head and he smiles, the left side of his lip rising just a tad higher than the right.

  “Why are you so scared?”

  “I’m not.” Even I don’t believe myself. My voice is small and shaky, and my hands tremble.

  He grabs the hand that’s resting on my stomach, and this time, I let him. I don’t know why I’m doing this and what these feelings really mean. It’s one thing to think them, but another for the one person who causes them to actually question me about them. My eyes burn and I try to blink the wetness back so he can’t see how terrified he makes me. I’ve never reacted like this around him, and he’s not stupid. He knows something is going on.

  “What’s the matter? Why are you scared of me all the sudden?”

  “I’m not.” The words barely come out because I’m afraid if I talk, I’ll start to cry. God, why do I want to cry?

  “You know I’d never hurt you, right?”

  I nod and the movement causes a tear to roll down my cheek.

  His eyes follow it and his eyebrows scrunch together. “You’re scaring me a little here, Meara. Did something happen?”

  “No.”

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  “I think I’m in love with you.” I blurt out the words and shudder that I just said that out loud. I try to back away from him, but he squeezes my hand and his perfectly straight teeth mock me when his smile widens. “Don’t laugh at me.”

  “I’d never laugh at you, princess. I’m happy you finally realized it.”

  “You … what?”

  “I said”—he scoots closer to me; he releases my hand to use his fingers to brush some hair off my forehead—“I’m happy you finally realized it.”

  “Realized what?”

  “That you love me.”

  My defenses rise. “I said I think, not that I do.”

  “Yes, you do,” he answers without thought. Doesn’t even question it. “And ya know what?” I open my mouth to answer, but words die on my tongue when his lips brush against mine. He pulls back far enough to look into my eyes, and then closes his as he kisses me again.

  Dreams really do come true.

  His mouth is soft against mine, and his tongue slides over my lips. I gasp at the new but surprisingly sensual feeling and he opens his eyes. “Relax,” he whispers. His thumb rubs against my cheekbone and I nod, quickly. He smirks, but this time, I part my lips enough for him to slide his tongue all the way in.

  The kiss gets a little faster and I reach up to run my hand through his hair. When I thought about doing this with him, my nerves always surfaced, but there’s not an ounce of fear in me right now. This, us kissing, feels right. It feels perfect.

  I slide my tongue against his and the butterflies in my stomach turn into something else, something more powerful ... the fluttering soars up to my heart, and with each beat, I fall more in love with him. He gently kisses my bottom lip, then pulls back and kisses my nose, then rests his forehead on mine.

  “You never answered my question.”

  “What was it again?” My breath is coming out in uneven pants, and even though I can’t see it, I can feel the flush.

  “I said do you know what?”

  “No. What?”

  “I love you, too.”

  “No, you don’t.” I cringe and he laughs. Why do I keep saying stupid stuff?

  “Yes, I do. Why do you think I come over so much?”

  “To hang out with Pierce?”

  “No. To be in the same space as you.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’m glad this happened now. I didn’t want to have to go to high school not being your boyfriend.”

  “You’re my boyfriend now?”

  His eyebrows draw closer together and he tilts his head. “Well, yeah. Unless you don’t want me to be. But you just told me you loved me, so …”

  “This is so embarrassing.” I stand up and look out the little window, desperate for a distraction. I can’t believe this is happening.

  He wraps his arms around my waist from behind me and rests his chin on my shoulder. It shocks me how different this embrace is from the hundreds of other times he’s wrapped an arm around my shoulder or given me a hug.

  “I swear I knew I loved you before I even understood what it meant. Sometimes, when I’m around you, my stomach hurts but in a good way. It’s hard to explain.”

  I laugh, really laugh, and turn in his arms. “I said the exact same thing to Charlotte and Caroline before you got here.”

  “Well, if we both feel sick when we look at each other, then it can only be love, right?”

  “Right.”

  I turn back around and he kisses my cheek. “Promise me something, though.”

  “What?”

  “You’ll always remember this moment. No matter what happens, you’ll remember how this feels. Because I know I’ll never forget.”

  I lace my fingers with his and lean my head back on his chest. “I promise.”

  And this is the moment I know I’m in love with Liam Anders.

  Liam

  Her head on my chest should be heavy. I should be nervous or worried that the girl I’m in love with, the girl I’ve been in love with forever, finally knows how I feel. And she’s finally admitted that she feels the same. But I’m anything but scared. I feel nothing but peace. A calm in the storm that is my life behind closed doors.

  She knows me better than anyone does, even better than her brother, Pierce, does. He’s my best friend, but she’s my … everything. It’s hard to explain how I can feel like this about someone. If I bring it up to one of my friends, they just laugh and make a joke about getting boners.

  “So, what happens now?” Her voice holds uncertainty, and I turn her so she can really see me.

  “Nothing changes, Meara. You’re you and I’m me. We’re just together now. I mean shit, we’re practically together all the time now as it is.”

  “Yeah, but do you think people—”

  “I don’t give a crap w
hat anybody thinks. Nobody. Do you hear me?” I have to remember that even she doesn’t know what I come from. She has no idea, and part of me hates that I feel like I’m lying to her, but the other part vows to never show her what I could become.

  Her eyes widen at my sudden anger and she nods. “Yeah.”

  “Good.”

  “What do you think Pierce is going to say?” She takes a huge breath and puts a hand to her throat. “Or Declan. Our mothers! My dad. Oh, my God, Lee. What are they going to say?”

  I chuckle and then kiss her on the nose. “They’ll be fine. They’re not stupid. Trust me, I’ve been punched more than once from your brothers for checking out your ass.”

  “You have not.” Her surprise makes her little nose scrunch up.

  “Meara, you’re beautiful. And even though you’re a tiny thing, you look older than you are. So yeah, I have. But I’d take a jab to the gut any day just to see your face.”

  She rolls her eyes and punches me playfully in the stomach. “Stop.”

  “What?”

  “Being so … so, romantic. I’m not used to it.”

  “I’m just telling you how I feel. If that’s romantic, then you better get used to it.”

  She quickly kisses me and jumps up and down a couple of times while clapping her hands. “I can totally get used to it.”

  Chapter 2

  Eighteen Years Old

  Liam

  “DAD? YOU HOME?” I shout as I push the front door open. The TV plays a baseball game in the background, but what catches my eye is the array of pure shit lying around. Nothing I’m not used to seeing, but his living conditions still make me nauseated. I never once wished that my parents got back together when they divorced when I was a baby. My mom definitely made the right decision. “Hello? Dad?”