It takes me a moment to find my bearings, to calm my hammering heart. My eyes fly open to find a faded headrest in front of me. Tiny breaths, I hear my mom instruct, but I can’t do it. A lung’s worth of cold water greets me in a rush, filling me inside. It all suddenly disappears and I’m falling backward, crashing into cold water, sinking farther into the darkness, picking up speed as the weight of an ocean swallows me whole. I hear a loud snap, snap, snap, like someone pulling stage-light levers light suddenly pours in from all angles, illuminating the car with blinding intensity. Like a person struggling for his dying breath. The voices get louder, the lights brighter.

I open my mouth to scream, but I can’t find the energy. I can’t do anything except turn my head and listen to my heart pound like an anvil against my chest for what feels like an eternity. I try to squeeze it but I can’t will my muscles to flex. It’s big and strong and it envelops my fingers. Too dark to see Billy, but I know he’s there because I can feel his hand. The car door opposite her is closer than it’s supposed to be. I turn to my right to see Jenny’s silhouette, but her limbs look awkward and unnatural and she’s pressed up against me. I’m sure my mouth is moving, calling out their names . . . I didn’t understand it then.Ī soft hiss . . . What the hell does a tiny breath do? Why not a deep breath? Why ten? Why not three or five or twenty? I’d scream and she’d simply smile her little smile. She should have tattooed the damn mantra on her forehead.

Every time I screamed and stomped my feet in anger, or bawled my eyes out in frustration, or turned green with anxiety, she’d calmly recite those same words. Read moreĪll the purple and green feathers in the world PROLOGUE Hardened by her tragic past, Kacey is determined to keep everyone at a distance, but their mutual attraction is undeniable, and Trent is desperate to find a way into Kacey’s guarded heart-even if it means revealing an explosive secret that could shatter both their worlds. Trent Emerson has smoldering blue eyes and deep dimples, and perfectly skates that irresistible line between nice guy and bad boy. She can handle anything-anything but her mysterious neighbor in apartment 1D. They’re struggling to make ends meet at first, but Kacey’s not worried. Armed with two bus tickets, Kacey and her fifteen-year-old sister, Livie, escape Grand Rapids, Michigan, to start over in Miami. Still haunted by memories of being trapped inside, listening to her mother take her last breath, Kacey wants to leave her past behind.

Love them.įour years ago, Kacey Cleary’s life imploded when her car was hit by a drunk driver, killing her parents, boyfriend, and best friend. After a terrible car accident destroys her life as she knew it, twenty-year-old Kacey escapes to Florida, where she encounters an irresistible man determined to capture her wounded heart.

Ten tiny breaths series in order