True North Book 3 - Finding Now Kate and Sam (28 page)

My eyes closed against the hurt of that statement. A statement I knew was absolutely true. I’d tried everything and she didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Not now anyway … maybe not ever.

I twirled the long stemmed red rose I held between my fingers.

“Come on, man, it’s a long way to L.A.”

“Yeah, okay,” I conceded.

I thought somehow she’d have changed her mind … I was just being an idiot.

Dropping the flower to the concrete pad I turned and stepped onto the tour bus that I would have been so excited to be on under any other circumstances. Now it just felt like a confining prison. How the hell was I ever going to get through this?

I watched out the window for a moment as the driver pulled out before I settled onto one of the sofas.

“I can’t wait to meet the guys from Three Days Grace.” Lucas was talking to anyone who would listen. Him, Zach and Noah were wound up with the sheer excitement of the situation.

“And this bus is so fucking awesome!” Zach looked around as if he thought he might wake up.

I wished I would wake up … with Kate in my arms again. I was exhausted actually, not having slept well since she left.

“You know, guys, I’m going to catch some shuteye,” I announced and stood up to go into the back. Instinctively, I felt my pockets for my phone then remembered I’d tossed it into the console drawer at the front of the bus. I’d been sick of looking at it every fucking thirty seconds to see if she’d called. I waved to the boys and started down the hall.

“What did you do, Cam? Cut him off?” Noah laughed.

“Hell, no!”  Cam, our driver, answered. “What’s the matter with the asshole?”

“Hey, Sam,” Logan called out. “Would Kate have hopped a cab? Because we have some douche all over our ass.”

“No, Cam must have done something.” My Kate would never have gotten into a taxi.

Lying down in the bed, I stared up at the ceiling, trying to turn off my brain as I shielded my eyes from the light with my bent arm.

A second later I heard a car, which I was assuming was the cab, laying on its horn beside us. The guys were still talking at each other when I heard “If You Only Knew” by Shinedown playing louder than the radio up front. That was one hell of a coincidence.

“SAM NORTH!” A familiar feminine voice shouted.

I sat bolt upright.
No way. No fucking way!

“Sam, it looks like you already have a crazy stalker fan, and she is hot!” Noah called.

“Blonde?” No way was it Kate.

“Put your foot on it and lose them,” Lucas said, disinterested.

“IS SHE BLONDE?” I demanded. Damn it, I needed to stop. It wasn’t her!

“Yep!” Lucas called back.

I jumped up out of the bed and to the window, throwing it open to stick my head out.

It was my freaking CD player, the one I’d left for Kate. Our eyes locked.

“KATE!” I screamed out the window.

“SAM!”

“PULL THE BUS OVER!” I yelled, running up front.

Logan gave Cam the go ahead, and I stood holding onto the seat as the tour bus careened into the breakdown lane. I had the door open before we even came to a stop and jumped to the blacktop.

The yellow taxi had stopped about forty feet behind us. Kate pushed open the door and came running toward me.

We crashed together somewhere in between the two vehicles.

“Oh my God, Kate.” I tangled my hands into her thick, messy mane of hair and kissed her all over her tear and mascara streaked face. “Are you real? Are you fucking real?”

“Yes I’m real and I’m sorry, Sam, I’m so sorry. I should have never let you go!” she cried.

“You never have to apologize to me. Don’t you remember?” I laughed and cried at the same time, not caring who saw me.

I held her out to look at her face, to see her clearly, to make it sink in that she had really come after me.

“How did you do it?” I wiped her fresh tears with my thumb. “How did you ride in the cab?”

Her lungs let out a burst of nervous laughter. “I thought of us in the backseat of your Charger.”

I laughed and picked her up off the ground, holding her so close I was probably painfully squeezing the air from her lungs.

“I want to come with you,” she sobbed into my neck. “I don’t ever want to be away from you again. I’d sacrifice the very beat of my heart not to lose you.” She paraphrased the song I’d left for her and that I heard still playing back behind her.

“Me too, Kate, every beat of my heart.”

Chapter Twenty

“Mirrors”

Justin Timberlake

Sam

“So, this is your favorite place in the world?” I asked her.

She turned her head, and her bright beaming smile outshone the sun above us.

“Yup. Ethan and I would sit floating in this very spot until the sun was long gone.

We both sat close to one another, as the waves swelled under our surfboards, at Maverick’s Beach in Half Moon Bay, California, Kate’s hometown.

“It feels good to share this place with you.” She reached over and took my hand, twining our fingers together.

I pulled her closer and her board bumped mine. Both of us laughed.

“The biggest wave comes down from Alaska this time of year.” She watched a few surfers chasing waves a little distance from us.

“Are you going to do it?” I challenged.

“Do
it
?” she echoed like she didn’t know what I was talking about.

“I want to see some of those championship moves.”

“It’s been a long time, Sam.” She was still grinning, though, with the possibility.

“Hmm … I bet I could get you to try at least one wave before we leave,” I persuaded.

“Really? How would you do that?” She leaned in closer.

“You know how hot you look in that wetsuit?” I leaned in and reached for the front zipper. “You should unzip it just a little bit so I can have a good view of your gorgeous cleavage.”

She slapped my hand, but bit her sweet bottom lip at the suggestion just the same. She wanted me.

“My mom and dad liked you. That was a battle won.”

“They’re good people. Plus, your mom made me homemade pie. Can you make pie like that?”

“Any kind,” she assured me. “You haven’t seen all my skills.”

After our big meetings with the music and PR executives and our kickoff show in Los Angeles, the bands got five days off for Christmas to fly home and see their families. Kate and I had spent two days here with her folks. She’d shown me her bedroom from when she was a teenager, her favorite town haunts and, most importantly, her beloved beach. We’d checked off to-do list item numbers 8, 9, 10 and now 12, and only had #11 left. I hoped I could get her in my dad’s old farm truck. I had a feeling she’d drive on our property. Those weren’t real roads, just finely worn grooves in the earthen landscape of the prairie.

“All the skills I care most about,” I teased back.

Today was our last day here before we flew to the ranch so she could meet the rest of my family. Of course they were all dying to meet her.

“Here comes one, babe. I think it’s got your name on it,” I encouraged.

“Just for you,” Kate declared, paddling out away from me and readying her body and board.

A moment later she was standing on her board, guiding it as if she were making love to it and the wave of water that propelled her.

“Man, I could kill you guys!” I growled.

“Kill away,” Josh said as he shoved me toward the stage.

“You know, it’s against my contract to sing without permission.”

“Don’t worry, Sammy!” Will cupped his hands over his mouth. “We won’t tell your producers.”

Jake and Livie, Caleb and Piper, and Nate and Jules just laughed hysterically. Fuck it, I wouldn’t have had any sympathy either after how much shit I’d given them.

I rolled my eyes and picked the overused karaoke mic up off the Wilds’ stage floor while they all catcalled and whistled out to me.

“Rock it, Bieber!” Nate shouted.

“Yeah, and don’t forget the falsetto notes!” Jake followed.

I downed the contents of my beer bottle, drumming up some liquid guts. Why was the place so fucking packed? It was the holiday weekend! Didn’t these people have anywhere else to be?”

“Stop procrastinating!” Caleb laughed.

I bent down to the karaoke master and whispered the name of the song I was forced to perform, because of my own asinine bet. Oh yeah, Kate and the girls got a huge kick out of that piece of info.

Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” started up, and I stood there following the words on the teleprompter.

“We want a performance, superstar!” Kate shouted up at me.

Traitor.

What the hell, might as well. I shook my hips then crawled down the stage to sing the song directly to her.

She screamed like she was my biggest fan and stuffed a dollar bill into the waistband of my jeans. That had my family roaring with laughter!

I turned around, jumped back up on stage and shook my ass as I finished the final chorus with gusto.

When it was all over everyone patted me on the back.

“Fucking Sam! You deserved it,” Josh chuckled. “‘
I’ll never fall in love. Jake, Caleb and Nate are all pussy whipped,’
” he mocked me.

“Look at her, Josh!” I held a hand toward Kate. “Can you possibly blame me?”

“No, man, I cannot,” he said, deadly serious. “She is gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” Kate replied to Josh’s compliment. “And thank you, Boyfriend.”

“Nice pun.” I gripped her knee and leaned in for a kiss. And for that song I wanted tongue!

“I am good with words you know. I was a professor …”

“Until this hot-for-teacher punk ass whisked you away to be part of his band.”

“Mmm … I love your punk ass.”

We were so close I could smell the rum and pineapple on her breath, making her extra sweet.

“Put a ring on it, asshat,” Nate said, crouching over to say it in my ear, but loudly enough so obviously Kate could hear too.

I shook my head, trying not to laugh as he walked away. “Un-fucking-believable.”

Kate giggled.

I caught her soft blue eyes. The harsh storms had blown away and all I saw now were sunlit skies I could bask in and play under every day of my life.

“I just may have to do that someday, Jolie,” I whispered to only her before I took her mouth with mine.

The End

Of

True North Book 3 - Finding Now Kate and Sam

Also Available

True North Book 1  - Finding Home Livie and Jake

True North Book 2 - Finding Us Jules and Nate

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She can always be found writing, playing in puddles with her children, hiking with her husband, or adventuring somewhere in the world. Her favorite place to write on warm days is outdoors, but when the weather gets too cold, she'll be inside at her desk inspired by the mountain view from her home office in Montana where she lives with her loving husband, children, and golden retriever.

Allie Juliette loves to travel and lived for three years in her RV with her family while visiting the national parks and forests of the U.S. and Canadian Provinces. She is excited to add all of Canada, Alaska and Europe in the near future!

She loves chatting to her readers through email and social media.

Other books by Allie Juliette:
                                                                                                        “The True North Series” – A New Adult Contemporary Romance Series                                          “True North Book One Finding Home Livie and Jake”                                                             “True North Book Two Finding Us Jules and Nate”                                                             “True North Book Three Finding Now Kate and Sam”                                                             “True North Book Four Finding You Sophie and Josh” (Coming in the fall 2014)

“Enemy Lines” - A Sci-fi Adult Novel                                                                                           “Without Borders” - A Contemporary Adult Erotic Short Story“