Here's what the boxed set is about: Ten powerful YA heroines kicking butt and fighting for love.
10 novels. 1 buck.
10 novels. 1 buck.
Do it.
Click on each author's name to learn more about them and their individual books.
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Jas and Zach were waiting for us in the lobby of the restaurant.
“Hey guys!” Jas’s face lit up when she saw us.
“Hi Jas. Hi Zach,” I said.
“Hello,” Alex’s deep voice was seductive even to me. I couldn’t imagine the effect it was having on Jasmine.
Zach exchanged a head-nod with Alex and Jasmine smiled shyly. “Hi Alex. I’m glad you guys could come with us tonight.” Jas was being overly cordial and chewing her bubble gum like she was in a race. I hadn’t seen her so antsy since we were almost caught toilet papering the yard of our high school math teacher.
“Me too,” Alex said.
The hostess took some menus from her stand and we followed her to a table in the corner of the pizzeria. The smell of garlic, bread, and cheese permeated the air as we scanned the menus and placed our order. Zach immediately asked the server for a Pepsi; it was the only thing he ever drank and he was fanatical about it. Even though he wasn’t at our house much, we always kept a twenty-four pack of Pepsi chilling in the fridge for him.
While we waited for our food, Zach asked Alex all the general getting-to-know-you questions that I’d asked him when we first met. Alex reciprocated with questions for Jasmine and Zach.
The server brought our food and we talked as we ate. Alex asked Jasmine and Zach how they met. That conversation eventually led to Jasmine’s observations about my dating life.
“You’re definitely an improvement,” Jas said to Alex. His expression was curious, inviting her to go on. “Evie doesn’t have the best luck with guys,” she explained.
“Hey!” I said, trying to defend myself. “They haven’t all been bad.”
“Oh, really? Let’s see,” she raised her eyes as she thought. “There was the guy obsessed with jerky. Remember the theme card he made you for Valentine’s Day? When you opened it, it mooed.” She shuddered as she thought about it. “Or the one who asked you to prom with the stipulation that he be allowed to drive you there in your own car.” Jas leaned forward on the table looking straight at me, “And let’s not forget the holy grail of asshats: Luke,” she said, turning her attention back to Alex. “I could tell you stories about that idiot for hours. One of my favorites was when he told her he didn’t have time to deal with her feelings so she should think through her emotions and journal it, then get back to him when she wasn’t so pissy.”
A muscle under Alex’s eye pulsed as he smiled in a way that said he wasn’t at all amused. “Guys like that don’t deserve someone like Evie. In fact,” he paused, as if considering whether or not to continue, “if I’d been there, I would have dumped a glass of lemonade on his head.”
My mouth fell open a little. I looked at Jasmine to see her wearing the same shocked expression as me. After a few seconds, Jasmine regained her composure. “Actually, that’s exactly what Evie did,” Jasmine said. “Only she was drinking Sprite at the time.” Jasmine assessed Alex warily. “How did you know that?”
Alex’s mouth slid into a sly smile. “Lucky guess,” he said, picking up his glass and taking a drink. When he finished, he put the glass on the table and continued his explanation, “Throwing your drink on a guy isn’t a new concept. Girls do it all the time in movies and TV shows.”
Still stunned, I flicked my eyes back and forth between Jasmine and Alex. Jasmine clearly wasn’t convinced. Alex leaned on the table and laughed, “Or maybe I’m psychic,” he said, waving his fingers to lighten the mood.
Zach snorted. “If so, I need your help with my Fantasy Football team roster.”
Alex put his fingertips to his temples like he was divining the answer. “Can’t go wrong with Drew Brees,” Alex said. He grabbed the check the waiter had left and went up to the counter to pay for our food. Zach started to follow him but Alex told him not to worry about it, he was buying everyone’s dinner.
As soon as Alex was out of earshot, Zach said, “I like him, Evie.” He nodded to indicate Alex had passed some sort of man test. “He’s a good guy.” Zach leaned back in his chair. “I’ve never heard that story. Did you really dump Sprite on Luke’s head?”
“Of course she did! He deserved every drop,” Jasmine answered for me, waving Zach off. She put her elbows on the table, directing her attention back to me like Zach wasn’t even there. “Don’t you think it’s weird Alex mentioned that?” she asked.
I shrugged, still trying to make sense of it myself.
Jas kept talking, “I mean, it’s strange he’d say something so close to what actually happened.”
Before I could answer, Alex was back. “Are you ready to go?”
“Sure.” I got up from the table. Jas and Zach followed me. Alex held my hand and we walked in silence to the parking lot.
“Thanks, for going to dinner with us,” I said to Jas and Zach. “I had a lot of fun.”
“Yeah, we’ll have to do it again soon,” Alex suggested.
“That sounds great,” Jas answered as she opened the door to Zach’s Grand Cherokee.
“I’m adding Brees to my team as soon as I get home,” Zach said. He waved and hopped into the driver’s seat.
Alex once again opened my door for me, and I got in the Audi. Alex made his way to the driver’s side, started the car, and we drove in silence for a few minutes until I couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “It was lemonade, not Sprite.”
Alex slid a glance toward me, his expression giving nothing away. “What are you talking about?”
“I dumped lemonade on Luke’s head, not Sprite. Jasmine was wrong. But you weren’t.”
Alex gave a short laugh. “Really?” he asked, paying more attention than usual to his blinker as he pushed it down. “That’s a funny coincidence.”
I widened my eyes. “A coincidence? That’s your explanation?”
As we rolled to a stoplight, he draped his hand over the steering wheel and pegged me with a hard stare. “What else could it be, Evie?”
I put my hands out in front of me, palms up. “You tell me.”
Alex shifted his eyes away from mine. “Maybe you told me about it and forgot.”
I knew I hadn’t. Unless I was mocking him with Jasmine, Luke wasn’t a subject I cared to talk about. “I have an excellent memory. And I never told you that story.”
Alex snorted. “It’s not like you remember every second of every conversation we’ve ever had.”
I lifted my shoulders, looking at him in challenge. He watched me and gave a humorless laugh. “Memory is a complicated thing. You’d be surprised at the things you forget.”
“Try me,” I dared.
Alex clenched his jaw and seemed to be thinking, but didn’t say anything. We pulled into the driveway of my house. Alex opened the car door for me—again.
We walked up to the front door and, like always, he held out his hand for my keys. Alex opened the door and flipped the living room light on. I stepped into the house; he followed me, still silent. He sat on the couch as I went to the phone to check the voicemail. I put my purse down, my back toward Alex, and played the messages. There was a call from my mom, of course—she must have gotten my email—and another from someone looking for Jasmine. I wrote the message on a pad of paper next to the phone and hit the erase button.
I stood in front of the phone, wondering if Alex would continue our conversation. I took a deep breath, then turned around and gasped. Alex was inches from me, waiting. I hadn’t even heard him walk over. I should have at least felt that he was behind me. I was generally so good about knowing when someone was in my personal space.
I looked into his eyes—they seemed to be on fire, not with anger, but something else. Suddenly our lemonade / memory discussion seemed a lot less important. Alex grabbed me around my waist, slowly guiding me until my back was pressed against the living room wall. He placed his hands palms down on the wall next to both of my shoulders. Even if I had wanted to move, and I didn’t, it would have been impossible. I could smell his rustic cedar scent as he shifted his head toward mine and moved his right hand to the back of my neck. As he leaned into me, he whispered something that sounded like, “Let’s see if you remember this.” Before I knew it, his lips, the lips I had dreamed about every day since we sat together at the mountain lake, were on mine, pressing hard against my mouth, merging with his. The kiss was aggressive, but still gentle, his lips soft and warm, and my back tingled with a familiar heat that was quickly getting a lot hotter.