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 © 2018 by Erin Kern
Excerpt from Winner Takes All Copyright © 2016 by Erin Kern
Cover image © Tim Robbins—Mint Images/GettyImages.
Cover design by Elizabeth Stokes.
Cover copyright © 2018 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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First Edition: March 2018
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ISBNs: 978-1-4555-3601-6 (mass market), 978-1-4555-3602-3 (ebook)
E3-20180214-NF-DA
Contents
Cover
Title
Copyright
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
About the Author
Also by Erin Kern
A Preview of Winner Takes All
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
Newsletters
One
Audrey Bennett had been on the road for almost seven hours. The two extra double-shots she’d hastily tossed back with a chocolate scone at daybreak had long since worn off, leaving her with the jittery aftereffects of a caffeine crash. As a rule, she usually avoided caffeine, simply because her nerves were almost always edging on this side of shot. Not that Audrey had issues with anxiety. Usually. But, thanks to both her parents being type A personalities with a bit of OCD thrown in, Audrey rarely understood the meaning of calm, cool, and collected.
So yeah. Coffee had been a bad choice.
Audrey glanced in the rearview mirror at her passenger, who’d been alternating between sleeping and talking to her stuffed cat Jellybean, which had long since turned from its original pink to a questionable brown. Audrey had meant to wash it, but Piper had yanked the cat from Audrey’s hand with a trembling lip that had cut straight to Audrey’s already broken heart. Because Piper had been through so much lately, the loss of her mother to cancer and being forced to move away from her home to live with an uncle she’d never met, Audrey had let the subject of washing the putrid stuffed animal rest.
A sign for the Blanco Valley city limits came into view, and Audrey practically cried tears of relief. Or maybe pain, because her legs had gone numb about an hour ago.
“Are we almost there?” Piper asked from the backseat.
Audrey glanced in the rearview mirror and offered a comforting smile. Piper had Jellybean wrapped in one small arm, and the other was playing with the hem of her shorts.
“Almost, sweetie.”
“I’m bored,” Piper announced.
Audrey ground her teeth together and reminded herself to be patient. The poor girl had been in the car as long as Audrey had: a miserable seven hours.
She made a left turn and followed the directions toward the high school football stadium. “Why don’t you watch your movie again?”
“I don’t want to,” Piper answered.
“Okay,” Audrey said, searching her brain for something for Piper to do. “What about one of the books you brought?”
“I already looked at all them,” Piper offered.
Well, shit.
“Audrey?” Piper asked.
Audrey’s heart cracked open again at the child’s soft tone. Piper had been through a whirlwind of emotions the past few weeks, alternating between crying and asking when her mommy was coming back. Audrey had cried with her and tried answering her question as best she could, but how could a six-year-old understand about death? Did she understand it was permanent? Did Piper know she’d never see her mother again? Never hear her voice, or hug her or hear Dianna tell her little girl everything was going to be okay?
Audrey gripped the steering wheel harder at the unfairness of the situation. Piper was a sweet, loving, outgoing girl who’d lost her only parent and would be forced to live the rest of her life wondering why. Why she didn’t have a family. Why she didn’t have a mom to tuck her in at night or teach her how to wear makeup. Piper deserved the very best. She deserved to feel safe and loved and whole.
“Is my uncle Cameron nice?” Piper asked when Audrey hadn’t responded to her.
Audrey swatted away the fresh tears that almost fell. “I don’t know, sweetie. I’ve never met him.”
“Why can’t I stay with you?”
Audrey sighed at the question Piper had asked a dozen times already. As much as she’d love, and give anything, to keep Piper with her, it just wasn’t possible.
She spared the child a glance in the rearview mirror. “Honey, we talked about this, remember? Your mom wanted you to stay with family.”
“But you’re my family,” Piper argued.
The statement pulled a smile from Audrey. “Not in the way your mom meant.”
The poor girl didn’t understand any of it. She didn’t understand why her mom had died, and she didn’t understand why she had to live with an uncle she’d never met. But Dianna had been explicit in her wishes. She’d awarded custody to her half brother, Cameron Shaw, and she wanted Audrey to deliver Piper. To help make the transition easier, she’d said. Audrey didn’t understand it either, but Dianna didn’t have any other family, and Piper’s dad had never been in the picture. Audrey’s job was simply to deliver Piper to her uncle and stay until Piper was comfortable with the man.
But what kind of man was he? Audrey’s brow furrowed as she came to a red light. From what she knew, Dianna and Cameron
