Teaser Post from Heather Hildenbrand

~*~EXCERPT~*~
That girl wound me up. Her mouth and the way it worked, shaping either words or kisses, was something else.

I’d endured an entire week of her moody silence as she ignored me with no explanation. If that hadn’t been confounding enough, she’d come to me with those puppy dog eyes that begged for attention and forgiveness. Had I given it to her? Damn straight. No questions, no giving her a hard time for seven days of silence that would make a monk proud.

It was that mouth. Had to be it. And the way she locked her arms around me when I kissed her hard or went limp when I pulled away too soon. She had no idea what she did to me. But if this kept up, she would find out sooner rather than later.

And then she’d gone and asked me about love. I knew she was scared. Her mom leaving had really screwed her up. I wanted to reassure her she wasn’t going to end up like that, but she wouldn’t have heard me anyway. Too wrapped up in the hurt. But love—that was one thing I knew to be off the table. This would be fun and we would be friends. We’d have a great time and make some great memories before I left in October. But love? Not happening. I wasn’t ready for all that. I had too much life to live before I allowed that.

Cold weather plants. That was the next project. The next adventure. And no girl—no matter how meaningful—was going to stand in the way of the adventure. Maybe for my dad, that had worked out, but not for me. I intended on living every experience I could to the fullest. Then maybe, just maybe, I’d be ready to settle somewhere. But that girl would have to be pretty amazing.

Unbidden, an image of Summer in that bathing suit sprang to mind and I groaned aloud. Just thinking the word “amazing” was enough to make me remember her that way—dripping wet, legs up to her neck, and glaring at Casey with death rays for eyes. As passion went, anger was a powerful version, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would’ve been like to have her that worked up at me.

Come tomorrow night, I’d have the chance to find out. Well, the passion anyway. Hopefully not the anger. Both possibilities made me grin.

As I worked on closing up shop for the night, I made a mental note to find Casey and ask him about local eateries that didn’t feature peanut shells on the floor and fried bar food as the special of the day. Or better yet, maybe I’d ask Mazie.

I wondered what sort of place Summer would expect for a first date and then immediately brushed the thought aside. I definitely didn’t want anything about our night to be typical. In fact, I intended to go out of my way to make sure it wasn’t. Typical or expected weren’t what Summer needed. Good thing, nothing I had in mind was either one.

~*~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~*~ 
Author of Across the Galaxy, Whisper, and the Dirty Blood series. I write, read, and fuss at my kids. Oh, and I do laundry, lots of laundry. I'm pretty good at it, too. Sometimes I even read WHILE doing laundry - and fussing at my kids. I'm a multi-tasker. 

For more information on my books, release dates, or just general stalker material, um, I mean FAN material, visit my website. www.heatherhildenbrand.blogspot.com. I love hearing from readers! 

Likes and dislikes? I love vintage tees, hate socks with sandals, and if my house was on fire the one thing I'd grab is my DVR player!

~*~BOOK LIST~*~
The Dirty Blood series
The Clone Chronicles series
A Risk Worth Taking
Across the Galaxy
Whisper
The Specials series