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Jackie Mae
Amazon
Category:
Women
Publisher: Jackie Mae
ISBN-10: B01BC9LRZO
Pages: 72
Copyright: January 31, 2016
Price: $1.99 (eBook)
It takes 'what-ifs' to a whole new level.
Traveling abroad, Sabrina’s grand adventure is about to change. Needing to go home and rectify the wrongs that are hovering ever constant around her, she finds herself thrust into a whole new set of truths she must confront. What if she had chosen differently? What if she had followed her parents’ guidance? Acceptance, freedom, being a worldly woman, had all seemed so important. Now, however, her path will lead her into the unknown. On her own, she must confront her fears head-on. When she meets “dream man,” she dares to hope, but life has its own plan. Is she strong enough for what destiny has in store for her? What will the cost be this time?
Excerpt
If… Lost or Found
By,
Jackie Mae
Praise for If…Second Chance:
“Novelette readers will be delighted by the soaring heights and depths of Mae’s creation, which is all about second chances won and lost.” D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Other Titles by Jackie Mae:
The Ones THE DARKEST SERIES
A Lifetime to Wait THE DARKEST SERIES
If… Blurred Vision
If… Second Chance
If… Dangerous Waters
By Jackie Mae & Alison Taylor:
Twilight of Doom: A Taylor & Alan Adventure
The Key: A Taylor & Alan Adventure
Cover Image by,
James Khoui
E Edited by,
Ashton Farmanara
C Compiled by,
Carolyn Sheltraw
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Jackie Mae
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
The author acknowledges the copyrighter or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Starbucks, HBO, Diet Coke, The Goodwill Store, Salvation Army.
eBook ISBN 978-0-9966114-1-1
ACKOWLEDGMENTS
To,
My husband, always my knight
And a special thanks to,
To all those with psychic ability
And to,
Larry, Anna, Kari, and Robyn
You were tremendously helpful
Contents
Chapter One 7
Chapter Two 11
Chapter Three 17
Chapter Four 23
Chapter Five 28
Chapter Six 33
Chapter Seven 39
Chapter Eight 44
Chapter Nine 48
Chapter Ten 50
Chapter Eleven 55
Chapter Twelve 62
Chapter One
“If,” could mean different things to different people. If—I were a better person. If—I were rich, thinner, or prettier. If—I were black, white, Asian, male or female, shorter or taller. If—I had been born to a different set of parents. If—I had more friends. If—I had a better job. If. That one little word can take you places or make you crazy…
“I used to. Now I live on the other side of town,” he stated.
Why? “Why do you drive out of your way, just to come here? There must be a dozen places you could eat at that are closer.”
“None of those places have you.”
She felt like a sinkhole had just swallowed her up and she found it hard to breathe. “Me?”
“Yes. You.”
Sabrina might have acted differently, if she hadn’t known. But, she did know, and that made all the difference…
Sabrina worked the third shift Friday and Saturday nights at Mike’s Dine-In Café & Carryout. She also worked part-time at R&P Insurance Company Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8 to 2, all while finishing up her degree in Meteorology. She would be getting her B.S. Although she knew she would eventually need her Master’s to secure a good paying job, she figured getting a lower paying job in Meteorology would be infinitely higher in pay than either of her present jobs, and more than both jobs combined.
She was in her last semester. It had been quite the struggle. She remembered vividly all the details from the last four years. She often wondered what would have been different if she had stayed home and went to school. Would things have been different if she had heeded her parent’s wishes? All those lectures from Mom and Dad haunted her. They had practically begged her to go to college right after graduation. They had even offered to pay for it, because they all knew her grades were not good enough to secure a scholarship. It wasn’t that she was a bad student; she just had ‘learning deficiencies,’ as mom put it, that her teachers didn’t understand. Try as she might, she couldn’t conform to the rest of her classes’ learning techniques.
Her parents had told her to apply for financial aid, that, if needed, they would pay her way. But there was a big, bold, world out there waiting for one Sabrina A. Jeffries and she had wanted more. It would be thrilling. No more little town that didn’t understand her needs. The mere idea that she would be making her own decisions, living as she designed, making her own mark on humanity, was compelling. It was as if the world had been waiting for her to grow into her own—waiting for her to fulfill her destiny. For this group of people, called her hometown, she bitterly thought they disparaged her spirit. There was no doubt in her mind, she was meant for a grand adventure.
She rationalized the notion of taking one year off to ‘live and learn,’ to really find herself, to explore all the possibilities that life had to offer, and then she would come home and start school, as was expected of her. No amount of ‘talking to’ or censure would dissuade her.
She had promised her parents no more than one year. But one year had led to two, then three, then four. Four long years had gone by in a flash and she found herself missing both her parents and hometown. She was now a woman; a learned and experienced woman of the world. She had traveled extensively throughout Europe.
Her very first stop was in the beautiful country of the Netherlands. She lived there for about the first six months. Those six months, really five months, twelve days, and about seven and a half hours, had been a real eye opener. It had been the first place in a long line of places she landed without much of a plan or care.
Sitting at a little outdoor café beside the rail station in Rotterdam, Holland, Sabrina was busy sifting through her purse for a map. Looking for lodging, she was already having second thoughts about her rash plan to find a place to stay when she saw a place she liked.
A good-looking, tall, dark man with wavy hair interrupted her thoughts when he sat down at the table. This was a suave, super cool, good looking man, and he was looking at her, smiling. He wore a leather jacket with the lapels turned up and tight dark pants. His shoulder length jet-black hair and green shaded eyes made him the best eye candy she’d seen in a good long while. No one in her hometown looked like this. No one. Looking at him resulted in an electrification of the senses. Heat had been rising right there in the middle of the town square; it was a new and thrilling experience for Sabrina.
Cort introduced Sabrina to his friends sitting at a table close by. His friends were three guys and two girls that all seemed to be in their twenties. They were smoking and drinking from these tiny little cups she learned were espresso shots. They welcomed her like she was family. Laughing at her jokes, overlooking her language barrier, she was accepted for who and what she was. Acceptance gave her a high like no other. She had partied hard those first six months, thinking herself worldly.
Cort had seemed like such a nice guy. Immediately drawn to his bad boy image he had perfected, Sabrina had fallen hard under his spell. He wooed and won her heart.
Cort brought about a new sexual awareness to Sabrina. He opened her up to a whole new set of truths about herself; she let go of her inhibitions, and she experienced how to pleasure and be pleasured. He was a very good lover.
But he lied. She was just naïve enough that his puny excuses for all his comings and goings were believed. She would have believed anything Cort had told her. Eventually, the grand adventure came to an end. He wasn’t the perfect guy. What he did, was introduce Sabrina to the shadier side of life. After involving himself with a few drugs, first marijuana, then a little coke, Cort ended up getting arrested, leaving Sabrina out on the street with little more than $100.00 to her name. That had been a close call and Sabrina was lucky that, she too, hadn’t been arrested.
Later, she found out that Cort had been dealing in performance-enhancing drugs. He had been the middleman for the sale and distribution of designer steroids.
The rest of her travels throughout England, Scotland, France, and a brief stay in Italy, had been tame by comparison. Working as a waitress making a living pay check to pay check, she had kept her nose clean and her heart locked away. Working long hours just to pay her share of the flat, she learned the hard way one had to work hard just to put food on the table. By this time, she realized she had made more than a few mistakes along the way, and she missed her childhood home and her parents.
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