He took my boyfriend’s desired position on the baseball team. That was his first mistake. Then, after his parents died, he moved in with his brother across the street from me. That was okay until my dad hired him to clean the pool. I had to set boundaries. My heart belonged to Logan Hart. But when everyone left for the summer, I got bored, and Elliot Shaw was interesting. I questioned everything about me after Elliot and I became friends. Everything that I thought mattered didn’t anymore, and life started to have a different meaning. But, with Logan’s return from summer vacation, Elliot Shaw had to become my best kept secret. I was never supposed to fall in love with him. Love stories are supposed to be happy. Your stomach does flip flops, your heart beats faster, and you react to life differently. Life is happier. But that isn’t this story. This story is messy and haunting. I didn’t want to let Elliot Shaw break down my walls. I didn’t want him to see the demons that lurked behind them. I didn’t want to see his demons either. But… We let each other in, and there was no turning back, even when I begged him to forget about me. This isn’t a fairytale about a prince coming to save me. When you begin to read the pages of my story, don’t say I didn’t warn you. ~ Samantha Scott

"...Under the Owl Tree is where it all started, and Under the Owl Tree is where it all would end...." Moving to Stockbridge, Georgia wasn’t how I planned on starting my senior year. I didn’t want to have to prove my worth in an all-boys sport or deal with the inevitable struggles of being the “new girl”. I definitely didn’t want to find myself falling for someone who was completely off limits—the assistant coach, Zach Shaw. It was as if we were at war, just waiting for the first one to cave into temptation. But I wasn’t his toy, and my feelings weren’t his playground. I needed to know that I was more to him than the casual fun he was used to in the past. I needed to know that breaking the rules would be worth it. Zach and I were right together. So right. Secret meetings under the Owl Tree would ignite a flame so large that when anything or anyone tried to smother it, it would only cause more destruction. Brace yourselves. This story isn’t for the faint-hearted. It’s messy and full of imperfections. But if I learned one thing from all of this, it is that when you find that little bit of happy, no matter how small, you hold onto it and refuse like hell to let go. ~ Hailey Grayson