Broken Ballads: Book One in the Stormy Skies Series by Katie Jane Newman

Author:Katie Jane Newman [Newman, Katie Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

Molly

Jonny makes scrambled eggs, and we sit in the bar with plates balanced on our laps. The wood burner is roaring but the room has more of a chill and the step between the bar and the lounge is showing signs of damp. The storm has to end soon, before the hotel is reduced to a single brick, yet I’m worried about life on the outside, about the decisions I’ve made and am yet to make. I’m comfortable here, with Jonny, a man who seems so broken and in despair, but I know I am safe with him. I don’t feel as though I need to change who I am, which is good, I’ve done so much of that without even realising.

The resentment I feel towards Paul is sitting like a weight in my belly and I don’t like it. I don’t want it there. It aches. I don’t know how to get rid of it, without compromising on my anger. I’m allowed to be angry. I am here because he didn’t give me a second thought. I’m allowed to acknowledge that, but I don’t want to hang onto the weight, it’s black and tarry although if I’m honest, it’s not just because of the situation I’ve found myself in, much of it is directed at me. I allowed this. I gave away my power. That’s on me.

Jonny is staring into the flames, lost in thought. He is so handsome that I keep unconsciously gazing at him and I worry that he’ll catch me. Which would be really embarrassing! Right now, he doesn’t seem aware of anything other than whatever is going on inside his head.

I wonder how he ended up here. What pushed him from fame and fortune to almost nothing. He doesn’t seem to have deserved it, although I don’t know anything about him, beyond the magazine article and his kind hospitality. Maybe it was deserved. I will only ever know his version, but I don’t get the vibes from him that he is a bad person, just lost and regretful, something I recognise in myself.

I didn’t lie when I said his voice gave me goosebumps. I’ve not heard a voice like his – raw, smoky, gravelly. It was a voice I could just listen to on repeat and never tire of it. If it had a smell, it would be oak and whiskey. It’s a voice to fall in love with. Goddamn it, Molly, you can’t think things like that.

Except it’s true.

It is the voice, and there is something about him that is going to make leaving that little bit harder.

It all feels very confusing - the absence of light, of time and of the world outside and my life. It’s not the same as it was two days ago. Everything is different. Somewhere beyond the bar something slams, a door probably and I’m reminded of the apocalypse outside.

“I feel like I’m in a movie where I’m being chased by something dark and dangerous, except in this case it’s the sea.

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