Sin City Baby

I had shut the door on Sarah a long time ago and I refused to let her back in, even just to annoy me.

But as I sat and had dinner with my kids, one woman did keep popping up in my head. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would run into Brooke again.

It had been years since our breakup, but I thought about her all the time.

I’d give anything just to see her again.

CHAPTER 2

BROOKE

“Well, hopefully you can get some writing done with that heartbreak while you’re on the island,” Morgan said.

“That’s the point,” I said.

“I still don’t know what you saw in that little boy. He was never right for you.”

“I heard you the first ten times on the plane,” I said.

“Then I’m going to make sure you hear me again. This vacation is so you can clear your head and get some of your book done. You’re graduated. Your entire life is in front of you. You don’t need some bullshit man dragging you down.”

“I got it,” I said curtly.

As we piled our things into the small bungalow on the pier jutting out into the ocean, her words kept swirling around in my head. She was right. My ex had been nothing but a little boy. A cheap replica of the man I’d lost years before him. No, he didn’t have a right to cheat, but it wasn’t as if I was holding him to a fair standard.

Kevin Spencer was an unfair standard for any man.

Smooth.

Smart.

Suave.

Debonair.

The man knew how to wear a suit and how to strip it off in seconds. There were nights where that man still occupied my mind, despite the fact that he’d moved on. Despite the fact that he’d broken my heart.

Despite the fact that I’d fallen in love with him.

He was my muse. The three months we’d spent together were unlike anything I’d ever experienced. And every time I was with him, I felt my creative juices kick into overdrive. It was the most productive three months of my life as a writer, and in some ways I was still creatively chasing those moments. I tried to replicate them. Go on dates with men that resembled him and attempt to find someone who could replace the muse that had walked away from me back in college.

But it was fruitless.

Writing had always been my passion. My dream. I took freelancing gigs writing blog posts and articles, but nothing compared to crafting the perfect story and falling in love with my own characters. That was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and with Kevin? Well, he convinced me it was possible.

At least, he did when he wasn’t forgetting about me because of work.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m taking a dip in the ocean. I need it after that long ass flight,” Morgan said.

“Sure. Sounds good,” “I said mindlessly.

“Earth to Brooke. You there?”

“I answered you, didn’t I?”

“Oh, no. Put that laptop down. You’re taking a swim first.”

“Why?” I asked. “The whole point of this is for me to write.”