To Love Jason Thorn
by
Ella Maise
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by Ella Maise
All rights reserved.
Editor: Editing by C. Marie
Cover Design: Ella Maise
Permission from this author must be granted before any part of this book can be used for advertising purposes. This includes the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Disclaimer
Usually when a book is optioned for the movie rights, it can take years to get to the production process—so many hoops to jump through. However, in this book, I didn’t want to make you wait for a year—or quite possibly longer—for the filming to begin, which is why you’ll see that it was a fairly quick process. Or maybe…just maybe Olive’s book was just that awesome…
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Epilogue
Books by Ella Maise
About the Author
Acknowledgements
This book is for everyone who once loved a boy and felt those butterflies overwhelm them in the best possible way.
And, well, if the boy didn’t love you back, shame on him! What a jerk.
Chapter One Olive
Up to the day I met Jason Thorn, my dreams were made of fluffy white clouds, pretty pink dresses, tasty apple pies, and of course, our neighbor Kara’s big brother.
“I don’t want to hear another word about this, Jason. You are always welcome to stay here, sweetheart.”
I was about to go down to help my mom set the table when their voices carried up to me and I stopped.
“See, I told you it would be okay. Come on, let’s go up to my room.”
“Hold on, Dylan. Not so fast.”
I heard mom’s coffee cup softly clink on the kitchen counter a few seconds before I heard her speak again.
“Jason, are you sure you don’t want us to call anyone? Maybe they should check on your mom and make sure everything is okay, or we can call your father and let him know that you are spending the night with us. I bet he would be worried if he called your house and couldn’t reach either one of you.”
My mom was a soft, compassionate woman—soft as in she carried a heart that was purely made of shiny liquid gold. I’d heard my grandpa tell her so countless times for putting up with my father, so as a child I knew it had to be true. There was also a side of her that could be seen as vicious at times, as she was fiercely protective of the ones she counted as her family.
Other than that, she was a sweetheart, as my father liked to call her. She had this secret way of making anyone smile, even when they were sad about something. I knew that because she always made me laugh when we were at the dentist, which was a big scary place for a six-year-old (almost seven!). If she was in the room, chances were she’d have you beaming up at her in no time.
It wasn’t just me and my brother; she had the same effect on my friends too. Whenever it was her turn to pick us up from school, they all looked up at her with these big, silly smiles stretched across their faces. Actually, now that I think about it, they reminded me of Buzz, the puppy Kara had gotten a few weeks before. Oh, how much I loved watching Kara’s brother Noah play with that puppy; I’d always thought we could buy a few puppies for ourselves after he asked me to marry him.
Sigh…
Anyway, I hadn’t been allowed to have the puppy in the house, and of course I would never ever sneak him in whenever my mom was out—sshh, don’t tell anyone—but I did see the faces the little guy made when he wanted something from Kara.
All in all, back then, I believed it was tough to be a kid, but having a mom like mine made everything a bit easier. That’s why I’d always wanted to be like her. I’d wanted to make people happy, make them forget about their worries for a while, be their sunshine, as she was ours.
There had been only one teeny-tiny issue…the blaring fact that I didn’t have a golden heart because I was never good at being peaceful or graceful, where my mom, on the other hand, was the epitome of those traits.
It wasn’t my fault though; it was always Dylan who made me angry. If blame were to be assigned, it would fall squarely on Dylan’s shoulders, not mine.
Dylan was my big brother, the one who kept ruining everything for me, probably since the day I was born. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember those early years of my existence, but I was pretty sure that he’d been messing with me back then, too. According to my mom and dad, a few days after they brought me home from the hospital, he told them they should take me back to where they’d found me—next to the garbage cans.
Can you believe the audacity? My loving big brother.
It didn’t even end with a cleverly veiled threat either. I remembered myself that he would steal my stroller and run around with me in the park. Why, he was probably trying to kill me with sheer excitement!
At an early age, I’d come to the conclusion that I would get to have my own golden heart when Dylan wouldn’t be around to throw me off of my game. Whenever he was around, chances were he’d do something and I’d lose my cool, which would lead to us getting into a screaming match.
There was nothing graceful about screaming your little heart out at someone because they wouldn’t play My Little Pony with you.
Jason’s carefully chosen words brought me back to the present where I was plastered to the wall just to the left of the staircase, listening in on them.
“Thank you, Mrs. Taylor, but I don’t think my father cares about where I’m spending the night. And…um…my mom will probably be okay in the morning. I’m sure she just fell asleep. It’s my fault really; I should’ve checked the time and made sure I was home before six.”
“We were playing catch on the street, Jason. Like, right in front of your house. I don’t think you are the one to blame here. And who goes to sleep at six, Mom? Even Olive stays up later than that.”
“Dylan,” my mom said in a low voice before sighing.
I grinned, feeling proud. I could stay up pretty late. Sometimes I could even go until nine.
There was complete silence for a few moments, and then the feet of the chair scraped the floor as someone got up from the table.