Happy Sunday everyone! Here is another excerpt from The Love Chronicles, which will be available this Tuesday, July 5th! Yes, I decided to release the story a week early! I know a lot of you have waited patiently for this book, so I didn’t want to anticipate the wait any longer. If you have pre-ordered, you will recieve it on the new release day.
And here is the excerpt from both Dexter’s and Andie’s POVs when the two are getting ready to have a typical dinner with their parents. 🙂
Dexter
***
After pulling off my clothes and taking a long shower, I went downstairs and saw that everyone had arrived. I looked at Andie, who was dressed in her infamous over-sized plaid sweater and baggy sweats. As far as I could see, she never cared about her appearance.
“Hey, Aunt Camille, Uncle Trevor.”
“Hey, Dexter. It looks like you’re growing every single day. You’re going to be taller than your dad and me combined,” Uncle Trevor teased.
“I guess I have good genes.”
I glanced over at Andie again, who rolled her eyes. That’s her problem now: She’s always too serious.
“What are we having? “Aunt Camille asked from the couch. My mom pulled her up and led her to the kitchen.
“Come help me cook.”
“Are you serious? I’m tired.”
“If there are two hands in the kitchen, then dinner will be done faster.”
Aunt Camille moaned as my mom pulled her to the kitchen.
“Huh, Trevor, could you help me with something in the garage, please?” my dad asked.
Uncle Trevor raised an eyebrow. “When have you ever asked me for help?”
“Just come on.”
Uncle Trevor looked at us then got up and went with my dad.
Andie and I sat in silence as neither of us had anything to say to each other. At least I knew I didn’t have anything to say.
She turned her head really quickly and looked at me. “Your parents planned this because they know about your grades.”
I looked at her, wondering what she was talking about. “What?”
“They know that your grades are down, Dexter.”
I looked from her to the kitchen, wondering how they knew about that. That was something I’d tried to keep quiet for some time now.
“How did they know about that, Andie?”
“I was talking to my mom, and –”
“That wasn’t your place to say anything!” I interrupted her.
I could tell I startled her since she jumped. I closed my eyes, a little peeved that she would go there, but I only had myself to blame.
“Were you trying to get back at me for what happened years ago?”
“Why would you think that?” she asked.
“Oh, I know what this is. Trust me, I don’t want your valedictorian spot.”
“Dexter, I really thought your parents knew.”
I shook my head, looking towards the kitchen again. Now, I really had to be on guard during dinner, because I didn’t know when either one would pop off.
I looked away from Andie as she tried to tell me what happened. She could save whatever explanation she had. I wasn’t going to listen to her.
“Alright, dinner is ready you two,” my mom announced with a smile.
I slowly got up and started walking to the dining room.
“Dexter.”
I didn’t even turn around. I just hoped this ended quickly and painlessly.
Andie
I sat down at the dining room table, feeling a little guilty that I’d done this to Dexter. At first, I did want revenge; but now, seeing the look on his face, I wished I would have done things differently. We haven’t even started our project yet, and we’re already having problems. This definitely wasn’t the way to start with building a solid relationship.
I glanced at Dexter, who tried to look happy, but I knew he was worried. He didn’t want his parents to know that he was onto them, and he was struggling to keep a straight face.
“Besides learning you two will be married, how was the rest of your day?” my mom asked Dexter and me after she took a sip of Dr. Pepper.
“It was okay,” Dexter answered and took a small bite from one of his tacos. I knew he was nervous then because he was barely eating, and tacos were his favorite meal. I don’t know how I still remembered that, though.
“Was it really, Dexter?”
He looked up and glanced at his dad, who was glaring him.
“What’s going on?” my dad asked.
“We know about your grades, Dexter. And don’t try to deny it, because we’ve already spoken with Mr. Ceborn,” Aunt Tia told him with a glare.
“Look, I can explain –”
“Explain what, Dexter!” his dad interrupted. “That you don’t give a damn about your education? This is your senior year; why would you mess up now?”
“I think we’d better go,” my mom said, standing up. Aunt Tia shot her a death glare, and she sat back down.
“If it wasn’t for Andie, we still wouldn’t have known about your grades. Now tell us, what have you been doing with the emails of your report cards?” Aunt Tia asked.
“Mr. Ceborn told us that along with the paper version, electronic copies are also sent. So, were you deleting them from our inboxes?” Uncle Charles asked him.
“And if so, how did you get into our accounts?” Aunt Tia added.
“It wasn’t hard to do,” Dexter answered. “I know your passwords. And as far as the paper versions go, Andrew changed them so it would look like I was passing.”
“Wow! This is unbelievable!” Aunt Tia yelled. “You went through all this trouble to hide the fact that you were failing two classes! Two, Dexter!”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I knew if you all found out, you would be upset.”
“And you don’t think we are now?! Boy, you’re on thin ice right now,” his dad stressed.
“Come on, you two; yes, this is bad, but you were young once. You’ve done this to your parents.” My dad said.
Uncle Charles looked at my dad with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, I admit, I did some stuff back in the day, but lying about my grades was not one of them. If I had, your grandma would have whupped my ass. You better be glad I’m not going to do that to you.”
“Oh no, we’re going to hit you where it really hurts,” Aunt Tia quipped with a smirk.
Uncle Charles continued, “That party you were talking about, you’re not going. Instead, you’ll be doing your damn homework all weekend. And when you’re finished with your assignments, you’ll still be doing work we provide for you since you don’t like doing school work.”
Dexter looked at his parents like they’d lost their minds. “What?!”
“You heard us. You’re not going to that party,” Uncle Charles replied.
“But this is the biggest party of the year! Everyone in the senior class is going!”
“Well, you won’t be.”
“This is some bullshit,” Dexter mumbled.
“What did you say?!” his dad asked, getting up and going to Dexter.
“Now, now, that won’t be necessary. Dexter, you’re in enough trouble, so you better shut that smart mouth of yours,” Aunt Tia scolded then turned to my parents. “Anyway, that’s why we asked you to come here. We have a favor to ask, Trevor?”
“What is that?” my dad asked.
“We want Dexter to stay with you this weekend. We would be here, but Camille and I are going to Dallas to plan Spencer Hightower’s wedding, and Charles is going to a conference in Austin,” Aunt Tia explained.
“I have work to do myself. I have a big campaign coming up that I have to work on,” he replied. While my mom is an event planner, my dad had his own advertising consulting firm that he opened a few years ago. He’s done a lot of great advertising for some of the most popular brands on the market. I’m proud of him and what he’s accomplished so far.
“That’s fine, because we want Andie to supervise him. You have to be around each other anyway, so this will be perfect.”
“And just because we’re going out of town, that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want. We couldn’t get out of our commitments in time to be here ourselves,” Uncle Charles told Dexter.
“But when we come back, you’ll be under lock and key in your room for the next two months. No phone, no TV, no computer or tablet. You’ll be under house arrest, you understand?”
“Loud and clear,” Dexter muttered.
“Since you want to act like a child, we’re going to treat you like one. And Andie, we want you to call us if anything goes wrong. We’ll also be calling you and your dad to see how everything is going,” Aunt Tia said to me.
I nodded, not sure if I wanted to do this. In fact, I hadn’t even agreed to it.
“Uh, Aunt Tia, Uncle Charles, I never said I wanted to do this. I have things I have to do, and babysitting Dexter isn’t one of them.”
“We know we’ve put you in a tough position, but we know you’re responsible. We trust you and know that Dexter won’t do anything he isn’t supposed to if he’s around you. Besides, Trevor will be around, so you two can take turns if needed,” Uncle Charles reasoned.
“And we’ll pay you for it. It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t, right?” Aunt Tia added and laughed.
Dexter was still looking at his parents like they were crazy, while I sighed. I glanced at my dad, who shrugged.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” I agreed.
“Great. Thank you for doing this.”
I nodded again as my parents stood up. I quickly got up as well then went to the door. I turned around and saw Dexter giving me the evil eye. I turned and opened the door. This was not how I planned to spend my weekend.
If you haven’t pre-ordered, you still have time to. Here is the link:
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