First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)

by B.K. Borison

For the hopeless romantics. And the reluctant ones too.

For a second, I can hear the shape of her smile. A half moon in the dark.

I think sometimes I get so caught up in the roles assigned to me—mother, employee, daughter—that it’s easier to shrink down the things that hurt and set them to the side. I never want anyone to worry.

“If I hear ‘Don’t Take the Girl’ one more time, I will not be held responsible for my actions.”

Hearing my mom call me virile was not on the bingo card for today.

“I can’t make it. There’s a ton of stuff going on with the show, and the last time I took a vacation, someone played a wiener commercial for twenty-seven minutes straight.”

Maybe in another life I was a person who was capable of having a reasonable in-person conversation with a stranger.

“Or until you get sick of me. Whichever comes first.”

“Do you think Mr. Tire is mad?” I ask sullenly. I poke at one of my marshmallows. Aiden sighs and hunches down in front of me. “No. I don’t think Mr. Tire is mad.”

I should have known as soon as I stepped foot in the restaurant. He was blond, for god’s sake.

I want my happy ending. I deserve it. And wanting it doesn’t make me weak or silly or any of the things Elliott sneered about over a plate of overpriced bruschetta. Maybe that’s its own sort of bravery. That I’m willing to try again.

He’s always doing that. Asking me. Checking in.

“Ah, Lucie.” Aiden smiles, his fingers fanning out wide against my back. “I’d know you anywhere.”

“It’s an interesting choice,” she says as I hand her a beer. “To only feature ‘Thong Song.’ ”

She tips her head back and laughs. It sounds different outside the radio booth. Less contained. Rougher at the edges but better because of it.

wow love that

“Well, this is embarrassing.” “It’s really not. It’s lovely, actually. It’s honest in a way most things aren’t.”

My head and my heart have always had trouble being on the same page, but they feel especially far apart right now.