Punishing Me (Shaft on Tour #6) (21 page)

My
Original Shaft Groupies- Jenn and Chelsea you get me when no one else does. My
riddles aren’t always easy to decipher when I’m lost in my own head. You let me
ramble and work my shit out. Thank you for always being there. Love you ladies
hard!

Asli-
Thank you for fixing my crazy grammar and your feedback. You’re also a hell of
a waitress. I hope the guys tipped ya big!

Mel-
You are a fucking rockstar! I couldn’t be happier with this cover. You take a
few ideas I spit out and run with it. You make awesomeness and I can’t wait to
see what’s next!

My
Super Hero Betas- Thank you for listening to me ramble and reading over and
over when I decide to change shit ten times. OH! And thanks for not stabbing me
in the eye when I leave you with a scene cliffy. I know, I know, it happens WAY
too often.

Drue-
The woman who manages to keep me managed. HA! I can’t help laughing because
that is a task at times. My scattered brain is a mess and you manage to keep me
from getting to lost and have no problem handing the weirdest things I throw at
you. I have yet to figure out how you manage to do all you do in a single day
for all of us and manage to get sleep, eat, and take a breath in there
somewhere. Truly, you must be superwoman…

Mo-
Woman, fill your glass, it’s time to toast! To hilarious texts and phone calls
just when I am about to lose my mind. To margaritas, mixed with extra tequila,
in scenic Yuma, where the spiders drop from the porch like rain and scare me
shitless. To phone screen licking and adoration of book cover models, and wild
children who leave us laughing and shaking our heads at the things they manage
to do and say. Thank you for being a great friend who is ready to remind me to
keep going when I am positive that I can’t or to pull me from my funk when I
haven’t been away from my work and need to take a break. Even if it’s just to
giggle and get some puppy snuggles. There is nothing we can’t do. This is our
year to prove it!

Miss
Mia- The wild child that never ceases to surprise me. My Jazzie, the girl who
will climb a tree fort in a princess dress and heels better than most boys in
jeans and sneakers. You’re way too young to read this book, or even just this
paragraph, but it’s here for once you are thirty-five and your mom and dad
allow you to date and do all the adulting. You rock! Your sass, contagious
laugh, and the infectious smile that lights up the darkest room and has the
possibility to warm the coldest heart. You may be tiny right now, girl, but
you’re ‘tude is larger than life and I hope the world is ready for all the
greatness you will continue to bring to it. All the crazy things you say and do
just earn you the top spot in everyone’s heart as their favorite little person.
It says things when you can wrap six-foot-tall men around your finger and melt
their grouchy little hearts. When I think of Jasmine, I will always see you.
XOXO.

T-
My mister, the dude who got the girl. Yes, I called you dude. I know how you
love that. If the last year has taught me anything, it is that every struggle
has its reason and purpose. Every war we fight, has its potential casualties,
and possible prize. What we have now cost us a lot. We learned. Separately, and
together, we figured out what works and what didn’t. For all that we have lost,
what we have now, and will gain, will be so much better. It has been worth
every step, no matter how shaky the ground became beneath our feet. Thank you
for supporting me, for being there when my emotions are all over the place over
fictional characters, and understanding that I just need to go through it.

I
could thank McDonald’s for sweet tea and wifi when the damn weather decided to
knock out mine, and the pizza place for feeding my kids when I was crunching at
the end of this deadline and was positive that if I stopped to cook the world
would end…

Hey, it could totally
happen...

Rather Hate
Than Hurt – Hinder

Wasting All
These Tears – Cassadee Pope

Please
Forgive Me – Bryan Adams

Apocalyptic –
Halestorm

Gives You
Hell – All-American Rejects

Wish You Never
Met Me – Papa Roach

Cookie – R.
Kelly

Bleeding Out
– Imagine Dragons

Pillowtalk –
Zayn

A Man I’ll
Never Be – Boston

Like I Am –
Rascal Flatts

Criminal –
Framing Hanley

Familiar
Taste of Poison – Halestorm

Crazy on You
– Heart

Make You Miss
Me – Sam Hunt

Born To Be
Wild – Hinder

Hear Me Now –
Framing Hanley

Artistic
Pricks Ink:

Gravity

Significance

Solitude

Kittery
Serials:

Unhinged

Into the
Flames:

Homewrecker

Co-authored with Katheryn
Kiden