Fall: a Sean Poole short (Carolina Girls #1.5)

By Sara Taylor Woods

The first in a series of never-before-published short stories, as seen through Sean Poole's eyes...

In September, Sean takes Talia to New England to visit his brother--but first, they drive to New Hampshire to camp and hike the White Mountains. Sean's a seasoned camper, but Talia feels the bite of her first New England autumn.

"Fall" takes place a few months after the end of HOLD ME DOWN. It's a 8000-word standalone short story with a guaranteed HEA and no cliffhanger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sara Taylor Woods
• Release date: Sep 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9780998738826

Sara Taylor Woods

Sara writes sophisticated erotic romance and dark urban fantasy. Her stories have been included in romance, erotica, and horror anthologies. When she’s not writing, she’s wrangling her two bouncing dogs, mainlining coffee, or working out. She lives in South Carolina with her husband.Sara is represented by Lana Popović of Chalberg & Sussman.

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FALL

———————

a Sean Poole short

Sara Taylor Woods

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2017 by Sara Taylor Woods

Cover image © 2017 by

Cover design by Ashley Poston

Cover copyright © 2017 by Sara Taylor Woods

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN 9780998738826

For Brianna, for her encouragement and her incorrigibility

The air pressure changes, and the captain announces we’re beginning our final descent into Boston Logan International. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with a bag for trash, and the cabin is filled with the clicks and thumps of seats and tables being returned to their locked positions.

Talia is pressed to the little window. I reach over and tug on a lock of her hair. She whips around to face me, her eyes huge and bright.

Do you want to see? she asks. Have you ever— She turns around again to look out the window. I lean close to her, and she makes room for me to see, my chin on her shoulder. The familiar lick of Cape Cod curls white and tan into the impossible blue of the Atlantic, and I can feel Talia’s smile against my cheek.

This is all right.

I know it’s ridiculous, she says, but this looks just like a map.

Well, no one can ever tell you you’re not observant.

Oh my gosh. I can feel the heat of her blush against my face. "I told you I knew it was ridiculous. I mean, you know what it looks like, but to see it actually look like that?"

Perspective is wild like that.

Don’t you dare get deep on me.

Wouldn’t dream of it. I kiss her cheek and sit back again. Get your stuff together, cupcake. Upright and locked and all that.

The temperature in Boston is about ten degrees cooler than it was in Charlotte when we flew out, and it’s only going to keep going down. We’re going up to New Hampshire, into the White Mountains to camp and hike Mount Washington, then to spend a few days with my brother’s recently-expanded family in Manchester. It’s almost October, so the leaves up in the mountains should be good and peaking by now.

She’s just as pressed to the window as we drive through Boston as she was when we were in the air. There’s not a whole lot to see from where we’re driving, but she’s fascinated.

Just wait, I tell her.

Getting out of Boston is a fucking nightmare. If there’s a time of day or night that 1A in Revere isn’t plugged up with traffic, I don’t know what it is, and I doubt Revere residents do, either. The roads don’t loosen up until we get on I-95, which I don’t think any living human has ever said before.

We take a break for a mid-afternoon snack at Jenness State Park in Rye, New