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Authors: Aria Glazki,Stephanie Kayne,Kristyn F. Brunson,Layla Kelly,Leslie Ann Brown,Bella James,Rae Lori

I Heart Geeks (32 page)

BOOK: I Heart Geeks
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“Sure,” I said as I slipped on my shoes.

“Let’s take the truck, we can go to the creek,” Luke suggested as soon as I stepped out onto the porch.

“Ok.” In my nervous state I was slipping back into one word answers.

We drove to the creek in amplified silence. Luke stopped the truck by the same spot we’d ridden to the week before. I waited until he opened his door before hopping out and walking over to the log. Sitting, I gave Luke time to come over and join me.

“I talked to my mom and dad,” he said finally.

“How did it go?” I asked, surprised how calm I sounded when my mind was spinning out of control.

“I didn’t ask for permission or for an opinion. I’d already made up my mind before I got to the house.”

My heart sank.

“I understand,” I forced out, trying to hold my emotions in check. “You need to do what’s right by your family.”

“No, Ains.” He turned his body to towards mine until our knees touched. He cupped my face gently, pausing until I looked up, “I told them I wasn’t going to run the ranch anymore, and that I was going to follow my own path. Riley said she’d stick around for a while to take care of the business side, and the foreman was more than happy to step up and take over the cattle side of the ranch, at least until something permanent is figured out.”

I stared at him in stunned silence. “You did? You are?” I finally choked out, wondering if he had a defibrillator in the truck to restart my poor confused heart.

“Yeah.” He beamed. His hand slipped from my face and grasped my hand tightly. “Call the banker, Ains. Schedule for Monday morning and let’s make this happen.”

Forgetting the past twenty-three years of being the shy one, I squealed and threw myself into Luke’s arms, clinging to him for dear life. I was excited, relieved, and terrified all rolled into one.

“Ok. Let’s call now.” Unwilling to wait a second longer, I punched in the number and arranged an appointment for Monday morning.

When I hung up Luke was looking at me, smiling.

“What?” I asked, smiling back dazedly.

“You are amazing, Ains,” he said simply. I fumbled for something to say, but he wasn’t done yet. “You have a wicked sense of humor, you’ve got a huge heart, you’re intelligent, and you’re so damn beautiful I forget my own name sometimes when I look at you.” He reached out and ran his fingers through the curls hanging over my shoulder.

At that moment a soft breeze could have blown me over. Luke Morgan had just called me beautiful? My inner teenage girl was doing backflips and high fiving the grown-up me. Outwardly, I sat with my mouth hanging open like a flytrap.

“I don’t know what to say to that Luke,” I finally replied, trying to figure out which end of my world was up because it had just been completely rocked. “I feel the same about you.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” he teased with a grin, trying to put me at ease.

“You know what I meant.” I blushed and waved a flustered hand in his direction. When he didn’t immediately reply, I blurted, “My Gram said you were courtin’ me.” As soon as the words were out I wanted to take them back. I quickly covered my face with my hands and groaned.

Laughing, Luke leaned over and pried my fingers away from my face.

“Ains, look at me,” he said, voice shaky from trying to hold back laughter.

“No, forget you heard that. I never said it; the last few minutes did not just happen,” I grumbled.

“Hell no, I will not forget Ains. It’s taken me since high school to get to this point. No take backs.” He finally succeeded in freeing my hands, and looked me straight in the eyes.

“We didn’t talk much in high school, Luke,” I pointed out, unsure what he meant by the last comment.

“Exactly!” he exclaimed. He shifted closer to me and framed my face with his hands so I was forced to keep eye contact. “That was the problem. You were too shy. Every time I’d approach you, you’d run off in the other direction!”

“You were always surrounded by people,” I said defensively, then feebly attempted to look away. “I wasn’t a fan of crowds.”

“What about when our families would get together for cookouts, or when you’d come over to hang out with Riley?” he challenged, dropping his hand from my face but not moving away. “You avoided me then too.”

“I had the biggest crush on you; I was terrified you’d figure it out and think I was pathetic,” I said quietly, almost unable to get it all out.

“Ainsley, pathetic is never a word I’d use to describe you,” he replied, sounding almost baffled. “You really thought I’d react like that to knowing you liked me?”

“I didn’t know what you’d think. I didn’t have many positive interactions with males at that point in my life; at least not with males that weren’t related to me,” I said, embarrassed. “Riley figured it out pretty quickly, but I swore her to secrecy.”

“That little brat!” he laughed. “I told her I liked you and asked for her advice on how to approach you without scaring you off. She never even hinted that you liked me too!”

“Wait, you liked me then?” I asked, instantly stuck on that detail, unable to process the rest.

“Then and now.” He reached over to tuck a wayward strand of hair behind my ear. “To answer your earlier remark, your Gram is right. Although I wouldn’t necessarily use the term ‘courting,’ seeing as though this is the twenty-first century. I am, however, very interested in dating you.”

“Dating?” I parroted.

“Yeah, kinda like we’ve been these last two weeks… spending time together, but with the dating label that implies more than friends.” He smiled at me with patient bemusement.

I sat there a moment, shocked into complete silence before I finally found my voice. “I’d like that, Luke.”

He smiled, then pulled me closer to him on the log and wrapped his arms around me before leaning in. The second kiss was just as electrifying as the first one had been. I could almost believe in spontaneous combustion, the way this manmade me feel when we kissed. His tongue snaked out to duel with mine, sending shivers of excitement coursing through my body. I sank my fingers into his thick, soft hair and allowed myself to be washed away in the moment. Luke had one hand secure at my back, holding me to him, while the other was anchoring my head at the perfect angle for his kiss. Just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore he pulled back and rested his forehead against mine.

“We should have been doing that a lot sooner,” he whispered quietly, his breath ragged.

“What took you so long?” I smiled unevenly, still trying to get control of my riotous body.

We both took some calming breaths, then he turned us until we both faced the creek with me sitting between his thighs. He wrapped his arms around my middle and pulled me back to rest against him. His strong arms wrapped around me and the warmth from his body seeping into my own caused a sense of euphoria to wash over me from head to toe. I inhaled his familiar scent and reveled in this moment I never thought would happen.

We sat like that, cocooned together, talking until long after the sun set and the frogs started their chorus. It didn’t matter what Monday or the future would bring, because in this moment we were together.

Acknowledgements

No book is the effort of a singular person and that is especially true for this anthology. I’d like to thank all the authors (Stephanie, Layla, Rae, Aria, Kristyn, Leslie, and Bella) for their creativity, hard work, and patience. Cait for being with me from the beginning. Kendra and Lindsey for putting up with my crazy, long-winded ramblings about the proper formatting of social media. Kim and Sam Eggleston for the great tagline. The super talented Carolyn Belefski who designed the Wyrd Romance logo. And finally, Scarlett Rugers and her team for their advice and patience with a first time publisher.

Contributors

Leslie Ann Brown
is an Ottawa-based writer of science fiction, fantasy and a bit of horror, all with a dash of romance. She has published short stories in On Spec, Neo Opsis, Strange Horizons, Tesseracts 15 as well as other anthologies. This will be her first contemporary romance short story. Her day job is as a research technician in the field of Alzheimer’s disease where plenty of geeks abound. She is a member of SF Canada, Romance Writers of America and Ottawa Romance Writers’ Association. You can find a list of her publications at
http://www.leslie-brown.com/

Kristyn F. Brunson
is a speculative fiction writer with a love for all that lurks in the dark. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she now lives in San Francisco, California with her computer whiz husband and conniving terrier. In addition to word-smithing and reading, she enjoys bad sci-fi movies, Pilates, role-playing games, and holiday shenanigans.

Aria Glazki’s
writing story started when her seventh-grade English teacher encouraged her to submit a class assignment for publication. That piece was printed, and let’s just say, she was hooked!

Since then, Aria has run a literary magazine, earned her degree in Creative Writing (as well as in French and Russian literatures), and been published here and there. Her novels
Mending Heartstrings
and
Mortal Musings
are now available. Though her first kiss technically came from a bear cub, and no fairytale transformation followed, Aria still believes magic can happen when the right people come together—if they don’t get in their own way, that is.

Other than all things literary, Aria loves spending time with her family, including her two unbearably adorable nieces. She also dabbles in painting, dancing, playing violin, and, given the opportunity, Epicureanism.
www.AriaGlazki.com

Bella James
lives in Illinois along with her husband and two children. She graduated from UW-Milwaukee with a BS in Interpreting, then later went back to school for a Master’s in Education. Bella currently teaches special education at the high school level. In her free time, Bella enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and reading books. Reading has always been a passion for Bella, and whenever she gets a free moment, she most likely has a book in her hands. Bella started writing for fun while in college and has continued to create stories whenever inspiration and time allows.

Stephanie Kayne
loves reading and writing Paranormal Romance. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two dogs. She can be found on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/stephaniekayne42

Layla Kelly
is an avid fan of romance and superheroes. She lives and writes in the Midwest where her nose is usually stuck in a book or comic. You can reach her at
[email protected]

Rae Lori
is a multi-published award winning author and a geek girl at heart. She was first bitten by the writing bug at ten and never stopped loving the written word. Over a twenty year plus writing career, she has been published with various zines, journals and publishing companies and taught new writers the craft of novel writing in between her projects. She has won various awards including an Honorable Mention in the 73rd Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, the 2011 ForeWord Book of the Year Gold Award Winner in Writing (Adult Nonfiction) and Best Romance Novella in SORMAG’s 2009 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Rae can usually be found with her head in the clouds daydreaming of her next story. That is, when she isn’t gaming or watching her fave movies with her fellow geekazoid husband (it’s time for another Aliens rewatch!), crocheting, or has her nose in a book.

Susan Renee Page
is a self-professed geek and romance junkie. She received a writing degree from Northern Michigan University, but quickly discovered that her true calling was in editing. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America and can be reached at
[email protected]

BOOK: I Heart Geeks
11.54Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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