Stories for Amanda Official Release - Oct. 22

 I'm very excited, honored and humbled to be part of this!  Along with 15 other amazing authors, we have created at book to honor and support amandatoddlegacy.org.

The book is chock full of short stories and missing scenes from some of your favorite series!  My contribution is an expanded missing scene from The Remembrance Trilogy... When I Met You.  Here is a little taste.

Excerpt 

Copyright 2013 ~ Kahlen Aymes  * All rights reserved

~Julia

I stopped to scan the snack bar.  It was nice, set up like a restaurant with wooden booths and tables.  Ryan hadn’t said where to meet him and my eyes scanned the room.  I didn’t see him, but the Student Union was large and there were a lot of students walking through and hovering around tables and at the end of a few of the booths.  I felt self-conscious walking around like a moron, looking into booths and glancing around like I was lost.  Many sets of curious eyes met mine while I wandered around seeking the striking blue gaze of the man I met two hours earlier.

I caught sight of him quickly pushing in the front entrance doors, his eyes scanning the room.  He didn’t see me right away, but was rapidly put upon by a group of others, a dark haired man and two women; one with long blonde hair and one with cropped red locks.  I was anxious and my feet wanted to move toward him, but I hesitated as I watched the group engage him.  His gorgeous face split into a grin and he nodded, the blonde’s hand coming out to wrap around his bare forearm.  He was wearing jeans and a long sleeved white T-shirt, the cuffs shoved up to show strong muscle and golden skin, the blue and green plaid shirt he wore over it, hung open.  He looked hot; the layers doing nothing to disguise the hard plains of his chest and stomach underneath the fine cotton material or the broad shoulders.   The two women gazed at him in adoration and I wondered if he knew it.  It was sort of ridiculous and I made a mental note not to allow myself to act like an idiot around him.  I took slow steps toward him to make sure he saw me, but not wanting to interrupt the conversation with his friends.

He bent slightly to listen to something the woman touching him said, but his eyes continued their search for me.  My heart stopped when his eyes landed on mine and his lips lifted in the start of a small smile.  He was so breathtakingly handsome.  This was a chance to just look at him.  He put up his hand and spoke to the group around him.  Excusing himself, he walked toward me with his backpack slung over his right shoulder.  The two girls turned to watch him walk away, disappointment and curiosity in their eyes as they checked me out.

“Hey.” His soft voice washed over me warmly as he flashed a quick smile.

He was several inches taller than me and I had to look up into his face.  I wanted to bite my lip, hardly able to contain the grin that was trying to break out across my mouth.  “Hey.  How was class?”

“Boring as hell.  I can’t wait until all of this basic shit is out of the way.  Want to find a place to sit and then I can get us something to eat?” 

“Yeah.  Did you want to invite your friends?”

Ryan smiled again and shook his head.  “Nah.” 

He motioned toward an empty booth in the corner and I preceded him to it, flung my backpack in and shoved it closer to the wall as I slid in. Ryan did the same across from me.  I watched him run a hand through his hair. 

“Did you get the psych assignment read?” he asked.

“Ugh,” I rolled my eyes and Ryan chuckled.  “It was so bad I couldn’t concentrate.  I think I’ll have to read it out loud to get through it.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.  Maybe we can take turns and then just fill each other in.”

I smiled, leaning back against the booth, pleased at the prospect of studying together.  “Okay.”

We started talking and time flew.  We talked about my parents’ divorce, his life growing up in Chicago, how his family adopted his best friend when they were ten and my father’s latest criminal case, both of us leaning in toward each other intently.  I ate up his words and he was equally engaged and truly interested in all I was telling him.  We fell into a rhythm that was easy, yet made my heart thud inside my chest.  I’d forgotten I was hungry until my stomach rumbled loudly and Ryan chuckled.

My eyes widened.  “Wow. That’s embarrassing.”

“It’s my fault!  I promised you lunch and I’ve completely failed.”  He looked around at the clock on the wall.  It was ten minutes to three.  “The grill closes soon so we’d better order.  What would you like?”

“I’m not picky.  Grilled chicken sandwich and tea?”

“I’ll be back.”  I watched him walk away, and couldn’t help but admire the easy grace with which he moved or the eyes that followed his every move.  I wondered about the young woman he was speaking to before.  Surely she wasn’t his girlfriend or she would have joined us for lunch.  In no time, I had the sandwich, green tea and a pile of fries in front of me. Ryan had a burger, onion rings and Coke.  He shoved the rings toward me.  “I wasn’t sure if you wanted fries or rings, so…”

I pushed my fries in the middle of the table, too.  “How ‘bout we share?”

Ryan smiled and grabbed an onion ring.  “I hoped you’d say that.”  He dipped it in the ketchup I squirted along side and took a big bite.  “How come I haven’t seen you around before?”

Want more? :-)

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Available Oct. 22 *Amazon.com (all international sites) *Smashwords.com*Kobo.com*Sony.com*BarnesaandNoble.com

xoxo
~Kahlen