We open in the spring of 2016, at a university campus. A student-our hero-bumps into a girl in front of a building, and she drops her books at his feet. He returns most of them, but before he can hand her the last one, she's off without a word.
Her face is kept purposely hidden from us-and from him-and there's something rather urgent in the way he runs after her, trying to catch up. But he loses her around the bend.
He looks down at the book, titled A Hand to You (on the cover, a note has been handwritten in pen, "To Dummy"). He heaves a heavy sigh of disappointment.
A sudden downpour sends him running for cover, which is where a girl steps up next to him, her face hidden under an umbrella. He recognizes the gold key necklace she's wearing and his fingers instinctively touch the silver necklace around his neck, in the shape of a lock.
"You..." he starts to say in surprise. But the girl with the hidden face walks off again.
He thinks, "In the time in my life when you were my every moment, we loved. And in this moment now, I hope that it's you."
Then we jump backward two years, to the spring of 2014.
As Dallas and Drayton navigate life in the spotlight, Spencer is navigating intense feelings for Nathan - her best friend's brother.
*****
Dallas and Drayton are planning their wedding, talking babies and learning how to navigate life in LA now that Drayton is a hotshot football player in the big leagues. Meanwhile, Spencer and Nathan are back at home in Colorado, coming to terms with their feelings for one another and learning how to co-parent with Grayson, the father of Spencer's daughter. Will the realities of adult life strengthen them - or will their relationships break?
[Sequel to The QB Bad Boy and Me]
[[word count: 150,000-200,000 words]]