The Refrain (The Bridge Series) (29 page)

She hastily laces her shoes and runs down the stairs, so quickly in fact, she stumbles on the last step. Rebecca shakes it off and dashes into the kitchen to fetch a glass of water and a chunk of ice. Rebecca makes her way down the steps of the stoop and onto the street, swiping the sweat from her brow before Thomas notices.

Thomas stops digging and leans against his shovel. “Good morning, Rebecca.”

“Thomas, you’re insane!”

Smiling, Thomas humbly shrugs his shoulders. “I wanted you to have a tree – is that insane?”

Rebecca hands the glass of water to Thomas, watching him as his mouth touches the rim of the glass. Just like before with the lemonade, Thomas’ lips amaze her – she wants to feel them. After a discreet glance at his muscular torso, she quickly moves her focus to the maple sapling. “It’s the perfect gift – now it feels like home,” Rebecca states.

Thomas squats next to the small tree and holds one of the branches. “Do you know this tree will be here hundreds of years from now – this very spot – from this exact moment?”

Rebecca’s lips part, anxious and intrigued by the significance of the statement. “What moment?”

Thomas stands and slowly inches toward her. “Our moment.”

Thomas stares at her mouth – Rebecca closes her eyes – both of them anticipating their first kiss . . . but not their last.

Last March, a powerful concert at the Beacon Theater in New York City sparked an idea. A few months later, that idea became the profound and narrative wisdom of Chloe LeGrange Ford.

Holy crap . . .

The Bridge Series gave me a purpose . . . a year-long adventure following a decade-old dream, wrought with insight and appreciation. I still don’t know how to spell restaurant without using autocorrect. I have no idea what .mobi for eBook actually stands for. I’m not sure what pixels and the width of a spine have to do with creating a book cover. And I’ll never know why readers pick my books out of the thousands available.

But this is what I know: Nick Fantini and Erika Stokes have been with me since the beginning, and do wonderful jobs in making my neurotic demands look pretty. What’s a book without a cover? A manuscript. What’s a book without a formatter? A piece of crap. Jamie Beshears, thank you for pushing me, cheering me on, and genuinely being happy about this journey. You are a great friend, and I’m not sure if I would’ve typed those first words without your encouragement, and for that, many thanks. Ceilidhe Wynn Coxford, you’re the cutest hoser I know. Thank you for the following things: writing and performing the songs
Olive You
and
The Ballad
, the many late nights of laughter, and for teaching me the appropriate Canada-isms. I will now thank you thrice . . . thank you, thank you, thank you. Nicki DeStasi and Karen D’Erasmo, thank you for taking the time to beta-read. I often live inside my characters’ heads, and both of you helped me get The Refrain to a reader-friendly level. Liis McKinstry, thank you for understanding my objective. To my author friend, Alison Bailey, thank you for being so kind and supportive. I knew you were my writing soul mate as soon as you mentioned Funyuns.

Thank you to all my supporters from the very beginning – friends and strangers loving my work and demanding more. To Les Femmes du Pont – when I make it big, your names will remain on the top of my gratitude list. But if I make it really big, who knows? I joke.

Be prepared, the acknowledgments are about to get really sappy. Mom and Dad, thank you for everything. My fictional characters have healthy relationships with their parents because
I’ve
been blessed with great parents. Thank you to my children for encouraging me and remaining patient all those months with takeout and dirty laundry. And to my husband . . . I and love and you, always. Thank you for taking me to that concert.

Hey y’all! I’m Ashley Pullo, a New York transplant with an abundance of Texas charm and a proclivity for all things pop-culture. I like to think that I’m witty, gorgeous and highly intelligent but honestly, I’m not that funny. I’m a suburban mom living the dream with my handsome husband, two perfect children and our moderately cool dog, Roscoe. Life is pretty awesome, and you taking the time to read my novel made it that much sweeter!

If you like me, please follow me on Facebook, twitter or around the grocery store. I love interacting with people and welcome new friendships.

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