In My Dreams (First Tracks #2)

First Tracks – When you get to leave your mark on the fresh pow before anyone else!

In My Dreams, Book Two

They can finally be together…right?

Avery almost lost Marcus while he was in a coma. She couldn’t think past saving him. Now that he’s awake, she can finally see and touch him, but she can’t hear his thoughts or feel his emotions anymore. What if he doesn’t need her? Marcus wants her to go back to Ashland to catch up in college and fix things with her friends. She’s not ready to face that mess.

Marcus was a gold medalist in Sochi but now he’s stuck in physical therapy, dreaming of being with Avery and returning to his life. Is his snowboarding career over? Will he ever play his guitar or draw again? And can he let Avery be with someone who’s so damaged?

They’re together—but it’s not what they expected. Marcus has a long recovery ahead of him and Avery needs to put her life back together. Can they make it in the real world?

~~~TEASER~~~

Why did it hurt so much? The bed felt wrong just like my life, and I couldn’t understand why I felt that way. Marcus was ok. We were ok. Life was fixable now.

The fixable just felt so big and scary right now. So alone.

“Marcus?” I whispered into the dark, gazing blindly up at the ceiling. “Are you there? I need you.”

I tried to breathe but my body shook, so I rolled onto my side and curled up, squeezing my eyes shut.

Why couldn’t I feel him? Hear him? It felt so wrong to be this far away, knowing he was lying in a hospital bed. What would it be like to recover from a brain injury and a coma? He wasn’t sure about his life and his body right now, and that had to be super hard on a athletic guy like him. I wanted to be there, holding him, telling him it’d be okay.

I needed to feel him.

How was I supposed to focus on my life here when my thoughts would be up there with him?

I needed escape.

Please just let me go to sleep.

The words were like a prayer and I felt myself falling into sweet oblivion.

It wasn’t empty; it was the silence of a white, padded world where everything is brighter, clearer. The smell of snow filled my nose. Clean. Crisp. The cold, clean air shot into my lungs like a drug, racing through my veins and hitting my brain with a burst of serotonin. Pure happiness filled me.

I had a board under me and miles of pristine powder stretching out, inviting me to explore. Diamond-like sparkles speckled the snow, dancing in the sunlight and leading the way as I raced forward. Clear blue sky blessed me from above. Smelling pine, I turned my head. A forest stood off on one side decorating the edge of the clearing, and a mountain beckoned before me.

My core temp came up from the excitement. Pure, so pure. Such a singleness—it was just what I needed. I became aware of board shhhing over the snow, and I suddenly loved that sound with a terrifying intensity.

Overflowing with gratitude, I yelled out, my jubilant voice filling the meadow and slopes and gullies.

I turned my body and took a new direction, gliding over a rolling section that felt like waves under me.

The slopes!

Marcus?

He filled my soul, his joy matching mine.