Preview of I SWEAR TO YOU
Grady turned his pickup truck onto the narrow dirt driveway and glanced over at his roommate in the passenger seat. The side of Mateo's dark head was plastered against the window, his eyes closed, lips parted in sleep.
"This sucks," Grady whispered under his breath. He so didn't want to wake him.
It had been one hell of a shitty day, and Mateo deserved at least another hour or two of the ignorant bliss that came with sleep.
Grady sighed and tapped Mateo's thigh with the side of his fist. "We're here."
Mateo flinched awake, banging his elbow on the armrest as he bolted upright. That had to feel damn near perfect after what he'd gone through a little over an hour ago.
"Sorry, man."
Mateo blinked and shook his head as if to say it was fine.
He had drifted off halfway through the drive to Crystal Spring Lake, which was situated in the middle of forestland and farm country, fifty-five miles from their university in West Clinton, Ohio.
It had been pushing midnight by the time they'd left their dorm room, tossing some clothes and shit into their bags, heading out without telling any of their frat brothers or hockey teammates where they were going.
Or why.
As the truck came to a stop, Mateo nodded toward the north end of the property. "The guesthouse?"
"You know it."
It was odd that he'd asked. They always stayed in the one-room, pale blue house that sat off to the side of the main cottage.
Maybe what he'd witnessed earlier had him feeling even more out of sorts than Grady had expected.
And why not? No matter what a guy felt about the girl he was seeing, when he caught her in bed with another guy, it fucking stung.
Mateo wrenched open the passenger door and got out.
Grady followed suit. Despite how warm it had been that day for early May, it was frigid at the lake at this time of night. Good thing he'd had the sense to grab their coats on their way out an hour earlier. Mateo hadn't been thinking too clearly when he'd stormed into their dorm room after catching his girl with a freshmen from their hockey team, the guy's dick buried inside her.
Mateo paused in front of the truck like he was too exhausted to move another inch. He stared at the guesthouse, then out over the moonlit water.
The lake was just a speck on any map, and the nearest neighbor was a quarter mile away through the dense forest. Only a dozen houses sat around the perimeter of the lake. The two that Grady's family had owned all his life weren't anything elaborate, but it felt good to be away from school, to inhale the clear, crisp air, and stand in the piercing quiet.
With the moon barely a sliver of light in the sky, it felt like they'd stepped into another world.
Maybe Mateo felt the same. He inhaled deeply like he was able to really breathe for the first time since they'd left the city, and then he walked to the shoreline and continued to stare out at the dark, still water.
Grady grabbed their bags and the case of beer and set everything on the porch of the guesthouse, then headed down to the shore. They stood almost shoulder to shoulder in the sand, though Mateo was a touch taller. They had the same dark hair, but in contrast to Mateo's darker skin, Grady's paler complexion always freckled easily in the sun.
The cool breeze picked up, blew across the surface of the lake, and smacked into them. Mateo closed his eyes and lifted his face into the wind. With his hair swept back off his forehead, he looked like he did whenever he peeled off his helmet after a game, his black hair sweaty and slicked back.
His voice was low when he finally spoke. "Grady?"
"Yeah."
He shook his head as if he'd changed his mind on what he'd been about to bring up. "Let's take the boat out."
"Sure. Let me go grab the key from the house."
"No." He shook his head again. "We fire up the motor this late, and the neighbors across the way will be bitching your dad out." With a tilt of his head, he gestured to the back of the property. "The canoe."
Grady looked toward the shed that sat behind the main house where the canoe and oars were stored. He shrugged. "Okay." It didn't matter that they'd probably come close to freezing their asses off out on the water. If this was what Mateo needed, Grady would do it. He'd row through a blizzard for Mateo.
--from I SWEAR TO YOU coming April 29, 2014.
Buy links will be added to this page as the book hits the various e-bookstores: http://www.sloanparker.com/booksISwearToYou.htm
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I was going to write another serial story that I could release in sections, but I've decided instead to focus the rest of this year on a couple of the novels that I really want to get finished up. I do hope to do another serial sometime in the future, but in the meantime I might do a short story in between releasing my longer novels. I'll keep you posted on what's releasing when and other news in future editions of the newsletter.
