Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
CASSIE
“You’re joking, right?”
Chloe shrugs and then brushes her long blond hair off her face. She’s giving me that knowing look of hers, and I can’t help but laugh. “Forget it. No way.”
She smacks her hand on top of the wood tabletop in front of me as if she’s trying to get my attention. Which is crazy, because since she’s dropped her little bombshell, all I’ve done is stare at her and wonder what the heck she’s thinking.
She giggles. “Quit looking at me like that. It’s not a completely foreign idea. I mean, it’s not like I made up the whole concept. It’s a well-known fact, if you want to get over one man, you need to get under another.”
I gasp and look around the bar, hoping that no one is listening to Chloe and her asinine idea. She leans back on her stool and crosses her arms over her chest as she gives me a knowing gaze. “No one can hear me. We’re in a bar, Cassie. Chill out.”
I lean in and loudly whisper to her, “First of all, I’m a brand-new teacher in town. That’s all I need is for the Whiskey Run gossip grapevine to tell my principal—who hates me anyway—that I’m hooking up at the Whiskey Whistler.” I hold my hand up when Chloe starts to talk. “And don’t even try to convince me no one will know. I’m all too familiar with the way things spread here. And second of all, I’m over Richard. I was over him before he cheated on me.”
She doesn’t believe me. That much is obvious by the way she’s looking at me with pity on her face. I lean in. “I’m serious. I should have broken up with him a while back. Catching him with another woman just pushed me along.”
She tilts her head and searches my eyes before grabbing my hand and squeezing it. “Cassie, you don’t have to be strong with me. You can talk to me. I’m not judging you.”
I look around the bar. There aren’t many people that know the real me. Brook, my sister, probably knows me better than anyone. And then there’s Haven. She has been my best friend for so long she knows any time I’m trying to hide something, and she’s always quick to call me on my shit. And then there’s Chloe. We were close in high school but sort of lost touch since I went away to college. I’ve changed a lot in the last four years. I’m not the same woman I was when I left here.
I was insecure and never fit in anywhere. It could have been because my dad was the town drunk and left our family when I was twelve. He stayed in town causing a ruckus for the next three years before he finally left the area and hasn’t shown his face since. But the people of Whiskey Run haven’t forgotten it. It didn’t help that my mom was known as “the woman that changes husbands like she changes purses.”
So yeah, when I started college, I left Whiskey Run and swore to myself I would never come back. But here I am, four years later, living with my mom and her new husband, teaching at the local elementary school. I didn’t realize when I left that I would miss this small town and would find my way back here.
I blow out a breath. “Okay, Chloe, listen to me.”
She’s shaking her head. “It’s fine, Cass. Really. We don’t have to talk about it, I just want you to know I’m here when you’re ready to get it off your chest.”
I grab her hand to stop her from going on. “Listen, I promise, I’ve been over Richard for a while now.” I roll my eyes. “He’d been pressuring me to have sex with him since our second date, and I knew… I knew I didn’t want to lose my virginity to him—”
She cuts me off and exclaims loudly. “Your virginity!”
I lean over and smack my hand over her mouth. “Really? Really! Do you think you can say it a little louder because I don’t think the people heard you over at the pool tables.”
She’s shaking her head side to side. “But… but you’re what, twenty-two? How are you still… I mean, there’s nothing wrong with waiting… I guess I just assumed.”
I shrug. “Look, I’m not trying to be weird about it. I have trouble connecting with people—you know that about me—and well, I’m not doing THAT with someone unless I’m completely comfortable with them so yeah, I was not going to have sex with him.” I lift my shoulders up. “And that’s why he cheated on me. Or so he says. I know the truth, though: He’s an ass.”
Chloe is staring at me with her mouth hanging open. “Wow.”