Mari Carr continues the Perfect Storm series next week with an all-new small town, second chance, enemies to lovers romance, and I have a sneak peek for you.
Excerpt
Given the way memories of Ella had been flooding his brain lately, he was forced to admit that old hurt hadn’t completely healed.
After Ella’s sudden disappearance from his life, he’d gone through what could only be described as the five stages of grief. Initially, he couldn’t believe she’d truly dumped him, expecting her to change her mind and tell him that Dear John letter had been a mistake.
But when her family moved away, leaving him with no way to contact her, his disbelief eventually morphed to an anger that lasted straight through the holidays. When the weather turned gray and cold in January of that year, so did his mood. He stopped caring about basically everything, and he’d spent his days simply going through the motions—school, work in the winery, home, repeat.
Shortly before graduation, he’d started to come out of his depression, started flirting with girls and moving on. Time had worked its magic, making the pain feel less sharp, less brutal.
He no longer equated sex with emotions, such as love or commitment, but instead as a quick fix of pleasure, the good feeling lasting until the climax. At which point, he got out of bed, got dressed, and got the hell out.
He’d followed that pattern right into his mid-twenties, when he’d decided enough was enough. He hadn’t been the only guy in the world to get his heart drop-kicked, so he made the leap from denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, forcing himself into acceptance.
Maverick had woken up the morning of his twenty-fifth birthday with a smile on his face and a bright, sunny new outlook on life. He put Ella in the rearview mirror and took a serious look around town, because his birthday wish that year was to find love again.
So, he’d asked Karla Chapin out on a real date. The plan was dinner and the movies, and zero intention of ending the evening with a meaningless hookup. In his mind, one-night stands were a thing of the past.
He hadn’t made it through thirty minutes at dinner with Karla before he’d decided she wasn’t the one, so after the movie, he dropped her off at home and never called back for a second date.
Not that he let that initial failure deter him from his goals. He continued his prowl for the one, but sadly, the pattern created with Karla continued as his search proved fruitless, and he continued to rack up a long list of doomed first dates.
On his twenty-seventh birthday, his optimism ran out. That was when he accepted that his dream woman didn’t live in Gracemont, and he decided to embrace his bachelor lifestyle instead
While Maverick wouldn’t say he’d been the happiest guy in town the last five years, he’d been satisfied with his life. He loved his job, his home, his family. Maverick was grateful for everything he had, because he knew just how blessed he was.
Then Levi got married and ripped Maverick’s blinders off. The one thing he’d refused to acknowledge for fifteen long years was suddenly obvious.
That lightning strike his dad and brothers had felt really had happened to him…in the hallways of Gracemont High. And while he wanted to continue pretending his family’s insistence in love at first touch was bullshit, it was no longer possible.
Maverick had succumbed to that legend when he was just seventeen, falling hard and fast for his soul mate, Ella Decker.
The only problem was, she hadn’t fallen back. Instead, she’d “Oh, hey,” Everett said, perking up as he glanced toward the entrance. “I didn’t know Theo and Gretchen were coming tonight.”
Jace frowned. “I thought they were having dinner at Edith’s.”
“Who’s that with them?” Everett asked. “She looks kind of familiar.”
Maverick turned his gaze toward the entrance of Whiskey Abbey, just as Everett raised his hand, calling out to their brother.
“Theo! Come join us.”
Jace blocked Maverick’s view of his brother when he hastily rose, grabbing a couple of empty chairs from a nearby table, making room for the newcomers.
Maverick was just about to offer up his seat, ready to call it an early night, when Theo, Gretchen, and…
His heart stopped beating for a full minute as he tried to decide if his mind was playing a trick on him.
Maybe his depression the last month or so had pushed him around the bend once and for all, and he’d completely lost his mind.
Or maybe this was one of those Candyman moments. He’d thought Ella’s name one time too many and accidentally summoned her.
Ella was smiling as she approached the table, but it wobbled when her gaze landed on him, fading quickly, replaced by hesitance…and maybe even a bit of embarrassment.
Their eyes held for just a moment before Ella quickly looked away.
Jesus Christ. She was even more beautiful now.
Maverick had imagined this reunion way too often in the past, the scene changing no less than a hundred times, playing out each time in accordance with where he was on that stages of grief list.
In the early days, when he was knee-deep in the bargaining stage, he always saw himself finding some way to win her back, imagining himself as the romantic hero, who knew all the right things to say. Sometimes, when the anger coursed through his veins like poison, he ranted and raved at her, called her a heartless, cruel bitch. Other times, the depression won out and he imagined himself simply asking her why, trying to understand what the hell he’d done wrong.
None of those things appeared now. Probably because he was concentrating too hard on remembering to breathe.
“You guys remember Ella Decker?” Theo asked, by way of introductions. “She lived here for a few years when she was in high school.”
“Ella Decker,” Everett said, snapping his fingers. “I knew you looked familiar.”
Everett was a year younger than Maverick and Ella, so he’d been just behind them in school. Not that being in different grades mattered. Gracemont High School was small enough that everyone in the entire school knew each other well.
Jace stood up and offered his hand. “I’m Jace Storm. Afraid I don’t remember you.”
Ella smiled, though it looked somewhat forced. “You were a bit young the last time I was here.”
“As I recall, Ella and Maverick were in the same grade, which means you would have been in elementary school, or maybe middle school,” Theo said to Jace. “So I doubt your paths crossed very often.”
Everett was next to shake her hand. “It’s good to see you again. I’m Everett, in case you don’t remember me.”
“I remember. You were a bit of a computer genius, always helping Mrs. Crites in the library whenever her circulation desk crashed.”
Everett grinned. “That’s me.”
“He’s still a computer geek,” Theo teased, as he, Gretchen, and Ella claimed the empty chairs. Ella was sitting opposite Maverick, in the chair farthest from him. He wondered if she’d chosen that spot on purpose, trying to keep her distance.
Regardless of her effort, it wasn’t enough, because he could smell her perfume, the same soft floral scent she favored when they were in school.
There was a slight lull in the conversation as his brothers waited for Maverick to greet her, as well. Thanks to a tight chest and constricted throat, the most he could manage was a brief nod as he croaked, “Ella.”
“Hi, Maverick.” Her voice was just as he remembered, melodic and sweet. Though right now, it sounded a bit thin, as she was obviously nervous.
“What brings you back to Gracemont?” Everett asked, when neither Maverick nor Ella bothered to make any attempt at catching up with each other.
Maverick tried to take a deep breath…because as the shock began to wear off, the first emotion to surface was anger.
And because that was an easier one to deal with than pain, he nurtured it and let it take root.
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Perfect Storm - Recommended Reading Order
(standalone stories with interconnected characters)
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