By All Means

Prologue

Adelina Hernandez is a 27-year-old preschool teacher with a kind smile and a love for children. If working with kids has taught her anything, it is that humans aren't perfect and they make mistakes. Ian Walker is a 28-year-old single father and a successful architect. He harbors a secret obsession with his former high school peer and the girl he relentlessly bullied, Adelina Hernandez. He's formulated a plan to sweep her off her feet and prove to her they were meant to be. Will he succeed? Or is he the one person she isn't willing to forgive?

Excerpt:

Adelina

I froze mid-turn, blinking my eyes, willing the figure at the opposite end of the room to disappear. Across the room stood the man who was once the bane of my existence. The asshole who made my high school years a living hell was in my classroom, hugging one of the cutest kids I'd ever had the pleasure of meeting. I was tied between calling administration to have them remove him from the premises for picking up a random child and reverting back to my high school self, which would mean running to the bathroom where I could protect myself from his unprovoked wrath. Before I could make up my mind, his eye met mine. I prayed that he wouldn't recognize me. That unlike me, he hadn't thought of high school in years. That he would give a friendly wave goodbye and be on his way. To my chagrin, he didn't leave. Because why would he? No, he picked Lucas up and walked towards me with a look in his eyes I had only ever seen once before.

Ian

There she is. I've been fantasizing about this moment for 10 years, the moment when she and I would be reunited—the beginning of the rest of our lives. I thought about all the different ways she would react. Would she be happy? Mad? Confused? From the looks of it, the answer is all of the above. Her eyes are wide and her body is rigid, my girl looks like a deer in the headlights. But that's okay because I'm here now. Here to ease her worries and prove to her she was meant to be with me.