Bree Apollo is an average fifteen-year-old girl: she loves chocolate, baking cupcakes, and her neighbor, the hunky and all around popular seventeen-year-old Foster Quinn. Except Foster is clueless about her feelings for him, instead treating her like a kid sister and begging for her homemade desserts. As a fellow chocolate lover, he should be Bree's for the taking, if it weren't for his oh-so-perfect girlfriend.
After she overhears Foster making fun of her to his friends, she's devastated. And not even chocolate can take away the pain. She intends to wallow in grief for a boy that was never hers to begin with, but Austen, her eccentric new neighbor has other ideas.
The strange boy down the street always wears a black fedora, walks barefoot, and focuses all his energy on building a treehouse in his backyard. For some reason, he's elected Bree to help him. At first, she turns him down because he acts too awkward and takes everything she says literally. But after learning of his autism, she decides to help with his construction (forgiving him for not being a chocolate fan), even though she doesn't know a think about power tools.
As Bree and Austen grow closer, Foster notices Bree no longer worships the ground he walks on. He wants her to go back to that doting version of Bree, but Austen has become more important to her than she's ready to admit.
Austen may just be the one to help her move on from Foster.
Like two pieces of a puzzle, they fit together perfectly.
"Do I make you nervous, Sweetheart?" He spoke lowly.
"Psh, no! I just-" I gasped when his tongue flicked out and touched my neck. My hands flew up to clutch at his shirt, fingers tightening in an attempt to hold myself up. It was as if my knees turned to jelly.
"Maybe it's bad. And maybe I shouldn't, but I love that. I love the way you react to my touch. I love the way you pretend you aren't turned on. I love that I make you nervous." Oh my. His husky voice was doing a number on my already frazzled nerves. I was putty in his hands, rendered completely useless without him. "It's okay, Sweetheart. You make me nervous too."
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Viola Evans is just an ordinary 19-year-old girl. She moved away from her hometown in Indiana to attend college in Utah. She refuses to take out student loans so instead, she is overworking herself, barely eating, and living in a crummy apartment just to scrape by since her Mom and Step-Father were unsupportive of her pursuing a career in Special Education. Her school year gets a whole lot more interesting when a handsome stranger suddenly starts appearing everywhere she is, laying claim to her in ways that has her questioning whether he is human or not.
Join her in her adventure where she loves fully, grows exponentially, and shares her light with the world.
cover by: @honey_sprinkles thank you sooooo much for your wonderful work!