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    You & Me
    You & Me
    You & Me
    Ebook59 pages53 minutes

    You & Me

    By Stephanie Kepke

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Forty-year-old Alex Spencer has given up on love. Having escaped five years earlier from the verbally abusive and two decades older, Trent Peterson, her life revolves around her daughter, sixteen-year-old Josie, even if Josie wants nothing to do with her. But with Valentine’s Day looming, Alex’s high school sweetheart, Billy Leibowitz, whom she kicked out of her life twenty years earlier thanks to Trent’s demands, has been invading her thoughts. Alex searches for Billy in vain—it seems as if he’s simply disappeared. Suddenly, Candy Hearts, which Billy sent to Alex every Valentine’s Day, start arriving in the mail. Is Billy sending the Candy Hearts? Will this finally be her chance at happily ever after?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Wild Rose Press
    Release dateJan 11, 2016
    ISBN9781509203789
    You & Me
    Author

    Stephanie Kepke

    An award winning author and blogger, Stephanie Kepke’s second grade teacher told her she should be a writer and she hasn’t wavered in her path since. In her past life—before kids—Stephanie was an arts reporter and music journalist. She lives in New York on Long Island with her husband, her three very active boys and two slightly crazy rescue dogs (one of whom is three-legged). She lives right in between the Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean—and loves to have her toes in the sand.

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      Book preview

      You & Me - Stephanie Kepke

      Inc.

      She belonged in blossom pink or cerulean blue, sage green mixed with crisp white. But, all she wore was black or occasionally charcoal gray. On my single mom budget, I bought her skinny jeans at Target and cute cotton tops at Kohl’s. Still, she wore her baggy sweatpants and that black hoodie that hid her figure. Not that I wanted her to flaunt it, but I wanted her to own her beauty. Her glossy, raven hair was kept in a messy topknot at all times. Her stormy gray eyes, just like her father’s, almost blue, but not quite, were ringed in thick black liner. She was hiding. Better not to be noticed.

      I was the complete opposite at sixteen. I wore tight, faded jeans: bleached and frayed, the denim almost white; and fuzzy angora sweaters that hugged my curves. My hair was in wild curls, just as inky black as Josie’s, but never pulled into a bun. The higher my curls were, the better and I went through a bottle of hair spray a month. I may have hit my peak back then.

      My boyfriend, Billy, was crazy about me and we were kind of like a verse in a song, a song about longing and perfect love and innocence. We dated from the time we were fifteen until we were almost twenty. We were born three days apart and as we planned our yearly joint birthday party on the beach, I suddenly felt suffocated. I had celebrated my birthday the same way with the same people for four birthdays in a row and I just couldn’t do a fifth. I needed to break away and see what else was out in the world. But, I always wished I didn’t break Billy’s heart in the process. The song ended as I turned out of the parking lot and left me wondering what ever happened to Billy Leibowitz.

      Kudos for Stephanie Kepke

      Winner of the Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America Cleveland Rocks Romance contest—Mainstream with Romantic Elements category.

      ~*~

      Finalist in the Charter Oak Romance Writers Golden Acorn Quick Look Hook Contest—Mainstream with Romantic Elements category.

      ~*~

      Finalist in the Connecticut Romance Writers of America Write Stuff contest—Women’s Fiction category.

      ~*~

      Her short story, A NEW LIFE, was published by The Wild Rose Press in February 2015.

      You & Me

      by

      Stephanie Kepke

      A Candy Hearts Romance

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

      You & Me

      COPYRIGHT © 2016 by Stephanie Kepke

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

      Contact Information: info@thewildrosepress.com

      Cover Art by RJ Morris

      The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

      PO Box 708

      Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

      Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

      Publishing History

      First Champagne Rose Edition, 2016

      Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-0378-9

      A Candy Hearts Romance

      Published in the United States of America

      Dedication

      To Jeff, Drew, Joshua & Aidan

      Acknowledgments

      Thank you to my mother, Beverly Kepke, and my siblings, Jodi Schinz, David Kepke, and Shari Morris, for your support and encouragement.

      Thank you to Scott Syat for your particular expertise—certain scenes would not be nearly as good without your input. Thank you to Jeannie Berman-Feldman and Steve Osterweil for reading and your insight. Thank you to Rachel Kubrick for your teen girl, voracious reader perspective.

      Thank you to Tracy Gorman and Barri Feuer for being early and enthusiastic readers. And thank you to all of my friends and family who have cheered me on—whether in person or on Facebook. Every hug, text, comment and even like means a lot to me.

      Chapter One

      I was about to turn into the high school parking lot when the song came on. My sixteen-year-old daughter, Josie, groaned in the seat next to me. I knew my penchant for cheesy love songs—especially from two decades ago—drove her crazy. Don’t worry, you’ll be getting out in a minute.

      She’s hated me since I left her dad five years earlier and made her go with me across the country, from California home to Long Island. Didn’t mean I had to turn the song off, though.

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