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  Excerpt from Finding You

  Out March 2015

  It wasn’t that I was living in a version of the fairytale, Cinderella. It wasn’t. I told myself as I hauled all six bags, four big and two carry-ons, toward the hotel lobby. I mean, c’mon, I was at some exotic hotel in Hawaii. I was getting a two week vacation, at least that’s what my stepmother kept telling me. Not like I had a choice whether to come or not. She’d been assigned as my guardian. Since I was only sixteen I didn’t have a choice.

  “Would you hurry, El.” My stepmother, Stel, with her top heavy bun hair and spray on tan shook her head at me. My two twin step sisters gave me bored looks. “I’ve already checked in and you’re wasting precious sunning time.”

  I huffed to a stop in front of them and the bags tumbled to the ground.

  Ana, my very tall, blond beautiful stepsister, with boxy heeled shoes and fake eyelashes, that looked as though they might jump off and attack, let out a flared nostril sigh. “Seriously, everything you do is so clumsy.” With a much exaggerated huff she leaned down and picked up her bag.

  Dris, not so tall and not as beautiful with her short, a-line brown hair, didn’t even glance at me, only slid her finger across the bottom of her phone. “I’m so glad we finally have Wi-Fi, I swear the phone plan you bought us is the worst of all of our friends.” She pouted at my step mother.

  My step mother gave her an eye roll and ripped one of the roller bags out of my hand. She spoke in a clenched whisper. “We’ve gone over that, that’s why we’re at this Charming retreat. Jack only left us so much money, girls.” She sneered at me.

  Jack was my father. Jack Wynborn, famous movie producer and Hollywood legend. But, all of his money was tied up in some legal suits, which Stel constantly reminded me about.

  She whipped her head back. “The only thing your father was good for—was his name. It got me into this little retreat. I’ll find me a husband that can infuse us with money and let us enjoy the finer things in life…like upgraded phone plans.” She clicked off toward the elevator in her spiked heels. “Plus, I hear they have a son that’s about your ages.” She winked at the twins. “And he will inherit the Charming fortune I imagine.” She grinned. “It’s just like a fairytale isn’t it.”

  The way my heart clutched inside my chest, at the mention that we were on this trip solely to find her another husband was not a direct hit at the fact my father had only passed away three months ago. I reminded myself that Stel was much too selfish for that. All she could think about was our flailing financial situation. Which, I had been repeatedly reminded about since my father’s estate had been tied up with his company and the attorneys didn’t anticipate untangling it for an undetermined amount of time. But Stel blamed me. Not veiled blame. It was full on blame. She’d yelled at me countless times about the fact my father didn’t have all the paperwork in order.

  Shame on him, for not anticipating the heart attack. Shame on him, for only having one-hundred thousand dollars in accessible income. Shame on him, for using up some of that accessible income with a funeral and a mortgage that had to be paid. She couldn’t even afford the maid anymore, that’s why I had to take over all the chores.

  The worry that had been in the pit of my lower gut, since I’d last touched my father’s waxy face at the funeral, deepened. I followed all of them to the elevator and made sure to keep back a couple steps. Stel could get angry quick and it usually took the form of a slap or hard pinch on my shoulder.

  I put down the heavy luggage and stared at myself in the mirror on the wall. My out of control red curls were slightly matted and I wished that my pale, rather whitish skin were even capable of tanning. Sigh. My father’s Irish heritage was not helping me at the moment. Moisture bubbled into my green eyes at the thought of my father and I immediately looked away from the mirror.

  “It’s not that bad, is it?”

  A tall, dark-haired boy in a swimsuit with no shirt held a large tray filled with food over his shoulder.

  I sucked in a breath and took a step back, stumbling over the bags at my feet and falling on the hard, cold tile.

  “Ack!” Stel exclaimed.

  “My gosh!” Ana stepped back from me like whatever made me fall she could catch.

  The boy quickly slid the tray of food onto the table beneath the mirror and reached to help me up. “Here, let me help you.”

  I knew I would be blushing. I tried to turn to the side to push myself up.

  Before I knew what had happened, strong hands were pulling me out of the suitcase mess and I was close to him. I could smell something tropical and his blue eyes immediately held me captive, reminding me of my father’s, happy and kind.

  Time seemed to slow and we both stood there, our eyes locked in some type of crazy link.

  “Hey.” He smiled and for some insane reason I noticed the scar on the edge of his left lip.

  My heart raced and I couldn’t resist the urge to smile back. A real smile. The first real smile I knew I’d had on my face since…since…I gulped a swallow.

  The elevator dinged and my stepmother and sisters hurried into the elevator.

  “Ah, earth to El. The bags.” Stel barked.

  Brought back to the present, I scrambled for the bags.

  He bent to help me.

  I reached for the roller bags.

  His warm hand touched my shoulder, seeming to burn my flesh. “What floor are you going to?”

  I hesitated, hating the fact I never wanted him to take his hand off my shoulder. His hair flitted into his eyes and the tropical, coconuty smell intoxicated me. “Uh…” I swallowed and turned to Stel.

  Her perfectly collagened lips pressed into a fake smile. A fake, superior smile. She gave him a once over. A once over that, I knew, was assessing that he was a waiter boy and that meant he had no money, no clout, no connections of any kind that she would want to make. “I think it’s better if you just do your job and we enjoy our vacation, don’t you waiter boy?”

  The boy tugged his hand away, his eyes flashed anger then he laughed and shrugged. “Right.” He moved for the tray.

  Anger burned into me. The first real emotion I’d felt, other than this extreme numbness, since my father’s death. Stel shouldn’t be rude like that.

  Stel’s face srunched up, revealing all of her forehead wrinkles, which she would definitely find terrifying since she’d just gotten her Botox done again the day before the trip. “Would you hurry up, girl?”

  I got on the elevator and hopeless despair immediately engulfed me.

  The boy stood there, the smile from before gone, his jaw tight as he held the tray and stared at my stepmother.

  After I’d pulled the bags into the elevator and we’d gone up ten floors, with constant complaining from all of them, I scrambled to get the luggage out when the door opened up into a lovely foyer that overlooked the ocean. The air had turned humid and the sun shone down on us.

  “I can’t believe the hall is outside, don’t they know that the humidity will just frizz hair up?” Dris tugged her hand through her straight hair that did look like it was starting to frizz.

  Stel led the charge down the hall, only pausing for a second to look at the room key. “Room 1046. This way, girls.”

  Ana rolled her eyes at Dris. “What are you complaining about, Dris?” She cast a smirk my way. “If you want to feel badly about frizz, check out El. She looks like Anne from that dumb movie she likes, Anne of Green Gables.”

  I refused to let the insult shake me. After all, I liked Anne. Instead I focused on shifting the shoulder bag to the other shoulder and lugged the other bags behind me. Embarrassment burned within me and I couldn’t shake his face. His blue eyes. The way he’d helped me up and the way he’d looked at Stel like he’d wanted to knock her out.

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