When You Least Expect It
- Reads 81
- Votes 4
- Parts 30
Ongoing2h 13m
Last published Fri, Jul 18, 2025
Sadie Collins Jameson is twenty-two, emotionally burnt out, quietly battling OCD, and completely over being told she's "still young" and has "plenty of time." She wants a life that feels full: a job she loves, a home of her own, and someone who loves her so completely, it silences the voices in her head telling her she's too much.
Instead, she's stuck in a small town hospital doing registration with a coworker who never stops talking, fielding half-hearted dates, unsolicited advice, and trying not to spiral while she waits to hear back from LPN programs.
Her sister Jaycee means well. So do Cole, Loretta, and Birdie - her quirky circle of older friends and unexpected lifelines. But Collins can't outrun the aching feeling that she's falling behind, or the truth about a past relationship and the heartbreak she's never spoken out loud.
Then one year, one rejection, one gut-wrenching daydream at a time... she begins to change. Slowly, painfully, and then all at once.
And just when she says she's done looking-
when she rants, swears off dating for good, and admits she's ready to focus on herself-
a stranger walks through the door.
And tells her he likes her shirt.
All Rights Reserved
#802
findinghappiness
Join the largest storytelling communityGet personalized story recommendations, save your favourites to your library, and comment and vote to grow your community.
You may also like
Falling For An Inmate
Prison Diaries: Book 1 (complete) A law-abiding student gets entangled with a broody inmate when she discovers there has been a miscarriage of justice. She goes in to help, but ends up breaking the first rule of interning at a prison; she falls for the inmate. ***** Carter Reynolds' teenage years ended the second the gavel hit the sound block. Or maybe they ended when the police found him standing over a dead body, drenched in blood. It might even have been before that. When he connected his fist with a face that left a broken jaw in its wake. Either way, it was over. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He accepted his fate, only promising himself to never care for anyone so intensely again. Almost four years into his sentence, Arya Crawford walks through the wrought iron prison gates. A self-proclaimed miniature philanthropist with a heart of gold, a law-abiding student with an urge to always have fun, a girl with a silent cause. She had taken up an internship at the New York State Penitentiary. And in time, Carter and Arya both realize something. She had broken the first rule instructed by the warden. She had fallen for an inmate. Which meant she couldn't stay. He had broken the promise he made to himself. He had started to care for her. Which meant he couldn't let her leave. But it's a little difficult to make that happen when you're stuck in a closet sized cell. And waiting twenty-one years is out of the question. ***** Highest Rankings: #6 in Romance, #2 in Passion, #4 in Badboy, #1 in Witty (for those who don't think an inmate/prison trope is their cup of tea, don't be put off because the story is first and foremost 'romance') Disclaimer** Reader discretion advised. - Mature content Story contains explicit language, sexual content, and physical and sexual violence.Complete
On the Outskirts
~"When are you going to do what's best for you Sadie? All you ever do is what's best for Hallie and push your own wants and needs to the bottom of the pile and let it hurt everyone else in the process."~ Sadie Taylor has been back in her hometown for 6 short months. After leaving 11 years ago, it's fair to say that her life now is a 180 spin on the free innocent teenager she left as. With her 9 year old daughter, Hallie, in toe, Sadie needs to find a new kind of normality where se can release the reins of control and learn to let go a little. She's more than happy taking things at her own pace. Hoping that if she moves slow enough, she can keep her and her daughter in their own little bubble that has kept them safe all these years. But with the arrival of a familiar stranger arriving at Black Oak Ranch, things are set to be more complicated than she'd been counting on. Ryder Matthews fucked up and he knows it. 11 years ago, he left the love of his lie in some pre-college life freak out and when he returned 3 years later, she was gone. After spending the better part of 14 months travelling the world in hopes of finding some kind of meaning to life outside of the little town where every turn is a burning memory of Sadie, he returns with no hope. He's stuck to deal with his consequences. A week after his return home, Ryder heads to Jack Taylor's ranch to get his old farm hand job back. When he steps out of the car, a 9 year old girl greets him and when her mom comes to see what the fuss is all about, he's met with the last person he thought he'd ever see back in Alcombey. Let alone with a child. Ryder and Sadie have a lot of baggage to unpack if they have any hope of being able to tolerate working together. But when his heart is still beating for her and her heart is locked behind solid concrete walls, is that even possible?Complete
to the point of ruin
𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘐 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴. * Rory Abrams' life has only ever revolved around one thing: her parents. Every decision she has ever made was to ensure her parents' happiness- for better, or for worse. University presents her with an opportunity she has never had before: the ability to breathe outside her parents' control. However, some things are easier said than done. Ethan Rhodes has lived with pain so long, it's become a welcome companion. He's a ghost on campus, with a cloud hanging over him, so dark, it drives others away. University allows him a temporary distraction from his chaotic life. But Ethan is surviving on borrowed time, desperately looking for a getaway before the clock runs out. Ethan and Rory cross paths at Wickrage University, drained by life to the point of ruin. As their lives begin to interweave, and they find comfort in one another, the mortifying journey of self-healing pushes their individual friendships to the limit. * 𝘐 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.
Rise and Fall
Life has reinvented the definition of rock bottom so many times for twenty-six-year-old Sadie Blake. When her parents divorced she received a new stepfather, countless bruises and a major aversion to alcohol. With her stepfather she inherited a depressed mother, new siblings and a reckless stepsister. With her stepsister, an abandoned baby nephew and a lifetime of responsibility... Responsibility has never frightened Sadie. For so long it's been all she's known, thrown into situations outside her control and forced to just find a way to make it work. But the kind of responsibility and obligation Sadie has had to endure in her young life isn't sustainable for anyone, let alone a vulnerable teenage girl just trying to keep her family safe; and the repressed memories and overwhelming darkness lingering always in the back of her mind grow more menacing by the day, begging to be seen and felt, and threatening to consume her altogether. Through enlisting the help of a therapist, Sadie realises her list of regrets is a lot more comprehensive than she first thought, and topping that list are two very different but equally important people - Ruben Foster and Camden Jones - neither of which she has seen in over a decade, but who she comes to learn will be key to her positively moving forward in life with her eleven-year-old nephew. But the process of trudging through their respective shared pasts is proving a lot more challenging than she anticipated...Complete
Becoming Somebody
Charlie Jackson is transferring to Saint Peters High School with one goal in mind. Becoming popular. She's been bullied by the popular girls for years, but all that is going to change when she becomes the popular girl herself. She's so focused on her social goals, she didn't even think about what it was going to be like when all the boys start noticing her. Like, ALL the boys. But out of all the boys she kisses, which one steals her heart? This book is designed to be a short, easy read, with most chapters taking around 5-6 minutes or less. Total read time: 1 hour 50 minutes. ***Author's note: Hi! This is my first story, I hope you like it. It contains triggering topics, like bullying, depression, anxiety, and general mental health issues. Also there is a LOT of teen romance, and some hookup scenes eventually, but following Wattpad's guidelines all characters in those situations are over the age of consent. All names/places are fictional.Complete
Saving Sawyer | ✓
{ Watty 2015 Winner + Featured Story } Meet Sawyer Jameson. On the outside, she's a normal seventeen year old girl with amazing friends, a charitable job and a loving family. She's beautiful, funny and easy to get along with and just by looking at her, you'd think that she's the perfect girl, living in the perfect world. On the inside though, just waking up and living her day-to-day life is a struggle for Sawyer. Well, aware of this fact, Sawyer's mother forces to see a psychiatrist after school on a daily basis in order to cope with the tragic events Sawyer encountered a year prior. Now meet Graham Cambridge. Those who don't know him could easily stereotype him as being a blunt, selfish, egotistical golden boy, just because he likes to party and play football. Those who actually know him though know that he's actually quite the opposite of all of those things. When Graham transfers from his elite prep school to Sawyer's high school and quickly takes an interest in her, things go from bad to worse. At least, that's what Sawyer's convinced herself of. What people don't realize though is that maybe they were wrong about Graham Cambridge and that his life is about as far from perfect as they come and that he and Sawyer are alike in more ways than one. Two completely different teenagers that maybe aren't all that different after all are about to embark on a wild ride that neither of them could have ever expected. Can they help each other get past their demented previous tragedies? Or are their bygones too great to ever escape them? And can Sawyer ever truly be saved? Full of romance, heartbreak and just a little bit of fate, the next couple of months will challenge both Sawyer and Graham in ways they never thought possible. And maybe, just maybe, something beautiful will come out of it. © Copyright 2013 Millie Morgan. All Rights Reserved.Complete
The Flynn Effect
Josephine Pryce will do anything to get out of Lakeville even if it means simply tutoring her arch-nemesis Flynn Cauley. Except when it comes to him, things aren't always simple. *** Jo and Flynn couldn't be any more different than they already are. She's an uptight, type 1 diabetic and captain of the debate club and he's a notorious womanizer with a devil-may-care attitude and seemingly nothing to worry about. But now he needs help with English and she needs money for college. So regardless of the existent feud between them, she accepts to be his tutor in her school's online peer-tutorship program. But things aren't that straightforward when it comes to him. A misconception and desperation later, they decide to become a fake unlikely couple, solely because Flynn needs to make his crush jealous and Jo needs her ex to understand that it's over. Besides, she's partly in love with the hot, gentlemanly school paper president and the only way he'll notice her, is if she somehow becomes popular. Everything will be fine as long as they follow the rules. But then again, rules are meant to be broken. (UNEDITED) Most impressive rankings; #1 in lovestory #1 in enemies #1 in angst #1 in chronic illness #1 in fake dating #1 in diabetes #1 in YA #2 in heart touching #2 in love hate #3 in enemies to lovers #6 in high school #9 in teen romance #14 in humor #102 in romanceComplete
Life After You (Life Series; Book 1) {COMPLETED}
{COMPLETED} Amelia was adopted at age 15 by a family in the same town she grew up in, just on the other side. She's trying to move on and forget her horrible past, but people from then keep popping up in her life. She doesn't believe she will ever truly be free of them or happy. Then one day, something starts changing. She starts feeling happy and herself again. Will that feeling last, or will it all be ripped from her all over again? ***Disclaimer: This story deals with very mature themes. Many different forms of abuse and self harming will come up. If this is not for you, please skip past this book. I will try and put trigger warnings before each chapter if it deals with either abuse or self harm. Thanks💙 (5/18/19 Ranked #2 in findingyourself) (6/7/19 Ranked #3 in findingyourself)Complete
Prison Diaries: Book 1 (complete) A law-abiding student gets entangled with a broody inmate when she discovers there has been a miscarriage of justice. She goes in to help, but ends up breaking the first rule of interning at a prison; she falls for the inmate. ***** Carter Reynolds' teenage years ended the second the gavel hit the sound block. Or maybe they ended when the police found him standing over a dead body, drenched in blood. It might even have been before that. When he connected his fist with a face that left a broken jaw in its wake. Either way, it was over. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He accepted his fate, only promising himself to never care for anyone so intensely again. Almost four years into his sentence, Arya Crawford walks through the wrought iron prison gates. A self-proclaimed miniature philanthropist with a heart of gold, a law-abiding student with an urge to always have fun, a girl with a silent cause. She had taken up an internship at the New York State Penitentiary. And in time, Carter and Arya both realize something. She had broken the first rule instructed by the warden. She had fallen for an inmate. Which meant she couldn't stay. He had broken the promise he made to himself. He had started to care for her. Which meant he couldn't let her leave. But it's a little difficult to make that happen when you're stuck in a closet sized cell. And waiting twenty-one years is out of the question. ***** Highest Rankings: #6 in Romance, #2 in Passion, #4 in Badboy, #1 in Witty (for those who don't think an inmate/prison trope is their cup of tea, don't be put off because the story is first and foremost 'romance') Disclaimer** Reader discretion advised. - Mature content Story contains explicit language, sexual content, and physical and sexual violence.
More detailsContent Guidelines