Cover Reveal for Finding Trust

I am so happy to be brining you the cover for Finding Trust! You can find the author on her site > http://serenamyles.blogspot.co.uk

Leah had been a daddies girl, always taking his side when her parents had their petty debates, pacing the floor waiting for him to come home from work where she would run into his arms and the bed time stories he would read to her at night.
Then one day it all changed, her dad packed his things and left with another woman. 
Since then Leah doesn't trust anyone, especially men. She watches the world pass from behind the walls she had barricaded herself with.
Then they come. The new neighbour with her daughter who refuses to leave Leah alone and the older brother who might just teach Leah to trust again.

Chapter 1

OK, so I am a self obsessed book freak. May - my Scottish born mum who refuses to be called mom thinks it’s dull, I think it’s amazing. Why would I want to live in a world like this, when I can dive into worlds of Princes, Vampires, Mermaids, Lycans and happily ever afters'?

Mum worries that I am too unsociable for a girl my age and that I should be making friends- I am nineteen and the only friends I have are the few friends I want to have, the character’s in my books.

I tapped my fingers along the back of my kindle impatiently as I heard another loud bang come from outside. One thing about reading, I had to do it in complete silence, which sadly, was a comfort I wasn’t being allowed at this moment.

A new family was moving in next door after Mrs. Smith, the old lady that previously lived there, moved to live with her son in London. The new family were very inconveniently unloading their belongings from the moving van, and to be quite frank it sounded like a parade was helping them from the amount of banging and thumping that was going on.

But it only got worse. I heard my mother’s high pitched voice call over to the newbie’s. Rolling my eyes, I climbed off my bed and walked over to the side window of my room.

There she was.

Standing at our brown wooden fence talking to whom I presumed was the mother. That was the main reason mum was so excited about the newbie’s, apparently they had two kids roughly the same age as me and she hoped that they would cure me of my book fetish and loner status. They wouldn’t.

Turning my mother looked straight at my bedroom window, just as I was getting ready to duck out of the way she started waving at me like a lunatic. Caught.

Sighing I made my way outside. Putting on my best ‘I don’t want to be here’ smile I walked over to the wooden fence.

“Leah this is Mrs. Anderson-” My mum started.

“Call me Sarah.” The woman on the other side of the fence smiled.

Sarah looked far too young to be a mum, and much cooler than mine. She had short bright auburn hair that cupped her slender face, her green eyes shone as her smile almost touched them.

My mum standing across from her looked rather plain in dark denim jeans with her gardening gloves hanging out of the pocket and a white vest and a chequered unbuttoned top over the top of it with her light brown hair tied back into a messy bun.

“She has two kids your age.” Mum said to me, her smile taking over her face as she tried to discreetly nudge me, but making it far too obvious.

“My son Darien is twenty-one, but I have a daughter your age called Tina. From what you’re mum has already told me, Tina is going to be going to the same college as you.”

“That’s good.” I already knew what mum was planning, hoping this girl and I could become friends and that would fix all the crap that had happened to me- to us over this last year. “What is she studying?”

“Preparation and Cooking, she wants to be a chef.” Sarah’s smile was full of pride, something I hadn't seen in my own mother in a long time, almost a year to be exact.

At least Tina wouldn’t be in any of my lessons. Mum's scheming would have to take a different route. “I don’t think she will be in my classes, I’m studying creative writing.”

“Oh that’s a shame I was kind of hoping that you would be able to show her around.” Sarah replied.

I knew what was going to happen before I even had a chance to stop it. Mum quickly suggested that I would still meet Tina at breaks and lunches to keep her company, and even walk her to college in the morning. It was so nice of her to offer my free time on my behalf without even asking me first. But what could I do now? So smiling I nodded when Sarah asked if that was OK.

“Where are your kids?” Mum leaned over and peered over the fence trying to spot them like they were a pair of toddlers hiding somewhere.

“Oh I sent them to the store to get some supplies; they were driving me crazy with all the unpacking at the moment.”

I smirked at the shimmer of disappointment on mums face. At least something was going good for me. Excusing myself, I went back inside the house before mum roped me into helping them unpack or something. When I got safely back inside my room I flopped down on the bed, I picked up my kindle and started where I left off.

Almost an hour had past when a car pulled into the drive next door. Curiously I walked back outside to meet who I was going to have to spend my time with. Mum was practically dragging them out of the car when I got there. You’d think she was the one needing friends.

“This is Darien and Tina.” Sarah smiled as the two people got out of the black pick up that had parked in the drive. She moved to stand between them, her daughter taller than her by a head but her son towered above her, and I found myself having to look up to see his face. “This is Mary and her daughter Leah.”

Tina was like a mini version of her mother, she had slightly darker auburn hair but it was longer falling down her back, and her green eyes were even brighter than Sarah's. She was slim and lucky enough to be able to walk in heels, judging by the platforms on her feet. I on the other hand, would easily break my neck.

Darien looked like a dark knight next to them with his jet black hair that lay flat just above his blue eyes. He was tall; at least 6 foot and well defined from what his tight black t-shirt let you see. Not in a body builder way though, in a just nice way.

Tina smiled at us both warmly, while her brother looked me up and down, a look of disappointment and disgust passed his face before he turned and stormed off into the house. What was his problem?

The atmosphere went cold as Sarah shifted uncomfortably watching the door Darien had just disappeared through slam shut. “I’m sorry about Darien; he hasn’t taken the move very well.”

“He’s always grumpy.” Tina rolled her eyes looking at me.

“Tina.” Sarah warned her daughter. There was obviously a lot more to Darien than what Sarah wanted us to know.

Just as quickly as the tension had built it disappeared when Sarah wrapped her arm around Tina's waist. “Tina.” Sarah said waiting until her daughter looked at her. “Leah has nicely agreed to show you around the college.”

Tina’s eyes lit up as she turned back to me. “Oh thank God I was so worried I was going to be on my own the whole day. Nothing worse than being the new kid.”

“How did you get into the college? The courses have already started.” I asked curiously, no doubt she bought her way.

“I was at college in our old town so they agreed to let me start now instead of waiting until next year.”

“Well that was handy.”

*****

All mum had talked about at dinner was Tina; it didn’t bother me that she wanted me to make friends, in fact I understood it. What I didn’t like was her trying to force them down my throat. If Tina and I were to become friends then it would depend entirely how well we got on, not on how much meddling my mum could interfere. Besides even if the new girl and me did get on, there was no way in hell I was going to become best friends with her, I had learned that lesson long ago and I promised myself I would never trust anyone that much again.

Thankful that dinner finally ended I finished my book and submitted my review to my blog. I had a rule never to start a new book right after finishing one. So after nipping mums head for an hour she let me borrow the car to go to the supermarket to buy my magazine. I kept looking at the speedometer making sure I was always staying within the speed limit – by an easy ten miles per hour –but because I was so excited about the new release of my magazine I felt I was part of a police chase trying to get to the store. How sad.

I walked down the aisle filled with magazines and papers as I looked for ‘Reader’s Monthly’ a magazine I lived by. It told you all the new releases, reviews for books and the recommended best reads, and this week one of my reviews was featuring in it. There was one other person in the aisle and when I looked closer at him I realised it was Tina’s brother, I stood debating with myself if I should speak to him or not. Earlier he hadn’t even said a word to us before storming off into the house, but then they had just moved in. He was probably just tired and Sarah had said he wasn’t happy with the move, and there was my mum not even letting them get settled in before bombarding them for information. Deciding to speak to him I walked over and stood at his side. I waited for him to acknowledge me but after a few moments it was obvious he wasn’t going to.

“You’re Tina’s brother right.” I asked leaning forward slightly to see his face. He was quite a bit taller than me, but then at 5’4 that wasn’t uncommon.

He sighed answering abruptly. “Yes.” Then picked up a m0agazine about motorbikes, his hair moved to hover over his eyes as he bent his head to inspect the magazine, and I wondered if he was even able to see it. A part of me wanted to move the annoying bangs away from his eyes but the thought of him biting my hand off made me hold them at bay.

“It’s Darien right?” I tried again to make conversation.

“Yep...” He sighed again which was really beginning to get on my nerves.

I looked around awkwardly. Thinking of what to talk about would have been a good idea before coming over here. “How do you like living here?” God how lame a question was that? He hadn’t even been here twenty four hours and he was getting asked for the low down on the place.

“I didn’t want to live here, but we didn’t have a choice, then it was OK when we finally moved in, but there is this girl who lives next door to me and she just doesn’t know how to mind her own damn business.”

That shocked I was that he had said more than one word to me, that I didn't even realise he was talking about me. See mum this is what you get when you try and be nice to people. “Well who shoved arrogance up your ass?”

It may have been my eyes playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn that I seen the smallest smirk in the history of the world appear on his face before it vanished.

“So tell me." Darien placed the magazine back on the stand and turned to stare down at me."Were you born this nosey or is it just me you want to know everything about?”

My mouth dropped open as he stood waiting for me to give him an answer. “I am not nosey. I was just trying to make conversation.”

“Yeah..? Well how about you just make like the wind and go.” He turned obviously deciding our conversation was done.

What an arrogant pig. I tried my hardest to think of something to say to him but instead I very childishly stomped my foot and marched out of the store.

I got back into the car and over dramatically slammed the door shut. He had to be the most obnoxious man I had ever met - not that I had much experience with men. Well only the men in my books really. Since my father had decided it would be good for him to run off with another woman three years ago, I had sworn off men and had made a promise to myself that I would never put myself in a position where I could get my heart broken like my mum had. I groaned and thumped my head against the steering wheel as I realized I hadn’t even gotten my magazine, and I sure as hell wasn’t going back in there for it.