Overtime Read online

  He took it in his hand and then snaked his arms around her, dropping his lips only a breath away from hers. “But I don’t deserve you.”

  “But you got me,” she whispered, her eyes glittering with their future.

  “And I won’t ever let you go.”

  Because you don’t let go of your leading scorer in overtime—that would be stupid. Jordie Thomas was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid when it came to the game. In the last year, he’d found his life was one big game—sometimes winning, sometimes losing, always fighting for the chance to score, and each day bettering himself in order to win. Everyone needed that one person to help them win.

  And Kacey was his MVP.

  It’s not a secret that I battle depression, or even that I’ve battled addiction. Mine being in the form of food. Have I won? No. Will I? I hope so.

  All I have is my hope and faith that I can be the person I want to be.

  I miss my mom—that’s very well-known—and this may be very personal, but this book was my way of giving her her happily ever after. My mother was an alcoholic; she battled depression and her sickness with alcohol until the moment her liver gave out. She was fifty-three years old. I was only twenty-nine. Losing your mother is not an easy thing, I know that. But when my mom lost her mom to cancer back when I was seventeen, she shut down, she stopped being the mother I knew and turned into this person that I didn’t like much. Now, she cleaned up so many times but fell back just as quickly. But no matter what, she loved me. She loved me so hard it hurt and she loved my babies. That’s the stuff I remember. Not the screaming and begging for her to be my mom, not the smashing of bottles on the pavement to keep her from drinking. No, it was that when she looked at me, I knew she loved me. Even at the end, I knew I was my mom’s world.

  I just wasn’t enough to clean up for.

  And that’s where a lot of my depression and my addiction to food have come into play. I’ve always loved food—I mean, who doesn’t?—but it really was a sickness. Until one day, I looked at myself in the mirror and knew I couldn’t do what my mom did to me. I couldn’t put my husband and children through the pain that I was feeling because I didn’t want to be healthy. I had to stop. And I did, but it’s a battle. A battle that I fight every day and will continue to fight, not only for myself, but for my babies and my husband.

  Now, I know you’re sitting there thinking why the hell is she sharing this personal stuff with me, so let me explain. If I can touch one person, help one person to clean up their ways and be the person they want to be, then, damn it, I’m doing what I set out to do. This book is my healing. My HEART and SOUL are in each word on these pages. Especially when Jordie is talking. This is how I wanted my mom’s story to play out. To clean up and be happy. Since she didn’t get that on this earth with me, Jordie will. And I know she’s in Heaven, smiling, saying, “That’s my baby.”

  So please, if you need help, get it. My message box is always open, and I’m not shy. I’m an open book and I’m proud of my struggles, my triumphs, my failures, and my success. I work hard for what I want, and most of all, I depend on my faith. You can too. You can do it. I know you can.

  For anyone who has helped me along the way, I thank you. I couldn’t do anything without you. But this section isn’t about thanking you. It’s honestly about thanking my mom. Because without watching her story, I wouldn’t have changed how I live.

  So thank you, Mom. I love you. I miss you, and the hole in my heart will never be filled until I see you in Heaven.

  In other words, just keep fighting, everyone. Please. Don’t give up on you. Fight for what you want.

  The end result is complete bliss.

  Thank you for reading Jordie’s story, and I hope maybe it had an effect on you in order for you to alter yours a bit in a positive way.

  Thank you and God bless.

  You Got Me – Spring Grove novel

  Hooked by Love – Bellevue Bullies

  Rushing the Goal – Assassins Series

  Read other books by Toni Aleo

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  Copyright © 2015 by Toni Aleo

  This book, Overtime, is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Books by Toni Aleo

  About OVERTIME

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Epilogue

  A note from Toni Aleo

  Upcoming from Toni Aleo

  Copyright Notice