All This Time - Hardcover

Daughtry, Mikki; Lippincott, Rachael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1534466347 ISBN 13: 9781534466340

Verlag: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2020

Inhaltsangabe

From the team behind #1 New York Times bestseller Five Feet Apart comes a gripping new romance that asks: Can you find true love after losing everything?

Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.

Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling.

As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together.

And he’s right.

This book includes bonus content.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Mikki Daughtry graduated from Brenau University, where she studied theatre arts. She is a screenwriter and novelist living in Los Angeles and is one of the authors of the New York Times #1 bestseller Five Feet Apart and All This Time. When she’s not writing, she is watching old black and white movies, listening to Doris Day on repeat, or reading ancient Greek plays. The classics. Always.

Rachael Lippincott is the coauthor of All This Time, #1 New York Times bestseller Five Feet Apart, She Gets the Girl, Make My Wish Come True, and Joy to the Girls and the author of The Lucky List and Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh. She holds a BA in English writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Originally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, she currently resides in Pennsylvania with her wife, daughters, and dog, Hank.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1 1
The charm bracelet feels heavy in my palm. I’ve looked at it about a thousand times, but I check it again because I know it has to be perfect, able to fix whatever needs fixing. I considered daintier, more delicate bracelets like Kimberly usually wears, but something about this one spoke to me, its silver links solid and sturdy, just like our relationship… most of the time.

A few months ago, when I ordered the bracelet, it was supposed to be a present to celebrate our graduation, not an I’m-sorry-let’s-make-up gift, but Kimberly’s been quiet lately. Distant. Just like she always gets when we’re fighting.

Even though, as far as I know, we aren’t fighting, so I’m not even sure what this should be apologizing for.

I let out a long sigh and look up at my reflection in the hotel bathroom mirror, double-checking that the bathroom stalls are empty. My eyebrows knit together as I run my fingers through my unruly brown hair, trying to smooth it down in the way Kim likes. After a couple of failed attempts, my hair and I give up and I focus my attention on the bracelet one last time.

The sparkling silver charms rattle together as I inspect it, the noise mixing with the muffled sounds of my high school graduation party on the other side of the door. Maybe when she sees it, she’ll finally tell me what’s wrong.

Or, who knows. Maybe she’ll just kiss me and tell me she loves me and the problem has nothing to do with me in the first place.

I lean closer to examine the six tiny charms, one for each year we’ve been together. I lucked out big-time when I found someone on Etsy to help me design them, since I have absolutely no artistic talent whatsoever. This is more than just a bracelet now. It’s our life together.

My thumb gently traces the pieces of our history, a few of the charms winking at me as they catch the pendant lights.

A set of teal-and-white enamel cheerleading pom-poms, nearly identical to the pair Kimberly held as cheer captain the night I asked her to officially be my girlfriend.

A little gold champagne glass, tiny diamond bubbles tracing the rim, a reminder of my elaborate promposal a few months ago. I’d snuck a bottle of champagne from my mom’s cabinet to surprise her. My mom grounded me for all eternity, but it was worth it just to see Kimberly’s eyes light up when I popped the cork.

I pause on the most important charm, resting in the exact center of the bracelet. A silver diary, complete with a real clasp.

Back in middle school, we were studying in the kitchen at her house when she ran upstairs to go to the bathroom. I snuck her pink diary out of her backpack and wrote “I U” on the first three blank pages.

She cried when she found it, tears turning to accusations.

“You read all my secrets?” she shouted, pointing her finger at me with one hand and clutching the thing tight to her chest with the other.

“No,” I said, and swiveled my stool toward her. “I just thought it’d be like… I don’t know. Romantic.”

And then she proceeded to launch herself at me. I let her wrestle me to the floor, because it was thrilling to have that beautiful face so close to mine, her annoyance finally dying down as our eyes locked.

“It was,” she said, and then her lips tentatively met mine.

Our first kiss. My first kiss.

Carefully, I open the tiny charm and turn its delicate silver pages, three in total, spelling out “I U.” We’ll probably always have our little arguments, but we’ll always love each other.

I smile at the empty links of the bracelet, just waiting to be filled with more life and more of the memories we’ll build together. One for each year we’ll spend at UCLA. And after that I’ll get her a new one to fill too.

The bathroom door flies open, smacking loudly into the stopper poking out of the wall. I quickly drop the bracelet back into its velvet box, and the charms clatter together as a group of guys from the basketball team bound inside. There’s a chorus of “Kyle, what’s up, man?” and “Class of 2020, baby!” I grin at all of them and slide the box back into the pocket of my suit jacket. As I do, my fingertips graze the flask of Jack Daniel’s tucked into my waistband, step one in my plan to convince my two best friends to ditch this school-sponsored graduation party to go to our spot at the pond and actually celebrate.

But first… I have to give her this bracelet. I head out the bathroom door, the short hallway giving way to the packed ballroom of this super-bougie hotel.

I step inside and pass under a sea of Ambrose High teal and white balloons, several of which have already broken free and are rolling along the high vaulted ceilings. In the center of the room are hundreds of streamers trailing from a huge banner reading CONGRATULATIONS, GRADUATES!

The noise moves over me in a wave, the excited WE MADE IT! energy pouring out of every corner. I get it. After this last year, I’m beyond ready to move on from here.

I make my way through a bunch of the most random clusters of people. One walk across that stage seems to have broken down all the shit that mattered so much this morning. What sport you played. What grades you got. Who did or didn’t ask you to prom. Wondering why Mr. Louis had it out for you all semester.

Suddenly Lucy Williams, the class president, is flirting with Mike Dillon, the stoner who repeated the tenth grade twice, while the math decathlon captains are working together with two of my dudes from the offensive line to swipe beer from behind the bar.

Tonight we are all the same.

“Hey, Kyle.” A hand plants a little too firmly on my bad shoulder. I try not to wince as I turn to see Matt Paulson, the nicest guy on the whole planet, which makes me feel like a dick for hating him. “Oh, sorry,” he says when he registers the shoulder his hand landed on, and he quickly yanks it away. “Did you hear I’m heading to Boston College to play football in the fall?”

“Uh, yeah,” I say, trying to swallow the familiar wave of jealousy that comes bubbling up. It’s not his fault, I remind myself. “Congrats, man.”

“Listen, if you hadn’t led the team the way you did for the start of the season, I wouldn’t have even been a blip on their radar. You were one hell of a quarterback. I wouldn’t have gotten a football scholarship if it wasn’t for everything you taught me,” he says, unintentionally rubbing salt in a still-gaping wound. “But I’m sorry it happened—”

“It’s all good,” I interrupt him, then extend my hand so I don’t seem like an ass. “Good luck next year.” I release the handshake and turn on my heel to continue my search, my feet moving fast to put as much distance between us as possible. There’s only one person I want to see right now.

I pause by the bar and crane my neck to scan the crowd for Kim, my eyes jumping from person to person with no success.

“Hors d’oeuvre?” a voice asks from next to me.

I look over to see a man holding out a tray of appetizers to me, lumpy shapes on a crisp white plate. He gives me an artificial...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2020
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1534466347
• ISBN 13: 9781534466340
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland