Behind the Stars (35 page)
Authors: Leigh Talbert Moore
Tags: #love, #romantic, #action, #adventure, #small town, #paranormal, #female protagonist, #suspense, #survival
“He doesn’t hate you—”
“Or pretends I don’t exist.” She slid her long hair back and held it in a ponytail for a moment before dropping it. “But you know what? I’m glad I look like Mom. She was a beauty queen. You got a few of her genes yourself.”
Jack stood and grabbed his towel. “This conversation is stupid. And I’m leaving.”
“Whatever. It’s hot.” She pulled her long cover-up over her head, and hot or not, she looked fresh, like she hadn’t been in the sun at all.
My eyes followed them back to the parking lot where Jack threw their stuff into the back of steel-grey Jeep. Two doors slammed and they sped off, heading east, in the direction of Hammond Island. And that, I assumed, was the end of it.
For a few moments, everything felt quieter. Even the sun seemed a bit dimmer with their departure. I stood and walked to the water’s edge. The smell of salt and fresh fish always hung in the air here, and sometimes dolphins could be spotted swimming around, playing just off the coastline. If I were going to be abandoned, at least it was in a pretty place. The noise of the breaking waves comforted me, and I pulled off my hat so my light-brown hair could blow free. It would be huge and horrible in less than ten seconds, but I didn’t care.
The further east you traveled, along the Florida coastline, the water grew more and more turquoise, the sand more sugary-white. Maybe for my next escape I’d drive to Nana’s place in Navarre and spend the night. Today I’d just wanted to be alone.
I had a plan for the year, at least. With my new position reporting for the school newsblog, my college applications were set. SAT scores would be in soon, and hopefully by this time next year I’d be entering Northwestern, the top journalism school in the country.
That just left 365 days to endure.
I exhaled, and as I stood staring far out at the horizon, I wished something exciting would happen to me. Just once. Something to take my mind off the monotony or at least make my life a little more interesting.
No chance of that in this tiny town of less than ten thousand full-time residents.
A lifeguard had arrived when I walked back to gather my stuff. All the public beaches had them, and they were usually savage-tanned college guys perched in the tall-wooden booths under the beach warning flags. Yellow today. Moderate hazard.
I watched him scan the sunbathers. He was dark with a perfect body—a requirement for life guarding here, it seemed. At this time of year he had to be a local, but I didn’t know him.
“Hey,” I called up.
He looked down at me, eyebrows pulled together. “Whatcha need, kid?”
Some joke. He couldn’t have been more than nineteen, and I’d be eighteen in a few months.
“Are you B.J.?”
“Who wants to know?”
“A girl...” I started, and then wondered what I was even doing. “I just thought I recognized you.”
He looked at me like I’d had too much sun. Maybe I had. I shrugged and walked away, thinking they should’ve waited. Not that it mattered to me.
Beach escape had ended. It was time to face my life back on shore.
* * *
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eigh Talbert Moore is a wife and mom by day, a writer by day, a reader by day, a former journalist, a former editor, a chocoholic, a caffeine addict, a lover of great love stories, a beach bum, and occasionally she sleeps.
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A
lso by Leigh Talbert Moore:
The Truth About Faking
(2012)
Rouge
(2012)
The Truth About Letting Go
(2013)
Dragonfly
, Book 1 in the Dragonfly series (2013) – FREE as an eBook!
Undertow
, Book 2 in the Dragonfly series (2013)
Watercolor
, Book 3 in the Dragonfly series (2013)
Mosaic
, Book 4/Final in the Dragonfly series (2014)
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ind all of Leigh’s books on
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Smashwords
Book Depository
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onnect with Leigh online:
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Instagram (@leightmoore)
Did you love
Behind the Stars
? Then you should read
Dragonfly
by Leigh Talbert Moore!
#1 Wattpad Romance * The Fault in Our Stars "Extraordinary Love" Reading List selection * The Best of Me "Southern Love" Reading List selection
Falling in love changes everything...
Three bad things I learned this year:
-People you trust lie, even parents.
-That hot guy, the one who's totally into you, he might not be the one.
-Things are not always how they appear.
Three good things I learned this year:
-Best friends are always there for you, even when they're far away.
-That other hot guy, the one who remembers your birthday, he just might be the one.
-Oh, and things are not always how they appear.
Anna Sanders expected an anonymous (and uneventful) senior year until she crossed paths with rich-and-sexy Jack Kyser and his twin sister Lucy.
Pulling Anna into their extravagant lifestyle on the Gulf Coast, Lucy pushed Anna outside her comfort zone, and Jack showed her feelings she'd never experienced... Until he mysteriously withdrew.
Anna turned to her internship at the city paper and to her old attraction for Julian, a handsome local artist and rising star, for distraction. But both led to her discovery of a decades-old secret closely guarded by the twins' distant, single father.
A secret that could permanently change all their lives.
A full-length New Adult contemporary romance, family saga. Recommended for readers 13+ due to mature themes and mild sexual content.
Read more at
Leigh Talbert Moore’s site
.