It was like discovering that some part of you wasn't yours at all. And it made me wonder what else I couldn't claim.

The only trick was never giving more that you were willing to lose.

My books are so tame!

Then what are you like, Annabel?" he shot back. "A liar, like you told me that first day? Come on. That was the biggest lie of all.

Just like that, with one phone call, she was a daughter again.

My first signing was at my hometown independent bookstore and everyone in the world came. It was so nice. My family was there, my parents, everybody I worked with, all my friends. So I had this great first reading with a like hundred people there.

There was no way to take the story back, folding it neatly into the place I'd kept it all this time. No matter what else happened, from here on out, I would always remember Wes, because with this telling, he'd become part of that story, of my story, too.