But there is one bright spot: Mark Connelly, her very cute, very off-limits 28-year-old calculus teacher. She falls hard for him—a ridiculous schoolgirl crush headed nowhere. She can’t help it. He’s the only good thing at Crestview High. She doesn’t expect him to reciprocate her feelings. How inappropriate, right? But he does. And he shows her.
And that’s when her life goes from bad to good.
(New Adult romance)
~*~
~*~
Excerpt
6 – a perfect world
I stood at his door before lunch straining to
hear the rhythmic beats pulsing low and steady from his laptop. The song was
mellow and monotonous—understated sophistication—and I thought I should be
having an intellectual conversation with someone while it played. I wanted it
to be with Mr. Connelly, but the 59 percent on my math test suggested the
conversation would sound more like this:
“Cadence, there are special classes for
students like you.”
“Huh?”
“You need to be in a special class for math.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Exactly.”
I considered walking away. I was extra nervous
to be near Mr. Connelly ever since the wet wipe incident. I still couldn’t
figure out what he was doing. He had been just as remote and distant after the
wet wipe incident as he was during the weeks that followed my lunch from Moe’s.
Back and forth. Back and forth. He was giving me a headache.
In any case, I needed help. I could not fail
math. I had to graduate, so I pushed through the door before I lost my nerve.
He looked up from the stack of papers in front of him, throwing his pencil
carelessly on the desk. Like everything he’d been working on was suddenly
unimportant.
“What’s up, Cadence?”
“It’s obvious I don’t understand anything,” I
said, slapping my test in front of him. “I’m not stupid, though. I mean, just
because I don’t understand derivatives doesn’t mean I’m a freaking idiot.”
I shuffled my feet and hung my head low,
biting nervously on my bottom lip.
“No one said you were an idiot,” Mr. Connelly
replied, turning off the music.
I looked up and saw a slight grin on his face.
Glad he found me amusing.
“Well, a 59 percent sure does look stupid,” I
said sulkily.
“We’ll make it better,” he said.
“How?”
“I’m starting tutoring sessions next week
after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” he replied.
I bit my lower lip harder. How could I stay
after school? I had no ride home and was not asking my parents to pick me up.
They both worked anyway and wouldn’t be able to.
I shook my head and shrugged. “Oh well.” Again
with the instant tears. I had a knack for being out-of-control emotional around
this guy.
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t stay after school. I have no ride
home.” My lower lip quivered.
“Hmm.” He swiveled in his chair and scratched
his cheek. “Well, you can’t fail calculus or you won’t graduate. And I suspect
you wanna graduate and get the hell out of here.” He looked up at me
expectantly.
I nodded, fighting the tears. I thought about
Oliver’s intramural soccer game this weekend and how boring it’d be. There.
That seemed to work. I felt my eyes drying up.
“Don’t worry, Cadence,” Mr. Connelly said.
“I’ll work something out.”
“How?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just leave it to me,”
he replied, then took a sip of his Orange Crush.
I smiled. “I’ve never seen anyone over the age
of eleven drink Orange Crush.”
“Well, my friends in college gave me hell over
it,” he replied. “Apparently in college you drink iced lattés. That’s what you
do.”
“Duly noted,” I said.
Mr. Connelly cleared his throat and looked
down at the papers on his desk. I took it as a signal to leave. I turned
around, then froze at his words.
“I’ve got something for you,” he said.
“You do?” I asked, turning back around to face
him. He dug around in his messenger bag.
“Yeah. Just give me a second to find it . . .”
I stood nervously pulling on the buttons of my
shirt. My girlish heart and brain thought it might be a flower or a box of
chocolates. I was an idiot, okay?
“Here we go,” he said, and pulled out a CD. He
handed it to me. “I remember you said you couldn’t get on the Internet. Thought
you might wanna listen to ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ since you were
curious about it.”
I blushed, hanging my head so that he couldn’t
see. This was way better than chocolates or a flower.
“I did,” I whispered. “In computer class.” I
didn’t have to tell him that, but I wanted to. I wanted to hear his reaction.
“Oh? When you were supposed to be working?”
The question came out as a flirty admonishment. And that’s the reaction I
wanted.
I shook my head. “I finished my work first.” I
looked up at Mr. Connelly.
“And what did you think?” he asked.
“I thought it was . . . perfect.”
His stare made me uncomfortable and extremely
excited. I wanted to know what he was thinking, but I wouldn’t dare ask. It
looked utterly private and off limits.
“Would you like to keep the CD for a while?”
he asked.
“You won’t miss it?”
He shook his head. “I’ve got an iPod.”
“Okay. Thanks,” I replied, and tucked the CD
securely in my bag. “Who were you listening to when I came in?”
“DJ Premier,” he replied.
“Another DJ?”
“Uh huh.”
“What’s the song called?”
“‘Teach the Children’,” he said with a smirk.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Mr. Connelly chuckled. “I’m really not. The
song is called ‘Teach the Children’.”
“So what? Is that, like, inspiration for you
when you’re planning out your lessons?”
He cocked his head slightly and considered me.
“You’re funny. And yes, maybe it is inspiration.”
I swear his eyes burned holes into my face. He
was so . . . intense. But a quiet, stable kind of intense, if such a thing
could exist. I stood awkwardly, waiting for him to dismiss me.
“You should go to lunch, Cadence,” he said, a
faint smile playing on his lips.
“I should?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Okay.” I turned to leave.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Mmhmm,” was all I could say.
~*~
Some more awesome
Summer also needs our
help! She is running a contest for the
cover of book 2 titled Better. She would like her fans to help her find Mr.
Connolly (the same ethereal look as how Cadence appears on the cover of Good).
The contest will start on Day 1 of the blog tour and will run for a
couple of weeks and Summer needs our help to promote it on our blogs and get
the information out there. The winner of
this contest will receive signed paperbacks of both Good and Better and a
special thank you on the copyright page of Better
for finding the image. I appreciate
any help you can give her! Here is the
info below – if you could schedule posts to go off on your Facebook pages as
reminder leading up to end of the contest that would be AMAZING! Thank you so much!!!!
Find Mark Connelly Book
Cover Contest
Fans, I need your help! I cannot find a picture of the perfect Mark Connelly to go on my cover of BETTER. I've given up and am handing the matter over to you. Here' the deal: find me a picture of Mark and you may win a signed copy of both GOOD and BETTER. Oh yeah, and you'll be acknowledged on the copyright page of BETTER, too!
The Rules:
1. ONE submission per person. Email me THE LINK to your perfect pic at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com (I gotta know where to purchase it)
2. The pic must be a stock photo with a model release (pics on sites like dreamstime.com and shutterstock.com have model releases. They actually say it.).
Contest will run from 9/30 – 10/21. Make sure you get your submissions in before 12 A. M. on 10/21.
He's out there. I know it. Now someone find him for me!
Note: I reserve the right to cancel this contest at any time if I stumble across the perfect pic. I don't think that's gonna happen, though.
Important Note:
Please remember: Better
is book 2 in the Too Good series. It will also be the FINAL installment of
the series.
~*~
About the Author
S. Walden used
to teach English before making the best decision of her life by becoming a
full-time writer. She lives in Georgia with her very supportive husband who
prefers physics textbooks over fiction and has a difficult time understanding
why her characters must have
personality flaws. She is wary of small children, so she has a Westie instead.
Her dreams include raising chickens and owning and operating a beachside inn on
the Gulf Coast (chickens included). When she's not writing, she's thinking
about it.
She loves her
fans and loves to hear from them. Email her at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com and
visit her website at www.swaldenauthor.com to get up-to-date information on her
current projects.
~*~
Stalk Her
~*~
Buy It
~*~
Win It
