Abbi Glines

Abbi Glines

On Posted on by Abbi Glines to Excerpts - Rosemary Beach, Rosemary Beach Series

TAKE A CHANCE (Grant and Harlow) teaser

An excerpt from TAKE A CHANCE by Abbi Glines

(this is in all its unedited glory. But y’all asked for it )

 

The morning after Grant had kissed me in the pool, he was gone. The way he’d acted after kissing me had been strange. I wasn’t sure what was wrong or if he had just regretted it and didn’t know how to get away from me. Waking up the next morning and Grant not being anywhere around had answered that question.

Dad was also gone. He hadn’t come home from his latest party binge but then I wasn’t surprised by that. Grant’s running off had hurt me. I hated that I felt anything for him. Kissing him had been a mistake. I wasn’t his type. I never wanted to be his type. Nan was not someone a sane person would desire to be.

Locking myself up in my room to read didn’t sound as appealing as it had before Grant. Instead I threw myself into tennis and swimming. I pushed all thoughts of Grant’s face out of my mind the best that I could. Someone should put a warning label on his lips. Beware don’t touch. They’re hard to forget.

Day three after Grant had disappeared I was outside swimming.  Today I had successfully managed to push all Grant thoughts to the back of my mind. So when my head broke the water to find Grant Carter standing there looking down at me I wasn’t sure if I was imagining things or if he was really there.

I pushed my wet hair back and wiped the water from my eyes. Then I opened them again and there he stood. Still there.

“Hey,” he said with his sexy grin. I wanted to hurl something at him to make that smile go away. It needed a warning label too.

I wasn’t in the mood to talk to him. “Nan isn’t here,” I replied. She hadn’t been back since she’d left for Rosemary the last time. I was sure that was where Grant had run off to as well. He had gone to find her. Like he always did.

“Yeah, I know,” he replied.

I really should go back to swimming and ignore him. It was the smart thing to do. But then he could possibly take that as an invite to join me. “What do you need?” I asked in the most annoyed tone I could muster.

“I came to see you. It seems once a guy kisses you that you’re hard to forget,” he replied.

Not what I had been expecting. I swallowed the nervous knot in my throat.  I would cave and forgive him too easily if he started saying things like that. Where had my backbone gone? I used to be stronger than this.

“You’re mad because I left,” he said.

I thought about replying and changed my mind. That would only give him more power. He didn’t need to know he affected me at all.

“It was a jackass thing to do. But you scared me. I like to flirt with beautiful girls but I don’t handle it well when one simple kiss makes my fucking head spin. You make me want things and feel a way I’m not ready for.”

I was expecting a lame “I’m sorry” not that. “Oh,” was the only thing I could come up with to say. What did it mean exactly that our kiss made his head spin? Was that a good thing? It sounded like it… maybe.

Grant ran a hand through his long unruly hair and let out a frustrated sigh. “I shouldn’t have left you without an explanation. It was unfair and I was only thinking of myself. I’m good at that. I just… what can I do to get you to forgive me?”

He still wasn’t asking for forgiveness. He was asking how to get forgiveness. Had anyone ever asked me how to get forgiveness before? How… unique.

 

TAKE A CHANCE releases on February 3

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