Exclusive Excerpt + Giveaway: Until We Fly (#4, Beautifully Broken) by Courtney Cole

I’m so happy to reveal an exclusive, Chapter 1 excerpt of Until We Fly by Courtney Cole! I love Courtney’s emotionally charged writing and storytelling and I so look forward to reading Brand and Nora’s story in this fourth book in the Beautifully Broken series! Follow along with these awesome blogs to get a sneak peek into the book!

• July 2: Hypable.com
• July 3: Vilma’s Book Blog
• July 4: Schmexy Girls Book Blog
• July 5: The Autumn Review
• July 6: Natasha is a Book Junkie

Synopsis

Ex-Army Ranger, Brand Killien, has always been good. 

A good friend, a good soldier, a good everything. .
The problem is, good hasn’t gotten him anything but a crushed heart. 

So after licking his wounds, he decides to move on. And moving on doesn’t include being good anymore. 

Bad sounds so much better. 

Jaded and detached, Brand is determined to never open himself up to anyone again. It’s not worth the pain. Instead, he becomes closed, hardened, aloof. 

But then he’s called back home for a family emergency… a family that he is estranged from. A family that he put out of his mind a long time ago for very good reasons…reasons that involve secrets and pain. Reasons he tried hard to forget. 

But home is where the heart is, and it just might be where Brand finds his again. 

Why? Because home is where Nora Greene is. A fiery, red-headed spitfire, Nora is a thing from his past. A beautiful, feisty thing. When Brand left, she was away at boarding school. 

But she’s back now. 

And she wants Brand, scars and all.

Excerpt

Chapter 1 – Nora

“Nora, are you listening?”

No. 

I turn my attention away from the cars driving slowly by on the small town’s Main Street to look at my father.  Maxwell Greene’s piercing eyes are trained on me now, the silver at his temples glinting in the sun, and I gulp.

“Yes, of course,” I lie.

He nods, pacified.

“Good.  I know this last year of law school was difficult, but it’s over now.  I want you to take the summer off, rest here in Angel Bay with your mother, then in the Fall, you’ll take over the legal team at Green Corp as planned.”

He’s ecstatic, of course, because it’s everything he’s ever wanted.  It’s always been the plan, since the moment I started elementary school.  Probably, actually, since before I was born.

“What about Peter?” I ask him hesitantly, picturing the middle-aged attorney who until now has been the Vice President of Legal Affairs for our company.  He’s always been nice to me, always showed me pictures of his pretty wife and four daughters.

My father rolls his eyes.  “He’ll be cut loose.  He’s known this was coming for a while, I’m sure.  Everyone knew you were at Stanford studying law.  They can connect dots, Nora.”

He’s so blasé about ruining someone’s life.  I swallow hard, fiddling with the straw in my glass of lemonade.  The umbrella from our little bistro table on the wide sidewalk casts a shadow across my shoulders, and I almost shiver.  I’m not sure if it’s from the chilly lake breeze, or if it’s from my father’s cold attitude.

He stares harshly at me now.

“Nora, you’ve got to grow a set of balls.  There’s no pussy-footing around corporate law.  You have to kill or be killed.  I need you to be a Greene and do what it takes.  Be who I need you to be.”

His voice is even colder than his stare.  I shirk away from it out of old habit.

“Okay,” I whisper.

My mother pipes up finally, from across the table, smiling a magnificent smile.  Out of all of us, she’s always been the kindest.  The sweetest.  And she knows I need rescuing right now.  I see it in her soft blue eyes.

“Ma belle fille,” she sings, reaching over and grasping my hand.  “We’ll have a glorious summer.  You can ride Rebel, you can rest on the beach, we’ll get manicures and pedicures… we’ll have tea and croissants.  It will be lovely.  You need the rest.”

My beautiful daughter.  My mother’s French accent is as strong as ever, even though she’s lived in the states since she married my father twenty-five years ago.   It charms everyone who hears it.

I smile at her, genuine now.

“Thanks, maman.  I’m looking forward to spending time with you.  I’ve missed you.”

That’s not a lie.

What I haven’t missed is my father.  And the constant lectures about being “a good Greene” and how I need to do what I can for the greater good of the family and our business.

No matter the personal cost.

And my personal cost has been great.

Not that anyone cares.

But the bitterness is welling up again and if I don’t tamp it down, it will overwhelm me. That won’t help anything.

She doesn’t know, I remind myself.

“How’s Rebel?” I ask my mother, purposely changing the subject to that of my old horse.  I haven’t seen him since last summer.  My mom chatters about him, about how fat he’s getting and I turn away again.

To make my resentment recede, I look at the clouds, at the cars, at the quaint little shops, at the intersection.  Anything to distract me, anything to make the bitter taste of what happened to me go away.

She doesn’t know. 

But my father does.  I glance at him, and the anger rears its head again.  Yes, he knows.  Do what it takes, Nora.

I grit my teeth.  It’s over now. It’s over.  No one can fix it anyway.  All I can do now is be a good Greene.

With a hard stare, I focus on the intersection again, willing myself to find interest in something else.

Anything else.    

Reading Order and Purchase Links

Each book can be read as a standalone. Click on the cover to purchase from Amazon U.S.

About Courtney

Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could. She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.

Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.

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