Everything We Keep (Everything, #1)

by Kerry Lonsdale

arrived at the church in a casket. For years I’d dreamed of him waiting for me at the altar, wearing that smile he reserved just for me. It never failed to make my insides flip. But instead of walking down the aisle toward my best friend, my first and only love, I was at his funeral. I sat beside my parents in the sanctuary filled with friends and relatives. They should have been our wedding guests. Instead, they’d come

“Yes, James’s fiancée,” came a whispered reply. “The poor dear. She looks so young. How long were they engaged?” “I’m not sure, but they’d known each other since they were children.” A surprised breath. “Childhood sweethearts. How tragic.” “I heard it took weeks for them to locate the body. Can you

keep from collapsing back into my seat. All heads turned to the rear of the church, where the pallbearers hoisted James’s casket onto their shoulders. As I watched them process behind the priest, I couldn’t help thinking they carried more than James’s remains, his body too decomposed for an open casket. Our hopes and dreams, the future we had road-mapped, also rode on their shoulders. James’s plan to

with twists and turns, which may be why she enjoys dropping her characters into unexpected scenarios and foreign settings. She graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is a founder of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, an online community