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As we sat down and the pastor’s words permeated through the church, a strange feeling was cast over me. I was seated at the end of the pew next to AJ’s closed casket when it hit me. I would never see his beautiful, radiant smile again. Never hear his boisterous and ridiculously contagious laugh. Never feel his strong arms wrap me up in a comforting embrace that would make all my worries effortlessly slip away.
“Would anyone like to come up and say a few words about AJ?” The pastor stood there waiting to see if anyone would step forward.
My father nudged my shoulder. Clearly I was the first victim nominated to bare my soul about my dead brother. Languidly, I approached the front of the church, genuflected in front of the altar and stepped up to the podium, adjusting the microphone for my lack of height. I surveyed all of the people seated in front of me who came to pay their last respects to my brother. I was able to pick out of few of our mutual friends, some estranged family members that we only saw maybe once a year and several attendees I could honestly say I had never seen before in my life. There had to have been at least 300 people crammed in that tiny space. It was heartwarming to see how many lives he touched in the short amount of time he was able to share with us.
My gaze lowered to the casket, and I knew he wasn’t really there. It had been three days. Three days since he left me here to pick up the pieces of my shattered heart. Three days since I had let his name pass through my lips. Three days since he selfishly took his own life, leaving me with an image that will forever be burned into my brain. Inside that cold, hollow box was just a remnant of what once was my whole world…my brother, my best friend, my rock.
I tried to surrender all of the feelings I held locked in my heart for AJ, but the words just never came. The longer I stood there staring back at the blank faces before me, the harder I trembled. Finding my brother’s lifeless body had left me in a state of shock that I still had yet to come down from. I never allowed myself to fully mourn him…not one tear was shed. But now, I no longer had control over my body as my emotions came barreling through me, fighting to find their release.
What happened next was a blur.
I don’t remember running from the church, but I had finally broken free from the haze as I collapsed to my knees on the hard, cold ground, gasping for air as if it were my last breath…
I woke up screaming and completely drenched in sweat. My heart was racing a mile a minute, and I looked around, taking in my surroundings as I slowly came back to the present. The couple in the room next to me pounded on the wall and shouted for me to keep it down. Well they could go fuck themselves because they had no idea what shit I was going through over here!
Fuck, why did the dream have to come back now? Just when I was trying to start over and heal on my own, it crept up and bit me in the ass. I lied there, unconsciously spinning AJ’s state championship ring that I wore on the white-gold chain he gave me for the last birthday we celebrated together. I hadn’t taken it off since the day after his funeral when I decided to add the ring to my necklace. For some reason it had a soothing effect on me, and I often caught myself rotating it between my fingers when I felt stressed and overwhelmed.
I grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge, draining it completely before I lied back down. I thought about forcing myself to stay awake the rest of the night, fearing I might be pulled back into the dream, but I knew I’d regret it tomorrow. I needed all of the energy I could get if was going to spend the next day hunting for a job and an apartment…but I sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to it.
WHISKEY LULLABY by Dawn Martens and Emily Minton
Adult
18+
Romance
Each book ends with a HEA. All books are about different couples.
Julie Walker thought she found true love with Jase. Until he betrayed her in the worst way, with one of her best friends. Devastated and heartbroken she runs away, leaving behind her family and friends. She starts a new life filled with secrets.
When Julie meets Dean, she thinks he is the answer to all her prayers, but Dean isn’t who she thinks he is.
Jase Gibson is a player. Even when he had the girl of his dreams, he still played. When he lost Julie, his life fell apart. He turned to whiskey and women, to fill the void. But, only Julie will ever make him whole.
Nine years later, Julie's back home, but she's not alone. What will happen when all of Julie's secrets are uncovered?
Jase vowed that if he ever got her back, he would do right by her and never let her go. Will he let Julie's secret keep them apart?
When Julie's ex-husband refuses to be her ex, Jase must choose to help her or hang on to his anger.
Jase and Julie have to find a way to give their whiskey lullaby a happy ending.
WL - Prologue
Julie
I’m just finishing making Jase's birthday cake. It’s his favorite, chocolate with vanilla pudding in the middle. We’ve been living together for three years, and I still get butterflies whenever I think about him.
Jase and I have known each other since we were just kids, but we didn't become a couple until I was a freshman and he was a senior. I remember talking to my two best friends, Kristen andBec, when he came up and told me we were going out. Yes, he told me I was going out with him that night. Since then, we’ve been inseparable.
He was, and is, the sexiest thing I have ever seen. He has thick, light-brown hair that hangs just below his chin, and beautiful dark-brown eyes that sparkle when he laughs; they turn nearly black when he is inside me. He’s tall, a little over six feet. He’s slim but muscular. He was the star player on the school’s football team. All the girls wanted him; I couldn’t believe he wanted me. Sometimes, I still can't.
I was just the normal girl that really didn’t do anything except study. I was shy and quiet, and I kept mostly to myself. I only had a few friends. It was really just Kristen, Bec, and me against the world.
Kristen is my cousin, but she is really more of a sister. My brother and I have lived with her family since I was seven. See, my mom ran off with some trucker and left me and Brandon alone in our little trailer. He was just nine, but he tried his best to take care of me. Three days after she left, we ran out of food; the next day, the Department of Children's Services was at our door.
We haven’t seen mom since. My dad was never in the picture. Honestly, I wonder if mom even knew who he was. Luckily, Mom’s brother Mack was more of a parent than she ever was. He and his wife took us in. They have two kids of their own, Kristen and Will. We had never even met them before, but it didn't take long for us all to become one big family.
