Page 4 of The Loves We Lost
“No shame in my game,” she says. “Blue is for romantic moments. Pink is for hot, sexy moments. Green is for quotes I loved.”
I take in the cover and get what Iris means. The guy does look a bit like me. Same fair hair, same light tan skin. Spark gives meall kinds of grief for wearing sunscreen and shit. But I don’t want to have skin the texture of old leather when I’m fifty. Our eyes are the same shape. Kind of uncanny actually. But what hits me most is the tattoo on the shoulder. It’s not mine, but it is. The font is different. It’s not in exactly the same place. I touch my shoulder whereFortune Favors The Boldsits beneath my skin.
But it’s only when I take in the name of the author that my heart drops with a thud as all the blood rushes to my head. It’s written by Vi Graydon, and it can’t be a coincidence.
Graydon. My last name.
And Vi. My ... I shake my head at the thought that Viola was once everything to me. And she was also the woman who left me instead of marrying me. The fact she’s using my name as hers when she refused to take it in real life burns.
I turn to the back of the book and read the blurb.
Can a bad boy biker ever be the right guy for the good girl?
Travis “Fortune” Rogers is a biker on a mission.
Fortune.
I have memories of Viola and me in bed in the days after I got my ink.I should call you Fortune now instead of Miles.
I thoughtFortunewould be my road name. Instead, I gotBatesafter an unfortunate situation involving a shared clubhouse bathroom, my penchant for knives, and the old lady of an old-timer taking a shower.
There is no way on earth this is an accident.
The woman who left me because she didn’t feel like she could be part of my world is now writing about it.
I open the book to a green sticky note and read.
“You can’t stop me from becoming who I am.”
“I don’t want to stop you from being who you are. All I can do is save myself so you don’t take me down with you.”
I remember her yelling that at me a year after I started prospecting with the Outlaws. After my first brush with the law.I’d gone to her to hide out. I even remember the comment that started the fight. Jokingly I’d asked her if she was prepared for conjugal prison visits.
In response, she told me she’d been thinking ... and that she wasn’t prepared for any of my association with the Iron Outlaws.
Rae said the pink ones were sex. I flick to one.
For a big man, he’s gentle. He knows this is my first time. And while I can’t imagine this is fulfilling the needs he has, he’s doing his best to fulfill mine. And my heart falls for him just a little more at the gesture. Fingers slip beneath the strap of my sundress.
My chest cracks open as I remember how soft the pretty yellow cotton straps felt in my hands as I nudged them off her shoulders. And I recall my surprise at just how much softer her skin was when I kissed it.
To torture myself a little more, I find a blue stickie.
Self-preservation has never been my strong suit. I’m terrible at making decisions under pressure. And I know letting this man who is treading a path of violence touch me is a terrible mistake. But the tumble into him is everything I need right now, and I can no sooner stop myself than I could halt the earth spinning around the sun.
I flip to the end and find the epilogue. A diamond, a cut, a forever.
Thistime, the heroine says yes. Not the tearful no I got.
There’s a note to follow the author on her social media platforms and a sign-up link to a newsletter.
Suddenly all thoughts of Penny and tequila leave my head.
Because if the woman who broke my heart thinks she can tell the world about us for profitandchange the story to the happy ending she never gave me, she has another thing coming.
2
VIOLA
