What Endures (37 page)

Jason smiled. “And my plan to have you meet me here instead of the beach house suddenly has a huge flaw.”

She chuckled. “Didn’t quite think that through hmm?”

He jangled his keys. “Car’s right over there.”

“Oh, pretty confident there aren’t you?”

The look he gave her made her very hot on an already warm summer day. “Very,” he said with his trademark smirk.

She considered dragging their verbal jousting out for a bit longer, but one look at him made that idea fly right out of her head. Besides, it had been a long, hard few months and all their stop and starts had only served to make her desire burn hotter, more intensely. It was already a pretty long drive back to the beach house, assuming they could control themselves for that long.

“Why are we still standing here then?” she asked, reaching for his hand. Their laughter echoed behind them as they raced for his car. Pure, joyous laughter, fueled by hearts finally free of questions and doubts. Hearts joined by the enduring memory of the love they share.

Fin.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

They say that writing is a solitary experience. While the act of writing may be a solitary experience, the process of publishing a book is a communal effort. As such, I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who have helped bring this book to life.

In no particular order. . .

To my family for their love and support, and for allowing me to live inside my head so often.

To my friends for always being there for me and for encouraging me to chase my dreams. They say your friends are the family you choose for yourself, so thank you for being my second family.

To Samantha Dellinger for her wonderful work on the beautiful cover. Thanks for your patience as I navigated the very steep learning curve that came with publishing my first book! You managed to capture a vision that for a long time, only I could see. Thank you also for going the extra step and helping me navigate the more technical aspects of creating a cover.

To everyone at the FWC. How we found each other was not ideal, but I am thankful that we did. Thank you for all the support and shared laughter in the most difficult of times. Thank you for helping me to do this, from helping me with the blurb, to reading the book and giving me honest feedback, and for promoting the book. Or even talking me down when I was eyeing the panic button. You guys rock!

To Cindy Young Buckley for being such an amazing beta reader and editor. Thank you for reading the manuscript with a fine tooth comb and picking out all the typos. I appreciated your ‘grammar Nazi’ skills and helping to make this story really flow. If there are any typos left, that’s solely my fault and not yours!

To Claudia Rodgers who was one of the first people to convince me to really write, not just for fun, but in a serious way. Thank you for your friendship and being the best MEE ever!

And last but not least, to my partner-in-crime, Anat Samid. A best friend usually gets an obligatory acknowledgement in a book but you really deserved this one. Thank you for always believing in me, for reading outside your normal genre, for your blunt honesty when I needed it, and most of all, for pushing me to do this. I could not have done this without you!
Now
, can I have a cookie?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katie Lee has had a lifelong love affair with books. She fell in love with her first book in the second grade and hasn’t looked back since. She first took up writing as a hobby, wanting to craft her own magical adventures, and through the love and encouragement of family and friends, decided to get serious about writing and share her stories with the world.

She currently resides in Maryland in the United States. She works for the government during the day, and her spare time is devoted to writing. She gains inspiration from all sorts of things, but mostly from the fun and adventurous trips she takes when she can.

She loves hearing from her readers so drop her a note! She can be found in the following places (when not writing or curled up in bed with a good book!)

E-mail – [email protected]

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Blog – http://www.katieleeauthor.blogspot.com

Twitter – @KatieLeeAuthor