According to Joey Read online

  “Look,” I said eventually when I thought another second of silence would cause me to implode. I went back to the the last thing I’d said that made her mad. Maybe I could fix it. “I know you didn’t do this for me. But I appreciate it all the same. I hope we can be friends when I come home.”

  “I thought, according to you, we were friends. My bad.”

  Shit, I dug that hole and jumped right in. Regret threatened to choke me. “Jazz,” was all I could manage.

  “What?”

  I swallowed. “I’m sorry.” There was a relief in saying the apology in direct reference to the way I ended us. “Okay? I don’t know how many times I need to say it.” I would say it a hundred times if I had to. “Or for how long. I’m sorry.” I put every ounce of sincerity I possessed into the word again.

  “It’s fine,” she burst out, clearly embarrassed by me bringing it up.

  “Clearly, it’s not.” Not for me anyway. If I knew then what I knew now—that I’d fall so hard for this girl—I would have waited. I wouldn’t have let us get so far that summer and ended up breaking us. “God, I wish I could go back and stop anything happening between us. But I can’t. I can only apologize.”

  Maybe I’d been stupid waiting for an opening to make things right with us. Perhaps I should’ve let it go. Let her go.

  “Well, that’s the difference then,” she said, her voice tight with something I couldn’t name. “I don’t. I don’t wish it away. I’d never change it.”

  What?

  “I just wish we’d had a different ending.”

  I was in mid breath and my throat just closed up. I grasped for something to say. My stomach seemed to have gotten lost inside me. Pure shock.

  “Then ...” I swallowed. “I guess that’s what I’m sorry for.” I finally found words, but my mind was focused on one thing only. The part I could change.

  I could give us a different ending.

  “Whatever,” Jazz said, and the line went dead.

  I opened my mouth, then closed it again. In front of me the laptop came in and out of focus. I stared at the screen in front of me, and the two emails side by side. They came into focus. One to Seattle. One to stay close to home.

  I was going home.

  And this time I would stay.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading!

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  NATASHA BOYD IS an internationally bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary romantic southern fiction. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and has a background in marketing and public relations. Eversea, her debut novel, was a finalist for Contemporary Romance in the 2013 Winter Rose Contest, won the 2014 Digital Book Award for Adult Fiction and is a LIBRARY JOURNAL self-e selection 2015. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Georgia Romance Writers and Island Writer's Network in coastal South Carolina where she has been a featured speaker on book marketing. She lives with her husband, two sons and the cast of characters in her head.

  Natasha grew up in South Africa, Belgium and England. She now lives and writes full-time in the USA. Her work is available in English, Italian, Turkish, German, and Indonesian.

  Please keep in touch! Find me online:

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  To get a simple TEXT alert when I have a new release or a sale, Please text NATASHABOYD to 31996

  The Butler Cove Novels

  Eversea (Eversea #1)

  Forever, Jack (Eversea #2)

  My Star, My Love (An Eversea Christmas Novella)

  Deep Blue Eternity