1. PROLOGUE
“I can’t believe you’re actually listening to this!” My voice rose with my growing anger and fear,
but I was barely audible over the roar of thunder and the heavy rain drenching my sundress. “You
know I wouldn’t cheat on you! Ever!”
Nick shook his head while I yelled my defense, his fisted hands rising to brace against his temples.
“I can’t hear this, Preston! You know what you did!” The loudest clap of thunder the storm had
offered punctuated his words. At that point, I couldn’t tell what was rain and what were tears trailing
down my face. “And after everything we’ve been through!”
“Yeah! After everything!” I moved forward so I could wrap my fingers around his still-lifted
forearms. My attention stayed on his features even though he just scowled at my driveway. “Think of
everything we’ve been through. Think of what I’ve been through.” I saw him wince, but he didn’t
peek at me. “I need you, Nick. You’re the one thing I need.” His chin dipped forward, and his arms
went slack in my hands once he dropped his fists from his head. “The one thing that makes
everything else okay.” I stepped closer, silently begging him to look at me. “Please don’t do this to
me.”
If I’d been getting through to him, my success crumbled then and there. That fact was obvious
when he brought his gaze to lock with mine, and his furious, hurt-filled eyes declared loud and clear
he wasn’t about to listen to anything I could say. He’d already made his decision to give up on us, on
me, without concern for any benefit of a single doubt.
“Do this to you?” He let out a laugh that was void of any sign of humor. “To you? You cheated
on me, Preston!”
“I didn’t! I wouldn’t! I promise—”
“Stop it!” His arms jerked from my hands, and the rage in his eyes was like the nail in our
relationship’s coffin. “I trusted you. I loved you. I believed in you above everyone else in my life,
even when my family thought I was an idiot for it. Even when your family thought I was an idiot for
it.”
I sucked in a shocked breath. He knew my history, and I’d confided in him so many times over
grudges members of my family held against me for things I’d never done. I’d talked to my older
brother about the issues as well—my one blood relative who loved me, who I could depend on—but
I’d never offered anyone as much of me in this situation or any other as I’d handed Nick. And he
turned my trust against me?
All the tears he’d kissed away, only to switch sides and use that misery as ammunition to cause
more pain. It hurt more than any other heartbreak I’d ever endured.
“I’m done,” he spat. “I’ve been everything I could be to you, but I won’t be your doormat. That’s
where I draw the line.”
He was backing toward his truck even though his gaze lingered on my face, and each step he took
brought the reality of the circumstances into clearer focus. What we had was really ending because
he’d believed a lie someone told him over my denial, tossing me aside as if I’d never mattered.
“I didn’t cheat on you,” I insisted. “I love you, Nick. Don’t you understand that? I refused a
record deal because I’d rather be here with you than making music on the road.” I sobbed, broken.
“I don’t know what to do. What can I do to convince you?”
He shook his head in obvious disgust. “Nothing. We’re done. I hope I never see you again.” Then
he spun on his heel and hurried for his truck.
Panicked, I ran forward, crying and shouting and begging. “Nick, I didn’t cheat on you! I promise!
Please! You have to believe me!” He’d closed and locked his door by the time I reached it, and he
didn’t look at me once through the window, no matter how many times my hands slapped against the
glass. “This is stupid, Nick! I didn’t do anything!” When the truck started, I resorted to beating on
the window with my fists in absolute horror. “No, no, no! Wait! Just wait! Please!”
But he didn’t. He backed out of the driveway and sped away.

2. And I stared from the middle of the road where I’d surrendered the chase, my mouth gaping
open as his taillights faded in the distance. Once the final flicker of light was just a blur in the rain, I
fell to my knees and braced my hands on the pavement. Shocked. Miserable. Devastated.
He left. We were over.
He left, over a lie he’d chosen to believe about an offense I didn’t commit.
I eventually pulled my hands from the pavement to hold them in front of me, then glared at the
water covering them. Tears, rain. What was the difference anymore?