Freeing Destiny (Fate #2) by Faith Andrews Read Free Book Online

at the elbow, I interrupted her very accurate assumption. “Can we hang out again, try this one more time? Please, Stella, I’m not ready to say good-bye.”
    “And why the hell would I do that?” she fumed.
    “Because you know you feel this too.” She had to. She wouldn’t still be sitting next to me if she didn’t. I knew that much, if nothing else. And then something hit me. “Sunshine!” I shouted, causing Stella to jump in her seat.
    Her eyes narrowed, her complexion simmering from flustery-pissed-red to agitated-but-curious-pink. “Jack, what are you talking about?”
    “Your nickname. Sunshine . It’s perfect.”
    Shaking her head and exhaling a long, warm breath of sweet minty air, she pleaded with me, “Sunshine? How is that any better than doll ?”
    Leaning closer to her, I laid my hand on her knee and turned up the charm. “It’s so much better than doll . First of all, the sun is a star and your name means star, so one point for skills. Secondly—without sounding like I’m trying to get in your pants or make up for being a total jerk—you light up an entire room just by being in it, Stella. Your warmth, your smile, your kind heart—all things that make an ordinary day seem so fucking remarkable. I felt it the moment I laid eyes on you—I had to get to know you, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to spend the next fourteen days getting my fill of you.” It felt so good to get it out, but knowing she still had the power to black out my little ray of hope made me wish I wasn’t so vulnerable.
    Gauging her reaction to my confession, my heart thumped erratically, skipping beats here and there. I couldn’t tell what she wanted to do with the declaration that just gushed its way out of my mouth. Was she still angry? Apprehensive? Spellbound like me?
    Speak, Sunshine, speak. Let me know what you’re thinking.
    Stella closed her eyes; her delicate throat constricted as she gulped back what had to be nerves. When her lids fluttered open, her syrupy-colored gaze sparkled in the dim light of the moon. “Come to the beach with me tomorrow. I hear it’s supposed to be exceptionally sunny .”

Stella
    What an unexplainable turn of events. I was sure the way the second half of our date—if that’s what you wanted to call it—was headed for disaster. And it was. Armageddon had been upon us, but then the skies opened, the angels sang, and the heavens shone down when he gave me that silly nickname.
    Sunshine.
    Yes, it was corny. There was nothing stellar about it. In fact, I didn’t necessarily desire a pet name from a guy. I was happy with my given name. Mom and Dad put a lot of thought into it, I was told. But it was the way Jack explained why he chose it that had me all giddy.
    The thought that I could do that to a man—make his day brighter just by being in the same room—was the kind of thing I’d been searching for from the moment I started dating. Jack had all the right moves, even when he was being rude and crude, and I couldn’t deny the way my insides twitched when I was with him.
    “Crap! Crap! Crap!” I shouted as I collapsed onto my comfy bed.
    The timing of this charade could not have come at a worse stage in my life. It was just my luck—always the bad kind—that I was following one dream only to leave behind something that would fulfill so many others.
    When Nina first brought Ryan home to meet Mom, my mother tried to give me a heart-to-heart about how I too would meet my knight in shining armor one day. Funny thing was, back then—not more than a few months ago—I couldn’t give a hoot about a knight or whatever kind of get-up he wore. I was content figuring things out for myself, enjoying the single life, and focused on learning how to make it on my own two feet.
    Today, I was still determined to achieve all that, but the idea of having the right guy to share it with was a new concept I had Mom and Caleb to thank for. If someone as jaded by life as she was could find