Chasing Luck by Brinda Berry
(A Serendipity Novel #1)
Publication date: May 1st 2014
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Suspense
Sometimes surviving doesn’t feel
lucky. Especially when you’re a sole survivor…
At the age of seven, Malerie walked away from a
bombing that left hundreds dead—including her mother. When a crazed gunman
kills her guardian on her eighteenth birthday, Malerie suspects there may be
more to her survival than luck. A mysterious code holds the key to her future,
and a reluctant white knight holds the key to her heart.
A loner wearing emotional armor…
Ace is a twenty-year-old entrepreneur focusing on
two things in life: financial security and a life without ties. A life that
doesn’t risk losing the ones who matter. When Ace is hired to secretly act as a
bodyguard for Malerie, he faces an unwanted attraction that threatens to
sabotage his heart. Can Ace find the courage to love a girl with a death wish?
CHAPTER ONE
“How she looks to the stars, each and
every night. Praying for a love returned, a wish granted, a nightmare ended.
How she dreams it with all her might.” ~ Jelly Bean Queen
Eleven
Years Later
Eighteen birthday candles
does not a bonfire make. If I had a bonfire, I’d burn the fatal acceptance
letter from MIT.
Bring on the matches. Burn, baby,
burn.
I sit across from Uncle JT in
Alessandro’s Restaurant thinking pyro thoughts about the letter in my hand. The
letter threatens to ruin the life I’ve carefully protected. A life where I
rarely leave home and always, always know the plan. Plans are important for
people like me. I know who I’ll see, where I’ll be, so I can be sure I have
limited exposure to any danger.
I don’t do adventure.
“You can’t force me to go to college a
thousand miles away.” My voice strains like a sapling about to snap in a
hundred-mile-an-hour wind.
“Then why did you apply?” JT takes a
sip of red wine and relaxes into his you’re-being-unreasonable smile.
“You asked me to apply.”
“And the problem is?”
“I thought I’d have a better chance of
marrying the lead singer of Jelly Bean Queen than getting accepted into MIT.”
His brows bunch together. “I don’t know
about this singer, but I do know you
can go to the best school for computer science. You’ll be fine. It’s natural to
be nervous.” JT reads the cell phone he’s hidden to the left of his plate.
But I won’t go. He’s dead wrong.
I chew the inside of my mouth and beg
him with my eyes to understand. “You know I want to go to college. But I can
live at home. Technology is crazy-good these days. I can attend classes online
for a computer science degree and never leave home.”
He doesn’t even look up.
He types something into his Blackberry.
I squirm in my seat, willing him to
look at me. “It’s a dangerous world. That’s why I’ve been homeschooled. Right?
I’ll be safer right here. And won’t you miss me?” I fight the urge to jump out
of my seat, grab the cell phone, and fling it across the room.
“Um hmm.” JT listens to a voicemail.
“You do know MIT is made up of
programmers who build sexbots.”
He doesn’t make eye contact and I study
how much gray streaks his hair. It’s something I haven’t noticed before today.
“They test the sexbots on freshmen
virgins.”
He looks up with the phone at his ear,
his attention caught. “What about freshmen?”
“Nothing.” He’s not listening because
he thinks this deal is sealed. An elderly man sits at the next table in my
direct line of vision and stares as only the elderly and babies can, bold and
curious. Unblinking and unapologetic. I don’t want to feel sorry for him at his
table for one, napkin tucked into his shirt collar and leaning forward in
eavesdrop mode.
Uncle JT and I eat at Alessandro’s
Restaurant every Sunday night. It isn’t the type where wait staff surround the
table and deliver birthday wishes in a rowdy sing-along. Here, the waiters
deliver $500 bottles of wine to customers with too much money and too little
sense.
I’m not legal for the wine, but I’m old
enough to be embarrassed over the cake.
“We’ll talk about this later,” he says
without looking at me and moves his thumbs over the Blackberry keypad.
“Excuse me. Going to the ladies room.”
My voice is steady, but I’m trying hard not to cry. He makes eye contact for a
second, nods, and returns to his phone. I swear that phone’s my nemesis.
The restrooms are at the far end of the
restaurant. I ignore the waiter watching me weave around tables. I thought JT
understood what a big deal the college thing is going to be. I try to be
normal, but we both know I’m not and never will be.
AUTHOR BIO
Brinda Berry lives in the southern US with her family and two
spunky cairn terriers. She’s terribly fond of chocolate, coffee, and books that
take her away from reality. She doesn’t mind being called a geek or
“crazy dog lady”. When she’s not working the day job or writing a novel, she’s
guilty of surfing the internet for no good reason.
Connect with Brinda
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