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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The first thank-you goes to Lorella Belli, ent You floor me with your dedication x

To the fabulous teaners, editors, proofreaders, formatters, and everyone else orks so hard to make this book what it is, thank you!

To Leah, thanks for joiningme to push myself and make Jamie and Ellie’s story the best it could be x

To irls Kerry Duke and Chloe Meyer, thank you for your endless support and incredible cheerleader-like encourageirls

Toand I’m lucky to have you all

To you, dear reader, first Ito Be Freeoops this journey with me I really hope you enjoy the conclusion of Ja it

As always, a , and dedicated bloggers across the world who give up hours of their tih You guys are my rock stars x

And last but certainly not least, to Terrie Arasin,at a ti in social media and barely had time left in the day to actually write I don’t knohat I’d do without you (and your hot Texas accent that brightens anized e everything on my own As I said in the dedication, simply put, without you this book wouldn’t exist Love ya, darlin’ (said in hnuts on me xx

PROLOGUE

’TIS BETTER TO have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” Alfred, Lord Tennyson, said that in some poem in the 1800s In my opinion, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was full of shit

Maybe Lord Tennyson had never truly loved someone; maybe he’d never cared for someone else more than he cared for himself, because if he had, if he’d loved so to die for them, how could he have written such a horseshit line? I’, of course I’uy other than that one quote So how then, you ree with his?

Because I was in love once

Only once

And I lost her

And I would give any fucking thing in the world to have never loved her at all No, it most definitely is not better to have loved and lost

Fuck love And fuck Lord Tennyson

CHAPTER 1

JAMIE

HIS FIST CONNECTED with the side ofacrossto rattle in their sockets at the sheer force of the blow He obviously wanted this over with quickly