Jessica
Scott
Before I
Fall
3/3/2015
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Blurb
Stay focused. Get a job. Save her father's life.
Beth Lamont knows far too much about the harsh
realities of life her gilded classmates have only read about in class. She'll
do whatever it takes to take care of her father, even if that means tutoring a
guy like Noah - a guy who represents everything she hates about the war,
soldiers and what the Army has done to her family.
Noah Warren doesn't know how to be a student.
All he knows is war. But he's going to college now to fulfill a promise and he
doesn't break his promises. Except he doesn't count on his tutor being drop
dead gorgeous and distracting as hell. One look at Beth threatens to unravel
the careful lies Noah has constructed around him.
A simple arrangement turns into something
neither of them can deny. And a war that neither of them can forget could
destroy them both.
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Buy Links
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Author Bio
USA Today
Bestselling author Jessica Scott is a career army officer, mother of two
daughters, three cats and three dogs, wife to a career NCO and wrangler of all
things stuffed and fluffy. She is a terrible cook and even worse housekeeper,
but she's a pretty good shot with her assigned weapon and someone liked some of
the stuff she wrote. Somehow, her children are pretty well adjusted and her
husband still loves her, despite burned water and a messy house.
She's also written for the New York Times At War
Blog, PBS Point of View Regarding War, and IAVA. She deployed to Iraq in 2009
as part of OIF/New Dawn and has had the honor of serving as a company commander
at Fort Hood, Texas twice.
She's pursuing a graduate degree in Sociology in
her spare time and most recently, she's been featured as one of Esquire
Magazine's Americans of the Year for 2012.
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Excerpt
Chapter One
Beth
My dad has good days
and bad. The good days are awesome. When he's awake and he's pretending to cook
and I'm pretending to eat it. It's a joke between us that he burns water. But
that’s okay.
On the good days, I
humor him. Because for those brief interludes, I have my dad back.
The not so good days,
like today, are more common. Days when he can't get out of bed without my help.
I bring him his
medication. I know exactly how much he takes and how often.
And I know exactly when
he runs out.
I've gotten better at
keeping up with his appointments so he doesn't, but the faceless bastards at
the VA cancel more than they keep. But what can we do? He can't get private
insurance with his health, and because someone decided that his back injury
wasn’t entirely service-related, he doesn’t have a high enough disability
rating to qualify for automatic care. So we wait for them to fit him in and
when we can’t, we go to the emergency room and the bills pile up. Because
despite him not being able to move on the bad days, his back pain treatments
are elective.
So I juggle phone calls
to the docs and try to keep us above water.
Bastards.
I leave his phone by
his bed and make sure it's plugged in to charge before I head to school. He's
got water and the pills he'll need when he finally comes out of the fog. Our
tiny house is only a mile from campus. Not in the best part of town but not the
worst either. I've got an hour before class, which means I need to hustle.
Thankfully, it's not terribly hot today so I won’t arrive on campus a sweating,
soggy mess. That always makes a good impression, especially at a wealthy southern
school like this one.
I make it to campus
with twenty minutes to spare and check my e-mail on the campus WiFi. I can't
check it at the house - Internet is a luxury we can't afford. If I’m lucky, my
neighbor’s signal sometimes bleeds over into our house. Most of the time,
though, I’m not that lucky. Which is fine. Except for days like this where
there’s a note from my professor asking me to come by her office before class.
Professor Blake is
terrifying to those who don't know her. She's so damn smart it's scary, and she
doesn't let any of us get away with not speaking up in class. Sit up straight.
Speak loudly. She's harder on the girls, too. Some of the underclassmen
complain that she’s being unfair. I don't complain, though. I know she's doing
it for a reason.
"You got my note
just in time," she says. Her tortoise-shell glasses reflect the
fluorescent light, and I can't see her eyes.
"Yes, ma'am."
She's told me not to call her ma'am, but it slips out anyway. I can't help it.
Thankfully, she doesn't push the issue.
"I have a job for
you."
"Sure." A job
means extra money on the side. Money that I can use to get my dad his
medications. Or, you know, buy food. Little things. It’s hard as hell to do
stats when your stomach is rumbling. "What does it entail?"
"Tutoring.
Business statistics."
"I hear a but in
there."
"He's a former
soldier."
Once, when my mom first
left us, I couldn’t wake my dad up. My blood pounded so loud in my ears that I
could hardly hear. That’s how I feel now. My mouth is open, but no sound
crosses my lips. Professor Blake knows how I feel about the war, about
soldiers. I can't deal with all the hoah chest-beating bullshit. Not with my
dad and everything the war has done to him.
"Before you say
no, hear me out. Noah has some very well-placed friends that want him very much
to succeed here. He's got a ticket into the business school graduate program,
but only if he gets through Stats."
I’m having a hard time
breathing. I can’t do this. Just thinking about what the war has done to my dad
makes it difficult to breathe. But the idea of extra money, just a little, is a
strong motivator when you don’t have it. Principles are for people who can
afford them.
I take a deep,
cleansing breath. "So why me?"
"Because you've
got the best head for stats I've seen in a long time, and I've seen you explain
things to the underclassmen in ways that make sense to them. You can
translate."
"There's no one
else?" I hate that I need this job.
Professor Blake removes
her glasses with a quiet sigh. "Our school is very pro-military, Beth. And
I would consider it a personal favor if you’d help him."
She's right. That's the
only reason I was able to get in. This is one of the Southern Ivies. A top
school in the southeast that I have no business being at except for my dad, who
knew the dean of the law school from his time in the army. I hate the war and
everything it's done to my family. But I wouldn't be where I am today if my dad
hadn't gone to war and sacrificed everything to make sure I had a future
outside of our crappy little place outside of Fort Benning. There are things
worse than death and my dad lives with them every day because he had done what
he had to do to provide for me.
I will not let him
down.
"Okay. When do I
start?"
She hands me a slip of
paper. It’s yellow and has her letterhead at the top in neat, formal block
letters. "Here's his information. Make contact and see what his schedule
is." She places her glasses back on and just like that, I'm dismissed.
Professor Blake is not
a warm woman, but I wouldn't have made it through my first semester at this
school without her mentorship. If not for her and my friend Abby, I would have
left from the sheer overwhelming force of being surrounded by money and wealth
and all the intangibles that came along with it. I did not belong here, but
because of Professor Blake, I hadn’t quit.
So if I need to tutor
some blockhead soldier to repay her kindness, then so be it. Graduating from
this program is my one chance to take care of my dad and I will not fail.
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