I can feel his blue-gray eyes digging into the side of my head. I wipe my sweaty palms on my dress and turn my vision away from the moonlight reflecting onto the ocean off of this balcony. Sure enough, he is looking right at me, an intense look in his eye. My mouth feels full of cotton. How can this man make me feel this way after eight years of not seeing him? Nobody else has ever made me feel like this before, except for him. "W-why are you looking at me like that?" I whisper. I'm expecting him to ask me, 'looking at you like what, Darling?' But he doesn't, and something tells me that he knows exactly what I am talking about. "Because, you are just so...prepossessing, Darling." He whispers, and his voice sends a chill down my spine. I shiver. I swallow loudly and drop my gaze to my lap, my hands shaking slightly. What does prepossessing even mean? "Am I making you uncomfortable?" He murmurs. "U-um no." I shale my head slowly. He stands up abruptly, causing me to look at him. His body towers over me, his eyes searching my face for something that I'm not quite sure of, and then he holds out his right hand. "Will you dance with me?" ______ Casey Baines has had a difficult life, but unfortunately it's a life that fifty percent of American's endure. With her parents getting divorced when she was fifteen, she was ripped away from everything she knew. After her father getting custody of her in the divorce, she moves to Florida with him, leaving the boy she has loved since she was old enough to hold her head up, and everything else behind. Her mother, her hometown, her school, her friends, her childhood home...and Tyler Griffith. Eight years later, her mother is getting remarried. Twenty three years old now, she attends a wedding, seeing her Mom for the first time in eight years. When she locks eyes with a very familiar boy from across the reception, she swears the all of the dancing couples disappear around her. It's Tyler Griffith.

⭐️ 2016 Watty Award Winner ⭐️ Willa Grainger is your average twenty-four-year old with one exception - she never left her university. A year after she graduated she still remains employed with Professor Paige Grimsby, acclaimed author of the popular Simeon Lee series. Her struggles to find a boyfriend, find a job, and write the next bestseller seem like a walk in the park when it comes to her volatile on-again, off-again relationship with her friend Cynthia Smoak, one-third of their best friend trio. But Cynthia's always been competing against Willa in a game Willa didn't even know she was playing. When she does something unforgivable, Willa's forced to examine her life and her friendships, leading her to a new romance with an unlikely young man - a former student who's convinced Paige stole his undergraduate novel idea. Willa's never been comfortable with change and the experiences she's encountered during her extended internship with Paige makes her question who she is and what happens when the people you're friends with aren't the people you like.