Just when she thought the throbbing agony would make her pass out, a sensation of pins and needles flooded through her, and then her muscles began to contract and spasm.
Her last conscious thought was that this had to be the worst way to die.
Then she was gone.
* * * * *
6:34 P.M.
Summer Height hated Valentine’s Day.
She had ever since her date, Spencer Boots, had ditched her at their seventh grade Valentine Day’s dance to make out with Henrietta Hadrick behind the gym. She had been so mortified when she found them. It was her first taste of betrayal.
Unfortunately, it wasn't her last.
As she’d gotten older, her reasons for hating the so-called day of love had changed, but her detest for it remained the same.
Some days she still felt like that young, confused, naïve girl.
Most days she wished she could go back to being that young, confused, naïve girl.
She wished her biggest problem in life had been some guy she had a gigantic crush on kissing the most beautiful girl in their class.
Everything had been so simple back then. Not perfect, but close enough.
If only she’d known.
Her entire life had been shattered in one conversation. She had fought against it, clawed at denial, railed against the truth, but it hadn’t done any good. What was, was, and she could do nothing to change it.
Still, she had argued valiantly.
Refused to accept it.
It hadn’t been until it literally slapped her in the face that she was given no choice but to accept the horrible mess her life had turned into.
A mess she was still attempting to climb out of.
The life she lived now was very different from the one she’d had in her early twenties. She had recently celebrated her thirty-first birthday, she lived alone with only her cat for company, she didn’t do relationships—hadn’t in years—and she only had a very small circle of friends that grew only because they found happiness with their Prince Charmings while she maintained her solitary life of distance.
Distance.
That had become one of her top priorities over the last several years.
She maintained it at all costs.
Undernocircumstances should anyone be allowed to get close to her.
Summer made the occasional cautious exception. Aggie Sleigh and Hope Frasier were her two best friends, and she let them a little way into her life. They worked together so lots of the time it was easy to keep the focus of their conversations on their jobs. The rest of the time, she made sure to divert any attention they threw her way and turn things back around so the focus was on them.
They were good friends. They allowed her to keep her secrets and rarely pushed her to do things she wasn't comfortable with, mainly dating.
But things were getting harder in that regard not easier.
Aggie had met Nickolas Sleigh eighteen months ago, and after a very rocky start, they had sorted out their issues and married seven months ago. Hope had been with her boyfriend Chance Zieglar for several months and things were getting serious between them.
That just left her.
On her own.