From The Wreckage - Complete (48 page)

Every time I finish a novel I feel as if I could write another one just to thank all of the people who keep me ticking every day. I could never thank everyone who touches me on a daily basis in one way or another. I can’t even begin to try. 

BUT, I shall…

To all of the people who buy, read and review my books, thank you. Plain and simple. I am especially touched by those who take the time to send me notes on Facebook. I can’t tell you how I feel when I see a new note telling me what you think of a character or a new review talking about the storyline. A million thanks to each of you.

My super readers and street team - Chele’s Belles - these ladies help give me advice when I’m stuck, they BETA for me, they check out the teasers I create and help pimp me out. 

For that I am forever grateful. 

Cheri Gracey, Samantha Eaton-Roberts, Kayla Hargaden, Danielle Young, Tanya Johnson, Megan Bagley, Jessica Smith, Chelcie Holguin, Mandy Anderson, Marla Wenger, Destiny Love, Megan Hornyak, Nancy Byers, Courtney Willging and Tess Watson

To the hundreds of authors I am blessed to interact with, you inspire me to be better every day. Thank you for your guidance, laughter, wisdom and your sharing and pimping. They let me know I’m not alone in this imaginary world I create.

My #Fierce5 sisters, Christy Foster, Mindy Hayes, Starla Huchton and Sarah Ashley Jones - words are not necessary. 

You girls complete me. 

To Jonathan, Grayson, Gabe and Belle- thank you for allowing me the freedom to work so hard to achieve my goals. You sacrifice so much so that I can work. You are my true inspirations!

A Special thanks to the professionals who help me look good:

Rick Miles and Kris Pittman with Red Coat Public Relations

Stacy Sanford of The Girl With the Red Pen, Editor

Starla Huchton with Designed by Starla, Cover Designer

Music is a huge part of every book I write. Below is a list of songs that were played during the writing of Out of Ruins…

Lily Lane – Nothin' but Trouble

Boyce Avenue – Fix You (feat. Tyler Ward)

John Legend – All of Me

All Time Low – Therapy

Ron Pope – Parts of You

Jason Aldean – Tattoos On This Town

Adelitas Way – All Falls Down

Ellie Goulding – How Long Will I Love You

Lifehouse – Everything

ZZ Ward – Last Love Song

Ed Sheeran – Kiss Me

Brantley Gilbert – Bottoms Up

Green Day – Wake Me Up When September Ends

All Time Low – Time-Bomb

Every Avenue – I Can't Not Love You

The Icarus Account – So In Love

Mumford & Sons – After The Storm

New Found Glory – Hold My Hand

OneRepublic – I Lived

A Great Big World – You'll Be Okay

To find the rest of the amazing songs I listen to you can check me out on Spotify

Fear, guilt, and jealousy all rear their ugly heads as Jules and West strive to figure out what they want now that they've emerged from the wreckage of the storm.

A year has passed since the night Jules Blacklin and West Rutledge were thrown together by a tornado.  

Now college freshmen, they’ve worked hard to overcome the tragedies of their pasts to start anew. 

As they embark on their future, there is one last obstacle standing in the way of them finding complete happiness: themselves. 

All That Remains (From The Wreckage, book 3)

Michele G Miller

Copyright © 2014 by Michele G Miller

KINDLE EDITION

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. Any names, places, characters, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to any persons, living or dead, are completely coincidental.

Cover design by Starla Huchton of Designed by Starla

Edited by Samantha Eaton-Roberts

To my readers. You are MY anchor.

“When he kisses her, storms rise beneath her skin;

For she is the ocean, and he is her moon.”

                                             ~ Unknown  

Gilded Copper
.

It’s the color he searches for every time he steps onto the sprawling A&M campus. A fiery red, laced with golden highlights that curl around a slim porcelain neck as it arches back inviting his lips in for a taste.

Nine months ago, he twisted that copper hair around his fingers as his lips skimmed the slim column of
her
throat reveling in the taste he could never get enough of. Nine months ago, he climbed behind the wheel of his Jeep to take
her
back to his place to enjoy more of
her
taste when an angry addict decided to play chicken with them. Nine months ago, he’d slammed his vehicle into a silver sports car, breaking
her
body and
his
heart.

Seven months of counseling have brought him back to the place where he was his happiest once upon a time. He stands under the heavy branches of The Century Tree at A&M watching couples come and go, holding hands on their way to someplace or another, and it reminds him of
her
. 

He doesn’t do it often, stand under the tree and allow himself to think of
her
. He usually reminisces in his room, in private, where he’s able to beat himself up for all the ridiculous choices he has made. In the almost two months since he walked out of the rehab, he’s maintained his distance, choosing to stay at the house he shares with his brothers and Mindy, or on campus at Freemont. Freemont, the junior feeder college across town from A&M where he’d made the conscious decision to start school instead of attending A&M.

It was a decision not entirely of his own making, but it was a good decision in the end. He’s rekindled one of the many loves he’d given up when his mother passed away six years ago. He is now playing quarterback for Freemont Junior College as a walk on.  His first game is a little over a week away. Nine days and he’s not sure how much anonymity he will have anymore. At some point, he has to find her and tell her where he is and what he’s doing. He owes her that much.

His body is too weary to think of such things. He’d come to the campus to hang out with Austin and take it easy, and yet, here he is, under the tree again, wondering when he will see her. He has no idea if she’ll be here for fall semester or if, perhaps, she’s already there. He can’t imagine her giving up the dream she had to attend A&M, regardless of all that happened. He stands there, wondering what she will say when he reappears in her life. He’s tempted to call Danica back at Crestdale Victory Center, the rehab, and get another one of her pep talks; instead, he decides to skip hanging with Austin and go home. He should leave before he gets the notion to knock on every dorm door on campus calling her name.

As he prepares to leave, laughter rings out nearby and he pauses as the familiar music reaches him. His pulse speeds up as he peers across the campus to a couple. 

Gilded Copper
.

Every muscle in his body tenses at the sight of her. Darkness is encroaching, long shadows growing everywhere he looks, but there - across the grass walking away from where he stands - God is shining the last bit of his August sun on Jules Blacklin’s silky red hair. The strands are sending off imaginary sparks as her hair swings along her back in vivid contrast to the white top she is wearing.

A million words come to, and leave, his parted lips before he is able to utter them. The second he comprehends how perfect this moment is, how it must be fate for her to be here at this exact time; he’s also reminded that two inches over is a person walking next to her. Her arm is threaded through his, and as she throws her head back while laughing merrily at something he’s said, her partner turns his head and West is punched in the gut by a betrayal of epic proportions.

Standing by the girl he once pledged to marry is one of only three people he has always trusted with every ounce of his being. Smiling at Jules, his hand lifting and tugging playfully on her long ponytail, is Austin. West’s brother.

“It’s crazy how little you can actually know about yourself.”

“How do you mean?” Dr. Steel’s ever moving pen stops working over her notepad as she tilts her head up, her small eyes narrowing as she looks at West.

The first time she’d looked at him that way, he’d felt as if he were a bug under a microscope. Her features always remain smooth, unchanged by anything he says; but those eyes? Those eyes are comparable to the tractor beam from the Death Star; they latch on, and West feels as if she’s pulling every bit of his soul from him.

“I’m amused, that’s all.” 

She pushes her tongue forward making a clucking sound, once. It’s a tell. One of the many he’s picked up on from her in his seven months at Crestdale. It means they’ll sit there all day until he spills the proverbial beans. He starts to wonder if he should have kept his mouth shut.