Em and Em by Linda Budzinski
Published by: Swoon Romance
Publication date: September 15th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Even as she pines for sandy beaches and the night life of the shore, the newly-named Ember O’Malley finds herself making new friends, taking photos for the high school newspaper, and thinking an awful lot about the paper’s editor, an oddly cute cowboy named Charles.
When Em stumbles upon a shady beneath-the-bleachers exchange between one of the school’s football coaches and a student, she refuses to get involved. The last thing she needs is to be witness to another crime or call attention to herself. Besides, she finally has some real friends – well, real except for the fact that they don’t know a single thing about her – and she prefers to keep it that way until the trial.
But as her day in court approaches, Em begins piecing together what she saw that day beneath the bleachers. And, as her own past secrets start to catch up with her, Em needs to figure out who she really is – Em or Em.
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Random Excerpts
Marissa
arched a meticulously plucked eyebrow. “We’re not a bunch of hicks, you know.
We may not have skyscrapers and traffic and … ” She waved a hand in the air,
trying to think of one other thing a major metropolis might have that her
cow-infested county did not.
“A
decent coffee shop?” Ember offered. It was one of the things she missed most
since she’d arrived. Besides the shore. And Zach.
“We
have a Starbucks inside the grocery,” Marissa muttered, but it was obvious the
way she and the other girls shifted in their seats that they all knew how lame
that sounded.
Claire spoke up. “So. Big game tonight!” Her voice was a
little too bright, but the change of subject worked. Ember gave her a grateful
smile as the girls’ conversation took off into a barrage of plans for pregame
warm ups and post-game parties.
Ember nibbled at her sandwich and studied them. Their
hair, their makeup, the way they dressed, and the stuff they talked about—they
were different from the girls back home, but also the same. She tried to
imagine what would have happened if she’d tried to sit down at a table full of
cheerleaders at her old high school. Impossible.
* * *
Whap! The
wave upended the board and Emily with it. The roar of the surf filled her ears
and then disappeared as she plunged into a silent darkness. She tumbled for a
moment, helpless and disoriented. The scrape of sand against her knees and the
amused stare of a snot-nosed boy standing ankle-deep as she surfaced made her
humiliation complete.
She turned to retrieve her board and caught sight of
Zach riding a wave, much bigger than the one that had humbled her. She marveled
as he weaved up and down and around. So beautiful.
“You almost had that one,” he shouted as they
paddled back out together. “If you could get up a little more quickly … ”
Emily forced a smile. Timing wasn’t the problem.
Fear was. She tried again and again, always with the same result. She’d manage
to get her feet on the board and her butt in the air, but her fingers would
cling to the edges like a starfish to the rocks.
* * *
Ember
hesitated. She should keep her mouth shut. She didn’t need to be a witness to
another crime, and she certainly didn’t need to be nark-ing out the one person in Boyd County who knew
her real identity and could expose her at any time. Still, a part of
her wanted to confide in Claire. She was so sick of lying, of pretending, of
keeping secrets.
“Ember,
are you okay?” Claire reached out and touched her arm.
Ember
grabbed her hand and held it. “If I tell you something, will you promise not to
tell anyone?”
Claire
nodded, her eyes wide. “Of course.”
“During
the homecoming game, I saw something I shouldn’t have. Under the bleachers.”
Claire
drew back. “You mean … Tommy Walker?”
“Yeah.”
Claire
jumped up and plugged her ears. “Ew, gross. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to hear
it. Ew, ew, ew.” She grabbed Ember’s shoulders. “I realize you can never un-see
that, but you have to try to forget. Understand?”
Ember
laughed and nodded. Claire had the wrong idea—a very, very wrong idea—but
something about her reaction, her sweetness, her innocence, snapped Ember back
to reality. No way could she confide in this girl. That huge ball of lies,
pretending, and secrets she was living formed the entire basis of their
friendship.
* * *
Charles
scrambled up a steep set of stairs leading to a loft.
Ember
hesitated. Was she crazy to follow him up there? After all, she didn’t know him
that well. What if under that sweet geek-boy exterior he was no different from
Jimmy and Brad and their teammates? She hadn’t seen another soul when they’d
pulled in. Perhaps she was a lamb being led to slaughter.
Charles
peered over the edge of the loft. “You coming? You’re going to love this.”
“What
is it? Can you bring it down?”
“It’s
a surprise. And no.” Charles’s forehead creased, and he nodded toward the
stairs. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”
“No.”
Ember took a deep breath and climbed up. She stopped near the top of the
staircase and peered around. The loft was empty except for a few scattered
piles of hay. Charles sat in the far corner, a huge grin on his face. Her
stomach clenched. He’d said he could “cheer her up.” Was this what he had in
mind—a literal roll in the hay? Was that how he thought of her?
Ember
gripped the railing so hard her palms hurt. It was as though she had a blinking neon sign hanging over her head. “I’m Easy!” She’d
thought she could leave the hot tub, the video, and her whole
miserable sophomore year behind her, but maybe she couldn’t. Not even halfway
across the country. Not even with new hair, a new wardrobe, a new name. Maybe
she was and always would be the Girl
in the GIF, Emily Slutkowski.
* * *
Charles
leaned toward her. “Come on, tell me. What kind of photographer do you want to
be?”
Ember
pulled the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands. She drew up her knees
and hugged them into her chest. She’d never talked about this to anyone. What
if it sounded stupid? “I want to be a portrait photographer, but not the kind
that takes pictures in the studio; the kind that takes pictures of people out
in the real world, being who they are and doing the things they love to do.”
She
glanced at him. He didn’t look as though he thought she was stupid. He looked… interested.
“You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, I want to
tell stories about people. True stories. Stories of who they are deep down.” Like that picture of Trina. The
one that proved she wasn’t too old or too cool to love the thrill of the wind
tugging a kite up, up, up into the sky. “I want to take pictures that push past
people’s images and uncovers something real.”
Charles whistled. “Now that’s a
dream.”
“Sorry. It’s silly, right?”
“No, not at all.” Charles leaned
in even closer, his face just a few inches from hers. His voice was barely a
whisper. “I didn’t mean it’s an impossible dream. I meant it’s the kind of
dream worth dreaming.”
I write young adult romance. My novels, both published by Swoon Romance YA, are EM & EM and THE FUNERAL SINGER. I am represented by Andrea Somberg of Harvey Klinger Inc
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