Thank you forever and always to my dad and mom, Glen and Vicki Whitaker, for being my biggest fans. I am able to model great families in my books because I was privileged enough to grow up in yours.
Jerrod, thank you for reading all my books and pressuring all your friends to read them, too. And to Knox, Rhett, and Wyatt Mae, I look forward to the day when you can do the same.
Proverbs 22:6
BEATS OF MY HEART
A PLAYLIST BY BIRD BARRETT
“Boys from the South,” Pistol Annies
“I’ll Fly Away,” Alison Krauss
“Everything Has Changed,” Taylor Swift ft. Ed Sheeran
“Just a Kiss,” Lady Antebellum
“I Will Wait,” Mumford & Sons
“We Were Us,” Keith Urban ft. Miranda Lambert
“Can’t Take My Eyes off of You,” Lauryn Hill
“The Way You Make Me Feel,” Michael Jackson
“Girls Chase Boys,” Ingrid Michaelson
“Crazy,” Patsy Cline
“You Could Be Happy,” Snow Patrol
“Song for You,” Alexi Murdoch
“I Won't Give Up,” Jason Mraz
“Ring of Fire,” Johnny Cash
“I Choose You,” Sara Bareilles
“Love on Top,” Beyoncé
“At Last,” Etta James
CONTENTS
COVER
TITLE PAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BEATS OF MY HEART
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Alecia Whitaker
Cover art copyright © 2016 by Dustin Cohen
Cover hand-lettering by Mary Kate McDevitt
Cover copyright © 2016 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: July 2016
ISBN 978-0-316-25145-7
E3-20160613-JV-PC