Early this year when Musa posted a submissions call for a series called
Finally Ever After, I jumped at the
opportunity. The stories were to be short, happily ever romances about lovers
who have loved each other and lost. Now,
they have a second chance to create the happy ending they didn’t get the first
time.
High school art teacher Julianne Truman's last chance to save her
beloved art department from budget cuts is to sell the old sketches that her
former boyfriend—and now famous artist—Zane DeMonde drew for her. But is she
prepared to let go of his artwork and the last traces of him in her life?
Desperate to save his artistic reputation from the exposure of his early works, Zane returns to the home town he wanted to forget. He accuses Julianne of profiting from his success and demands she take his art off the market and cancel the auction.
Their high school attraction flares back to life, forcing Julianne to choose between the students who count on her and the man she never stopped loving.
Desperate to save his artistic reputation from the exposure of his early works, Zane returns to the home town he wanted to forget. He accuses Julianne of profiting from his success and demands she take his art off the market and cancel the auction.
Their high school attraction flares back to life, forcing Julianne to choose between the students who count on her and the man she never stopped loving.
“Cancel the auction.”
Julianne Truman’s head snapped around at the hard male voice. The stapler fell
from her hand and cracked open on the floor, as she caught sight of the
extraordinary face that went with the voice. Her knees shook as she climbed
down the ladder. She hadn’t faced Zane DeMonde in nearly fifteen years. At one
time she’d believed he’d be part of every single day of her future.
“Zane, I didn’t expect you to come.” She stepped toward him. His black hair was
a little shorter than the last time she’d seen him, but at shoulder length it
was still far longer than most men’s. Gone were the black hoodie and ripped
jeans of his youth. Now he wore chinos and a sharply pressed blue button-down
shirt, open at the neck.
The dark storms in his cobalt blue eyes were exactly the same as the day he’d
walked away from her. “Cancel the auction. The sketches and painting are not
for sale.”
She swallowed. “I own them. If I choose to sell them, that’s my business.” And it was breaking her heart to part with the only piece of him that she’d been able to hang onto all these years.
“When they have my name on them and you’re getting rich off me, it’s my business.”
Getting rich was so far from the truth Julianne would have laughed if her chest weren’t so tight. “It’s an honor to have you back in town.” At least her students would think so. Her brother would likely burst an artery. And she—well, she couldn’t even begin to process the mix of emotions she was feeling. “Do you have a minute to talk? I can explain what’s going on.”
“I know what’s going on.”
She hoped he couldn’t hear how hard her heart was hammering or sense how desperately she longed to wrap her arms around him and pick up where they left off fifteen years ago, as if he’d never left her. “Then you know that the arts are at the bottom of the school district’s priority list. To have supplies for the classroom, to restore the school mural, to give my students a chance to explore different mediums, the art program needs an alternate source of funding.”
“You’re the Dentonville High art teacher?”
She couldn’t help feeling defensive at his derisive tone. “Yes, and I love my job.”
“Do you? Or have you never moved beyond your high school life?”
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To learn more about Sara Daniel
and her work, please visit her website http://www.SaraDaniel.com and blog. http://saradanielromance.blogspot.com
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1 comment:
Thanks for hosting me, Nancy. I loved writing Zane's Art!
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