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Chapter 1

Woe are supposed to be able to look suave and sophisticated while walking in heels Me? I e to trip over thin air

-Raleigh’s inner thoughts

Raleigh

If there was one thing in this world that I never wanted to do, it was e myself in front of him

Ezra McDuff, the town bad boy, high school football and baseball coach was everything I was not

Suave Cool Coordinated

Then there was me

My name conjured fear in the hearts of all residents of Gun Barrel, Texas

Why, you ask, would an innocent wole kid in town screamed a hello to because she was the ‘best teacher ever,’ strike that kind of fear?

That’d be because I, Raleigh Jolie Crusie, was the clumsiest person in four counties

And normally when I went down, I took people with me

For instance,

Sure, I’d been looking down at …but that’s beside the point

Who the hell put clearance Christodforsaken aisle?

Target, that’s who

There I alking and ht up onthat I know, I ran into a large box of wrapping paper

And when I say ‘large,’ I e

There wasn’t just one box, either

There were multiple boxes

Fifteen, in fact

But, I’d walked past four such boxes before I’d tripped on thin air—like always—and took a header to the left

I ed to cradle my phone to my chest and tuck and roll, but that alsoball

I took down not one, not two, not nine, but eleven boxes ja paper

And every last roll of wrapping paper fell out of the boxes and started rolling in every which direction

Meaning that not only did it get ot four other people in the process

Jennifer Marie, the beauty consultant at Ulta that was here getting a coffee Brian McAdao and was now an assistant er in this fine establishment Larry Conway, the electrician And finally, Ezra freakin’ McDuff

Though, Ezra didn’t exactly go down like the rest of the people did

He only tripped on one and dropped what looked like an armful of undershirts and underwear