My Beloved: A Thin Love Novella(35)

I didn’t struggle like them. I had issues, who doesn’t, but other than the desire to seek out my parents’ approval, there was no impetus urging me, no drive motivated by loss or betrayal or the soul-crushing hollow that poverty offers.

I had never had my heart broken.

I had never lost.

I had lived my life, loved fiercely, completely, surrounded by people who thought I could manage anything, be whatever I wanted.

But I had never felt the sting of life’s bite.

Not until her.

Not until my stupidity, my ignorance cost me… it cost me her.

And so I took that loss, that aching, never-healing pain and used its weight to bury myself behind guilt, behind anguish. The spring before I turned seventeen, on one ordinary day when we were out doing things that were stupid, I lost my first love. I lost her forever.

That day, the boy my mother raised, the one my father claimed to be so proud of, died. He died and I won’t revive him. I can’t. But I use that pain, the worst heart rending ache there is, to finally understand what my parents had learned on their own: our struggles define us. They make or break us. And now at eighteen it’s that long held pain, that sobering loss, that keeps me running, keeps me fighting, gives me the motivation I need to build something that casts its own shadow.

And there isn’t even the hint of light breaking through it.





Thin Love was a personal book to write. It took me a few months… or twenty years, depending on the day you ask me about it. My Beloved is the wild imaginings of what could have been and an answer to the folks who didn’t understand Keira and Kona’s story, to the ones who thought I was justifying the notion that violence and abuse are remotely acceptable. They are not. So, to those of you who read Thin Love and understood what I was trying to say, the sort of couple I was trying to examine, I thank you. This novella is yours, totally and completely. I am overwhelmed by the love and encouragement you’ve all shown me. It is staggering to me how a book, especially one so personal and raw, could impact even a single person. So, to the readers who got me, who got Keira and Kona, know that My Beloved is the sweet reward for all that damn angst and overwhelming emotion.

Thank you, as always, to Sharon Browning and Karen Chapman for their sharp eyes and sharper minds while editing this novella. Nothing I write would see the light of day if it weren’t for either of you. Thank you to my “Sweet” Team and betas: Trish Leger, Judy Lovely, Carla Castro, Naarah Scheffler, LK Westhaver, Lorain Domich, Melanie Brunsch, Michelle Horstman-Thompson, Allyson Lavigne Wilson, Chanpreet Singh, Heather Weston-Confer, Betsy Gehring, Allison Coburn and Sammy Llewellyn for lifting me so high, I have to look down to see Heaven. I love you all dearly.

Thank you to Kayla Jagneaux, Jennifer Jagneaux, Juli Wright and Joy Chambers for cheering me on endlessly. I could not be a prouder aunt or feel more love than what you’ve given me. Thank you so very much to my book bestie Kele Moon and her lovely mother for all the clarifications on pidgin and the proper Hawaiian locales and customs. Thank you to Chelle Bliss, Lila Felix, Penelope Douglas and Trish Leger for supporting and encouraging me without fail. Merci beaucoup to Alex Fraser for the beautiful artwork and to all my Facebook, Twitter and GoodReads friends who promote, spread the word and participate in my endless marketing misadventures. To Marie, Sherry, Barbra B., Sarah and Kalpana, work buddies and book fanatics, thank you so much for always encouraging me. Many grand and massive shouts of gratitude to Michelle Monkou of USA Today’s Happily Ever After blog for always telling her very large audience exactly why she likes my stories. I am so grateful to you, doll.

Thank you to Angela McLaurin for yet another gorgeous format and to my family for their constant and continuous love and support. I am a lucky, lucky lady.

P.S. Don’t worry. Ransom will get out of his funk… eventually.





Eden Butler is an editor and writer of Romance, SciFi and Fantasy novels and the nine-time great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum.

When she’s not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden writes, reads and spends too much time watching rugby, “Doctor Who” and New Orleans Saints football. Currently, she is imprisoned under teenage rule alongside her husband in Southeastern Louisiana.

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