I laughed at her reference to Evie being a perfect Jake replica. “She’s good.” Glancing past her, I saw Jason holding Emma Grace while Mom and the Asshole talked.
Presley and Jonathan breezed in the backdoor then, loaded down with shopping bags. At the sight of me, Presley gave a beaming smile. “Hey Noah. Glad you could make it.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
When Presley opened her mouth to say something else, Evie gave a loud cry and began squirming in my arms. With her hands full, Jonathan quickly deposited his bags on the counter and took Evie from me. She immediately stopped crying.
I quirked my brows at him. “I never knew you were such a natural with babies,” I teased.
An amusing flush entered his cheeks. “It’s not that. She just knows me better than you,” he replied, cradling Evie to his chest.
“Okay everyone, let’s sit down to eat,” Mrs. Nelson instructed.
As we crowded around the dining room table, I still couldn’t help but feel Jake’s absence. I wanted to hear his laughter and his voice echoing through the room. With a resigned sigh, I eased down in my chair next to Maddie. Sensing my emotions, she reached over and squeezed my hand.
Before we started eating, the Asshole stood up in his chair. “I just wanted to thank you all for coming out today to honor the one year anniversary of Jake’s death.” Surprisingly his voice wavered for a moment. “It means so much that Jake’s memory is still being kept alive by those who loved him, and that he will live on not just in his beautiful daughter, but through all of his family and friends.”
I tried not to let my mouth fall open in shock at the Asshole’s sincere comments. “So raise your glass, even though it’s only tea and coke, to Jake.”
I grabbed my glass and hoisted it in the air. “To Jake,” Mr. Nelson said.
“To Jake,” we all replied in unison.
***
Later Maddie and I lay tangled in each other’s arms on the couch watching a movie. Mom and Greg were at work, and Emma Grace was fast asleep. “You know our one year anniversary is coming up soon,” I mused.
“It is.” She kissed my cheek. “I’m so proud you remembered without me having to remind you,” she said with a teasing grin.
I laughed. “How could I ever forget?” Playing with a strand of her long, dark hair, I said, “I was just wondering what you wanted to do to celebrate. Go to a fancy dinner or stay in? I’m down for whatever you want to do.”
Maddie’s fingers drew circles over my hand. “Well, I was thinking I wanted to do something big.”
“Like what?”
She glanced up to give me a smile that lit me on fire from head to toe. “Make love for the first time.”
I shot up on the couch and stared at her in shock. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“But I thought—”
Maddie brought her finger to my lips. “If I’ve learned anything in the last year, it’s to say what you feel and experience as much life as you can. You’ve held up to your end of the bargain, Noah. You show me each and every day how much you love me, and you’ve been so very patient and understand with me. I know I should wait until I get married, but I know that I love you.”
“And I love you too.” I brought my lips to hers, kissing her with a mixture of hunger and love. When I pulled away, I smiled at her. “I’m not going anywhere, Maddie. You mean everything to me—you saved me from the darkness and brought me to the light. And I can’t imagine a future without you in it. I intend on spending the rest of my life with you.”
Maddie kissed me tenderly. “I love you, Noah.”
“I love you too.”
While that traitorous horndog male in me did a happy dance that I was going to get laid in a few weeks, the emotional side of me realized the enormity of the situation. Yeah, I was nineteen, and I’d found my soulmate. And like Maddie had said, Jake’s death had taught me to live in the moment while also looking to the future.
And with my family and friends and Maddie at my side, my future was very, very bright.
Please do me a tremendous favor by leaving a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Goodreads. If you’re not comfortable with leaving a review, find one that you think expresses your feelings and like that review. You don’t know how much it means to Independent Authors.
Find Katie online at:
http://www.katieashleybooks.com
http://katieashleybooks.blogspot.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/katieashleybooks
https://www.facebook.com/katie.ashleyromance
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/katieashleyluv
***
Katie Ashley is the New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon Best-Selling author of The Proposition. She lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia with her two very spoiled dogs and one outnumbered cat. She has a slight obsession with Pinterest, The Golden Girls, Harry Potter, Shakespeare, Supernatural, Designing Women, and Scooby-Doo.
She spent 11 1/2 years educating the Youth of America aka teaching MS and HS English until she left to write full time in December 2012.
***
Thanks always to God for his immense blessings in both my professional and personal life. Thanks to my family, friends, and church family for supporting me along this crazy journey.
Thanks to my former Young Adult Literary agent, Fonda Snyder. You were a pleasure to work with during my rocky path to traditional publication. You never ceased believing in me, Noah, and my other novels. Your input was integral and valuable to Don’t Hate the Player. It was a pleasure working with you for eighteen months, and I will always be grateful for your dedication to me and my career.
Thanks to Marion Archer, my sister from Down Under! I can’t tell you how much you mean to me as a friend and as a critique partner. Honestly, you helped to make DHtP so much stronger, so much deeper, and so much more amazing than I could ever imagine. Between our zoom chats and comment bubbles, I was able to dig even deeper into the story after so many years.
To Hannah Wiley: Thank you for everything you brought to Don’t Hate the Player from your multiple critiques to you being a cheerleader and commiserating during the submission process. Most of all, I thank you for your friendship all these years and for believing in me and my writing.
To Letitia Hasser for a kickass cover. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication on my covers. And thanks for not strangling me when I couldn’t make up my mind!
To JB McGee for your awesome formatting and always letting me procrastinate aka proofread until the last minute. You rock professionally and personally.
Thanks to Cris Hardarly for being the sweetest and most amazing friend and support. Thanks also to Shannon Furhman, Emilie Grey, and Tamara Debbaut for your amazing fan art, pimpage, and support of my writing. To all my supporters in my street team, Ashley’s Angels, and to my street Team Captains Michelle Eck and Cris Hardarly.
To some of the original readers back in the day Debra Driza, Jennifer Wood, Rachele Mielke, and Rebecca Rogers.
To every reader who has ever picked up one of my books and every blogger who has reviewed it I give you my eternal gratitude and love!!!
***
Table of Contents
Chapter
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter-Twenty-Three
Epilogue
&n
bsp; About the Author
Acknowledgements
Katie Ashley, Don't Hate the Player...Hate the Game
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