Page 1 of Edge of Forever

ONE

Kirsten

There’sa picture on my dresser of my parents the night they met. He has his arm around her waist and she’s gazing at him like he hung the moon. My mom was sixteen and Dad was nineteen. She fell in love with the up-and-coming rockabilly singer the moment they met, but the story we’ve always been told is that Dad didn’t want to get tied down, didn’t believe in marriage, and didn’t want kids.

So Mom got herself pregnant with my older sister Sydney.

It was the only way she could keep him in her life, ostensibly forever.

I keep that picture on my nightstand—even though I hate both of them—to remind me of that.

What she did.

Why she did it.

And to remind myself that I am not and will never be like her.

“Kirsten?” There’s a soft knock on my bedroom door before Sydney peeks in. “Are you ready? Sam’s here.”

I turn slowly and bite my lip. “How do I look?”

“Breathtaking,” she whispers, tears glistening in her eyes.

Sydney just had her second baby—the first since she and Ford got married—and she still gets pretty emotional sometimes.

“Don’t cry!” I admonish, blinking back a few tears of my own. “It’s your fault if I ruin my makeup!”

She laughs and nods. “Nope. Not crying.”

Even though she is.

“I can’t believe I’m graduating from high school in a couple of weeks,” I say in a quiet voice.

“I know.” She reaches for my hand. “And going off to college. Already with a hit single under your belt.”

Two years ago, I performed a duet with the platinum-selling rock band Onyx Knight that went to number one. I’m not your average high school senior.

And my date is not your average prom date either.

Sam Fielding is the lead guitarist for a band called Crimson Edge.

He’s tall, tattooed, and…breathtaking.

I fell in love with him the first time I laid eyes on him, but I was seventeen and he was twenty-two last year, so that was a no-go.

Now I’m eighteen.

And he’s taking me to prom.

“Syd?” I search my sister’s face.

“Yeah?” She looks at me curiously.

“Tonight might be the night.”

She smiles. “I know.”

“I’m nervous.”

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