All First Chapter Samples

Somehow the whole situation had gotten completely out of hand and I was blaming it on the troublemaker being fully clothed.

Clearly, I had an unexplored kink for suit porn and it was getting me in trouble. He was much more distracting in a fancy suit than I’d ever imagined but that was probably because I’d only seen him half-naked and in heels up until this point.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Conner.” For one thing, Cyrus was my friend and didn’t see me in the naked and doing stuff together category, and for another, I’d never explained about the weird kink thing. “He’s not—”

“You know, maybe it would’ve been better if we’d let them have quality time with you first.” Why had I thought coming to the airport with him would be a good idea?

Donovan snorted, making faces at Sam who was wiggling in her baby seat, on the floor between his feet. “Now you think that’s a good idea?”

He might’ve had a point…especially since we were in the airport waiting for their plane to land.

“They’re running late.” Kind of. “We might have time to drop Sam and me off at the house.”

Theoretically, if traffic wasn’t bad and we could fly.

Rolling his eyes, he wiggled his head to make Sam laugh. “Your brother is crazy if he thinks I’m going to show up without the two of you. Grandma Ann would kill me.”

I’d have laughed…but he was probably right.

She was just a little bit excited to see Sam…and me.

Her newest son.

Son-in-law would’ve been a better way to label me, but I had a feeling that would’ve given Donovan a heart attack.

“You know, if we don’t survive, the first thing you need to do in the afterlife is apologize to Grandpa Donovan for complaining about his name.” She paused and the phone line went quiet. I knew she was waiting for me to laugh, so I snorted and did my best not to snivel like a kid.

It would’ve been a good joke if we hadn’t been staring the apocalypse right in the face.

“God, Mom.” Doctors always seemed to have a terrible sense of humor. “Can we not plan the afterlife when the zombie apocalypse just started?”

She had the nerve to scoff and I could almost see her rolling her eyes. “Zombies would require some kind of virus. This is an impending tsunami, and you have close to eight hours before it hits. That’s not impending. Don’t be dramatic.”

I barked out a laugh. Her insanity was just too much, which was her point to begin with. “Cat Five hurricane hovering just off the coast and now the Canary Islands explodes. I think that’s a good lead-up to zombies.”

Because what else could happen next?

“I have sexy news and weird news.” Sitting down across from Leander, I ignored his sigh. “Which do you want first?”

Cocking his head, he frowned. “Isn’t it supposed to be good news and bad news?”

“Yes, but that didn’t work in this situation, so I fixed it.” Sometimes words just needed to be more flexible.

Leander’s sigh came back. “What did you do?”

How were there never any normal questions from anyone in the entire town?

“I’m…I don’t know?” I wasn’t even sure what the question meant, much less how to answer it.

The old man sighed and looked at me almost sadly, like he thought I was stupid. Some people said I was too cute to be a scientist but no one had ever said I looked like an idiot.

But this one was shaking his head.

“What flavor of little are you?” Enunciating the words slowly, he kept going with the strange topic. “We just need to know your category so we can make sure we match you up right.”

Tough guys didn’t scream. Even when something knocked on the window in the middle of the night. But gasping a little and taking some deep breaths were perfectly acceptable—especially since I was only eight. Getting out of bed and going over to the window in my small room made me all kinds of badass, though.

“Shit, man, are you trying to kill me?” Opening the window, my chest finally stopped pounding when I realized it was Hayden. I didn’t have to fake being badass for him. He knew me too well.
Hayden had been my best friend and neighbor for as long as I could remember. He’d just always been there. But that wasn’t surprising. My mother always complained that once people moved into the trailer park where we lived, it was where they stayed until they died.

Since Mr. Murphy’s trailer had gotten hauled away last week after his heart attack a few months ago, she must have actually been right about that. I thought she’d just been being dramatic like my grandma had claimed.

“I’m sorry, Trent.” Hayden’s voice was so quiet I almost couldn’t hear it.

“Climb in. You don’t have to whisper. Grandma don’t have her hearing aids in at night and Mom’s over at her boyfriend’s.” Grandma didn’t have many rules, but one of them was no sleepovers. The only exception was for Hayden and that was just because Grandma thought his parents were worse than white trash. But she wouldn’t tell me what that was.

All I could figure out was that it was someone who drank a lot and never had enough food in the house.