The Hundred Days of June

Excerpt

"You love her," she said, taking her sunglasses off and running a delicate finger under her red-rimmed eyes. I'd have been offended if it were a question--had she dared to ask me that. Because of course, I loved her. I fucking worshipped that girl and the whole town knew that. I named my bar after her. I wrote songs about her. Hell, I even had her carved all over my skin: a portrait of her beautiful face on my forearm, every letter to her name on my knuckles, and a replica of her scars on my chest.

The cowing of crows grew loud and a gust of wind blew into us, making the autumn leaves rustle along with my heart inside my ribcage. "I love her." I swallowed the big lump of emotion rising in my throat and nodded. "More than life, Mrs. Palmer."

"Then let her go." Her voice was sharp, her callous statement a dagger to my chest. "Let her go, Joseph. Please." Tears streamed down her face and her shoulders shook violently as she pleaded with me--as she begged me to do the impossible. How could I let her go? How could I let my summer go? She was everything good in my life; the only sun in my world, the brightest star in my universe.

"Not yet," I replied, but that was a lie. I would never let her go. I was going to hold onto that girl for as long as I could. And the minute I couldn't, I was going with her. Because there's no life without her and there's no life after her. Not for me.

*** Coming soon***