Everything Changes
Read Everything Changes Online
Authors: Shey Stahl
Everything Changes
A novel
by
Shey Stahl
This book is a work of fiction. Names, sponsors,
characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination
and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or
persons, dead or living, is coincidental.
The opinions expressed in this book are solely
those of the author.
Warning:
This book is not suitable for anyone under the
age of seventeen. This book contains explicit and detailed sexual encounters,
explicit language and drug and alcohol use between minors. Please be warned.
Everything Changes
Published in the United States of America
EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold,
shared, or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this
copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be
scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in
any other way via the internet or any other means, electronic or print, without
the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement including
infringement without monetary gain is investigated by the FBI and is punishable
by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250.000.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under
the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form,
or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise), without the prior written permission of Shey Stahl.
Cover Art:
Sarah Hansen © Okay Creations
Interior Design and Formatting:
Shey Stahl Productions
Edited by:
The Polished Pen -
Maxann
Dobson
Thank you to everyone, including my loving
family, who supports me and reads my stories. I couldn’t do it without your
love and support! A special thank you to the girls that walked me through every
step of the way on this book, Callie, Kari, Laura, Judie,
Maxann
,
Megan, Heather, Danielle, Barb, Tray and Kim.
Also have to thank Sarah Hansen for her amazing
cover once again!
The blogs who pimp everything I write:
Shh
Mom’s Reading, The Book Hookers, Stick Girl Book
Reviews, Totally Booked,
Smardy
Pants Book Blog,
Kindlehooked
, Romantic Reading Escapes Book Blog, Sugar and
Spice Reviews, Chris’ Book Blog, The Book Avenue Review, Flirty and Dirty Book
Blog, Reading Is My Breathing and Up All Night Book Blog. You bloggers do so
much for authors for nothing but your love for reading. I love you gals!
This book is dedicated to the boy, the one that
changed everything I thought I knew.
I
knew a boy once.
He
was a boy that changed everything.
I
didn’t know Parker O’Neil outside of the occasional smile and wink. The AMA
Supercross racer came to our small town one winter, and I had no idea what he
was capable of. How could I have known that he would change my life forever
that summer?
Eventually,
the occasional smile became a smile I grew to love and longed to see. The
occasional wink became a gesture that made my soul sway and my heart ache. In
the canyons of the desert, he showed me his lifestyle and his love.
What
I didn’t see was the control he had over me. It was a power the glitz and
glamor of his professional lifestyle had and eventually what tore apart any
life I thought I knew.
In
his world of banging bars and soaring jumps, there was no room for someone like
me. But for five years, every time he called or touched me, everything changed
again. It was a touch that could heal anything and a smile that could light
even the darkest nights.
I will prepare and someday my chance will come.
Abraham
Lincoln
Copyright © 2013 by Shey Stahl
Rowan Jensen
Lipstand
This happens when a
rider crashes face-first into the ground.
July
27, 2002
All of this started with a question. Words would
be spoken and a vow would be made.
A ring would be exchanged and a kiss would be
placed.
That meant something to me, but when I saw
him
again, I couldn’t remember that
promise because it meant nothing since it would be promised to the wrong man.
When the ground shifts beneath you and everything
you thought you once knew changes, can you handle it or do you collapse?
I couldn’t
—
that much was evident
—
and I
collapsed face-first into the dirt.
If you understood the dilemma I faced now, you
would probably wonder what in the hell went wrong. Well,
everything
went
wrong.
That was the only answer I could come up with. It
was just one mistake after another, and it was certainly mutual as both of us
avoided the truth. The truth was we were using each other, both for a different
reason. We hung on to that little piece of ourselves we found that summer. Five
years later, under the warm summer night air of Moab, Utah, we were tangled up
in skin again.
The bright orange sun
danced across the valley of red rocks as it set in the distance, the shimmering
light catching sparks from his chocolate hair that fell in his eyes, and it
reminded me of what we once had.
“Oh God!” Burying my face in my hands, wishing
away the regret, I asked, “What have we done?”
“Are you going to tell him?” His voice was
anxious.
“What?” I tore my hands away from my face,
shocked. “No…it would kill him.”
His face fell and I realized by not telling him,
I was killing both of them. His blue eyes held the same disappointment they did
when he left the first time. Only now, any hope he once had was gone.
It was hard to understand how we were here once again
when we swore we never would.
Confused and broken, everything had changed. But
like I said, it wasn’t just one mistake that led us here. It was one after
another.
Rowan Jensen
Starting Gate
This is the gate where
the riders all line up alongside each other for the start of the race. The
event starts when the gate is dropped.
January
9, 1997
“Hey, Ro, come meet the new mechanics!” my dad
yelled. I was in the office pretending to work, but really I was painting the
tips of my fingernails with whiteout to give myself a French manicure.
When I stepped into the shop and saw two boys
around my age standing there, life working at my dad’s shop suddenly looked a
little more appealing to a seventeen-year-old girl.
“Ro...” My dad motioned to them. Both boys were
looking around the shop taking in the other mechanics and old cars lined up in
the ten bays we had. “This is Justin and Parker O’Neil. They’re here until the
fall maybe.”
Justin looked at me and smiled, shaking my hand
as he said his name and then spoke for his brother. “This is my younger
brother, Parker.”
Parked tipped his head as if that would be his
only acknowledgment. A soft shy smile tugged at his lips as he shoved his hands
into the pockets of his jeans.
I gave my own nod, a little shy myself, and then
jetted the other direction to observe in private.
Boys were definitely something that caught my eye
these days, and those boys were like candy.
My mom, Sarah, used to tell me that you could be
anywhere when your life begins but you wouldn’t know it until it changed
everything you thought you knew. When she said it at the time, the phrase
didn’t have much meaning to me. Seeing Parker O’Neil, I finally understood what
she meant.
My mom was my best friend growing up. She made me
feel…normal. I looked her and thought to myself, “At least you’re not like
her.” She may have been a few cans short of a six-pack, but that wasn’t her
fault. Besides, it was what made her so entertaining.
I had my mom as a friend until I turned ten and
met Adeline Grace Ayers, or
Addy
as we called her. At
five foot two, she had these adorable blonde ringlets that framed her heart
shaped face and big blue with and a personality just as bright.
Addy
was
another individual that made me feel just a little bit more stable than the
rest of the world. If you knew her, you would completely understand.
We went through every milestone together: school,
wearing makeup, shaving, first period (on the same day), and first kiss (same
day, too). We used to joke that we’d probably lose our virginity the same day,
except that would have been kind of weird.
During our junior year at Shelton High School,
Addy
and I worked for my dad, Rick. He had a local custom
repair shop where
Addy
and I acted as his office
staff. We did more goofing off than actually working and spent an unhealthy
amount time fantasizing about the mechanics. My dad also owned a coffee shop,
which was right outside the office, that we manned as well.
It seemed we worked a lot for only being
seventeen but it had its perks too.
I would say we did it for the money, but we loved
being there. Between the crazy customers and the mechanics in the shop, we had
a good time and that shop became our home, a place where we were comfortable
and acted like ourselves. In high school, where so much of what you say and do
is constantly scrutinized, it was nice to have a place like the shop to hang
out.
When June rolled around and summer break
encroached upon us, it was rare that we weren’t at the shop drooling over
Parker and Justin. That was our thing. We worked there mostly because of the
eye candy that was provided.
Why would
two teenage girls want to work in a shop full of greasy mechanics if not to
look at them?