Not anymore. I feel reckless, desperate. I love him, and it’s senior year, my
last chance with him before I leave for college, so I’m going to take it.

What could go wrong? Oh, my God, I had no idea.

PETER: I’ve spent years trying to hide how I feel about her. It
gets harder every day.

 For so long, she was my best friend, the first person who truly believed
in me, sometimes the only one.

Do I love her? Of course, I do. Can I let her get even deeper into the
hellacious mess my life is?

No way. You don’t do that to someone you love.

Not that way. Not sexually. Saving my life. Trying to be smart about what I do.
Actually giving a damn. Because I matter to her. It’s something I’ve never had
— anyone who cares like she does — and it’s absolutely amazing.

She’s amazing, this very good girl I can not have. Her dad made that clear the
night he caught us together, but that’s not enough to stop me from me from wanting
her.

Still, it would be a completely selfish move on my part to draw her any deeper
into my life. I just heard my mom’s getting out of prison early. Not for good
behavior. Because of overcrowding. Life was always crazy with mom. If she comes
back, if she wants me back, my life turns to crap. I know that, and at sixteen,
I don’t think I can do anything about it, except maybe run as far and fast as I
can. Even Dana, my very good girl, won’t be able to save me.

Born in Central Kentucky, growing up in a town where the public library was
housed in an old church, Teresa came to believe books were sacred things and
that being a writer would be the best profession in the world.

Now a three-time Rita nominee and USA Today Bestselling Author, she has written
forty books of romance and women’s fiction, with more than 2 million copies in
print, for NAL/Onyx, Silhouette, Harlequin and Steeple Hill.

Connect with Teresa