It had been the longest day in the history of long days, and she felt as if she was losing everything. Somehow she had found herself head deep in the closet, sorting through all of Preston’s clothing. She couldn’t believe how dull and uninspired her reaction was, or how completely callous and unc...
She dressed up the dark-colored walls and industrial-quality carpet with bright posters of famous artwork and crazy rugs. Tiny, intricately folded origami swans hung and spun from the ceiling fan. What looked to be a secondhand sofa was embellished with a hand-knitted blanket in every color of th...
Lucas was staying with Trent for the night. And Mrs. Parker, Sophie’s best friend Riley’s mother, was to pick Sophie up after her piano practice and keep her overnight. Haley only wondered what Marissa would think of their absence – not only the kids’, but hers and Preston’s as well. She didn’t r...
She’d achieved what she set out to do, and she’d told me I could do anything, too. Sure, maybe if I’d been in the country legally, had papers to prove that I had a right to work here, maybe I really could do anything. But right now, I was stuck at the club. T...
I rolled myself out of bed to cook breakfast for both Jennet and Luke — when I could manage it, of course. Marcus had enabled the first tuition payment, but there would be another for the second semester — and many more after that, if St. Anthony’s turned out to be as good for Luke as I hoped it ...
I knew I would have to play hooky from the ranch in order to devote as much time as was necessary to the project with Peyton, and I thought about how I’d manage that, too. But my head was full of dreams, and for the first time in a long time, I was really excited about everything, launching mysel...
She watched the broad sky lighten from deep purple to soft gray, as night shift smoothly into morning. Her window was cracked, causing a loud whistling rush to fill her ears. The air was cool, unlike anything she had experienced in the city for the past three months. It had to be from all the tre...
“Oh, Shimmy. Oh, thank God.” “Jazz?” “Where are you?” “I’m staying with a—with a friend,” I said, sitting up in bed and feeling groggy. Tyler had disappeared to parts unknown; his condo was silent. “What’s going on?” “It’s your apartment,” Jasmine said. “It burned sometime last night. The firefig...
I shadowed Cocoa for a few nights, happy to be in her shadow and not having to leap right in before I had a chance to observe. I watched her flirt with the customers, winking coquettishly, and moving heaven and earth to bring them their hearts’ desires. It amazed me to watch Cocoa turn her switch...
If you lived in the city proper, there was little need for a car. Living in the suburbs with Jeff and Brenda had been what I’d needed to heal, but I missed being in the heart of New York. Once, we’d taken a train from the house for the girls to see the gigantic Christmas tree at Rockefeller Cente...
Jonathan said, his words waking me up. “Think we can manage that?” “The chickens,” I said, my voice still thick with slumber. I realized that I was lying on Jonathan’s chest and that we were both naked. Had we really been so tired after our shower last night that we hadn’t...
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My life had been too full of tragedy for something as simple as that. But it was still difficult to put on a brave face and smile and pretend that all this was about me. The venue was so gorgeous, but I only knew a handful of people. The person who mattered most to me in...
I was bone tired and didn’t feel like having doctors poke or prod at me. It was even easier to not go the next morning. And the next. If I didn’t see any changes in myself, the fact that I was carrying a child was easy to ignore. The fact that I actually was pregnant hit me hard after I missed my...
It was so bright she had to squint, slowly allowing the brightness into her eyes in order to glance around the room. The white walls were glaring, so she pinched her eyes closed for a moment, getting her bearings. Her walls were normally dull yellow, not whit...
My shoes weren’t made for walking, and my uniform was too flimsy to withstand the chill of New York streets in the winter. When I saw the shelter, the lights warming the sidewalk in front of it, I almost passed it by. I didn’t want to be like one of the zombies I saw in th...
At the beginning, my only misgivings came from the way the cab driver had introduced me to the place—or the fact that I was still shocked at fleeing from Jimmy and what he’d done to me. But when I got out of the taxi that first night, my tote bag full of the only belonging...