Showing results by author "Melissa Toppen" in All Categories

Alec Murray. He was the one. From the first moment I saw him, I knew. I had never been more certain of anything in my 16 years on this Earth. But Alec didn’t notice me. At least not in the way that I wanted him to. He noticed my best friend instead. I stood by and watched their relationship blossom. An outsider looking in, wishing things were different. Torn between my loyalty to my best friend and the boy who had unknowingly stolen my heart.

They say everything happens for a reason - that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. For the longest time, I didn’t think that was true. I had stumbled around in the dark for so many years that I didn’t think I would ever find my way out. But when I finally did, it came in the most unexpected way. Miles Hollins had been my brother’s best friend for as long as I could remember. We didn’t like each other much growing up. Or rather, we couldn’t stand each other.

Ryland Thorpe taught me the hard way that good doesn’t always win and sometimes the people we trust the most are the ones that can hurt us the deepest. At 15, my world began and ended with him. He was my older brother’s best friend. He was my protector. He was the boy I had loved since I was old enough to understand what loving someone meant. And he was a liar.... It’s been five years since I’ve seen him. Five long years and the memory of him still haunts me like it was yesterday.

I met Thad Mitchell for the first time when I was just a child. I didn’t remember much about him - except that he pushed me off a swing set when I was four years old and broke my arm. Not the best thing to remember about a person, but there it is. He moved away a couple years later and soon became a distant memory. That is until I walked into my parents' house after being gone for four years to find him sitting at the kitchen table with my family like he’d been there all along.

It was destiny - the night I met Hudson Demasi. We spent one incredible night together under a haze of tequila - a perfect night. And when I woke the next day, he was gone.... I never expected to see him again - especially not five years later standing on a stage in front of thousands of screaming fans as none other than hot new country artist Hudson James.

It was destiny - the night I met Hudson Demasi. I remember how effortlessly he stole my heart - his dark eyes and quick smile forever etched into my mind. We spent one incredible night together under a haze of tequila - a perfect night. And when I woke the next day, he was gone. I never expected to see him again - especially not five years later standing on a stage in front of thousands of screaming fans as none other than hot, new country artist, Hudson James.

Life is hard. There’s no secret in that statement. Life. Is. Hard. Simple enough. But my life hasn’t just been hard… I’ve gotten used to it over the years - come to expect it really. So when fate hands me yet another big f--k you, I’m not even a little bit surprised. Why should I be? I mean, after everything I’ve been through, why not throw my best friend’s ex-boyfriend into the mix and see how royally I can screw this up too. It doesn’t matter that he loved her first. It doesn’t matter that he’s wrong for me in every way possible.

Life is full of choices- of chances- of moments. Chances we regret not taking. Choices we wish we could change. And then there are the moments that define us. Kam was my choice.... The one who stole my heart instantly. Kane was my chance.... The one who set me ablaze with just one look. They were my moment.... Two brothers that both owned a part of me. Two brothers that I loved in different ways for different reasons. One brother shattered my heart. The other put it back together. Both changed me forever.

It only takes one night-one moment, one small snippet of time-to change everything. At sixteen-years-old, Sebastian Baxter taught me that. He taught me a lot of things. He never had to work for my heart. In some unexplainable way I think it had always belonged to him anyway. Some might think our love story is over, but deep down I know it's only just beginning. Because it's not about where the night begins, it's about where it ends.

Treyton Tyler. Professional baseball player turned Hollywood actor. A conceited womanizer who thinks no one is immune to his charm. I deal with men like him every day. As a high-end real estate agent in Los Angeles County, you kind of have to. So, when Treyton interrupts one of my showings like he already owns the property, I barely even bat an eye. That is, until he makes an offer. A very generous offer. One that would nearly double the commission I’m set to make. But there’s a catch…the offer is only good if I agree to go on a date with him.

At twenty-six, I thought I knew exactly what my life would look like. Marry my fiancé, Blake. Buy a big house on the California coast and have a couple of kids. Everything was so clear, until my mom got sick, and then suddenly it wasn’t anymore. In the span of one year, my entire life was different. My mom was gone. I had abruptly ended my engagement. And I found myself three thousand miles away from home, trying to reassemble the pieces of my life when none of them seemed to fit together anymore.

I had a lot of plans entering my senior year of college—dealing with Archer Copeland in any capacity was most definitely not on that list. The cocky quarterback and I have been at odds since last year when he posed naked for one of my art classes. Okay, so he was wearing a towel, but really, that barely even counts. Apparently, he enjoyed how uncomfortable the whole situation made me and decided that messing with me was his new favorite past time.

Our parents’ friendship meant we had to co-exist. But it didn’t mean we had to like it. He purposely did things to get under my skin. Like spreading rumors about me in junior high so no boys wanted to go out with me. Or sleeping with several of my high school friends, just to prove he could.