Free Falling for Fate by Caisey Quinn Page B

lights, Fate smiled. One star seemed to be flickering, twinkling as if winking at her with the promise of an untold secret. She hoped it wasn’t dying out. She’d read that stars did that before going permanently black.
    When she much younger, her mom had called these wishing stars and encouraged her to close her eyes and ask them for something she wanted. “ Couldn’t hurt,” she’d say. “ Might help.”
    She hadn’t actually done it in years, but landing an apartment with a non-psychotic roommate and the promise of a part-time waitressing job that would supplement her income enough to pay for her mom’s rehab filled her with a long-lost hopefulness she hadn’t felt in months.
    She sighed and made what she knew was an improbable wish. She’d almost asked the universe to return him to her, but that seemed too ridiculous to even consider. Instead, she’d asked for something a little less specific but probably just as unlikely.
    I wish to have a lifetime full of nights that make me feel the way he did.
    “Fate?” her new roommate called from inside the apartment. “Pizza’s here.”
    Smiling up at the sky one last time, Fate turned and walked back inside.
    The persistent, flickering glow of light in the sky continued to shine—not dying as Fate has assumed, but coming to life.

 

 
     
     
     
    For anyone who has ever had his or her heart thoroughly broken.
     
    The healing will come when you least expect it. There is a certain brand of strength that can only be found in moments of weakness.
     
    Never be afraid to fall.

 
     
     
     
    I never meant to get us in this deep.
    I never meant for this to mean a thing.
     
    The One That Got Away | The Civil Wars

I t was as if she’d gone off the grid. The damned woman wasn’t on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Match.com, or any other site he’d stalked in an attempt to find her. Of course, it would’ve been much easier to search if he knew her name.
    No one at the beach had seen anyone matching her description. By the time summer ended, Dean Maxwell was starting to think he’d imagined her, imagined the mind-blowing sex, the hottest night he’d ever had in his life. Except he still dreamt of her warm heat around him, the softness of her lips, the smooth satin of her skin against his. The sweet, breathy noises she’d made as he’d entered her. Those sounds, an intoxicating mixture of pleasure and pain and need, haunted him even when he was asleep—dreams too vivid to be imagined. And he’d never really had all that great of an imagination.
    After walking the beach every night and accosting every woman he saw with chestnut hair streaked through with spun gold that glinted in moonlight, he knew it was time to give it up. His mystery woman was gone for good.
    Just appreciate the experience for what it was . Right. That’s what he should do. That’s what his best friend and college roommate, Keaton Slade, had told him at least a hundred times. He was being promoted to CFO of his family’s multinational healthcare corporation. He needed to regain his focus. Start sleeping at night and stop trying to figure out who the hell she was and where the hell she’d gone.
    Maxwell Medical was his legacy and it was time to step up.
    It was also time to screw the next thing in a skirt that glanced in his direction, fuck the mystery woman out of his system. And that’s exactly what he was planning when he walked into Lux. The posh nightclub was hosting his promotion party, and being the guest of honor guaranteed him a piece of whatever caught his eye. Not that he would’ve had any trouble even if it weren’t his party. He’d gotten distracted this summer and might be a little rusty when it came to picking up women, but he still got plenty of offers. Just not any from the one he wanted. Because she’d dropped off the damn planet.
    Let it go, Maxwell.
    The place was packed when he spotted Keaton already standing and chatting up a group of women he was pretty sure