This Is Falling(98)
“Do you have any low-fat dressings? Like, at all?” the curvy blonde says, a strand of her hair wrapped around her finger when she asks.
“We have Italian,” says the older woman taking their order.
“Yeah, but is it just oil? That doesn’t mean low fat. Is it fat-free or low-fat?” This chick is high maintenance.
“It’s…Italian,” the waitress says. A small chuckle escapes my lips and the other girl, the ninja, looks my way briefly. I don’t know why, but my heart kicks a little at getting caught.
“She’ll have the Italian. Just put it on the side,” the ninja princess says, and the waitress walks away.
“Good thinking. It’s low-fat if you put it on the side,” the diva says, and my ninja princess just stares at her, watching her pull out a mirror and check her lipstick, and then flips her gaze to me. This time I don’t panic, instead just lifting the right side of my lip in a tiny grin to let her know I’m with her—hell, I’m so with her. She shakes her head at me in disbelief and then returns her gaze back to her friend.
“Putting the dressing in a different bowl doesn’t change its chemistry, Paige,” she says, and I smirk again.
“What’s so funny, dude?” Nate interrupts, but I shake my head and hold up my hand against the table.
“Hang on, I have to hear this out,” I whisper, and he bunches his brow before turning to look at the two girls behind him who have me completely rapt.
“Then why the hell did you make me get it on the side, Cass?” she asks, and I commit that name to memory the second it leaves her lips.
“So you could use less,” Cass huffs back.
“That’s stupid,” Paige says.
“Yes, I see that now,” Cass says, stepping out from their booth to head to the restroom area. She gives me one last smile before she leaves, and I hold up my empty beer glass to toast her—the sexy ninja princess with the patience of gold, and the next girl I want to get to know in Oklahoma.
Acknowledgements
This book was just begging to come out of me. I dreamt pieces of it, and scribbled other parts down on notebooks, receipts and napkins that I stuffed into the depths of my purse while in the strangest places. I think I jotted down Nate and Rowe’s names on the back of an ASU baseball ticket. And when I pulled everything together and sat down to write, it just poured from my fingers. Thank you—seriously…thank you, for reading it.
This Is Falling is in many ways about those other stories that I never got to tell as a journalist. I covered the tragedies, and sometimes, as a reporter, would go back to revisit things on anniversaries. When enough time has gone by, things become newsworthy once again. Looking back at it now, I’m not sure why that is. This Is Falling is about the people those tragedies touch but whose stories don’t make the paper. The dominoes of aftereffects from a school shooting don’t all fall down in a straight line. They scatter and touch everyone. And Rowe Stanton embodies this.
I must thank my amazing editors, Tina Scott and Billi Joy Carson, for their work on this final product. And I would be lost in a world of doubt and second-guessing if it were not for my beta readers—Shelley, Bianca, Jen, Debbie and Brigitte. You ladies rock!
Lastly, This Is Falling is my fifth title. Being an author is my dream, and it is only true because of my readers and the power of the book blogging community. I have connected with the most amazing readers and bloggers, and I cannot thank you enough for the time you have spent on my words. Ty’s story? That one’s for you!
About the Author
Ginger Scott is a journalist and writer from Peoria, Arizona. A proud Sun Devil, she is a graduate and associate faculty member of Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism. When she’s not typing feverishly on her MacBook during the wee hours or reading in the dark on her iPad, she’s probably at a baseball diamond somewhere watching her son or her favorite team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, take the field.