Colleen Hoover - Ugly Love

ALSO BY COLLEEN HOOVER

Slammed

Point of Retreat

This Girl

Hopeless

Losing Hope

Finding Cinderella

Maybe Someday

First published in the USA by Atria Books, 2014
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2014
A CBS COMPANY

Copyright Colleen Hoover, 2014

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
and 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

The right of Colleen Hoover to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor
222 Grays Inn Road
London WC1X 8HB

www.simonandschuster.co.uk

Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney
Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-47113-672-6
EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-47113-673-3

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Typeset by M Rules
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

For my two very best friends,

who also happen to be my sisters,

Lin and Murphy

Somebody stabbed you in the neck, young lady.

My eyes widen, and I slowly turn toward the elderly gentleman standing at my side. He presses the up button on the elevator and faces me. He smiles and points to my neck.

Your birthmark, he says.

My hand instinctively goes up to my neck, and I touch the dime-sized mark just below my ear.

My grandfather used to say the placement of a birthmark was the story of how a person lost the battle in their past life. I guess you got stabbed in the neck. Bet it was a quick death, though.

I smile, but I cant tell if I should be afraid or entertained. Despite his somewhat morbid opening conversation, he cant be that dangerous. His curved posture and shaky stance give away that he isnt a day less than eighty years old. He takes a few slow steps toward one of two velvet red chairs that are positioned against the wall next to the elevator. He grunts as he sinks into the chair and then looks up at me again.

You going up to floor eighteen?

My eyes narrow as I process his question. He somehow knows what floor Im going to, even though this is the first time Ive ever set foot in this apartment complex, and its definitely the first time Ive ever laid eyes on this man.

Yes, sir, I say cautiously. Do you work here?

I do indeed.

He nods his head toward the elevator, and my eyes move to the illuminated numbers overhead. Eleven floors to go before it arrives. I pray it gets here quickly.

I push the button for the elevator, he says. I dont think theres an official title for my position, but I like to refer to myself as a flight captain, considering I do send people as high as twenty stories up in the air.

I smile at his words, since my brother and father are both pilots. How long have you been flight captain of this elevator? I ask as I wait. I swear this is the slowest damn elevator Ive ever encountered.

Since I got too old to do maintenance on this building. Worked here thirty-two years before I became captain. Been sending people on flights now for more than fifteen years, I think. Owner gave me a pity job to keep me busy till I died. He smiles to himself. What he didnt realize is that God gave me a lot of great things to accomplish in my life, and right now, Im so far behind I aint evergonna die.

I find myself laughing when the elevator doors finally open. I reach down to grab the handle of my suitcase and turn to him one more time before I step inside. Whats your name?

Samuel, but call me Cap, he says. Everybody else does.

You got any birthmarks, Cap?

He grins. As a matter of fact, I do. Seems in my past life, I was shot right in the ass. Must have bled out.

I smile and bring my hand to my forehead, giving him a proper captains salute. I step into the elevator and turn around to face the open doors, admiring the extravagance of the lobby. This place seems more like a historic hotel than an apartment complex, with its expansive columns and marble floors.

When Corbin said I could stay with him until I found a job, I had no idea he lived like an actual adult. I thought it would be similar to the last time I visited him, right after I graduated from high school, back when he had first started working toward his pilots license. That was four years and a two-story sketchy complex ago. Thats kind of what I was expecting.

I certainly wasnt anticipating a high-rise smack dab in the middle of downtown San Francisco.

I find the panel and press the button for the eighteenth floor, then look up at the mirrored wall of the elevator. I spent all day yesterday and most of this morning packing up everything I own from my apartment back in San Diego. Luckily, I dont own much. But after making the solo five-hundred-mile drive today, my exhaustion is pretty evident in my reflection. My hair is in a loose knot on top of my head, secured with a pencil, since I couldnt find a hair tie while I was driving. My eyes are usually as brown as my hazelnut hair, but right now, they look ten shades darker, thanks to the bags under them.

I reach into my purse to find a tube of ChapStick, hoping to salvage my lips before they end up as weary-looking as the rest of me. As soon as the elevator doors begin to close, they open again. A guy is rushing toward the elevators, preparing to walk on as he acknowledges the old man. Thanks, Cap, he says.

I cant see Cap from inside the elevator, but I hear him grunt something in return. He doesnt sound nearly as eager to make small talk with this guy as he was with me. This man looks to be in his late twenties at most. He grins at me, and I know exactly whats going through his mind, considering he just slid his left hand into his pocket.

The hand with the wedding ring on it.

Floor ten, he says without looking away from me. His eyes fall to what little cleavage is peeking out of my shirt, and then he looks at the suitcase by my side. I press the button for floor ten. I should have worn a sweater.

Moving in? he asks, blatantly staring at my shirt again.

I nod, although I doubt he notices, considering his gaze isnt planted anywhere near my face.

What floor?

Oh, no, you dont.I reach beside me and cover all the buttons on the panel with my hands to hide the illuminated eighteenth-floor button, and then I press every single button between floors ten and eighteen. He glances at the panel, confused.

None of your business, I say.

He laughs.

He thinks Im kidding.

He arches his dark, thick eyebrow. Its a nice eyebrow. Its attached to a nice face, which is attached to a nice head, which is attached to a nice body.

A married body.

Asshole.

He grins seductively after seeing me check him outonly I wasnt checking him out the way he thinks I was. In my mind, I was wondering how many times that body has been pressed against a girl who wasnt his wife.