Edge of Falling (Pine Springs #3)

Prologue

One small lie was all it took to upend Avery Delgado’s life.

OK, maybe it wasn’t that small. Not the appetizer or dessert on the menu of lies, but nowhere near a seventy-two-ounce steak dinner either. It was a sizable side or small entree. The tater tot casserole of a lie.

And if she was strictly honest—which Avery usually tried to be—the lie that she chose to tell at seventeen years old was a bit of a “fuck you” to her parents.

To her dad, who seemed to have forgotten how to tell the truth.

And to her mom, who liked to judge other people for their poor decisions, when it was evidently so easy to make all the right choices. Like she had—by marrying Avery’s father and securing herself a privileged lifestyle in one simple step.

If Avery hadn’t seen Tanner Stone crash his truck that day in a rain-soaked school parking lot, she’d never have had to choose between truth or lie anyway.

If she’d been able to find her keys inside the messy jumble of her tote bag, she’d have unlocked her car, climbed in, and driven home.

She may have cursed a little at the weather and reached out to flick on the heater, but her life would have carried on along the same narrow track as always.

Generally blessed. Emotionally limited. Pretty standard.

Probably.

But sometimes it was the truth that hurt. And the truth had the power to steal dreams and destroy lives.

So Avery told the lie that would change everything.