Page 1 of The Stars

Prologue

Amy woke with a start. Something wasn’t quite right. It was too quiet. Opening one eye, she realized the bed was empty next to her.

“Ryan?” She sat up and stretched her arms over her head.

He stepped inside the door to the hotel room from outside, no doubt having a late-night cigarette. When she looked at him, she knew why she’d allowed him to push her around for the past few months. God, he was gorgeous. The man had everything. Looks and a job that paid well enough that he constantly bought her things. Most importantly, he was her ticket to staying out of her small hometown of Hidden Creek.

Then she noticed the look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” She sat up a little more.

“Seriously? You can ask me that?” Ryan shook his head. “Whatever, I’m out of here.” He tossed some things quickly into his backpack.

“What?” She blinked a few times. “Why?”

Ryan glanced over his shoulder at her as if she was crazy. Then he laughed and sighed. “Don’t be crazy. I’ve got to.” He slipped on his jacket and glanced at the door.

“You’re serious?” she asked, jumping up from the bed.

“And you weren’t?” Ryan asked without looking back at her. “Crazy bitch,” he mumbled as he slammed the door behind him.

If she’d been paying attention, she would have seen the look of hurt in his eyes as he bolted out the door, leaving her there, stranded. Instead, she watched him go and felt her chances of ever leaving the vortex that was her hometown slip out of her fingers.

Chapter One

It wasn’t the first time Ryan had left her stranded. In the short six months they’d been dating, this was the third time she’d had to find her own ride somewhere. This was the first time he’d left her this far from anywhere, though. The other two times, she had been able to take an Uber home.

She doubted that she’d be able to hire a car to drive her to Hidden Creek this far out in the country.

Her luck with men had never been good. She’d believed that Ryan was different. Sure, she hadn’t strayed far from her type as far as looks go. She couldn’t help but fall for the muscular types. Meatheads. Jocks. She’d believed he was different from all her other boyfriends because Ryan was a runner, not a football player. He’d fooled her.

* * *

The fact that he’d called her a crazy bitch, well, that was odd. It wasn’t the first time someone had called her bitch or crazy, but both at once? Never.

This was the last time she’d fall for someone like him. Being stranded at the hotel roughly twenty miles from home was a nuisance. Well, her old home, at any rate. For the past year, she’d called her small one-room apartment in Atlanta home. She hadn’t strayed far from where she’d grown up, but at least she had technically been out of Hidden Creek.

She and Ryan had broken things off at least once before. This time, however, when he came crawling back to her, there was nothing he could do to change her mind. The relationship was finally over. Actually, thinking about it, she might just take a break from men altogether.

Why not take a year or two to focus on herself? School had been going great and even though she had to work a stupid job to keep up with her classes, she might just redefine who she was.

Find herself.

For now, however, she had to get back to Hidden Creek somehow.

The next morning, with few other choices, she headed over to the diner across the road from the hotel. Normally, she would have called her brother, since her parents were out of town for a month-long trip to Alaska.

The only reason she worried about calling Joe and his wife Liz to come get her was that they were expecting their first child any day now. That was the whole reason she and Ryan had been heading back to Hidden Creek in the first place. They had planned on staying at her parents’ place until her new nephew or niece was born.

Why her folks had planned an extensive trip when their first grandchild was due was beyond her.

Joe and Liz were keeping the gender of the baby a secret, so she’d bought neutral-colored gifts. But they were still in Ryan’s car. Good luck getting those gifts back from him. Ryan had also taken off with her purse. Her bad habit of always leaving it in her car stung now.

At least she’d had her cell phone and ten dollars in her pocket, which would pay for her breakfast.

Dressed in her worn jeans and one of Ryan’s old college sweatshirts that he’d left behind, she headed across the street to the diner. Her makeup bag had been in the car, so she went without. Her brush was in the same bag, so she tied her long blonde hair in a braid.

It was lucky that she’d decided to head to the diner. She’d still been debating waking Joe up, but knowing he worked at the liquor store that he’d inherited a few years back from their uncle, she’d hesitated.