A snippet from my She Came With The Tide for #SnippetSunday

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He’s impulsive, fearless, and fun loving.
Erik Axelsson, Ax, had it all: talent, fame, money. He’d lived the rock & roll life fully and with gusto until it wasn’t fun anymore. Without a second thought, he’d traded the spotlight with the Floridian sun, and the guitar with a surfboard. Rich, and free from anything – what more he could need?

She’s innocent, scared, and in trouble. 
Andrea Smith escaped the life imposed to her when her parents joined a cult. After years on the run, hunger pushed her to accept a stranger’s offer for breakfast. She had no clue her life changed with that simple ‘yes’. 

But the past catches up with her, forcing Andrea to choose what person she wants to be: the scared cult member that obeyed in silence, or the new woman Erik made blossom. 

Here’s the snippet:

I love you, and I want a life with you. His words, his voice, rang through her mind as clear as if he sat beside her.

Love.

So much of it, so strong and fierce, from a man who changed everything. So glowing it was hard to accept it belonged to her. Unlike a fairytale, though, it wasn’t enough.

The ocean and the river, blue like Erik’s eyes, flowed at her sides as David drove.

You ran, choose the easy way out.

Yes, she had. She was doing it now. Was there any other choice?

You’re stronger than you think.

The sun peeped out from a puffy cloud and slapped her face. Blinded by it, Andrea closed the eyes. Stronger than you think, Erik whispered. Stronger.

In a fast forwarded movie, images flashed in her head. 

The night she had escaped. 

Sleeping at a bus station, afraid the police would show up.

Washing dishes in a run-down restaurant for a meal and a few dollars. 

Moving south, always south, so she wouldn’t freeze to death at night. 

Hunger, raw and ugly, the kind that had her mouth water for the food rotting in some garbage can. Only the worry of getting sick had kept her from eating it. 

She’d braved starvation, cold, fear. 

Alone.

The heartbeat changed, and her eyes opened wide.

She had survived. Alone.

Nothing held her on in this that car seat but the will of a man who’d done nothing away from his father’s shadow. 

David had no power other than what she gave him.

All those speeches about not being strong enough to face the world. Lies.

She had been strong enough. 

She was.

David wouldn’t hurt or control her anymore, in any way. She wouldn’t let him, wouldn’t go down that road again. No more.

She had to leave. 

Back to Erik. 

To the life she wanted to build, could build.

~*~

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