Chapter 1
DANI
"Where’s Loverboy?"
Not that I really cared where Mia’s boyfriend Kye was. I was enjoying having my BFF all to myself for a few hours before I boarded a plane to Australia to start my new life.
"He’ll be here soon," Mia said, shoving the half-empty pizza box in my direction. "Said he had to see a man about a dog."
I helped myself to another slice of pepperoni, even though I’d barely nibbled the first. "What the hell does that mean?"
Mia shrugged. "Who knows? I just nod and smile when he comes out with those indecipherable Aussie-isms." Her eyes lit up. "Besides, who cares when he’s that cute?"
"Fair enough," I said, eternally grateful we could actually talk like this considering I’d recently fucked up majorly by coming onto Kye with the intention of deliberately hurting Mia.
I’d been acting like the attention-seeking idiot I was and thankfully, Mia and Kye had forgiven me.
I’d told Mia the truth. Well, most of it.
She knew about the baby, why I’d blown off college and why I’d spent the last three years drifting through a haze of partying to forget.
But she didn’t know all of it.
Nobody did.
And I intended on keeping it that way.
Sensing my sudden reticence, Mia pushed her plate away and placed a hand on my arm. "You okay?"
I nodded, swallowing the unexpected lump of emotion in my throat. I never got sentimental. Ever. I’d given up being that vulnerable a long time ago. Because feelings led to pain and I never wanted to feel as bad as I did when that bitch of a nurse told me I’d ‘lost’ my baby.
Like I’d lose anything so precious.
"Guess the reality of leaving all this to attend college in Melbourne for a while has finally hit home." I gestured at the lavish lounge in my parents’ Beverly Hills mansion. "I mean, how will I live without the ten widescreens, daily fresh sushi and thousand-thread count toilet paper?"
Mia laughed. "I hear they have two-thousand thread count in Australia." She winked. "How do you think Aussie guys have such hot asses?"
I chuckled, relieved the urge to bawl had receded.
"Talking about me?" Kye Sheldon strode into the room. Tall, blue-eyed, broad-shouldered, he was seriously hot and only had eyes for Mia as he made a beeline for his girlfriend and laid a hot, open-mouthed kiss on her right in front of me.
"Get a room," I muttered, actually enjoying the sight of my best friend being cherished in the way she deserved.
And Mia did deserve it. She’d always been good and why she’d hung out with me for the last fifteen years was beyond me. She was loyal, sweet and trusting. My voice of reason, I’d always called her. Which is why I hadn’t told her about the baby.
Because when it came down to it, when I’d fallen pregnant at eighteen, I hadn’t wanted to hear all the logical reasons why I shouldn’t keep the baby. For the first time in my life, I would’ve had someone in my life to love me unconditionally. Someone to depend on me. Someone whose world revolved around me.
I’d never had that before. My parents pretended like their only child didn’t exist. Too busy living an A-list Hollywood lifestyle in their suck-up job as agents to the stars.
Friends? Non-existent, discounting Mia, who had lived next door until her dad quit professional tennis to open his teaching academy in Santa Monica, and they’d moved. Mia had been my rock for so long. And I’d almost lost her through my own stupidity.
It had been the wake-up call I’d needed.
Time to stop drifting through life filled with self-pity. Time to make a new start. Time to start living again.
"Sorry," Kye drawled, not sounding sorry in the least as he sat next to Mia, his arm draped across her shoulders as she snuggled into him. "So Dani, ready to find a hot Aussie of your own Down Under?" He smirked. "Guys in Melbourne won’t know what hits them when they get a squiz at you."
"Squiz?" I wrinkled my nose. "I’m hoping that’s a good thing."
He chuckled. "Means a look at you."
Mia tweaked his nose. "Isn’t he adorable?"
I rolled my eyes. "You two are pathetic."
"It’s luuuurv," Kye said, holding Mia tighter. "So how about it? Ready to take Melbourne by storm?"
"Academically, maybe." Because that was my number one priority. To make the most of the six months exchange program I’d been offered at the prestigious Melbourne University and start an Arts major. Thanks to Kye’s dad pulling strings at the university, I had a chance at a new life. I wouldn’t screw it up this time. "I can’t thank your dad enough for this opportunity."