Free A Reason to Stay by Delinda Jasper

a reason to stay
     
    by delinda jasper
     
    A Reason to Stay
     
    By Delinda Jasper
     
    www.delindajasper.com
     
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
     
    A Reason to Stay
     
    Copyright © 2005, 2007, 2009 Delinda Jasper
     
    Cover Art © 2009 DJ Alling
     
    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No portion of this work may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts for the purpose of review.
     
    Printed in U.S.A
     
    This book has been previously published.
     
    Dedication
     
    For those who are lucky enough to have a best friend and lover rolled into one.
     
    And to my best friend, lover, soul mate, husband… thank you for being everything I never knew I wanted.
     
    Neatly stacked boxes lined the walls; furniture stacked neatly together in the order it should go on the moving truck crowded the middle of the living room floor. Ellie sighed heavily as she taped up the last box of CDs and added it to the stack. She was finished. Everything she owned—her entire life, was packed up and waiting for the movers to come in the morning.
     
    At 29, she was a free woman now, with no ties holding her down. Her life was really changing, for the better. She had a new job at a major newspaper in Chicago, a huge step up from her position at the tiny Cedar Grove weekly. Her new apartment, though much smaller than the home she had shared with her grandmother, was in a very nice, upscale neighborhood. All of her friends were already planning their vacations for the year to come visit her, so she wouldn’t be too lonely. She should be thrilled with her life—but she wasn’t. Futilely pushing wayward chestnut curls from her face, she leaned against a stack of boxes and let her mind go back over her reasons for leaving, just as she had hundreds of times in the two months since her grandmother’s death.
     
    For what seemed like the hundredth time, Ellie played her reasons for moving over in her mind again. She was 29, single, and living in a tiny little one-horse town with a dead end job. With her grandmother gone she wasn’t tied down anymore, and she had enough money to live anywhere in the world she wanted. She owed it to herself to get out in the world. Those were the reasons she gave for moving. No one seemed to notice she was only repeating what her friends told her.
     
    The truth was, Ellie loved Cedar Grove. She had never felt tied down. She had moved here to live with Grammy shortly after her fourteenth birthday, and it was the only stable home she had ever known. She liked small town life, knowing everyone. Her job, though it didn't have much room for advancement, was fun. As for the being single part, well, she did have to agree there were more eligible men in Chicago. But eligible men were not the reason she was leaving everything she knew and loved. Her reason went much deeper than that.
     
    "Ready to go?"
     
    Ellie jumped at the deep voice. She whirled and stared at the man lounging lazily in the doorway. He stood well over six feet, but the way his body was leaning against the wall, with his long, faded blue jean clad legs sticking out in front of him, it was hard to tell just how tall he was. It wasn’t hard to tell though, that this man was well built. His thin black t-shirt seemed stretched to its limits as it hugged his broad shoulders and showed every contour of his muscular upper arms. The shirt was looser where it tucked into his low-slung jeans, but still clung just enough to hint at the rock hard abs beneath.
     
    "Sheesh, Jake! Don’t you know better than