J. Fynn - The Long Game

The narrowed eyes turned on me. “What?”

“My name isn’t Shane Casey.” I fought the urge to drop my head in a display of the shame I felt. “It’s Shay. Reilly.”

Tommy cleared his throat. “I’ll give you two a minute, but if we’re going, we need to go soon.” He left us alone in the kitchen for a second time, but neither of us noticed much.

“Shay Reilly,” she repeated after he’d gone. She stared at me for a long moment, her expression unreadable. “I’m Spencer Costello,” she said, offering her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

I took her hand in mine and couldn’t stop myself from pulling her into my arms and crushing her against my chest. I kissed her, not caring if she’d pull away or punch me or jam her knee into my groin. It was worth the risk. And it was a hundred times more worth it when she kissed me back, even if hesitantly.

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” I said against her mouth.

Spencer leaned back to look me in the eye. “This doesn’t mean you’re forgiven, you know.”

“I know.”

“I mean, you saved my life and my dad’s, and that’s not nothing. But really, I don’t even know who you are.”

“I know,” I said again and kissed the tip of her nose. “But we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other on the way to Louisiana.”

We couldn’t have finished this book without the love and support of our families, so the first very big thank you goes to Max Ernst, Darleen Zimmerman, David Pincus, Cecile Bruhn, and Steve, James, Rhys, Alisha, and Violet Bruhn. We love you all so much!

 For being with us from the very beginning (and offering some very helpful feedback on an earlier draft) we’d like to thank Kristyn DiDominick, Angelo Boccia Cedeño, and Dustin Moore. Thanks to Adam Bricker for inspiring one of the first lines ever written in The Long Game, and for always being a character in his own right. For always being supportive of our writing and just being inspirational, strong women, thanks to Amie Knauer, Meghan Saweikis, and Fiona Shirk. For being super supportive while also offering that little kick in the ass a writer sometimes needs to stay focused (and for making the “day job” just as much fun as time off), thanks to Amy Yoder McGloughlin and Michael Brix.

We absolutely have to thank Agent Pooja Menon of Kimberley Cameron and Associates who gave us so much encouragement, advice, and support along the way, all while being one of the coolest agents in the business. To Kristen and Jolene at Pen & Muses, the friendliest and most helpful publicists we could have asked for, and Rebecca A. Weston, the most thorough copy editor. To all the wonderful, talented, amazing, and hilarious ladies in the WrAHM society--we never would have been able to do this without you. Finding this group has been nothing short of miraculous for us. Thank you to Laurelin Page, Melanie Harlow, Emma Hart, Robin Lucas, Delancey Stewart, and Elizabeth Otto in particular, for going above and beyond in the help and encouragement department and playing a huge role in bringing this book to life. And an extra big thank you to Leigh Ann who had the courage to lead the way and whose talent, intelligence, and hard-work inspired us to make a go at it ourselves. Thanks to New Adult Authors Unite, and the lovely ladies who run it, our Pen Monkeys, and Dawn Pendleton for starting a great fall promo group. To Team Fynn, our biggest, loudest, and best cheerleaders—we love you guys! Thanks to everyone who follows us on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr for all their support. A special thanks to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for producing the soundtrack to our journey. We’re happy to be I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T chasing dreams.

Finally, our sincerest thanks to anyone reading this book—a writer is nothing without a reader, and we’re eternally grateful to you for giving us a reason to do what we do.

Signed (if you’ve gotten this far),

 Chelle Bruhn & Katherine Ernst, the writers behind J.L. Fynn

J.L. Fynn is the public face of the writing collaboration between Katherine Ernst and Chelle Bruhn. Katherine and Chelle have been writing together since they were 14-years-old and are happy to be able to team up professionally after all these years. They both live outside of Philadelphia, PA and look forward to years of fruitful work together.

Find out more at

www.jlfynn.com

To learn more about upcoming releases, please sign up for J.L.’s newsletter here.