Prologue
EXCERPT SUMMER LOVE AND STARLIT KISSES
PROLGUE
(Unedited and subject to change….)
George
3 years ago…
My phone lights up with Isabelle’s face as I glance down at it buzzing away on the desk. I grab it and slide to answer. “Iz,” I say, wondering why she’s calling me so late, or at all. We’ve never been known to chat, at least not over the phone close to midnight.
“George?” Her frantic tone has me sitting upright in my chair.
“Is everything okay?” I ask, taking a moment to realize she’s crying. “Iz?”
She sniffs down the line and now my pulse has suddenly gone from zero to one hundred. “I’m stranded,” she says, her voice breaking on the last syllable. “I was at the concert and I had a fight with my boyfriend—”
“Where are you?” I cut her off, pushing my chair out and reach for my keys.
“I didn’t know who else to call,” she goes on. “Mick was being a jerk to me and I couldn’t take it anymore. I told him we needed a break, and he just left me here.”
I let out a string of profanities under my breath that I would never normally say in front of a lady, especially Isabelle Lawless, the girl I’ve known forever. I’m sure she just heard every word, but I don’t give a shit right now. I need to get to her. “Where are you?” I repeat.
I’m already halfway out the door. I was about to head home for the night, anyway.
I’m the deputy sheriff in Alpine Falls, Wyoming, the place I was born and bred.
And while today has been a long day, my adrenaline has just been spiked hearing she’s stranded somewhere on her own at this time of night.
She reels off the address in Silver Pines and I know I can make the usual hour-long drive in way less time than that. Siren or no siren.
“Keep talking to me,” I say as I jog to my car. “Are you somewhere well lit? Are there still people around?”
“Yeah, I mean, they’re filtering out slowly. I just don’t wanna be here by myself, I’ll be here all night if I wait for an Uber. I couldn’t call Zane—can you imagine? Or my parents.”
“It’s okay. I’m on my way.”
“I’m so sorry, George. I didn’t know who else to call.”
“Don’t ever be sorry,” I say, feeling a protective surge wash over me.
My face instantly feels hot, my hands clammy.
The thought of her being stuck somewhere at midnight with none of her friends there, and her chump boyfriend—or maybe ex-boyfriend by now—leaving her like that makes me really fucking mad.
“Just hang tight. Is there a cafe, diner or something you can go to that’s in the main area with plenty of people?
” There’s safety in numbers, if my career in law enforcement has taught me anything, it’s that. Plain and simple.
“Yes,” she sniffs, “Just across the street there’s a Quickie Diner.”
“Go and wait there. Grab a coffee. I’ll be there by the time you’ve finished.”
“Thank you, George. I’m so sorry.” And she truly sounds it, though she has no reason to be. She’s my best friend’s little sister, it’s my duty to help her if and when she ever needs it. We may not see eye to eye, but that doesn’t mean I want any harm to come to her.
“Don’t ever be sorry. I’m glad you called. Sit tight.”
I make it there in forty-five minutes. My heart pounds like it’s going to jump out of my chest the entire way, but until I’m standing there in front of her and I see that not one hair on her head has been harmed, I can’t calm down.
We haven’t seen each other in a while, not since she’s been in college and moved away. Not that it’s far, but she only visits some weekends. And this isn’t the way I would have expected to see her again, but it is what it is.
I see her shoulder-length dark curls bobbing as she sits with her head in her hands as I approach.
Just before I get to the table, her back stiffens as if she senses something, and she looks up from warming her hands on her mug.
Beguiling hazel eyes find mine, and the tear-streaked face of an angel looks up. I ball a fist to my side and curse the fucker that hurt her and left her here. I’ll make it my business to find out where he lives and deal with him personally.
“Iz,” I manage softly.
She blinks and I see her lashes are wet from tears and her eyes are puffy and red.
Then she pushes herself out of her seat, flinging her arms around me, catching me off guard.
“I’m such an idiot!” she mumbles into my shirt.
“But I was really upset, I’m sorry,” she says again.
I wish she would stop apologizing, she hasn’t done anything wrong.
“It’s alright.”
“I also had a glass of wine at the concert,” she adds sheepishly, pulling back slightly. Her eyes cast down, her lashes dusting her cheekbones.
I frown, not just at the fact that she’s underage for starters—she turns twenty-one in a few months—but that her asshole boyfriend didn’t give a shit about what happened to her, especially when she’d been drinking.
“How are you feeling now?” I ask as she blinks rapidly and fidgets a little with her hands. “Iz?” I prompt.
“I just want to get out of here,” she says softly.
I nod and reach for her hand and turn for the door.
The warmth of her palm clings to mine as I lead her outside.
Once I’ve got her safely in the truck with her seatbelt on, I pause for a beat and start up the truck without asking too many questions just yet.
I want to know what happened, but I don’t want to upset her any more than she already is.
I’ve never seen her quite like this before.
“I think I should take you home to Alpine Falls for the weekend,” I say, knowing she lives in a shared apartment with another chick I forget the name of.
She nods, not protesting at all. Very un-Izzy-like.
We drive back in silence for a while. The darkness of the road spreads out before us, the headlights leading us home on the deserted road.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask after a while, stealing a glance across at her.
She pops a shoulder and rests her head back on the seat. “It’s been coming for a while,” she says with a sigh. “Mick is just in his own world half of the time. It’s not serious… well, I wanted it to be. But he wouldn’t…” she pauses and swallows, causing me to take my eyes off the road again.
“He wouldn’t…?”
A low breath escapes her, and she pinches the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “Nothing. Never mind.”
“Tell me,” I say. “Iz, please?” I need every scrap of detail I can find on this man, and he will be dealt with in due course.
“He wouldn’t wait for me,” she sighs, wafting her hand out in front of her. “To… you know.”
I frown, completely confused. “What?”
“To have sex.” Her exasperated tone isn’t lost on me and I open my mouth, but no sound comes out.
Maybe I’m just tired or something, but I wasn’t on that train of thought or expecting her to say that. But hearing it, my eyes are suddenly as wide as a deer caught in headlights. Geez, this is taking an unexpected turn. One I’m not even sure I should be privy to.
“He wasn’t pressuring you to do anything, was he?” I grit, feeling that bubble of anger surge in me from earlier when she first called me.
“No. Nothing like that,” she quickly says. “But I guess he was expecting something tonight after the concert. That wasn’t the only thing we were fighting about, but I wanted to wait for the right time.”
“It’s important to do that,” I say, not knowing what the hell I’m supposed to say to that, but how fucking dare him. “You should never feel like you have to do anything you’re not sure about.”
“But I’m almost twenty-one,” she groans. “All my friends are doing it, or have done it at least once before!”
“Wait—what?” Is she really saying what I think she is? When I glance at her, she slaps her hand over her mouth and shakes her head.
“Oh God, I have no filter tonight!”
I stumble for something to say, anything. But… I can’t seem to string one decent sentence together.
“I’m an idiot. You don’t need to know all that,” she whispers.
“Don’t say that, you’re not an idiot at all.”
“Can you please drop me off at Bailey’s place? My parents and Zane will only freak out if I roll up home in the middle of the night in a cop car.”
For the first time tonight, a chuckle escapes me. I’m still coming to terms with the fact she pretty much just told me she’s still a virgin. “Of course,” I say. “You’re not going to see that guy again, are you?”
“No!” she sputters.. “I’m off dating for life, George, mark my words.”
I don’t know why that feels like a weight lifted off my shoulders and my chest cavity suddenly feels lighter. I swallow and hope that it’s just tiredness setting in.
Isabelle and I have never had a thing. I’ve never even thought about it until, well, right now. She’s always been Zane’s little sister, nothing more. She needed my help tonight and I came. I did my duty as her protector for the night, but that’s as far as it goes.
When I pull up to Bailey’s front gates at Cedar Hollow Ranch; the acreage that her grandpa left for her, I come to a halt, knowing Bailey’s cottage is way down the property. You still can’t see it from the roadway. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask, letting my truck idle for a moment.
“I’m fine,” she sniffs. “I just hope you don’t hold this against me.”
I look at her swiftly. “I would never do that.”
“You’re such a good man, George. I’ve always admired that about you.”
I smile softly and almost don’t notice when she leans across the console between us.
Her fingertips touch my shoulder and I turn my head just as she goes to peck me on the cheek.
Our lips touch instead and I jerk back. It’s not intentional on her part—I don’t think, anyway.
But rather than either of us pull away, we both freeze with our lips still touching.
It’s a new phenomenon for me; I’ve always known she’s beautiful, I’m not blind, after all.
Isabelle is a girl I’ve grown up with, and being best friends with Zane, this has never crossed my mind before.
She was always annoying growing up, always wanting to be part of whatever we were doing.
But now sitting here in the dead of the night, surrounded by the cedar and pine trees that line Bailey’s property, and the familiar smell of pine cones, her soulful eyes shine in the moonlight, casting an even more beautiful glow over her glorious face.
“Iz,” I breathe against her mouth. She pushes her body forward, her lips planting more firmly onto mine.
The warmth of her mouth sends a sudden shot of adrenaline through my veins, like someone just kick-started me.
My body tightens in response—and not in a bad way—in a way that is forbidden.
Her mouth moves slowly against mine and my hand finds the back of her head, gently encouraging her forward, scrunching her curls between my fingers.
It’s hot, warm and seductive. Her soft moan echoes through me like a summer lightning storm, lighting me up from the inside out.
“George,” she breathes back without disconnecting fully from my lips.
Everything about her encapsulates me in this moment.
I feel like I’m in the warm cocoon of her very being.
Her hands around my neck feel like they were always meant to be there.
Her mouth made for me. This moment to be ours. Yet, it can’t be.
Then a thump on the roof breaks us out of our reverie, and we both jump at the same time. My foot slips off the brake and the truck lurches slightly before I can push it down again.
“Shit,” I mutter.
“I think that was a pine cone,” she giggles, sitting back slightly, but not fully.
She presses those dangerously luscious lips together when I don’t say anything. I scrub a hand over my face instead and let out a breath. “I’m sorry,” she says eventually.
I shake my head. “Don’t be, I shouldn’t have done that; kissed you back.”
“I meant for tonight,” she whispers. “Not for kissing you.”
“Your Zane’s baby sister, Iz. I can’t go there with you, it wouldn’t be right.”
Like a bolt of lightning strikes she sits up quickly, her back as straight as a rod. “You think I’m drunk, but I’m not,” she says. “I’ve had a crush on you since forever.”
Holy shit. “I-I don’t think you’re drunk,” I say. “And you’re beautiful, you know that. But…”
She sits back in her seat and folds her arms tightly across her chest like she’s hugging herself. “I get it. You’re not attracted to me in that way, and I just broke up with my boyfriend. I have baggage now. Can you please just keep going to Bailey’s?”
I stare at her for a moment but she won’t look at me. My eyes find the dusty track again, and I slowly let the car roll forward. “It’s not that at all,” I start but she shakes her head.
“You don’t have to be nice, I overstepped,” she says, and it sounds sad, even to me.
“I kissed you back,” I repeat so quietly I’m not even sure she hears me.
“It doesn’t matter. Thank you for the ride,” she says when we reach the front of Bailey’s place a few moments later. “Bails might kill me for waking her up so late, but I’ll make it up to her.”
“Iz,” I whisper. “You didn’t overstep.”
She totally ignores me, her face like a beautiful deer—so full of innocence and wonder—and now because of me, hesitation. “Goodnight, George.” She turns and touches my cheek gently with her palm, but what was between us a moment ago has passed. I feel it. “Thank you.”
“Good night, Isabelle.”
She exits the car quicker than I can blink, in a rush to get away from me now. What a fucking ass I am. But I didn’t want to take advantage of her when she just broke up with her boyfriend, plus she’s been drinking—anything between us has only been a thing in the last five minutes.
The wind feels like it’s been fully knocked out of my sails, however, and I thought nothing could do that being deputy sheriff. But some things you just can’t predict.