This child was too smart for her own good. “Why don’t you come with Uncle Grant and me? There’s something super cool upstairs I bet you haven’t seen yet.” Elijah held his hand out in proposition, but my daughter wanted nothing to do with his exit plan. “Mama, why does he keep calling you that? If he’s my father, how does he not know your name?” Vela tilted her inquisitive face up while slipping her small hand into mine for reassurance. “Cass?” His deep voice brought me back to the present day. But so many other words were added in its place.

The word simple fell from my lexicon around that same time and never returned. Many months after that simple gift arrived from my brother, another gift arrived.

The same way my pep talk had cleared the negativity from my head and heart, the typical Bay-area fog outside gave way to a clear azure sky.Īnd as the man I had fallen in love with and lazed with on the single lounge chair we managed to squeeze onto my small balcony stared into my eyes, I made him a hundred promises…knowing all the while I wouldn’t keep a single one. After just one complaint to my overindulgent big brother, a brand-new pair of noise-canceling AirPods had arrived to make the last year of my co-ed life a touch easier. They still played their bass-heavy music right through the posted study hours-and half the common-sense sleeping hours, too. It didn’t seem to matter how many culinary gestures of good will I’d left on their door mat. I didn’t even mind my inconsiderate upstairs neighbors. Like my psychological stability, my love for the little apartment fluctuated back and forth. I stepped into the equally crowded bedroom of the first place I’d called my own and took a minute to appreciate what I’d accomplished. Hell, the only way that situation could have gotten was better. Nine years ago, I stood in my off-campus apartment’s cramped bathroom and gave myself a pep talk. Purchase only authorized editions.įor David, the love of my life and the brightest star in my sky.Įternally my guidon, I know you’ll always show me the way home. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic format without permission. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. This book is an original publication of Waterhouse Press.

Jacob's Star by Victoria Blue