Teaser: Surrendering

A sneak peek at a scene from Surrendering (Swans Landing #3) which will be out in August! This one is narrated by Josh.

——–

Lake stepped into the room, his eyes darting around nervously, as if something might jump out at him at any moment. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his eyes.

Coral looked over her shoulder at him, her expression blank. Finally, she smiled a little.

“I thought you were too busy with your new girlfriend to come see an old friend,” Coral said.

Lake glanced at me and I shrugged. As I had warned him, Coral didn’t seem to know what year it was. Ever since we’d found her in Hether Blether, her mind had jumped from one point in the past to another, with moments of clarity very few and far in between. She seemed to be stuck mostly in the time frame right before she left Swans Landing.

Right before my father died.

I wanted to ask her about that night, to see if she could tell me anything. I didn’t want to confuse or upset her even more than she already was, but Coral Mooring might be the only person who could tell me about my dad’s last moments since my mom refused to talk about him. I had decided to wait until she had a day of more clarity, when she didn’t seem so confused or lost in time. That day hadn’t yet arrived.

“Coral,” Lake said as he perched himself on the corner of her bed closest to the desk. “How are you feeling?”

Coral looked him up and down, a smirk etched across her face. “You’re going to marry her, aren’t you?”

Lake blinked a few times before he said, “Do you mean—”

“Don’t deny it,” Coral snapped. “I see it in your face. You’ve spent the whole summer with her. No time for your old friend. You’ll leave me just like he did. He’s having a baby, did you know that? All that talk about loving me and wanting to spend his life with me.” She laughed bitterly. “It was a lie. It’s always a lie.”

I stepped back into the hall, wanting to disappear. She must have been talking about my dad. They fell in love when my mom was pregnant with me.

I tried to understand what would make my father have an affair. What would make him turn his back on his pregnant wife? How could he have been so in love with my mom one day, enough to start a family with her, and then decide he loved someone else months later?

I wanted to believe he was a good man. I had to believe that he was, or else I had to face the fact that the blood that flowed in him was the same blood that flowed in me.

I didn’t want to be someone that could cause so much pain to the people I cared about.

——–

 See the rest of the Swans Landing series here!