Today marks exactly two years since A MATTER OF FATE, the first book in the Fate series, has been in the wild. I am constantly thrilled and humbled that so many readers have taken a chance on Chloe, Jonah, and Kellan–and as a thank you, I’d like to post a so-far unseen Cora Carregreen POV I did for A MATTER OF HEART, the second book in the series. If you have yet to read AMOH, look away. It’s spoiler-y! But if you have read it, please know that this is rough and unedited.
THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING ALONG ON THIS JOURNEY WITH ME.
*virtual cupcakes for all*
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Cora
My cousin’s boyfriend—er, fiancé—eh, actually, more importantly, Connection, is many things. He is as cool of a cat as you can get. Dude looks like a model, all tall with mussed dark hair that dips into his dreamy blue eyes—gods, tell him that and I’ll kick your ass. He’s got this body that I’ve appreciated far more than I ought to for somebody marrying a family member: it’s a series of lean muscles that don’t scream bodybuilder (thank goodness, because that’s just gross looking; c’mon, you know I’m right) but have nothing in common with a geek’s skinny, detailess ones, either. It’s sort of the perfect sort of body to drool over, if you catch my drift. Not that I’m judging him solely by his looks or anything, because that would be just icky, but dude is also incredibly smart and the sort of guy you go to when you want some answers. Not vague ones or half-assed ones, but fully-formed, thoughtful ones that will help you get to where you want to go, mentally. But more importantly, if somebody pinned me down and said, “Describe Jonah Whitecomb or die,” I’d have to go with, “He’s the most calm, collected person of my acquaintance.” Because nothing shakes this guy, with the exception of my cousin.
So. I’ve seen Jonah out of his element exactly once before, and it was for a really terrible couple days when he and Chloe had a fight. I say fight when I actually mean she caught him locking lips with his ex-girlfriend, which is NOT COOL AT ALL. And I judged him, YES I DID, but I also got to meet said ex-girlfriend who was . . . dare I say it? Pretty damn awesome, which makes sense because Jonah is a pretty damn awesome kind of guy himself, but I digress. The point being, I met Callie Lotus and she and I had a talk in which I offered to kick her skanky ass, and she basically opened herself up to me and admitted she’d thrown herself at him like a Mac truck slamming into a runaway truck sand—. . . gods, I don’t know what they call that thing. Sandhill? Ramp? You know what I mean. The sand things that they put on hills so trucks that go out of control and crash into them and not into other cars. And that’s what Callie basically did. She crashed into Jonah, and him being an Emotional and all, he sort of fell prey to a whole lot of guilt (which, okay, is totally warranted, but that’s neither here nor there right now), and he kissed her goodbye. Good logic? Oh, hells no. Horrible, horrible logic. But logic I could still get. And it was made a little more believable when Jonah basically freaked the hell out when Chloe caught him and then refused to speak or see him. He sort of went, well . . . bonkers, if I’m gonna put it nicely. Totally melted down. Acted like the worlds were ending and he was ending with them. I didn’t get it for awhile; I really didn’t.
It’s because I don’t have a Connection, I’m told.
So, anyway, dude freaked out then and then resumed his normal cool cat behavior once he and Chloe kissed and made up. Ha. Kissed and made up. See what I did there? Okay, okay. Anyway, since then, Jonah has been as he’d always been. Cool. Collected. Calm. The person people gravitated to when they, themselves, were freaking out. He’s the voice of reason. The port in the storm. Yadda, yadda, more stereotypical sayings, if you know what I mean.
THE POINT BEING, now that Jonah’s freaking out once more, I know it has to do with Chloe.
“Whoa, cowboy!” I have to yell at him. He’s called me, demanding to know where Chloe is, and as I’m not her, well, I won’t say mother, because hers couldn’t give a rat’s ass where she is at any given moment, but her babysitter, yeah, I have no idea. “Slow down a moment, huh?”
“WHERE IS SHE?” he repeats, and now he sounds vaguely threatening.
Love the guy, as he’s the closest thing I’ll ever get to a bro-in-law, but HELLO. Nobody talks to me like this. “Close it down, Jonah,” I hiss back, and then I hear his twin brother’s voice in the background say something along the lines of, “I told you calling that girl would be a waste of time.”
And, well, that pisses me off, because the truth is: me and Kellan Whitecomb are like oil and water. Not in a “They must secretly dig one another and are both things added to cake mix to make it yummy” way or an “They are soulmates who have witty banter” way, but in a genuine “These two people don’t get along and would probably cut the other down in public if it so suited their purposes.”
Ahem.
Okay, so I’ve actually taken Kellan down before. Obliterated his relationship with Chloe, and it wasn’t because I disliked him or anything, but it was because HE WASN’T JONAH. Um, I lied there. I sort of dislike him, and here’s why:
· He’s a smug son-of-a-bitch.
· He’s annoying good-looking (duh, he looks like his twin, but it’s like he knows he’s so fabulous looking that he just acts like it, and that BUGS).
· Girls flock to him like ducks to breadcrumbs.
· He’s sex on a stick. No, really. Ask anyone. Is there anyone except me who hasn’t had sex with him yet?
· He’s a bad influence. Anytime Raul gets into trouble outside of work, it’s because of Kellan. I just know it.
So, yes. I bombed his relationship with Chloe, and dude has given me the evil eye ever since, if he actually deigns me worthy enough to even acknowledge, which, admittedly, isn’t often. And that’s fine. Because who needs him?
EVEN STILL. To know I’m on speakerphone, and he’s dissing me because I don’t have tabs on Chloe? “Did you try calling her?” I ask Jonah. Two can play at the ignoring game.
“DON’T YOU THINK I THOUGHT OF THAT ALREADY?”
I figure I need to slap him a little when I see him next. My ears are ringing. “Let me call.”
“I HAVE HER PHONE!” In the background, “Hang up, J! You’re wasting time on her!”
My teeth grind together. “Wanna tell me why my cousin, who is practically attached to your hip, Jonah, would disappear without any means of communicating with you? Considering girl cries if you’re gone for more than ten hours on an assignment?”
There is some kind of scuffle on the other end and Kellan is the one to answer. “If you hear from her, you will call us,” he barks out in that supercilious way of his, and then he HANGS UP ON ME.
Asshat.
© Heather Lyons 2012
One Comment on ““Cora’s POV from A MATTER OF HEART””
hahahaha!!!! oh man, i love Cora even more now!!!