Page 1 of Wildest Dreams

Prologue

Aisling

Four years ago

I pull up in my car outside of the glossy black walls of the condo and stare wide-eyed at the scene in front of me.

My bed is outside of the building.

Mybedisoutsideof the building.

“Oh no, no, no,” I whimper, quickly hopping down from the driver’s side, pristine white trainers hitting the blacktop at a fast clip. My car keys dangle loosely from the fingers of my left hand as I slip my phone from my pocket and swipe through a barrage of notifications.

How on earth could I have possibly missed it?

When I finally find the notification that I’m looking for I press the heel of my palm against my forehead, internally squealing.

“They changed the delivery time?” I whisper in defeat to no-one in particular, aghast at the prospect of having to carry a multiple-part queen-sized bed into my condo all on my own.

My twin brother Connell has an apartment on the floor below mine, but right now he’s at his first official freshman week of Carter Ridge University’s Division I football training, meaning that he’s about to be so busy that he might not even be coming back to the condo tonight. As much as I would love to use my baby sister privileges and wrangle him into bringing my bed upto my room for me I don’t want to bother him during his first week of college football when it’s his dream to play in the NFL – especially when, knowing Carter U’s track record, being on the team here is one-hundred percent going to make his dream a reality.

Sniffling, I click the lock button on my cell and hold it limply as I stare at the bed.

It stares back at me, looking way too smug.

So maybe I should have been more on top of tracking the delivery, but how was I to know that they would bump up my slot – and not just by a couple of minutes but by, like, four whole hours?

I fold my arms across my chest, car keys jangling as I drum my fingers against the soft cotton sleeve of my baby pink jumper.

There are no two ways about it. I’m going to have to carry the pieces into my building, solo.

Silently weeping, I pocket my phone and my keys, reassessing the situation in front of me.

I had been exclusively counting on the delivery drivers to help me get my new purchase inside the condo, onto the elevator, and then, ideally, unwrapped and placed exactly where I needed them to be in my currently-bedless bedroom. Carrying multiple extremely large wooden panels on my own was not something that I had anticipated happening after my first morning of cheer practice as a Carter U freshman.

The perks of being the heiress to the real estate family who owns the condo that you’re about to spend your four years of college living in? If you want to upgrade your bed from princess sized to queen sized, they’ll put that cute little princess bed into storage for you and totally give you free rein to decorate your room to your heart’s content.

But the downside of being the heiress to the real estate family who owns the condo that you’re about to spend your fouryears of college living in? Your parents are crazy busy and live nowhere near the beautiful mountainous small town that you chose to move to.

If only they’d been able to stick around for a couple more days so that they could help me shift this thing.

But whatever. I’m a big girl. No time to dwell.

I flip my ponytail, roll up my sleeves, and give a piece of bed-frame its first shove.

Oh my God, did they drop this thing in wet cement? Immediately panting, I move around to a different corner of the frame and wrap my hands around the edge of the headboard.

On one, two–

I release an unintentional squeal. The bed doesn’t budge one millimetre.

Okay, so this thing weighs about fifty thousand tonnes. I swipe my wrist across my forehead and crouch into a small squat, but not before glancing up at the dark thunderclouds overhead, ominously warning me to get pushing, pronto.

I just need to get each piece of the bed inside of the building. That’s my starting point. Just shove them inside as quickly as I can and then when Connell gets home–

I push against one of the panels with all of my strength, the impossible strain making my whole body tense and burn. I moan, gritting my teeth, and continue pushing as hard as I can, borderline growling with exertion by the time that I hear a deep voice rumbling behind me.

“Need some help with that?”

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