Page 1 of Lakeside Lovers

Chapter One

Watching my best friend all loved up and happy is super depressing. I know I should be happy for her, and I am, kind of. No, I am. I’m just bitter I suppose.

I was sixteen when I thought I found the elusive one. We spent a few blissful weeks together and I just knew he was my forever; I felt it in every single part of my being. So, I handed him my virginity on a golden platter… Then he disappeared.

Like, literally disappeared.

And not just him, but his whole family. They were there one day and gone the next. No one knew where they’d gone or why they left in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye.

I. Was. Devastated.

I mean, I gave him my V-card and he didn’t even have the decency to tell me he was leaving town. I thought we shared everything; I thought I knew all his secrets. He certainly knew all of mine.

A decade later and it still bothers me. You’d think I’d be over it by now. But a girl doesn’t just get over something like that.

For a while, I held out hope he’d miraculously return and tell me his family made him leave without saying goodbye, that he didn’t have a choice. Which is plausible seeing as he was only seventeen at the time.

But as the weeks turned to months and the months to a year, I knew I had to let it go. I pieced my broken heart back together, one tiny shard at a time, and then I threw myself into the world of romance novels. The Heroes in my books would never let me down the way my real-life lover did.

I’m kicking back with my heel-clad feet propped on the library reception desk, twirling a long strand of hair around my finger while reading one such book when a deep voice from over the high counter asks, “Is Margo Miller here?”

Tipping my head back, my breath catches in my throat as I come face to face with Tyler Mayberry for the first time since he took my virginity…

Holy. Shit.

It’s really her. It’s Margo. My Margo.

My heart beats triple time as her deep blue eyes, framed by naturally thick black lashes, meet mine for the first time in over ten years.

She blinks up at me in shock, the book in her hands falling to the floor and she gapes at me as though she’s just seen a ghost.

“Hey,” I say. It’s lame, but it’s all I can muster right now. I thought I was prepared for this moment, but finally seeing her is… Fuck, it’s everything.

Her reaction gives me hope that she remembers who I am, and I cling to that hope as if it’s a life raft. We only shared a blink in time when we were teenagers, but it was the best time in my life.

Leaving wasn’t my choice. But staying wasn’t an option. I couldn’t even say goodbye.

My throat thickens as the memory of that night washes over me. My parents telling my brother and me that the witness protection program was moving us yet again—it was like being sucker punched.

Margo’s voice draws me from the past and back to the present. “How may I help you?” she asks, the shock from moments ago replaced with indifference.

I swallow and look her dead in the eye as I expel the breath I’d been holding. “Margo, it’s me, Tyler.”

She blinks again then tilts her head and narrows her eyes as she examines me. “I’m sorry, I don’t believe I know any Tyler’s.”

It would have hurt less if she kicked me in the balls.

Maybe she doesn’t remember me and I just surprised her and that’s why she dropped her book? Maybe my overactive teenage imagination blew our relationship out of proportion, and she never really did love me the way I was hopelessly devoted to her? Maybe this was a mistake…

Oh. My. God…

What is he doing here? Where did he even come from? And why did I just lie about not knowing who he is?

The crestfallen look on his handsome face squeezes my heart. I bite my bottom lip and avert my gaze.

He clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck. “We,” he starts, then stops himself with a shake of his head. “Sorry, you mustn’t be the Margo I’m looking for.”

He’s been looking for me? For how long? Why?

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