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Besides that, after having her heart broken so badly once already, the last thing she needed was to get into a relationship where she knew that was inevitable As much as Ben insisted he could be faithful, and bless his heart she’d seen him try, she kneas basically incapable

The conversation moved onto the technicalities of hohere, and what to say and not to say With that taken care of she hung up and lay down on her bed feeling tired and drained like she had so often lately She e the top of its head

Staring up at her bedrooirls did it Obviously she couldn’t be the only girl in the world that didn’t end up with her first love Many, for sure, had fond memories of their first profound relationships, but everyone else et choked up for the ain, to a tiood to have ever actually happened It was a tiswas so ridiculously exciting--an age in her life she wanted nothing more than to relive, even if it always ended the way it had

As stupid as so the heartache if itback the best time of her life: the almost two years she spent with the one person who’d completely stolen her heart and now seeet Whatas Grace was ain someday was all too real Her head knew she should be worried about that, and in many ways she was, but her heart still skipped a little faster just thinking about the possibility--no matter how painful she knew that would be

It was only a few years earlier that she’d o How could she have known that he would be the one to show her happiness like she never knew existed and be the same person to cause a heartache that would equally match the intensity of her love for him?

CHAPTER FOUR

Rose

Then…

Vincent was an odd one to understand Having just h, yet his fa it clear that he needed to be watched closely Sal had even warned hi Rose noticed had bothered Vincent

Even before his explanation about the tattoo, she didn’t think he looked bad, but especially now, after having spent so to hi a little hard on him He’d been perfectly respectful except for the few tie But that didn’t bother Rose Just about everyone at her school cussed

They reached the front porch of Alex’s large home, and Vincent smiled "Yep it’s still here" He walked up the stairs of the porch and sat down on the porch swing then patted the seat next to hi Rose had noticed was that he was also smooth She knew the type Here she’d never even held a boy’s hand, and yet she was already sure Vincent had done h they’d just met, Rose could’ve sworn there’d been a few tiht the way he’d checked out her legs, and he wasn’t at all fazed when he realized she’d seen hioofball, embarrassed expression He s" rant: this after he’d just finished telling her he’d tried theretted it, but she still could’ve spared him that and her, "my body is a temple" speech

Determined to leave a better-than-la her very inexperienced fifteen-year-old pounding heart and walked up the stairs

He stood up just as she reached the porch swing When he realized how close she actually was and that their faces were now only inches apart, she saw the corners of his lips lift slowly into one of the sexiest smiles Rose had ever witnessed "That wasn’t very chivalrous ofhis eyes off hers, he waved his hand over the swing,her heart pound even harder, "Ladies first"

She prayed he didn’t hear the enor to understand why she was suddenly so nervous when she’d been just fine in the backyard with hi such a baby Plenty of the girls on both the soccer and volleyball teams at school had boyfriends, and she sat next to boys at schoolinto cardiac arrest for the love of Pete

"What was that?" Vince smirked as he sat down next to her closer than she’d expected

Her eyes greide as ht out loud without even realizing, especially when she was nervous Grace caught her all the ti confusion and wondering howdesperately to appear cool about feeling his thigh against hers

"You love Pete?" He sat so close to her she could feel the heat of his body radiate off hi "Is that your boyfriend?"

"No uh," she shook her head feeling like a co else"