Head Above Water Read online

  “We’re not tainting anyone. We’re just playing music.” Ryker laughs bitterly. “Dude, we’re the tamest band around. And you saw her, man. She’s talented. If we don’t pick her up another band will. And I bet they’ll mess her up a lot worse than we will.”

  I mull over his words.

  “What if she’s picked up by Cold Fever?”

  Pierce and Jimmy freeze. My insides coil into knots. I narrow my eyes at Ryker. “You really want her in the band, don’t you?”

  He nods.

  “You must if you brought up those losers.” I swallow hard. “Fine. She can join, but she’s your responsibility. If anything goes wrong, it’s on your head.”

  Ryker smiles like he just won the stinking lottery. I turn around and prepare to clean up my stuff. My stomach churns, and I wonder if my decision just sealed yet another person’s fate.

  Acknowledgements

  I’m often asked how I come up with the ideas for my stories, and I never quite know how to answer that. Stories and characters come to me a lot of different ways. Sometimes characters just pop into my head with personalities and pasts all intact. Then it’s just a matter of coming up with a plot that will work that unique individual. Other times a show I’m watching or book I’m reading will spur on an idea. Or a life experience of mine will fuel a storyline. Oftentimes, though, it’s a combination of a lot of these things which I form into one idea.

  However, this book was different. I know the exact moment I came up with the storyline for this book. It was last summer and I had brought my kids to the gym. My daughter was swimming, my son was in the basketball court playing a basketball game, and I was laying out by the pool reading a book. I looked up from the pages to check on my daughter and my gaze landed on a teenage couple in the water. The guy was teaching the girl to swim. I was mesmerized. He was so kind and tender with her as he held her in the water. I found myself wondering about them. What was their story? Why did this teenage girl not already know how to swim? What was their relationship like?

  And just like that HEAD ABOVE WATER took shape in my mind. I wanted to write a story about a love like that. About a boy would teach his girlfriend to swim with encouragement and gentleness. The couple in the book looks nothing like the couple at the gym, and I never did find out their story, so any similarities would just be coincidences. But that couple definitely inspired me.

  With the basics of the story in my mind I set out to come up with characters and Tag and Harper came very easily. Their back stories, secrets and tainted pasts took time. In fact, I didn’t learn of Tag’s until halfway through the rough draft. But that is typical for me. I hope you have enjoyed their story as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

  Thank you to all my readers, you make this all worth it. Without you there would be no reason to do this.

  Thank you to my family for your support and unconditional love – Andrew, Eli, Kayleen, Mom, Dad, Karissa, Kagen, Britnie, Matt, Lindsay.

  Thank you to my wonderful editor, Lisa Richardson. You make me sound so smart.

  Thank you to my street team and fantastic assistant, Cassie Chavez. And to my betas – Tiffany Tillman, Heather Andrews, Megan Squires and Cambria Hebert.

  Thank you to Regina for my beautiful cover and to Kelsey for the gorgeous picture!

  And special thanks to Dion and Sarah Davey for their help on “all things lifeguard.” I couldn’t have gotten Tag’s job right if it wasn’t for Dion’s lifeguard expertise.

  Also, thank you to my author friends who live nearby, Megan Squires and Susan Griscom. I’m so lucky to have you in my life.

  And to my author friends far away, namely the Indie Inked Girls! Love the support and encouragement of our group.

  Mostly I am thankful to God, who makes all of this possible.