Shallow Excerpt

I'm working so hard on Shallow and I wanted to share a brief excerpt with you. Please keep in mind that this is unedited and it could possibly change, but I feel very confident that this is the direction Payton and Nick are taking.

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER ONE: (Payton's POV)

Oh. My. Gosh. I just mated my Lexus with a P.O.S. Camaro being driven by quite possibly the hottest guy I’d ever seen. The problem, other than the obvious? He was pissed about it...like really pissed and he was staring at me like he could strangle me.

“Uh, he looks really mad, Payton. I don’t think you should get out of the car. Maybe we should just call in the accident and wait on the police to arrive,” Claire suggested.

“Nah, I’ve got this,” Jessie said as opened the door and was out of my car before Claire could object. He was Claire’s knight in shining armor and because I I was the bestie without a boyfriend, he took it upon himself to be my protector as well. That was just Jessie.

I cracked my window as he walked by and called out, “Hey, Kimosabe, do you think you can manage to not take a gunshot wound or knife to the gut? You know you don’t have a really great track record with confrontation.”

Without looking back, he flipped me off over his shoulder and I turned to Claire. “You really need to teach your boyfriend some manners.”

She rolled her eyes as she shook her head. “Apparently I’m not very successful at that. I haven’t managed to teach you any over the years.”

“I have manners, but you know my motto...Why be difficult, when with only a little bit of effort, you can be impossible? We are encouraged to do our best, Claire.”

Claire shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she watched Jessie put his hands on his hips and turn back to look at us in the car. “There are a lot of other things you could excel at besides being a smartass,” she argued.

“I'm sorry you find my normal behavior to be highly inappropriate, Princess.”

“Nope, you know that you don’t get to call me that,” Claire protested. “Jessie is the only one with that privilege.”

Jessie turned from talking with ‘hot guy I just slammed into’ and walked around to Claire’s side of the car. Claire rolled down her window and Jessie leaned in with his arms resting on top of my car and looked at Claire. “Warning...This is going to go over like a turd in the punchbowl.”

I leaned closer toward Jessie. “What?”

“He says that he won’t sue if you’ll go out with him,” he laughed.

I looked at Jessie and waited for the punchline. “You need to stop trying to be a clown because there’s no circus in town, my friend.”

“That’s what he said,” Jessie said, still laughing.

“Oh, hell to the naw,” I announced as I waved my finger in the pattern of an imaginary zig zag. I slung my car door open and said, “I only need a minute to take care of this.”

“Be nice, Payton. You did just run into the back of his car,” Claire reminded me.

END OF EXCERPT.

Sorry...that's all folks!