Piece of my heart, p.1
Piece of My Heart, page 1
Piece of My Heart
Nicole Jacquelyn
New York Boston
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Nicole Jacquelyn
Excerpt from Unbreak My Heart © 2016 by Nicole Jacquelyn
Cover design by Faceout. Cover art by Trevillion.
Cover copyright © 2019 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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ISBNs: 978-1-5387-1188-0 (ebook), 978-1-5387-1189-7 (POD)
E3-20190530-DA-NF-ORI
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
Discover More
An Excerpt From Unbreak My Heart
About the Author
Also by Nicole Jacquelyn
For my mom and dad.
You’re the wind beneath my wings.
I don’t know what I’d do without you.
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Acknowledgments
To my kids, who are ridiculously patient and ridiculously proud. You guys have no idea how much your support means to me. I wouldn’t be who I am without you cheering me on. I love you.
To my parents, who supply the coffee and babysitting—I couldn’t do life without you. I’m so glad I’m your favorite child.
To my sister, who is always the first one to boost me up when I’m down and kick my ass when I need it. Thanks for the shove, sis. Thanks even more for the hugs.
To Nikki who has read everything I’ve ever written, usually more than once, and pushes me to be better every time. Your friendship has meant more to me than you’ll ever know.
To my agent and my editors, who worked tirelessly to get this book where it is today. Thank you so much for the support and patience you’ve shown me.
To Donna, who was the first blogger to spread the news about my work. You will always have a place in my acknowledgements. Thank you so much.
And thank you a million times to my readers. Without you, I wouldn’t get to support my family while doing something I love.
Chapter 1
ALEX
On the day I met the love of my life, I slept through my alarm, spilled coffee down the front of my uniform, forgot to bring running shoes, and had to run five miles in my boots, all before noon. By the end of the day, I was spent. All I wanted to do was go home and watch TV in my skivvies with a six-pack of beer in arm’s reach.
Just as I climbed into my truck, I remembered that I had agreed to be the wingman for my coworker Sean’s double date. I didn’t know the guy well, but since we’d be working together and potentially deploying together, I hadn’t felt like I could blow him off when he’d asked. Most of the other guys in our platoon were in serious relationships and couldn’t help him out when he’d gone around begging for the favor. I brought up Sean’s contact information in my phone and called him as I pulled out of the parking lot.
“Haven’t you been on a date with this chick before?” I asked as soon as Sean answered his phone.
“Hello, Alex,” he laughed. “Long time no see.”
“I didn’t catch you before you left the building,” I replied. “Haven’t you guys hung out already? Why am I going to this thing?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t wait, so we met up on Wednesday for drinks. I guess she’d already made plans with her friend for tonight, though, and she didn’t want to cancel.”
I opened my mouth to back out of the whole thing when Sean spoke again.
“You gotta come. This girl, she’s so hot,” he said. I could practically hear him smile through the phone.
“And you haven’t sealed the deal yet.”
“I never kiss and tell,” he lied. “But no. I like her and she’s not the type. Wants to hang out for a while first.”
“Hang out or date?” I asked, switching the phone to Bluetooth so I could drive. “Because there’s a difference.”
“There is?” he asked.
“You’re kidding, right?” I flipped on my blinker and headed toward the front gate of the fort. Living in town instead of on base had a lot of advantages, but the biggest disadvantage was that it took me twenty minutes to get home every day. I knew it could be worse, but I hated spending any time driving around. We had only a certain number of minutes on Earth, and I didn’t want to waste them.
“Yeah, man, I’m kidding,” Sean said. “We’re dating. I’m taking her out, not inviting her over for China Buffet takeout and zombie killing on the Xbox.”
“Killing zombies sounds like the perfect date to me, but it probably wouldn’t go over well with most women.”
“Meet us at six, all right?” Sean said, ignoring my comment. “And shower, yeah? You smelled like ass today.”
“I forgot fucking deodorant,” I replied. It was one of the hazards of sleeping through my alarm.
“Right,” he said. “Shower. Six o’clock at the sushi and steak place.” He hung up before I could reply.
“Shit,” I muttered, dropping my head back against the headrest. It looked like I was going out tonight after all.
By the time I got home it was closing in on five thirty. I stripped as I walked toward my bathroom, but carried the discarded clothes with me to the hamper and tossed them in. I’d realized not long after I’d moved out of my parents’ house that if I didn’t clean up my crap, I’d be living in a shithole.
After a quick shower and shave, I slapped on some deodorant and dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt. The place I was meeting Sean and the ladies wasn’t fancy. A T-shirt would have worked fine, but I rarely had the chance to dress nice, and women liked when you put in some effort. I laughed as I glanced in the mirror to make sure I looked presentable. My twin brother, Abraham, would have given me so much grief if he’d known I’d put in this much effort for a blind date.
Even before he’d hooked up with our foster sister, Ani—yeah, that happened—he’d rarely made much of an effort to date, and he would never in a million years go out with a woman sight unseen. Abraham and I were opposites in almost every way, and if he knew just how many blind dates I’d gone on in the past few years, he’d shit his pants. Bram would rather have a root canal then spend the evening making small talk with a stranger.
By the time I pulled up in front of the steak house and parked my truck, exhaustion was hitting me hard. It had been a long week, and for the first time in a long time, I dreaded making nice with someone I didn’t know. Usually I was up for anything, but damn, I was tired.
I forced myself toward the entrance of the restaurant and pulled open the front door, smiling politely when I caught sight of Sean and his date waiting for their table.
“Hey, Alex,” Sean called in greeting, even though we’d already made eye contact and he’d wiggled his eyebrows. “This is Hailey.”
“Hi, Hailey.” I smiled wide, making Sean’s expression flatten as he stepped a little closer to her. “Nice to meet you.”
I always did that—grinned real big and stared directly into the eyes of my friend’s date. You could tell a lot about a person during a first impression, and I always knew from that initial look if a woman was into my friend.
I was good-looking and I knew it. Tan skin, even white teeth, and eyelashes that annoyingly flicked against the lenses of my sunglasses. As far as I was concerned, it was a freak of genetics that didn’t really matter, but I still used it to my advantage when I could. I wasn’t stupid. Currently I was using those freak genetics to charm my friend’s girl.
When Hailey tilted her head toward Sean just slightly, I relaxed a little. When she laughed at his reaction I relaxed more.
“Of course,” I said, like I hadn’t been thinking about a reason to bail for the last hour. I looked around the area we were standing in but didn’t see her friend. “Am I making this a third-wheel situation?”
“No.” Hailey shook her head and grimaced a little.
“Her friend’s running late,” Sean said, just as the hostess called his name. “She said she’ll be here as soon as she can, though.”
I nodded and shrugged. The place smelled damn good as we made our way through the tables, and my stomach growled, reminding me that I’d missed lunch. I eyeballed the sushi being prepared, and my mouth watered.
It wasn’t until we’d sat down and ordered drinks that I realized we’d have to wait for Hailey’s friend to get there before we could order. The good mood I’d been enjoying vanished, but I kept a polite expression on my face. I chatted with Sean about work and told Hailey some mildly embarrassing stories, but I couldn’t help but keep glancing at my watch. Jesus, I was starving. Fifteen minutes passed, then thirty, and as we got close to the hour mark, even the waitress started getting a little annoyed.
Finally, about fifty minutes after we’d sat down, a petite woman with long brown hair dropped into the chair next to me.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said breathlessly. “There was an armadillo in the road, and I couldn’t just leave it.”
My interest was piqued at the sound of her husky voice, but it solidified when the woman turned toward me and I saw her face. Dark-brown eyes, a mole on her cheekbone, a sharp nose, full lips. There was a gap between her two front teeth when she gave me a small smile.
Holy fuck.
“I’m Sarai,” she said, lifting her hand politely for me to shake.
I froze like a twelve-year-old who had just gotten caught staring at the pretty lifeguard at the neighborhood pool.
“This is Alex,” Sean said, laughter in his voice.
“I’m Alex,” I mimicked, shaking her hand and then letting go as if it were on fire. Oh, that was real smooth. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Nice to meet you, Alex,” she said politely.
She turned back to the table, and I immediately wanted to poke her or pull her hair or make a joke. Anything to get her to turn those big brown eyes my way. The only problem was that my tongue seemed to be glued to the roof of my mouth.
I wasn’t that guy. I didn’t see a pretty face and clam up. I didn’t stumble over my words or make an ass of myself. I was cool. Collected. Charming as fuck. Women loved me.
“Don’t worry about it,” Hailey said with a wave of her hand.
“How’s the armadillo?” I asked at the same time.
“It’s dead,” Sarai replied.
I almost laughed. She’d said it so matter-of-factly, like I should have known the answer before I’d ever asked the question.
“And you still stopped?” I said, my lips twitching.
“Well, someone has to call it in,” she said with a shrug. “You can’t just leave dead animals on the road.”
“Right,” I replied.
“So I stopped and dragged it off the road and waited for someone to come get it.”
I glanced at her hands.
“Don’t worry—I washed them,” she said. Smiling, she lifted her hands from the table and wiggled her fingers.
“Would you like something to drink?” the waitress asked just as Sarai’s hands rested on the table again. I hadn’t even noticed the woman walk up.
“Just water, please,” Sarai answered. The waitress scowled.
“She’s pissed because you were so late and now you’re ordering a free drink,” I said to Sarai as I met the waitress’s eyes. I had meant it as a joke, but when I looked back at my date, her eyes were wide in disbelief and I realized how the words sounded.
Sean gave me a what the fuck scowl, and I grimaced, shrugging my shoulders before looking away. I was completely botching what should have been an enjoyable dinner. To be fair, I wasn’t the only person at fault. I hadn’t been the one who’d shown up late.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered, running a hand down my face. “I didn’t mean that toward you. I mean, you were late, but I wasn’t trying to call you out.”
“You just keep talking,” Sarai said, her lips tipping up in a small smile. “But you’re not making it any better.”
“I’ll shut up,” I replied immediately. Then, like a complete jackass, I lifted my fingers and mimicked zipping my mouth closed.
Sarai laughed and looked back across the table at Hailey, dismissing me. I closed my eyes for a moment in disbelief.
I needed to turn this shit around. I waited for my moment, quietly observing the two women as they talked about their classes and professors.
“What’s your major?” I asked Sarai quietly as Sean finally captured Hailey’s attention again.
“I’m getting my MBA,” she replied. “I graduate in the spring.” She grinned and did this little celebration motion with her hands. I relaxed a little. If I could just keep her talking, maybe I could salvage her opinion of me. If nothing else, at least she’d think I was a good listener.
“Damn,” I said. “That’s a lot of school.”
“Well, I took a couple of years off after high school,” she replied. “So it hasn’t seemed too bad.”
“Oh yeah?”
“It turns out,” she said softly, leaning toward me as if she were telling me a secret, “college is expensive.”
I chuckled and she grinned.
“No kidding,” I replied. “I was never very good at the whole school thing.”
“Why is that?”
“Class clown,” I said, pointing to myself. “I was too busy making sure everyone else wasn’t paying attention to learn anything.”
“Ah,” she said knowingly.
“It’s a curse.” I shrugged.
“I’m guessing the Army beat that out of you,” she said, turning toward me a little.
“The drill sergeants didn’t find me amusing,” I replied drily.
“I bet.” She laughed.
Hailey said something, pulling Sarai’s attention back across the table. Damn, just when we were getting somewhere.
We ordered our meals, and thankfully I didn’t embarrass myself again. There was something about the woman sitting next to me that made me all nervous and twitchy. I wanted so badly to make a good impression that I psyched myself out.
I watched her while we ate, trying not to seem creepy. I couldn’t help myself. Everything she did, every move she made, seemed…dainty. I’d never used that word before in my life, but it fit. Her table manners were impeccable; meanwhile, my sushi rolls were falling from my chopsticks with alarming regularity.
“Do you need help with that?” she finally asked as I tried and failed to get a roll into my mouth.
“No,” I mumbled, putting a hand in front of my mouth to hide the food hanging out of it. “No, thank you.”
“I have just the trick,” she said, lifting one finger in the air.
I sheepishly put my chopsticks in her hand when she gestured for them. I watched in fascination as she folded the wrapper from her straw and set it between the chopsticks, then wrapped a tiny rubber band from inside her purse around the whole thing.
“See?” she said, squeezing the chopsticks on one end so they opened and closed at the other end. “Magic.”
“Did you just put training wheels on my chopsticks?” I asked in disbelief.
Sarai’s eyes widened innocently as she pressed her lips together. “Yes?”
“I think I love you,” I replied, wiggling my fingers. “Let me try them.”
The woman was a genius.
“Better?” she asked, watching as I easily grabbed a roll.
“Jesus, Evans,” Sean said, scoffing. “I can’t take you anywhere.”
“I’m taking these home with me,” I replied, opening and closing them a few times.
Ground rules for wingmen in our circle meant that I was getting a free dinner. Since Sean was the one trying to impress his date, it was his responsibility to pay. I’d given up beer and video games to help him out; it was the least he could do.
Unfortunately, Sean seemed to have missed that memo and didn’t reach for the check when the waitress set it on the end of our table after we’d finished eating. I gritted my teeth as I watched him smile widely at something Hailey said. I glanced down at the check and then back at him as Sarai grabbed her purse and started rifling through it. Sean still didn’t pick the damn thing up. Finally, just as Sarai found her wallet and pulled it out of her purse, I reached past her and snatched the bill up.
