I Want Crazy

Loco, Texas #3

Codi Gary

Copyright

This ebook is licensed to you for your personal enjoyment only.

This ebook may not be sold, shared, or given away.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

I Want Crazy

Copyright © 2014 by Codi Gary

Ebook ISBN: 9781943772674

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

No part of this work may be used, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

NYLA Publishing

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http://www.nyliterary.com

Dedication

To my father, Andrew Hall,

for teaching me about hard work and perseverance.

And for supporting me through this journey.

Thanks, D.O.D.

Chapter One

Red Calhoun was having a shit day. It was as if the sky had opened up over his head and started raining shit all over him and he couldn’t find an umbrella.

First he’d gone into his part-time mechanic’s job at Jose’s Auto Body, but Jose hadn’t had any work for him. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except he wanted the distraction of a car engine. He needed something to keep him busy so he could stop stressing about his looming deadline.

Who would have ever thought when he’d gotten mono his freshman year of high school that reading one of his mother’s romance novels would have led to him writing them? He had been miserable and bored, having only one TV in their house and most of the time, his mother was watching her “stories” on it, so he was stuck in his room. He had picked up one of her books with a cover of a shirtless guy and a woman with her breasts popping out of her dress and started reading for a laugh. Before he knew it, he’d spent the next two months he was home devouring every book on his mother’s shelf. He’d always been good at English, and when he’d gone back to school, he’d found himself writing short stories in his spare time, stories filled with romance, passion, and happily ever afters.

It wasn’t until he’d come home after losing his scholarship that he’d seriously started writing, under the radar, of course. He’d joined Lovers of Romance online, an organization dedicated to the romance genre, and the people who read and wrote it. He’d taken some online workshops to hone his craft and even joined an online critique group, using his own name since he figured no one would ever believe that it was him. By the time he’d started submitting his work, he’d been writing seriously for four years. And when he’d been picked up by Everly Publishing, one of the biggest houses in New York, he’d been floored. He’d had a few conditions about his publication, mainly that his true identity remain under wraps. Although he still used Red Calhoun as his pen name, his editor had been more than willing to provide him with an avatar and elusive author bio that put him in upstate New York and reported how he enjoyed a sugar-free vanilla latte or some bullshit like that. He wasn’t worried about anyone in Loco tying the books back to him, because really, who would ever believe that he wrote romances?

Of course, his sisters got a kick out of reading his reviews to him, and their favorite one, which they’d actually had framed for him, read: Red’s heroes are realistic and to die for. This is one author who definitely has a glimpse into what makes a real man.

MJ, his oldest sister, took a break from her giggles to squeal, “Oh, she has no idea.”

He didn’t mind their teasing, especially since every one of them had read his first book, Kiss Me Again, and sworn they loved it. Even Rand, one of his best friends, who wasn’t much of a reader, had read and reread it a handful of times, so many she could quote the book.

Which brought him to shit storm number two. His editor, Elizabeth O’Neil, had called to let him know his second book, His to Hold, had just made the New York Times Best Seller List. His first book, Kiss Me Again, had made the list last year, and he’d been pumped about having two best sellers under his belt.

Until she’d asked, “So how’s the next manuscript coming?”